Good Man

“Every gift which is given, even though it be small, is in reality great, if it is given with affection."
- Pindar



Sometime in the early hours of July 31st, Billie Joe had awoken from a generally deep sleep, covered in cold sweat that only chilled him to the bone all the more because of the air conditioning pumping at what felt like full blast. He sat up and stared straight ahead of him, letting his tired green eyes adjust the darkness of the room which was lighter than when he'd gone to bed the night before. It was quite possible that it was just an hour or two before sunrise, judging how it wasn't as dark and by the ever so faint tweets of birds singing their early morning songs in the trees outside his bedroom windows. To his right, lay Adrienne on her side; her back to him. She was fast asleep and Billie Joe was focusing on how her body rose and fell gently with her breathing. She didn't snore, but there were the occasional grunts and cooing that filtered from between her lips when she was out cold.

She was always so beautiful when she slept. Despite the nightmare that had woken him up rather abruptly, he was able to concentrate on how lucky he was to be married to this woman beside him for the last twenty years. That, in itself, amazed him. Twenty years of marriage. Two decades worth of sex with the same woman who gave him two great sons.

Okay, so there was that random blow job from that groupie, like, fifteen years earlier and the one night stand full of grief-relief sex with Caroline the year before.

He was trying hard not to think about that.

He tried thinking of the four-day vacation him and Adrienne took at the beginning of the month to the Claremont Hotel, where they had stayed twenty years earlier for their honeymoon. It was also the same place they'd been at the day after their five-minute wedding when they learned she was pregnant and they were suddenly not only newlyweds, but expecting parents.

Eight months later, Joey was born. And then three and a half years after that, Jakob.

Running a hand down his face and picking at the crust at the corners of his eyes, wiping away the sleep, Billie Joe slung his legs subtly over the edge of his bed and quietly touched the pads of his feet down to the ground. As he walked to the bathroom, he closed the door behind him and turned on the light so he could see where he was taking a piss. While he did his morning constitution, he closed his eyes momentarily and pursed his lips as if trying to savor the smells of a delicious meal, only to open his eyes and yawn, blinking away whatever random thoughts were cascading from his mind.

Flushing the toilet and washing his hands, he splashed some water on his face and looked at his reflection in the mirror and wondered why his nightmare had been a nightmare at all. Looking back on all he dreamt, it wasn't all that scary. Well, okay, so the part at the end of his dreaming process where a decayed Mike was crawling on the ground toward him with angry, sunken eyes was seriously freaky but, other than that, it was just an average crazy dream.

He shook it off, trying to get the image of Mike on his hands and knees with clumps of gray flesh dangling from his bones out of his head. Billie Joe didn't need that visual today.

It was Caroline's birthday today. The night before, all her friends and family -- who were in town, that is -- threw her an intimate party, held at her parents' home. The actual day of her birth, however, was already going to be set aside as an even more intimate celebration.

Billie Joe and Tre were taking her out for a night on the town; just the three of them. Even though Billie Joe was the only one with a significant other, it was supposed to be just them as a trio. In a sense, the two men saw it as Caroline being an extension of Mike, since she was his widow and all, and therefore it was a little like it was Green Day all over again. For Caroline, Billie Joe and Tre were extensions of Mike, being that he was their bandmate and brother-for-life for some twenty odd years.

It would be a nice night out, despite Billie Joe's millions of questions bumbling around his head like a drunken fool in regard to Caroline and the twins. He was still itching to know the truth, the details or at the very least some insight into the whole 'In Virto Baby Making Caper.'

"Billie?" came Adrienne's sleepy voice from the bedroom.

"Yeah, babe?"

"Why are you up so early?"

Cracking his neck, he turned off the bathroom light and stepped back into the bedroom, finding his wife of twenty years staring at him over her shoulder as she hadn't bothered to completely turn her body to look at him. "I had to piss."

"Oh. You coming back to bed?"

Billie Joe mulled the thought over, shrugged, then shook his head. "Nah, I'm gonna head down to the studio, I think. Play a little guitar or something." He offered his lovely bride a smile. "I can't really sleep anyway." Walking around to Adrienne's side of the bed, Billie Joe leaned forward to place a hand on her hip and kiss her. "Go back to sleep."

"Okay," Adrienne yawned. "You want me to make French toast when I get up later?"

Smirking, Billie Joe nodded. "Sure."

"Okay," she repeated as she dropped her head back down to her pillow and curled up, snugly, under the thick duvet.

Turning on the balls of his bare feet, Billie Joe scratched the back of his neck and exited his bedroom.



At 7:30 PM, Billie Joe, Tre and Caroline were walking through the front entrance to Santorini Restaurant on O'Farrell Street in San Francisco. Greek music was wafting through the air along with dinner time chatter as the trio greeted the hostess who found their dinner reservation under Tre's real name, Frank Wright. She immediately showed them to their table in a more private corner of the restaurant and handed them their menus, letting them know their waitress for the evening would be Athena.

They began to chit chat about nothing in particular as they glanced over their menus at about the same time Athena, a young twenty-something approached their table with a pad of paper and a pen in hand.

