Chapter 25

By Pippie

(Dusti's POV)

"Andy!"

I shrieked and laughed. Andy chased me from room to room in the apartment that we were supposed to be looking at. He picked me up and slung me over his shoulder and then tossed me down onto the beige colored carpet in the empty living room. He then crawled on top of me, pinned me down, and began tickling me.

"Andy stop!" I shouted as I laughed

"What's that?" He continued tickling me

"Stop!"

Andy kept tickling me before he grabbed his pony tail. With his pony tail in his hand he then ran it over my face. I got some of his hair in my mouth which caused me to cough and then I spat it out. He laughed before giving me a kiss.

"So what do you think about this apartment, hun?" He asked

"What apartment?" I seriously forgot where we were right then

He grinned "This apartment." He kissed me again "That we might get for out first home together."

"Um there's too much hippie hair in it." I laughed and brushed Andy's pony tail out of my face

"Hey!"

"What?" I grinned

He just laughed and then kissed me on my neck. Amanda walked in and placed her hands on her hips as she looked at us.

"Do I have to watch you two make out at every place we go to today?"

"You could wait out in the car, sis." Andy said before kissing me

Amanda rolled her eyes and shook her head "Whatever."

"Why'd you come along with us anyway?" I asked, sitting up

"Well I had to do some shopping any way so I figured I'd just car pool with you guys. Plus I had to make sure that my little brother didn't screw up the apartment search."

"Hey! What makes you think I'll screw it up?"

Amanda shrugged "You haven't exactly done a good job at finding a place so far. Not just with the places you've picked out, but you have to break stuff where ever you go."

"Oh name one thing that I broke."

"Ok well there was that one place you looked at and put the hole in the wall, you knocked a chair over and broke a leg off of it, you broke the doorknob off of that one closet door, the ceiling fan at that one place fell when you tried to turn it on."

"Alright. First of all I only asked you to name one thing. Second I wasn't the one who put that hole in the wall; it was already there but someone had tried to hide it but did a bad job at it. And that leg was already broken off of the chair; it just fell off when I bumped into the chair. And to be fair, that ceiling fan already looked like Steve-O had got a hold of it. All I did was flip the switch and the fan fell to the floor."

"Ok maybe so, but you have to admit that you're kind of accident prone."

I sat there with my mouth covered as I tried not to laugh out loud. Andy and Amanda both looked at me. Amanda smirked while Andy scowled, which caused me to have a harder time controlling my laughter.

"Hey don't look at me." I laughed "I'm staying out of this."

It was so funny to watch them bicker like that. They hadn't known each other but a few months, but the way they acted with each other any one would have sworn that they had known each other their whole lives.

Andy wrapped his arms around me and grinned. He gave me a kiss and then lowered his voice a little.

"So what do you really think about this apartment?"

"Well it is nicer than the other ones we've been to."

"But?"

"It's a little too small."

"Too small?" Amanda looked at me with a cocked eyebrow "How much bigger of a place do the two of you need?" She smirked and patted my stomach "Unless you need another room."

I rolled my eyes "I'm not pregnant if that's what you're getting at. We keep saying that we haven't slept together yet; why can't you guys believe us?"

"Riiiiight." She smirked "You two are moving in together and you're not having sex. Even Ryan and Chris don't believe that one."

"My dads believe it."

"Yeah but that's because you're their little girl. They want to believe that you're not having sex."

"And they have every reason to believe it." Andy spoke up "Now please drop the subject."

"Alright." She said

My cell phone rang right then so I went into the bedroom to answer it. If it were anyone else but my dad right then I would have ignored it. But since Bam was calling me, I knew it was important. I just didn't know just how important it could have been. Knowing Bam, it probably was pretty damn important.

(Andy's POV)

Amanda and I stayed in the living room talking while Dusti talked on her phone in the bedroom. Amanda asked if Dusti and I had planned on getting married. I didn't even have time to answer her because Dusti came out of the room looking upset.

"Dusti? What's wrong?"

I walked up to her. She leaned up against the wall and looked up at the ceiling. It looked like she was trying hard not to cry.

"Andy we should forget about looking at the other apartments today." She said softly

"Why? What happened?"

"That was Bam." She swallowed "Jimmy's in the hospital. Bam says that they think he had a heart attack."

Amanda gasped and covered her mouth. I immediately pulled Dusti into a hug. Dusti began to cry quietly, letting her tears fall onto my shirt. I rubbed her back and let her cry for a minute before pulling away.

