Heroes...And The Rest Of Us.

"Cock a doodle fucking doo."

"What the fuck are you doing in here? How did you get in here?" I hear Adam says. I'm laying in bed, facing away from him. It's about 7:30 in the morning.

"Jack let us in." The other person in the room says. I swear I know that voice, but I can't place it right now.

"Ugh. I need to tell him not to answer the door before ten in the morning."

"You two need to get your lazy asses out of bed."

"OK, first of all, the only other guy thats allowed in this bed is Simba, so get the fuck out."

"That's sweet, Adz. But, you're really not my type, so don't get any ideas." I recognize that voice now. I roll over quickly.

"Mike! Get out of my fucking bed!" He's laying on top of the blankets in between Adam and I, laughing at me.

"Out!" I say, pointing at the end of the bed.

"Alright, I'm going." He grabs the sheet when he gets up and pulls all of the blankets off of Adam and I, leaving us laying there in just our underwear and my t-shirt.

"I'm gonna kill him, Sophie. I swear to God." Adam says to me. I look down at Mike, who's standing at the end of the bed with the sheet still in his hands, laughing. I see his girlfriend, Shayna standing off to the side of the room.

"Get up." Mike says.

"I'll get up, but you probably won't like what happens next." Adam says under his breath, and gets out of bed. He walks past Mike and Shayna, and gets a t-shirt from in the closet, pulling it on over his head. He then goes into the bathroom and slams the door shut behind him.

"He's in a bad mood." Mike observes.

"He probably just lit his first cigarette."

"What's wrong with him?"

"Other than the fact that it's seven thirty in the fucking morning?" He laughs.

"You guys are sleeping half your day away. I've been up for forever."

"That's what happens when you don't go to bed."

"Exactly what I said." Shayna finally pipes in. Mike and Shayna have been going out on and off since they were 18. She's probably the only woman that isn't related to him that could put up with his shit. She's also the only girlfriend Mike has ever had that I could get along with. I have no doubt that when Mike gets married, it will be to Shayna.

I get out of bed and go into the closet to get dressed in my usual denim short shorts. Today, I pair the shorts with a black bandeau top and one of Adam's white t-shirts with a deep v-neck over it. Adam and I re-enter the bedroom at the same time. He crawls back into bed and I grab the blankets, and pull them back onto the bed, crawling in beside Adam.

"Unbelievable." Mike says.

"I don't know why someone would want to get up at this ungodly hour when it could be much better spent sleeping." Adam says, scooting closer to me, putting his head and the side of his face into my chest. He wraps his arm around my waist and puts his hand up the back of my shirt, resting it on the middle of my back possesively. I pull my arms out from under the blankets and cradle his head against my chest.

"What time is you rehearsal today, Babe?" I ask him.

"Nine-thirty."

"What rehearsal? What are you rehearsing for?" Mike asks.

"A tour that starts next week." He mumbles with his face still in my chest.

"How long will you be gone for?"

"It was supposed to be two or three weeks, but now they've added a bunch of dates and it's gonna be more like a month or so."

"Wow, that's kind of cool. Are they headling dates?"

"Yeah."

"Who's opening?"

"Adelita's Way and Finger Eleven, for part of the time. And, Chevelle and Finger Eleven the rest."

"That'll be some good shows then. I want to go."

"I'll send you tickets." Adam says sarcastically.

"No you won't." I feel Adam raise his eyebrows again me.

"Hey, I just remembered. I need to borrow some stuff out of your basement." Mike says. In other words, he wants to borrow studio equipment. I feel Adam's eyes blink open fast.

"What do you want to borrow?" He asks. Mike rattles off a bunch of random peices of equipment and Adam sighs.

"Yeah, I'll go down with you and help you load it up."

"Sweet." He says, taking Shayna's hand and leading her out of the bedroom.

"I better go make sure he doesn't break something." Adam says to me. "Are you coming?"

"I'll be down in a few. I'm gonna finish getting ready for the day, and get some coffee."

"OK." He gives me a long kiss on the lips then gets up and puts on a pair of jeans, some black fingerless gloves, his fedora, and his boots. I can hear Mike downstairs playing some recorded tracks that Adam has. Adam looks back at me and rolls his eyes. I laugh and get out of bed, and go into the bathroom to brush my teeth, wash my face, and do my hair and make-up.

When I'm done, I go out to the kitchen. Jack has already started coffee and fed the dogs, I see. So, I pour myself a cup of coffee and pour some of my favorite peppermint flavored creamer and some sugar in it. I don't see Jack or the dogs anywhere, so I assume that they're downstairs with Adam.

I go out to the deck and stand at the railing, drinking my coffee and looking out at the lake through the woods. I look down and see Mabel and Simba laying on the little patio area that's outside of the sliding basement door. I hear the doorbell ring from inside the house, so I take my coffe back inside and answer the door. Shaun is standing there when I do, looking down at Mabel, who is standing beside him barking her head off. Shaun looks up at me and smiles.

"Good morning, gorgeous." He says, stepping in and giving me a little peck on the cheek.

"Good morning. What are you doing out and about this early?"

"I came to see Jack. I knew he was coming home last week, and I wanted to check in and see how he was doing." This doesn't surprise me in the least. Other than Adam and I, Jack is probably closest to Shaun. Jack told me that he came to visit him in rehab once.

"Well, that was nice of you. I think he's downstairs with Adam and my brother, Mike and his girlfriend. Would you like some coffee?"

