That Fateful Trip to Vegas...
"James Lance Bass, you did NOT sell our wedding rights..." Hannah glared at him. Lance gulped. She had used his full name.
"You make it sound so bad..."
"It IS bad!" she smacked him over the head. The only other people awake snickered and looked down at their reading. "It's OUR wedding! Not anyone else's!! Especially not the public!!!" she said as vehemently as she could while still whispering.
"No it's not... I mean...think of it this way: either you have swarms of paparazzi trying to swoop in from above--don't say it's impossible, you know they got pictures of AJ and Chin's wedding by helicopter--or you can have a quiet thing with well done professional pictures and a good narrative to go with it, AND good exposure fans will love..." Lance tried to reason. Hannah crossed her arms over her chest.
Brian and Jenny smirked at each other and continued with their reading. All 12 of the gang were on a private jet, on their way to Las Vegas for a reunion. Much to Sarah's protests, everyone had opted that the whole week be devoted to Sin City, rather than a quiet gathering at the house and the usual trips to Disneyland and/or the beach. Presently, everyone was asleep, aside from Cathy, Howie, Jenny, Brian, and the bickering couple.
"I don't want to hear it." Hannah turned away from him, towards her window.
"But I...Hannah!...Honey...c'mon...Hannah?" Lance pleaded. He got a shoulder in reply.
"Owch. Remind me never to do something like that to you," Howie snickered in Cathy's ear. "You six prolly all share the same ideals for weddings..." he muttered, as if dreading one in his future. Cathy's smile changed as she crinkled his nose at him.
"Wuz that supposed to mean??" she raised an eyebrow.
"Uh-oh...I didn't go and piss you off too, did I?" Howie gave her puppy dog eyes. A grin broke out on her face again.
"Nah...but you were close, Curly!" she kissed him on the nose.
After a lot of groggy complaints of being woken up once the plane touched down, the 12 finally stumbled onto the top floor of the Mirage, which the guys had conveniently booked. Couples split offo into various rooms and there was muttered talk of dinner in some restaurant. However, that all fell by the wayside because once everyone got to their respective rooms, they crashed and didn't wake up till well past 9pm.
"Alex..." Chin whispered into his ear. He twitched his nose and shoved his face into his pillow. "Alex...c'mon...we already missed dinner. Didn't you say you wanted to gamble the first night we got here?" Chin nudged him. He grunted into the pillow. "Fine. I'll just go find some other rich boy and hang off HIS arm while he gambles..." Chin gave a huff and sat up to get out of bed. AJ's hand reached out and grabbed her.
"You promised you'd be MY trophy wife!" he whimpered, head still in his pillow, his voice partially muffled.
"Then get that tiny butt of yours out of bed and make yourself look like a man who deserves someone like me on his arm!" she jokingly poked him, and got up to have a shower.
"Lance, I'm sorry..." Hannah whispered. He stirred a bit.
"Ehmmm?"
"You did the logical thing. Signing to allow Extra, or People, or whomever, to cover our wedding. Sorry I blew up at you."
"Thank god," Lance sighed, opening one eye to look at her. "I thought you weren't talking to me anymore. As soon as you turned away from me on the plane, you haven't said one thing! You went into the room and went right to bed. You scared the shit out of me..."
"Well I can now look at it this way...now there's no way you can object to somehow including horses cuz having something that extravagant can boost that ego of yours since our wedding shall be televised and published to the masses!" she giggled, jumping out of bed, but not in time before Lance wrapped two arms around her waist to pull her back.
"See? We all win...Now as for this dinner. I say..."
"We make up for the lost time when I wasn't talking to you?"
"Hell yeah..."
"Jenny?"
"Hmm?"
"It's past dinner time."
"Hmm."
"You wanna get up now?"
"Mm-mmm..."
"Okay," Brian snuggled closer to her.
"Jules, don't pretend to be sick. The others are prolly already having dessert. C'mon. We need to eat."
"Leave me alone..." Julie yawned, drawing more covers over her head.
"Hm...let's see. I wonder if grumpy Julie will enjoy an attack from the TICKLE MONSTER!!!" Nick pounced on her. Her screams resonated on the walls and both fell off the bed.
"Nick, you suck." She rubbed her head. Still on top of her, he grinned and kissed her boo-boo. "But you'll be one hell of a daddy," she winked at him before throwing him off of her.
"What? What's that supposed to mean? Jules??" He ran after her but she made it to the bathroom first.
