John's Revenge

**One month later**

*Billie's POV*

"Come on, Joey," I groaned. "Go to sleep! Come on!" I rested my head on the bars of his crib and sighed. His wailing bored through my skull like a drill. Adeline was a little star, she slept like an angel. She had a room on the other side of the house, as we didn't want Joey to wake her up and have to deal with two crying babies.

I suddenly had a crazy idea. I ran downstairs and searched frantically through the drawers. I finally found what I was looking for and ran back to Joey's room.

I held my grandfather's pocket watch in front of Joey's face.

"You are feeling very sleepy. Your eyelids are getting heavy and your mind is clearing, you will fall asleep in three...two...one!" I snapped my fingers.

Joey's eyes closed.

"Oh my God!" I whispered. "I did it!" I walked out of the room and into our room. Adie was asleep, she had been looking after Joey for hours, and I lay down beside her.

I heard screaming. I groaned and threw my legs out of the bed, followed by my head. I ran down the hall into Joey's room. He gurgled happily when he saw me.

"Why do you hate me?" I hissed.

He looked at me and gurgled some more. I stepped outside. He started crying again. I went back in.

"Come on! Can't babies count sheep?" I was met with silence. "Oh, have you run out of sheep? Come on, look," I pointed to the smiling, bunny clock on the wall. "It's 3 am! Mr Bunny's laughing at ya! You won't go to sleep, so he's laughing at ya! Sleep!"

He responded by holding his chubby fist towards me. I let him hold my finger and lay on the floor next to his crib.

* * *

I woke up to the sound of birds chirping. Adie was kneeling next to me. I sat up, Joey's hand still wrapped round my finger. I gasped. My spine ached, it was crooked from having slept on the floor.

"How are you, honey?" Adie whispered, rubbing my back.

"Well, my spine is crooked and totally messed up, my eyes ache, my mouth is as dry as the Sahara and...I can not feel my face."

"Well," Adie smiled sympathetically. "In a few weeks he'll sleep through the nights and you won't have your crooked spine, aching eyes, dry mouth and numb face. Eventually, you'll look back at this time and...well, you won't laugh, um... inspiration! You could use this experience as a basis for a song."

"Who would listen to it?" I gasped.

"I don't know," Adie admitted. "Just try it, maybe it'd help. You could even sing it to Joey to try and get him to sleep."

That was what did it. I was willing to try anything to get Joey to sleep.

* * *

I sat downstairs with the notebook I brainstormed in.

OK, a song to get Joey to sleep, but describe how I feel...

Joey, why won't you go to sleep?
You're fucking wearing me right out..

No, that wouldn't work...

Go to sleep you little bugger!

No, Adie would kill me, and I didn't mean it.

I'm having trouble trying to sleep..

Hmm, that might work..

I thought back to last night and what I'd been saying to Joey.

I'm having trouble trying to sleep,
I'm counting sheep but running out...

I smiled. That was a good start. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea of Adie's...

The phone rang and I immediately jumped up to get it.

"Hello?" I asked.

Too late. I heard Joey wailing and sighed.

"Fuck!" I muttered.

"Oh, sorry dude," I heard Mike say down the phone.

"It's OK, what's up?"

"Um, d'you want to come over for a while? Tre's coming too. Adie won't be alone, Annie's going to go over, I think Tre said Liv's going over there as well."

"Kay Mike. I'll be there in five. I won't leave until Annie and Liv are here though, s'not fair on Adie."

"OK, See ya."

"Bye."

I hung up and ran upstairs. Adie was in Joey's room feeding him. She looked up and saw me in the doorway.

"Hey, Bill, who was it?"

"Mike. He wants me to come over. He said Annie's coming here, Liv too, and he didn't want to be all by himself in the big scary house!" I said, smiling.

Adie smiled back. "There's a bottle of milk in the fridge, could you go give it to Adeline before you leave?"

"It would be my pleasure," I smiled before I walked downstairs.

I grabbed the bottle and ran back up the stairs.

"Don't run indoors!"

I sighed and slowed down as Adie called after me.

"Kay, sorry!"

I gently lifted Adeline out of her cot. She whimpered as I woke her up, but she didn't cry, just opened her large, brown eyes and stared at me reproachfully.

I suddenly felt very guilty for waking her up.

"I'm sorry sweetie," I whispered. "But Mommy told me to come and feed you."

I placed the bottle in her tiny mouth and fed her. The doorbell rang and I carefully went downstairs.

I opened the door with some difficulty, to see Liv and Annie.

"Hey guys," I said, smiling.

"Aww," cooed Liv. "She looks bigger every time we see her."

"You see her every day," I said, frowning slightly.

"Come on," said Annie. "They are growing quickly aren't they?"

"Yes," I replied. "They're getting their first driving lesson tomorrow, then they're graduating the day after."

"What?" said Annie.

"Well, with me and Adie for parents, they're geniuses, so they were moved up a couple of years."

Annie and Liv giggled and walked inside.

I shut the door and followed them. Adeline had finished, so I handed her to Liv, who was in her sixth month and looking like Adie had then.

"Hmm, Liv, are you sure you're not having twins?" I mused.

"No, I had the doctor check thoroughly and she said I was definitely not having twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets or anything larger than one baby," she replied.

"OK. Anyway, I've got to go. Bye guys, Bye Adie!" I yelled.

"Bye Billie!"

"Oh, Liv and Annie are here!" I called.

"OK! Hey girls, I'm in Joe's room!"

The girls, including Adeline, went up the stairs as I walked out of the door. I stepped in my car and began to drive, my notebook in the glovebox. The guys and I had recorded five or six songs we really liked and were using for our next album, and I wanted to show them this.

* * *

We sat in Mike's basement, talking about all the trouble we'd had in the last year; we had been taking speed and the withdrawal symptoms when we decided to stop were more awful than anything we'd ever experienced.

"Yeah, it was complete and utter shit," Tre remembered. "It really fucked us up."

"I'm surprised Adie married me, I was such an ass."

"Yeah, you were an ass," smiled Mike. I threw a cushion at him.

"Fuck off!"

"I'm sorry, I was wrong, we were all asses, but you are still an ass!" Mike grinned as he ducked behind a spare drum kit of Tre's.

"Oh, I began writing a new song," I said, producing my notebook.

"Oooh! It feels like Christmas!" squealed Tre. "Tell us!"

"I've only got two lines," I said, flipping it open. "I'm having trouble trying to sleep, I'm counting sheep but running out... That's all I've got."

"Oo! I like it!" gasped Tre.

"Yeah it's good," agreed Mike, nodding.

"I was thinking of combining this with how we felt on speed," I said.

"I take it that the other feeling is you being fucking exhausted from Joey crying all night?" grinned Tre evilly.

"Hey buddy," I replied, staring at Tre. "In three months you'll have a crying baby 24/7 too."

Tre froze. "I'm sorry Billie, please help me?"

"Ok," I smiled.

"Oh! I've got two more lines! 'As time ticks by, still I try'," I smiled, thinking of the bunny clock in Joey's room.

Tre and Mike nodded smiling.

'"Oo! Oo! Oo! I got one!" shrieked Tre. "No rest for cross tops in my mind!"

"On my own, here we go," smiled Mike, thinking about his girlfriend, Louise, who had broken up with him because of him taking speed.

"Great," I smiled. "Let's read it through!"

"I'm having trouble trying to sleep.
I'm counting sheep but running out,
As time ticks by,
Still I try,
No rest for crosstops in my mind,

"On my own, here we go!" We chanted in unison.

"Yeah!" We all high-fived each other and grinned broadly. We loved it.