Get Out Your Damn Umbrellas

Chapter 18

With their professional lives slowly returning to normal, it was only a matter of time before the people at BBC Radio 1 contacted them. Around the beginning of August, Phil got the call from Jack, one of the producers, about doing the show again. At first Phil wanted to tell him it was probably too soon. Then Jack told him the news. The Internet Takeover show was scheduled to be cancelled and replaced with Student Radio. Next Monday night would be their last chance to do it.

Phil figured that he ought to be honest with Dan about the situation and let him make an informed decision on the matter. Still, he knew even before he asked him that Dan would most likely want to do the show one more time whether or not he was really feeling up to it.

It was a slightly surreal but also rather nice feeling stepping through the revolving doors of the BBC Radio 1 headquarters Monday night for the first time in months. Dan smiled and waved at all their coworkers greeting them on the way to the studio. He'd gotten to the point where he could walk around in the outside world without latching onto Phil's arm. While they were standing close together in the elevator, though, Phil could sense that Dan was vibrating slightly from nerves.

Gently taking hold of his hand, Phil whispered to him, "Hey, you feeling okay?"

"I'm alright," Dan responded in a flat tone. "It's kind of just hitting me now that tonight might be the last time we're in this building. I really want this to go well."

"It'll be okay," Phil murmured reassuringly. "People are used to both of us having a few slip-ups now and then... and if something worse happens, we can just tell someone that there's a slight medical emergency and they'll let us stop and take a break. The studio will most likely tell everyone it was due to technical difficulties."

Dan sighed. "It'd probably make our audience pretty suspicious if that happened, but I guess that's nothing new, really."

Phil gave Dan's hand a comforting squeeze. Then he let go once the elevator doors opened up.

As usual, they'd arrived early to film the Internet News segment ahead of time, which went better than expected. Then they had about a half-hour wait before they were supposed to go on air. They'd planned on taking that time to just sit in the hallway and practice Dan's breathing exercises, but before they could escape to their own little corner, one of the crew members told Dan and Phil that they needed to go to the conference room.

When they drew near the door to Conference Room A, they were surprised to see Louise standing outside.

"Hello boys," Louise greeted them warmly. "You're both looking splendid."

"Thanks," Dan responded. "So are you." Louise was wearing a black velvet sparkly dress, her platinum blonde hair cascading down her shoulder in loose tendrils. Dan also noticed that she had her ID badge, and he started to feel a looming sense of dread. "Please don't tell me there's more people waiting for us behind that door."

"Yeah, um, about that," Louise said, lowering her voice, "A bunch of us got permission from the station to put together a welcome back- slash- viewing party for tonight. We've got a TV set up to watch the show, and everyone was hoping we'd get to see you two for a bit before it starts."

Dan took a deep breath to steady himself. "I'm guessing it was supposed to be a surprise."

"Well, yes, but I figured it'd be better to give you fair warning ahead of time."

"Good thinking," Dan muttered with a huff and wry smile. He glanced at Phil to make sure he was okay with this. "I think we can both still manage to act surprised."

Phil nodded. "Sure."

Louise quietly edged back through the door and beckoned for them to follow. Dan stayed close to Phil and fought the urge to latch on to his arm as they stepped inside.