In Drummer Heaven

Cutting Teeth

"I miss you so much, Tommy." I say into the phone. "Avery does too."

"I'm scared she's not going to have the slightest clue who I am, baby." Tommy admits and I frown.

"She's only six months old, babe. She's not going to remember any of this." I remind him and he sighs. "Besides you'll be home at the end of July anyways."

"Tell me about her." He says. "Is she standing holding the edge of the crib yet?"

"Yeah she is." I admit. "Avery likes to pull herself around like a little inchworm."

"So she's not crawling yet?" Tommy asks.

"Not yet." I agree.

"What about talking?" He wonders and I laugh a bit.

"Not until at least ten months, babe." I promise him.

"What about walking?" Tommy asks.

"Between nine months and a year." I assure him.

"I'm scared that I'm going to miss all this first stuff. Like Avery's first steps or her first word." He admits and I can hear the sadness in his voice. "I know that it's inevitable and I'm going to miss something, I just really don't want to. I want to be with her all the time, I want to be with you all the time. I can't protect my girls if I'm in a different state."

"I know where the guns are, Tommy." I admit and he laughs. "This mama bear can protect her cub." I laugh.

"You'll always be your safest with me." Tommy reminds me.

"How's Boston?" I ask hoping to get his mind off of Avery.

"Good, our manager says that we're sold out again." He admits and I smile.

"Do those words even surprise you now?" I wonder and he laughs.

"Not really to be completely honest but it's always nice to hear." Tommy explains. "I over heard our manager talking, he wants to get you and the girls to do a photo shoot and do an interview with Avery, Anthony, Alby, and Brice."

"I don't know how I feel about putting our daughter out there like that." I admit.

"I don't have a great Feeling about it either but if you girls don't start doing interviews soon then people will start to forget about you." He explains.

"Yeah I know but I'm starting to think that us both having a career will be hard on Avery." I admit.

"Are you thinking of quitting the band? I mean Kristallnacht is your baby." Tommy reminds me.

"Avery is my baby and I don't want her to suffer just so I can live my dream a little longer." I explain.

"Darcy, don't do anything drastic until I get home, okay? We'll talk this through and figure something out together." He says and I smile.

"Okay." I agree and I hear Avery start to cry.

"My baby." Tommy says quietly and sadly.

"Come on, talk to your baby." I say as I watch to Avery's room.

I hold the phone between my ear and my shoulder as I pick her up out of her crib. Avery keeps crying as I bounce her around. I check her diaper and it's still clean, she doesn't want her bottle. When I try to put her soother bath in her mouth I feel something sharp.

"Oh my god." I say to myself but I forgot Tommy was on the line.

"What's wrong?" He worries.

"Avery is cutting her first tooth." I say.

"Is that why she's crying?" Tommy asks.

"Yeah, I think so." I say. "Do you know if we put any of those teething rings in the freezer yet?"

"Uh, I think so." He racks his brain as I look at the time, four twenty seven am.

"Jesus, we've been talking since midnight. You need sleep, babe." I say and he laughs.

"We've been talking since three am my time. It's seven thirty here." Tommy tells me.

"I love you, Tommy but you need to sleep." I say and he sighs.

"Let me tell Avery I love her." He says.

"Okay." I agree and I put the phone down to her little ear. I wait a minute before bringing it back up to my ear. "Are you still there?"

"Yeah I'm still here, babe." Tommy promises me. "I love you so much, Darcy."

"I love you too, Tommy." I say. "I'll call you when I wake up again."

"I can't wait." He admits and I smile. "Give Avery a kiss for me, okay?"

"Of course." I promise him.

"Sweet dreams, baby." Tommy says.

"Goodnight, babe." I say and the phone disconnects.

Later in that day after I woke up again, called Tommy, and got our daughter ready for the day I go over to see Dani. CC, Bret, Rikki, and Bobby have been spending a lot of time in the studio working on their third album. CC's quite proud of the new guitar parts in the songs.

Dani and I are sitting on the floor of her living room playing with our children. I took time to show Dani where Avery is cutting her first tooth and she was a proud godmother. Anthony is getting huge, he's going to be two in September. Anthony is really good with all the smaller kids especially Avery being the littlest, he always plays gently with her.

"Anthony is really good with Avery." I tell her as he pokes her nose.

"I guess that works out well. CC and I are talking about adopting another baby." Dani admits and I smile.

"Really?" I ask and she nods.

"We want a little girl this time and we're even thinking of international adoption this time around." She explains. "It was actually CC's idea, he said that we'd be saving a life and that a good thing."

"That's a great idea, are you sure CC came up with it?" I ask with a laugh and she laughs.

"Yes I'm sure." Dani assures me. "I'm so happy being a mom but I miss touring, you know?"

"Yeah I know the feeling." I admit.

"Maybe we could finish recording the record and release it but not tour for another year." She suggests. "I mean I want to adopt another baby, I'm positive that Rose and Kade doesn't use protection, I don't even want to think about you and Tommy getting it on but all four of us could end up with a baby on the way again."

"I never thought of that." I admit.

Getting back in the road almost seems like a lost cause now.