Author's Note: Thanks for returning for another chapter! I want to take a minute to respond to two recent reviews. First, brokenvoice, thank you for the extremely nice comments. I'm tickled that you've been here from the beginning, and I hope to keep you hooked for many stories to come. From the start I wanted to use my stories to spread the message that love is wonderful and powerful and should be not only accepted but encouraged. Your words tell me that my goals are still coming through loud and clear! Next, not quite invisible, you have nothing to feel like a jerk about! You asked a fair question, and I'm certainly not offended for you asking. I don't normally use a beta for several reasons. I do proof my own work at least twice, and I try for three times before posting a chapter if time permits. However, sometimes mistakes occur, which is why I try to immediately re-read a chapter after posting it to try and catch any mistakes. If I do find at least two or three, I revise the chapter and post a corrected version usually within 24 hours. However, I slacked on chapter 15, and I still haven't gotten the revised version up yet. My apologies. I'm very glad you're enjoying the stories, and I always love to hear from readers who have been along since the beginning. Thanks again to everyone reading and enjoying this current story of our heroines, and hope this chapter hits you just right!
Here are my standard disclaimers: I make no claims on any of Disney's, Miley Cyrus', Emily Osment's or Hannah Montana's trademarks or copyrights, and no infringement is intended on them or those of any other artist or publication mentioned. Be forewarned that this story most certainly will contain femslash. If love and affection between two consenting young adults of the same sex bothers you, I suggest you turn right around and find something else to read. Keep any flames to yourself and remember that what our world needs now is more love and acceptance, not more hate. Reviews are always welcomed and appreciated!
We Got Nerve
by Jo P.
Chapter 16: Being Supergirl
I'm super cool, super hot, living like a rock star
You think I'm super, you think I'm super
On the cover of your magazine, wherever I go they make a scene
I'm super super, I'm super duper
So you wanna be just like
So you wanna be just like
Think you wanna be just like me
Everybody's watching me
Never as easy as it seems
To be super super
To be super Supergirl
--Hannah Montana,"Supergirl"
As Miley and Lilly stood on the front porch of what had been Lilly's house for many years, they found themselves oddly nervous. It was December 30th, and they had just gotten back to Malibu the night before, following a restful time in Tennessee with their friends and family.
"Kinda weird, huh?" asked Miley, glancing at her wife of five years and companion for eleven. "I mean, we haven't dropped news like this on them here since, well..."
Lilly eyes sparkled as she turned to meet Miley's sea blue gaze. "Since we told them we were in love?" she asked happily. A soft shiver passed through her body, and she reached to put her arm around Miley as her wife's strong arm wrapped around her shoulders. "That was the best meal I think I ever had here, Miles."
"Yeah, including your mom embarrassing our butts off," Miley added with a wry grin. "Without even knowin' we'd made love just a few hours before, she still called us on it!"
Lilly smirked as she rang the doorbell, using her free hand so she wouldn't have to release Miley. "Yeah, well, Mom is good at finding things like that when you least expect it." She kissed Miley on the cheek. Miley smiled and gently guided Lilly to stand in front of her, turning her back to the door. Lilly didn't need much guidance as she stepped over to stand between Miley and the door, reaching up behind Miley's neck to pull her wife in for a longer kiss. "Anyway," Lilly said a bit breathlessly as their lips pulled apart, "Now I'm not embarrassed about saying something like how much I enjoyed making love to you three times yesterday."
Miley had a bright twinkle in her eyes as she added, "And once this mornin'?"
"And once this mornin'," Lilly replied, doing a fairly good imitation of Miley's Southern accent. "And there might be a round two after lunch," she added as she looked deeply into Miley's eyes. "I think your pregnancy has made me even hornier than it has you, Miles."
"Well, then we better get started and get lunch over with!" said a voice from behind Lilly, making her nearly jump out of her skin. In fact, only Miley's grip on her kept the twenty-two-year-old from leaping off the porch. As Lilly's mother tried not to laugh, her father added, "Don't want to keep our daughter and daughter-in-law waiting!"
Lilly buried her face in Miley's shoulder as Miley laughed her deep, hearty laugh. "Please hide me under a rock," she muttered softly enough that only Miley could hear her.
"You ain't hidin' anywhere, Lilly," said Miley, lifting Lilly's head up and staring into her blue eyes, the irises nearly obscured by the now wide blackness of her pupils, dilated with shock. "And please don't freak out, baby. Your mom and dad know how much we love each other, and they know we make love, too. They were there for our weddings, remember?"
