Disclaimer: You guys know that I own absolutely nothing but Christian, Pierre (who will make an appearance sometime, don't worry), the guys in Iron Fist, and my first story Edtallica I suppose, right? Good.
Hey look, 'tis time for me to respond to my reviewers, yes 'tis!
Eddismybibaby: Thanks for your review! Yeah, I know, my brother also thought it was weird that I made Christian get something chopped off, but don't worry, he'll soldier on and remain his friendly, somewhat slaphappy self. Oh yeah, sorry about that "i" instead of a "y" thing, that was a typo.
Double Z: Thanks for the review, it means a lot. You're story's getting good, too keep plugging away at that!
Quill in Hand: Thanks for reviewing and yes, there will be "Double D goodness" in this chapter. Oh yeah, happy (by the time this gets up, belated) birthday by the way!
Mind of Sorrow: Thanks for yet another short but sweet review, I hope you keep reading.
Lil' Freak 3 of 2008: Whoa, you're back! I thought you were like, dead or something! Thanks for reading. Really? My stories should be made into movies? Heh, that would be a trip…
Are those all the reviews I got for chapter 4? Ok awesome, let's get rockin' then!
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Chapter 5: Band Reunited
August 30th, 2005; Indianapolis Hospital: 3:27 PM
"Hello, sign in here, please." The hospital's secretary said softly.
Eddward McAllister smiled and nodded, writing his name with a shaky hand. He didn't know why he was shaking; he was simply visiting his mother whom he hadn't seen since she left for a business trip two months ago before getting in a plane crash. He sighed; it was odd how someone as smart as his teachers declared him to be could be so foolish at times. He knew perfectly well why he was shaking. The guitarist was afraid of what he might see when he entered that hospital room.
He put on a slight smile as he put down the pen, hopelessly trying to hide his crippling nervousness.
"Thank you. Enjoy your visit, sir." The secretary droned.
'Enjoy your visit, sir'… what was she talking about? This is a hospital, not some kind of fucking zoo!' Double D thought to himself, allowing himself to slouch and stick his hands in his pockets as he walked. After a short trip, he found room 21B, which had "Holly McAllister" on a piece of paper taped to the room marker. The longhaired guitar player took a deep breath before knocking lightly and entering. As he walked into the bleak, dark room (only made darker by the excessive amounts of flower arrangements covering the window), his uncle greeted him.
"Eddward? Is that you?" his Uncle Ralph greeted, standing up from his chair, "I can barely see you through all that hair there, Cousin Itt!"
Edd put on a small grin and moved his long black hair behind his ears while he shook hands with his somewhat annoying uncle. Uncle Ralph began to say something else, but the guitar player cut him off.
"How is she?" Double D questioned.
Uncle Ralph looked down at his loafers and wiped some sweat off his brow as Eddward looked over at the hospital bed. There he saw what was supposedly his mother, breathing slowly with tubes up her nose that were connected to an oxygen machine. He glared at his uncle.
"I thought you said she was improving!" Eddward hissed angrily.
"She was, buddy," Uncle Ralph stammered, "She just had a mild seizure last night for some reason, so the doctors hooked her up to that machine over there. But don't worry she can still talk with you, honest!"
The balding man leaned over the bed and gingerly shook his sister awake.
"Holly?…. Holly? Wake up."
"Hmm…?"
"Eddward's here, Holly." Ralph said quietly.
Holly let out an excited gasp before turning towards her son.
"Eddward? Hi honey!" his mom wheezed.
"Hey mom!" Double D responded, trying to stay positive.
"What've you been up to?" Holly asked.
"Oh, Ed, Eddy, our new band mate Christian and I won a band contest in Toronto the other day!" Eddward explained.
His mother smiled. "Wow, really? That's great, sweetie."
The guitarist nodded. "Yeah, and Chophouse Records offered us a record deal."
Eddward looked at his mom again. She didn't say anything, but put on a weak smile.
"We're supposed to start recording in a week or so," Edd continued, "But if you need me to stay here, the guys are completely ok with postponing the recording to another time…"
Eddward gulped. His music career was riding on these next few minutes. Sure, they could wait for a few months, but they were still riding high off their extremely lucky victory at Mosh, and in a few months they might not have the same spark.
Holly gingerly took hold of her son's hand. "No, it's ok. I'll be fine, you go record with Ed, Eddy and your new friend um… was it Craig?"
"Christian, mom." Double D answered, a small smile beginning to form, "You sure you're cool with this? I mean, after all, we're recording the album in San Francisco, and we'll be in the studio about 6 months or so. Then after the album comes out, we have to go on tour all over the country for 8 more months to promote it!"
