About four months later, The Doors were taking a lunch break from rehearsals and all the guys invivted thier wives to have some lunch together as a band family. Maria was the only one who wasn't chatting amongst her new members. It's not that she didn't like them, in fact she did and the wifes as well, but she felt a bit lonely and she had been feeling lonley for a long time. Whenever maria would arrive at her appartment after rehearsals, she always found herself alone with no one to talk to her, kiss her, or ask her how her day was.

"You ok, Maria?" Dorthy, Ray's wife, asked knidly

Maria snapped out of her thoughts and responded sadly "I'll be okay. I'ts just..."

The guys looked up at her and she addressed all of them "Whenever you guys go home, you have someone waiting for you with open arms. I dont have that here in LA. Only in Callumet City"

"You miss your boyfriend?" Ray asked

She nodded, holding back tears.

"How about you tell us some stuff about him?" Robby offered "We'll have some sort of idea how he is until we finally meet him. So far by what you had told us, he seems like a cool guy"

"He is." she said with a sad smile as she began describing Elwood "Well, He's a musician as well. He and his brother are in a band together called 'the Blues Brothers'."

"I love the blues" Ray said happily "In fact, the blues got me into playing music. Are they good?"

"Theyre phenominal" she said with a small smile "and I'm not saying that because I used to play guitar for them. His brother jake is a tenor and Elwood is a bass"

"It's always the guys with the deep voices that get the chicks" John pointed out, remembering how popular Jim was with the girls.

"In fact, it was his voice that attracted me to him in the first place" she added.

She began telling them about the orphanage and how they met through Sister Mary. She told them about Bob's Country Bunker, Garden-Land and finally Las Vegas.

"And as I experienced all of those things with him, I grew to fall in love with him." Maria concluded.

"Wow..." Dorthy said "You guys came along way."

"Yeah."

"He sounds like a really cool guy" John complimented "If we go to Chicago, we should meet him."

"Yeah...I miss him." Maria added sadly

"It's okay, I'm sure he misses you too."

She was about to talk about him more, but Pete came in and clapped his hands.

"Alright. Lets get down to buisness and shoot this promo!"

Robby looked at the time and noticed their lunch hour was over. The wifes left them alone and left towards the outside of the studio where the recording booth was. They tuned up thier instruments and voices until it was time to shoot. The camera man got ready and began the countdown.

"5..4...3..2..1"

The drums strted the song until the guitar and electric organ came in. Maria danced a bit to the ryhtm and began singing...

"Hello I love you wont you tell me your name..."

After the song was over, it was a perfect take, so they were pretty much done with it. pete clapped happily

"Good job you four! That was great! Maria, you looked hot with that hip swing of yours."

Maria winced at the word 'hot'. The Chez Paul memory popped in her head, but at least she knew Mr Fabulous apoligized for his words. Pete didnt' apoligize at all.

"Don't you say that ever agin" she said, her anger rising

"Why not?" Pete asked "You are hot, that's why I hired you."

She froze on the spot, not beleiving what she had just heard

"Wait..." she began "I thought you hired me for my music skills."

"Well yeah..." he began "but theres a reason why I sent your video medley to The Doors. You and their ex singer had a lot in common. Both of you guys have good voices, both of you look good in leather pants and you two have major sex appeal towards the opposite gender so..."

"I didnt agree to be in this band to be it's eye candy!" she argued angrily.

She turned sharply towards the three guys and pointed a finger at them "Did you three agree with him and hire me for that?"

"No!" Ray exclaimed, his eyes wide with suprise.

"We actually did like your singing!" Robby said honestly and to try to calm her down.

"You know," Maria exclaimed angrily as her eyes flashed with anger, betrayal and embarassment towards her manager "I should be used to feeling betrayed and lied to because that's what I have experienced in many bands before this one, but you had me leave my band, one of my best friends, and the man I love for what? SO THAT GUYS MAY OOGLE AT ME!"

Pete had his back against the wall while John and Robby grabbed her arms to calm her down.

"Maria, don't get yourself arrested or slapped with a law suit!"

"I am not gonna get myself arrested!" she yelled as she squirmed from teir arms. "I wanna fire him!"

"You can't fire him since he hired you!" Ray argued.

"Fine then...I QUIT!"

