Three days later JC arrived back in Orlando on the day before Christmas Eve. Salina was anxious all day while she was at work. She was surprised that she had gotten any work done at all, but she had put together a few press releases for the guys and had started to put together meetings to plan Nsync’s Challenge for the Children event that they held every year which she had been put in charge of. She ended up staying an extra half hour before Jenn finally forced her out of the office and to her car. She called goodbye to Jenn as she climbed into her car, excited to get home and call her boyfriend whom she hadn’t spoken to since dinner with her mom because they had both been busy preparing for the holidays.
Salina had decorated her entire apartment with little help from her family and had been running around Orlando for the past few days shopping while JC had done the same in New York.
Salina arrived at her apartment and grinned when she saw JC’s car parked in what had become his spot. She walked quickly up to her apartment and quickly unlocked her door to see her mother, father, and two brothers in the living room watching TV, but frowned at the realization that two very important people were missing.
“Hey.” She said and only her father turned to her as the other three were engrossed in the screen. “Where’s JC and Vanessa?”
”Uh…they went to play in Vanessa’s room awhile ago.
Something about a dollie.” Her father said before turning back around.
Salina’s eyebrows raised at her father’s nonchalant attitude toward her boyfriend, but walked in the direction of Vanessa’s room anyway.
She smiled when she came upon a sight that warmed her heart. JC and her daughter curled up on the air mattress that she had been sleeping on for the past few nights.
She walked over and knelt beside them. She kissed Vanessa’s forehead before she kissed JC on the lips. He stirred and slowly began to respond to her kiss. She pulled back and smiled.
“Welcome home.” She said warmly.
He stared at her for several moments completely mesmerized by her. “You are so beautiful.” He whispered. “I almost forgot how beautiful you are.”
Salina grinned. “If you’re gonna be like this every time you leave, I’m gonna be planning a lot of out of town appearances for you.”
He smiled and leaned up to kiss her again. When he couldn’t kiss her the way he wanted to he moved the sleeping little girl over and sat up completely so that he could wrap his girlfriend in his strong embrace.
He sighed. “I missed you.” He said as he inhaled her intoxicating scent.
“I missed you, too.” She said settling back against him. They were quiet for a few moments just enjoying each other’s company when JC finally broke the silence.
“You don’t have to work tomorrow do you?”
She looked up at him like he was crazy. “Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve, Josh.”
“I know, I was just wondering.”
”No, I’m celebrating Christmas with my family in the morning and then they have a flight back to LA at three so they can celebrate Christmas day with my grandparents and my other brothers.”
“That’s what I thought. So…you’re still going to Justin’s tomorrow night?”
”Oh, I completely forgot. What is everyone even doing here still? Why aren’t you guys going home for Christmas?”
“Well, Joey’s family is here, Justin’s family is out here for the holidays, my family is here, Lance’s parents are out here and Chris already went home, so he’s not coming.”
“Hmm…well, ok.”
“Good because they all want to see you. And….my mom invited you and Vanessa over for to my brother’s new house for Christmas dinner.” He said studying her before quickly adding. “And I’m being serious this time.”
“Your brother’s cooking Christmas dinner?”
“No, my mom’s cooking in my brother’s house. Now, come on stop stalling…do you want to go?”
Salina smiled up at him. “Sure. That way you can just stay over here on Christmas night instead of driving to your house after Justin’s thing then back here in the morning.”
“Ok, cool….cool.”
The next day
Salina spent the morning with her parents and brothers opening gifts together and watching Vanessa run around the apartment with her new toys. Salina watched as her brothers playfully argued and her parents rested together on the couch with Vanessa playing quietly in their laps. It was times like these when she wondered how she would live for years in Orlando without her family there as a support system.
At one o’clock JC showed up with his Navigator and the family piled all of their belongings into his large SUV. Salina strapped Vanessa into her car seat quietly and sighed as she slid into the front passenger seat. JC noticed her solemn mood and intertwined his fingers with hers as they drove to the airport silently listening to the passengers in the back talk amongst themselves. Once at the airport JC pulled up to the curb and Salina climbed out to bid her family farewell.
“Bye, Juan.” She said as she hugged her brother.
“See ya, sis.” He said as he went to collect his bags from the back of the truck. Salina said goodbye to Robert and her father before turning to her mother with a sad face.
“Oh, mi hija.” Her mother said as she wrapped her daughter in a hug. “I am so proud of you and I love you so much.”
”I love you too, mama. Ciao.”
”Ciao, mi hija.” She said before turning Salina to look at her dad giving JC a manly hug and telling him to ‘look after his little girl.’ JC nodded and smiled at the man before the /family began to move into the airport. JC walked over to his girlfriend and put his arm around her guiding her to the car.
“Come on, babe.” He said softly as he closed her door and walked to the driver’s side of the car. He got in and turned to look at her. “You ok, honey?”
She smiled slightly and nodded at him before resting her head on the window and closing her eyes. He turned to quickly check on Vanessa who was watching the cars outside drive by with fascination before turning on his car and heading to Justin’s house.
When he pulled up to Justin’s at around 5, there were quite a few people outside the house and Justin walked over to greet JC.
