Fallen Embers

A few days later in LA, Billie and Adie flew down to LA for the treatment meeting for 'Only Woman Bleed' with Sam Bayer. Sabrina, Toby, Billie and Adie along with a camera crew which was filming material for the upcoming 'Diary' and 'Making of..' were in a van driving to the meeting. Sabrina looked over at the cameras warily since she was really unused to having cameras follow her around 24/7. The crew which consisted of 4 people, 2 camera operators, a sound person, and the woman in charge who did everything else and they were to be following Sabrina for the next couple of weeks. Though after a while, Sabrina loosened up in front of the cameras, and actually forgot about them as she rambled on about various subjects to her friends during the ride.

Adie smiled to herself as Sabrina started coming out of the shell that she put up after she and Tre spilt. Sabrina was a vibrant creature and it was sad to see the woman withdraw from everything, and to see her coming back to life, so to speak, was refreshing. Her husband was beside her joking with Sabrina about something stupid, and Sabrina was laughing and the happiness was reaching her eyes, and a rosy tinge was in her cheeks. Adie thought back to what Billie had spoken about a few nights ago to her, about Mike leaving the studio, and Sabrina's truck left at Rudy's overnight. She wondered if whatever if anything had happened between Mike and Sabrina, if that was responsible for the change in Sabrina's behavior.

When the van pulled up along the building that housed Sam's offices, the small group piled out of the van in a heap, since Billie pushed Sabrina out the door, and in turn she grabbed him and pulled him along with her. The cameras were rolling and caught everything on tape. Adie and Toby both grabbed their partners and pulled them off of one another. Sabrina was pretending to take mock swings at Billie for shoving her, and Billie was pretending to jump over Adie to get at Sabrina. Toby smacked Sabrina on the head, and pushed her toward the door to the building. As she moved, she flung back to Billie a dirty look and a "I'll get you back BJ" before cracking up with laughter.

In Sam's office was a story board with the treatment on it, with Sam pacing back and forth waiting for the group to arrive. To say he was excited was an understatement. Sam who in the words of Mike Dirnt, was "A pimp with a limp who needs a lozenge." and in addition to that, he was a little fireball. When Sabrina came in the room, he immediately started talking about the treatment and what he wanted to do.

"I want to recreate the scene of violence between you and the man... like each time the violence gets worse until the final scene where you get trashed. Scattered in between the fight scenes will be bedroom scenes where he is just taking control and where you don't want to be there type feelings. You see where I'm going." Sabrina nodded as Sam continued on ranting. "Okay, now there will be performance scenes in between everything also. So we'll need two days to shoot, one with the performance and one with the acting scenes. I want to hire a physically big actor to play the other half, he is going to need to be able to throw you around. We also are going to a special effects person to make you look beaten."

"Hey Sam, I'm not really comfortable with an actor throwing me around. BUT I'll tell you what, if you let me cast the part with a friend of mine, we won't need a special effects person, I'll be able to give you the real thing."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if someone is going to be throwing me around like a rag doll, I want it to be someone I trust and who I know can do what you want without hurting me. I don't trust any old actor to do something like that."

"Who do you have in mind?"

"A wrestler friend of mine, he is a big guy. He can also break me open so to give you real blood. I think we need to be as real as possible with this video, and I want someone who can do that, and not hurt me in the process. You ever watch WWE Sam?" she asked with a smile. Sam nodded and Sabrina continued. "I was thinking about Hunter. He is big, bruising, and is one of the best at breaking someone open. He looks huge, and with his face, he can put fear into anyone's heart. If you have a computer around here with internet, I'll pull up his bio and shit from WWE.com"

When Sabrina showed Sam what Hunter looked like, he immediately agreed to her idea. Sabrina pulled out her phone and scrolled through her phone book and quickly hit speaker phone as she hit the send button. After a few rings a deep male voice answered, "Ya."

"Hunter? It's Sabrina Sanders. How are you doing man."

"Sabrina, God Damn. You still exist? Rumor through the grapevine was that you disappeared after that wussy divorced you. That asshole, if we ever find him, we'll rough him up for you Bree."