She stormed out of the studio, knocking a microphone stand down on purpose as she grabbed her things and stormed out of the studio. As she stepped out she was bombarded with papparazzi flashing cameras and shoving microphones towards her mouth.

"How are you doing today Miss Valens?"

"How are you doing with your new band?"

"SHUT UP!" she screamed at them as she ran from them

"Maria! MARIA!" she heard Ray's voice call out

"WHAT RAY! QUE QUERES!" she cursed in Spanish.

"Don't quit on us!" he pleaded as he caught up to her "I swear to Jim's life that we didn't hire you for your looks. We do like your singing for reals!"

"But I dont wanna be in a band with a manager like that!" she argued. "A manager who only hired me so that perverts like him can oogle at me! I'd rather be back with my old band" she yelled with anger still in her eyes. "At least they actually saw me as a real band member!"

"You know what, you may not be able to fire him." Ray began "but we as a band can"

Maria looked up at him in disbelief "SO then, why didnt you say something back at the studio?"

"because me and the guys were actually thinking about firing him for awhile now without him knowing."

She raised an eyebrow at him and his plan "How long has that been going on and why wasn't I included in this?"

"It has been going on since before you came in the band. He's a greedy, rude guy who even hit on Dorthy at one point! I pretended not to notice, but Dorthy and I knew perfectly well what he did so ever since then, the guys and I had made plans to fire him and now you have given us the ultimate motivation. Why he hired you, I agree is both wrong and stupid but we can add that to the list of reasons on why to fire him! And if he sues us, who cares? We have proof that he's unhireable!"

She sighed "Wow..."

"We now have a chance to manage ourselves and to actually pick where we wanna go to tour."

That statement made her a bit happier. She could try to convince the guys to go to Callumet city to vist the band and the borthers!

"Well..." she began "Okay. I'll stay...but only if Pete gets fired."

"Not a problem" Ray said with a smile

Later that week in Calumet City, Jake picked up the mail at the hotel lobby and skimmed through the envelopes in his hands. He found one adressed to Elwood and took it upstairs. He entered the room and found his brother practicing his blues harp as he was watching TV. Jake switched the channels and found a news anchor with a picture of The Doors in the upper right corner with a caption underneath saying "Upcoming tour"

"Hey look, the news is talking about Six Strings." Jake pointed out.

Elwood looked up from his blues harp and saw the news anchor.

"In Entertainment news, the hit 1960's band, The Doors have reunited with a new singer and a Nationwide tour coming. The Doors haven't performed ever since their original singer, Jim Morrison had died nine years ago. The new singer is a young beautiful inspring singer and performer Maria Valens from Callumet City Illinois. Here is a clip of her performing the 1968 hit 'Hello, I Love you'"

The TV showed a clip of Maria right in the middle singing the song with the Doors behind her. She had black leather pants that brought out her curves, a black and white striped shirt, black knee high boots, and a barret as an accesory.

Hello, I love you; Won't you tell me your name? Hello, I love you; Let me jump in your game Hello, I love you; Won't you tell me your name? Hello, I love you; Let me jump in your game

She's walking down the street blind to every eye she meets Do you think you'll be the guy to make the queen of the angels sigh?

"She looks amazing" Elwood said dreamily to Jake

Hello, I love you; Won't you tell me your name? Hello, I love you; Let me jump in your game Hello, I love you; Won't you tell me your name? Hello, I love you; Let me jump in your game

She holds her head so high like a statue in the sky Her arms are wicked, and her legs are long when she moves my brain screams out this song!

After those lyrics, Maria swung her hips slowly almost like a slow swinging pendulum as the instruments made the swinging sound which was the 'instrumental solo'. Elwood raised an eyebrow, obviously impressed by her hip swing in those leather pants of hers. She got into normal positition, closed her eyes, sang and danced a bit with a smile on her face, getting into the song since this her favorite part of the song.

Sidewalk crouches at her feet like a dog that begs for something sweet Do you hope to make her see, you fool? Do you hope to pluck this dusky jewel?

HELLO! HELLO! HELLO! HELLO! HELLO! HELLO! HELLO! I want . I need my baby Hello, Hello...

The music and the TV image of The Doors faded away as the news station went into commercial.

"Wow..." Jake began "She's doing well."

