Dreams Come True

This Moment was truly a pleasure to write. As with a number of the stories that I write, it didn't go entirely the direction that I had planned for it, still, I think it will still go down as being my all time favorite. I hope you enjoy it as well.

It didn't surprise Lance to feel JC's arms slide around his neck, though it was still technically within Lance's - Do Not Disturb - time. JC often wandered in to bother Lance when he was closed up in his office working.

What did surprise Lance - once he'd pulled his head out of the file he'd been consumed with - was the absolute silence of the house. They'd moved - lock, stock, and barrel - out to California two weeks earlier, and though large by anyone's standards, this house was no where near the size of the house in Orlando. Lance was always conscious of the others - Claire, Evan, and Evan's bodyguard Ryan - moving throughout. Now though, when he tilted his head back to rest against JC's stomach, the only sound he heard was the quiet hum of the central air and JC's breathing.

"Come with me for a minute," JC urged, tugging the chair around and pulling Lance to his feet.

"To?" Lance asked, even as he followed JC out of the room.

"Upstairs for a sec, I want to show you something."

Ah, so that was it, Lance thought as he followed JC to the second level. It must be nap time and JC wanted him to see Evan doing something he thought sweet in his sleep. Except that when they reached the top of the stairs, JC turned right and Evan's room was to the left.

"Jace, where…" Lance stopped dead and gaped in stunned silence when they reached the door of the master suite. There were candles everywhere, dozens of them, and music - lilting and light - dancing through the room, along with the sheers on the French doors that JC had left partly open.

"What's," Lance blinked, almost expecting the room to have transformed back to its original state as he did. When it remained exactly the same, he turned and asked, "What's going on, JC?"

"Claire and Ryan took Evan to the park, and then they were going to get McDonalds and ice cream. They'll be gone the entire afternoon, and so I thought, since we had the house completely to ourselves, maybe we could spend a little time, just the two of us, alone. Completely," JC murmured, as he backed Lance into the room. "Totally, alone."

It surprised Lance, as JC's intent was quite clear, to be urged toward the bathroom instead of the bed. There were candles there as well, along with flowers, fragrantly spilling out of vases and bowls. The garden tub steamed invitingly from across the room, and Lance no longer had to wonder what JC's plan was.

"It's been forever since we've had a chance to just relax, ya know?" Lance could feel JC's shrug against his back. "So, I thought a nice hot bath, some quiet music, some time just to be together. To talk, or whatever."

"'Whatever', huh?" Lance smiled. "I think I could go for a little whatever."

JC silkily evaded Lance's attempt to pull him close. "Bath first, then whatever."

Lance sighed, but obligingly began to unbutton his shirt. "What is your fixation with being clean this morning?"

"Not clean," JC countered as he stripped down to the skin. "Relaxed." JC slipped into the tub and beckoned Lance with a crooked finger. "You, my love, have been much too tense lately."

Lance slid into the warmth of the water, and swore he could feel his muscles loosen as he settled back against JC. Still, he stubbornly refused to admit to anything. "I haven't been tense."

"Right." JC dipped a sponge in the water. Squeezing it over Lance's shoulders, he asked, "So that wasn't you this morning who flipped because someone had put the Rice Krispies back without completely closing the top. And you weren't the guy that gave our toddler a five minute lecture yesterday because he'd," JC clutched his hands together over Lance's chest. "Gasp! Mixed his wooden blocks in with his Lego's." When Lance said nothing, JC calmly went back to stroking the sponge over his chest. "I'm sorry, I've obviously mixed you up with some other guy who lives here, and that being the case, I guess I'm going to have to kick you out of my tub, and see if I can find him, cause that dude is in serious need of some TLC."

"You know, Jace, you really should leave the comedy shtick to Chris, he's so much better at it than you are."

"That may well be," JC agreed. "But unfortunately, Chris isn't here, so it looks like you're stuck with me."

With that, JC dropped the sponge into the water, crossed his hands over Lance's stomach, and rested his head against the back of the tub. One quick peek confirmed that his eyes were closed, and Lance sighed, because JC had gone into waiting him out mode. He hated when JC did that; it just made Lance stubborn, and then they'd end up sitting here in the tub until they were both shivering from water gone cold, which would piss Lance off and he'd yell, setting off an argument that would end with what was bugging him finally coming out, which would piss JC off because if Lance had just told him that in the first place, neither of them would be suffering from hypothermia and - oh fucking hell.

