Might as Well Face it, You're Addicted to Love (Joe Perry/Nikki Sixx)

Chapter 199: Epilogue (Long May we Rock & Love Together) (Joe/Nikki)

-Joe-

How the hell do I sum up the past, what nearly 40 years? But here I go...on with the show. And to think it all started that one fateful night, that September night.... September 86. I remember well Aerosmith coming to L.A, the same ugly tensions between Steven Tyler & I......feeling LOST, I was LOST...and broken so very broken. I'd been off hard drugs, yet still was not free of my alcohol addiction, but yeah back to the point: That fateful September night, changed my life...my destiny forever, and I wasn't the only one. Nikki, it all goes back to Nikki.... We were rude to one another; it was not a good meeting. I got drunk, he did too....and he was the one I'd been dreaming of and neither of us again could ever imagine just HOW much our lives would be changed.... Then came our second meeting, which also wasn't a good one and that is being POLITE. It was my first encounter with Doc (may he rot in hell) & Deana (that evil, evil bitch), and Nikki.... Nikki covered in more bruises which I'd noticed the first night we'd met, the look in his eyes & I stopped Doc from hurting, Nikki & so it began. We began hanging out, Nikki didn't believe then that anyone would help him like I did with Doc, no one did things for him prior to me nor did anyone quite frankly do the same for me. We were used; we were abused.... We didn't know what love was then, no one had ever, ever given us a chance. But that 2nd meeting led to us going on with what became our first date, we let each other in and had no clue. And the more I saw of him, the more I had to have him....be near him & it fucking terrified me. The 'Sunset' date is where Nikki & I truly began to fall in love thought, but then began the fall....i avoided him, I HAD already....i kept him at arm's length, I had LIED to him & then another fateful night......being confronted by Doc on the heels of Steven being a huge dick and then me finding Nikki in our spot, angry...hurt, but then the broke down....once I told him & then we NEEDED each other. He kissed me & we found a hotel.... having wild elevator sex & a sex marathon....and I still didn't see, I comforted him that night with his night terror, I was so UNSURE what I was doing & then things really started to go to hell after that......especially on January 5, 1987. Nikki & I had our first major fight...Steven's jealous got the best of him & Nikki.... I LOST HIM. It was goodbye, our last moments....and in the heart of the moment, I realized what had been there all along, which was I loved Nikki & really that day he was telling me the same.

Nikki fell.... further into Heroin, I blamed myself because I HURT him.... i wasn't honest & so came the first song I ever wrote for him, 'Angel' & confronting Steven & then a year of sheer hell. I became a man possessed in 87' determined to make Nikki see, I got totally sober...I learned what it meant to fight for your partner, to BE one. I did the world a favor getting rid of Doc, I embarked on a hollow victory tour....my nightmares still haunt me to this day that I had then & it was a year of repairing or beginning an actual friendship & my world nearly ended December 23, 1987.... The night of Nikki's near fatal overdose & our tragic/bitter-sweet reunion. From there, well from the true turning point in our relationship, together we learned...to be a couple, we learned to open to each other & then came the following year: A year filled with heartache, outside forces trying to keep Nikki & I apart....and then it was the best year of our lives because for the first time ever, Nikki & I became parents.....he got pregnant with Josephine, and we learned to truly slow down.....

-Nikki-

Lemme pick up where my beloved husband, my oracle....my EVERYTHING LEFT off. That pregnancy, it scared me shitless.... Joe & I hadn't been together that long, but I had him.... he didn't give up on me, on US. We got married during that pregnancy, and I did it for HIM. and there is nothing I wouldn't do for him.... we had Josephine, seeing her grow...her birth, her milestones & today.... today a woman grown, a legend in her own right & a wife & mother. After Josephine came Amara, and God.... then came 93', Josephine's kidnapping.... the aftermath, and 94' a pregnancy with the triplets: Tony, Frankie & James.... which I nearly died AGAIN, but for a FAR better reason than my overdose. I recovered.... but God, what I missed....my coma, Joe being so lost & broken.... our children....it still hurts....

"Nikki, honeybee.... i know it does, it hurts me.... We've been through heaven & hell together, as well as apart. I would save your life over & over again. Truth is, we saved each other.... we lost a child & then gained a rainbow in Storm.... Josephine delivered her, and Josephine god.... She'd been through hell in her first 16 years of life. Her delivering Storm, then her dying...." Joe's voice cracks badly as the tears fall, "---but she's stubborn as fuck, like you....and really like me, she came back to us....and then she found HER soulmate & found her way. And Amara, Tony, Frankie, and James with their older sister made their own legend......Storm too made her mark. We have six of the most amazing children, you gave them to me....it all goes back to you..."

"Joe...." Choked up us holding one another tightly, "----I argue it was you, you saved me back in 87', if you hadn't have gotten there when you did....and all those moments of hell, everything we've ever been thru...always we came back to one another, always we were together. We became one big family, something neither of us ever had before. That one fateful night we first met, changed everyone's lives in the end....and then our children, god they went thru SO much in their childhoods....but we raised them so damn well, and its strange to think once upon a time that we never thought we'd have that...and now we have our grandchildren....all of them, our kids...grandkids...they are our TRUE legacy."

"Nikki.... god how true, how true babe. The years have gone by so fast.... still are. And you've had my heart whether I knew it or not from the moment we met. YOU are my greatest addiction, always have been for going on nearly 40 years, about 38 that we've been married for. If I regret ANYTHING, it was how I treated you in the beginning. Overtime, after all the fire & rain, our love has only grown stronger. I am so damn proud of you; to be YOURS...and the world knows it."

As always, we kiss & the world disappears around us.......

The story for now stops here, yet it sure the hell ain't the end of it. You've gotten glimpses into what comes next. Everything from my children making their own legend, when lightning struck more than twice.... but history was made. There is our children finding their own loves.... their ever-budding careers.... still to come is heartache, pain.... fear for poor Josephine & Hunter...I will tell you it's NOT them breaking up or fighting, but the past i.e. one Paul Prenter kidnapping Josephine.... When unknown to us she'd be pregnant is all, I will say for now.

I guess my points here are:

· There is still so much more to mine & Joe's story

· So much more to our children's stories....

· You will hear from Joe & I again....

· BUT Josephine & Hunter perhaps may tell you more of their love story in their own words, the highs.... Wembley, their meeting their destiny...kids and more....

· You may also find out about the love that Amara, Tony, James, Frankie and Storm would come to find 

· Tales of more than just romance, but of living.... rocking & more....

· Finding that Love, It's a kind of Magic.

I had to face it, with Joe.... that we were and still are addicted to each other....and that has never changed and will never change until my true dying breath. I was lost.... broken and then found....and everything I have ever been thru I'd suffer 1000 lifetimes to get to where I am now, surrounded by my heart...my Jo-Jo Bear, my children and grandchildren. I learned that I deserved love, happiness that I deserved JOE.... that WE deserved each other....so I will leave you for now at least with:

"Long may we rock & love together...." I murmur, lovingly tracing Joe's fingers as he does the same to me.... each of us lost in the other's eyes.

"And always remember no matter what or where I am at in the world, I will find my way to you...and always our hearts are together...always." Joe replies.......

A/N: So Sadly, Ends this book. It's been quite a Journey, over a year now that I've been writing this.....thank you all SO much for being with me on this journey and for all the love & support!