A Helping Hand

When Indy and Zacky returned to the studio, coffees in hand, the rest of the band had arrived and were all sitting in the kitchen at the table with Mudrock, Andy, Matt and Jason. Indy handed out coffees to Brian, Matt and Mudrock, receiving a cacophony of questions and abuse from those that were now caffeine free.

“Hush,” she told them as she took the remaining vacant seat, “you weren’t here when we went for the coffee run.”

“But you guys knew we would be here,” Johnny said, grumpy that he could smell the delicious fresh coffee but had none for himself.

“What happened to nice Indy?” Jimmy asked her, giving her his best puppy dog eyes. “I need the coffee to survive!”

With a roll of her eyes, Indy took a large sip of coffee before handing it over to the giant drummer across from her. She couldn’t resist that look if she tried. The action made the remaining 4 start up again, to which Indy just raised the one finger salute.

“All right guys, shut the fuck up,” Mudrock said, trying to silence the children before him. Now Indy and Zacky were back, the meeting could actually start. “Are you all quite done?”

“Aye, capt’n,” Jimmy said happily, his spirits lifting with each sip of coffee. It wasn’t as sweet as he usually liked it, but he wasn’t about to complain.

“Good. Now, we are just about finished the recording of the album,” he said, pointing to the whiteboard progress chart he had bought in from the main recording room.

It was the Bible of their recording time. It had each track down the Y axis, and each instrument across the X axis. As each instrument was tracked and completed, the box would be shaded to show it was complete. It was currently about 80% shaded, and as Indy looked in more detail, there was only one more white box left for her to fill.

“We need to finish off the vocals for 3 tracks, the guitars for 1, bass for 3 and then we need to get stuck into the recording of the additional percussion, piano, strings and gang vocals,” Mudrock explained, pointing out the white sections of the board. “I think we can have your stuff done by the end of the week, and we can get the session musicians in next week. That gives me 3 weeks to mix and for Eddie to come in and help master.

“For the rest of the week Brian, Jimmy, I need you guys to track the piano parts for Seize the Day, Beast and the Harlot and Sidewinder. Matt, you are with me to finish tracking your vocals, Johnny and Andy will track the bass lines. Tomorrow morning, Indy you need to finish Seize the Day and then you are done.”

Mudrock all but dismissed everyone with their jobs, leaving the group in the kitchen while he made his way back to the mixing desk. He had already set up for recording Matt’s vocals, knowing that the booth was a much better vocal recording area than any other in the studio.

The rest of the group started to disperse, Jimmy, Brian and Johnny headed out of the studio for a smoke before they started to record again, Matt went straight into the booth, starting his vocal warm ups, Andy, Matt and Jason went to the bass tracking room to set up for Johnny when he returned, and Indy and Zacky were left in the kitchen.

“I can’t believe there is only one more thing left to track,” Indy said, her attention focused on the board in front of her. She knew that her recording time was getting close to ending, but she hadn’t realised that she only needed to track two more small guitar parts and she was finished. She wasn’t prepared to have to stop hanging out with the band that had welcomed her so readily.

“I can’t believe it has almost been 8 weeks already,” Zacky commented, his attention on the table in front of him.

“Already, or only been 8 weeks?” She asked, trying to lighten the situation with a joke. Her gaze flicked over to the man to her left.

“And you say I am self-deprecating,” he replied, turning around to Indy. He took a deep breath, sighed and rolled his eyes, over-doing the actions so she knew he was just being silly. She smiled at the gesture.

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, waving him off. “We all know that you are still the king. I cannot dethrone you.”

“Damn fucking right,” he agreed, laughing at her words. “You will just have to wait your turn.”

“I’m not a very patient person, Zacky. Maybe I should stage an uprising. Overthrow the king.”

“Oh yeah, you and what army?”

“Who said I needed an army?” She questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“You can’t overthrow a king with no army!” He replied, play-outraged at the notion.

“You will be surprised, then,” she said, laughing at him. Zacky couldn’t help but laugh along with Indy, her smile and laugh infectious.

The studio door opened once more, Brian, Jimmy and Johnny returning once more. Exuberant as ever, Jimmy threw himself into one of the chairs at the table, sighing dramatically.

“I regret giving you that coffee, Jimmy-Jam,” Indy said, smirking at the action of the giant drummer.