"I don't think I'm ready," Lance blurted out, and though he knew that JC would know exactly what he wasn't ready for, he clarified. "For the baby - " Fuck, there he went again; denial was so not his friend. "Babies," he corrected, because hello, Georgia had called them weeks ago with the news that they were having twins.

Twins.

Lance still couldn't wrap his mind around it, and the more he tried the more tense and uptight he became. JC hadn't remotely suffered from the same problem. He'd been beaming since the moment he'd taken the call, and to make matters worse, had gone on another mad shopping spree that had practically driven Lance up the wall. It wasn't rational, this - Lance refused to call it fear - uptightness that had taken over him in the last several weeks, but he couldn't help it. He'd woken up in the middle of the night the day after they'd gotten the news and it'd just - been there.

"I want more kids. You know that." Lance groaned, "Obviously, you know that, but I thought we'd get them one at a time. What are we going to do with two at once? That's like, twice the feedings, and diapers, and - "

"Baby," JC caught Lance's wildly gesticulating hands in his. "Breathe."

The tightness in Lance's chest eased as he followed JC's soft, 'In and out', but he was still feeling less than secure when JC tilted his chin up and asked, "Better?"

"Yeah," Lance shook his head. "No." He threw his hands in the air, sending water flying. "Fuck if I know."

"List them."

"List what?"

"The things that are freaking you out. List them, one at a time; we'll talk it out."

"We'll be here all damn day."

JC was smiling as he brushed his lips over Lance's cheek. Lance was the only person he knew who could match Evan pout for pout. He refrained from sharing that with his partner, assuring him instead, "We've got plenty of time; out with it."

"It's going to be hard." Lance thought that JC would try and pin him down on that one, but all he said was, "We've lived through hard before, Lance. This will be a piece of cake, compared to that."

"They'll be twice as much work," Lance informed him.

"They'll be twice as much love," JC fired back.

"We're never going to sleep again."

JC had to fight back a chuckle at the melodrama dripping from that one. "Sure we will, babies sleep all of the time. When they nap, we'll nap."

"What about Evan? Who's going to watch him while we're napping?"

"Claire."

"See," Lance sat up, sloshing water dangerously close to the rim of the tub. "That's what I mean, they're not even born yet and we're already pawning Evan off on Claire."

JC rolled his eyes heavenward. "First of all, Lance, Claire already has Evan, on average, four to six hours a day."

"Right, so now instead of working during the time she has him we'll have to nap, and then when we get up, we'll have to work, which means she'll have him for eight plus hours and we said we weren't going to do that. We said if we weren't recording or touring, that he'd be with Claire no more than six, and now it'll be eight, because when we wake up, we'll have to make up the work that we missed when we were sleeping, which means that we'll have even less time with each other because one of us will always have to be working, and - "

Drastic times called for drastic measures, and so JC did the only thing that he knew would shut Lance up, he dunked him. It probably wasn't the smartest thing he could have done if the look in Lance's eye when he came up sputtering was any indication. "Lance, sweetie, I'm sorry, but you needed to calm down."

"Calm down. Calm. Down. I need to calm down, so you what? Try to drown me? How in the hell is that supposed to help? Our whole life is going crazy! Everything's going to change, nothing is going to be the same ever again, and you think that luring me into the tub so that you can kill me is going to help that! I - you - we -" Lance caught the look on JC's face, and groaning buried his face in his hands. "I'm losing my fucking mind."

JC, his eyes wide, nodded. "I think you may be right."

"Thanks, Jace." Lance's hands fell into the water with a plop. "I feel so much better now."

"Lance, look at me." JC patiently waited until Lance complied. "I love you." The heavy rise and fall of Lance's shoulders had JC repeating himself. "I love you."

"But?"

"There are no buts," JC assured him. "Look, I know that you're feeling overwhelmed by all of this. I was, too." In fact, he could still vividly recall the shock that had run through his body when he'd answered the phone to hear Georgia say, 'Surprise, it's twins.' Unlike Lance, however, he'd gotten past that and was now genuinely excited over the prospect of bringing not one, but two babies home with them when they went back to Orlando.

