"So you and Julia dating yet?" Joey asked JC when they were taking a break from rehearsing.

JC shook his head, taking a drink of water. "Besides the fact that we’re just friends, she’s got a boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?" Justin said.

"Yah, a boyfriend. They met at the daycare and Julia seems to like him."

"You know if you showed her some interest she’d dump him," Joey said.

"No she wouldn’t, even if she would, I’m not going to date her just because we have a kid together."

"How about dating because you two are like perfect for each other?" Lance suggested.

"We aren’t either. Julia and I aren’t anything more than friends and we won’t ever be."

"Sure you won’t."

"If I wanted to date her would I watch Micah so they could go out?"

"Yes, cause he’s your son," Chris put in.

"Whatever."

"All right, break’s over," Wade said.

"Thank you," JC said, getting up and walking back to his spot.

"Your phone’s ringing," Justin said, holding it up.

"Hello?" JC said, taking the phone from Justin. "Hey, Julia. Just going over some of the dance. Oh no problem, we’re taking a break, actually. Tomorrow? We’ve got the day off cause Joey’s gonna spend the day with Brianna, he finally talked Kelly into taking a day for herself. She did, huh? Well sure I can watch Micah, it’d be fun. All right, yah, I can be there by 9:30. All right, see you tomorrow. Bye."

"Taking care of Micah tomorrow, huh?" Justin said. "Then I suppose our plans are canceled."

"Shit, sorry about that man," JC apologized. "Kelly decided Julia needed to join her on her day tomorrow."

"Hey I’d ditch you for Micah too, so don’t worry about it," Justin replied.

"You can always hang out with us too, if you want."

"Maybe. My dad’s supposed to bring Steve and Jon tomorrow to visit for a while, maybe we can all do something."

"Sounds like fun," JC nodded. "You and Bri too, Joey."

"What about us?" Chris pretended to pout. "We aren’t cool enough to hang out with you cause we don’t have kids?"

"You aren’t cool enough to hang out with us, period, Chris," JC replied. "Lance, though, you can come if you want."

"As much fun as spending the afternoon with four little kids sounds, I think I’ll pass," Lance declined.

"Didn’t wanna hang out with you anyway," Chris muttered.

"We’re just playing, Chris, you can come if you really want to," Joey laughed. "As long as you don’t teach them to do bad things."

"I never!"

==

"Morning, Josh," Julia greeted him when he walked into the kitchen of her parents’ house, where she was staying while her house was being remodeled. "Thanks for watching Micah for me."

"Morning, Ju," he replied. "What kind of father would I be if I didn’t?"

Julia smiled. "Still, it really means a lot to me. Micah’s still sleeping but he’ll be up soon."

"All right. Have a good time, you deserve this break," JC said.

"I’m only doing this because Kelly is making me," she replied. "She seems to think because she’s stressed out, I am too. I’ve been at this parent thing longer than she has."

"Still, it’s good to have some time to yourself," JC interjected. "Plus that gives me more time with Micah."

"You know you can come by anytime you want to," Julia reminded him.

"He doesn’t want to run into the boyfriend, makes him jealous," Kelly said coming into the kitchen. "Morning you two."

"Morning, Kel," Julia said.

"Whatever, Kelly, I don’t have any problem with Julia dating," JC said, rolling his eyes.

"That’s not what you told Joey," Kelly countered.

"Joey took what I said wrong," JC replied. "Now aren’t you two supposed to be going and enjoying yourselves?"

"Bye, Josh," Julia said giving him a hug.

"Bye, Julia."

"Bye, JC," Kelly said following Julia out of the house.

"You two so need to get together," Kelly commented when she was pulling out of Julia’s driveway.

"We did, that’s where Micah came from," Julia replied.

"I meant like dating, then marriage together," Kelly said. "You two make cute kids."

"There’s a reason to be with someone, you make cute kids together," Julia shook her head.

"That’s not the reason you should be together. You should be together cause you spend more time together then you do with you boyfriend, JC’s much cuter, and you two seem to like each other more than you like Drew."

"Whatever, Kel," Julia rolled her eyes. "I’m very happy with Drew."

