The messenger bag on Apollo's shoulder was far too heavy. Inside was the folder, Mia, Rose and the teddy bear Bambino. Today he was planning on delivering all the tickets, knocking some sense into Klavier and correcting the vital error he made when talking to Gemma the day before. The first stop though was to the furthest place he had to travel to – the vets to see Eri. Trucy didn't want to come with him today but insisted he carried Bambino with him and then rang Ema to go with him instead.

The gloomy detective seemed even more down as they took the short walk from the car park in the center of town to the vets.

"Ema, every day you're getting even more upset…" Apollo felt the pups squirm as they poked their heads through the top of the open bag.

"I don't want to give Klavier another chance to make things right. I don't want people to pester me about my miscarriage or comment on my relationship anymore. I need help…advice I suppose…" Ema sure did seem depressed.

"Are you mad at me for spying on you at the restaurant too?"

"No." Came the blunt reply. "It didn't turn out much of a good night though did it?"

"Bernadette said he was flirting with the waitress or something…"

"That's right…" Ema followed Apollo as he stepped into the vets.

"Is Eri with a patient at the moment?" He asked the receptionist.

"No, do you have an appointment?" She looked at the pair. "Do you even have pets?" As she said it, Mia and Rose popped their heads from the bag. Ema took out Mia and he held Rose.
"I came to deliver some papers to her, it won't take me more than a couple of minutes." Apollo held the cute puppy near her face.

"Aww she's so cute! Eri's the third door on the right!"

"Hi Eri!" Apollo put the puppy on the cold desk. "Got the pups papers for you!"

"Thanks Apollo." She left them by her computer. "Aren't you two looking like cuties?" She cooed patting Rose.

"How'd you like to go to a show in two weeks?"

"What show would that be?" Apollo produced the folder and the ticket. "How'd you get these?"

"I'm the pianist, so what'd you say?"

"I'd be happy too" She took the ticket. "Front row too! Well excuse me, my next patient is due to come in."

"Of course. Thanks." Ema giggled as Apollo lifted the pup and went to meet Klavier.

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The car ground to the halt outside Klavier's mansion.

"I'm getting my sports car from the drive!" Ema parked the car around the corner.

"You have a sports car?" Apollo was confused.

"The black car on the drive is mine." Ema opened her purse and pulled out a second set of keys. "He got it me as a gift a couple of months ago."

As they opened the door, Ema scowled and headed back out to get her other car.

"What's eating Fraulien?"

"You're so oblivious it amazes me…" Apollo took out Klavier's ticket. "This will be your last chance to prove to Ema you still love her. You screw this up then me and Lana will just give up on you!"

"Is that all you came for?"

"Something like that…" Apollo tried to push the folder back into his bag without hurting the puppies. "Why'd you flirt with the waitress?"

"How'd you know about that?" Klavier slid in front of Apollo, blocking his exit.

"I was sat three tables away." Apollo replied bluntly pushing Klavier away. "I mean it Klavier, after the show me and Lana aren't going to try and encourage Ema to go back to you anymore." Apollo stormed out. "She's taken her car too by the way."

"Avenue Q huh?" Klavier held the ticket tight. "Fraulien…do you not understand, I don't want a baby…I just want you to not have children…"

Although he didn't realise, Apollo had heard everything the rocker had just said on the other side of the door. That's a big decision Klavier…if you'd have talked to Ema instead of yelled she might have listened… He sucked in his breath. Why would Ema want to kill her chances of having a child? She might not want one now but she may want one soon. Apollo ran to the black sports car.

"Nice car." Apollo sat in the leather seat clutching his puppies close to him after fastening his seat belt.

"Thanks." Ema smiled. While he was fastening his belt Mia and Rose had forced themselves under his arm and his hand was resting in the gear stick. As Ema reached to change the gear she flinched as she felt his hand. If he had looked in the mirror, he would have seen Ema blushing.

"W-w-where…" She coughed. "Where to?"