"How can you not be, still?" Lance asked, breaking into JC's thoughts.

"I don't know," JC answered truthfully. "I guess I keep going back to how we talked about wanting more after this one, and yeah, sure, it's a bit sooner than we thought, but it's still what we wanted."

"What's Evan going to think of having not one, but two new babies coming along and taking our time and attention away from him?"

"Probably the same thing that all toddlers think when their parents bring another baby home, and no doubt there will be adjustments we'll have to make, but Lance, people juggle this kind of stuff all the time. Lord knows that most of them don't have half the resources we do. Evan has two parents who are crazy about him; three sets of grandparents who're the same if not worse, not to mention his assorted aunts and uncles, and then there's Claire and Ryan. If there's anything that what we're going to have to worry about when this is all said and done, Lance, it's that we'll have a two year old monster on our hands, because that is going to be one doted on little boy."

Lance rested his head on JC's shoulder. "I am insane, aren't I?"

Stroking his fingers through Lance's hair, JC smiled. "Do you really want me to answer that?"

The playful tussle that followed JC's smartass - in Lance's opinion - comment left the bathroom alarmingly wet, and both men aroused and breathless. They were kissing before either registered that was their intent; warm lips moving in unison as they danced along the edge of desire toward excitement, and also - comfort. This was one of the things that he feared losing, Lance was forced to admit, as his hands smoothed over JC's warm skin; this closeness, the ability they had to know what the other wanted, needed, without a word being spoken between them. How could they hope to keep this when their emotions, time, and energies were being stretched thin by not a second child they'd - he'd - prepared for, but a third as well?

"You're doing it again," JC sighed.

"I'm sorry, I can't seem to stop." And as enjoyable as kissing JC was, Lance thought that maybe he needed to finish the spilling that JC had ordered him to do more. "Jace, look, I know that you went to a lot of trouble to do all of this, but I really think I need to talk and not…ya know."

Which had been the whole point behind JC going to Claire this morning to request that she make herself, Evan, and Ryan scarce. There was no reason for Lance to know that, however, especially as JC could appreciate the advantage of having a boyfriend who didn't always realize you were so hyperaware of what was going on in his head.

"Okay, let's get you out of here, then."

JC exited the tub first and was there with a towel to wrap Lance in before he'd set one foot on the floor. They dried off in silence, the occasional gurgle of the draining water the only sound in the room. Lance slipped into the sweatpants he'd left puddled on the floor and then simply stood there, wet towel in hand, unsure of what happened next.

"I'll clean up in here," JC eased the towel away from him and gave him a gentle nudge towards the door. "You go and get settled, I'll be right in."

Lance blinked in surprise when he entered the bedroom; the candles and music that JC had taken so much time with had completely slipped his mind. He fidgeted with the hem of his t-shirt, torn between his desire to snuggle with JC on the bed and the more practical idea of having this conversation on the sofa across the room. The bed won out - he needed the closeness almost as much, more, than he needed the conversation - and he eased back against the pile of pillows to wait. It seemed he'd barely blinked before JC was slipping on to the bed beside him urging Lance with arms open to, "C'mere."

Lance didn't need to be told twice to slide under JC's arm, and once settled began to obsessively smooth out the wrinkles in JC's t-shirt. The music played softly in the background and Lance found that between it, the softness of JC's shirt beneath his fingers, and the time his partner was giving him, his nerves began to settle. He had no clear idea of where he wanted to begin, and so he decided to start with what it had been like for him in those first few months when Evan had been an infant.

"The day that I brought Evan home from the hospital, I was petrified. He seemed so small and fragile; so, I don't know," Lance paused. "Defenseless, I guess. He'd been through so much already and here I was, this guy who'd never even babysat when he was a kid, fully in charge of this tiny little thing, and I was completely alone." Lance shifted until he could see JC's face. "My mom had offered to come and stay with us, but I wanted to do it by myself. He was my son, and damn it, I was going to be the best dad in the world, even if I killed myself doing it."

