Becoming

The Edge Of Darkness

When he arrived in Essex at the end of January, the first thing Dave noticed was an unfamiliar minivan parked alongside Steve's car. He didn't have time to wonder about it, though, as Janick pulled in before he'd gotten all of his things out of the boot of his rental.

"How are you, mate?" Jan asked cheerfully as he clambered out of the car. "And how's the family?"

"We're all well, how about you and yours?" Dave asked in return, smiling. "Need a hand with anything?"

"Nah, I've got it," Jan said, popping the boot. "And Sandra and the kids are doing well. Dylan's thrilled that he's going to Reception, so he can be, in his own words, 'a proper schoolboy like how Sian's a proper schoolgirl.' Gotta love kids' logic, yeah?"

"Yeah," Dave agreed with a laugh. "The American schools run a bit differently to here, but Tasha's in what the Yanks call Kindergarten this year and she's enjoying that so far." He grinned as they picked up their bags and walked to the door of the house, adding, "I have to say, I still think it's hilarious that both my former and current guitar partners in Maiden have sons called Dylan."

"So, if I quit, will that be a requirement for my replacement, that he have a son called Dylan?" Jan joked.

Steve opened the door before they could ring the bell. "Good to see you two," he said. "Erm, I've some news that's been kept quiet for some time now... d'you remember Emma, my kids' nanny, from when she was here with them back in '94?"

Dave nodded. "Yeah, not well, but I remember her. Nice lady, as I recall," he said.

"Really good with your youngest," Jan agreed.

"Well... she and I are married now," Steve said, blushing as he added in a near-mumble, "and about bloody time she agreed, cos she's expecting our second this summer."

Both guitarists blinked. "Oh... well, congratulations," Dave said. Then he laughed, adding, "And that explains the minivan I saw parked outside."

"And you're at five and a half sprogs now?" Jan chuckled. "Congratulations, mate!"

"Thanks," Steve said as he ushered them inside, still blushing. "Nicko and Blaze are s'posed to show up tomorrow, so you two can just settle in for tonight and we'll start working then, yeah?"

"Yeah," Dave and Jan agreed.

In the morning, the three men headed out to the pitch for some kick-about, trailed by Emma herding her and Steve's son Stanley, who was nearly two. After a while, the toddler ran out onto the pitch as well, so the game switched from something semi-serious to gentle nudges of the ball and all three of them cheering whenever Stanley managed to kick it without overbalancing and landing on his backside.

Steve had just scooped up his giggling son when Blaze's car pulled in, Nicko in the passenger seat. He took a deep breath and set Stanley on his shoulders before heading across the lawn to greet the newcomers.

Dave, Janick, and Emma followed at a slight distance, but clearly heard Nicko's surprised, "Bloody hell, are you serious?"

Dave and Janick broke out into loud laughter, and even Emma had to chuckle at the gobsmacked expression on Nicko's face.

Steve, beet red, also laughed. "Yeah, you bloody daft git, I'm serious. Come on, let's get you two settled in whilst the rest of us clean up for lunch. Then after, we'll head out to the Barn and start tossing ideas about, yeah?"

Everyone agreed and did just that, and they quickly fell into their usual patterns of footie in the morning and music all afternoon and evening as the five of them dove into the songwriting. Dave had an idea that he and Steve turned into a workable tune, and Janick and Blaze collaborated on another piece. But Steve did the bulk of the songwriting this time; Dave felt that in some ways, the bassist was almost daring the others to tell him that any of his ideas were wrong. The problem was, none of them really could – he and Nicko weren't strong enough as songwriters to offer other suggestions, Janick avoided any sort of confrontation whenever possible, and Blaze was still too new to the band as well as young enough to feel too insecure in his position to even consider contradicting Steve.