Reunion (The Monkees Family Vol. 3)

Chapter 18

It was 5:30 p.m. and Micky still wasn't home from his meeting. He had estimated he'd be home by two and he had not called to say he was changing his plans. Gabby was now pacing around the living room wringing her hands as Jan watched her with mixed feelings of sympathy, helplessness and irritation.

"Gabby! If you don't sit down right now you're going to make the top of my head explode. I can't stand watching you pace. What do you think you're going to accomplish by wearing a divot in the carpet?"

"Shoot, Jan, I'm sorry, I'm infecting you with my worries and negative vibes, but this is just so out of character for Micky. And there's something else. Something really awful happened last night and he said it made him crave a drink. We had a fight about it and some other stuff we talked about. What if he relapsed and he's out drinking or drugging? That's why he was so desperate to make that meeting today. I'm really scared that he's out there back in the disease, in the pits of hell."

Jan now felt remorse and embarrassment for her low level of tolerance for Gabby's angst. As usual, she had read her mindset wrong and underestimated the amount of trauma she was dealing with. She had done that when she confronted Gabby about her living with Davy, not understanding how badly Gabby needed to live in a place that felt safe because of her past history of abuse. When Gabby had explained that she wasn't just sponging off of Davy or taking advantage of his good nature, Jan had felt guilty for presuming Gabby was a leach and offered to help her find a way to leave Davy's place tactfully and without undue trauma and move in somewhere else that would meet her safety concerns. That really brought them together as closer friends, and greased the skids for Jan reuniting with Davy, for which she had been incredibly grateful at the time.

"I'm sorry, Gabby, as usual, I was talking outta my ass and didn't realize the gravity of the situation. Do you want to go out and try to find him? Do you know where the meeting was being held? Do you have a way of contacting his sponsor?"

Gabby shook her head. "No, I don't know where the meeting was, and I do have his sponsor's phone number, but I can't use it yet. It's too soon. Micky wouldn't want me to bother his sponsor just because he was a few hours off the mark with his schedule. He's a grown man and he's entitled to be a thoughtless jerk to his wife if that's what he wants to be. I don't want to embarrass him with his sponsor or interfere with that relationship."

Just at that moment, Micky came through the door. He saw Gabby speaking with heated emotion to Jan, eyed her wringing her hands and mussed up hair, as if she had been running her hands through it, and knew that she was a wreck. He went into immediate damage control. Striding over to her purposefully, he took her in his arms. She stiffened and jumped back.

"Micky! Where have you been? I've obviously been concerned about you."

"Gabby, I know. I'm sorry. I should have called you and checked in with you to tell you I changed my plans. I'm really sorry. Can I tell you what happened?"

She crossed her arms, then saw her defensive posture and tried to correct it. She switched back to her true feelings, those of anxiety and fear and began to wring her hands again. "Yes, please tell me what happened."

Jan rose from the couch and said "I think maybe I ought split and leave you two alone."

Micky protested "No, Jan, I owe you an apology too, since you were also waiting for me and had to help Gabby deal with her anxiety and I'm sure that added to your stress."

Jan settled back down and said "Okay, but I'm only going to stick around for what I feel comfortable hearing."

Micky nodded "Fair enough."

He took a deep breath and said "I went to the meeting, but Jack wasn't there. Jack's my sponsor, Jan, you know, the guy who officiated at our recommitment ceremony. Anyway, I really needed to speak with him about something that Gabby and I were discussing last night. I asked around and it turns out that Jack got hurt on the job at the docks a couple of days ago, and he was in the hospital. So I went right over to the hospital to see him there."