Sabrina smiled at the use of her nickname. "Well Hunter, thank you for the wonderful show of support, but I caused the beginning of the end of my marriage, so you need to beat me instead, WHICH comes to the reason I called you." Sabrina continued on about the video shoot and soon ended the conversation with exchanging of numbers with Sam's people so he could arrange a schedule for the shoot around Hunter's in ring time.

After finishing off the last bit of meeting with Sam, the group headed back into their van and back to the hotel and going their separate ways. Sabrina decided to go home to New York until the video shoot was scheduled. Ramona had been coming up on weekends to learn about the horse business from Chris and Henry who was her and Chris' legal guardian, the man who taught them both everything they knew; and Sabrina wanted to have as much time with the young woman as possible before her world exploded with music. Within the hour Sabrina and the camera crew were on Sabrina's jet heading to New York.

Once Sabrina was home she took advantage of having a normal work schedule. Up at 7 and out to the barns by 7:30am, Sabrina thrived in her normal environment. She picked up a few pounds, and filled back out with her old curves. The fresh upstate June air did her good as the color had begun to return to her skin. For the first time since the spilt, she felt alive again.

One night before she went to bed, she was looking for something to sleep in and she had found a tee shirt of Tre's in the dirty laundry and when she pulled it out, his scent of his body mixed with his cologne filled her nostrils. The tears came to her eyes as she breathed in his heady scent, that she always loved smelling. She took the shirt and held it to her face as the tears threatened to spill over. She wondered just what he was doing at that moment in time and if he ever thought about her.

Across the country in a little town called Oakland, Tre was trying to find something to wear to this award thing the band was going to that night. As he poked through his closet, he came across a bag of clothes that he had brought back from the house he shared with Sabrina. He pulled the bag out of the closet and dumped the contents on the floor.

As he dug through the scattered clothes in front on him, he fingers came in contact with a shirt that wasn't his. He pulled it out and held onto it in his hands. In his fingers was one of Sabrina's tank tops. He just stared at it for a moment before he brought it up to his nose. With a shaky inhale, Sabrina's light citrus perfume and body scent flowed into his nose. His mind wandered back to her, as her scent invaded his brain. As the tears fell from his eyes, he wondered what she was doing at that moment in time and if she ever thought about him.

A more days went by before Sabrina found out that the video shoot was scheduled for that following Wednesday. It was Friday and she would still have the weekend with Ramona before having to start the huge promotional stuff for 'Rebirth'. A few hours later, Sabrina was on top of Satan, riding him around the practice ring, while Chris and Henry were watching.

A car pulled up into the driveway and a young girl came flying out and launched herself at Henry. Henry, who was a spry 85 year old, handled the girl as if she was a foal who needed a lift. After giving Chris a hug, Ramona waited for the woman in the ring to notice her. When Sabrina came around the outside, she caught a view of Ramona and raised her hand in a wave, as she guided the large horse toward where the people were standing. By the time Sabrina had ridden up, Lisea had joined the men and her daughter. Lisea already had her camera out and was clicking away at the woman riding the large black horse.

"Hey Chicklet, how are you doing today?" Sabrina asked the young girl who had come running up to her as soon as she dismounted Satan.

"MomBee." Ramona cried as she hugged the older woman. "Can we go riding for a bit?"

"Sure." she said, ruffling the young girl's hair. "Let's go and get your horse saddled."

The people watched Sabrina and Ramona walk away towards the barn. Henry turned to Lisea and spoke his mind. "Thanks for allowing Sabrina and well, all of us really, to continue Ramona's training. I know it means a lot to Sabrina to have someone to hand down her knowledge to."

Lisea gave the old man a hug, "I know this is what Ramona wants to do. She looks up to Sabrina and that's fine. As long as my daughter is happy, than I am happy. Besides if anyone would have put kink in the works, it would have been Frank. So you really should be thanking him and not me." she said ruefully.

Henry filed that information into his head for another time. He had actually spoken to Tre about Ramona's training after the divorce happened. He had spent a few hours on the phone with the younger man explaining how much this meant to Sabrina. Henry was glad to know that Tre was level headed and didn't let what happened between him and Sabrina to come between the relationship she had with his two children.