His mom coughed and slowly nodded again. "Yes, I'll be fine. I've got your uncles and plenty of other people to keep an eye on me here. Besides, this is the big chance that you Ed, and Eddy have been waiting for years to get, I don't want to ruin that…"
"Ok, thanks mom," Double said, kissing his mother on the cheek, "I'll call up to see how you're doing whenever I can, I promise!"
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September 17, 2007: Echo Brain/Edtallica dressing room, Los Angeles CA; 11:45 PM
Double D mopped the sweat off of his face as his band mates and their friends and fellow rookies, Echo Brain, celebrated another successful gig.
"Man, those L.A. crowds are somethin' else, huh?" Eddy asked his gang of friends slyly.
"Ah, c'mon Eddy, you're just all high n' mighty 'cause the security guys had to hold some girls back when we were taking our last bow!" Christian laughed, taking a swig of beer, "That was relatively awesome, though. Shows ya you're getting kinda famous, eh?"
"Yeah Eddy," Ed retorted, "They were probably just drunk and horny or something! Besides, don't you have a girlfriend back home?"
Eddy opened his mouth to reply with a witty comeback, but before he could, the phone rang.
Dylan Donkin, the guitar player and lead singer of Echo Brain, picked up the phone.
"Yeah? You want Double D, dude? Yeah, yeah he's here, hold on a sec…" Dylan cupped his hand over the mouthpiece, "It's for you, dude."
Eddward cast his damp towel into the bin and took the phone from his fellow guitarist. He stepped out of the dressing room to get away from the mindless chatter.
"Hello?"
"Yes, is this Eddward McAllister?"
"Last time I checked." Eddward quipped, riding high off the rock star ego that he and his friends all shared.
"…Ok well, this is Doctor Grayson over here at Indiana General Hospital, I have some… news about your mother."
The guitarist blinked. "You do? What is it?"
There was a brief pause before Grayson answered, "I hate to be the one to tell you this, son, but your mother… died recently on the operating table."
"What? What operation was she getting?" Double D questioned.
"It was for a complete hip replacement that she may have benefited from if it were successful… I'm sorry."
"Fuck you…" Edd muttered coldly into the receiver, hanging up.
He went back into the dressing room, grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniels' and a coke out of the cooler, and then slumped into a folding chair. He took a few swigs of the mixture, and then let out a low, sad moan.
"Hey, Double D, are you ok?" Ed asked patting his chum on the back heartily.
"My mom's dead, man…" Double D sobbed, taking another swig.
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January 12th, 2008: Betty Ford Clinic (end of final therapy session); 2:15 PM
"So, I'm drinking because I have trouble letting go?" Double D asked Dr. Leinberg, the psychiatrist that Christian told him to ask for.
Dr. Leinberg nodded. "I believe that's the case, yes. It seems to me that that's been the running theme in all of your drinking binges thus far. In your first, you drank because you didn't want to accept that you essentially had no childhood. In the next, you didn't want to believe that your girlfriend of three years would dump you so early, so you retreated to the bottle. It also applied for when your mother died."
Eddward nodded. "It all makes sense now… Well, thanks for putting up with me, Doctor Leinberg."
"Oh, it's been no trouble Eddward, it's my job," Leinberg chuckled, shaking hands with the guitarist, "You were actually much easier to figure out than Christian, believe it or not. We had to dig extremely deep to figure out his issues!"
"Whoa, really?" Double D asked. He was surprised to know that his happy-go-lucky friend had issues.
"Oh yeah," Doctor Leinberg chuckled, "It took us two months, but we figured out that his constant drinking was connected to a very deep-seeded problem involving a girl he liked in high school. It turned out that his drinking and the way he dressed was just to get attention!"
Double D chuckled lightly before bidding the doctor goodbye once again.
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March 21st, 2008, Double D's homestead: 3:15
Double D trudged into his room and threw his guitar onto its stand and sat on his bed. He rubbed his eyes and slowly dragged his hands through his hair. He'd just been let out of rehab a few months ago, and he'd just spent nearly all day in the studio trying as hard as they could to record demos for their new album, but they all seemed somewhat distracted:
"Guys, I don't think this is working right now…" Jason said, "I think it's a little too early to be recording now, maybe you should all take a good long break until Christian and Double D can fully recover from rehab."
"Yeah guys, maybe we should just hang out a while, y'know? Just 'til we get our shit together." Christian suggested.
The rest of them silently agreed, grabbing their guitars and bidding each other farewell before driving away from Chophouse Records.
