FicWad

“Jeff, wanna come in? I hate that you have to wait in the car”.
He smiled at me. “Thanks but I’m just gonna take another nap. Promise you won’t wander off? I don’t want your husband to call me again.”
I liked this guy. “I promise.” I closed the car door and walked towards Donna’s front door. She has obviously been waiting because she threw it open before I could get half way up the walk. “Laura” she threw her arms around me.
“Donna, sorry I’m running late.” I said hugging her back. “Helen came over just as I was finishing up the police report. She offered me cookies and I couldn’t resist.”
“I was wondering what had happened. Gerard called here looking for you over an hour ago.”
Well shit. I knew I had to call him. He wasn’t happy with me at the moment so the prospect of calling him didn’t thrill me. I understood his concern. Something was going on that neither of us understood. “Yeah, I gotta give him a call.”
We walked inside. “I’ll get us some coffee. You go ahead and call him.” She continued towards the kitchen.
I took a seat on the sofa and tried not to roll my eyes. More coffee just what I didn’t need. My stomach was still churning. Once more the thought of Helen putting something in my drink flitted through my brain. I put it out of my head and pulled out my cell. He answered on the first ring.
“Are you at Mom’s?”
Wow could I hear the controlled anger in his voice. “Yes I am. Where are you?’
“I’m in the fucking bus where you should be too. I knew not to let you go off by yourself.”
Okay I understood he was worried about me but still… “Let me go off by myself?” I repeated slowly.
“Yeah that’s what I said. Fuck, I thought we agreed you should stay away from Helen.”
“Not sure we agreed on that. I wanted to see her but at the time I decided it was more important to stay with you. However because of the break in I had to come back without you.”
“Laura, don’t play fucking stupid. You know there is no way I wanted you to go and see Helen alone.” He was getting angrier by the minute. Shit, I need to calm him down.
“Gerard, I’m fine. Please stop. I’ll be back with you by the time you get off stage tonight.”
He didn’t answer right away.
“Gerard”
“What?” He answered roughly.
“I love you.”
I heard him expel a huge breath. “Love you too.” He disconnected.
Donna walked back in and handed me a mug full of coffee. “How is my boy?”
Oh boy, time to smile and act up a storm. “He’s good. Just upset about the house.”
“I couldn’t believe it when Helen called and told me what had happened. Who would graffiti the walls like that?”
I took a sip before what she said sunk in. “How did you know about the graffiti?”
“Helen told me.” She answered.
"Did she just call?"
"No, she hasn't called since she told me about the break in."
“But I thought Helen just called the police. I didn’t know she went into the house.”
Now Donna looked puzzled. “That is what she told me. That she saw the door open and called the police. Maybe one of the police officers told her.”
“Yeah probably.” Was that how she knew I wondered.
“So how bad is it?”
“Several wall will have to be repainted. The carpet is messed up in some places.”
“You know I’d be happy to take care of that for you and Gerard. I can hire a painter and someone to come in a clean the rugs.”
Holy shit, that was a no. There was no way I wanted Donna in that house. I’m pretty sure the word MURDER painted in Gerard’s old room would upset her. “Oh thanks but that’s getting handled by the insurance company. They handle all that.” Okay I didn’t know if that was true or not but it sounded good.
“Oh sure” She took a drink of her coffee. “Laura, I’ve been doing a good job of pretending but I just can’t anymore.”
Shit, I thought. Now what?
“What happened to you?”
For the love of God with everything else going on I’d forgotten about my split lip and bruises. “I thought Gerard told you. I fell down some stairs back stage at the venue.” Best to stick to the stairs story incase she and Helen compared notes.
“He didn’t. Are you okay? Were you checked out by a doctor?”
“No, really I felt so silly after it happened.”
“So that’s not why the band canceled the last two shows?”
Well shit, I was so becoming the Queen of Lies.
“Does your son ever tell you anything?” I teased. “He was sick. Terrible stomach flu. There was no way he could perform.”
“Is he okay, now?” Her concern for her truly not sick son made me feel bad.
“Yeah, much better.”
“Well I hope you don’t catch it.” She said with a smile.
My stomach flipped again. “Me too.” Crap, I did feel sick. Karma probably catching up on me cause of all the fucking lies I kept telling.
“So how is Helen? She sounded sort of strange when I talked to her. I think maybe the break in frightened her since she lives alone."
"She seemed fine." I said sitting back against the sofa cushions.
"Did she mention Merri?"
I didn't know if it was hearing the name Merri or all the stress of the day but suddenly I felt sick. "Excuse me a minute." I said getting up as quickly as I could and heading towards the bathroom. I barely made it before the contents of my stomach revisited. Shit, this wasn't good. I felt terrible. My stomach was cramping and the nausea was intense. I couldn't leave the bathroom for almost ten minutes.
"Laura, are you alright?" Donna asked when I finally returned to the living room.
"I've felt better." I sat back down on the sofa heavily.
"Can I get you something? Do you think you have the same thing Gerard had?"
I leaned back and closed my eyes. "Maybe." I said weakly.
"Are you going to be able to fly?"
Crap I had to fly. I had to get back to Gerard. "I'll be fine." I said slowly.
"Maybe you could change and get a later flight."