Lilly lifted her head and looked slightly up into her wife's bright blue eyes, burning into her own with intense concern and compassion. "How is it," she softly asked as she ran her fingers into Miley's thick chestnut hair, "that you always know the right thing to say to me?"
Miley smiled and said, "Just lucky, I guess."
"Yeah, right," Lilly snickered as she lifted her lips and kissed the tip of Miley's nose lightly. "More like amazing, if you ask me." Without completely releasing her hold on Miley, Lilly turned enough to face her parents. "You two surprised me, I guess," she said. "I mean, I'm really not embarrassed about kissing Miley in front of you, or sitting in her lap or holding her in my lap."
"Lilly," interrupted her mother, "it's not a matter of being embarrassed, it's a matter of modesty. And we'd be a bit embarrassed ourselves if the two of you started discussing your sexual habits in front of us."
"Well, no chance of that, I don't think," Lilly said, closing her eyes as she let her body snuggle tighter against her true love. "We like to keep that stuff to ourselves."
"Unless it's to embarrass Peyton or Mel," Miley quickly added. "And then it's just enough to make 'em turn red as a radish."
Lilly grinned. "Okay, there are some exceptions," she agreed.
The lunch was marvelous; Meredith's Crazy Chicken was a dinner that Lilly had always loved, and even Miley had developed a taste for it shortly after the two girls had begun dating. Everyone was still working on their first plate except for Lilly, who was well underway on her second, when Phil finally asked the question that he and Meredith had been politely putting off.
"So, what's the big news that you two had to tell us?"
Miley stopped with her fork almost to her mouth. "You want to tell 'em, hon?" she asked Lilly, whose mouth was, predictably, full. "Or you want me to do it?"
Lilly chewed, waving her fork around in a motion that probably meant for Miley to go ahead. Or maybe it meant to wait until she was done chewing. Either way, Miley had already decided which interpretation she favored.
"Well, the incredibly beautiful and equally talented woman who is my wife and your daughter has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress," Miley said proudly. "Say hello to Oscar Nominee Lola Montana!" she added with a flourish of her right hand in Lilly's direction.
"What?" asked Phil loudly, jumping to his feet.
"Oh, Lilly!" shouted Meredith, dropping her fork on her plate with a clatter.
"Yup," said Miley, rubbing Lilly's shoulder. "And I couldn't be more proud of my baby, that's for sure."
Lilly finally swallowed her bite of chicken and pasta. "Miley sorta left out that she got nominated too, for Best Original Song in a Movie," she said. "Don't make this all about me, Miles, please. You're just as amazing to me as I am to you."
Meredith stood up and hurried around the table, hugging both Miley and Lilly from behind where they sat together on the bench seat, just as they had done for the last eleven years. "I just—" she started. "I just can't believe it! Even knowing that you two are so successful, this is a tremendous accomplishment!"
"The Academy Awards are gonna be in a few weeks," Miley said, patting Meredith's arm. "You two want to go?"
"How can you get us there without revealing who the two of you really are?" asked Phil, incredulous.
"We can get tickets for family and friends, just not many of them," said Lilly. "And we don't have to specify exactly who we're getting tickets for. Plus Miley's family has tons of stuff to get done back in Tennessee, so it doesn't look like any of them are coming."
"Yeah, Kaela can't make it because she's gonna be busy with her medical school rotation, Ron and Lu are gonna be on the road with Kelly Clarkson for the rest of her tour, and it'd look too suspicious for Peyton and Mel to show back up at another big event with us. As for our friends here, Oliver and Ashley already have that big vacation to Australia booked, and Cassie and Sarah would be a bit... complicated."
Seeing the confusion on her parent's faces, Lilly helpfully added, "Sarah doesn't know about Hannah and Lola. Well, not that we know of."
"Oh, that reminds me!" said Meredith quickly. "I completely forgot to ask you earlier, and now I'm ashamed to even ask because it's so late."
"What is it, Mom?" asked Lilly.
"Well, dear, your aunt Kendra is in town with her children, and I was wondering if there might be some way to get them tickets to the Hannah Montana concert tonight. She said that she had tried to get tickets but they had all sold out by the time she could drive down here." Meredith paused. "You know it's been a hard year for them," she finally said.