"After hearing that fight on the plane...you thinking what I'm thinking?" Cathy shyly grinned at Howie. They were walking alone, having been the only two who had woken up on time for the nonexistent dinner. Howie followed her gaze, before understanding what she was talking about.
"Sarah, why do you have to be such a good alarm clock?" Kevin whined as she looked at the menu. "No one else is awake!" They didn't know it, but they had missed Cathy and Howie by 5 minutes.
"Hey, buddy, if I had my own way, we'd be at home right now, sitting with the animals, playing Taboo or something. Don't blame me for anything that goes wrong here." She wagged a finger at him, not looking up from her menu. "Will you stop complaining and decide on something?"
"Or what?"
"Or what what?"
"What'll you do if I don't?" He evilly grinned, calmly putting down his menu.
"Kevinnnnn..."
"Frankly, I'd rather have dessert than dinner right now," he wiggled his eyebrows. Sarah rolled her eyes, and playfully pushed him away when he leaned towards her. "We're in Sin City for a few hours and you're already acting stupid. Down, boy. If you're good, maybe later," she petted his head.
[3 hours later, in a club]
"So everyone 'cept D and Kat are found and accounted for?"
"Whaaaat?" AJ yelled back.
"We're only missing Howie and Cathy??" Sarah tried again to be louder than the music surrounding them.
"WHAAAT??" AJ shrugged back at her. She gave a huff and looked at Chin, who nodded.
"Yeah, everyone 'cept those two crazy cats," she replied, sipping her Mai Tai. The gang was at some club, finally reunited (well, minus two) after hours of cell-phone tag and searching. Sarah seemed to be the only one worried about the missing couple; everyone else had succumbed to the city's nightlife, so to speak. She followed Chin to the bar and noticed Julie not too far off, with a worried expression on her face while in conversion with some strange man. Sarah tapped Chin and both went to investigate.
"C'mon, your boy toy ain't around now, is he? Does he really care about you?" the man slurred, holding an empty glass in one hand while attempting to give a full glass to Julie with the other.
"He's dancing with a friend. Like I already told you, no thank you," Julie backed up some more, though this time into a wall. Sarah and Chin looked at each other when they noticed the man didn't know how to take "no" for an answer.
"Oh no he's not," Chin muttered, as they approached the man's back.
"Chin, calm down," Sarah grabbed her arm as she advanced towards him. He made another pass at Julie, who was looking scared.
"I don't think so!" Chin growled before struggling away from Sarah's grip and spinning the man around to plant a right hook square on his jaw.
"What the hell?" the man exclaimed, grabbing Chin's top, as if to hit her back. Sarah raised an eyebrow at his reaction.
"Don't you even think about it," Sarah pulled Chin from the man's grasp. "How about I even that out for you?" Sarah socked him on the other cheek and knocked him to the ground.
"Wow..." Chin and Julie breathed, staring at Sarah wide-eyed.
"What?" she exclaimed.
"You hit him!" Chin laughed.
"My hero..." Julie winked. Before the man could get to his feet, Kevin and Nick had arrived on scene.
"Is there a problem here?" Kevin asked the man, stepping in front of the girls.
"No, no problem..." the man drawled, as several of his friends appeared behind him. "...not with you..." Two of his friends suddenly lunged forward and tackled Kevin and Nick. The man then attacked Chin and Sarah, returning the blows given to him.
"Do you think they'll notice?" Cathy giggled.
"I dunno, Seniorita..." Howie grinned back.
"Should we tell them right out?"
"Naw...I think it can be our little secret for now...unless they become observant," Howie winked at her.
"Oh, a secret. I like it."
"Officer, I didn’t mean to." Nick argued as the police handcuffed him. Minutes earlier, an officer had arrived on the scene to break up the fight. When Nick and his assailant were yanked apart, Nick accidentally nailed the officer in the face, with his elbow. Backup officers appeared soon after and Nick was charged with resisting arrest, after attempting to explain the incident. Sarah was nursing a cheek while Chin kept a hand over and eye. Nick had a cut above his eyebrow, but was otherwise unscathed. The other boys held back Kevin, who was miraculously untouched, from irritating the officers further by trying to explain the situation. The jerk who had bothered the girls to begin with, and his friends, had fled the scene.
Much to Julie's protests, Nick finally allowed himself to be handcuffed and taken away. Jenny, Brian, Lance, Hannah, AJ and Kevin helped the three girls back to the hotel suites. For a moment, Cathy's and Howie's absence was long forgotten.
[an hour later]
"Well, at least we know our girls can kick some ass..." AJ lightly laughed, holding Chin in his lap while she rested her head on his chest, applying ice to her eye.
