Give Me Novacaine

"You know, you did amazing last night," Ayla whispered as we held each other close. "I loved watching you perform in such a small setting."

It was about 10:00AM, the day after the Foxboro Hottubs show, and Ayla was handling her hangover pretty well. So far I've gotten her to drink an entire Gatorade, two waters, and she took her pain reliever.

"You were at the bar the whole time, I wish you would've been in the crowd."

"I know, I'm sorry, I just... I wasn't ready to be in that kind of setting after losing our baby."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pushed you," I said and rubbed her bare back.

"You didn't push me, I-"

I shook my head.

"No, I begged you to come and I probably guilt tripped you as well." I kissed her. "I'm sorry."

She shrugged and smiled at me. We had been awake for about an hour but we had nothing planned for today so we figured we'd spend the day in bed. Ayla patted the side of my face and smiled.

"I'm going back to sleep, my head is hurting," she whispered and rolled over.

-------------------- [MARTENA AND TRE] ------------------------

The couple slept in later than they usually did.

Martena woke up to sunlight in her face and she angrily rolled over, shoving a pillow over her face. Tre woke up from her moving from her left to right side repeatedly and turned to look at her.

"Good morning," he whispered, kissing her face. All he got in response was a grunt. "Don't you want coffee?" She pulled the pillow off of her face just enough for one eye to show.

"I can only have decaf, Tre," she sighed. He raised one eyebrow, knowing that she'd take coffee no matter what. She rolled her eyes. "Is that even a question?"

Tre laughed to himself and took the covers off him, getting out of bed.

"I'll be back with a large cup of coffee for you. Black, no sugar."

"You remembered," she said, surprised. Her voice was still weak and groggy from just waking up but she was touched that her boyfriend remembered how she liked her coffee.

-------------

Tre and Martena were sitting on the couch, watching Lifetime movies and enjoying their time together. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her into him, kissing her head.

"Can I ask you something?" He asked, looking down at her. She turned her head and looked up at him.

"Of course you can, love."

"Have you ever thought about... you know, getting married?" Martena was on her second cup of decaf coffee and choked on her drink, spitting it back in the cup. "Now that doesn't look like a good response..."

"No, no!" She started. "I promise, that's not what I meant."

"So have you ever thought about it?" He eagerly asked. She nodded her head.

"I have, Tre, I really have." She sat her cup on the table in front of her. "I mean, I'm having your child. I am committed to you as you are to me and I don't see myself going anywhere, away from you, anytime soon."

"So you're saying I have a couple years left with you until you move onto the next?" He laughed, bringing her in close.

"Exactly," she smiled, kissing Tre.

------------------------- [BILLIE AND AYLA] ----------------------------

"Wait," Ayla said as they were heading out the door. "My parents called about 10 minutes ago."

He looked at her. "And?" Billie swung his keys around his index finger.

"They want us to stay with them this weekend."

Billie was still looking at her, dumbfounded.

"Your parents want us to go to New York this weekend? As in, both of us?" Ayla nodded her head. "I'm- I'm shocked, honestly."

"You and me both," she sighed. "We'll start packing when we get back from the grocery store."

---------

Billie was upstairs in their bedroom, packing, for their weekend trip to New York. He was nervous to spend the weekend with his wife's parents considering he's only met them twice. They weren't totally in Ayla's life and he still felt a lot of anger towards that.

He was folding up his clothes into the suitcase when he felt arms go around his waist and a kiss on his shoulder.

"Hey. You need any help?"

Billie turned and took her in his arms.

"Yeah, actually," he laughed.

Ayla took a bag and began packing her clothes, shower necessities, shoes, makeup, etc. Billie peaked at her suitcase and had a confused look on his face.

"Do girls really need to pack all of this stuff for one weekend?"

"Do you know me at all?" She laughed. He smiled and shook his head.

------------

After the trouble of the airport, the couple were finally able to get onto their plane. Billie let her go on first and she immediately jumped at the window seat, her favorite. It was midnight in California, making it 9:00PM in New York. The sun had just gone down and all of the city lights shined bright into the sky. She began to doze off and found herself leaning onto her husband's shoulder. He patted her leg, telling her it was okay to sleep.

Before she knew it, they had landed.

"Wake up, we're here."

She groaned as she tried to wake up, "how long was the flight?"

"Oh, I don't know. It was probably three hours."

"Oh my gosh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to fall asleep." she said.

They got off their plane and were able to gather their luggage, walking down the hall in search for her parents.

"I see them," Ayla sighed.

"Ugh," Billie groaned as they walked towards the car. He felt Ayla hit his chest.

She looked at him and told him to be calm and to not be rude.

"Mom! Dad!"

Ayla ran to her parents, opening her arms wide for them.

"I've missed you so much," her mom said, hugging her. Ayla told me that while she was younger, her and her mom were really close but that it had slowly diminished.

