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Just as James had predicted, we arrived in New York the next day. The truck driver dropped us off the neighborhood where the person who was going to talk about the Megaforce deal lived. If you don't remember, Metallica was going to get their first album made by Megaforce. Anyways, when the truck's door open, I swear I had died and gone to heaven. The sun was shining brightly outside, birds were chirping, and flowers were blossoming all along the road.

James took my hand, helped me gather my belongings and helped me down onto the street. James had been careful not to touch me too much lately since my body was still sore and tender. The pang in my stomach still hadn't gone away and there was really nothing I could do about it at the moment. Well, nothing but drink vodka that is! I had certainly learned my lesson from that.

Cliff and Lars grabbed their luggage and started unpacking it from the back of the train. I could see that Cliff, Lars, and James were all exchanging wary glances. It was obvious that they were nervous about how they were going to present the bad news to Dave. After a whispered talk last night. Lars and Cliff had decided that James should be the one to tell Dave that they were firing him. It made sense to some extent. After all, Lars was the one closest to Dave and Cliff was the newest member of Metallica, so James was chosen to do the dirty deed. Over the last few days, Lars had managed to secretly get a bus ticket that would drive Dave all the way back to Los Angeles. It had been hard to do all this without Dave noticing, but somehow, we managed it.

Dave hadn't spoken to me after the rape. He stayed far on his side of the truck while I stayed as far away from him as possible in my own little corner. I highly doubted that James would've let me talk to Dave even if I wanted to. James had stayed by my side ever since Dave had abused me and was acting more protective than ever. I had to admit that I sort of liked this protective side of James. Despite trying to be strong, it was clear that I really did need a guy to protect me.

Once James, Cliff, and Lars had unloaded their stuff from the truck, the four of us all made a circle and waited for Dave to come over to us. After removing all his fancy equipment from the back of the truck, Dave finally did saunter over to us. His smile was smug and his walk was confident, but I could see very clearly that he was avoiding my eye. I didn't blame him for doing that.

Taking a step forward, James approached Dave with a nervous expression on his face. As Dave looked at all of the band member's solemn expressions, his own smirk started to fade. Shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, Dave said, "Hey guys, what's up? You're all looking at me funny. Is there a problem or something?"

Taking a deep breath, James looked Dave in the eye and said calmly, "I'm sorry, Dave, but you're fired from the band. We've had too many conflicts together. Those conflicts are gonna break the band up unless one of us quits. I'm sorry, but this is just what we're gonna have to do. We wish you the best in the future, right guys?" James turned and looked at the other band members. Cliff and Lars nodded seriously. Lars offered Dave a half-heartedly smile.

To my surprise, Dave's reaction to all this was to laugh. His laugh was nervous and forced though. It certainly wasn't normal. Dave quickly interjected, "This isn't for real, right guys? You're just joking. Sure, I might've had a little too much to drink and maybe a few things got out of hand on the ride here, but you all know I'm the best guitarist for the band." Everyone looked at Dave pathetically. After registering the expressions of the other guys, Dave's smile slowly faded.

James held out the bus ticket to Dave and said slowly, "I'm sorry, but this is for real." Dave froze and stared at James in shock for a few moments. We all stared at him, wondering what his next reaction would be. Finally, Dave jerked out of his paralysis and managed to speak again, "Seriously, guys, you're going overboard on this! This is all because of the little bitch, isn't it?" Dave pointed an accusatory finger towards my chest. I shrank back from him and looked away.

James took a step forward and looked like he was ready for a fight as he said, "Do not call Olivia that. Dave, you're fired and that's final. Just leave now before someone gets hurt." Dave looked like he had been struck by lightning. He was obviously not expecting this news. I figured that the full impact of being fired from the band hadn't hit him yet. Still, I wasn't sure what he was going to do now. Dave was so unpredictable. I didn't want him to start an attack on me, but I wasn't sure how to prevent one from starting on me either. Regardless, he didn't have a right to start bashing me. It was his fault that he had raped me, not my fault...right?

Dave took a step closer to James and looked him right in the eye. James almost took a step backwards, but ended up holding his ground against Dave. I was rather surprised; if I were James, I would've been running like hell in the other direction. Dave continued holding James' gaze as he said, "You seem to think I hurt Olivia, but really, I was doing her a world of good. I would've been kind to her and taken care of her needs. You on the other hand, don't even understand what's going on with her."

Dave's words didn't make any sense to me at all. What was that last sentence suppose to mean? There wasn't anything weird going on with me, well not besides for being sick anyways. From James' blank stare, I could tell he was thinking the same thing as me. Finally, he said with a confused look, "You raped my girlfriend and there's no excuse for that. You weren't kind to her; you abused her. And there's nothing unusual going on with her. So please just leave now Dave and leave Olivia out of this."

"My fucking god," Dave stated, looking at James incredulously, "You really don't get it, do you? Your girlfriend is pregnant, and you don't even realize it. I thought that if maybe I had been the one to make love to Olivia, we could've assumed it was my child instead. I would've been a good partner for Olivia while she was going through her pregnancy. You, on the other hand, don't even realize that you've knocked up your girlfriend! You're obviously not ready to be a dad, James."