"You and JC are made for each other! Even back when we were in high school I thought you two should’ve been together," Kelly declared. "That’s why I was trying to get Joey out of the picture."

"Uh huh, sure, that’s why you and Joey have been together so long, cause you got caught trying to get him out of the way so I’d notice Josh," Julia replied.

"He grows on you, what can I say?" Kelly shrugged. "But I am serious, you two belong together."

"You just keep telling yourself that-- Is there a reason we’re listening to *NSYNC?" she asked, hearing the Pac Man sounds of ‘The Game Is Over’.

"Why not? I like it."

"I like it too, but I don’t drive around listening to them," Julia stated. "You don’t really miss Joey that much, do you?"

"Joey? Hardly," Kelly replied. "Brianna on the other hand... God I can’t believe she’s gonna be one in like two weeks."

"It gets easier," Julia said. "Besides, they’re more fun when they can move by themselves."

"I suppose..."

"Look at it this way, Micah’s gonna be four, I’ve survived, haven’t I?"

"Yah but you didn’t have to share-"

"Share him with anyone," Julia finished when Kelly trailed off. "I know I didn’t but that just makes him getting older harder cause I know someday he not gonna wanna hang out with me."

"I didn’t mean to say that," Kelly apologized.

"It’s all right."

"You’re wrong though, about him not wanting to hang out with you, Micah’s gonna wanna always do that, you’re a cool mom."

"Thanks, you are too."

=

"What are we gonna do today?" Micah asked JC after he’d finish eating breakfast.

"Well Justin’s brothers are in town and Joey’s got his daughter for the day, I was thinking we could hang out with them," JC replied. "If you want."

"That’d be fun," Micah nodded.

"Cool, well lets go get you dressed then," JC suggested, after cleaning up Micah’s breakfast dishes.

Micah nodded and followed JC to his room.

"Whatcha wanna wear today?" JC inquired, looking at his full closet.

"Blue’s Clues and shorts and my Blue’s Clues shoes."

"Which Blue’s Clues shirt?" JC questioned, after locating the other pieces of clothing.

"That one," Micah replied, pointing at the one JC had his hand on.

"Lookin good," JC said after Micah was dressed. "You all ready to go?"

Micah nodded and JC grabbed the bag Julia had packed with things for Micah to play with. After making sure the house was locked up, JC lead Micah to his Cadillac Escalade. He buckled Micah into Eddie Bauer car seat he bought after finding out he was Micah’s father.

"Uh, hi, can I help you?" he asked the guy he saw when he removed his head from the SUV.

"Uh, yah, hi. I’m Drew... Is Julia here?" answered the guy.

"JC," he introduced himself. "No Julia’s spending the day with a friend of hers."

"Oh, you must be Micah’s father. I’ve heard a lot about you," Drew said.

"Yah that’s me. Julia’s told me a lot about you too," JC replied.

"Well, I’m sure you’ve got things to do, so I won’t keep you any longer," Drew said, after they’d stood there in silence for a while.

"Yah, me and Micah were on our way to spend some time with friends... I’ll tell Julia you stopped by though," JC offered.

"Thanks. It was nice meeting you."

"You too," JC nodded, climbing into the SUV. "What do you think of your mom’s friend Drew, Micah?"

"He’s s’kay."

"Yeh? He over much?"

"No.. He just comes over sometimes with Tommy."

"Who’s Tommy?"

"My friend from the daycare, he’s his dad. They come over sometimes and me and Tommy play."

"Well that’s nice of him."

=

"Isn’t this great?" Kelly said to Julia while they sat in the sauna.

"Wonderful," Julia nodded, nodding her head. "I can’t remember the last time I had my nails done," she continued, looking at her freshly manicured nails.

"Me either," Kelly agreed. "We’ve so got to talk Joey and JC into watching the kids more often."

"Yah. You’ll have to come to Detroit when I go to film, there’s the best spa there! My mom used to go there all the time when we lived there and for my thirteenth she took me and a couple of my friends there and spoiled us."

"Sounds nice, we’ll have to work that out."

"Wonder what they’re up to," Julia said after they’d sat in silence for a while.

