Heroes...And The Rest Of Us.

I wake up to hear Simba barking what seems like inches away from my ear. I open my eyes and see Jack standing on my side of the bed, holding Mabel's front legs up so that she's standing on her back legs. They're both staring at me. Jack has an unlit cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Simba is standing the bed where Adam usually would be laying, barking at the two of them over my body.

"Simba, enough," I mumble. It's still dark outside. I reach over and grab the cigarette out of Jack's mouth and put it in my own. Today is the day that I fly out to L.A. to see Adam. On one hand I'm looking forward to it, but on the other, I'm terrified to fly alone.

"Where's your lighter?" I ask Jack. He puts Mabel down on the ground again, and reaches into his pocket, taking out his lighter and handing it to me.

I light the cigarette and inhale the menthol smoke, then blow it out of my mouth in a thin line towards the ceiling.

"You have to get ready to go. Your flight takes off in two hours," Jack says finally, taking the lighter back from me.

"Yeah, I know. Don't remind me," I hold the cigarette between my thumb and index finger like Adam does when he smokes. I sigh to myself.

"Are you excited to go?" he asks.

"Yeah, I'm just not looking forward to the flight, but whatever. Alright, everyone except Mabel has to leave the room," I say. Jack and Simba leave the room and go out to the living room. Mabel hops up on the bed and curls up on Adam's side.

I put the cigarette between my lips and go into the walk in closet to get some clothes. After I change, I go into the bathroom and brush my teeth, put my make up on, and brush my hair so it's straight.

When I come out to the living room, Jack hands me a travel mug with some coffee in it. I see that my duffle bag and the guitar that I bought for Adam's birthday, are sitting next to the front door, ready to go.

"Ready?" Jack asks me, giving me a once over.

"Yeah, I guess," I reach into my purse and grab out my Bulgari body spray, and spray it all over myself. It smells absolutely intoxicating.

"Christ, what the hell is that?" Jack asks.

"Bulgari, it's Adam's favorite perfume of mine."

"I can see why. It smells like an expensive whore house, like, really expensive."

"Nice, Jack," he laughs.

"Lets get out of here," he bends down and takes my stuff out to the car. I give the dogs a quick hug and kiss on the top of their noses, then follow him out.

"It's still dark outside," I comment when I get in the car.

"Your point?"

"Can pilots see in the dark?"

"I'm pretty sure the plane has headlights," I give him a doubtful look.

"You'll be fine, I promise."

We drive to O' Hare airport in Chicago where my flight to LAX will leave in about forty five minutes.

"I need a drink," I say after we check in my luggage.

"No you don't. God, I've never seen you get so worked up to fly before. You were fine when we went to Vancouver."

"That's because I didn't want to embarass myself in front of Adam's bandmates, and you. And, when we came home it was on a red-eye, and I was too tired to be scared," I say as we walk up to wait for boarding.

"Just try to put it to the back of your mind. In four hours, you'll be with Adz, try to think about that."

I nod and we stand around waiting for my plane to start boarding. When they call for my plane, I turn around and give Jack a tight hug.

"Take care of yourself," I tell him.

"You too. Give Adam a hug for me. I'll probably be sleeping when you come home, so I'll see you on Thursday morning, OK?"

"OK, I love you."

"I love you too, Mama. Have fun. Be good." I smile and turn to board the plane.

I brought Adam's guitar as a carry-on so that it wouldn't get damaged with the other baggage. I put it in the overhead compartment and take my seat next to the window.

A guy in a really nice suit and tie sits down next to me, and I suddenly feel inadequate in my brother's oversized Army button down and my short shorts. He gives me a friendly smile, which I return nervously.

I drag the charm on my necklace back and forth on its chain a couple times, and observe the other people boarding the plane, looking for potential terrorists. I blow a deep breath out, thinking that its going to be a long flight with no cigarettes.

The guy sitting next to me see's me and smiles again.

"Nervous?" he asks.

"Yeah, a little. I don't fly well without my husband," I say, trying to deter him from hitting on me.

"Why isn't he flying with you, this time?"

"He's in L.A. I'm going to visit him."

"Ah, so you're going on pleasure, rather than bussiness," he says.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"I'm going on bussiness, so I guess you're the lucky one. When are you returning to Chicago?"

"Tomorrow night."

"Short trip," he says. I nod.

"Yeah, he has to leave for Washington tomorrow night and I can't go with him, so I have to come home."

"Is he out there on bussiness, too?"

"Yes, he's on tour with his band," I say, with a certain pride in my voice.

"Well, that's nice that you're going out to see him," he says.

"Yeah." I look out my window and realize that we're in the air, and I didn't know it.

"Holy shit," I blurt out. The guy laughs.

"You're welcome," he says. I give him a wide eyed stare.

"I believe you meant to say thank you, before."

"Yeah, I guess I did."

"I've had plenty of experience with nervous flyers. I've learned that the take-off is usually the most nerve racking for them, so I try to distract them when I get the chance. It usually helps unless the person is on some sort of drugs, which I'm going to assume you're not, because you haven't twitched or grabbed my arm, or something of that nature," he says.

"No, I'm not on anything," I say.

"See, that always helps. You wouldn't believe how many people think that sedating themselves while flying will help. It almost always makes it worse."

I smile and try to relax in my seat a little.

"I'm Dave, by the way," he says.

"Sophie."

I put my Ipod earbuds in my ears and listen to every Three Days Grace song that I own on repeat until the plane lands. I try to get some sleep, but that's pretty much impossible for me. Unlike the people that Dave was talking about, who only get nervous during takeoff, I am nervous through the whole flight.

Once we're landed, I grab Adam's guitar, in it's case, from the overheard compartment and get off the plane quickly to get the rest of my luggage.