Everyone's mouths fell open at Dave's statement and everyone turned to give me a wide-eyed stare. I was so shocked by what Dave had said that I couldn't move or see. Only one sentence ran through my mind, "Your girlfriend is pregnant." Was it true? Could I really be pregnant? True, I hadn't been feeling well lately. I had felt nauseous and I did have stomach pains, but there had to be another explanation for this. I would know already if I was pregnant. Well, at least I assumed I would already know.

I was so stunned that I barely heard Dave say, "Okay, I guess I've said enough. If you guys want to kick me out of the fucking band, then go right ahead. But mark my words, I'll start a band and it'll be even bigger than Metallica. Just you wait and see!" With those last word ringing in the air, Dave turned on his heel and strutted away. I figured I would never see him again.

I still stood motionless on the pavement even after Dave had disappeared. I was still mulling over the thought of being pregnant. Having a baby was most certainly not something I wanted to do right now. I mean, that had been why I was taking birth control and stuff obviously. I was still young and didn't have the money or the strength to go through a pregnancy.

"Um, Olive?" I felt a light hand on my shoulder. Knowing that I was going to have to face him sooner or later, I turned up a face white from shock to look James in the eye. I could see regret in his hazel eyes. I wondered it he regretted spending all those nights with me. Unfortunately, before James got a chance to speak, the door to the house we were standing in front of opened and a plump guy with black hair and matching black eyes hurried onto the driveway where we were standing.

"Hey guys," the man said with a warm smile, "I'm Johnny Zazula. I'm guessing you're Metallica, right?" Everyone nodded silently. I think we were all still pretty shocked about the news of my possible pregnancy and by the fact that Dave had just been dismissed from the band. Finally, in an attempt to be polite, Lars forced a smile onto his face and stretched out his hand in greeting to Johnny as he said, "Hey Johnny. Yep, we're Metallica all right. I'm Lars Ulrich. This is Cliff Burton and James Hetfield." Lars motioned to Cliff and James as he spoke. Cliff raised a hand in greeting and James gave a fake smile. I noticed that Lars hadn't bothered to introduce me to Johnny. That figured. Lars wanted to leave me out of everything as much as he could.

However, Johnny seemed to notice me despite the fact that Lars had pretended I was invisible. Raising an eyebrow, Johnny looked me over and said, "Who's the girl? She's not your guitarist, is she? I thought your guitarist's name was Dave or David." Suddenly, all the guys looked at each other with horror. Here they were about to get their first album recorded and they no longer had a guitarist! What were they going to do now? We had a major dilemma.

"No, the chick isn't our bassist. That's just James' girlfriend," Lars said as calmly as he could. However, Lars could only keep cool for so long. He turned to the others and exclaimed, "What the fuck did we just do? Someone call Dave back quick!" Lars looked hysteric and there was a crazy glimmer in his brown eyes. Before Lars could do something stupid, Cliff took hold of his arm firmly, but gently. Keeping a tight grip on Lars, Cliff turned to James, "Do you know of any guitarists who might join our band? I'd invited the guitarist from Trauma here, but I don't think he'd really fit in with the rest of the band."

James scrunched up his nose and he thought about Cliff's question. As he thought, a sudden idea ran through my head. Why don't we invite Kirk Hammett to Metallica? He had been a great guitarist, even James had admitted that. I turned to James and quickly burst out excitedly, "Hey James, what about Kirk Hammett? You know, the guitarist for Exodus?"

"He was the guy who was playing at the club the other night, right?" Lars cut in before James could say anything. Acting slightly calmer, Lars scratched his chin and nodded thoughtfully, "He did do a pretty good job and he could play pretty fast. What do you say guys? Should we invite Kirk Hammett to the band?"

Cliff and James nodded quickly. In reality, we didn't really have any option but to invite Kirk to the band. We needed a guitarist fast! While all this was going on, Johnny Zazula was watching us with a questioning look on his face that read what-the-fuck-is-going-on. Finally, he stepped forward and asked, "So...what's happened here, guys? Did you have a problem with your guitarist?"

Lars, who was already chattering about how he was planning to get in contact with Hammett, stopped for a moment to explain the situation to Johnny. With a polite smile on his face, he stated, "We had to get rid of our guitarist. He was too aggressive and his personality clashed with mine and James'. Don't worry though, we'll have a guitarist here tomorrow. We can start recording then. Does that work with you? Sorry for the change of plans."

"That's fine," Johnny agreed, still looking slightly baffled. In the meantime, why don't you guys come in for a bit? You can stay in our living room tonight since I'm figuring you don't have a place to go. Also, I'd like to speak to Lars and James for a few minutes, is that okay?" Lars and James exchanged looks and shrugged.

The remaining four of us followed Johnny into the house, hauling all our belongings with us. Johnny immediately led James and Lars down the hallway. Cliff and I were forced to stay in the living room. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't sit still. I wanted to talk to James and have him reassure me that I certain wasn't pregnant. Because in reality, if I was pregnant, what would happen to me then? Would James still want me or would he throw me away for a stripper like Brianna?