She smiled at the threesome. "Hi, I'm Athena, your waitress this evening. Can I start you off with something to drink?" she inquired like clockwork.

"Uh, we'll have a bottle of your most expensive wine," Billie Joe spoke up, gesturing to Caroline. "It's her birthday today and we are here to celebrate."

"That would be a bottle of Burgess Cellars' Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa. A good choice." Athena jotted down the name and then looked to Caroline with another smile. "And a very happy birthday."

"Thanks," Caroline replied appreciatively.

"I'll be back with your wine and then to take your orders."

The three just nodded and mulled over the menus some more. And again chit chatting about nothing and everything. Finally their waitress returned and opened the wine bottle and poured their first glasses for them, only to leave the bottle in the center of the table for them. They then began to rattle off what they wanted.

First, they asked for the Mediterranean Platter appetizer, which consisted of hummus, tabbuleh, babaganoosh and dolmas. Caroline, being the birthday girl, placed her order first; asking for the ravioli which was filled with spinach and ricotta cheese and served with tomato basil sauce as well as wanting the baby spinach salad which came with tomato, onion, roasted walnuts and feta cheese in balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

Tre looked at Caroline and mock-salivated at her order and then shook his head as the other two laughed at him. He turned his head upward toward Athena and placed his order next. He chose the Lamb Souvlakia that was listed on the menu as a tender fillet of lamb on skewer served with saffron basmati rice, grilled roma tomato and fresh garden vegetables. After handing Athena his menu, he kept 'baaah-ing' under his breath.

Billie Joe gave his friend a withering look and shook his head with a smirk as he informed Athena he would be having the Filet Kabob. To him there was something about reading the description of a tender fillet mignon of beef served with saffron basmati rice, grilled Roma tomato and seasonal vegetables that tickled his pickle. It sounded to die for.

With the orders all jotted down, Athena bid them adieu, temporarily, leaving them to talk amongst themselves until their appetizer arrived to their table first.

"So, birthday girl, how does it feel to be thirty-four years old?" Billie Joe asked, folding his arms on the table and leaning forward toward Caroline who sat across from him.

"No different than thirty-three," she shrugged with a smile. "Thanks for treating me to dinner, by the way."

"We're happy to do it," Tre piped in. "That's what friends are for and all that jazz."

Caroline smiled and took a sip of her wine. "Listen, I know this is meant to be my birthday dinner and it's supposed to be all about how I was born many a year ago and I'm still here to celebrate the fact, but since we're all here together, maybe we could finalize some details for Mike's memorial?" she suggested with a limp shrug of her shoulders. "It's only eleven days away."

Billie Joe nodded. "Sure, as long as we don't spend the entire night here, talking about it. It's still your day and all..." For a millisecond, the tail end of his dream from earlier in the morning flashed before his mind's eye and he shuddered.

"Cold?" Tre asked, noticing his friend shake a little.

"Uh, nah, just...a random chill, s'all." The green-eyed man grabbed his own glass of red wine and brought it to his lips. Letting his tongue make initial contact with the burgundy liquid, he then downed a good sized sip before placing the glass back on the table. "So, we've all decided on who to invite, right?"

"Yeah, I have the list at home," Caroline confirmed. "We also have the place, which I think is pretty amazing that the two of you were able to pull off."

"Well, it wasn't that hard to do," muttered Tre, just as Athena returned to their table with their Mediterranean Platter and asked if there was anything they needed while their meals were still being cooked. "We're good for now," he assured her. When she left, Tre returned back to the topic at hand. "The place isn't open for regular business at noon on a Monday. It may be a little wrecked from the night before, but I doubt it. They have volunteers who show up before shows to offer help to clean the place afterward. And when we made our case to the members of the club they were surprisingly all for it."

Billie Joe agreed with a single bob of his head. "Yeah, so was I. I almost thought they'd tell us to take this memorial and shove it up our 'sellout' asses," he added with a bemused roll of his eyes.

"If they had, that would've been so wrong in, like, fifteen million ways," came Caroline's comment as she helped herself to some babaganoosh off the Mediterranean Platter.

"Well, at least it's not sixteen million. That would just suck." Tre grinned at Caroline and stuck his finger into the hummus.

"Ew. Tre. Manners." Three staccato words were all Caroline spoke to her friend and brother-in-law.

The trio spoke more on the memorial plans and laughed at some more hijinks on Tre's part which consisted of dipping his finger in everything on the table and making lewd gestures and comments. When their respective dishes arrived with their meals, they took some time to sit back and eat and not talk as much; just enjoying the Greek ambiance the place oozed.

"The name of this place is the same as the island Tre, Mike and I all went to a bunch of years ago. Santorini. It was a beautiful place. Great people. The food was excellent. And we always seemed to have new people to meet and drink with," Billie Joe recalled; a reminiscent smile spreading over his face.

Caroline took a sip of her wine while looking at Billie Joe over the clear rim. "Yeah, I know. Mike mentioned it to me once. We vacationed there a couple weeks before we got engaged.

"Oh yeah," Billie Joe remembered. "I forgot about that."

"I always told Giselle I was going to take her there. I never got to, but I'd planned on it."