I took a deep breath, "Really I'll be fine." I had to be. I knew he needed me.

If the fight had been a movie the title would have been "Airpuke". That was what I did from the time I could take off my seatbelt once we were in the air until it was almost time to land. Of course, we didn't land at our scheduled time. Some sort of delay caused us to fly around for forty-five extra minutes. Yeah, that gave me almost forty-five extra minutes to puke.
When we finally taxied to the gate I found that I was shaky when I stood. I felt like crying. My stomach was still doing flips. I had gotten a good look in the mirror at myself and that was more than frightening. Then there was the fact that by the time the van got me to the venue Gerard would be off the stage. Oh, and yeah, my cell phone was dead so I couldn't even leave him a text. Shit, what a day.
The car pulled up next to the tour bus and I slid out slowly. I wondered if the band was still backstage or if they were already on the bus. I had my answer when I walked in and found everyone sitting in the front lounge talking.
"Where the fuck have you been?" Gerard stood up from the sofa.
His anger hit me full force. The whole day crashed down on me. Instead of answering I broke into tears. Yep, started crying like a baby.
Everyone stared at me with shocked expressions. Alicia got up and hurriedly hugged me. "What's wrong?" She whispered.
"He yelled at me." I said brokenly. Even to my ears that sounded stupid. Lets face it my husband had yelled at me before and I didn't dissolve into tears.
"Gerard" Alicia glared at him.
He walked over and gently pulled Alicia's arms from around me. I found myself being crushed against his chest. "It’s okay, I'm sorry. Stop crying."
"No" I hiccupped.
"Laura I was worried. I’m sorry I snapped. Tell me what happened.”
"Stupid plane, Airpuke and its sequel, lots of puke, dead battery, shit." I said brokenly.
He led me over to the sofa where Bob got up so we had room to sit. "Wanna say all that again?" He asked trying to keep the laughter out of his voice.
"It's not funny." I slapped at his hand that was trying to grasp mine.
"I'm not laughing, honest. But you did just string a lot of strange words together."
I glared at him. "Did not. It made perfect sense."
"Airpuke and its sequel? You were sick on the plane?"
"Well no duh"
He bit his bottom lip. I knew he was tying not to laugh.
"Was your flight delayed?" Frank asked
"We got stuck up in the air." I answered brokenly.
"Your phone battery is dead?" Ray guessed.
I nodded then turned to Gerard. "So why didn't it make sense to you? They got it."
"You okay, Laura?" Mikey asked standing.
I nodded.
"Me and Alicia are heading off to sleep. It’s gonna be a long ride. Try to get some sleep yourself, okay?"
"Thanks Mikey" I said with a half smile. I knew Gerard was looking at me so when I turned to him I frowned.
"I'm heading to my bunk" Bob said. "See you guys later." As he walked by he patted by shoulder, "Hope you feel better."
"Thanks Bob" I said
"We're gonna head to the back lounge to chill" Ray said. Christa stood next to him.
"Let me know if you need anything" Christa said to me.
I nodded.
Now it was just me, Gerard and Frank. I caught Gerard making a face at Frank.
"Oh, I'll see you in the morning." Frank said getting up off the floor where he's been sitting.
"You don't have to go Frank,” I said softly.
Beside me Gerard frowned. Frank looked at him then at me. "I think I'd better. Grumpy here wants to talk to you.” He got up but stopped and dropped a quick kiss on my cheek. “Welcome back.” He whispered.
I was touched by the gesture. “Thanks”
Once he was down the hall Gerard took my hand in his. “Tell me what happened. I want to hear everything about the house and Helen.”
I was still feeling so sick I was having trouble thinking. “I can’t right now, I’m sorry.”
His eyes bore into mine. “Are you sick because of the flight?”
I shook my head slowly. “I was sick before I got on the plane. I’m surprised your mom didn’t call and tell you. I spent a lot of time at her house in the bathroom puking.”
“Shit, she called but I didn’t answer.”
I admit I knew I was cranky because I felt like warmed up dog crap. Still, I couldn’t control my anger. “Why the hell didn’t you answer?”
He looked down. I was sure she would just want to talk about the house or Helen. Fuck I’m sure she would have wanted to talk about both.”
“Probably she just wanted to tell you that your very sick wife was getting on a plane.”
“If you were that sick why didn’t you wait at least for a later flight? You could have met up with us in St. Louis.”
I snapped, “Cause I wanted to get back to you. I was worried about you, you jack ass.”
He moved to kiss me but I pulled away. A hurt look covered his face. “I’m sorry”
“I need to lay down.” I said closing my eyes.
“Laura, really I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how sick you are.” He tried to kiss me again but I pushed him away.
“You won’t forgive me?”
“Once again let me call you a jack ass. I won’t let you kiss me cause I’ve been puking. My mouth tastes like the bottom of a birdcage.”
When he laughed I wanted to smack him. “Bottom of a bird cage?”
We were underway to the next venue and the swaying of the bus wasn’t helping my stomach at all. “Shut up”
“I’m gonna get you to the bathroom so you can brush your teeth and put on your sweats. Then we’ll get you in the bunk so you can sleep, okay?”
I nodded tiredly.
“And I’m gonna kiss you. Birdcage or not.”