Disclaimer: I still don't own anything but Christian, all the other characters I've made and any lyrics I've written.

Chapter 9: Coming Clean

Eddy was awakened that morning by the shrill shriek of the hotel's wakeup call. The drummer rolled out of bed and dragged off towards the bathroom for a quick shower. After a quick scrubbing, he threw on an old tour shirt from their Mental Case tour and a pair of white leather pants and then teased up his hair to its usual manmade height.

The twenty-one year old drummer quickly stuffed the notepad that he scribbled his lyrics on the night before and walked briskly out of the Ramada Inn towards his Toyota pickup truck that he was still making payments on. As he rolled out of the parking lot, he tuned into the radio frequency 102.9, which was the metal station that his brother was a DJ for. He found the correct frequency just as the Metallica song "Seek and Destroy" ripped through its final note.

"That was Metallica with Seek and Destroy", Eddy's brother, Jeff, bantered, "We're going to take a little break here to pay the bills, but when we come back, we've got some Edtallica for ya. Heh, o brother, where art thou? Yer fans need ya!"

"I'm closer than you think, bro," Eddy chuckled to himself, "I'm closer than you think."

Eddy pulled into the studio parking lot just as the radio finished playing "Mental Case". When he walked towards the recording room, he was surprised to find that Christian and Double D were already there waiting for him.

"Hey guys," Eddy greeted, "You ready to get started?"

"Yeah, sure," Christian agreed, strapping his ESP over his shoulder, "You got any ideas?"

"Yeah, I do, actually," the drummer answered, "I wrote some kinda punk-y lyrics last night, check 'em out!"

Eddy dug the hotel notepad out of his pocket and handed it to his Canadian comrade excitedly. Christian scanned the paper steadily, stroking his chin thoughtfully as he did so.

Christian grinned. "Whoa, Eddy, you wrote these?"

Eddy nodded. "Yeah, what do ya think?"

"These are wicked, man!" Christian exclaimed, "We should work on riffs and stuff for it and see if we can't get a demo recorded or something."

"Sounds good to me," Eddward agreed, "I'll work on a riff for it with Ed once he comes back."

"Oh yeah, where is ol' Mullet anyway?" Eddy inquired, taking his place behind the drums.

"He went to answer the phone, I believe." Eddward answered plainly.

"More like 'Daddy Mullet', eh?" Christian smirked, "I never thought somebody with an attention span as low as Ed's could make such a good pop! I bet he's on the phone with Eileen or little Shamus."

"Hey guys," Ed greeted as he walked into their cozy rehearsal space, "I just got off the phone with Jason."

"Jason? What was he calling about?" Eddy asked.

"He said he had something important to tell us after we were done today," Ed informed, "He never said what, though. He said we should get to rehearsing and he'll be over soon."

"Oh, ok," Eddy said, "So let's get started then, maybe we can get that demo done by the end of the day if we get cracking."

Once they filled Ed in on their plans for the day and showed their occasionally absent-minded friend the lyrics for the song Eddy wrote, Ed and Eddward got started on making their staple harmonizing guitar riffs while Eddy and Christian worked on incorporating the bass and drum lines. After a few hours work, they managed to lay out a solid idea for the musical portion of the song and started to work out how to fit the lyrics in.

"Let's go ahead and take five there, guys." Christian proclaimed.

"Yeah, ok," Ed panted, "I need to take a breather and then call Eileen to see how she's doing. I think she might bring Shamus by later."

"Cool. I never really got to talk to the little guy." Christian replied between gulps of Brisk Iced Tea.

As Ed and Christian continued to chat, Eddy started to approach his old friend Double D. He decided to simply get it over with early and tell his friend of his sex-capade with Kayliegh.

"Uh… hey Double D, is it cool if I talk to you a sec?" Eddy gulped.

"Sure Eddy, what's up?" Eddward asked, nursing a bottle of Evian.

"Well uh… there's been something I've been meaning to ya for a pretty long time…" Eddy stammered, scratching his neck nervously.

"Ok, what is it?" the shyer guitar player asked.

"Um, remember the Mental Case tour?" Eddy asked.

"Well yes, a little," Eddward replied, chuckling, "But like the rest of us except for maybe Ed, I lost quite a bit of the memories thanks to our constant 'celebrating'. Why?"

"Well uh… remember the night the tour finally stopped back home in Detroit?" Eddy questioned.

"Hmm… yeah, I think I remember some of that night, now that you mention it," Eddward recalled, "Damn, we partied hard that night! Continue."

