In Drummer Heaven

Meeting with the Manager

"--thank you, New Orleans! Have a great night, fuckers!" Vince yells into the microphone.

Tommy and I get down from our drum kits and nearly run into each other. Tommy laughs and wraps his arm playfully around my shoulders as we walk over to the rest of our band mates. We all bow and head off the stage at which point Dani grabs my wrist and drags me off towards our change room.

She throws the door open and I walk over to the bar fridge and pull out a bottle of Jack. I unscrew the top and take a swig from the bottle. I hear Dani laugh as she comes up beside me taking the bottle from me.

"I think we've been spending too much time with Tommy and Nikki." She says as I take my bottle back. "Aww baby needs her bottle." She laughs and I smile. "Speaking of Jack guzzling drummers, what's your plan B now that our manager knowing that you're fuck buddies. After all, nothing sounds more intelligent than plan B."

"I think I need more alphabet for this one." I admit and she lights up.

Dani opens the fridge and pulls out a can of alphabet soup. She hands it to me and I laugh.

"Found this earlier, I think it's from 1974 but I'm sure there's enough alphabet for you." She laughs and I smile.

"Thanks Hun, soup that's thirteen years old." I joke and she smiles.

"You really love him, don't you?" Dani wonders and puts her hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah, of course I do." I admit and drop my gaze.

I know what's coming, I know that under my contract I can't date Tommy. I love Tommy more than breathing, I mean he makes me forget about my rocky past and makes the future not look so scary. He makes me want to live to see the future as long as he's in it. I'm scared of what will happen to me when we break up again, it nearly killed me the first time and I'm finally happy again....I don't want to loose that.

"I don't know how to face breaking up with him." I admit and she half smiles.

"That's why I have Plan: Delta-November-Romeo-Juliet-Mike-Victor." Dani says and I give her a look.

"I forgot you were a military brat." I say. "So what's that?"

"Plan: Dani-Nikki-Rosie-Jadie-Mick-Vince." She explained. "We all talked about it and we're not taking this laying down. You make each other happy and we like having drummers who don't hate each other." She smiles. "Are motives are purely selfish."

Before I can answer the dressing room door opens and Tommy and Nikki walk in. Nikki walks up to me and takes my jack bottle away from me.

"You're right, D. Baby does need her bottle." I say and Nikki flips me off.

"Older than you are, sweetheart." Nikki says and I take my bottle back.

"Manager wants us to meet him." Tommy admits and I nod as I drink.

"I think if we don't show up that'll work?" I ask and he smiles.

"I wish it would, Darcy." He admits.

"We got your back." Nikki reminds us. "We're not going down without a fight."

"If we're going down, we're going to go kicking and screaming." Dani states. "Like the twisted family we are."

"Wait." Nikki says and smirks. "If we're all family and Tommy and Darcy did the dirty than--"

"Bye Nikki!" Tommy yells and grabs my wrist pulling me out the dressing room door.

I pull the door shut and we walk towards the office rooms. Tommy's grip has wrapped around my hand and our hands swing while we walk. He's always walked faster than me and obvious he's taller than me so I hold my self differently when we walk side by side. I stand as straight as I can and Tommy thinks it's funny.

"I'm hungry." He says as we walk.

"You're always hungry, T-Bone." I say and he grins.

"So are you, babe." Tommy laughs.

"So what's your point in all of this?" I wonder and he pulls me into his side.

"We should go get something to eat after all of this." He says and I half smile.

"Babe, this is serious. We're going to be forced to break up again." I say and he tucks my hair behind my ear.

"I trust our family." Tommy admits and kisses my cheek. "But no matter what happens in there I love you so much, Darcy."

"I love you too, Tommy." I admit and he stops.

Tommy turns around and picks up my face. His grins crosses his face and he pecks my nose then my lips. I smile against his lips and wrap my arms around his neck while his arms drop to loop around my hips. I pull back so I can look him in the eyes and he smiles.

"I love you." I remind him. "No matter what."

"I love you too." Tommy says and kisses my lips quickly. "Let's go fight for us."

Nikki

We're all standing outside the office room that Darcy, Tommy, and our manager are in so we can hear their conversation. It's been a lot of manager telling them how much that them being together is against protocol.

"We're Tommy and Darcy together before we got signed?" Dani asks.

"Yeah, a long time before." Rosie says. "Like a good month and a half at least."

"So it's not like it's fraternizing with coworkers, they're were a couple before they were coworkers." Dani says and Jadie's eyes grow.

"Bet our idiot drummers didn't even think of that." The guitarist says.

"---you shouldn't mix business with pleasure." Manager finishes and Dani sighs.

"Shall we go in?" She wonders and opens the door.

We all walk in and make ourselves comfortable in the office. Tommy and Darcy both look at us while the manager shakes his head.

"What if pleasure came before business?" Dani asks.

"Where you listening at the door?" Tommy asks and Darcy looks at him.

"Are you honestly all that surprised?" She wonders and he grins.

Tommy does really love her, you can tell by the way he smiles at her.

"What are you talking about?" Manager wonder.

"Tommy and Darcy were together before we got signed." Jadie says and his eyes grow.

"Is this true?" He wonders.

"Well yeah, you never actually asked us how long we were together." Tommy says and Darcy nods.

"I assumed that--"

"Clearly you assumed wrong." Jadie crosses her arms. "I watch one of my best friends go through a complete metal breakdown and then rebounded with Bret fucking Michaels because you made her break up with the only guy that she's ever dated that makes her happen. For some reason she likes asshole!"

"Okay, that's Jadie." Darcy says and scratches the back of her neck that makes Tommy smile at her.

"So you two were together before the girls got signed?" Manager asks.

"Yes." They say in unison.

"Then it won't be right but--" he sighs. "I can't keep you apart."

We all blink, is he being serious?

"You're serious?" Tommy asks hopefully.

"Yes." Manager sighs.

I don't think I've ever seen Tommy and Darcy this happy. I mean they've always been really bad about making out in public places because they honestly don't care who's watching but right now they're nearly suffocating each other and I have to laugh.

They're perfect for each other.