"Well…" I start to say.

Okay, that was profound. But actually, at this moment, I don't quite know what to say.

"Hello Brad," Marcus says extending his hand to him.

Brad looks down at the extended hand and slowly moves his hand to shake it.

"Marcus. What brings you to this part of Florida?"

Before Marcus can answer Brad says, "Oh wait, let me guess. Michael."

Marcus smiles and shakes his head. "No, I wanted to see Ana one more time before I go to Europe."

Brad folds his arms across his chest and slowly nods. "Uh huh."

"Of course I'll stop by and say hello to Michael as well."

"And Sasha?" Brad adds.

Marcus's hands were down at his sides and I could see him making fists. I stood up and touched his shoulder and pushed him to the side so I could stand between him and Brad.

"Can I actually say something here or are you two going to start beating on your chests pretty soon and start grunting?"

They both keep staring at each other and don't move.

"Okay…I think you should both leave."

Marcus looks down at me with his mouth gaping open.

"What? All I was doing was saying hello when he marched on here and acted all possessive. Tell me Ana, how close have you two become?"

"Okay…I agree with Adriana on this one…you should both leave," Tony says standing up and butting in.

"I'll see you later," Brad says softly, touching my elbow before he leaves.

Marcus stands there. "I would like to talk to you before I go."

"Oh believe me, I need to talk to you too."

I move out of the way so he can get by me.

He starts to say something again but changes his mine and walks off the bus.

"God, I hope they don't beat each other up out there," I say sitting back down.

When Tony doesn't answer me I look over at him.

"What?"

He shakes his head. "I don't know. What are you telling Marcus?"

I give him a strange look then my mouth falls open. "What you think I'm leading him on or something?"

"Well, why would the guy still be hanging around?"

"Because he's dense? He doesn't understand when I'm trying to blow him off? I don't know."

Tony starts to laugh.

"I'm so glad you find this funny," I mumble as I lean back. I shake my head and move back over to the table. "Where was I anyway? Oh yeah, writing down my ideas before I forgot them. Oh, oops…too late," I say throwing my pen back down on the table.

Tony pats my leg. "They'll come back to you. I need to make a few phone calls before your set. You going to go talk to one of those guys now?"

I rubbed my forehead. "Do I have to?"

He picks up his cell phone and starts to dial. "No, you can do whatever you want," he says winking at me.

"Gee thanks."

I stand up and walk off the bus. I smile and wave at Kevin, from KCB. He jogs up to me as I start walking toward the stage.

"I heard they asked you to perform at the VMA's," he says.

"Really? Wow word travels fast."

"I think it's great. You know what that means though, don't you?"

I look up at him. "No, what?"

"You'll probably have to end the tour sooner."

I stop in my tracks which makes him have to backtrack.

"What do you mean?"

"Well our last night together is the night after the VMA's and it's in Chicago. You'll have to do rehearsals and stuff. So most likely your last show will be the one in Washington DC."

I rub my temple. "When's that?"

"In a week and a half."

"I hadn't realized that."

Suddenly I realized I didn't know what I was going to do once the VMA's were over with. No more touring.

He touches my arm. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring you down."

I give him a weak smile and say, "No, you didn't…Tony will probably tell me the same thing later tonight."

"Well, I'll let you get backstage."

"See ya," I say. I start walking toward the area where the food is set up.

"Can we talk now?"

Marcus's voice stops me before I get to the seating area.

I turn and see him sitting on a bench off to the side so I walk over and sit next to him.

"Yes. How have you been?"

"I've missed you," he says. He starts to gently rub my arm.

"I'm sure you've kept busy enough. So…you excited about Europe?" I'm sitting, staring straight ahead.

"Yeah. I would be better if I went over there knowing there was something promising to come back to," he says as he leans in closer to me. Since I'm not facing him he kisses my bare upper arm.

That startles me and I move away from him.

"What are you doing?"

I finally look at him.

"Ana we used to be so good together…" he says sliding closer to me.

I stop him with my hand.

"We what? Um, when was that?"

"When we toured together…when we dated."

I had to bite my lip from laughing out loud. "We dated?"

I look around to make sure this wasn't a practical joke.

"Marcus…someone told me you put that on your website. We never dated. We hung out a couple of times but I don't consider that dating."

"You say po-tay-to, I saw pa-tah-to," he shrugs.

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "No, you say pa-tah-to but I say apple. I might have thought about you that way at one time but nothing came of it. You and I were not an item."

He sits and stares at me.

"So…what are you telling me?"

"I'm telling you that you need to take the stuff about us dating off of your website and get it through your thick skull."

"It's Brad, isn't it?"

I shake my head to try to clear it. "What's Brad?"

"He's brainwashed you into thinking he's the only guy for you."

"No, Brad doesn't brainwash…he treats me like a human being."

"Does he kiss you like this?" he asks as he grabs my shoulders and pulls me to him.

His mouth finds mine and I try to push him away, but he's too strong. Where's Andre when I need him?

"Stop," I try to say against his mouth. "Stop."

He tilts his head and I take the opportunity to bite his lip.

"Ow," he says pulling way from me, grabbing his mouth.

"I said stop," I say, trying to catch my breath. "Don't you ever touch me, or come near me again."

I stand up and walk away. As I start walking toward my bus I wipe my mouth off with the back of my hand. I pass Brad.

"Adriana?"

He sees the look on my face and looks over from the direction I came and see Marcus sitting there holding his mouth.

"What happened?" he asks as he jogs to catch up with me.

"Nothing," I mumble. I don't slow my pace.

