Driven

Prologue

"Next month - Halloween, actually, which is kind of amusing, considering that it's our favorite holiday. Jen and I get really enthusiastic on the costume thing...I don't think he'll make it that far, though. The whole pregnancy's been pretty rough on him."

Jared shifted uncomfortably on the overstuffed chair he was seated in, eyes darting from the bracelet on his wrist back to the reporter in front of him. He didn't ordinarily give answers to such personal questions that reporters (or fans for that matter) asked him, but the woman seated across from him seemed put together, honest, and came from People magazine.

It was probably the most reputable magazine to ever invite him to speak. Usually he got tabloids, fanzines, or trashy soap opera type gossip rags calling him. Not having a flashy giant wedding forced the paparazzi to scour the Internet for shoddy cell phone photos and second-hand accounts from guests with loose lips. But since the announcement of Jen's pregnancy was officially scooped (through a press conference with Jared's agent) and his show had gotten picked up for the fifth season at the top spot on the Tuesday night lineup, he'd had more calls from legitimate news shows and magazines.

The reporter glanced down at her own notes. "Jensen's been having a difficult pregnancy?" She made a small notation with her pen, then looked up to him, face earnest.

Jared sighed. Jensen was going to kill him. "We've had our ups and downs with it. Believed miscarriage early on, terrible morning sickness, gestational diabetes, and then he had a trip to the ER with pre-term labor. He's confined to bedrest right now. Been stuck there for the past two months. He's going stir crazy, that's for sure."

The reporter smiled knowingly. "Doesn't like being cooped up, then?"

"Being stuck in the house doesn't phase him. He actually prefers it. In fact, that was a main point of contention between us for a while. It's hard to keep private lives separate from what you want the public to see. Away from the press, away from our jobs, away from the nosy people who want to control our lives.... It's not really all that easy to live in the limelight, especially when you're not what the public believes you to be."

The reporter made sure that the red light on her tape recorder was glowing and settled in. It appeared that Jared Padalecki was about to give her the story of a lifetime.

"Let me start at the beginning..."