Just For Safe Keeping

Change Your Ticket

TONI POV:

I put the headphones on my head. "Good morning Los Angeles! I'm Ryan Johnson with 95.04! I'm here with Toni Topaz in the studio, how are you today Toni?" He ask smiling. "I'm good!" I say smiling. "Now you have a new single coming out tomorrow! How do you feel about it?" He ask. "Well, obviously I'm going to say that I feel good about it." I joke. "But I actually am, I'm you know, a little nervous about it because it's a you know, very personal song for me. Like more than some of my other songs." I explain. "I wrote this after my dad died not to long ago and I wanted to get it out before I thought on it to much and never released it. And I defiantly did not throw it together. It was a very well thought out song." I explain further. "Now, I've noticed your daughter is in the room clearly not staying occupied." I look over at Maria. "Come here kiddo." She gets off Cheryl and goes over to me. "She loves me more." I say smiling. Cheryl rolls her eyes. "Is there an actual composition, for who's the best mom?" Ryan ask. "Not seriously." I say quietly. "How are you today kiddo?" I put the mic up to Maria. "Talk into it." I whisper. Maria looks at me and I nod. "I'm good." I smile. "How do you feel about your mom being big and famous?" He ask quietly. "It's cool! We get to to all over the world!" Maria says smiling. "Now Toni, it must be hard juggling parenting and your career. How do you do it?" Ryan ask. "Well, I have my amazing wife. Who puts up with everything I put her through. With tour and interviews, me always thinking about work. I don't know where I would be without her and her support." I say quietly. "Do you think your daughter would ever be interested in what you?" He ask quietly. "Ah! I don't know. What do you think?" I ask looking at Maria. She shrugs. "Probably not." I say smiling. She goes off my lap and goes to Cheryl. "Now Toni, you're going on a world tour in a few aren't you?" I smile. "Yeah! I'm starting off in New York and ending in Australia. I can't wait." I say quietly.

I walk into the bedroom. we're finally home after a few weeks in LA. "Hey Cheryl?" She looks at me. "Ah! I know it's kinda late but I think I need to go to a meeting." I say quietly. She sits up. "I'm just stressed and I would prefer going to a meeting before breaking my sobriety." I explain. She nods. "I'll see you in an hour." I whisper. She kisses me. "Do you want me to wait up?" I shrug. "Not unless you need to sleep." She shrugs. "I'll probably still be up reading." I nod. "Ok, but if not I'll make sure you don't wake up with your book in your face." I smile kissing her.

I walk into the bedroom and take off my shirt trying not to make a lot of noise. "How was it!" Cheryl ask startling me a little bit. "You know." I shrug taking off my pants and sliding into beds. "It was good to be able to vent about it." I say quietly. I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was stressed. It kinda snuck up on me." I whisper. She lies into me. "At least you didn't decide to go off and get drunk." She kisses me. "Yeah." I smile. "I didn't think I was but I wanted to do something before it got there." I explain. She nods. "Feel better?" I nod. "Definitely. I might go to one tomorrow morning to. See how motivated I feel." She smiles. "I'll drop Maria off at preschool first. If I go." I whisper. "If not I'll just drop her off." I add. She kisses me. "Ok." She smiles.

CHERYL POV:

