Forever and Always

The phone ringing jarred me out of a sound sleep. I groaned and reached for it, flickering my eyes open to see that the clock read two a.m. Matt should definitely have been home by then, where was he?

"Hello."

"Princess, I know I just woke you but . . . I won't be home until late tomorrow night." Matt sighed into my ear.

"What? Why?" I sat up and placed a hand on my stomach when the sudden movement made me queasy.

"The bus threw a rod or some shit and we can't get it fixed until tomorrow morning. We had to walk to a hotel." He sounded as tired as I felt.

I sat up, "What hotel? I'll come and get you guys."

"No that's okay. It's late and you're tired, I can tell. Plus you'd have to get MC out of bed or one of the girls up to come watch him. Don't worry about it. We'll be home late tomorrow and I promise I'll make this up to you and MC."

"Make it up to us? Matt, baby, it's fine. It's not like we had plans or anything and it's not something you can help. Relax." I simply melted at the way he was so worried about us being disappointed. MC would be but he'd be okay.

"I love you, baby. Promise me you'll go back to sleep and get some good rest?" He sighed.

"Yeah, I promise, if you promise to not worry so much about not being home on time."

"Promise. Good night, baby. Kiss MC for me."

"Will do. Good night." I slid out of bed and went to MC's room. I kissed his forehead and pulled the covers up over him before going back to bed. Two hours later I learned that knowing Matt wasn't home for some other reason than being at a show made me uneasy. I sat up and dialed his cell phone number.

He answered after a few rings, "Is something wrong, baby?"

"Please let me come and get you. I feel weird, like something bad's going to happen." I sighed.

"Okay. We're at the Hotel 8 outside of Fairview. That's only like an hour's drive away. You'll pass some little dinky garage and the hotel's right beside of it. Bundle you and MC both up, it's cold out there, okay?" He sounded so worried now that I felt guilty for calling him back.

"Okay, I'll be there in like an hour and half, alright?" I moved across the bedroom to get my warmer clothes out of the closet.

"Drive carefully, princess. Don't rush. I love you, my babies." He sighed again, yawning afterward.

"Love you too, Matt. Bye." I hung up and stopped in the hall closet for MC's warm coat and shoes. I slipped them on him and shook him a tiny bit, "You have to walk for Mommy, MC, I can't carry you."

He whined, "Where we goin'?"

"To get Daddy. He's running a little late coming home, so we're going to go get him." I gave him a little shake, "Let's go, now, okay?"

"Okay." He took my hand and we went out the door. Almost thirty minutes into the drive, I glanced back at him in his seat to see him asleep. I smiled, glad that he was getting to go back to sleep and turned the radio on lowly to keep me from doing the same. An even greater grin crossed my face when one of the guys' songs came on the air.

At the end of it the DJ announced, "That was one of the best bands to herald from SoCal, the great, the awesome, the wicked Avenged Sevenfold. This just in about this band . . . apparently the lead singer is getting married. That's right, ladies, M. fucking Shadows is off the market for good soon. According to the other band members at a recent interview, M. is happier than he's ever been with the exception of the day his son was born. How do you like that? Married and with kids. How lucky must his family feel to have a guy like that?" If he only knew.

Up ahead, I saw the hotel Matt had been talking about. I pulled up to it to see Matt standing outside. He reached up for me when I opened the door, intent on letting him drive us home, and pulled me down to stand up against him. His mouth crashed to mine and he framed my face when he backed off, "Oh, god, I was so scared, Daniellea. They have a scanner in the room we're staying in and I heard this big wreck on PCH, and I freaked out. I was about to start walking home when you pulled up. You must have just missed the wreck."

"I didn't see a wreck. We're fine, I promise. How odd is that?" I shook my head.

"I know. I'm so glad you came cause I would have been freaking out even worse, especially since you were asleep and you might not have answered when I called. Do you want to stay here instead of us driving back home?" He backed up again to kiss me softly.

I nodded, "That sounds good. Why don't you get MC out of the car? He'd be glad it was you."

"Okay. Here's my room key. My bag is on the end of the bed. You can wear my shirt from yesterday to sleep in if you want since I just had it on a few moments." He thrust the piece of plastic to unlock the door into my hand, took my car keys and opened the back door to the car. I hadn't gone ten steps when he gave a holler, "Dani!"

I went over, "What is it, Matt?"

"His lips are blue, Dani. What's wrong with MC?" He looked up at me. I pushed him out of the way and grabbed our son. I pressed my fingers to his neck and felt a very faint pulse. I laid him flat in the floor car seat and closed my lips over his. Faintly, I could hear Matt calling 911.

An ambulance got there after MC was breathing properly, although his heartbeat was still erratic. Matt was questioning me over and over what had been wrong before we left. I couldn't answer him because there hadn't seemed to be anything wrong. He'd seemed lethargic and whiney, but that was his usual behavior when Matt wasn't there to put him to bed. When I woke him up, he didn't complain of feeling bad or hurting. The ambulance driver looked up at me, "He's having a severe allergic reaction to something. Have you feed him in the past hour or so?"

Matt handed me up in the ambulance behind our son and climbed in too. There was no way the ambulance driver was going to tell us only one of us could go with him. I shook my head, "No. He was in bed. Matt called and I called him back. We decided I'd come out and get him. I woke him up, put his coat on him, and we left. I kept checking on him in the rearview mirror and he seemed fine, just sleeping."

"Have you used any new clothes detergents, fabric softeners-"

"No. It's all allergen free because I'm allergic to most brands." I shook my head again.