"So uh… I sorta met this girl during all the hubbub, ya see…" Eddy explained.

"Heh, yeah, you did get quite a few women, didn't you?" Eddward grinned, giving his friend a friendly punch on the shoulder, "You dog you!"

"Well uh, anyway, that night I brought the girl back to the hotel room just like always, and I started to well, y'know, 'pet the kitty'," Eddy continued, "Then Christian stumbles in, drunk as fuck like he always was, so I redirected over to the tour bus."

Eddward laughed. "Yes, that sounds a lot like something Christian would do. Didn't you at least leave a sock on the doorknob or put up the 'Do Not Disturb' sign?"

"Yeah, but that's not the point!" Eddy griped, "Long story short, the chick I screwed turned out to be Kayliegh."

"Kayliegh?" Eddward repeated, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah…" Eddy said, "I really hope you're not pissed or anything. That's the only reason I haven't told you sooner, I was paranoid that you'd hate me and quit the band or something."

Eddy looked up at his lifelong companion, who wasn't saying anything. Eddy gulped before speaking again.

"For what it's worth, she took my first pair of leather pants, some of my good drumsticks, and all of the pocket money I had on me!" Eddy exclaimed.

He looked over at Eddward again, noticing a smile slowly creeping across his fedora wearing friend's face. Eddy's felt his own eyebrows raise as Double D erupted in a fit of semi-hysterical laughter.

"Y-you thought I'd be mad at you and quit the band for that!" Eddward laughed, "C'mon Eddy, I've stuck with you through worse when we were kids, why would I have split four years ago for screwing my ex-high school sweetheart who broke up with me?"

"S-so we're cool?" Eddy inquired, extending his hand.

"Of course we're cool!" Eddward agreed, giving the drummer a high five, "You were drunk and the slut probably came onto you anyway! I bet Christian would've done the same thing if he had the opportunity."

The great feeling of relief quickly flowed through the drummer as he high-fived his good friend. At last his fear of having to call up "Heavy Metal" Hank Heinrich to be their guitarist again was put to rest.

"Ok guys, what do ya say that we go ahead and make a demo?" Christian suggested, finishing off his tea.

"Yeah, alright," Eddy agreed, "Maybe we can get it done and show it to Jason when he gets here."

Eddy took his place behind his drum kit while his band mates strapped on their guitars and did microphone checks. With the help of a sound crew member, Christian got the recording system working.

"Ok, it's rolling, guys," Christian called, "Let's go!"

Eddy clicked his drumsticks together four times to count the band in before the four of them dove into their newest song. After Eddward finished up his quick and delightfully sloppy solo, they finished the demo. They then eagerly walked into the soundboard room to listen to their work. Once they pressed a few buttons, they contently listened to their delightfully raw-sounding demo of their short song.

"Hey guys, Jason's on line five for ya." Chris, a soundboard technician interrupted.

"Ok, could ya put him on speaker phone?" Eddy asked.

Chris nodded and pushed a button on the phone.

"Hey Jason!" The band greeted simultaneously.

"Hey guys," their producer's voice responded, "Did you guys get anything done today?"

"Yeah, we got a demo recorded for a song I wrote," Eddy said, patting himself on the back, "Hurry up and get over here, we want you to check it out!"

"Uh… yeah, about that…." Jason trailed, "That brings me to that important thing that I mentioned when I called earlier."

"Oh ok, what is it?" Ed asked, a hint of excitement detectable in his voice.

"I'm not going to be able to produce the record for a while," Jason replied, "It's nothing against you guys, I've just got too much shit on my plate right now. I've got countless other projects that I have to keep an eye on, I'm recording some new stuff with Voivod, and it's insane."

After a moment of awkward silence, Jason spoke again.

"Look, guys, I'm only leaving you 'cause I know you'll be ok without me," The veteran rocker continued, "Don't worry though, I've got a new producer coming in to produce your record. You'll like him, trust me."

"Alright Jase," Christian responded, "You go ahead and do what you have to there, dude."

"Yeah, we'll be ok with the new guy, huh guys?" Ed added, elbowing his band mates affectionately.

Eddward and Eddy nodded. Once they gave their old friend their best wishes, they decided to call it a day. As they all walked away to their respective vehicles to drive to their assorted lodging establishments, they walked away with their heads held high, confident about the days to come.

A/N: Whoa! I'm really really really sorry, I didn't mean to disappear for two months like that. School hasn't really been much of a problem, I'm just up to my neck in different rehearsals for stuff. So uh… I hope I didn't lose any fans or anything. I'll be sure to write the next chapter as soon as I can!