"Is this Roger and Avalon's secret love nest?" Mark read on the front cover as he picked up the news paper. "This is not good." he said paying for it before rushing back to the loft. "Roger, Ava get up." he called out entering the loft.
"Mark, what the hell? It's 8 o'clock in the morning." Roger asked coming out of his room wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants.
"You're not gonna believe what's on the front cover of the news paper." he said handing it over to him. There was a picture of him and Ava kissing in front of the building after their night out.
"Oh shit. Ava is not gonna like this at all. This is the one place where she doesn't have to be Avalon and now that's ruined." he said running his fingers through his hair looking down at him.
"What's going on out here?" Ava asked coming out of hers and Rogers bedroom wearing a pair of his boxers and an old t-shirt.
"Good morning Baby." Roger smiled leaning down to kiss her as he handed off the news paper to Mark.
"Good morning, but what do you two have there?" she asked reaching for the news paper.
"Now don't freak out Baby." he said as she looked at the cover.
"I can't believe this. I can't have anything for myself with these people. How did they even find us?" she asked pacing around the loft.
"I don't know Baby, but we won't let them anywhere near you. I promise." he said looking down at her.
"How Roger? They're everywhere. We were prisoners in our hotel room throughout the whole tour because they were waiting for us everywhere we went and now they found us here. This was our only sanctuary and they've taken that away from us now too." she said looking up at him starting to cry.
"Don't worry Ava, we won't let them get to you guys. We got your back." Mark said looking up at them.
"Mark, you don't understand. This was the only place I was Ava Davis. I wasn't Avalon. I was just Roger's wife and I liked having someplace where I could just be me, you know? I didn't have to be anything else and now they're gonna be everywhere." she cried as Roger took her into his arms.
"Baby, it's OK. Everything's gonna be OK. We'll think of something." he said looking over at her.
"What Roger? What are we gonna do? Now we're gonna be prisoners here now." she yelled looking up at him.
"We'll go to Hicksville. No one'll find us there." he said looking over at her.
"And what are we gonna do? Hide out in the house alone? That's not the answer." she said looking over at him.
"We'll take everyone with us. We can spend time with my parents and just be us." he said running his fingers through his hair.
"They're gonna find us. They always do. They found us here." she said wiping her eyes as he stood over her.
"It's OK Baby. Listen, we'll spend a couple of weeks in Hicksville and by the time we come home, all of this will blow over. I promise. They'll get bored when they see we're not here anymore and move on. Everything's gonna be OK Ava." he smiled taking her face in his hands.
"OK, we'll go to Hicksville, but when we get back, we have to look for a place around here." she said looking up at him.
"What do you mean find a place around here? You have a place around here? Here." Mark said looking over confused.
"Mark, we can't stay here indefinitely. It's not fair to turn everyone's lives upside down. Especially if reporters, photographers and fans are gonna be stalking the building." she said looking over at him as Roger wrapped his arms around her.
"But at least you have people here with you. It won't be so bad once we get back from Hicksville. Don't worry. We want you guys here. This is your home." he said looking up at them.
"Mark, it's just not right that you guys have to suffer for me and Roger. You see what our lives are like now. We can't go anywhere without it appearing on the front cover of every news paper and magazine. I wouldn't be surprised if they're stalking the Life Cafe right now." she said looking up at Roger.
"So we'll call everyone and have them pack for Hicksville and then we can get away. By the time we get back they will have moved on. I just don't want you guys to feel you have to move out. I like having you guys here." he said sitting on the couch.
"Are you sure Mark? You have no idea what you're getting yourself into." she smiled looking over at him.
"Yeah, I'm sure. I don't want you guys to move out. If you do, they win." he said looking over at them.
"OK, but we're gonna have to do some renovating around here. I'm not gonna live in this dump." she laughed looking up at Roger.
"Deal." Roger laughed kissing her head.
"Good thing we didn't get a chance to unpack yet, huh?" she said looking over at Mark.
"I'm gonna call everyone. Why don't you guys get ready, OK? This is gonna be great." Mark called out excitedly rushing to the phone.
"We have a little time." Roger whispered leaning down to her kiss her ear.
"We do, don't we?" she giggled looking up at him as he swept her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom.
"You guys grew up here? It looks just like Scarsdale." Mark said looking around as they parked in front of Ava's house.
"Where did you think we grew up Mark?" Roger asked as they got out of the car.
"I don't know, I just wasn't expecting this." he said looking up at the house.
"We weren't raised by wolves Mark." Ava laughed as she opened the door to the house.
"This place is really nice." Collins smiled as they entered the house.
