A/N: I purposely left Cab out of my rendition of this story. He always seemed to be just thrown into the mix and he didn't add anything unique to the band, IMHO.

Chapter 1: The Gig

"What band?" Mack asked Elwood as the car bounced over an uneven section of the road. Buster yawned and lay down on the backseat, tired out from his exploits that day.

"I'll tell you more later about the band." Elwood spoke as he ran a red light. The singer decided it had been an up and down day for him, getting out of a new lower security prison, getting picked up the next day by one of his former drummer's dancer girls, and he was offered a job by his old drummer. The singer never thought that he'd made much of an impression on Willie to extend him a job offer, but evidentally age had mellowed out the drummer some. What had previously been a duo was now a single as Elwood knew that Jake had died almost 15 years ago. They said Jake had robbed a convenience store and a cop shot him dead, but Elwood knew that wasn't it at all. Nobody knew Jake like he did and he was convinced that there was more to the story than met the eye. Elwood had tried to make the Russian mafia leave Willie's club alone but they torched the place, and now they needed jobs. Privately, Elwood was amazed that Mack the bartender could sing so well. Mack had a rusty quality about his voice that if he used it just right, it was almost paralyzing to hear and quite pleasurable. Mack had the gravitas that Jake once did.

The blues brother pulled in at Mack's apartment across town. "The short story is Jake and I were raised on blues by an orphanage janitor named Curtis. He encouraged us to form a band and we toured for awhile, bringing the word of the blues around Illinois."

"Sounds interesting." they parked and Elwood picked Buster up and brought him to Mack's flat as the bartender unlocked the door. "Who was in the band?"

"Me, Jake, three horn players, three guitar players, Willie, and a piano player named Murph. Tomorrow I'm gonna start trackin' them down." he answered as he put Buster on the couch and Mack spread an afghan over the kid.

Mack's place was well furnished but sparse. The walls were done in a dark green which made Elwood think of the forest, but he disliked how close it felt to him. After years in a jail cell, Elwood thought he'd gotten over his claustrophobia, but was dismayed to find it still affected him. It had to be the colors, he decided. The blues brother took Mack's spare room, finding it offensive to his eyes, as it was painted a very dark shade of red, making him think of anger and fury.

"Goodnight, Elwood." Mack passed by on his way to his own room. Elwood determined that what Mack lacked in material things and comfort, he made up for in his personality. The bartender didn't really need much to make his life more comfortable and certainly wasn't accustomed to perks of any kind.

"Night, Mack." Elwood got ready for bed.

The next morning, all refreshed and ready to go, Elwood pulled out the yellow pages and started going through the last names, one by one. He found an advertisement for a radio show hosted by Dunn and Cropper, and he had an inkling he knew who they were.

"Come on Mack, Buster," he stood up. "we got us some recruiting to do."

Melody Calloway was on the phone in her office, dressed to the nines as usual. She was a secretary in a law firm now and was paid well for dealing with all sorts of clients. Her bosses, Stanley Katzenberg and Dorothy Andrews always insisted on her being dressed up to the point where she was uncomfortable and ready to start arguing. She didn't mind the fancy button up shirts nor the blazers she often wore, but she did so hate to wear heels. Oh well, looking professional was about 60 percent of the job.

"No sir, Mr. Katzenberg is in court today until about 4 PM. I can forward you to his voice mail if you like." she listened for a moment, then pressed the transfer button. The years had been kind to Melody with a small deepening of the lines around her face and a touch of gray at her temples. The secretary still often went on gigs for bands that wanted her technical expertise and she still liked freelancing for recording studios. Melody sighed, knowing that Elwood was abroad or traveling somewhere and he'd sent her maybe 2 postcards in the last 15 years. Jake's death really unhinged him and he stayed in Melody's apartment for weeks afterwards, trying to get a grip on himself. It wasn't until Melody suggested that he travel and see the world that he perked up. It seemed for the rest of the intervening years, Elwood did enjoy traveling a lot. She hoped he was happy wherever he was, checking out the local groups and tunes.

A screeching of car tires made her look up, inwardly wishing the racetrack was open that week, and she saw a Ford Crown Victoria powerslide into the parking lot. Two adults and one child, all dressed the same, got out and looked around as they slammed the doors.

"I'll be damned," Melody smoothed out her sleeveless bright blue top and checked her black skirt for anything clinging to it. "Elwood!" taking off the hands free phone headset from her ear, she put the answering service on, standing up. The firm was closed for the day and she walked over to the main entrance door, clicking away in her black pumps, she unlocked it and allowed the three to enter the main hall. Melody was just in catching up on paperwork so nobody would notice the three oddly clothed people she ushered in.

"Elwood!" Melody hugged him tightly. "It's been 15 years since I last saw you!" he seemed to have walked out of her thoughts and coalesced into the air around her as he hugged her back with a broad smile on his face. No matter what, he'd always been quite fond of Melody. She looked the same as ever to him.

"Same here," his voice was just how she remembered it. "Mel, this is Mack McTeer and Buster Blues, the newest members of the band."

