Welcome to the Jungle
Your Tears Don't Fall, They Crash Around Me.
London woke up feeling like she’d been hit by a bus. Her stomach was a mess and her cramps had decided that today was the day to show up. Instead of being whiney and hiding out on the bus she’d gotten up, popped a couple Aleve, and dressed before heading to the nearest Starbucks. She wanted coffee and she knew Matt and the guys would as well. When she’d come out of the coffee shop she’d found Cat there with Corey. Clearly they’d had the same idea she had.
When they got back to the bus she handed her newborn niece over to Matt and had just about cute over loaded at the sight of the big tattooed Welsh rocker holding the baby girl. Matt had handed Anastasia back to Cat so that he could take his cup of coffee and wake up a bit. The jet lag was killing them all, coming back and forth from Europe had wiped them all out. Padge, Moose and Jamie appeared at different times, all half asleep and almost ran London over to get to the coffee. Something she’d taken to calling the sweet nectar of the gods.
When they were all caffeinated and mostly awake the guys wandered off to watch some of the other shows. Matt must have picked up on her not feeling so hot since he stayed back with her and Cat. London leaned against him gratefully and tried to figure out why she was light headed. She knew her back and shoulders were hurting because they always did when she got her period; the bunks probably didn’t help either. George came by a little later to pick Anastasia and Cat up, probably to bring them around and show off the tiny baby.
Which was exactly the reason London and Matt were curled up on the black leather couch in the massive tour bus.
“Do you wanna just hang out at the bus instead of coming to the show?” Matt murmured into her hair and London shook her head.
“Where’s the fun in that?” She laughed a little and used his chest as a pillow as they watched yet another episode of NCIS. They didn’t have a whole lot of time before Matt had to get on stage so London forced herself up and began to pull herself together. She had a thing about having her makeup done and her outfits at least semi decent if they went out. Sure she often times went out with very minimal makeup but she liked doing her makeup, it was fun and she felt pretty.
Pulling on one of Matt’s Ramones tee shirts which had had the sleeves lopped off she latched her bullet belt around her hips and shoved her feet into a pair of her studded boots. She hissed out a breath as a particularly vicious cramp slammed into her lower abdomen and waited for it to subside before she stood up again. Walking out to the main area she found Matt who’d already pulled on his concert attire and was ready to head out. She figured the rest of the guys would be meeting them at the bus so they could walk over and be directed as one unit to the stage. It’d make everyone’s job easier. Plus she was pretty sure they had to come back and change.
Taking Matt’s fingers she tangled theirs together and curled back up on the couch. She didn’t want to move a whole lot if she could help it. Moving just seemed to make her cramps worse, not that they were a walk in the park to begin with.
“You sure you’re okay love?” Matt turned and studied her quietly, London nodded. She really didn’t want to miss watching Matt on stage. Even if she’d watched him more times than most people got to witness in their lives, it didn’t change the way she felt when she saw him perform. He loved what he did and it showed clearly in his performance on stage.
“Yeah, if I feel really bad I’ll come back here and lay down.” She shrugged, but doubted she’d leave the back stage area. She didn’t really like wandering around the festival grounds without Matt or one of the guys. Matt nodded and dropped a kiss to her forehead. When the other guys showed up they changed and grabbed whatever they needed to bring to the stage with them. Really it was only the bass and guitars that needed to be brought since Moose was playing on the kit that was already set up there. It wasn’t like the crew wanted to unpack his kit if they didn’t have to. Since there was a fair number of bands playing really quickly after each other they just agreed to slightly modify one drum kit that was already there. Honestly London didn’t know a whole lot about it, but she knew Moose’s kit was still in Europe.
Hoisting herself out of the couch using Matt’s hands as a lever she giggled and they all headed off the bus. Hitting the last step black and metallic spots washed across her vision and she shook her head slightly to clear them. She brushed it off as head rush and hopped off the last step after Matt.
“Ma-“ the sentence couldn’t get past her hips before black washed over her vision and she found her body rushing towards the ground.
Matt turned back and lunged as London’s eyes rolled back and her body dropped like dead weight. His head whipped around towards where his bandmates stood. Padge took off at a dead run probably to find the medics. They’d stationed the paramedics around the festival grounds in case someone fell or got heat exhaustion.
“Lon,” he tried to control the shakiness of his voice, but his fiancée had just passed out. What felt like hours passing was only minutes before the paramedics arrived and the giant bus of an ambulance was backed up. There were two, one who pulled London out of Matt’s death grip and the other who tried to get him to talk to them.