Right before I get ready to open the door to the bus, he jumps in front of it.

"Look at me. Did he hurt you?" he asks, grabbing my shoulders.

I take a deep breath and shake my head. "No…he didn't."

I can't take the concern in his eyes any longer and I wrap my arms around his waist and rest my head against his chest. His arms wrap around my shoulders and he kisses the top of my head as his hands rub my back, reassuringly.

"Want me to go kick his ass?" he kids me.

I chuckle and say, "No…don't give him the satisfaction. He'd probably like the attention."

After a couple of minutes he lifts my chin so I look into his eyes.

"What did he do?"

"He just said some crazy things. He's delusional and I set things straight."

"And that's all?"

"I took care of it," I say resting my head against his chest again.

I could feel him tense up.

"It's okay, Brad."

"If he touched you…"

"I can take care of myself," I say again.

"You've been quiet all night," Tony says as we settling into the bus for the night.

"Just soaking things in," I say.

"I bet it feels good to be able to go home again tonight."

I yawn and stretch. "Yep. Tony?"

"Uh huh?" he doesn't look up from his laptop.

"What am I doing after the VMA's?" I sit and twirl a piece of hair around my finger.

"There's a couple of things in the works…"

"Like what?"

He finally looks up.

"I don't want to say anything and have them fall through."

"Is it more touring?"

He shrugs. "Maybe."

"Tony!"

"Ana, I'm not telling you anything until it's more concrete."

"Fine," I say, pouting.

He laughs. "That doesn't work with me and you know it." He continues to type on the laptop.

"Is Brad going to be at the VMA's with us? Will he still be in the band?"

His eyes shift up, but his head doesn’t move.

"I'm assuming so. He said he'd stay until the end of the tour…which is now really the VMA's."

I nod. "True."

"Adriana still sleeping?" Lynn asks.

"Yeah, she got in late last night," Britney said fluffing a pillow before sitting down on the couch.

The doorbell rings and Justin trots down the stairs and answers it.

"Hi mom," he says. She gently grabs his shoulders as he leans down to give his mother-in-law a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey sweetie. Oh, hi Lynn…I didn't know you were going to be here," she says walking over and hugging her.

"I didn't realize you'd be here either."

They both look at their children.

"What's going on?" Lynne asks as she sits down next to Britney, giving her a kiss on the cheek as she does.

Justin stands behind Britney, placing his hands on her shoulders. She reaches up and holds his right hand.

"Well…we wanted to tell everyone together but since we know you two have this intuition thing, we decided to tell you before anyone else," Justin starts.

Both mother's knew instantly. They both covered their mouths with their hands and had tears in their eyes.

"Oh now stop already," Britney says, dabbing the corner of her eye.

"Another baby?" Lynn finally asks.

Britney smiles and nods. Lynn looks up and Justin, who smiles back at his mother.

"Yes. Another grandbaby to spoil."

"Oh hush, we don't spoil our grandbabies," Lynne winked at them.

They all laughed.

"Oh my goodness…when? How far along are you?" she asked.

"I'm at about six weeks right now. We're going to tell almost everyone else around the VMA's. That way we're all together."

"Do the children know?" Lynn asks.

"Adriana knows," Justin says, gently squeezing Britney's shoulders. "But the other two don't yet. We're going to tell them when we can round them both up."

Britney glanced up at Justin. "I talked to someone and they suggested telling each child separately. So we might do it that way."

"Who told you that?" Justin asks.

"A doctor."

She wasn't lying…it was Kristen.

Lynn was the first to stand up. "I want a hug," she says walking around behind the chair that Justin was standing in front of.

He smiled and reached down to hug his mother. Lynne and Britney stood up so they could embrace and then they changed spots. Lynn walked over to Britney and Lynne walked over to Justin.

"I'm so proud of you two. You have such a wonderful family and it's going to be wonderful to add another addition on to that," Lynn says touching Britney's stomach.

"We've been blessed," Justin agrees.

"Hey, what's going on down here?" I ask groggily as I walk down the stairs, holding on to Ashleigh's hand.

"We didn't wake you, did we?" Grandma Lynn asks.

"No…something else did," I say nodding towards Ashleigh as we walk over to them.

"Ash, baby, I told you to let your sister sleep," mama says ruffling Ashleigh's hair.

Both Grandmas give us hugs and kisses.

"I thought she was awake…I heard a noise in her room," she says in a soft tone.

"It's okay. I have to start making plans anyway. I'm going to be performing on the VMA's," I say excitedly.

"Oh honey, that's great," Grandma Lynne says.

I smile and nod. "I have so many ideas."

Mama and daddy are smiling.

"What are the VMA's?" Ashleigh asks.

"They're an awards show in New York," mama tells her.

"Can I go?"

"We'll see. The kids will be back in school by then so we might have to pull them out for a couple of days," mama says to her mothers.

"I start school Monday," Ashleigh says in an excited tone.

We all laugh. "She's the only person I know who gets that excited about school," daddy says.

She's not quite sure why we're laughing at her so she lowers her head. Daddy picks her up and kisses her cheek. "That's a good thing, baby."

She smiles and nods.

After we have lunch I go sit out on the back patio, watching Cody and one of his friends play in the pool. Mama walks out and joins me.

"You've been really quiet. Is there something on your mind?" she asks, rubbing my back.

I lean into her. "Something happened yesterday. I didn't want to say anything in front of daddy or my grandmas…"

"What is it?"

"Marcus stopped by yesterday and…" Suddenly I start crying.