Miley felt a cold shiver pass through her body, matching what Lilly had just felt. Lilly's paternal uncle Harrison Truscott had died following a heart attack over the summer, leaving his wife Kendra and their three children. Harry had worked for several years as a chemical engineer in Sacramento, and he had left his family with a substantial amount of money. But no amount of money could replace their father in the eyes of Jennifer, nine, Violet, seven, and Garrett, five. This wouldn't be the first time Miley had seen them, as she had previously met them one Christmas afternoon in Malibu six years ago, but this would be her first time seeing them since Harrison's death. She and Lilly had be unable to attend the funeral due to a concert of Hannah's in New York the same day, but Lilly had made sure to call and talk to her aunt and her nieces and nephew.
Miley and Lilly had felt bad about not being able to be there for the funeral, but Lilly had insisted that Hannah's concert go on as planned. Now they had a chance to do something positive that might brighten that family's spirits. "I think we can make something happen, Meredith," Miley said, looking at Lilly as her best friend nodded.
"Absolutely," added Lilly. "One sec." She stood up, pulling her cell phone from her pocket as she walked out of the kitchen.
"Thank you so much for the lunch, Meredith!" said Miley as she also stood. "You mind if I take your plate for you if you're done?"
"You don't have to do that, Miley," protested Meredith, but that protest didn't stop Miley from taking her mother-in-law's plate.
"I don't mind," replied Miley. "But I think Lilly Senior over here still looks hungry," she added with a grin at Phil. "Think I'll just leave that plate where it is for now, 'til he slows down some. Wanna keep all my fingers, after all." She carried both hers and Meredith's plates to the sink, depositing them there before turning around and yawning, stretching as she did so.
"Look how cute her little belly is, Phil!" said Meredith happily as she beamed at Miley.
"Little?" said Miley as she finished her quite wonderful yawn. "This hoss girl don't feel too little to me, and we're just halfway there!" she said, but the secretive smile on her face indicated how happy she truly felt.
"Hush, Miley," said Meredith lightly, dismissing her daughter-in-law's protest with a wave of her hand. "I can barely even tell you're pregnant! You carry our grandchild very well, I must say. And with the two of you as her mothers, she's going to be absolutely adorable."
Miley looked down at her abdomen and rubbed it softly. "I just want her to come out safe and healthy," she said seriously. "And to stay that way."
"She's going to have eyes like the spring sky and the voice of an angel," said Lilly as she came back into the room. "Just like her momma."
"But she's gonna have your hair, hon," said Miley, taking her wife's hand as she stood beside her at the sink. "You get ahold of Jen?"
"Yep," said Lilly with a happy smile. "She's getting the tickets now, and I asked her to bring them by here. I gave her directions on how to get here." She looked at her parents and quickly added, "Hope you two don't mind. If she swears any while she's here, just try to ignore her."
"Who's this that'll bringing the tickets by?" asked Phil, carrying his own plate to the sink.
"Our manager Jen Kittrell," said Miley. "She's really awesome, but she has a bit of a potty mouth. We don't let her swear around the baby."
Lilly gave her mother a guilty look. "So she sort of makes up for it when we're not around. And we need to head home and start getting ready. So don't let her cuss too much around you!"
Miley and Lilly stood and walked to the door, with Meredith and Phil following them. "So have you two seen the movie yet?" asked Lilly, a bit nervously.
"Of course," said Meredith, although she did blush slightly. "Although we did think the love scenes were a bit, um... intense."
"TMI, Meredith?" asked Miley with a light-hearted laugh. When no reply was forthcoming, Miley explained, "That's short for 'too much information', case you'd didn't know."
"Oh! Yes, that would be a good way to put it," said Meredith, Phil nodding affirmatively in the background.
"You two are very attractive young ladies, but knowing that it's our two daughters making love on the big screen does make it a bit uncomfortable to watch," added Phil.
"Just be glad it was Miley and not some sweaty guy like they wanted it to be originally," grumbled Lilly. "But it worked out pretty darn good, I have to say."
Meredith hesitated as the four of them walked out onto the small porch. "I've always wondered this, and now I have a chance to ask this question to someone who knows the answer."
"What is it, Mom?" replied Lilly as Miley reached across Lilly's waist and stealthily slid her right hand into Lilly's right rear pocket of her pants.
"Well, those love scenes in movies..." Meredith began. She glanced away, then she looked squarely into her daughter's eyes with an unsettling intensity. "Did you two really make love when filming that scene, or was it just very good acting?"