“Hey, man.” Justin said as JC stepped out of his car and signaled for Justin to be quiet because Salina was still sleeping.
“Hey, can you do me a favor?” JC asked as he opened the back door to get Vanessa out of her car seat.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
”Take Vanessa inside. I need to talk to Salina.” JC answered as he handed Justin the baby.
Justin nodded and did as he was asked. JC sighed and ran his hand through his hair before he closed the back door and got back into the driver’s seat.
He leaned over and brushed Salina’s hair out of her face. “Babe? Salina…we’re here.”
Salina stirred gently, leaning into his touch. Her eyes flickered open and focused on JC’s face.
“Hey, are you okay?”
She smiled at his concern. “Yeah, I’m sorry I worried you.”
”Stop. You have nothing to be sorry for.”
Salina sat up and looked down at her hands. “This is just the first time that I’ve said good-bye to my parents without knowing when I’d see them again.”
JC nodded. Salina looked in the backseat and quickly looked back at JC when she noticed Vanessa was gone.
“Justin took her inside.” JC answered before she could even ask the question. “Come on, let’s go in.”
The two stepped out of the car and JC pushed the button to turn on the alarm before he wrapped his arm around his girlfriend and led her toward the large house. When they got to the steps in front of the door Salina turned to him.
“Thank you for worrying about me.” She said shyly.
“Anytime, honey.” He said before giving her a quick kiss. JC opened the door and they were greeted with the sound of laughter and the smell of delicious food.
“Mama, mama, mama!” Vanessa yelled as she ran towards her.
“Hey, mi hija. What’s up?” She asked as she lifted her daughter into her arms and followed JC further into the house.
“Wa-wa.” Vanessa answered signaling that she was thirsty.
“Oh, sweetie, I left your cup in my car.” Salina sighed as she spotted Lynn and walked over to her leaving JC to chat with Joey and Justin’s friend Trace. “Hey, Lynn, do you guys have some water or something for her?”
“Oh, yeah, sure.” Lynn said standing up and leading Salina towards the kitchen. “In fact, we have these juice box things that’ll probably be better for her. She probably won’t be able to swallow the water.”
”Yeah, I didn’t think so, but I left her cup in my car which is back at my apartment.”
Lynn laughed at her as she looked into Justin’s pantry and pulled out a package of fruit punch juice boxes. “Well, Justin bought these thinking that his brothers were going to drink them when they came out, but their dad let them go for broke with the sodas so they haven’t touched the juice.” She finished putting the little straw into the box and handed it to the baby. “Here you go, sweetie.”
“Thanks, Lynn.” Salina said as she set the little girl down and watched her wander over to where JC was standing and lean onto his leg as she drank her juice.
“It’s no problem. What’ve you been up to?”
”Not much. My family was in town for about a week, but JC and I just got back from dropping them off at the airport.”
“So, you’re spending Christmas alone?”
”Oh, no, we’re going to have dinner with JC’s family.”
“Oh, that’s good.” Lynn said, but was interrupted by her son.
“Salina, can I have your daughter?” He said wrapping his arms around her from behind
”I’m afraid I can’t let you have her, pop star.” Salina smiled and kissed his cheek.
“Hey! Step away from my girlfriend.” JC called from the dining room where he was playing poker with Vanessa in his lap.
“You can’t have the baby and the mommy. Pick one!” Justin challenged making Salina laugh.
JC pretended to think about it while looking back and forth between Salina and Vanessa. “Sorry, honey, I gotta go with the baby.”
Salina shrugged. “That’s okay. I can stay in Justin’s warm embrace forever.” She said holding onto his arms tighter.
“Fine, we don’t need ya. Do we, Nessa?” He said kissing her head.
Everyone laughed when Vanessa looked at him with a mean face after he kissed her and pushed his head away.
Salina laughed and unraveled herself from Justin’s arms before walking over to sit beside JC at the table and taking Vanessa into her lap so that JC could play easier.
“Alright, let’s do this.” Justin said taking a seat on the other side of Salina with his drink in hand and picking up his cards.
The guys played poker for at least the next half hour before Salina became incredibly bored and went to find Kelly.
She found her in Justin’s entertainment room sitting on the couch with all the kids lying in front of the large TV watching Finding Nemo. Salina set Vanessa down and watched her run over to sit next to Brianna before she plopped herself down next to Carrie on the couch.
“Hey, how’ve you been doing?”
“Good.” Kelly answered. “Did you guys just get here?”
”Uh…about hour ago. I was sitting in the other room watching the guys play poker.”
”Boring.” Kelly announced from where she was stretched out on the couch across from theirs.
“Yes, it was.” Salina agreed. “You guys ready for Christmas?”
“I already told Joey we need to leave early because we have all kinds of toys to put together before tomorrow morning and I don’t want to be up all night. He went for broke on the toys."
"Well, I guess they only get to be kids once, right?" Salina smiled and settled in to watch the Disney movie.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks for the reviews! Sorry, it's taken so long to update, but here's two chapters for you!
Story Tags: boyfriendjc jc justin hospital tabloids joey chris lance solojc