"No thanks."

"Orange juice, water, red bull, cold beer?" I ask, standing in front of the fridge listing off what we have to drink. He grins.

"Fine, since you're so insistant, how about an orange juice?"

"One orange juice coming right up then, Mr. Morgan." I pull two small glasses out of the cupboard and pour juice in both of them. I hand one to him, and keep the other for myself.

"Cheers." He says, clinking his glass against mine. We both take a sip of the juice, while leaning on opposite sides of the counter. I can hear Adam singing downstairs, some Ben Harper song that he used to play live a lot.

"Adam recording?" Shaun asks.

"No clue. I thought he was helping Mike move some equipment." He nods.

"So, how is Jack doing?"

"Good, I mean it's early still. They said the first couple of days were the hardest, so we'll see. We'll see how he does when Adam goes off on tour.

"Well, if you guys need anything while he's gone, let me know. You know, if you need some time off from him, I can take him for awhile." I smile.

"Thanks, Shaun. I might take you up on that sometime. They keep adding dates to the tour schedule, I don't know when Adam's going to be home again, you know?"

"It'll be fine."

"Yeah, it will." He finishes his juice and rinses his glass out in the sink. Adam comes upstairs with Jack and the dogs on his heels.

"Hey, Babe." I say.

"Hey. Hey, man. What's up?" He says to Shaun.

"Not a lot, man. Having a drink with your wife, here."

We all stand there and talk for awhile, then Adam leaves for rehearsal. Jack and Shaun go downstairs and record some acoustic guitar parts for the song Adam was recording vocals on this morning with Mike and Shayna. When they're done, Shaun leaves, and Jack and I go to an NA meeting at a church in Peoria. When we get home, Adam's home working on a set list for the tour. Jack goes into his bedroom, leaving us alone.

"How's it going with a set list?" I ask Adam, sitting next to him at the dining room table.

"Alright. We did a bunch of the new shit in rehearsals today. I'm just trying to weed it all out a little."

"What have you got?"

"Break, The Good Life, I Hate, Home, Lost In You, Last To Know, Wake Up, Bitter Taste, World So Cold, and Goin' Down. I still have to add Riot, Never Too Late, and Animal in there somewhere.

"What about Pain and Just Like You?" I say, listing off two of their popular songs.

"Yeah, those too. And, Neil wants to do a drum/keyboard solo, too, and a cover."

"It's gonna be a good show, that's for sure." I say.

"I hope so. We have to go meet the pyro tech tomorrow night."

"We?"

"If you don't want to go, you don't have to."

"I want to come, I just wasn't sure if that was the 'we' you meant."

"You wanna go for a walk down to the docks with me?"

"Yeah." I nod.

"Cool, I need a break to clear my head of all this work shit right now."

"Lets go then." Adam gets up and knocks on Jack's door, shouting to him through it.

"We're going for a walk, we'll be back in a bit."

"Alright." He yells back. I go to our bedroom and put on a navy blue fitted zip up hoodie and a pair of flip flops.

We walk down to the docks, Adam with his arm around my shoulders, and me with my arm around his waist. When we get to the dock, we sit down and dangle our legs over the edge of it. Adam lights a cigarette and lays down against the dock. I continue to sit up.

Walking tall machine gun man. They spit on my in my homeland. Gloria, send me pictures of my boy." He sings. I smile to myself, looking out over the water.

"Good song." I say.

"Yeah." We sit there for awhile without speaking to each other. Him singing and smoking on and off.

"Mike told me today that he thinks you need a hobby other than taking care of men." He says.

"Well, that was rude. He acts like I have no life or something."

"Maybe he's just worried about you. Like, who's gonna take care of you if you're worried about us?"

"I don't need to be taken care of."

"Everyone needs to be taken care of sometimes."

"You already take care of me. You're all I need."

"Well, I want you to know that I'm grateful everyday for you and everything that you do for me. Because, I know I haven't always make it easy on you, and I know you could've just left and walked away from. But, you stuck by me, and if you hadn't I don't know where I'd be right now." I lay back against the dock beside him and stare at the sky.

"Do you ever think about what would have happened if we hadn't lost the baby?" I ask him.

"Not really. I mean, I can kind of guess, but I don't know for sure. That was one of those times you needed me to take care of you and I wasn't there." I don't say anything.

"Do you think about it?" He asks.

"Somtimes. I wonder if we would be the way we are if we had had the baby."

"Lots of things made us the way we are, not just that."

"I know, but that brought us closer, I think."

"After it almost tore us apart."

"I try not to think about what happened after that." We stop talking again.

What a wicked thing to play, to make me feel this way. What a wicked thing to do, to make me dream of you. What a wicked to say, you never felt this way. What a wicked thing to do, to make me dream of you." He sings kind of loudly so it echo's out over the lake.

"You screwed that up." I say.

"What?"

"You screwed the lyrics up."

"I was hoping you wouldn't notice that."

"I did."

"Shit, I'm such a failure." I laugh loudly and again it causes an echo. One of the people that lives on the lakes edge opens the front door and yells out to us.

"Quiet down out there!" I roll into Adam's side, trying to muffle my laughter against his shoulder.

"How nice." He says.

"Our neighbors hate us."

"It's because I beat the shit out of you, we play loud music and we don't give a fuck if our dogs shit in their yards."

"We're such bad people." He takes a long drag off of his cigarette.

"Fuckin' A."