A small smile flitted over Lance's mouth before he continued, "Stubborn, thy name is James Lance Bass." As the smile faded from his lips, he laid his forehead against JC's chest. "I walked in the door, put all of his stuff down on the kitchen counter, including him in his little car seat, and then stood there and bawled like a girl. I had no clue what I was doing, and I wanted you so much in that moment that it felt like someone had ripped my heart out." He rubbed into JC's hand when it came to rest on his cheek, but he refused to look up like he knew JC wanted him to. "I think the only thing that kept me from completely falling apart was that right then, Evan started crying, too. So I sucked it up, took him out of his seat and did what I had to do. One foot in front of the other, one day at a time, until one night I crawled into bed after another long day and realized that I hadn't had to think about anything I'd done, I'd just done it. Without questioning myself six thousand times first. I'd gone from being a basket case about everything, to just being a dad. I was so fucking proud of myself and - I wanted you so much that it felt like someone had ripped my heart out."

"Lance - "

"Just, let me finish, okay?" JC nodded, and Lance quietly continued. "Everyday was this unbelievable mix of highs and lows, up until the day that I left Evan with you and came back to hear you talking to him. I'd really thought up til then that there was no hope for us, but hearing you, peeking in and seeing the two of you together, changed that, and so instead of dwelling on what wasn't, I started to see what could be. I still had lows, days when I was positive it was never going to work, and nothing anyone told me could make me see different. Then you put your house up for sale, I came out here to get you and well, you know what happens after that."

"I do, but -"

"You don't have any clue what all of that has to do with this."

"No, I don't. Things couldn't be more different now, Lance. We're solid. You know that."

"We were before, too."

JC vehemently shook his head. "No, not like this. Never like this. We had brief moments of good sprinkled through all of the bad, but we never had anything close to what we do now."

He knew that JC was right, and as Lance began to pluck at the material of JC's shirt, he also knew that he was using that to skirt around the real issue here.

"Just tell me, Lance." JC lifted Lance's chin. "Tell me."

"It's too much. Sometimes, when I look at you and Evan, it's - my," Lance touched his chest. "It's so full, and now, God, Jace - two of them." His eyes brimming with all that he was feeling, Lance tried to make himself understood. "It's everything I've always wanted; a life with you, family. It's right here at the tip of my fingers, all of it, everything I need, and it's scares the fuck out of me because I know how quickly it can all go away. One mistake, Jace, one wrong move and it's gone. I couldn't survive losing you, or one of them. I couldn't."

"Lance." JC sat up and took a firm grip on Lance's shoulders. "Where is this coming from?"

"I came home that day and you told me about the twins and I had this perfect picture pop into my head of all of us together, and then just like that," Lance snapped his fingers. "It was gone and in its place was the picture of what it was like before. I can't go back to that, Jace, and I'm scared, because it means so much. You - they, mean everything."

"So, what you're saying is that you can't help thinking that because things are so good, something's bound to go bad. Right?"

"Right."

"Which basically means, Lance, you're normal."

"What? Jace, it's not normal to get this incredibly great news." Because it was great news; two babies at once was almost enough to make Lance dance a jig; if he wasn't quite so immersed in being so paranoid. "And turn it into weeks of angst."

"Sure it is. Everyone does it, Lance. It's like this defense mechanism thing. I think there's even a name for it."

"Yeah, paranoid," Lance grumbled, but JC ignored him.

"Everyone does it, babe." JC repeated. "Life starts to seem like it's going to well and you can't help but start thinking, but what if this happens, or that happens. It's almost like your brain needs to prepare itself for the worst, just in case, ya know? Like when my granddad went in for that surgery, everyone told me that it was a simple thing and the doctor's thought he'd breeze right through it, but I couldn't seem to make myself stop going through what would happen if they were wrong. I knew it was stupid, but I did it anyway."

Cupping his hand around Lance's jaw, JC tilted his chin up. "You've had your entire world fall out from under you, Lance. It's normal to be scared; to be cautious about opening yourself up to something like that happening again."

"It happened to you, too. You're not scared."

"I'm petrified. Of fucking this up. Of not loving you or Evan enough. Of not being the kind of father that he needs me to be. Of walking into that delivery room and remembering. "

"Jace." Lance sat up in shock. "But. You never said a word," he accused.

