Through Pain We Survive

Chapter 25

Sunday morning, as Gwen and AJ were getting ready for church, AJ's phone alerted him to an email. Checking it, he saw it was from Morgan.

Looking at Gwen, he said "It's Morgan." Reading the email, he got more angry. "You have got to be kidding me."

"What's wrong, Baby?"

AJ handed Gwen the phone so she could read.

AJ,
        I appreciate you reaching out. You, Gwen, and Nate did nothing wrong. There was another woman with you who kept giving me looks as I was talking to you guys. She looked really mad when I hugged Nate. She is the one who retuned my key. She threatened me and told me to stay away from you guys. During the panel, any time I would go to raise my hand, she would look back at me and give me a look. I would just lower my hand then as not to upset her any more. I couldn't stop the tears because you guys don't come off mean at all. When you approached me in the hallway after, she shook her head as to tell me not to tell you. I was so scared, I told you everything was fine and then I left. My dad saw me upset and asked what was wrong, and he encouraged me to write to you. I am so sorry if I am out of line here. I hope you have a better day.

                                         Morgan

Gwen looked at AJ seething. "Sara. She's behind this."

"You have GOT to be kidding me! What would she be doing speaking to our fans that way? I need to tell Nate!" AJ started towards the door.

Gwen stepped in front of AJ. "Baby, look at me." She put her hands on either side of his face. "I know you're angry, I know you're upset. We need to get to church, so let's just take a couple deep breaths and we can discuss this later on with Nate, okay?" She kept eye contact with him until he nodded. "Baby, I know how angry you are. Right now is not the best time to talk to Nate about this. We all need to have cooler heads. Bursting in there, waking him up? He will not exactly be in the best mood if that happens. We will talk to him later and get this all straightened out. Okay?" AJ nodded again. Gwen could tell he was still mad, but calmer. She leaned in to kiss him, just wanting to feel in control of something.

AJ held on to Gwen for a moment longer. Sighing, he felt some of the anger melt away just concentrating on her. He knew the email would need to be addressed, but Gwen was right in telling him not to pursue it now.

They finished getting ready for church and left.

Nate awoke to the sound of his phone ringing. He mumbled a barely coherent "Hello?"

"Hi Nate. Oh, sorry, did you have a late night?" Sara could tell she had woken Nate. "Sorry for waking you, but I wanted to bring breakfast over! Some donuts and coffee. What do you say?"

He rubbed at his face to wake up more. "Umm, yeah, That's fine. I think it's just us though, I think Gwen and AJ went to church."

"Oh darn. I got Gwen's favorite kind. I wasn't sure what AJ's favorite was, so I just got some generic favorites."

"Oh. Okay, thanks. Yeah, come on over."

"See you in a bit! Bye!"

"Bye." Nate hung up and got out of bed.

Coming out of his bedroom a half hour later, freshly showered and dressed, Nate went downstairs and heard Sara coming in.

"Hi!" She called to him, seeing him descending from the stairs.

"Hi." He greeted her with a chaste kiss. "Let me take that for you." He grabbed the donut box and drinks. Carrying them to the living room, Nate sat them down on the coffee table. Penelope came in, rubbed up against Nate's leg, then turned and hissed at Sara.