“But I needed it,” he replied, turning his head to focus on her. “I needed it to get through the meeting!”

“Sure you did,” Johnny said, hitting Jimmy on the arm as he walked past on his way to the bass room.

“Someone still cranky that they didn’t get coffee? That I am Indy’s favourite?” Jimmy asked Johnny in a whining voice. “Someone needs their coffee to be a nice Mr. Bass-man?”

“Fuck you,” Johnny replied simply, flipping off Jimmy before stepping through the door between the main studio and the kitchen and shutting it firmly behind him.

Jimmy continued to yell after Johnny, not bothering to get out of the chair he had thrown himself into. The others laughed at his comments, never ceasing to be amused by their drummer. Indy’s attention was drawn away from Jimmy and to her vibrating phone. She didn’t recognise the number calling, but none the less stood from the table and walked towards the door outside to take the call in a more quiet location.

“Back in a sec,” she murmured to Brian as she passed him, indicating with her ringing phone that she was going to take a call.

“You guys were cosy,” Brian commented, taking a seat next to Zacky. He looked to his best friends face, waiting to see if he could see anything flash over his features.

“Not really,” Zacky replied, raising a questioning eyebrow to his friend. Indy and Zacky weren’t being cosy, they were just chatting. If they had been cosy, he would certainly know it.

“If you say so,” Brian replied, not 100% believing his counterpart.

Zacky raised an eyebrow at Brian, silently asking what he meant by the remark. Brian just winked in reply, making Jimmy loudly laugh at the silent interaction.

“Come on, team, let’s play some piano!” Jimmy exclaimed, breaking the silence and jumping to his feet. He made his way out of the kitchen and into the main room, disappearing behind the door.

“You coming with us?” Brian asked Zacky, assuming that even though Zacky couldn’t play piano, and not only because of the cast on his arm, that the younger guitarist would like to hear what they were creating. Since his return to the studio, he had been trying to absorb as much as he could, whether it was sitting in on Matt’s vocal takes, Johnny’s bass recording, or even coming in as early as Brian and Indy to hear them do the re-tracking that was needed.

“Nah, I will wait out here,” Zacky replied, shrugging his shoulders, surprising Brian.

“Waiting for you girlfriend?” Brian asked in a sing-song voice.

“What?” Zacky asked in return, trying to play it cool. It was bad enough Matt knew his feelings towards Indy, he didn’t want Brian knowing as well. He would never hear the end of it.

“Playing dumb, I see,” he said, over-acting a wink to Zacky. He couldn’t stop the smile on his face as he taunted his friend.

“Stop talking shit,” Zacky replied, rolling his eyes at Brian’s antics.

“Stop lying to yourself,” Brian responded, wanting to get in one last jab before he followed in Jimmy’s footsteps and made his way to the break out rehearsal room. “Zacky’s in love!”

Zacky put his hand on the only thing he could find, one of the seat cushions on the chair next to him, and threw it at his retreating band made as he kept singing ‘Zacky’s in love, Zacky’s in love’. Zacky was all of one second away from going after Brian and punching him as hard as he could in the arm. His first thought was to break one of his fingers, but as their album was riding on Brian’s skills right now, he thought better of it.

He was left alone in the kitchen, and his mind started wandering. Indy’s last day of recording was tomorrow, and it was only two very small guitar parts. Knowing how efficient she was, he knew that it would be tracked within an hour and then her work with the band would be completed. She would have no professional reason to hang around the studio with them anymore.

No reason to hang around with him anymore.

He hadn’t even considered the possibility of never seeing her again until this moment. Realistically, she had nothing tying her to the band anymore, nothing tying her to him. Tomorrow could truly be the last day he had with her. The thought alone made him anxious. He wasn’t ready to say goodbye just yet, but he equally wasn’t ready to share any of his feelings with her.

He had spent the last week trying to talk himself out of his crush. It had helped that he was only seeing Indy when she was in the studio in the mornings, only once or twice sitting in the sessions with her and Brian. When he had seen the relationship that had blossomed between the pair, he couldn’t help a stab of jealousy hit him. He knew Brian was not interested in her, and nor was she interested in him, their joking and bantering more akin to that of siblings than lovers, but he was still jealous over the bond they shared. Since then, he had taken a back seat, thinking that creating physical distance between them would help. If he didn’t see her, the crush couldn’t develop any further.

He was wrong.