Truthfully, neither Lilly nor Miley had been expecting that question. "Well, we can only answer for ourselves," said Lilly, "but we didn't go all the way while filming those scenes for the movie."
"Just about eighty percent of the way," added Miley, drawing a light smack on her arm from Lilly.
"Miley!" she hissed. "You don't have to give them a breakdown, sweetheart!" She turned to regard her parents again and said, "Hey, when I'm in bed with my gorgeous wife and we're both naked, it's hard to resist!"
"So you two were both in the nude..." said Meredith.
Both Miley and Lilly nodded. "We walked to the bed wrapped up in this big ol' sheet," said Miley cheerily. "We've walked around wrapped up like that before, so it wasn't that big a deal for us as long as everybody wasn't lookin' at us in our birthday suits."
Meredith was still focused as she asked, "So how did you keep yourselves covered while filming those scenes? I remember from when you two lived with us that you can get a bit, shall we say, overboard while being intimate with each other."
Now it was Miley's and Lilly's turn to blush slightly. "Well, we, uh..." stammered Lilly.
Miley saved her wife by quickly saying, "Well, the first scenes we shot for the movie were a lot more tame than what you saw up on that movie screen. After seein' the first scenes, the director wanted to reshoot 'em, because she didn't think we showed enough—"
"Sex," interjected Lilly with a smirk. "She thought we were holding back, and we were, because we didn't want to show everything we had to millions of people. So when they called us back for a reshoot, we were even more nervous then we were the first time. But by that time we had hired Jen as our manager, so she went with us."
Miley said, "When we first filmed those scenes, Lilly and I were worried about gettin' so into each other that we'd forget where we were and give everybody a porno scene. Like we were talkin' about earlier, it's not a matter of bein' embarrassed, it's a matter of modesty. Seeing me naked and all hot 'n bothered is for my Lilly and only my Lilly."
"And seeing me like that is only for Miley," added Lilly with a confident smile. "But we talked to Jen about things, and she said that she'd take care of things if we started to get so into each other that we started to show more than we were comfortable with. So the reshoots went a lot better, because Miles and I could relax knowing Jen was there looking out for us. And when we relaxed, we let ourselves just... be ourselves, I guess. And when we started kicking covers off so we could—"
"TMI, I think, dear," said Meredith quickly.
"Sorry," said Lilly a bit sheepishly. "Anyway, Jen ran everybody off when things went past what we had decided would be our comfort level."
"Hey, you remember the time she caught that one guy who had left his camera on?" asked Miley, looking at her wife with a smile.
"Oh my gosh! I had totally forgotten about that!" said Lilly with her voice just slightly higher in pitch. She turned back to her parents and said, "She came back in and saw that one of the cameras was running while we were sitting back up and wrapping the sheets around us again so we could go back to our dressing room, and she went off!"
Miley was grinning now as she picked up the story. "She kicked the camera's legs out from under it and knocked it down! Scared us both to death! By the time somebody else could get in there, she had pulled out the portable hard drive, then she made them erase all the footage on that one camera!"
"She sat down with the director and the producers and the hard drive and made them erase all the stuff that wasn't supposed to be there, too," added Lilly. "And she cussed them out a few times, I think."
"Did they fire the jerk who tried to record you two that way?" asked Phil, quite angry at someone trying to take advantage of his daughter and daughter-in-law.
Miley and Lilly both laughed loudly, shaking for a few seconds in mirth. Miley recovered long enough to say, "Nah, Jen just got his address and his license plate number," said Miley. "She said that if he ever pulled anything like that again, she'd come to his house, tell his wife what he had tried to do, beat the hell out of him and then let his wife beat the hell out of him."
"Didn't she say something about buying a puppy for each of his kids, too?" asked Lilly to Miley.
"Yeah, and that they were all gonna be those little yip dogs that bark all the dang time!" Miley couldn't help but laugh as she looked back at her in-laws. "Needless to say, he behaved after that."
Lilly patted Miley's shoulder. "We need to get back to the house, hon. Hannah and Lola need some time to get ready." Lilly turned and hugged each of her parents. "Love you, Mom, Dad. Thanks for the lunch and for the talk."
"Yeah, thanks much, and hope we can see you two tonight," Miley added, not taking her hand out of the rear pocket of Lilly's jeans.
