Forever and Always

"Ouch." I hissed lightly, leaning forward away from the seat set out at the merch tent.
Brian smirked at me, "Smarts, doesn't it?"

"Just a bit." We were talking about the black and blue angel wings on my back and the fact that, no more than a day after getting them, I'd just leaned straight back on them without thinking.

"Did you put that stuff on it?" Matt asked as he scribbled his name across a fan's cd insert.

"Yeah." I rolled my eyes slightly.

He sent me a look, "I was just asking, princess, damn."

"I know. Sorry. I'm just cranky." I'd drove all night and most of the day. MC was asleep with his head in my lap and it was hot enough outside without his body heat making me sticky.

He tipped his head to one side and frowned, "Why don't you go lay down on the bus? It's got air conditioning and you can catch a few hours of sleep before we have to leave out."

I sighed, "Is there anyway I can stay on the bus tonight with you and MC? I'm exhausted. I don't think I can drive again tonight."

He held out his arm and I moved MC carefully off of me. He pulled me down so that our lips brushed, "I'll see what I can do. Now go get some rest. You can leave MC out here if you want."

"He's tired too and look how sweaty he is. I should probably just take him in." I shrugged.
Johnny stood up, "I'll take him in for you. I'll be back in a moment, guys."

"Okay. Thanks, man." Matt smiled at us and watched Johnny gather up MC. Obviously, Johnny had been feeling left out here lately cause MC always had more to do with Zacky or Brian than him. I thought maybe it had to do with Brian seeming so much like Matt-tall and broad and Zacky being so childish that they kinda just seemed to outshine Johnny and Jimmy in MC's eyes. Either way, he had been trying to spend more time with him in the past couple of days, doing everything from feeding him to carrying him around on his arm. It didn't seem to bother Jimmy much that MC wasn't crazy about him-he was crazy enough about MC to make up for it.

"Geez, this kid's getting heavy. You can tell he's Matt's kid." Johnny laughed.

I smiled, "Yeah, that's definite. Give him a few years and he won't be little Shads anymore."

"You think he'll be like Matt, all sports inclined?"

"I'm hoping so." Most mothers who had a decent-or in my case, wonderful-father for their children wished that their sons ended up like their daddies. I sure as hell was like that. Not only would that make him talented and kind and handsome but smart and one hell of a catch for some girl (or guy for that matter, though Matt would probably go nuts on him).

"Which bunk?" Johnny asked as we got up on the bus.

"Gimme a sec to get in the bunk and you can just hand him into here."

"Okay."

A few moments later, we were both settled in and I heard Johnny pushing in the code to lock the bus doors before leaving. It was a precaution that Matt insisted on, especially when MC was on here.

I woke up to MC's singing. I smiled cause it was obvious he could carry a tune and turned slightly. He was singing along to a children's show-The Backyardagins or some crap like that. I rolled my eyes cause I never let him watch that junk at home and held out an arm, "Who put that on for you?"

"Daddy. He said to stay here and watch this with you while you were sweeping. He said he was hungry." He shrugged his small shoulders and turned his attention back to the tv.
"Well, let's go outside and color or something, okay? You know Mommy doesn't like it when you watch these shows."

"Okay, Mama. I'm gonna go pee!" He scrambled out of the bunk with a thud.

I laughed a little, "You okay, little man?"

"Yep!" His small feet raced off and I sat up, reaching for the shorts I'd discarded earlier. Just as we both stepped into the lounge area, Zacky's colorful hair popped up over the top of the bus steps.

"Uncle Zacky!" MC raced for him.

Zacky laughed, "Hey, little guy. Why don't you go find Daddy? He got you some chicken nuggets."

"Happy meal! Happy meal!" MC squealed and scrambled down the bus steps. I groaned. Another thing I didn't let MC do was eat a lot of restaurant junk but here he was eating it again.

Zacky looked at me, "Relax, he'll be okay. Matt said you'd probably have his head but then again he figured you'd still be asleep and he didn't want to wake you to check and see what you wanted MC to eat."

"It's fine. Whatever. Can I ask a favor?" I rubbed my face.

"Sure. What's up?"

"Can you go get that shit I'm suppose to put on my tattoo for me? It's in the bathroom. I'm too tired to get up again."

"Okay. You okay, Daniellea? You don't look so great, babe." He scooted past me before saying this.

"Yeah, I'm cool. Just tired." I yawned and flexed my arm. My shoulder felt like it was on fire.

He brought back the ointment and moved behind me to rub it onto my shoulder without me asking. He hissed a bit, "Damn, El, it looks infected. You sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine." I waved him off.

"Look, Matt has a shit load of tattoos. So do I, but truthfully, Matt's always been on to all of us about taking care of them after we get them so we normally don't get infections. I'm going to go get him and have Johnny keep an eye on the midget. This doesn't look so great."

I didn't protest, just nodded. A few moments later, Matt tugged me up, "Come on, we need to get an anti-inflammatory in you quick. You can't get sick on me, princess, and not from a stupid tattoo I talked you into getting."

Aw, he felt guilty. I leaned into him, "I'm sure it's not that bad"

"Let me see." He turned me gently and groaned, "Not that bad? Geezus, Dani, it's horrible looking. Come on." He guided me out the door.

A few hours, one shot, and a few pills later, I yawned into Matt's shoulder, my focus drifting from the movie he'd put in the portable DVD player on his lap.

He rubbed my un-inked shoulder, "How're you feeling?"

"Just sleepy, just like before. I'm okay, Matt, honest." I smiled a bit and kissed at his bottom lip. He smiled against my lips and nodded.

"As long as you don't feel sick or anything. Oh, your dad called. He said for you to call him back, I'm sorry I forgot with the whole tattoo thing and everything."

I shrugged, wincing a bit afterwards, "Thanks, baby. Where's my cell?"

"Shelf above MC's hat." He pointed across the bunk from us. I groaned and squirmed from under his heavy arm to crawl over to it, avoiding hitting MC as I did. I stepped outside of the bunk, getting my balance as the bus moved under me to dial Dad's number.

He answered after a few rings, "Daniellea?"

"Yeah, Daddy. You called?"

"Umhum, I did. I hate to ask this but is there anyway you can fly out? Anna is having an emergency C-section done tomorrow morning and she's terrified. She'd feel better if there was another female there with her." Daddy sighed.

I frowned, "What's wrong with the baby? With Anna?"

"It doesn't make much sense to me or maybe it's just that its so complicated that I don't understand it. Either way, there's something going seriously wrong inside of Anna's womb.
They want to do it now, but they can't get a doctor who will risk it until tomorrow morning."

"I'll try to get there, Daddy. Let me talk to Matt about it first."

"Okay, baby girl."

Nearly twenty minutes later, I was calling Dad back, "I'll be landing at five in the morning, Daddy, but I'll have MC with me."

"That's fine. I'll have the housekeeper meet you at the airport and bring you to the hospital. Matt was okay with you coming?"

Unsurprisingly, Matt was perfectly fine with me going to be with my step mom when she
needed me. He kissed the back of my neck as I told Daddy this and hung up. "Are you okay, baby?"

"Yeah, I just need to get to the airport. Thank you for understanding." I turned to kiss him gratefully, "We need to get MC into the car."

"I'll drive you there and we'll just hitch the Escalade to the bus. I don't want you to drive after feeling bad like you have." He pulled me to him again for another kiss.

"You're too good to me, to us." I sighed against his lips.

He shook his head, "Not good enough." I didn't question the protest, just smiled slightly and accepted that that was just how Matt was and probably always would be.