Mack was a portly guy yet he still cut a great figure in the suit. Melody grinned at him and shook his hand warmly. "I hope you guys find it exciting on tour with us. I need some excitement." she shook hands with Buster as well, who looked pleased to be treated as an adult.

"How long you been here?" Elwood was eyeing the place with distaste. Melody knew he was seeing the posh furnishings in the waiting room, though despite their posh appearances, they had been bargains at a yard sale and were upholstered with a tacky rosebud printed fabric. The plants were wilting and though the unspoken rule was that Melody had to care for them, they were not in her job description and despite her lack of attention, a few of them had not died yet. Buster looked at a cactus and saw it had a flower on it as he walked around, taking in the place.

"Oh, about 3 years now. It's not much, but I still go out on gigs when I can to technical direct and I'm on call at the recording studios near here."

"Glad to see you haven't given up your roots. I can't recall the last time I saw you in a skirt." the Melody he knew did not like to wear skirts and heels. Perhaps she had changed some, but Elwood was very happy that her personality had not changed at all since the last time he saw her.

"They insist on it here. I can understand that, but I'm freakin' forced to wear skirts almost all the time." she grimaced at her black skirt. "This one's the only one that I like."

"You won't be forced to do that when you're back on the road with us." Mack grinned, immediately liking her. "Elwood's told me stories about you."

"The good stuff, I hope?" she teased, giving Elwood a playful light punch on one arm.

"He's been singing your praises."

"I like to hear that. Listen, it's Saturday and the office is closed. I had a morning meeting and I was just working on some paperwork. I'll meet you in the parking lot, I just have to lock up here, OK?"

"OK." the 3 waited by the Ford as Melody shut off the computer and locked up all the doors.

"She's pretty, Elwood." Buster watched as she tugged at the doors to make sure they were locked, then walked towards them briskly.

"She dated your trumpet player?" Mack had heard Elwood speak of Melody and Alan that morning when they were driving to get her. The singer had described Alan as difficult but nice when you got know him some and he hoped it would be that easy. If it wasn't, then he had other people to talk to in the band.

"Still is the last time I heard anything," Elwood smiled as she walked over to them, hearing her curse as she stepped in her pumps. Melody put down her tote bag and pulled out a pair of sandals, swapping the pumps for them and sighed in happiness as she no longer felt threatened by her own shoes. "So how are you and Mr. Fabulous getting along?"

"Um, he and I called it quits almost 8 years ago, El," her face darkened. "one night I came home after a late night gig to find that he moved out. Terribly rude if you ask me."

"That is too rude," Mack agreed. "if it bothers you to talk about it, don't feel like you have to."

"No, I will. You guys have a gig lined up yet?" her hair had been in a French braid that day, something she often liked to wear but now it was pulling on her head so she pulled the elastic out, shaking out her hair and letting it fall in curly ringlets, still a bit damp from that morning.

"We're meeting with Sline in a few hours to try to get something set up. I was hoping you'd know where to find Alan. Where's your Mustang?"

They started walking a few cars over where an Audi A6 gleamed in the sunlight. "I upgraded." she flicked the button on the key fob and it unlocked. Elwood admired the golden colored German engineered car as she threw her purse into it and shut the door. "This is my home phone number and I want you to call me after you get something set up. Anything's better than here. Alan works at the Hutchins and Peyton funeral home now as a funeral director."

"Do you two still talk?"

"No. What's there to say after he walked out on me?" a cloud seemed to pass in front of her face for a moment.

"Sorry," Elwood backtracked. "I'll call ya tomorrow."

"You damn well better." she beamed at him as she got into the golden monster and started it up.

"What now, Elwood?" they went to the Ford and got into it, following Melody out of the parking lot. Buster sat in the back again as Elwood signaled for a turn.

"We get Mr. Fabulous back." he said simply. "Don't bring Melody into it with him."

"Gotcha. Won't say a word." Mack promised.

At a phone kiosk in the city, Mack called the Hutchins and Peyton funeral home and found out that Alan was at a funeral in the Greengrove cemetery not far from where they were now. Elwood knew where that was and they rolled into the place, parking the car far enough away so that Alan couldn't see it. The trumpeter was attired in a black suit with a gray ascot, looking strangely British. Buster thought his hair reminded him of a skunk, but it was mostly white with some black in the middle, ending in a ponytail.

The three of them sneaked around to where Alan was walking and draped themselves in front of a monument nearby, their suits standing out so that Alan caught sight of them.

"Oh, God," Alan groaned as he walked over to them. "who's this guy? What's with the kid? Did Melody put you up to this?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Elwood said as soon as the questions stopped. "we're putting the band back together. This is Mack, our new lead vocalist."

"So Melody has nothing to do with this?" Buster wondered why he brought her up if they weren't dating anymore. The youngest brother kept quiet but eyed Alan through his shades. Mack sized up Alan in the same way and wondered about why Alan brought up Melody's name. She hadn't spoken of him very much, though when she did, it was with distaste and dislike. The new singer thought he detected something in Alan's eyes like longing, but being the new guy and not knowing the band, he forced himself not to draw conclusions.