Double D walked into his bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. He hadn't slept properly in weeks, so his eyes had dark circles under them. He moved his hair out of his face with a sigh to get a better look at himself. People always told him about how much he looked like his mother, and they were right. They had the same eyes, facial structure, and…hair.
He ran his fingers through his black hair, which had since grown about halfway down his back. He was always somewhat fond of his hair, it gave him a distinctive look in the band, and it looked awesome when he banged his head onstage. His mother was the one who convinced his father to allow him to grow his hair out and constantly complimented him on how nice it looked.
'Dr. Leinberg said I had to let go…' Double D thought, 'I suppose this applies as something I should let go of.'
He pulled a drawer open and pulled out his electric razor and turned it on. The guitarist was a little skeptical at first, but decided it was for the best. After all, it wasn't like he was getting a tattoo, it was only hair, and hair could grow back. He swallowed and brought the razor up to his head. A scratchy sound rang through the room as Eddward sheared his long locks, which were falling at his feet in large clumps.
After half an hour of shearing his head, the guitar player looked at himself in the mirror. His head was now only covered with a short layer of black fuzz, but at least he didn't have to move his hair behind his ears to see his face. He stood there staring at himself for a time, then smiled, knowing that he had finally let go of something close to him, even if it was only going to be temporary.
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Double D stood beside Jason Newsted at the baggage claim in the San Francisco airport, the constant whirring of the machine and the loud thumping of various baggages falling onto the carousel sounding off behind them. Even though it was against his nature, the now shorthaired guitarist felt like he would go insane with boredom.
"So…" Edd piped up, turning to his trusted producer, "They should be here soon, huh?"
Jason nodded and checked his watch. "Yeah man, they should be out any minute…"
Another long, awkward-as-a-first-date (I assume) minute of silence later, Jason spoke again.
"So, how was Ed's wedding reception?" he asked.
"Oh, it was cool," Double D replied, "Ed's just the same as ever, and Eddy got a bit drunk and started pounding out drum parts from ' Mental cases, much to the dismay of some of the guests!"
Jason smiled. "Well, at least he's been practicing. That'll make recording run even smoother, huh?"
"Attention, travelers," a voice rang in over the PA system, "Flight 14A from Detroit has landed and passengers are exiting at terminal two, thank you."
The two rockers walked briskly towards the signs that read terminal two, where they meshed themselves in with the small crowd of people who were also waiting for the passengers to arrive. After waiting a few minutes, a familiar mulleted figure emerged with his wife and son following closely behind him.
"Ed, over here!" Jason called.
Ed looked up and jogged up to his friends.
"Double D! Jason!" Ed exclaimed, grappling the latter in one of his bear hugs and high-fiving Eddward.
"Hey Ed! How've you been?" Jason greeted, clutching his spine.
"Oh, I've been doing pretty good, I got married the other day!" Ed proclaimed.
Jason nodded. "Yeah, Double D told me about that, congratulations, my man!"
"Daddy, how much longer do we have to stay here?" Shamus butted in, tugging on Ed's jeans.
"Just until Mr. Eddy and Daddy's other friend Christian get here, buddy," Ed answered, giving his son a gentle noogie, "Oh, can you say 'hi' to Double D and Mr. Jason?"
The boy looked up at Double D and Jason, waving sheepishly before chirping "Hi, my name's Shamus!"
Jason waved and gave the mini version of Ed a salutation.
"Dude, Ed, you named your kid Shamus?" Jason chuckled, "How stereotypically of Irish descent are you?"
"Pretty darn!" Ed exclaimed, "But seriously, it's from Eileen's side."
After greeting Eileen and catching up for awhile, Christian and Eddy's flights finally arrived. The band greeted each other warmly, high-fiving and hugging. For the first time in over four years, they were a band again.
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Belgie: Ah, finally, another chapter finished! Boy, will my readers be appeased!
Steve (Belgie's British muse): That's it? Seven and a half pages? Oh well, at least there aren't enough bloody typos and grammatical errors to make an English teacher cry!
Belgie: Yeah, I'm good!
Steve: (groans) Just get to your author's note and make up an excuse as to why it took you so long to get this chapter up!
Belgie: Fine, I will! …jerk.
A/N: Well, there's chapter 5! Sorry it took so long, I've been busy with driver's ed and stuff. Ok, seriously, I'll be kicking out over 10 pages per chapter eventually, I know I will! Oh yeah, sorry about the random argument I typed that was against my muse (which I made British and named "Steve" for some reason…) I was just really bored! Well, you know the drill, read and review while I work on the next chapter!