"Thanks." she said looking up at him. "My mom and I moved here when we left Cleveland. Roger and my mom decorated my room when I was on tour with my dad. Before I left it looked like a 7 year olds bedroom." she laughed looking up at Roger.
"Does it still look like it did when I left?" Roger asked looking over at her.
"Go see for yourself." she smiled putting her bags down as he rushed up the stairs. It looked exactly like it did the last time he saw it. The pictures of the band and the two of them and everything. "So what do you think?" she asked looking up at him.
"I can't believe you kept it exacty the same." he said looking over at her.
"Well you did it for me. I couldn't change it." she smiled wrapping her arms around his waist.
"I think this should be our little girls room." he smiled pulling her closer to him.
"Our little girl?" she asked looking up at him.
"Yeah, I want to raise our kids here Ava. This is where it all started with us. It's the place I was the happiest." he smiled leaning down to kiss her head.
"Me too Baby." she smiled burying her face into his chest as they looked around the room.
"Knock, knock. Are you guys OK?" Mark asked coming up behind them.
"Yeah, we're great." Ava smiled looking back at him.
"So this was your room when you were a teenager, huh? Nice posters." he laughed looking around.
"Hey Mark, do you wanna see our old band." Ava smiled looking up at him.
"I'd love to." he smiled as she went across the room to get a picture off the wall for him.
"Roger put these up for me the summer I was gone. That's me and Roger, and there's June, Jimmy and that's Will." she smiled pointing to each of the band members. Roger looked down at the picture before looking away. "Are you OK Roger?" she asked looking up at him.
"I haven't seen Will in years. I mean, a lot of years." he said looking down at her.
"You guys used to be really close." she said said quietly looking up at him.
"Yeah, until he made a move on my girl." he said walking away from her.
"Roger, that was a long time ago. You forgave me, now it's time to forgive him." she said looking over at him.
"I don't know if I can. It's been almost 11 years since I've seen him. I'm sure if he wanted to see me, he would have called by now. Especially since he's probably seen our pictures in the papers and magazines." he said looking over at her.
"Maybe he's afraid you're still mad at him after all this time. Roger's he's your cousin and he used to be one of your best friends. Call him. Please." she said walking over to him.
"I don't know." he said wrapping his arms around her to bring her close.
"Roger, Ava we have company." Collins shouted from the bottom of the stairs.
"I wonder who that could be. No one knows we're here." Ava said looking up at Roger who simply smiled back.
"We better go see." he smiled looking down at her as they left the room.
"Mom, dad. I'm so glad you're here. But how did you know?" she called out seeing Mr. And Mrs. Davis standing in the foyer.
"My son called and said him and his girl were coming home." Mr. Davis smiled hugging her tight.
"Oh he did, huh? That husband of mine." she smiled looking up at Roger as he stood on the stairs smiling at them.
"I knew you missed them." he smiled looking down at her.
"And we missed you sweetie. You two look so good. Have you been making sure Roger takes his medicine?" Mrs. Davis asked looking down at her.
"Of course. I lost him once, I don't want to lose him ever again. Not for a very very long time." she smiled looking up at him as she hugged her mother in law.
"That's my girl." Mr. Davis smiled as Roger came down to hug him.
"It's great to see you dad. We missed you." he smiled hugging his father.
"We missed you too son. Seeing you on Leno just wasn't the same as this." he smiled hugging him tight.
"I know what you mean dad." Roger smiled as everyone said their hellos.
"I was thinking of making everyone dinner here tonight. Maybe barbeque?" Ava smiled looking over at everyone.
"Yeah, we can have a party." Roger suggested smiling at her.
"That's a great idea Baby. It can be just us." Ava smiled as everyone watched them happily.
"So are you kids thinking of staying here for a while?" Mrs. Davis asked looking down at Ava.
"We really haven't talked about it. We're gonna be here for a little while anyway." she smiled looking up at Roger.
"Maybe longer." he smiled putting his arms around her.
"How much longer?" Mark asked looking over at him.
"We don't know Mark. We wanna raise our family here." Roger said as everyone looked over at them.
"We're not pregnant yet, but we do want to have kids." Ava smiled looking over at them.
"But how? I mean, Roger's HIV." Mrs. Davis asked looking over at her worried.
"We need to be careful, but we can do it. We want to have kids. We always did, but it's gonna be a little more complicated than we anticipated." Ava said looking over at her.
"I just don't want anything to happen to you Ava." Mrs. Davis said walking over to her.
"I know mom, and I don't want anything to happen to Ava either. We'll be careful. I promise." Roger smiled looking down at her.
"OK sweetie." she smiled reaching up to caress his cheek.