"Yeah, they don't need us for any defense," Kevin added, smiling at Sarah's amusing state; having tired of holding an icepack to her check, she had tied a piece of cloth around her head to hold it in place.
"You look like you've got one hell of a tooth ache!" Lance snickered before Hannah smacked him.
"That's not funny. I still can't believe he hit us." Sarah grumbled, stopping quickly as her cheek began to hurt from the movement of talking.
"Bastards," Chin hissed, nuzzling into AJ. "Oh, and where the hell were you?!" she suddenly exclaimed and lightly punched AJ.
"In the potty?" he sheepishly grinned.
"Poor Nick...it was just an accident..." Julie wailed. "It's gonna go on his record, isn't it? The press will have a field day..."
"Don't worry about it. Brian and Jenny went down to get him and straighten it out. I'm sure they'll let him off, or at worst with some bail..." Hannah offered, shrugging.
"Why you girls have ice on your heads?" Cathy hiccupped from the doorway.
"You two get into a cat fight? Does Sarah want AJ now? Did Chin kiss Kevin?" Howie laughed, catching Cathy as she tripped.
"Where have you two been??" Kevin exclaimed, so Sarah wouldn't have to.
"Around..." began Cathy.
"...the town," finished Howie. The others looked at them, in disbelief.
"Heyyy dun gimmie that! No one showed for dinner so we decided to go sight seeing..." Cathy complained.
"More like bar hopping, to celebrate," Howie attempted to whisper to her, yet everyone could hear.
"Sarah and I were down there at 8:10," Kevin informed them.
"Eh, we lost patience and left at 8:05," giggled Cathy. Howie grabbed her arm before she fell again.
"What a night this has become..." sighed Lance. "Thank you for not having an urge to kick ass," he told Hannah, happy that she didn’t have to have ice on her. She gave him a weird look.
"Is supposed to be a compliment?"
"Honey, I'm HO-ome!" Brian burst through the door. Jenny pushed a sheepish Nick in from behind him.
"Voila the scapegoat. We saved him from a life of prison!" Jenny overdramaticized, hugging him as if for dear life. "We almost lost baby Backstreet!" she laughed. Nick rolled his eyes. Before Julie could thank him, yell at him, nurse him, smack him, or hug him, he put up a hand and spoke.
"I have had my fill for this evening. How's about we meet for brunch and start over? We have the rest of this week so let's not dwell on this, k?" Everyone nodded. They looked behind him as the door shut; Howie and Cathy had slipped out. As if taking a cue to leave, the others slowly dissipated out of Kevin and Sarah's room.
Kevin whispered into her ear. "So, you too hurt for dessert?"
She looked at him, and left the room with a huff.
[at the end of the week]
"Ok, so maybe Las Vegas wasn't a bad idea," Sarah admitted so Kevin would stop poking at her. "There, I said it. Happy??"
"Very," he gave her a quick kiss and returned to his magazine. For this flight, most everyone was awake and either talking on reading, minus Howie and Cathy, who were fast asleep.
"You know what? Cathy told me weddings sound like too much for her. I mean, AJ's and Chin's was nice, but I guess we're scaring her with our ideas," Hannah chuckled, skimming over a bridal magazine she had picked up.
"Well, we're gonna blow the media's socks off with ours, horses and all," Lance assured her. "I think Howie's the hesitant one though. It's not like he's asked or anything; hell, he's acted like he's never going to, you know? Maybe they're not ready..." Lance shrugged, looking over at the sleeping couple. Hannah nodded and followed his gazed...then gasped and violently grabbed his arm. "OW! What?"
"Look!" she pointed to Cathy's hand, then Howie's. Lance's yelp had gotten Jenny's attention.
"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness..." Jenny squealed. Sarah raised an eyebrow and followed the intense gazes. Her mouth dropped open.
"Nick...Nick..." Julie shook him until he finally paid attention and looked to where her hand was pointing.
"Lucy, you got some 'splaining to do!" Brian exclaimed, laughing. Cathy stirred awake and noticed everyone was looking at her with shocked gazes.
"Whaaaaat?" she whined, the noise waking up Howie. He yawned and rubbed his eyes.
"You guys didn't..." AJ began.
"Didn't what?" Cathy stretched.
"Is that what you did the night of the fight? Is that where you were!?" Nick exclaimed.
The couple followed the gazes to the rings on their fingers. Cathy turned a pretty shade of red and Howie nervously scratched his head.
"Um...yeah. We kinda got married."
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