After I pick up my single duffle back, I set off to find Chris, who's working as the tour manager on this leg of the tour. Jack told me that he would be picking me up and taking me to the venue where the guys would be playing the next night.

I find him with his head down looking at his cell phone, and a sign that has my name on it, rested against his legs. He looks up when I approach him.

"Hey, how was your flight?" he asks.

"Fine, I guess. How are you?"

"Good. Do you have all your bags?"

"Yeah."

"Then lets get out of here," he says, leading me off out of the airport and out to where his car is parked.

I put my stuff in the trunk and send Jack a text message, so that he knows the plane landed safetly.

"The guys will be happy to see a familiar face. Heather came out for a couple days a while ago, and they all clinged to her like white on rice," Chris tells me as we pull out onto the highway.

"Well, I'm excited to see them. All of them, they are all such a big part of my life at home. It's been so quiet without all of them, especially Adam," I say.

"They should still be at soundcheck when we get there. They're playing a festival tomorrow night, but we got them a hotel for tonight. It beats sleeping on the bus." I nod. I don't say anything else until we pull into the venue parking lot. I can feel the familiar butterflies in my stomach as we get closer and closer.

Chris parks next to where the busses and equipment trucks are parked, and then we get out.

"That's the hotel we're staying in, over there," he says, pointing at a nice hotel right across the road. I nod and go back to the trunk to get my stuff.

"You can leave that here, if you want to. I'll have it sent up to the hotel later," he says.

"Thanks, that would be great," I say.

I follow him around through some fenced off area's that are reserved for band traffic only. We walk up by the back of the stage, where there's an indoor dressing room and stuff. It's set up just like an indoor arena would be, just with no roof.

Chris peeks into the dressing room with the band logo printed on the sign on the door, then keeps leading me towards the stage entrance.

"You can stay here and I can bring Adam back to you, or you can come out onstage and see everyone. It doesn't matter. Whatever you want to do," he tells me.

"You go on ahead, and I'll come out in a second," I tell him. He nods and keeps walking out to the stage. I can hear Barry playing some of the riff's from Break.

I stay mostly hidden behind some equipment, so that the guys can't see me until I come out onstage.

Adam has a guitar strapped to his body. He's wearing jeans and a t-shirt under a black button down, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and a black trucker hat, and black cowboy boots. I smile when I see him. He apparently hasn't spotted me from my hiding spot on Brad's side of the stage.

When he turns around to face Barry, I walk out. Brad see's me first and gives me a little smirk. Which, in Brad's way, is the equivalent to jumping up and down in excitement. He keeps playing, like he never saw me. I see Barry look at me over Adam's shoulder, then he looks up at Neil, motioning to me with his eyes to Adam.

He finally turns around and looks over his shoulder at me. I smile and he immediately stops playing, taking his guitar off and laying it down on the stage. I give a little squeal and run over to him, jumping into his arms, wrapping my legs around his waist. He puts his face into my shoulder and spins around a couple times.

In the background I can hear Neil play some bizarre drum beat. Adam looks up at me and smiles.

"Hey, babe," I say. He grins and kisses my lips hard, not caring who see's. He sets me down and hugs me tightly again.

"I love you so much. I don't know how the hell you got here, but I am so fucking glad that you did," he says into my hair. I grip into his back tightly.

"So, I guess the soundcheck is over?" I hear Brad say from beside us. I didn't even notice the music stop.

I smile and give him a hug, then Barry comes over, moving his guitar to the side and hugs me.

"You can thank Jack for me being here. He set the whole thing up and didn't tell me anything until like, three days ago," I say to Adam.

"Maybe I'll buy him a car when I get home, or a new pair of shoes," he says, making me laugh. I can feel a few happy tears fall down my cheek, and Adam wipes them away with the side of his finger.

Neil comes down from the drum riser with a smile on his face

"It's good to see a face from home. What's up, girl? How are you?" he says, giving me a hug.

"I'm good, Sanderson. Your wife wanted me to give you this when she found out I was coming, though," I reach up and grab his jaw with one hand and give him a kiss on the lips.

He laughs when I pull away. I grab Adam's arm and put it around my shoulders.

"I'll have to thank her when I talk to her next," we all laugh again, then Adam puts his arm around my waist and pulls me playfully.

"Alright guys, I'm going to steal a few minutes alone with my girl. Call us and we'll meet up for dinner or something," he says to the rest of the guys.

"Go, get out of here!" Barry says with a laugh.

Adam grabs my hand and leads me off the stage at a much faster pace than Chris and I came onto it.

"Babe, you're going to pull my arm out of it's socket!" I whine, teasingly, as we walk through the large feild type facility, and then across the street towards the hotel.

"Walk faster, then," he says with a devilish grin on his face.

We go into the hotel and go upstairs to the room he's staying in. Outside the door, he fumbles through his pockets to find his room key, while I kiss his neck and breath into his ear, whispering all of the dirty thoughts that have ran through my mind since he's been gone. I feel him moving faster to put the card style key into the door.

He drags me inside and as soon as the door is shut, he starts to kiss me again, rougher this time. He unbuttons my shirt and pulls off the cami that I'm wearing under it. I do the same to him until he's shirtless. He picks me up and carries me over to the bed, setting me down on the edge of it.

I start to unsnap his jeans, but he stops me and pulls me against his chest, tightly hugging me. He has one hand on the back of my head and the other around my side. Both of us are breathing really hard.

"I love you so much, and as much as I want to take my time with you and make love to you, right. I can't right now. I want you too bad," he says on a ragged breath, his voice hoarse. I grin and look up at him.

"Just shut up and fuck me. NOW!"