"Thank you…have a great night," I wave to the crowd before I exit the stage.

I'm so excited about leaving tonight because we're making our way to New York where daddy, Cody and Ashleigh will meet us. They should already be there at our apartment.

As I walk offstage I almost literally bump into Michael.

"Oh, hi. I didn't realize you were here," I say as I take a towell and start dabbing my face with it.

"I was in Marcus's dressing room."

"That makes sense."

I start walking toward my dressing room where my mama should be waiting for me.

"That was a great set. You sound great live." He starts following me down the hallway.

"Thanks," I say over my shoulder to him.

"You're a spunky one, aren't you Ana?"

I chuckle. "I've been told so before. I'm sorry I just have to get going. The rest of my family is in New York and we're going to meet them there."

We stop in front of my dressing room door.

"Oh, that's great then. Well, I just wanted to let you know I got to see you and was really impressed."

Just then the door opened and mama was about to step out.

"Oh, hi…sorry," she said.

"Mama this is Michael Cooper…Michael this is my mom."

He takes her hand and lifts it to his lips. "We've met many many years ago but it's wonderful to meet you again."

"It's nice to meet you too. I saw your show on The Concert Network last year. My husband and I were impressed with your stage show. It's something."

"Really? You thought so? That means a lot coming from you, thank you."

"I really have to go Michael. I'm glad you got to see my set. Have fun watching Marcus's."

I made my way into my dressing room leaving him outside the door.

"It was nice meeting you, Mrs. Timberlake," he says one more time before leaving.

Mama shuts the door and walks over to where I'm not sitting, removing my shoes.

"That was kind of rude."

"You weren't there last night. He's a chauvinistic pig."

"Adriana."

"Mama, don't go there please. Between him and Marcus I was about to puke last night."

I look up and see mama trying to hide her smile.

There was a knock on the door.

"Hurry up we're leaving in five minutes," Tony said from the other side of the door.

"Okay," I shouted back.

New York…it had been so long since I had been here with my whole family. Actually, when I think about it we hardly spent any time here as a family. I was here a lot with mama and daddy before Cody and Ashleigh were born. They were both still recording and promoting at the time.

Our limo made its way down the street and I was staring up at the buildings on the block. Mama's knee was bobbing up and down.

"I know you're excited about seeing daddy but…" I said as I placed my hand on her knees.

"Ha ha," she said.

"So Cody seems to be doing better?" I ask, looking over at her.

She smiles. "Yeah, he seems to be. I'm being cautious though. I have no idea what came over him when he was in that mood, so I don't know if it will happen again."

"It almost seems that when he fell off that skooter, he changed."

Mama nodded.

"Maybe he just wanted some attention."

"That's what Aunt Kristen said too."

She leans over and kisses my cheek just as the limo comes to a stop.

The driver gets out and starts getting our luggage out as Andre, the bodyguard that has officially been assigned to me gets out and opens our door for us.

We nod at the bellman as we walk through the doors.

"Mr. Timberlake and the other two children have already arrived, Mrs. Timberlake.

"Thank you," she smiles at him.

I start walking a little faster.

"We haven't been here in ages," I say once we reach the elevator.

"It seems that way," mama sighs.

The doors open and we get on, with Andre behind us.

"So, Andre, where do you stay while we're here?"

"I'll be at the hotel across the street."

We finally make it to penthouse level. Andre holds the door for us and then carries our luggage to the door.

Mama tries to find her key while I ring the doorbell. Just as she finds it, the door opens up.

"Hi," Cody says.

"Hey brat," I say as I pull him into my arms.

I don't think I realized how much I missed him until just now.

Mama waits for her turn to hug Cody. "Did you like your camp?" I hear her ask him. By this time I'm holding Ashleigh and swaying her back and forth.

"I thought I was going to come with you," she pouted.

"I think you are going to stay with me a few days this time."

"Oh goody."

Mama's standing next to us so Ashleigh holds out her arms for mama to grab her. When she takes her, she wraps her arms around mama's neck so tight.

"How's my baby?" mama asks.

"Good. I missed you mama," she says as she leans back and plays with mama's hair.

"I missed you too, both of you," she says as she ruffles the top of Cody's hair.

"Where's daddy?" I ask looking around.

Cody shrugged. "I thought he was behind us."

"I'll be going miss. I've got the schedule from Tony but call my cell if you need me for anything else," Andre said.

"Oh, thanks."

I realized that Andre hadn't met my brother and sister so I introduce them and show Andre out the door.

The four of us walk into the family room.

"He's big," Ashleigh says. Mama's still holding her.

"Yes, he's very big and so are you, honey I have to put you down," mama says as she sets Ashleigh down.

Daddy walks into the room with the phone to his ear.

"Okay, well keep us up-to-date. Okay, bye mom. Love you too." He hangs up the phone and smiles. "Hi you two."

"Daddy, why weren't you at the door with us to see sissy and mommy?" Ashleigh asks with her hands on her hips.

He walks over to us. "Because, the phone rang."

He pulls me into a hug and kisses the top of my head. When he pulls me back to look at me he shakes his head.

"What?" I ask.

"I can't believe how different you look every time I see you. That's it, you can't leave my sight until you're finished growing."

I laugh. "Hey, I wouldn't mind having you with me the rest of the tour."

"I'm gonna go finish my video game," Cody says as he starts to leave.

"Wait, I have good news," daddy says, touching his shoulder. "That was your mom on the phone," he says to mama. "Jamie Lynn is in labor."

