Becoming

Can I Play With Madness?

Several weeks later, the bus pulled into their hotel in Sacramento, with everyone in the band looking forward to an evening off. Dave hurried up to his room as soon as he got his key, wanting to put in a call to Ade before it was too late in Montreal. To his surprise, he got the answerphone, but just assumed that they'd gone out to dinner or were visiting Nathalie's parents or perhaps her brother or something. He left a message with the hotel's phone number and his room number so that Ade could call him back whenever he got in.

He perused the room service menu after that, deciding to eat dinner in his room so that he'd not chance missing a return call from Ade. However, his lover didn't call for nearly another two hours, and when he did, he delivered unhappy news.

"Davey, I feel awful saying this," Ade said once they'd greeted each other, "but I'm not going to be able to come out to the Salt Lake City show like we'd hoped." He sounded tired, worried, and upset.

"Oh, Ade," Dave sighed. "I was really looking forward to seeing you, too. What happened, why can't you come? Is everything all right?"

"Not really," Ade sighed. "Nathalie's in hospital, and will be there until she has the babies. She actually went into labour today, but they were able to stop it, as it's far too early for the babies to be born safely. But she's got to stay bedridden now, whilst they give her all sorts of treatments to keep labour from starting again and to help the babies' lungs mature more quickly, cos at this point, there's no guarantee at all as to how long they'll be able to hold off labour. Hopefully for at least another month, but there's no knowing what'll happen."

Dave winced. "Bloody hell. Of course you've got to stay home, then! You've Dylan to think of, and if... if anything was to happen, you know you'd never forgive yourself if you weren't there."

"Yeah," Ade agreed. "But I still feel bloody awful about missing out on the trip. I really, really wanted to see you again, baby."

"I know, love," Dave said softly. "Believe me, I want to see you, too. But there's no way you can come out here and back again, not even for an overnight. You've got to be there for Nathalie's sake." He tried not to let the disappointment sound too badly in his voice. He didn't want Ade feeling any worse than he already was.

"You're the best, Davey," Ade said softly. "Thanks for understanding. I love you so much."

"I love you too, Ade," Dave replied, his smile warming his voice. "This is no different from me needing to run back to Hawaii when Tamar was still in hospital after the car accident all those years ago. I needed to be there for that, and now you need to be there for this. Maybe if Tamar's doing better, I can try to get away for a weekend after Japan or something? But yeah, that'll depend on how she's doing – she said her doctor is still a bit concerned about her blood pressure, so I don't want to make any promises either."

"Yeah, I get it," Ade said, then gave a rueful chuckle. "And here I thought it was nice that we'd have kids so close in age. I didn't expect we'd both be dealing with our wives having pregnancy complications at the same time!"

Dave had to laugh at that observation. "Yeah. Well, after all this, let's hope the kids end up as friends!" He started to say something else, but got interrupted by a small voice in the background on the other end of the call.

"Dada! Uh-oh, Dada," Dylan's voice could be heard.

"Oh, blimey!" Ade burst out laughing. "I've got to go, Dylan's managed to unscrew the top off his bottle and poured his juice all over himself. I love you, Davey."

"I love you, Ade, have fun with the cleanup," Dave said, laughing. "Talk to you soon."

"Talk to you soon," Ade said before hanging up.