Caroline frowned a little before muttering, "Best laid plans..." She offered Tre a look that mirrored his own. They both had so many plans on the lives they'd pictured having with their respective spouses, but Fate had others plans.

"Yep," was all Tre could reply with. The two of them raised their wine glasses and clinked them together as if in a solemn salute to their mutual widowhood.

"Hey, lemme get in on that action," Billie Joe spoke, lifting his glass and clinking it against both Tre and Caroline's while using it as an excuse to turn the conversation back toward a more cheery topic. "So...you're thirty-four. Imagine that. Wasn't it just yesterday that you were this 25-year-old who was more or less dumped into our lives?"

Caroline snickered. "Douche."

Dinner continued on with a more upbeat turn in the conversation, which all seemed to be very content with. Athena checked on them from time to time and even had to bring them a second bottle of wine since they'd topped off the first many moons ago.

By 9:30, Tre pushed his chair back and stood up.

"Where you going?" Billie Joe inquired.

"Bathroom," Tre answered. "Gotta drain the sea monster."

Billie Joe just rolled his eyes as the drummer sauntered away toward the men's room. He then let his green eyes fall on Caroline across the table from him.

They shared a smile, but it soon became laced with some awkwardness.

"So, uh...Care, I need to know to know something..."

"About the memorial?" she asked, completely oblivious to what his train of thought was at the moment.

"No," he shook his head, hesitated and then spit it out in a hushed voice. "Am I the twins' father?"

Caroline sat back in her chair and looked as if she'd just been hit with a wet dishcloth. "Uh..." she stuttered at first. However, when it came down to it, there was no point in beating around the bush with Billie Joe. He had always been like a brother to her, except that one time the year before when he was anything but, and it was hard to keep things from him. "I don't know. And I can't know. For several reasons."

Billie Joe made a face. "Why not?"

"Well, for one, Adie will skin us both alive. Be it because we were grieving and momentarily stupid or not. Second, there are two other possible fathers and I have to think about how I'd be branded as a whore, as selfish as it may seem..."

"That's not---" he was about to contradict her second reason, but shut up, knowing there was most likely a lot of possibility in that fear.

"Third," she continued on, "I have already made it known that they are Mike's children via in vitro and to go back on that now..."

Scowling a bit, Billie Joe looked over his shoulder to see if Tre was walking back yet. He wasn't, so the guitarist replied with, "Well, you didn't have to tell anyone until after they were born and you could've called me and whoever to get blood tests done, then told..."

Caroline just looked at him. "Are you kidding me?" she questioned as if he'd just said the most retarded thing, ever. "I was supposed to go nine months of keeping why and how I was pregnant a big secret from my family and friends?"

"Well, you did practically fall off the face of the earth!" he hissed, not in a nasty way but more on the snarky side of things.

Caroline would've slapped him right there, but seeing as they were in a very public place, she kicked him quite hard in the shin underneath the table.

Billie Joe cursed under his breath and winced in pain as he leaned forward so he could bend down slightly in his chair to touch a hand to his shin. Rubbing the spot Caroline kicked with all her might, he stared at her a withering look while he wound up gathering himself and reapproaching her, all the while rather calm.

"That wasn't necessary. I was stating fact, Care, not insulting you."

Sighing heavily, Caroline frowned at herself and looked down at the virtually empty meal plate before her. "Sorry."

Still looking at her, Billie Joe slowly shrugged it off. "S'okay." But he couldn't help himself in adding, "But what if the twins are mine, Care, and they grow up never knowing I'm their father?"

Caroline shrugged this time. "Maybe in a few years we can have a test done in private." She shook her head and let out a slightly shaky breath. "I can't make any promises. Right now, Mike is legally their father, alive or not."

Billie Joe sat up straight in his chair, the two of them holding each other's gaze. He didn't bother responding for two reasons. One, he didn't think he'd get any further with his side of the debate, if you could call it that. Second, Tre was returning.

"Turns out I had to shit, too," he announced to them, sitting back down in his chair. "What'd I miss?"

"Nothing exciting," Caroline responded with a small smile.

"Good. I hate missing the exciting moments." He looked at all their plates which were more or less void of food and gestured to the table with his right hand. "We ready to get the check and head out?"

Billie Joe nodded. "Sure." He waved down the waitress and after she came over with the check, Billie Joe and Tre spent about five minutes figuring out who was gonna pay for dinner. They settled on Billie Joe taking care of the bill, and that Tre would cover all their drinks afterward as they would be hitting up a few clubs to dance and see some bands here and there in San Francisco before making their way home across the bay to Oakland.

As they made their way out of Santorini Restaurant, Billie Joe began to walk ahead of them a little bit. It was his car they had brought with them and he wanted to make sure it was all locked up. They'd be leaving it and catching a cab from then on out because all three were a little too buzzed to drive and would only go downhill from there once they hit the next places on the list for Caroline's birthday celebration.

Walking beside Caroline, Tre leaned into her shoulder and smiled at her when she caught his gaze. She smiled back and leaned into him as well.

"Happy birthday, Carrie," he muttered.

She flashed him a knowing look as he place a hand on the small of her back, rather subconsciously. "Thank you, Frankie."