“Sir! You need to help us here, think as hard as you can, I know this is scary.” The one said; he just stared at London’s pale form.
“She said she was getting her period. She had cramps and her neck and back were sore-“ he didn’t understand what any of that had to do with this.
“Was she experiencing anything else?”
“No! Just…help her!” Matt sat back on his heels and shoved his hands into his hair as they hooked London up to an IV and loaded her into the back of the Ambulance.
“Go, we’ll cover,” Moose said as Matt stood debating, he had blood on his hands…when had that gotten there. His jeans were covered in it too. Pushing that into the back of his mind he jumped into the back of the ambulance and as soon as the doors were shut he took her fingers in his hands. The EMT in the back with him tried to look encouraging.
When he got to the waiting room in the hospital, the rest of his band and their family stood there. Matt walked numbly to the hard plastic chairs and sat down heavily. Moose put a hand on his shoulder and Matt couldn’t even find the strength to look up at him.
“Mr. Tuck?” Matt forced himself to stand and stop thinking of the worst possible outcomes. Walking towards where the doctor stood Matt swallowed hard.
“What’s wrong?” His voice sounded foreign to his own ears.
“Your fiancée is lucky you guys got here so quickly.” Matt nodded because what else was he supposed to do, jump up and down for joy? “I hate to be the one to tell you this…maybe you want to go someplace more private for this?”
Matt nodded, not wanting to hear the worst news he’d get in his whole life, in a waiting room full of anxious people. Walking down the narrow hallway a little more, Matt never hated the smell of antiseptic and cleaners more.
“Your fiancée had what was commonly called an Ectopic Pregnancy.” The doctor started and Matt felt his back hit the wall in the tiny hallway. “It’s what happens when the egg attaches somewhere outside of the uterus. She was only eight weeks.” Like that made it any better.
“Where is she?” He found his voice hoarse and ragged even to himself. It sounded like he hadn’t had all those months of vocal coaching and speech therapy.
“She’s in recovery room. The good news is we caught it just in the nick of time, she can still have children. It’ll be difficult, but it’s possible…” Matt didn’t hear the rest of his sentence. The doctor led him down another hallway to where London was asleep, with more color this time, in one of their beds. She had IVs and machines hooked up to her, but she looked more like herself than she had in the last couple of days. Taking her limp hand he sat down heavily in the chair closest to the bed.
He just watched her quietly and tried not to wonder why no one had seen this earlier. Her sister was going to be pissed. Everyone was probably freaking out. He’d vanished and he didn’t think he had the strength to go back out there. Not right now.
When they got back to the bus she handed her newborn niece over to Matt and had just about cute over loaded at the sight of the big tattooed Welsh rocker holding the baby girl. Matt had handed Anastasia back to Cat so that he could take his cup of coffee and wake up a bit. The jet lag was killing them all, coming back and forth from Europe had wiped them all out. Padge, Moose and Jamie appeared at different times, all half asleep and almost ran London over to get to the coffee. Something she’d taken to calling the sweet nectar of the gods.
When they were all caffeinated and mostly awake the guys wandered off to watch some of the other shows. Matt must have picked up on her not feeling so hot since he stayed back with her and Cat. London leaned against him gratefully and tried to figure out why she was light headed. She knew her back and shoulders were hurting because they always did when she got her period; the bunks probably didn’t help either. George came by a little later to pick Anastasia and Cat up, probably to bring them around and show off the tiny baby.
Which was exactly the reason London and Matt were curled up on the black leather couch in the massive tour bus.
“Do you wanna just hang out at the bus instead of coming to the show?” Matt murmured into her hair and London shook her head.
“Where’s the fun in that?” She laughed a little and used his chest as a pillow as they watched yet another episode of NCIS. They didn’t have a whole lot of time before Matt had to get on stage so London forced herself up and began to pull herself together. She had a thing about having her makeup done and her outfits at least semi decent if they went out. Sure she often times went out with very minimal makeup but she liked doing her makeup, it was fun and she felt pretty.
Pulling on one of Matt’s Ramones tee shirts which had had the sleeves lopped off she latched her bullet belt around her hips and shoved her feet into a pair of her studded boots. She hissed out a breath as a particularly vicious cramp slammed into her lower abdomen and waited for it to subside before she stood up again. Walking out to the main area she found Matt who’d already pulled on his concert attire and was ready to head out. She figured the rest of the guys would be meeting them at the bus so they could walk over and be directed as one unit to the stage. It’d make everyone’s job easier. Plus she was pretty sure they had to come back and change.
