Living On A Prayer

Brian rubbed his face as the writer from Revolver and a couple photographers walked around his backyard pointing things out. He and the guys had gotten a call a few weeks after his dad posted a photo of Liliana on Facebook from Revolver wanting to do another special issue on them. At that point, Lily was almost a month old, James was almost two, and Owen was going to be one in August. All of the guys decided to sit down with the girls and talk about if they wanted to do it or not. They knew Val and Eloise would be the most hesitant because the magazine asked if they take photos of the children. Once Val and Eloise weighed their pros and cons, they gave the go ahead.

So now, mid August all of the guys sat in Brian’s house while he stood outside watching what the people from Revolver were doing. The girls had refused to be in the photo shoots unless it was for a family type portrait. They were upstairs figuring out what the kids should wear.

“Well Brian, do you think some outside and some inside?” Dan Epstein, the interviewer that also did their previous issue, asked.

“Yeah that’s fine. I’m sure Ellie can also help set stuff up. This is her garden.” Brian told them as the photographers walked up to them.

“So, should we see who’s ready?” Dan asked as they walked back inside.

“Let me ask what the girls think, have to catch the kids in a good mood.” Brian made his way upstairs to his room where all the girls were. “Hey, so should be start the interview first or get photos out of the way?”

“Um, I’ll say photos because Liliana is in her calm sleepy state.”

“Okay, come on James.” Brian picked up his son and made his way back downstairs with all of the girls in toe. “So what exactly did you guys want to do for photos?”

“I figured that Clay can get your family first since you have the youngest and then we can do Matt’s family.”

“Alright that works,”

“Guys, I made some food so feel free to help yourself.” Eloise told the band so they were standing around bored. “Now, what are we doing?”

Eloise stood off to the side holding Lily in her arms while Clay and his guys set up a black sheet. Brian removed his shirt and had Eloise remove Lily’s clothes and diaper. Eloise smiled as Brian rested their two and a half month old against his chest while the photographer began to take photos as Brian interacted with Lily.

“Mama,” James whined as he tugged on her hand. She knew he didn’t like being left out of anything.

“Can we get James in here?” Brian asked when he spotted how James was acting. James ran over to him while Eloise took Lily back and placed a diaper on her. Brian helped James remove his shirt then picked him up. Eloise smiled when Brian rested his forehead against James, their noses touching while the flashes went off.

Awhile later after they did the family photos and Zacky and Johnny took theirs with their respective girls, Eloise and Val stood in the kitchen baking, ignoring the camera’s they allowed to follow them. Lacey and Gena were sitting at the kitchen table with James and Owen, also ignoring the cameras. The guys were situated in the living room, just sitting on the couches answering questions that the girls could hear. Liliana was asleep in the bassinet behind the couch, sleeping through everything.

“Okay now to the questions a lot of the fans are asking about. How different is life now that the two of you have kids?” Dan asked, looking at Matt and Brian.

“Well, I guess for both of us it’s a big change. For the band, I think it hasn’t changed much. We’re just doing shorter tours because we don’t want to be gone all of the time.” Matt answered making sure the guys were good with the answer.

“Like for Johnny and me, we figured they’d have kids at some point and who knows, we could too. But that’s a part of life, we love their kids like they’re our own and we love their wives like they’re our sisters.” Zacky told them as James ran into t he room and climbed on his lap. Owen quickly followed and sat between Johnny and Zacky.

“Will you two have kids?” Dan asked Zacky and Johnny.

“It’ll happen when it happens. You can’t discount anything.” Johnny answered. Dan went to ask another question when a cry sounded out. Brian sat up and looked behind him to see Lily was awake. Quickly picking her up, he checked her diaper and excused himself.

“How good of a dad is Syn?”

“Really good, loves James like he’s his own and with Lily, well she’ll be a daddy’s girl through and through.” Matt told Dan as Brian returned with a quiet baby. Brian sat back down, letting Lily rest against his chest, falling back asleep.

“So Brian, what’s it like coming into a relationship as a step father?” Brian looked up at Dan from his little girl then looked over at James.

“He’s my son, even if we don’t share a genetic link.” James crawled over to his dad and cuddled into his side. “His birth father is man, as you can see on our walls, we honor every day. He was a marine, overseas a lot. He was killed by a roadside bomb while Eloise was six month pregnant.” Brian explained, his grip tightening on his son. “I never gave a second thought to wanting to be a dad to him. That’s why I adopted him.”

“We’re glad Syn found Ellie and James. What happened with his last marriage we were all scared because of the dark place he was in.”

“Wrote some great songs though,” Matt added in.

“Yeah, but then James dropped his monkey and I picked it up.” Brian said with a smirk.

“Monkey!” James jumped off the couch and ran over to his toy box, grabbing his stuffed monkey that was sitting on top of it. He ran back to his dad and climbed on the couch. “Monkey!” He said holding out the stuffed animal, showing Dan while the Photographer snapped pictures.

The guys continued through the interview, interrupted by the kids every once and awhile only making it better in their opinions. Once the people from Revolver left the guys let out a sigh and rested back. The girls came into the living room and sat next to their guys.

“So when does this magazine come out?” Gena asked, curling into her husband’s side.

“October issue, they’ll send up the rough copy next month for us to approve. Also they said they’ll email us copies of the photos.” Matt told them as he shifted his sleeping son. “We should head home now huh?”

“We should too,” Zacky and Gena added.

“Us too.”

“Alright, we’ll see you guys later.” Eloise told them as she walked them to the door. After the left, Eloise made her way back to Brian, who was lying on the couch, Lily on his chest, James tucked underneath his outer arm. Eloise smiled as she tucked herself between Brian and couch. “How do you feel after doing all of that today?”

Brian took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Better actually. Since we lost Jimmy, it’s been a rough road but I think letting the fans know how we’re doing now and how things are slowly getting better.”

“I’m glad honey and I’m happy I’m a part of this.” Eloise told him as she raised up, placing a kiss on his lips. “I thank the Lord every day that he made our paths cross again.” Brian smiled as she laid down against him. He rubbed her side and felt her fall asleep along with the kids. Brian looked up at the ceiling and smiled.

“Thanks Jimmy, I know you’re looking out for us up there . . . try not to have too much fun.”