"Yeah" Elwood sighed

"Oh I forgot to tell you" Jake continued "Your wife wrote to you."

Elwood rolled his eyes at Jake's teasing and got Maria's letter from Jake's hands. he opened it and read it

Hey Toasty,

I really need someone to talk to. I had a bad week.

After the 'Hello, I love you' promo, Pete told me he basically hired me so I could be eye candy for the band and he even called me hot. Do you have any idea how pissed I am at him? I thought he would've learned by now that I hated that word but he obviously didnt get that to his through his thick skull. I had thought about quitting The Doors because of him, but ray, Robby and John were on my side and fired him. We now manage ourselves and we're gonna be touring by ourselves and self promote.

I didn't quit the Doors, but I will never rule out performing again with you guys. Just so you know that...

Speaking of you guys, Ray, Robby and John have been asking about you. They heard stories about our little misadventures and they want to meet you and Jake. They're into the blues too so maybe you guys will get along. I really hope you guys meet one day. They're nice guys, but I miss my Blues boyfriend, his perverted big brother and the rest of the band alot. Nothing, not even being with The Doors or meeting the Rolling Stones can make me change my mind about you guys. If showbusiness had taught me anything, is to appriciate what you have and I've always appriciated you guys and the time we spent together.

I really miss you. I'm gonna persuade the guys to book a gig in Chicago so I can see all you guys again.

Say hi to Jake and the band for me and tell them I miss them more than anything.

I love you so much,

Maria

Elwood sighed sadly as he finshed reading the letter. He was glad he and his girlfriend could still keep in touch. In fact, theyve been keeping in touch ever since she left 4 months ago. They have written to each other twice each week, but to both lovers, it didnt seem like it was enough. Elwood wanted her back more than anything not only so the band can be alive again, but because he was, as Jake said, head over heels for her. Matt wasn't a bad lead guitarist, but the tension in the band felt like it was Steve Cropper's death all over again. It just wasn't the same.

About a week later back in L.A, Maria was finishing up 'Light My Fire'...

You know that it would be untrue, You know that I would be a liar If I was to say to you Girl, we couldn't get much higher

Come on baby, light my fire. Come on baby, light my fire Try to set the night on fire. Try to set the night on fire. Try to set the night on fire. Try to set the night on fire

When the song was over, she saw the mail slot open and a few letters dropped to the floor as they slipped through. John got up from his drumset and skimmed though the envelopes. He picked one and gave it to maria.

"It's from Elwood"

She got the letter, opened it and read it.

Maria,

I got your last letter. You ant the band deserve so much better than that peice of shit manager and I'm glad you guys fired him. You know if Jake and I were there, we would've raised hell at him. I shoud've known he was worthless the first time we met him.

But at least that that's over. I really enjoyed you guys' performance as well as Jake. We saw it on TV and we felt proud of you. You really are moving up in the world and you looked truly happy with them. They seem like nice guys by what you have told me, but I still hope they're treating you right.

And you are very right about that quote "You can't apprciate what you have until its gone"

I have appricated you from the beginning, don't get me wrong, but you being gone really made us open our eyes about how much you mean not only to the band but to me as well. The band isn't the same without you; even with Matt Murphy as the leading guitarist now. We haven't gotten any real decent gigs since you left. Just the usual small seedy clubs.

Not only does the band miss you, but I miss you. I miss your voice, kiss, smile, eyes, everything; but seeing you happy and sucessful makes the missing worthwhile

I still want you to know that I love you and miss you...and so does Jake even though he doesn't want to admit it.

Yours Truly,

- Elwood

Maria smiled sadly at the letter. It made her feel better that Elwood was still sticking by her even when he was thousands of miles away, but she still wanted to hear Elwood's bass voice, feel his soft warm lips against hers, and see his shy cute grin as well as his green and brown eyes in person instead of just imaging it in her head.

"Is everything okay with Elwood?" John asked, noticing her sadness

She looked up at him from her letter "Yeah" she choked back "Everythings fine."

AN: I know the majority of this chapter was kinda mushy and lovey dovey but oh well. Isn't true love always mushy and lovey dovey?
All credit for the songs go to The Doors. Fun Fact: I chose 'Hello I love you' as Maria's song because I enjoyed seeing Dan dance to that song as he cooked Spagetti in the movie 'Neighbors' haha