Shoulders

Chapter Twenty- On Tour

            A/N- 500 views!! Thank you guys soo much! Sorry I havent updated. Life been crazy, and tomorrow is Christmas Eve! I'm not ready! Love y'all!
  
                   Joel's POV
                            Moriah, Amber, and Kaia had just gotten here, and Amber was with her, and they were practicing for their first performance tonight. I had Kaia, who was not okay with her hiccups, and she was pretty much screaming. Then, Luke came in, and she spit up on his drum. I put her in her bassinet, which calmed her down, and I helped him clean the drum.

                  "Sorry about that. She's got the hiccups, and she spits up more when that happens." He just laughed, gently tickling her.
                  "Ehh, happens to all of them. Remember when  Jude got so excited when he saw you or Moriah?" I laughed.
                 "He'd spit up. Yeah, I remember. Half the time, it would be on me. She might do that to you." I grinned at him, a sly look on my face. His eyes widened, and I laughed. He broke into a grin, and I dropped on the couch, looking at Kaia. I felt a little better knowing Katie was happy, but I still felt guilty. What if we'd done something differently? Would she have survived? And, what about Amber? If she hadn't attempted suicide, would she have never gotten the tumor? And why did Katie and Joran both have to die? Luke seemed to know what I was thinking.

                  "Hey. It's not your fault. You couldn't have changed anything. God decided to call her home before she was born, and that's that. She never had to know all the pain in the world, and sin never had a chance to tempt her. I'm pretty sure she never even felt any pain." I rubbed my forehead.
                  "Yes, but why? God knows we've already lost one child, why did we have to lose another?" He sighed, sitting down across from me.
                  "I don't know, but God knows. I know you're expecting to hear that, but it's the truth. I know it's not very comforting, but I honestly don't know what is." I nodded, slightly smiling.
                  "I don't know what is either. I mean, it's different for you. You said originally, Courtney couldn't have kids." He nodded.
                   "Yeah. That was hard to hear, but I guess God wanted things to go a different way. I know this is hard, and we both have felt each other's pain, just differently. We don't get the full extent of the pain." I chuckled.
                   "Mm. Yeah." Then, Amber came on the bus, breathing heavily. We both shot up, and Amber hid on a bunk. Then, a soaking wet Moriah got on, holding a water balloon and laughing. I laughed, and she hugged me, and popped the balloon over my head. Luke was roaring with laughter, and Amber's head poked out of the bunk, and she playfully stuck her tongue out at me.

                     "Hee hee. Gotcha!" She laughed, climbing down. Then, Kaia smiled and cooed, and it sounded like she was laughing. We laughed.
          
                     "See! She thinks it's funny too!" We all laughed. A couple hours later, she and Luke had just finished Wholehearted, and Luke and I were doing Shoulders. I looked at her, and she was crying. Then, she and Moriah did Don't Want to Live for Me, and after that, Amber surprised us all. Callie announced her doing a song alone, and Moriah and I watched her perform Brave. That song brought things into perspective for me. She was not going to give up, not now, not ever. After the performance, she went to sleep pretty quickly, so we decided to hit the hay as well.

                        Conor's POV
                                 I had been back at the group home for almost a year now. Wow. It had been about a year since Katelyn had died, and the pain was still fresh in my mind. I got that though, seeing as how she was my only living family. Today was the concert that I was going to. Hanna and her two new siblings were going as well, but we weren't sitting together. I had another six months, and then I'd be eighteen. Legal adult. I wasn't sure about how to take that, but, oh well. I had texted Amber asking if she wanted to go to an early dinner with me before the concert, and she had said yes. I was excited, but I was worried at the same time. Amber wasn't the same girl she had been a year and a half ago, and I was worried she wouldn't feel the same way about me that I did for her. I looked at the picture of me, her, and Katelyn that I had. She looked like a girl who had a lot of problems on her mind. Now, she was a girl who had a family, a baby sister, and she had a brain tumor to worry about. Her sixteenth birthday was today as well, so I had a small present for her. A silver pendant necklace with I'll love you forever engraved on the front, and our initials engraved on the back. We met at Applebee's, and she smiled when she saw me. We found seats, and ordered. I pulled out the small box, handing it to her. She opened it, and she just stared for a minute.

                 "Do- do you not like it?" She smiled at me, and use saw sincerity in her eyes.
                 "Yes. I love it. It's beautiful." We talked about this and that for about fifteen minutes, and then our food came. She told me about her decision with the tumor, deciding to do the surgery. She showed me the scar from the most recent surgery, three weeks ago. I think she could tell that I was worried, because she put her hand on mine.

                   "Hey, is something wrong? You look really worried." I smiled gently, rubbing my thumb over her hand.
                   "The truth is, I was kind of worried about meeting you today. I was afraid you'd be someone different, and you wouldn't want to go any further than just this." She smiled back at me.
                   "Hey, it's okay. Yeah, I have a family and I have cancer, but I'm still Amber Hope. I'm still your girl. I'm still me, and I haven't abandoned water balloons and egg dye tablets." I gaped at her, grinning.
                   "No!" She grinned at me.
                   "Yes! Winter jam was the best. Me and my uncle chucking balloons at about fifty people from all different bands. One of them was a pastor!" We laughed, and she showed me a picture of her dad with red and purple hair, and I lost it. It took several minutes for us to stop laughing, and we talked about different things while we finished eating. Then, we split a chocolate sundae type dessert. I paid, which she was not quite okay with. Oh well. She may have grown up learning to take care of herself, but now, I was going to take care of her. I dropped her off at her car, since it was pouring, and she drove off, smiling. I headed towards the coliseum as well, since the concert started in an hour. I saw her heading back towards the back entrance, where Moriah and Kaia were waiting for her.

                    Moriah's POV
                            Joel had, surprisingly, given permission for Ambe to go on the date with Conor. She had just gotten back, and she was wearing a necklace that he had given her. It said I'll Love you Forever, and it had their initials engraved on the back. After the performance, Joel and I met Conor, at long last. Then, I Joel and I went off to the side with him, and Joel had a couple of questions for him.

                    "Conor, if you don't mind, I want to ask you a couple things." He nodded, and surprisingly, he wasn't that intimidated.
                    "First, what are your intentions with Amber?" He answered, and he was a little jumpy.
                    "Sir, I'm hoping to continue a relationship with her, and if possible, eventually marry her." Joel nodded.
                    "Okay. And you are a christian, correct?" Conor nodded.
                    "What are you hoping to do after college?" Conor took a deep breath.
                   "I feel that God may be calling me to the mission field. I'm working for a Pastoral degree at Liberty, and I know that a life involved in missions doesn't promise much comfort, but I want God to lead me, even if it is to the mission field." Joel smiled proudly.
                   "Thank you Conor. I wasn't trying to scare you, I just wanted to have a little more information. I'm proud that my daughter is in a relationship with someone like you." We headed back out, and we talked for another fifteen minutes, and then he had to head home, since he had class at eight-thirty the next morning. Amber fell asleep fairly quickly, and for once, Kaia was asleep. I climbed into bed, snuggling up beside Joel.

                  "Good night beautiful." He whispered.  
                  "Good night handsome." I responded, drifting off to sleep.

            
               Author's note- hello craver marshmallows! Just to let you know, using have no idea what to do next, so I'm going to skip four years. Amber is twenty, she's still performing with FK&C, and the cancer is still there. She still does surgery every four months, and Kaia is four, and Joel and Moriah have another newborn daughter, Rebecca. Luke and Courtney have seven year old Jude, and two year old Phoenix. Thank you for reading, and a very Merry Christmas to you all! - Christianwhovian