Elwood decided to play coy. "Last I heard she was happily married. I don't know what you're on about." behind the stone, Mack stepped on his foot. Elwood bit his lip as Mack started to grind down hard on his foot and stopped, telling Elwood nonverbally not to lie.

"Is she?" Alan's face fell and the 3 knew that he was still carrying a torch for Melody. "Fine, I'll come with you."

Looking defeated, the trumpet player had a word with his assistants and climbed into the Ford. Buster shot a sideways glance at Alan and was trying to work through his impressions of the guy when Elwood was recognized at the funeral and gunfire started up all around them. Elwood, in a maneuver Melody would have been proud to see, pulled a neat handbrake turn and hightailed it out of the cemetery, spewing gravel from the rear tires.

"So how is Melody?" Alan looked like he regretted saying that the second it flew out of his lips. "Is she coming with us again?"

"Couldn't tell ya," Elwood flippantly replied. "she and I lost touch 15 years ago. All the info I got was secondhand mind you."

"Gossip." he understood.

"Unreliable." they dropped him off at the funeral home with a warning that they would call soon after their meeting with Sline.

Alan concluded his work and remembered the day when he left Melody, packing up his things and leaving. He had written her a note saying that he would be back from a tour in a few months and they could talk then, but when the two months came and went and nothing from his girl, he got depressed for a long time and had to force himself to seek help. He expected her to come after him on tour as she had previously whenever they had a little tiff, but she didn't do it that final time he left. The trumpeter had driven himself through the tour like a robot and when he came back to Calumet city, he looked for Melody's name in the phone book, wondering what she was doing those days, when he didn't find her name anywhere. Lou and Tom knew nothing about her, so Alan had to reluctantly give up. He couldn't bring himself to leave the city but he moved to the opposite end of it where he took classes to become a state certified mortician.

Heaving a sigh, he walked to his apartment a few blocks away and began to pack his possessions. A long time ago when they had been dating for a little more than a year, Melody had surprised him with a gift which he pulled out now. It was a trumpet mouthpiece that had engraving on the stem that said "Love always, Melody." Alan switched around the mouthpieces so he would be using hers on tour.

Their first night on the road all the band had been installed in their hotel rooms. Mack and Buster were watching TV and the others, it being about 11 at night, had already turned in. Elwood was fidgeting because Melody had not arrived yet. She had promised to be there and she would be, but when was another question altogether. Finally he perked up at hearing a car outside.

"Keep the change, pal!"

"That Mel?" Mack looked up from his card game with Buster.

"I sure as hell hope so." Elwood opened up his door and found her about to knock. "Come on in." Melody had a duffel bag and a proper suitcase which Buster took and put in the closet for her. The technical director looked like she had the first time Elwood had met her, a plain yellow camisole top and jean shorts with sneakers. Her hair was back in the familiar braid and she flashed Elwood a big smile as she watched Buster.

"That thing's almost as big as you are, kid." she remarked happily. "You got the kid trained well, Elwood!"

"Meh," Elwood shrugged as Mack started laughing. "time for bed, Buster." the kid made no complaint as he and Elwood went outside for a moment and only Elwood returned. Melody raised an eyebrow but did not question her old friend. Mack chuckled and the three adults sat down on one bed as Mack cleared away the card game.

"Why are you so late?"

"Had to train the temp replacing me," she made a face. "guy's thicker upstairs than anyone else I met. Complete dumbass. Then I got a cab to take me here and we hit all sorts of traffic in the city."

"If you'd been driving, you'd be here two hours sooner." Mack had heard about Melody's adventures in amateur racing from Elwood as they were driving to the hotel earlier. Alan had been with them in the car and his expression never changed.

Melody snorted with laughter. "If it had been me, I'd have put that car on a big lift kit so you could drive over other cars without a scratch!"

"Do you still race?"

"Yeah! I had to junk the old Golf TDI as it just was too expensive to keep fixing. I got me a nice BMW diesel for the racetrack now. I took second place at the old beach rally about 4 years in a row."

"So what have you been doing these past 15 years?"

"After Jake's death, Alan and I dated for a long time. We even moved in together and it was pretty great. I was there with him when his old man died and we took care of his estate and all that crap that comes with it. Let's see, we dated for 3 years, moved in and lived together for about 4 more years, then I decided I wanted an engagement at the very least, but after his dad died, something in him changed. Alan just got short tempered and abrupt, he would go on long gigs for months at a time and I never saw him. So after those 7 years of us being together, I get home one night to find he'd packed up and headed out. No note, nothing. Before that when he would be home, that was when I would schedule my tours as technical director so neither of us were home together. I kept thinking if he could do it, I could do it too."

"That's just mean," Mack whistled low. "did you ever find out why he left you?"

"No. I'm sure it's all moot point now anyway." Melody scowled inwardly. "I don't know what it was that made him treat me that badly, I did it to him, and he just upped and left. The guy just closed off to me."

"That blows," Elwood sympathized. "can you two be civil to each other now?"

"He agreed to come with us?"

"He did and we didn't mention you."

"Thanks, Mack. Yeah, I can be quite civil. Past is past, right?"

"Definitely."

"All right, let's hit the hay."