"Oh, I don't think we'll be going," said Phil. "I expect that Garrett won't find the same appeal that his sisters will in Hannah Montana. But thanks anyway, Miley." He hugged his daughter-in-law warmly. "Don't work too hard tonight, okay?" he asked.
"Miley's always really careful with the baby," Lilly quickly said. "She changed the choreography last month to cut down on how much dancing she has to do until the baby's here."
"Cut down on some of the more sexy numbers, too," said Miley. "I don't feel too sexy with this belly."
"Oh, stop it," said Lilly with a smile. "You, Mrs. Miley Truscott, grow sexier to me every day of our lives, and don't even try to argue with me, you got it?"
Miley looked back at Meredith and Phil. "Was she this stubborn growin' up?" she asked playfully.
"Oh yes," said Phil, with Meredith nodding. "And you made her worse."
"ME?" said Miley right before she caught the hint of a joke in her father-in-law's eye. "Watch it, buster," she said with a smile and laugh. Still smiling, she turned to her mother-in-law. "We'll show those little girls a good time tonight, Meredith, we promise," she said as she hugged Meredith warmly.
"I know you will, Miley," replied Meredith. "You and Lilly have such big hearts, and they've only gotten more caring since you found each other. We're proud of you both, and not just for what you've accomplished in life. We're proud for the young women you've grown up to be." She winked at her daughter, then she added, "Have fun tonight, girls."
Six hours later, the Hannah Montana concert was just about to start in Los Angeles. Lilly was watching Miley get into position to start the concert when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to see Roxy giving her a look of amusement. "Hey Roxy," Lilly said. "What's up?"
"Oh, just got some special VIPs here to meet you, Miss Lola," replied the bodyguard. She moved to the side to reveal the starstruck faces of little Jenny and Violet Truscott, VIP backstage passes dangling around their necks.
"Well, hi there!" said Lilly, smiling as she bent over. She didn't think there was any chance that the girls would recognize her as their cousin, but she still had to be careful not to call them by name or do anything else that might give her away. "I'm Lola," Lilly said, touching herself on the chest, "and who are you?"
"I'm Jenny!" said her cousin. "I'm nine!"
"And I'm seven! My name's Violet Truscott!" added her other cousin.
"Well, it's very nice to meet you!" Lilly said, carefully shaking hands with each little girl. She stood, looking at her aunt Kendra. Sadness had added lines to her face, but currently Lilly could only see joy at how happy her daughters were at being there. "I'm Lola Montana," she said, extending her hand to Kendra.
"Kendra Truscott," her aunt replied, giving her a genuine smile. "I can't thank you enough, Mrs. Montana, for getting my girls not just tickets but also backstage passes!"
"Hannah and I were happy to do what we could, Kendra," Lilly said, hoping she didn't sound too familiar, "and while I love being called Mrs. Montana, it's okay to call me Lola, too." Later she could talk to her aunt about how she was coping, but right now making sure her little cousins had a good time was her highest priority. "Want to go watch Hannah start the show?" she asked the two girls, getting excited grins and claps from both of them. "Come on, I'll take you to where I watch her. It's got the best view in the whole place!"
As Kendra followed her daughters and their host, she was still trying to process how quickly all this had happened. No sooner had they arrived at Phil and Meredith's house than someone had arrived with not only tickets but also backstage passes for the Hannah Montana concert, which had been sold out for weeks. She knew, because she had tried to buy tickets for it to no avail. Phil had told her that Lilly's friend—no, wife—Miley was working at Hannah's record company as part of her marketing classes, and that she had managed to acquire the tickets and passes at the last minute. Kendra was planning on repaying the favor somehow, maybe taking them out to dinner while she and the kids were in Malibu. It had been some time since she had seen her niece Lilly, and she had only met Miley once before, several years ago.
Lilly had a terrific time during the concert, even more than usual for one of Hannah's shows. Miley was her usual focused self during the short breaks between songs, but she took the time to smile and say hello to the girls, promising to spend some more time with them once the concert was over. To two of Hannah Montana's biggest fans, just having her smile and say hello to them was thrilling; getting the chance to sit down and talk to her was beyond what either of them could comprehend just yet. Lilly had the crew bring out three director's chairs; each had a different logo, with one bearing the long-standing Hannah Montana logo, one with Lola's personal logo done in the same style, and the third with their joint Hannah and Lola Montana logo. Lilly made sure they were all comfortable in the chairs as she took a drink of her juice. She hadn't yet told them that the chairs were theirs to keep. There would be plenty of time for that later. Lilly herself preferred to stand and watch Miley perform most of the time.
