The next morning, when Marshall woke up, Regina wasn’t in bed. He wasn’t really surprised, but when he found that she was not even in the hotel room, he was a bit worried.

A few minutes later Dre stopped by.

“You seen Regina?” Marshall asked.

“Yeah, she’s been in the studio since five, didn’t she tell you?” Dre asked confused.

“I didn’t even know she was up,” Marshall replied yawning.

“Well, she arrived early, called and let me know, and by the time I got there she was ready to cut a new track. I left Ace with her so she could finish up. She thinks she might get the tracks completely done today,” Dre said nodding.

“She seem okay to you?” Marshall asked.

“No different than any other day,” Dre replied.

“Gina.” Flying tater tot.

“No.”

“Gina.” Flying tater tot.

“Leave me alone.”

“Gina.” Flying tater tot.

“What!” Regina finally snapped looking over at the source of the flying tater tots once again.

“You need to eat something, you said you didn’t eat breakfast either, you need to eat,” AJ replied.

“I told you, I was not hungry, so leave me alone,” Regina replied going back to the piano and attempting to finish the melody she’d been working on for the past hour and a half.

AJ and the rest of the Backstreet Boys had shown up around ten o’clock to work on their song with Regina for her album and again she was refusing to stop work and eat.

“You trying to go for the world record and finish an album in a week?” Brian asked.

“No, just back off Backstreet,” Regina snapped as she left the room, slamming the door behind her.

“Gina! Come on, wait up, don’t be like that!” It was AJ, dammit, why didn’t he quit?

“Would you stop calling me Gina!” Regina shouted as she turned around. AJ halted in front of her.

“Why, what’s wrong?” AJ asked confused.

“That bitch of an ex-friend, who spilled my entire life to the world used to call me Gina, I don’t want anyone, calling me Gina,” Regina replied.

“All right, Regina, what is bothering you?” AJ asked, watching as Regina paced the width of the hall.

“I don’t know, I just, dammit, I don’t know,” Regina replied shaking her head.

“You want to sit down and talk about it?”

“No, I don’t,” she replied as she rubbed the back of her neck.

“This about Eminem? At the club last night?” AJ asked carefully.

“His name is Marshall,” Regina snapped.

“Okay, but is it what happened last night?”

“I suppose, but I really don’t want to talk about it, and especially with you,” Regina replied stomping back to the studio.

“Why not with me?” AJ asked catching up.

“Because, I don’t know you and we, are not friends, if I wanted to talk to anyone, I’d talk to Proof or Bizzy. So lay off,” Regina snapped. She didn’t bother to say anything to anyone as she swept past the group into the room, and directly into the booth.

“Ace! Put up number seven, now!” Regina crowed.

“What’s wrong with her?” Kevin asked concerned, as Regina launched into her third track of the day.

“Her man was flirting it up with some sleaze bag over at the club last night, right in front of her,” AJ replied.

“Ah, I see,” Kevin nodded, but noted how disturbing Regina looked as she rapped along to a song that could have only been called, “Killer.”

After Regina’s week in the studio was over, and the three day stint in which she snapped at everyone, including Proof and Bizarre, who she never, and really never snapped at, it seemed like things got back to normal. Marshall had acted like nothing had happened and was unusually bubbly and happy to be around.

“You acting awful happy for a guy who’s dick’s in a sling,” Swifty remarked on the third day of the stint.

“I know what I’m doing Swift, so shut it,” Marshall replied, quickly shutting his own mouth when Regina took a seat between him and Bizarre.

“All of you have one big interview today, magazine, and photo shoot for them, for god sake Regina, eat something,” Dre remarked as he looked over to see Regina, again, not eating.

“What?” she snapped.

“I’m not dealing with no friggen anorexic shit, so eat, or I’ll make Bizzy sit on you again,” Dre replied with a gaze that was not to be questioned. Regina shot him a look, but when he didn’t back down, she took a piece of toast off of Marshall’s plate and sat back to eat it.

“Fine, now as I was saying…”

As the day went along Marshall acted like his usual goofy self, and eventually Regina’s mood dissolved. She figured it really hadn’t been anything to worry about. He was still here, with her, and he had come back to her that night. Besides, she missed him, three days, in her opinion, was too long to go without a little Marshall loving.

That evening when Marshall snuggled up against her in bed, she felt a certain little Marshall begging for attention.

“What do you want,” Regina asked, like she didn’t know. Marshall’s hands slowly crept around her body and turned her over, pinning her beneath him. She allowed him to press her hands into the mattress and loom over her.

“You, that’s all beautiful,” he replied giving her a smile as he used his lips to bathe her face in kisses, finally landing on her lips. She let him in, relaxing totally into the kiss and sighing as his mouth made love to hers.

Marshall grinned to himself as he moved his hands down to the edge of her T-shirt and sneaked his hands underneath the hem, this plan was working very well indeed.

“Good morning!” Regina said with a wide smile.

“Tell the Cheshire cat to go back to wonderland and give us back our Reggie,” Kuniva said looking over at her with a confused look on his face.

“Yeah, what is up with this?” Bizarre asked as Regina grabbed breakfast sandwich off the plate in the middle of the table and took a large bite.

“Guys, you know what it means,” Dre said as he sat down.

“Oh, right,” Proof grinned.

“So it’s a count down now boys, and Reggie,” Dre quickly added, she just flashed him a smile as he continued, “fifteen days till tour. Fifty called the other day, he’s doing well on his own. In two weeks we fly back to California, Reggie, make sure all your stuff is taken care of. And by the way, how is all the legal shit going with Paul, I haven’t heard from him in a while.”

“Fine, Ernelle pleaded guilty to everything. Paul wanted to know if I was going to sue her for libel, but I can’t really, everything she said is true. She’s got six years probation, and not a single publication will hire her,” Regina replied non-fazed.

“Bitch deserved more than that,” Proof snorted.

“Well, she’s got six years, to think about. For right now, well, she’s moving back into that old apartment we shared, and the bar won’t even hire her back. She’s now working at the diner. And just imagine, all that hard work, with a degree in journalism, down the toilet, that’s going to be worse than anything else she gets,” Regina replied.

“You thinking about forgiving her?” Kon asked.

“No,” Regina said quickly, “I’m just saying, that she fucked up her life, herself, she can’t blame anyone but herself. She might, eventually be able to get a better job, but most papers, they won’t hire someone who actually broke the law to get a story, it’s not like she just went around and interviewed people or something, she broke into a storage lot, and took my pictures, then used them, it’s not ethical. If anyone in the association did that shit, they’d be gone, period.”

“You’re taking it a lot better than I thought you would, shit girl, you taking a lot of shit better than any of us thought you would,” Dre replied with a serious nod.

“Nothing gon’ stop me, just realize that now, whatever ya’ll consider the top, I’m going for the next step up over it, has been bitches that know how to pick a lock and write a tabloid story, ain’t gon’ stop me, ain’t even gon’ trip me,” Regina replied.

“All right, now you getting all philosophical and shit, damn girl, I can’t wait to see what you’re gon’ do with your own damn album out,” Dre and everyone laughed and Regina kept smiling.