"Is she?" mama asks as she covers her mouth with both hands.

Daddy smiles and nods. "Yeah, she's been there for a few hours. Your mom and Sam are in the room with her."

Ashleigh pulls on my elbow and I look down at her.

"What's wrong?" she whispers.

I lean down. "Nothing's wrong. Aunt Jamie Lynn is going to have her baby soon. She's in the hospital right now."

"Cool," Cody says before he turns around and walks back to his room.

I look up and see mama in daddy's arms. He's whispering things to her and she's nodding her head. She pulls away a little bit and looks at him.

"I'll call her now. Mama will let me know if it's a bad time," she says as she wipes the tears from her face.

"Is mommy sad or happy?" Ashleigh whispers to me again.

"She's happy." Then the more I think about it. "Maybe she's a little sad because she wants to be there with her."

"When do we get to see the baby?" Ashleigh asks daddy, who's looking down at us.

Mama has already taken the phone from him and is dialing the number he gave her. She walks into the kitchen.

"I don't know. We'll have to see when we can find time to go to Louisiana."

Suddenly I realize I don't know when the next time that will be for me. They can easily pick up and go, but I can't. I walk over to the couch and plop down. Ashleigh sits right next to me.

"Want to see my new paintings?" she asks as she plays with the ring on my finger.

"Sure," I smile at her. She runs down the hallway to her room.

Daddy sits down across from me and leans his arms on his legs.

"Why the look?"

I shrug. "I don't know when I'll go get to see Aunt Jamie Lynn," I mumble.

He nods. "I see. We'll just have to work it in somewhere."

"Daddy do you not remember my schedule? I barely have time to breathe." I start to get choked up.

He quickly moves over and sits next to me. He puts his arm around me and pulls me close to his side.

"No sweetie I haven't forgotten what your schedule is like. Is it getting to be too much for you?" he asks looking me over.

I shake my head and sniff. "No, I think I'm okay. I try to take care of myself. I just did a show tonight, remember? I'm just tired."

"Don't worry about seeing the baby. We'll have Tony make room in your schedule."

"Okay," I say softly.

Why do I feel like I'm five when I'm snuggled next to one of my parent's?

"This is the one I did today," Ashleigh says, walking back into the room, with two large pieces of paper.

She puts it on my lap.

"Wow…Ash, that's really good."

"Mama bought me a book of famous paintings…that's one of them."

"Monet," daddy says.

"Right…Moan-nay," Ashleigh says carefully. "Here's the one I started today."

She holds out the other for me to see.

"You're so talented," I say pinching her cheek. She giggles and tries to squish my hand between her cheek and her shoulder.

"Okay…I love you too," mama says as she walks back into the room.

Daddy looks back at her.

"She's having the baby right now…they had to go," she shrugs and laughs. She wipes away a stray tear and puts her hands on daddy's shoulders.

"Was everything going okay?" I ask.

Mama nods. "Everything was going fine. She really hasn’t been in labor that long. Sam's a nervous wreck but your grandma is there to keep everyone calm."

"Was grandma there when I was born?" Ashleigh asks.

"No, not when you were born. Only when Adriana was born…for the very same reason she's with Aunt Jamie Lynn right now," she chuckles.

"Mama look."

"Oh Ashleigh, those are beautiful. Did you copy those from that book I gave you?"

She smiled and nodded.

"Come on, let's go put those away so they don't get ripped and tuck you into bed. It's getting late."

"Okay," she said softly.

Ashleigh rarely threw temper tantrums or pouted…when she was going to do something she didn't want to do she'd bow her head and speak softly.

After saying goodnight to both of us, mama took her paintings and walked down the hall with Ashleigh following her.

"I get to sleep until nine tomorrow," I say stretching.

"How do you like your bodyguard?" daddy asks, rubbing my back.

"Andre's cool. He doesn't say much," I shrug.

He laughed. "I bet he's new. The new ones rarely talk to you…give it time, you'll get to know him better."

"What time is it?" I yawn.

Daddy looks at his watch. "It's after midnight."

"Is it really? Okay, I need to go to be too. I can't believe Ash was up this late."

"I let her stay up so she could wait for you."

"Good night…I love you," I tell him as I kiss his cheek.

He leans over and kisses my cheek. "Night snowball. I love you too."

I stand up and walk down the hall. Mama is coming out of Ashleigh's room just as I pass it.

"Night mama," I say wrapping my arms around her.

She gives me a squeeze. "Night sweetie. Want me to wake you tomorrow?"

I pull back. "No, I'll set my alarm. You can sleep in if you want. I'm sure you'll get another call from grandma. I want to hear all about it tomorrow."

"Okay. Love you."

She kisses the side of my head.

"Love you too."

Britney walks down the hall and knocks on Cody's door.

"Baby you need to turn that off and go to bed."

"Okay."

"I mean it…I'm going to come check on you in fifteen minutes."

"Okay."

"Love you."

"Love you too mom."

Britney smiles and walks back to the family room. She smiles when she sees Justin sprawled out on the couch, his eyes closed and head leaning back. She walks into the room quietly and straddles his lap.

"You tired?" she asks as she starts to move her hands up his chest.

"Mmmhmmm," he mumbles, never moving his head.

"I'm too wired now. I can't wait for mama to call me," she whispers.

Justin looks at her and smiles. "You're really emotional about this."

She shrugs. "It's my baby sister. She's going to be a mommy."

"Yes she is," he said as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

She stared at him.

"What?" he asks.

"I've been thinking…"