"It's the first thing I think about when I open my eyes in the morning, but I don't let myself dwell on it, Lance. I can't. I live my life, and I do the best I can and when I close my eyes at night, I say thanks to whomever's out there that got me through one more day. That's all you can do. One day at a time, one foot in front of the other, and if you can't do that, babe, then maybe we need to think about you talking to someone, because life is good, Lance. Life is really, really good."

"I'm not in need of mental health help, Jace. I just kind of feel like I've had my breath knocked out of me, and I can't quite get it back."

JC nodded in complete understanding, and Lance realized then that maybe had he said something sooner, he might not have felt so alone in the last several weeks. Because he should have guessed - no - should have known, that JC would be a bit apprehensive about watching the babies being born.

"Are you going to be okay?" They asked in unison, and the smile that spread over Lance's face was the first genuine one to grace it in weeks.

"I am now," Lance answered, and before he could ask JC the same, the phone rang. "You should get that," he insisted when JC hesitated to pick it up. "It could be Claire."

The only thing that kept JC from ignoring Lance was the fact that he'd thought the same thing himself. Still, he waited until just before the machine would grab the call, taking the time to twine his fingers with Lance's, before picking it up. He listened quietly, offering only a few words, "Uh huh - okay - how long," and finally, "We'll be there as soon as we can," before hanging up. JC knew that Lance was waiting, but he needed a minute for himself, a minute just to breathe, to lean in and kiss Lance once, twice, and to run his fingers up and over Lance's jaw, sift them through his hair and simply hold him. When he pulled back he couldn't resist taking one last taste of Lance's mouth before he shared, "That was Georgia." JC knew by the way Lance squeezed his hand that Lance knew what was coming. Still, it didn't stop what little color was left in Lance's face from draining away when he said, "Her water broke about an hour ago, and they're on their way to the hospital. Obviously, she'd like us to meet her there."

There was a hard knot, sitting just below Lance's breast bone. It had been there since JC had hung up the phone hours ago, and the longer Georgia's labor went on, the larger it became, until Lance was all but certain that anyone looking at him could see it there. He kept rubbing the spot, sure that the next time he touched it, he'd feel something poking out from his skin, but as the minutes ticked by with agonizing slowness, nothing appeared. No bulge under his skin, and no babies. He could hear their heartbeats steadily beating under the hum of noise in the room, but so far neither of them had seen fit, after some six plus hours of labor to show themselves to their fathers. Lance figured it didn't bode well for the future if they were torturing him this much already and they hadn't even been born. He was going to lose his mind - any minute now - if something, anything didn't happen.

No one else seemed to think that the amount of time passing was any big deal. 'Babies come in their own due time,' the nurses said; 'It took 15, 12, and 10 hours for my first three,' Georgia told anyone who'd listen; 'It won't be much longer,' the doctor who kept popping in and out assured them. As for JC, Lance looked over to where he was standing bedside, helping Georgia through her zillionth contraction of the night, he was too busy being the cheerleader of the century to notice something as trivial as time moving by minute by excruciating minute.

Lance wanted the babies here. Now. He wanted to walk out the door and forget that he'd ever had the completely asinine idea of adding to their family. What had he been thinking, anyway? They were fine the way they were. They had a healthy child that both he and JC were crazy in love with, why had they needed to change that? It wasn't as if anything was missing from their lives, right? They had each other, Evan; they were content with their life, hell they were really happy, and he was crazy. Crazy for wanting to change that, for risking what they had, for - Lance nearly jumped a foot when JC's hand landed on his shoulder.

"Sweetie, the doctor says it's time for Georgia to push. You need to get ready." JC gestured to where a nurse was waiting with gown and gloves, and God, if JC's hand hadn't been holding him in place he'd have bolted for the door. "You're going to catch the first one, right?" JC asked as he gently pulled Lance's hand through the gown. "It's going to be okay, Lance," JC soothed, brushing a kiss over the back of Lance's neck as he tied the long green robe in place. "I love you. Love you," JC breathed, and then he was gone, easing onto the bed behind Georgia on one side, her husband on the other and Lance was left to watch a miracle happen right before his eyes.

He finally remembered to breathe when spots began to swim in front of his eyes, and even then all he managed was one shallow gulp, barely drawing in enough air to gasp when the baby's head emerged, "It has hair." Evan had been completely bald.