"I've missed you too, mom."

"Hello, Billie Joe. I'm David. I do believe we've met before."

The two men shook hands with each other and Ayla smiled at them. She loved watching her husband act proper. There was something about him having such manners that was such a turn on for her.

"Hey, David. Yeah, I remember. How are you?"

"I'm great. I'm so glad that you and Ayla came to visit. It's about time we get to spend more than a few minutes with our daughter's husband," David said, patting Billie on the shoulder.

Billie felt himself tense up.

----------

Everyone had reached her parents house and the couple looked around. It was smaller than what they were used to and Billie noticed childhood photos of his wife on the walls. He made a note to check them out later.

Beth, Ayla's mom, lead them down the hall.

"This will be your guys' room this weekend and mineis just down the hallway," she started, helping the couple take their luggage in to the bedroom. "David's is down the hallway on the other side. If you ever need us, let us know, we're happy to help you."

"Thank you so much, we really appreciate this," Billie said, taking his shoes off and leaving them by the door.

"You're very welcome," Beth smiled. "Goodnight, you two." She shut the door behind her and they could hear her walk into her room and close the door.

"I'm so tired," Ayla yawned, changing into pajamas.

"Tell me about it. I didn't get to sleep on the plane like you did," he said laying down on the bed and pulling the covers over him. She shot daggers at him with her eyes. "Hey!"

Ayla turned the light off and jumped into bed next to him.

"I'm so worn out. Goodnight, babe."

"Hey, hey, hey," he started. "Who said you were going to sleep now?"

Billie grabbed her waist and rolling her back over to face him. She playfully pushed him away but he locked lips with her and she laughed underneath their kiss.

"I did. Now, goodnight," she argued, trying to ignore him and closing her eyes. She felt his eyes on her. "Don't use your pouty face on me, Armstrong."

"How'd you know?" He whispered.

"I know you way too well, Billie." she said laughing.

"I guess you do."

He pulled her close to him again, not taking no for an answer and partially wanting to get on her nerves a little bit. She sighed and smiled.

She looked at him, "my husband is such an idiot."

He kissed her and put his hand on the side of her face and pulled away, "he knows."

She laughed at him and her kissed her again.

She groaned not being able to speak then slowly pushed him away.

"I- We can't do that here, Billie. This is my parent's house." She patted his face. "They could hear us!"

"I'll be quiet. That goes for you, as well," he said and kissed her again.

She smiled, "Goodnight, Billie."

"Goodnight, love."

As soon as she closed her eyes, she drifted off to sleep.

--------------------------------------

Two days had gone by and they had to get up earlier than usual since it was their last day in New York. Beth and David wanted to spend some time with them before they left. The four of them went to lunch in the city and her parents showed them around. Billie had been there multiple times because of touring but Ayla was so intrigued by everything.

A few hours later, they were on the plane again going back to California. Ayla let Billie have the window seat this time, using his right shoulder to her advantage. He kissed her head and placed his hand on her thigh.

"Well that was an interesting weekend," she sighed.

"It definitely didn't go as horrible as I had imagined."

Ayla laughed, "to say the least."

When they arrived back in California, Billie had to wake her up again. They got out and saw Mike, Tre and Martena all waiting for them. Ayla had never noticed before but her best friend was really showing now with the pregnancy. It was almost like a small punch in the gut whenever she noticed how Martena was growing but she had to hold it back.

Martena grabbed her in a huge hug.

------------------------------------------------

Everyone piled into the car, helping the two put their luggage away. Mike drove them all to Billie and Ayla's house and stayed there for a few hours.

All of them were sitting on the patio in the backyard and Martena had fallen asleep on Tre. Mike was trying to stay up and kept dozing off. Billie was laying on his back with his head resting on the arm rest facing Tre, deep in conversation, with Ayla sleeping against him. He held her tight in his arms.

"Mike, are you okay?" Tre asked, looking at his friend.

"Ugh, no. I'm going home. I'll see you tomorrow," he said and stood up.

"See you later, Mike," Billie replied.

There were a couple minutes of silence between Billie and Tre, except for the faint snores of the girls.

"So, is she okay?" Tre asked.

"Who?"

Tre nodded at Ayla, "her."

Billie looked down at her and smiled, "yeah. She's perfectly fine."

"You know, right before you guys left she was complaining about feeling sick a lot and I've noticed that she has been tired," Tre said, looking at Billie. "She's mentioned it maybe twice since you've been home."

Billie nodded and looked at his wife. The thought of her being pregnant again raced around his head and he rubbed her stomach. Tre noticed that Billie was deep in thought and attempted to change the conversation.

"What were her parents like? I didn't actually meet them last year."

"They're okay. I didn't get to sit down and have coffee with them but they're okay. Her dad is... intense."

"Well, I'm glad you guys are back," Tre yawned. "It's not home when you're gone."

Billie smiled and thanked his friend.