Limelight Love Story

21. Phone Calls

With her heart pounding so loudly, Lucy could barely hear anything. "Is my husband okay?" She asked into the phone, her voice breaking with every word. The exhaustion of the first five days of her tour grated on her nerves, the bags developing under her eyes were stressing out her makeup artist, and half of her blood had been replaced with coffee to stay up and watch hockey at 3AM. She watched Tim get hurt in the middle of a game on the screen of her phone, and her first instinct was to run all five thousand miles over to him.

On the other end of the video call was a long exhale. Grace as the team doctor was the only one who could truly assess her husband's health, and Grace was delaying providing Tim's diagnosis, because she had the audacity to BREATHE instead. Just when Grace was about to speak, the picture in the screen shook.

"I'm fine, baby," Tim promised into the camera.

"Wait, I want to hear it from Grace. She's a doctor."

Grace snatched the phone back and reported unamused, "He only got punched in the jaw. He'll be good as new in a day or two."

"Please help him put ice on it, but with a paper towel over it. He doesn't like his ice to be too cold," Lucy directed.

Tim saw that Grace was about to open her mouth and deliver a sarcastic comment, so he said, "I'd like to talk to my wife alone."

"Get some ice before you go anywhere!" Lucy requested as she held a hand over her chest as if physically keeping her organs from spilling out.

He took an ice pack and shook it in front of the camera to make a show of following her instruction then placed it on his throbbing blooming bruise as he sat down in the chair in the corner of the medical treatment area of the locker room. Despite being in pain, he promised, "It barely hurts. There's no need for you to worry."

"Don't pretend with me," she responded firmly.

"You don't have to worry. You should be sleeping anyways."

"I-I can't sleep. I can barely breathe. I feel like I'm falling apart." She could swear her heart had changed to a broken rhythm.

"The bed's too empty. I've been sleeping on the couch in your recording studio."

"What was I thinking? Touring Europe for a whole month?"

"You were thinking it would be okay to get away from Emmett, because he's an ass."

"Next tour can't be like this. I'll only ever travel on your off season...well, we'd obviously have to talk about if it's a possibility."

"I would never stop you from performing, Lucy. I know you love it."

"Yeah, but I love you more."

As much as the sentiment brought him the most warmth he had felt since she flew across the world from him, he hated thinking she would make such a sacrifice for him. "You can't give up a part of your career for me. I was worried about signing my contract renewal, but you told me to go for it. You said we'd figure it out, and that's what we're gonna do. Besides, you would be touring the album about how much you love me. You can't deny the world that one."

"Somebody's proud of their album," she smirked.

"I listen to it all the time, especially since you left."

"Please, don't say I left," Lucy's lungs faltered. "I would never leave you."

He bit his lip, immediately regretting the word choice as it had pained her the first time he had used that poor phrase. "Sorry, I know you wouldn't. I've been listening to your album nonstop since you went out of town," he corrected.