The saying ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ was a cliché for a reason, and he had soon figured out why. Whenever she and Brian emerged from the recording booth of a morning, his stomach would flip, his anxiety rising due to her presence. It calmed as soon as she looked around for him, a smile always blooming on her face as she caught his eye. She would gesture him to get up and join them as she and Brian would debrief and catch Zacky up on what they had finished recording. At least while they were outside, he could join in the conversation and the banter without having to worry he was distracting them through a take.

He couldn’t help the effect she had on him, and as the trio would make their way inside, Indy taking lunch orders and Brian disappearing to harass Johnny, Zacky would tell himself that he would stay in the studio and watch Matt record. Every day this week he had found himself volunteering to go with Indy, just so he could spend more time with her.

While they were running the errand, they would get time to talk, like they had when Indy was checking in on him after his trip to the hospital. Their conversations would range from her checking in on his heath, making sure she was up-to-date with the latest news from his doctor, to the full hour conversation they had arguing whether or not time travel would be a good idea if it existed. Zacky was for, Indy was against. They would get back to the studio, usually both were in a fit of laughter, not being able to wipe the smiles off their faces.

Though he was trying to quell his feelings for Indy, he wouldn’t trade their conversations for the world.

Zacky had brought himself out of his thoughts, noting that Indy was still outside. He decided against going out and checking on her, giving her some privacy and giving himself some space from her. He was going to have to get used to not having her around anyway, so he should start sooner rather than later. With a groan, he got up from the table and made his way further into the studio debating if watching Jimmy and Brian try to nail their piano parts was going to be more entertaining than fucking with Johnny while he recorded.

Outside, Indy could not stop her mind from spinning if she tried. She sat on the curb outside the studio, her phone in one hand, a lit cigarette in the other.

She had given into temptation and bought a pack from the gas station across the road once she had hung up from her phone call, the comforting nature of the nicotine being too strong to ignore. She hadn’t smoked in over a year, only now falling off the wagon due to the sudden increase in stress levels.

“I didn’t think I would have to give you this talk again,” Mudrock said, walking over to his daughter. He knew her better than she would ever admit, and once he had noticed everyone else make their way into various rooms in the studio after the meeting, he knew he would find her outside, alone with her thoughts.

“What talk?” She asked him, stubbing out the cigarette into the gutter, hoping in vain that he had not seen her inhaling not two seconds before.

“The ‘I know you work in the music industry, but smoking still kills’ talk. Remember that one?” He said, taking a seat next to her and looking down at the cigarette packet with distain.

“That wasn’t the reason I started smoking,” she replied, rolling her eyes.

“I know, but I had hoped you had forgotten,” he said, shrugging. He knew that if she had started smoking again, she was not in a good way. There was only two reasons she would smoke, one was if she was drunk enough, and the other was if her stress levels peaked. Gathering she hadn’t Irish’ed her morning coffee, he assumed it was the latter, and started to worry.

“Not really something one forgets,” she replied, sighing heavily. As the cat was now out of the bag, she took a new cigarette, lighting it and inhaling. The embarrassment of smoking in front of her dad had worn off now he had caught her red-handed.

“Do you want to talk, or do you want to stew on it?” He asked her, nudging her with his shoulder.

“Stew,” she requested, knowing it wasn’t the answer he wanted. She compromised. “But come over after work, I’ll make us some dinner and we can talk then.”

“As long as there is no smoking inside,” he agreed, taking up her offer.

“I would never put my babies’ heath at risk!” She said, outraged at the thought.

“You better not, those dogs are the closest thing I will get to grandkids,” he joked, lightening the mood that had fallen between the pair.

“At least for a while, old man,” Indy agreed, grinning at her dad.

He took the opportunity, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her to his chest. He gave her a firm kiss on the forehead before releasing her.

“Just know that I love you, kiddo,” he told her. “No matter what.”

“Love you too, dad” she replied, giving him a watery smile as he stood up, ready to go back inside.

“Don’t stay out here too long, ok?” He asked her, knowing that the more she was outside, the more she would smoke. His heart broke every time he saw her inhale, but he put up a wall to stop her from noticing.

“I’ll try,” she promised.

“Maybe try talking to Zacky about it? I know you guys have grown close since the beginning of this situation,” he suggested, shrugging his shoulders innocently.

"Yeah," she replied softly. "Maybe."