Taking Matt’s fingers she tangled theirs together and curled back up on the couch. She didn’t want to move a whole lot if she could help it. Moving just seemed to make her cramps worse, not that they were a walk in the park to begin with.
“You sure you’re okay love?” Matt turned and studied her quietly, London nodded. She really didn’t want to miss watching Matt on stage. Even if she’d watched him more times than most people got to witness in their lives, it didn’t change the way she felt when she saw him perform. He loved what he did and it showed clearly in his performance on stage.
“Yeah, if I feel really bad I’ll come back here and lay down.” She shrugged, but doubted she’d leave the back stage area. She didn’t really like wandering around the festival grounds without Matt or one of the guys. Matt nodded and dropped a kiss to her forehead. When the other guys showed up they changed and grabbed whatever they needed to bring to the stage with them. Really it was only the bass and guitars that needed to be brought since Moose was playing on the kit that was already set up there. It wasn’t like the crew wanted to unpack his kit if they didn’t have to. Since there was a fair number of bands playing really quickly after each other they just agreed to slightly modify one drum kit that was already there. Honestly London didn’t know a whole lot about it, but she knew Moose’s kit was still in Europe.
Hoisting herself out of the couch using Matt’s hands as a lever she giggled and they all headed off the bus. Hitting the last step black and metallic spots washed across her vision and she shook her head slightly to clear them. She brushed it off as head rush and hopped off the last step after Matt.
“Ma-“ the sentence couldn’t get past her hips before black washed over her vision and she found her body rushing towards the ground.
Matt turned back and lunged as London’s eyes rolled back and her body dropped like dead weight. His head whipped around towards where his bandmates stood. Padge took off at a dead run probably to find the medics. They’d stationed the paramedics around the festival grounds in case someone fell or got heat exhaustion.
“Lon,” he tried to control the shakiness of his voice, but his fiancée had just passed out. What felt like hours passing was only minutes before the paramedics arrived and the giant bus of an ambulance was backed up. There were two, one who pulled London out of Matt’s death grip and the other who tried to get him to talk to them.
“Sir! You need to help us here, think as hard as you can, I know this is scary.” The one said; he just stared at London’s pale form.
“She said she was getting her period. She had cramps and her neck and back were sore-“ he didn’t understand what any of that had to do with this.
“Was she experiencing anything else?”
“No! Just…help her!” Matt sat back on his heels and shoved his hands into his hair as they hooked London up to an IV and loaded her into the back of the Ambulance.
“Go, we’ll cover,” Moose said as Matt stood debating, he had blood on his hands…when had that gotten there. His jeans were covered in it too. Pushing that into the back of his mind he jumped into the back of the ambulance and as soon as the doors were shut he took her fingers in his hands. The EMT in the back with him tried to look encouraging.
When he got to the waiting room in the hospital, the rest of his band and their family stood there. Matt walked numbly to the hard plastic chairs and sat down heavily. Moose put a hand on his shoulder and Matt couldn’t even find the strength to look up at him.
“Mr. Tuck?” Matt forced himself to stand and stop thinking of the worst possible outcomes. Walking towards where the doctor stood Matt swallowed hard.
“What’s wrong?” His voice sounded foreign to his own ears.
“Your fiancée is lucky you guys got here so quickly.” Matt nodded because what else was he supposed to do, jump up and down for joy? “I hate to be the one to tell you this…maybe you want to go someplace more private for this?”
Matt nodded, not wanting to hear the worst news he’d get in his whole life, in a waiting room full of anxious people. Walking down the narrow hallway a little more, Matt never hated the smell of antiseptic and cleaners more.
“Your fiancée had what was commonly called an Ectopic Pregnancy.” The doctor started and Matt felt his back hit the wall in the tiny hallway. “It’s what happens when the egg attaches somewhere outside of the uterus. She was only eight weeks.” Like that made it any better.
“Where is she?” He found his voice hoarse and ragged even to himself. It sounded like he hadn’t had all those months of vocal coaching and speech therapy.
“She’s in recovery room. The good news is we caught it just in the nick of time, she can still have children. It’ll be difficult, but it’s possible…” Matt didn’t hear the rest of his sentence. The doctor led him down another hallway to where London was asleep, with more color this time, in one of their beds. She had IVs and machines hooked up to her, but she looked more like herself than she had in the last couple of days. Taking her limp hand he sat down heavily in the chair closest to the bed.
He just watched her quietly and tried not to wonder why no one had seen this earlier. Her sister was going to be pissed. Everyone was probably freaking out. He’d vanished and he didn’t think he had the strength to go back out there. Not right now.