I walk into the living room and see Toni on her computer. I hear videos talking about her and her music. I sigh and close the computer. "Your amazing you don't need some idiot on the internet telling you otherwise." I whisper. She looks up. "Were they right though? Is my music to shallow?" She ask quietly. "No! You are amazing Toni. You don't need someone who doesn't know you and your experiences to tell you that you're less." I whisper. She looks at me. "I could be better." She whispers. "Everyone could be better! But still, you're doing the best that you can and it's amazing!" I tell her. "Obviously! You have 2 Grammy's with your name on them." I say quietly. "And a teen choice award." She says quietly. "Is that honestly the highlight of your career?" I ask. She nods. "It's so cool! It's a surfboard!" She says smiling. "So in 10 years when Maria is 13 and she's ask you what your favorite part of being famous was you're gonna point to that surfboard and tell her that that is the highlight of your career?" She nods. "Not the Grammy's?" She shakes her head. "Ok." I sigh. We both her a loud crash upstairs. I look at Toni. She jumps up. "Wait." I whisper. That's when we immediately start hearing crying. We both go upstairs to Maria's playroom and see her with her toy box on the floor wide open and her standing over it. "Oh god." I whisper. Toni goes and picks it up while I go over to Maria. "Hey! It's ok." I whisper picking her up. "You're ok." I tell her. Toni goes to pick the toys up but I stop her. "Let her do it later." She nods. We go downstairs. Toni does into the kitchen and I slowly calm Maria down in the living room. She looks at me. "Better?" I ask quietly. She nods hyperventilating slightly. I wipe her tears. "Let's sit down." We go into the kitchen and she sits down. I sit down in front of Maria at the kitchen table. "Can you tell us what happened?" I ask quietly. She wipes the last of her tears. "We're aren't mad kiddo." I tell her. "Was standing on in playing with my toy and f-fell." I sigh. "I'm sorry." She cries. "Hey! It's ok!" I tell her. "Why were you standing on the box?" Toni ask quietly. "Space ships fly. So it was flying to the station." I nod. "Ok, Maria. We've told you not stand on the box it can break or you could fall and we don't want that ok?" She nods. "Now I want you to go upstairs and pick up your toys I'll go help you while mommy makes dinner. I want you to think about what happened and promise not do it again ok?" I ask. She nods. "Ok." I go over and pick her up. "Wait I'm making dinner?" Toni ask confused. "Yeah. Everything you need is in the fridge and the recipe is on the counter I printed it out this morning." She nods. "Ok." She smiles. I go upstairs with Maria. We slowly put all her toys away.

Toni sits on the couch next to me. "You didn't need a meeting this morning?" I ask quietly. She raps her arm around my shoulder. "No! I just needed to rest honestly." She whispers. "Maria is gonna try and come down to watch tv isn't she?" She nods. "Probably." She whispers. "You told her no tv right?" She nods. "Yeah." She whispers. "She went straight to bed." She tells me. "You were up there for awhile-." She interrupts me. "12 books. 12 goddamn books before she even thought, about going to sleep." She whispers. I smile. "How about we watch something just for us?" She ask kissing me neck. "Or just go upstairs and not get caught by our daughter." I suggest. "I wanna watch something first." She says. "Babe?" I look at her. "Yeah?" She smiles. "We have a tv in our room. One that isn't child proof and will definitely let us watch something sexy." I whisper. "Oh yeah." She smiles. We quickly go upstairs. She picks me up and we make out for a second. She stops. "Oh my god Toni, let's just have sex we can watch something after!" She nods. "Yeah you're right."

I roll over and look at Toni, she looks away from the tv and looks at me. "What's up babe?" She ask smiling. "We should go on a vacation." I say quietly. "We need it." I add. She looks at me. "Yeah, just you and me? Or the whole family?" She ask quietly. "The whole family. I feel bad we don't take Maria on enough trips with us." I say sitting up. She nods. "So not a trip if we're just have sex the whole time? I love having sex, but I think it would be nice if we went on a family vacation." She says quietly. "Where are we going?" I ask quietly. "Maria has ways talked about going to Disney. Maybe we could make those dreams come true." I whisper. She looks at me. "What if our location gets leaked and a bunch of people find up on Its A Small World?" She ask quietly. "We'll figure it out. Let's talk more in the morning. When we're both a little more rested." I say quietly. She nods. "Yeah." She smiles. "That works. Let's not tell Maria anything until it's actually happening." I nod. "Probably best." I say quietly. "Shit!" I look at her. "What?" I ask quietly. "I have a fitting first thing tomorrow morning." I sit up. "Well, you are going in a world tour in 3 weeks." I say quietly. "I can't wait." She whispers. "I just wish my mom was here to see this. More than my dad, he got to me get to where I am today." She says quietly. "I don't know, this is just so crazy." She says looking at me. "I love it though." She adds. I smile. "Wait! How are we gonna go on Vacation if you're on tour?" I ask. "That's why we'll talk tomorrow."