Chapter seven

Glomb and his son Darren were in the back yard putting together the finishing touched of what appeared to be a set for a talk show of some sort. Glomb stood back and wiped the sweat off of his forehead onto the back of his arm as he gazed upon their handy work.

"What exactly is this for, Darren?"
"I'm not allowed to say."
"But I'm your father and I helped you build this. You have to tell me something about why we built it."
"Nope. It's a surprise."
"Fair enough then. If you need any more help out here, just give me a holler."
"Ok dad."

Darren looked at the set they had built and Glomb walked back to the house. Christene came up to him, carrying her camera bag, and stopped to look at the set.

"Oh Darren it's perfect!" She gave him a kiss on the cheek and then sat the bag on the ground
"Dad helped. Check it out; we set up a curtain and a desk for Nick. Just like a talk show set."
"Nick'll love it. He's finally getting his own show that he wanted. There's only one thing missing."
"What's that?"
"We need a sign." She pointed up above the stage
Darren smacked himself in the forehead "Oh yeah! I was going to make one but I didn't know what to put on it."
"What to you mean you didn't know what to put on it? Put the name of the show!"
"Yeah I know… but what's this show going to be called?"
"Hmmm… good question…"
"Ok… so where's everyone else?"
"That's another good question."
Darren rolled his eyes "Well my dad and I didn't just slave away, working our asses off building this thing just for them to not show up!"
She let out a small laugh "Darren relax. We're going to get a lot of use out of it. You'll see that your effort wont be wasted." She said before giving him a kiss

Bam walked into the kitchen and stood behind Gina, placing his chin on her shoulder and his hands on her hips. He breathed in her sweet scent, which was a mixture of herbal shampoo and apple scented body spray. She smiled and twitched as she felt his unshaven cheek against her neck and cheek.

"That tickles. You need to shave, Bam."
"I know." He said as he moved her closer to his body

She sat the knife she held in her hand or the counter next to the cake she had been frosting before her husband interrupted her. Bam turned her around to face him and then gave her a kiss on her neck.

"Bam… if you keep this up I won't be able to finish your cake for tomorrow."
"It can wait a little bit." He said as he kissed her neck again
"But it's been waiting. And at this rate I won't have it done until after your birthday."
"Hmmm… alright." He said, letting her go. He stuck his nose in the air and sniffed "Mmm… what else did you make? It smells good."
"I only made your cake. All I had time for. But Stacey made a batch of brownies and they're on the table over there."
"Oh I love her brownies." He replied as he made his way over to the table
"I know you do." She began to frost the cake again "A little too much."
He reached for a brownie "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You know what it means. Ever since you hit 40, you've let yourself go. And you know you want to get rid of that belly of yours."
Bam sighed and dropped his hand to her side "Yeah I know."
"So why don't you, instead of a brownie, eat an apple instead? There's some fresh ones in that bowl."
"Nah I'm not hungry."
"But you were going to eat a brownie ."
"So?"

Gina smirked at her husband and then he rolled his eyes. This caused her to laugh

"What's do Goddamn funny?"
"You."
"What about me?"
"It's just, sometimes, the way you act, I don't know whether I'm talking to my husband or my son."
"Yeah whatever."
"See! That's exactly how Dyllan would answer!"
"Is that where he got it from?"
"That and so many other things."

After a while everyone was outside speculating what this stage in the yard had been built for, all except for those who were involved with it. Ava showed up at long last and returned the car keys to her uncle.

"What the fuck took you so long?" He asked as he took the keys from her
"I um… actually we kind of got stopped by a mob of fans. It's not easy being the daughter of a famous drummer, or the niece of a famous asshole for that matter." She finished with a grin
Bam smirked "Yeah I suppose not. So it's the car in one piece at least?"
"Yeah it is. Don't worry; I wouldn't have done anything to harm one of your precious cars, Uncle Bam."
"Well Good, I sure hope you wouldn't. By the way where's this boyfriend of yours that you went to pick up?"
"Oh here he comes. He just stopped inside to drop his bags off."

Bam looked toward the house and his jaw dropped. He could not believe his eyes once he saw the young man who was approaching them. He was thin with almost a feminine build to his body. His long dark hair was wavy and dirty looking, sticking out from under the black wool beanie. Even from a short distance his piercing green eyes could be seen. He was dressed in all black clothing; long coat over a tight tank-top, shiny leather pants that hugged his shape nicely, and black shoes that were nearly hidden by the flare at the bottom of the pant legs. The clothing and his dark hair made his fair skin more evident. Bam had to stop himself from letting out a silent "wow" once the teen had reached him and Ava. The young man took Ava's hand and kissed it lightly while staring into her eyes.

Ava felt her face turn a slight shade of pink before she looked up at Bam "Uncle Bam, this is my boyfriend…"
"So nice to meet you, Bam." Her boyfriend said as he shook Bam's hand. His voice was deep and he spoke with an accent "I've heard so much about you. I'm Wolfgang Oska."
"Oh." Bam said, stunned "Yeah nice to meet you Wolfgang."
"What's the matter Uncle Bam?" Ava asked, noticing Bam's expression and tone of voice "You seem almost… star struck."
"I do? Oh it's just…" He looked at Wolfgang "You remind me so much of… er… someone I know."
"Would that happen to be Ville Valo?"
"Uh yeah how did you know?"
Wolfgang smirked "I'm not surprised. You see, I don't normally tell people this since they usually figure it out on their own. But," He paused with a slight sigh "Ville is my biological father. Oska is the name that was given to me after my mother got married."
"Oh I see." Bam said with a slight nod of his head "Not that it matters, but why didn't your mother… um… stay with Ville?"
"Well… because she learned early on that she wasn't going to have the life she would have wanted with Ville, so she married my adoptive father instead. Or so she told me. To be honest, I just think that was her delicate way of saying that she was just… an eager groupie who wound up getting pregnant." He finished with a shrug of his shoulders and a half of a grin
Bam chuckled a little, looking at Wolfgang "Well Wolfgang, I don't think you could have picked a better father than Ville."
"I think you're right. And the man who raised me isn't all that bad either." Wolfgang smiled

Wolfgang put an arm around Ava and they stepped aside to get a better look at the set for the show. Jess walked up to Bam and looked over at his daughter and Wolfgang. Bam could tell by the expression on his brother's face that Jess had an uneasy fatherly protective feeling towards Ava at that moment. Jess nodded his head and pointed in Wolfgang and Ava's direction as he whispered to Bam.

"So who is this Valo impersonator with his arm around my baby girl?"
Bam grinned with a slight snicker "That's her boyfriend Wolfgang. And he just happens to be Ville's son."
Jess's eyes widened for a moment before returning to normal size. He looked at Wolfgang and then at Bam and then shook his head.
"Jess, he seems like a nice kid. You would like him."
"Yeah, well, he still better be good to my baby girl. I don't want a repeat of what happened the last time." That said, Jess walked away to keep and eye on Ava and Wolfgang from a distance.

Bam shook his head with a laugh to himself once Jess had walked away. There were times when Bam found Jess to be a little too protective of his daughters. But when it came down to it, he knew that he couldn't say any thing to Jess about it. That was because he knew that if it were his daughter dating Ville Valo's son, as much as he adored the man (purely on a close friendship level), he would be really protective of her as well. He stood there for a few more minutes, looking at the set that had been built in his yard. Grinning to himself, he began to reminisce about the days when he and his friends would film their own stunts and skits. Those days of making those movies that led them to be on MTV seemed so long ago. Bam knew that they all missed those days, but now it seemed that they would soon be reliving them, but only with their children at the reigns instead.