Dr. Cahill chuckled, "Some do."

"It's dark," Lance edged closer, and his eyes met JC's across the bed. "Like yours." The man who had such a short time before wanted to walk out and not look back, who had wanted to be anywhere but here, now stood at one of the two obstetrician's shoulders, completely in awe. "Oh," he breathed, when Georgia gave a mighty push and the baby's head slid out. Within the space of a heartbeat he'd gone from looking at the baby's hair sprinkled crown, to it's purple, wrinkled - beautiful - little face.

Georgia's husband, Bill, grinned at him in-between urging his wife, "Pant, love, they'll let you push again in a minute." When JC took over that duty for him, he winked at Lance. "Georgia is a champion pusher. I think with our last one it was six pushes and he was out, and this little person looks a bit smaller than Seth was. I'm guessing maybe two more, and Doc here will be holding that baby in his hands."

Two, Lance thought, amazed. Just two, he couldn't begin to image it, and then Dr. Cahill and his partner were urging Georgia to push again and there was one tiny shoulder, then two, and the room was a bustle of activity as Lance followed Dr. Cahill's instructions and the baby slid into his hands. Lance dimly heard someone say, "It's a boy," and his head snapped up and found JC. A boy. Another son. JC had been right, he thought, as the doctor took over, and after clearing the child's airway, placed the squalling bundle on Georgia's stomach. Lance looked down into his scrunched up face and reached down, cupping his hand over his son's head. "Shh, little man," he crooned. "It's okay." He continued to talk softly to the baby, as the doctor's went about separating him from Georgia, until he felt JC's hand settled over his. "Look at what you did," he whispered, drawing JC to him.

"He's beautiful," JC breathed, his gaze moving from the baby, to Lance, and then to Georgia. He leaned down and kissed her softly on the mouth. "I don't - I can't." He gave up trying to find the words and finally just lay his forehead against hers. "Thank you."

"One down." Georgia drew in a deep breath and JC could feel her body tense. "One to go and I think this one is just as impatient to meet its dads as Lucas was."

Things got pretty busy after that. Bill was right, Georgia was a champion pusher, and this time it was JC at Dr. Cahill's shoulder, looking a little paler than Lance would have liked to see him. There was a far off look in his eyes and Lance knew that he was back at the loft, reliving Evan's birth. The doctor said something to him and JC jerkd like he'd been shocked. Lance passed off the task of breathing with Georgia to her husband, and went to JC's side, running his hand over his back, talking softly to him.

"Jace." With gentle fingers, Lance turned JC to face him. "I love you." Lance offered JC's words back to him, remembering how they'd reached through his fear, hoping they'd do the same for JC. "We have another little boy," he smiled and brushed a hand over JC's hair. "And pretty soon, he's going to have a little brother or sister. See," Lance turned JC so that they were both looking at the baby's crowning head. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" he asked. "That's your baby, Jace, and very soon you're going to be holding it in your arms. You're going to kiss Georgia again and thank her, just like you did for Lucas, and then we're all going to go up to her room, count fingers and toes, and in a day or two we're going to take our babies home, and Bill is going to take Georgia home. And one day, when they're older, you and Georgia are going to tell them all about how they came into this world. Both of you, Jace." Lance stepped in front of JC. "Both of you."

JC shivered and a single tear rolled down his cheek. "I know. I do, I just wish…"

"I know, me, too. But we can't go back, and we can't live in the past. You taught me that, Jace. You showed me how to let go of all of that."

"I'm scared," JC confessed.

"I know, baby. I know you are, but it's going to be okay," Lance assured him, shocked to find that he actually believed it. "It's going to be okay." This time when he said it, something in his face, his eyes, his voice, had JC nodding, and again letting his attention return to the wonder taking place beside him.

"We're almost there," the nurse at his elbow assured him. "If you want to have a hand in bringing this little one into the world, you should get ready, it won't be much longer."

Lance gave JC a gentle push and then stood back and watched the emotions flash over JC's face as first their child's head and then body appeared. He was so intent on catching JC's every expression that he missed the doctor announcing the baby's sex, and didn't realize what they had until JC was holding the baby to his chest and beaming, "Look, Dad, it's your little girl."

With thanks as always to my dear friend Missy for fixing all of my many boo boos.