"Me too. I’d be tempted to call but Joey took my cell phone away," Kelly sighed.

"That’s the worst thing a man can do to a woman, take away her way to call and check on her child," Julia shook her head.

"Yah," Kelly agreed. "Lets change the subject, huh? Before we go and get depressed cause we’ve got a free day."

"All right."

"Hmm... Okay so what are you doing until you go to Detroit to film?"

"Pretty much just waitin. I some how managed to get asked to be on Rosie later this month but otherwise nothing."

"You got asked to be on Rosie? Cool!"

"Guess so. Not really sure why other than to get press out there bout ‘Rent’ and ‘Bubbles’ but you’d think they’d want like Justin or Shannon talking about the movies, ya know?"

"Who knows."

=

"So you met the boyfriend, huh?" Joey said after they’d gotten the four children to lay down for a nap.

"Yah, so?"

"So, what’s he like?" Chris prompted.

"We didn’t exactly have a heart to heart," JC replied.

"Kelly said he’s a real bore, nothing like what Julia usually goes for," Joey said.

"Well there must be something she likes or she wouldn’t be dating him," JC replied.

"Or maybe she thinks the guy she really wants to be with, doesn’t wanna be with her," Justin suggested.

"And who would that be?" JC asked.

"Damn you’re stupid." Chris shook his head. "He’s talking about you!"

"For the last time: Julia and I are just friends, nothing more than anything any of you are with her," JC spoke slowly as if talking to children.

"We’ll make sure to remind you of that on your wedding day," Joey replied.

"So anyway, I gotta tell you about this song I’m writing," Justin said, cutting JC off as he began to talk about the "totally awesome song" he started the night before.

When JC returned to Julia’s parents’ with Micah later that night he found Julia laying on the couch with headphones on, reading.

"Hey," he said, tapping her foot to get her attention.

Sitting up, Julia removed her headphones. "Oh hey, guys! How was your day?" she asked, pulling Micah into a hug.

"Pretty good. We hung out at Joey’s with him, Bri, Chris, Justin, Jon, and Steven," JC answered. "How was yours?"

"Bet that was fun, huh, Micah?" she said.

"Mine was good. We spent it at that new spa, so relaxing," Julia continued.

"Sounds nice."

"Tired, sweetheart?" Julia asked Micah when he yawned.

"If you wanna hang out, stick around, just gotta put him to bed," she told JC when Micah nodded.

"All right," JC nodded, sitting down on the couch.

"Girlfriend in a Coma?" he questioned when Julia came back into the room.

"It’s a good book, a group who people who grew up together are given a chance to see what the world would be like if everyone else dies, after one of them wakes up from a seventeen year coma. Changes their out look on life," Julia shrugged.

"Sounds like something you’d read," JC replied.

Julia shrugged again. "I like it, this is only like the twentieth time I’ve read it. Plus one of the characters reminds me of Justin when he was sixteen, always get a giggle out of that."

"Yeh? Why?"

"You’d just have to read it to understand," Julia replied.

"So your day was good?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Yah it was a lot of fun. After Micah ate we went to Joey’s and the others minus Lance were there. Oh Drew stopped by before we left."

"Oh? Hmm, should probably call him," Julia said more to herself than to JC.

"What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Taking Micah to see the house. He’s so excited we’re gonna live in a house, promised him I’d let him see his room since they finished it."

"Sounds like fun."

"Wanna come? If you aren’t busy...?"

JC shrugged. "You want me to?"

"If you wanna..."

"All right, sure," JC shrugged again.

"He’s gonna be mad though cause about the time we get to move in, it’s off to Detroit for the movie."

"Michigan?"

"Yah, they decided to base it in Detroit instead of NYC," Julia shrugged.

"Well that’s cool, I guess."

"Different anyway," Julia replied. "I was kinda of hoping Micah would get a chance to meet your parents while we’re up north... Your mom called me a while back asking about it."

"I don’t have any problems with it, if that’s what you’re wondering," JC said. "I’d love for my family to get to know Micah."

"Really?" Julia smiled.

"Yah."

"Cool."

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