Chapter 69: The Last Day…In Chicago

Wednesday was a day off for the band. Do you think it meant a day off for me? You guessed it. I had gotten accustomed to getting to the gym around 7:30 and doing my own light workout when we didn’t have something else planned (no weights; doc would kill me; so would David) before Jon came down. I was a little late this morning, so didn’t start until 7:45. I don’t know about you, but when I’m working out, I’m totally in “the zone”. Unless someone comes up and unplugs my Nano (loaded with 150 beats-per-minute music) I have no idea you’re there.

So, this morning, after stretching, I attacked the heavy bag. I much prefer a sparring partner, but I haven’t asked anyone to help me, so it’s been me and the bag. I don’t want the “don’t overdo” lecture. I checked with my doctor after finding out about the twins, and he said as long as I don’t overexert myself, I’ll, be fine. I know my body, and what I can and cannot do, so I’m working out.

I was working my uppercut punches, grunting when each one landed, when I felt a tap on the shoulder. I jumped a mile then turned, sweeping my foot to bring whoever snuck up on me to the ground. It was Tico, and he saw it coming, and jumped my foot, and lurched forward, tackling me to the ground. Gently.

As Tico laid me gently on the mat, Jon walked in and rushed over. “Hath! Are you alright? Fuck, man, what did you do to her?”

I still had my Nano going, Ministry if you must know, and all I saw was Jon’s mouth moving. “I’m fine,” I yelled, though they weren’t the ones with headphones on. When they winced, I turned off the thing and pulled the buds from my ears. “Sorry,” I said. “Jon, I’m fine. Tico scared the shit out of me so I tried to knock him down and he turned the tables on me.” I looked at the man in question. “Nice job,” I said.

“Gracias, Querida,” he answered, still holding me. He is so incredibly strong, it’s hard to describe. I felt completely and utterly safe with him holding me, even though he was still sorta holding me on the ground.

“You could let me up now,” I said, laughing.

“Not until Jon backs off,” Tico said. “I don’t want his death on my conscious, and if he tries to hit me, I’m gonna kill him.”

Their bickering made me laugh. “It’s fine. Boss, back off.”

He did, and I got up. “I got a late start this morning,” I said. “I’m usually done by now, and ready to work.” I rolled my eyes, “Tico, I haven’t seen you here in the mornings.”

“I am not usually up this early, but I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep, so here I am.” He stood and held out a hand, helping me to my feet. I promptly hooked my ankle around his, and dropped him to the mat.

“I knew I could do it,” I said smugly. He grabbed for me, and I let out a little scream and ran to hide behind Jon.

“Oh no,” Jon said laughing, pulling me from behind him. “Do not use me for a shield. Are you done with your workout, then?”

“Nearly,” I said. “I still have my combinations to run through; no more than twenty minutes.”

Tico came over. “Want help?” he asked. Jon went to start the treadmill.
“Sure!” I showed him on the bag what my self-defense combinations were, slowly at first, then at my normal speed. Tico nodded at me and grabbed a set of focus mitts, and we worked together slowly, then sped up after we adjusted for height. I went at him for a solid ten minutes, and was dripping with sweat. On the final combination, I gave a guttural shout with every landed punch, and the yell that accompanied the final jab intended for the attacker’s throat echoed in the room.

Afterwards, I circled the room, winding my shoulders and stretching my arms. I jogged a couple laps, then rolled to the floor to stretch. I was still pretty flexible, as I wasn’t showing, and I still had a cute-ish figure, so I was wearing a t-shirt that came to just the top of my track pants. When I leaned over to stretch my back, the shirt crept up, showing my tramp stamp. Jon was behind me, and laughed, “That ink always cracks me up,” he said.

“What do you mean, ‘always’? When have you seen it?” My eyes narrowed and I pierced Jon with a glare.

“David has that frigging picture of your tat as his avatar on Backstage,” he said. “Plus, after Monday,” he said, dropping his voice, “I saw more of the pictures from his birthday.” He smiled. “Man, I saw a LOT of ink.”

I looked around to see where Tico was. He was riding the LifeCycle thing on the other side of the room. “Son of a bitch!” I hissed. “I’m going to fucking kill him. Sorry, boss, you need another keyboard player.”

I pushed myself to my feet and was halfway to the door before Jon could react. “Jesus,” he said, and took off after me. He caught me by the arm, and spun me around. I shook him off, and Tico perked up.

“You okay, Querida?”

“Yeah, T, I’m fine,” I said, flapping my hand at him. Without thinking, I had used his nickname, and he grinned. What the hell. I got pregnant at his house, I may as well get familiar with him.

“Hath,” Jon said, “I badgered him into showing me.” He looked at Tico, who was very interested in the conversation. Jon led me outside the door. “Look,” he said. “He was asking about the PM conversation we alluded to on Monday, and he was worried that you thought you weren’t good enough for him.” He shook his head. “He only showed me to illustrate how beautiful he thinks you are. He showed me one of the ones he took from behind you, so I saw the dragonfly, and one with the pillow, so I saw your Elvis. Is that all of them?”

I wasn’t going to be joked out of my mad. “Yeah, that’s all of them,” I said. “He promised me he’d keep them to himself. He PROMISED me.” I was getting all worked up, and almost in tears. I can’t believe David did that.

“Hey,” Jon said. “Please don’t kill him. It’d take too long to train someone else.” He looked at me, and I couldn’t even manage a wan smile. I was still hurt that David would betray me like that. “Hath, he didn’t mean to hurt or betray you.” I looked at him, surprised. “Yeah, I see it in your face. Honest, he just wanted advice on how he could make you see how he sees you.”