"Ok hun," I said while looking into her eyes "Let's leave right now and head up to the hospital. We can put off looking at apartments for a little bit."

"Thank you Andy." She said in a breathy whisper. She hugged me tightly before we left the apartment

When we arrived at the hospital we saw Jordan and his girlfriend sitting in the waiting room. He held his head down and his hands were clasped together in between his legs. Once he lifted his head and saw Dusti he stood up and went over to her and gave her a hug. He then began telling her everything he knew about Jimmy. Normally when Jordan talks to someone he'll actually speak a little bit as he signs. But as he spoke to Dusti he only signed to her, which indicated that he was upset but he was going to keep much of what he was feeling inside. He and Dusti stood there for a minute talking in sign language. Dust then came back over to me to tell me what was said.

"He says that Dad wound up having a minor heart attack. Jack was actually with him as it happened. It seems that Jack, I guess, is having a hard time coping with the fact that Dad had a heart attack right in front of him so he decided to stay home with Kayla."

I nodded my head and saw Bam come up to us. Bam then walked Dusti and I down to Jimmy's room. When we got there I stood over by the door and just let Dusti go ahead and do whatever was comfortable for her. Jimmy, I have to admit, for a guy who just had a heart attack he looked pretty good. He was a little pale and a bit weak but he seemed to be in good spirits. Dusti approached his bed with caution and started to cry on the way. Jimmy reached up with one arm and pulled her down into a hug.

"Aww baby girl, don't cry. I'm fine."

"Oh daddy…" She buried her face into his chest and cried

It had been a long time since she called him that so I knew it had to of felt good to him to hear it. He kissed the top of her head and rubbed her back a little.

"I'm fine I swear. Please don't cry. Hey look at me." She lifted her head and looked at him "You have nothing at all to worry about." He wiped her tears away "I'm going to be out of here and feeling better before your birthday. You can count on that. Besides I've been looking forward to hearing you sing at your birthday." He grinned

It took her a second but Dusti managed to smile a little "Please don't tell me that you're actually going to still make me sing at my birthday."

"It's been a long time since I've heard you sing and I've really missed it. It would make me real happy if you did."

She let out a little sigh "Alright…"

"Hey you know our special song?" She grinned and nodded "Do you think it would be too much trouble if we sang it right now?"

Dusti smiled and let out a small laugh. She hugged him before beginning the song. This special song is a song that every once in a while the two of them would sing together. When Dusti was little Jimmy had left to go on tour with the Bloodhound Gang. Early on during the tour Jimmy wrote a song for her and recorded it during his free time. He sent the only tape to her so she could listen to it when ever she missed him. That song had been their special song ever since.

Right when they began to sing the song, Bam came up to me and quietly asked me to step outside of the room with him. He put an arm around my shoulders as we walked down the hallway.

"Listen Andy. I've been meaning to have a little man to man talk with you regarding my daughter." I nodded "And I figure now is a good time for it. Ok so, even though I know I don't really have to tell you this but, take real good care of Dusti."

I looked at him. I didn't even have to look into his eyes to know how serious he was.

"You and Dusti have been together for a while and you're moving in together soon. I don't know what you have planned with her but you're taking our oldest daughter away from Jimmy and me. You understand that's going to be hard for us, right?"

"Of course."

"Look we've known you your whole life. To me, you've been a real trustworthy kid and if and when the time comes, I would be more than proud to one day call you my son-in-law. I know Jimmy feels the same way."

I couldn't help but smile. Hearing this from Bam really meant a lot to me "Wow thanks, Bam."

He poked me on the chest "But remember, you and Dusti better not give us any grandchildren until you're good and ready for it."

Hearing this almost made me choke on my own spit. But I knew he was serious about it.

"Don't worry Bam. We're not ready for kids. We're not exactly planning on them for a little while."

"Good." He patted me on the back before whispering in my ear "You know that Jimmy and I didn't exactly plan on having Dusti either, so just be extra careful." I looked at him "Don't let me or Jimmy down. Remember we're counting on you to treat our daughter the way that she deserves and better."

"Of course, Bam. You've got my word."

Bam smiled at me and we turned around. It felt so good to know that Bam and Jimmy both felt like they trusted me with Dusti. Bam told me that they would be proud to have me as a son-in-law and made me so happy. This made me feel so much more confident about what I had planned for Dusti and me.