As he watched the two females disappear into the dark of a nearby barn, he turned and gestured for Lisea to come closer. "You do know that Sabrina has willed her portion of Hopeful Farm Inc. to Ramona." he said to her out of nowhere.

Lisea looked stunned and at a loss for words. "Wow, no I didn't know. Does Frank know?"

"No, as far as I know he doesn't. Sabrina, Chris and I sat down and talked about it not long after we noticed Ramona's talent. Why I was included, I have no clue since I had my shares on the business reverted back to Sabrina and Chris years ago, but anywho, she asked our opinion of it. Her reasoning was that she has no living children to pass along the 'family business' to and she felt and really still does feel that Ramona and Frankito are both children of her heart, and thought who better to have the farm but ones who will keep it going."

"Wow, I never knew she felt that way." Lisea said while stealing a glance at the barn where the woman had taken her daughter. "What about Frankito? Has he shown any interest in the horses"

"If Frankito shows interest, then she will rearrange the distribution ratio. As far as I know, she is leaving the bulk of her money to Frankito and then what's left and the farm to Ramona, in order to make a more even distribution of her estate. And that's not even including her publishing rights and song catalog or the trusts she has set up for all the children of her friends and family."

"What? Trusts? She has trusts set up?"

"Oh yes, all the children of her band members, Chris' children and including the children of the Green Day boys. Ever since her accident in 1982, she has had a will and updates whenever its needed. She is not in the best health from that accident even to this day and she wants to make sure that everyone she cares about is taken care of.

If you haven't noticed, family, to Sabrina isn't who's blood related to you, family is who cares about you. Family has always been the most important thing in her life, and when she and Tre were together, that is the happiest I have even seen her. And I have been her legal guardian since she was 12." The old man shook his head at himself. "The woman is now 45 and I still think of myself as her guardian, even though now as I have gotten older, she is now guarding over me."

Lisea turned to look at the scenery before her. She had no idea how deep Sabrina felt about the people around her. She wondered if her ex-husband knew any of this information. She was not privy to what had caused the split between Sabrina and him, he hadn't spoken to anyone about it, though she had a feeling that Mike and Billie knew more about it then they let on. Lisea mulled over in her mind the information and debated about sharing it. All she knew for sure, was that of anyone belonged together, it was Tre and Sabrina, and if there was anything that she could do to help bring them back together she would do it.

Behind the people talking were the cameras that everyone had forgotten about and that recorded every word that was spoken.

Soon Sabrina and Ramona came back out from the barn with Ramona leading a horse. The young girl changed clothes and had on knee high riding boots and a black helmet. She and the older woman were chatting about something that had to do with horses as they approached the group still standing by the railing.

"Okay ready for a leg up Chicklet?" With Ramona's nodding her readiness and by bending her left knee, Sabrina grabbed and helped lift the girl up onto the back of the horse. Seeing that the girl was properly in the saddle she then went to her own mount, and with a small groan, lifted herself up onto the much larger horse's back that she was riding earlier.

Guiding Satan over to the group, she called out to the camera crew who were a few paces behind. "We're going out into the back '40 if you want to follow, go grab one of the 6 wheelers and you can tag along." Upon saying that, the older woman nodded to the young girl and they both with an unseen gesture of the knees and thighs brought their horses to a trot and started out following fence that would lead them to the open pastures of the back '40 which in reality was actually more than 400 acres of land.

Later that night, Sabrina took Henry, Lisea and Ramona out to dinner downtown at Jerlando's. The little restaurant agreed for the camera crew to be there and sat the group on the main floor where they took over a whole corner. As they waited for the garlic knots to come out, Ramona effectually silenced the conversation with what she said. "Dad called me today and asked if I was up here yet. He wanted me to let you know that he was going to call you later."

Sabrina stopped and looked at the young girl, "Your Dad is going to call me later?" Not two seconds after the words left her mouth, her cell phone started to play 'Dominated Love Slave'. "Your Dad must have ESPN." Sabrina muttered as she reached for her phone, opening it and hitting the speaker phone feature.

"Hello."

"Ummm. Hi Sabrina, it's me, Tre."

"Yea, I knew that when my phone started singing, 'I want to be your dominated love slave, I want to be the one who takes the pain'." she laughed a little and continued. "You must have ESPN Tre, since Ramona just got done saying that you called her earlier. Then BAM, you call me."