I was starting to cool off, and was willing to hear David out when I went back upstairs. “Well, thank you for not making fun of me or telling the others.” I was looking at the floor. “It’s hard enough looking you in the face after the whole PM thing,” I said softly. “You’ve been a real gentleman.”

Jon put a finger under my chin and lifted my head. “I told you before, I would never intentionally hurt any of my friends, and I’m happy to call you my friend. You okay?”

“I guess so,” I said, and sighed. “Okay, I won’t kill David, but I’m gonna have Ang deaden both his arms for me later. I haven’t mastered that myself yet.”

Jon laughed. “That’s alright I guess.” He looked in the window, and saw Tico trying desperately to look like he was not trying to eavesdrop. “We’d better get back in there before he gets too curious.”

Jon finished his run, and Tico sat with me while Jon rattled off his breakfast order. Sam wasn’t thrilled about me making his breakfast when she was right there and willing to do it, AND she wouldn’t let me make her anything but tea. “You really eat all that shit, boss?” Tico said.

Jon grinned. “Yep, Hath makes a good breakfast.” He winked at me.

I grinned evilly. “Why don’t you go round up Hugh, I’ll get David, and meet back at Boss’ suite? I’ll make breakfast for everyone.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Tico said.

“Darlin’, I’ve been making breakfast for Boss here and leaving to go do it again for me and David all week. It’d be nice to make just ONE meal. Come,” I said, looking at Jon.

“Yeah, come,” he said, and rolled his eyes.

When I went back up to get David, he could see right away that I’d been upset. We talked about what Jon had told me, and David apologized for showing Jon the photos. He said that he wouldn’t have done it if Jon would have made me feel bad in any way, and apologized for breaking his promise to me. He was just so incredulous that I couldn’t see him the way he saw me, and wanted advice from someone he could trust. “I never meant to hurt you,” David said. “If I thought for a second that he would make you feel uncomfortable, I never would have done it.” He kissed me gently. “Do you believe I never meant to hurt you with this?” I nodded. We were fine.
We met Tico and Hugh outside Jon’s door. Hugh knocked, and Sam answered. She couldn’t see me, but just saw the guys. “What’re ya’ll doing here?” she asked.

David spoke up. “Jon invited us for breakfast,” he said. “He said Hath was cooking. Isn’t she here?”

Sam started getting angry. “That son of a bitch…JON!” she hollered, then slammed the door. I could just imagine what was happening. She already thought that Jon was taking this thing too far, and I’d be damned if I let him get in trouble for something I did. I pushed the guys out of the way, and knocked on the door.

Sam answered, and still had her mad on. “Sam,” I said, “really, I invited the guys to have breakfast here. I didn’t want to cook two breakfasts this morning, and didn’t think you’d mind.”

“I don’t mind, but I thought he was being an ass again,” she said.

“I know, but he’s been really good about keeping this just between us,” I said.

Sam let us in, and she punched David as he passed. I thought that was hysterical. I went into the kitchen to get the pancakes started. His royal pain-in-the-assness wanted pancakes. I found chocolate chips and whipped cream in the supplies, and smiled. He’s getting a pancake alright. Sam asked what she could do to help. I had her start the bacon and sausage frying. A few minutes later, the suite smelled wonderful.

I had a pile of dozens of pancakes keeping warm in the oven, and made one final big one. I put that on a plate, and made a chocolate chip face on it; the smiley sticking its tongue out. I used whipped cream to make hair on it, and we set the table and called the boys in. Jon laughed when he saw the pancake at his plate. The other guys were bitching that they didn’t get chocolate chip pancakes. Kids.

David and I spent the day together, enjoying ourselves. We took a cab to Grant Park, and walked around for hours, just talking and laughing and basically reconnecting. We really didn’t get to see a whole bunch of each other this week. “Will you come to Philly with us?” I knew this was coming.
s
“I have to be at work on Monday, but I can travel with you. If I leave on the early shuttle, I can stay Sunday night and fly straight to work Monday morning.”

“I don’t want you to be too tired,” David said, and I could see he meant it, but he also REALLY wanted this, and I think I’ve said before, I love him so much, I try to give him whatever he wants.

We had lunch in our suite. This hotel has AWESOME burgers, and the chef sent up a dessert for us. When David looked at me funny, I just said, “Boss.” He knew what I meant. I’d had a great conversation with him (the chef, not Jon) when we got here about what I was doing and why, and he made sure we had everything we needed for Jon’s meals.

After lunch, we went for a swim in the hotel’s pool. We frolicked and played until the chlorine smell got the better of me, then we headed upstairs to get showered. We ran into Jon and Sam in the hall; they were on their way out.

“Hey,” Sam said. “We’re headin’ to Lucy’s for Chinese later; ya’ll wanna come?”

“Sounds good,” I said. “Teek and Hughie going too?”

Sam nodded. It’ll be a “right good time”.

We were the last ones to arrive for dinner; we got a bit distracted in the shower, and we helped ourselves to what was left of the Chinese. When we got into the living room, everyone was arguing about what movie to watch. We finally settled on an old James Bond movie playing on cable – I couldn’t tell you which one. We were strewn around Lucy’s living room, and damned if we didn’t look like we belonged there.

I was sad our week was coming to an end. ‘Jeeves’ notwithstanding, this has been the best time I’ve ever had. These men and women were my extended family, and I loved them all dearly. I was going to miss everyone when I was back in Boston, rattling around my big ol’ empty house.

Maybe I’ll move up my "move-to-Jersey" timetable. I can always hang with Sam when she isn’t with the guys, and can work in the City.

Hmmmm...