"My house to drop the dogs off then the stadium if you don't mind Ema…" He'd never seen her act shy.

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"Apollo!" A call came from the front of the curtain.

"Kate that you?" He recognised the shrill high voice

"You remembered!" She ran up. "Pleased to meet you." She held her hand out to Ema.

"Pleased to meet you Kate, I'm Ema."

"Is my friend Bernadette back there?"

"I think so…" She looked back. "I'll see if I can find her for you." She heads off behind the curtain.

"She seems sweet; she has a pretty face too." Ema smiled. "The kinda girl I'd expect to see on Klavier's arm…"

"Ema, don't compare yourself to other girls." Apollo hated it when girls compared themselves to each other. "I really hate it Ema, you're very pretty. I'm sure she'd say the same if you asked her."

"Thanks Apollo…"

"No problem, by the way, Kate's her stage name. Her real name's Gemma, that's the name she used when she introduced herself to me." Apollo waited for the figure of Bernadette to appear. "Ema, why do you think so poorly of yourself?"

"Huh? What?" Ema swung to stare at his eyes. "I…I guess I just have since I lost the baby…"

"I can't find her!" There was a yell from the stage.

"Can you have a look around the stadium for me? Me and Ema will wait here!" They were sat on the first row of tier seats. "Did you want to have the baby?"

"I…"

"I'm sorry…that was inconsiderate of me…" Apollo blushed.

"No it's fine. I guess it was a huge shock to find out I was pregnant and I was scared…" Ema sounded like she was about to cry. "…I was afraid of the pain, I was afraid of whether Klavier wanted me to have the baby… Oh Apollo…" She wept throwing herself into his arms, sobbing.

"It's alright."

"I don't want to have a baby just now and I think Klavier was quite against the idea. I guess that's why the miscarriage happened."

"I didn't know you wanted to have children at all."

"Did you ever have that thing when you were a kid where you wanted the perfect life? Like when you think you'll get your dream job, a boyfriend who you'd eventually marry, then you'd get a nice new house and maybe start a family?" Ema looked back towards the stage where Bernadette was coming out.

"If you replace the 'boy' with 'girl' then yeah. I guess you still wanna live by that dream."

"Did you get those tickets you mentioned?" Bernadette joined them. "Gemma said you were looking for me. I also corrected the mistake you made when you said how old you were."

"For exactly that reason, here you go." He handed the last two tickets in the folder to Berne.

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"20 minutes before the show…" Apollo was doing his deep breathing. He couldn't believe how fast the two weeks had passed. He had been given his own dressing room which was filled with wines, drinks, flowers, sweets and chocolates from all of the backstage staff and the actors had given him. In the rehearsals he had been asked to introduce the show, sing along at certain parts of the show and he had to take Bambino on stage in a new outfit that had been designed by the McCann's (he was now being used as a cousin to two characters called the Bad Idea Bears). Klavier you better not fuck this up like you did at the restaurant. He changed into the first of the two suits he had to wear that night – A black suit with a blue shirt and tie.

"You got two minutes Apollo!" A call came from the other side of the door.

"Ok!" This is it Justice!

The curtains were still down and the first set was up. The first set was a collection of rundown apartments. He climbed the stairs behind the frame of the set and sat in the chair just beside the open window on the second floor apartment. He pretended to sleep as the curtains opened and soon the music that was to be his wake up call which was Die another day by Madonna. He faked the noise had disturbed him, and then pretended to rush around getting dressed and organised. As he closed the front door on the ground floor of the apartment building the door knob came off in his hand like it was supposed to.

"Welcome to Avenue Q. The worst place in America!" He turned to the window of the top floor. "Dude! Door's broke again!" He laughed. "Where is this place? New York City to be exact. Everyone on this avenue have no cash and all have problems to deal with." He laughed again. "Our lives all suck! But not when we're together! Why don't you check the place out?" He ran to the piano and played the intro to the first song.

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With the first half of the show going off without a glitch Apollo knew something was still to go wrong. But what?

One more chapter guys!!