"Oh, well it's okay that I called right?"

"Well yea, Tre. Why wouldn't it okay to call me?"

"Oh well, I dunno... ummm... well... the reason I called was to ask you if I could come down to your video shoot. I know that Billie and Adie are going, and Mike is planning on it to, but I would also like to go, that is if's it's okay with you, that is." he said stumbling over his words.

"Yea, Tre you can come, you're always welcome to come to stuff Tre. I mean geez, we were married and you guys had a lot to do with the album and all."

"Well okay, thanks Sabrina... I'll see you in a couple days then... ummm..." he seemed to want to say something else to the woman.

"What Tre?"

"It was great to hear your voice again Sabrina." he admitted quietly.

Sabrina looked down at the phone and bit her lip after she heard him speak those words. "Yea Tre, it was really good to hear your voice too. I miss talking with you." she admitted quickly back.

"Yea... ummm... well... yea... I'll see you in LA in a few days. Bye Sabrina." and with that he hung up the phone.

Sabrina looked at the phone for a little bit before closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath. When she exhaled, she looked up and plastered a smile to her lips and picked up the conversation where it had been left before the phone call.

As the people at the table continued to talk, they had forgotten the cameras which recorded every bit of what happened.

The weekend flew by and soon it was time for Ramona to leave. The camera crew, Lisea, Ramona and Sabrina went to the airport and boarded Sabrina's jet which was flying Ramona and Lisea home to New York City before continuing on to LA.

Arriving in LA late Sunday evening, Sabrina waited for Toby to pick them up from the private plane terminal. Having the film crew proved that normal transportation was useless, a van was needed to drive everyone to where they needed to go. Toby soon arrived with a van and swept them off to the place Sabrina stayed when in LA, The Chateau Marmont, which Sabrina had been going to since the mid 80's when it was a heavy metal hair band hangout.

They pulled in and was greeted with bell hops grabbing their bags. Sabrina and Toby strode into the lobby and went to the front desk. After getting things in order and finding out that Toby had reserved rooms for everyone including the members of Green Day, Sabrina headed up to her room to wind down and relax from the day's air travel.

Over the next two days, Sabrina chilled out in the California June time sun. She went shopping and a few photogs followed her around, but nothing major. On Tuesday night, Mike, Billie, Adie and Tre arrived and the five friends went out to dinner at Dolce. The photogs happily snapped their pictures as they emerged from the van. The camera crew stayed back at a distance once the party entered the restaurant.

On the way to their table, Sabrina pulled on Mike's sleeve and asked him the burning question. "Where is Britt?"

Mike looked sad as he leaned into her, "We can talk about this later okay?"

Sabrina nodded her acceptance of that statement and decided to make it her goal to make Mike laugh, he looked as though he needed it. During dinner the five friends caught up and surprisingly tension between Tre and Sabrina were non-existent. Since dinner was such a hit, the group decided to go out for a little bit to a club. Once at the club, Sabrina noticed Mike had disappeared and excused herself to go find him.

She found Mike outside smoking a cigarette. He wasn't paying attention to anything and he was startled when Sabrina touched his arm. "What's up Michael?"

Mike sighed and looked over to the blonde standing next to him. "Britt and I are having troubles. I don't know what's going on. She wanted me to stay home, but I needed, no I wanted to come down here for your shoot. I don't know what I'm going to do Sabrina. She knew that I had a job, that it took me away to go here and there. It's not like anything has changed in the last 2 years since we've been together." Mike took another drag of the cigarette. "I don't know what to do, I can't lose another woman to the music." He shakily exhaled the smoke and turned to Sabrina with tears in his eyes. "Sabrina what am I'm going to do?"

"I don't know Michael, but I'm here for you, for whatever you need." she said as she snaked her hand down to lace her fingers in hers. "I'm your friend, and I'll do whatever I can for you. You helped me, and its my turn to help you."

He smiled and moved closer to Sabrina and brought her into a hard hug. "Thanks Bree."

"I'll catch you Michael, I'll catch you."

And they didn't notice the cameras behind them filming every word.