"Well, we're pumping him full of Benadryl now but we need to find out what he's allergic to so we can treat the problem." The hospital wasn't far away and we made it to it as MC was beginning to talk again.

"Daddy, my neck hurts." He sounded sick now.

"I know, little man. Daddy's sorry. But they're gonna make you better. MC, did you sneak something to eat when Mommy wasn't looking?" He stroked our son's hair.

"No. Why do my hands feel funny?" He pouted. His small, chubby hands were swollen so much that I knew he couldn't close them.

"They're going to fix that too, bud." Matt watched as he sighed and put the thumb of the hand not held down with IV's into his mouth. He looked around at me, "Did he touch anything on the way-"

"Shit. Shit. He was running his hand on the banister on the stairway to the ground floor. They were cleaning it earlier tonight. MC, don't do that, baby." I pulled his thumb out of his mouth and he started whining. Matt smoothed his hair back.

"Listen, listen, I'm going to sing to you if you don't suck your thumb, okay? I'm going to sing Mommy's song. Do you remember Mommy's song?" He said as we headed out the ambulance behind MC's gurney.

MC just whined more. A doctor rushed over and the paramedic explained that it was a severe allergic reaction to cleaning fluids and how it came to happen. They rushed MC into a room with us behind him and started to pump his stomach, flushing his system out already with benadryl and other fluids running into his IV. Matt sang softly in his ear the entire time, only glancing up to ask a nurse to find another stool so that we could both sit down before we fell down.

Finally, MC fell asleep.

Matt held his arms out to me, "Come here, love."

I curled onto his lap, "I'm sorry, I should have been watching him better."

He rubbed my stomach, his hand splaying and curling comfortingly, "No, it's not your fault. Him running his hand down the banister is something he always does and so is sucking his thumb. Neither of us would have ever even thought about it. He's going to be alright, Daniellea, and either of us would be nuts to blame the other for it. I'm just glad it happened when you got there and not before cause you handled it well but if you were by yourself you might not have."

"Very true. Ooh, did you feel that?" Matt's rough hand splayed on my skin, just slightly under my shirt.

"I did. That was a strong kick. When he wakes up, if they kick again, we'll let him feel." His attention was immediately back on MC and I had to smile. I loved how he loved him.

"He'll like that." I yawned.

He pointed at the recliner type chair, "Go sleep."

"I can't, not when MC's not feeling good. You know that." I shook my head.

"Hey, I'm here. I've got him, okay? You need to sleep, Daniellea, for the babies." He kissed my forehead, running his fingers down the side of my face.

I returned the gesture, "Just a few more minutes, I just want to make sure-"

"Okay." He snuggled me closer and pulled my head down onto his shoulder, "At least relax. He's going to be fine, princess."

Somehow it seemed that only Matt's reassurances, and not the doctor's, could make me feel that was true. My eyes drifted closed but were jerked back open by Matt's gruff voice, "Daniellea, we have to leave as soon as MC gets discharged."

I looked up realizing I had actually gone to sleep and Matt had laid me down on the recliner.
I frowned, "Why is that?"

"Johnny just called. That big wreck? It was Lorrie, Victoria, and Laura. Apparently they had just left our place and were going to come here and surprise us all, but you weren't there. A drunk driver hit them. Princess, if you hadn't left when you did, if you'd went with them, you'd have been in that accident too. And so would have MC." He stroked my hair.

"Are they okay?" I frowned.

"Yeah, from what Johnny's heard. Victoria broke one arm. Lorrie's shoulder is out of place. Laura . . . she was driving. She's beat up pretty bad, they're not sure what all's wrong but she was conscious and talking when the ambulance came." He reached over and hugged me, seeing my expression, "She'll be okay, baby. Don't stress out okay? As soon as the doctor says MC's doing well enough to leave, we'll go home, I promise."

I sighed and buried my head in his shoulder, "It's fine. Can I see your cell?"

"Where's yours?" He tucked his into my jacket pocket.

"In the Escalade. I'll be back in a few moments." I raised up to kiss his cheek and headed outside. Johnny answered his cell on the first ring.

"Hey. Dude, did you tell Dani-"

"It's me, Johnny. He said Laura would be okay. Will she really? And don't you lie to me, Johnny Seward-"

"She's okay, for the most part. Her legs are smashed, her left hand is torn all to hell so she won't be playing bass much now and she's delusional so they think she took temporary brain damage, like amnesia." He sighed, "And Matt didn't tell you all this cause he didn't want you to get upset, Daniellea, so he will tear my head off when he learns that I did this."

"Thanks, Johnny. MC had a bad allergic reaction so we won't be there for a while, but just as soon as we can, we will be."

"She knows. At least, I think she knows. Brian told her. He's real torn up and all he can do is
keep thanking her, him and Jimmy both. Maria flew back to see her too. Everyone's acting like she's dying and she's not." He sounded frustrated.

I sighed, "Well, Johnny, the longest any of us has been in the hospital is when I had MC. We've never really had to worry about anyone. Everyone's just concerned for her and sad. Hey, listen, I need to get back to MC, so I'm going to let you go."

"Alright. Tell the little man we miss him and we all hope he starts to feel better."

"Will do." I hung up and hurried back up. MC was sitting up, his swollen face and hands diminished greatly and giggling slightly at whatever Matt was saying. I watched them, suddenly very thankful for whatever had made me get out of that bed last night. I knew Matt and I knew he'd have been devastated if we'd been in that wreck, most probably inconsolable and he'd have blamed himself somehow. I drifted forward to kiss both their heads, a smile on my lips to mask the grateful tears in my eyes.