"Aren't you gonna sit, Mrs. Lola?" asked one of Lilly's cousins. Lilly turned and saw it was Jenny, the older of the two girls.
"I like to stand while I'm watching Hannah," Lilly explained with a smile. She turned back to watch Miley as she began singing "Stand Up, Stand Out," giving Lilly a wave as she began the song. "I could stand for hours watching her," Lilly said, almost to herself, but it was quite true. "Sitting makes me restless when she's singing. I just feel like I have to stand up, to get into it, you know?" Lilly turned back around, a mischievous smile on her face. "You thirsty? I can grab some drinks for you if you want."
"Sprite!" yelled Jenny.
"Pink lemonade!" said Violet.
"Girls!" said Kendra, shushing her daughters.
Lilly giggled at how her aunt was worried about Jenny and Violet being too loud at a rock concert. "I don't think they're gonna drown out Hannah's voice, Kendra," she said with a smirk. "Any of you want a snack?"
"Popcorn!"
"M&Ms!"
Lilly smiled again. "I like the way you two think," she said as she ruffled Violet's hair.
After snacks and drinks, Lilly held out her hands for the girls to take as she heard the music for "Life's What You Make It" wind down. "Come on," she said, helping the two girls out of their director's chairs. "Let's get you some of the full concert experience," she said with a knowing grin. "You mind?" she asked Kendra. "You can watch from the side; security won't let anyone get close to them, I promise."
Kendra looked concerned, but she nodded. Their host had been exceptionally sweet so far, and she truly didn't think that Lola would let her daughters get hurt. She followed them as Lola led her girls to the side, stopping to talk to a security guard. He nodded, then turned on a flashlight as he pulled back a thick dark curtain. He used the flashlight to illuminate something that Kendra couldn't see until she saw Lola start to disappear into the ground. Obviously there were some stairs hidden there; she hurried over as the crew member smiled and motioned for her to go on out as well.
As Kendra passed through what felt like two or three layers of thick curtains, she emerged into raucous chaos. A cacophonous wall of voices and cheers made up of twenty thousand girls and women singing, screaming, shouting and occasionally squealing filled the arena as she found herself in the empty section between the main stage and the front rows. One of the security personnel nodded at her before he turned around to once again focus his attention on the crowd. Kendra leaned over, looking for her children before she spotted them far ahead of her.
Lilly's grin was intense as she carefully led the girls toward center stage, staying on the open path between the stage and the mixed wall of humans and metal keeping the crowds away from the stage. Hannah's fans were always well-behaved, but front row could still get rather wild regardless of everyone's dispositions. As they finally reached a spot right at center stage, they saw Hannah walk out onto the walkway just ahead of them.
Miley was currently being bathed in spotlights and the rest of the arena beyond the stage was steeped in blackness, so there was no way she could have seen the trio standing on her right, just beneath the level of the walkway. However, when it came to Lilly, Miley's heart was much more sensitive than her eyes. She stopped and looked down as she continued to sing, smiling as she saw her girlfriend and their two little guests. She motioned for them to join her on stage, prompting cheers from the crowd even though they had no idea whom Hannah Montana was wanting to come up on stage with her.
"You want to go sing with Hannah?" Lilly loudly asked her little cousins over the loud cheers and music, getting nods from two faces frozen in massive smiles. "She's about to start singing 'Rock Star'! You know the words?" Getting two more nods, Lilly lifted up first Jenny, then Violet onto the stage.
As the crowd got a view of Hannah's two small guests, the cheers intensified even further as Miley finished singing "Supergirl." Miley positioned the two girls beside her as she said, "I'd like for everybody here to give a big hands to my two special guests tonight, Jenny and Violet Truscott!" As more whistles and cheers filled the air, the girls couldn't help but blush furiously at the attention. Miley grinned and yelled, "They're gonna help me sing, so I want all of you to help me sing, too! Ya'll know the words to a song called, 'Rock Star'?" She held up the microphone, capturing the roar of all the answering cries. "Then let's hit it!" she said as she signaled the band to start playing.
Lilly reached up to wipe a tear from her eyes before it could smear her Lola makeup. Watching Miley kneel down and hold the microphone for Jenny and Violet to sing with her, she couldn't help but wonder if one day the two little girls on stage with Hannah would be their daughters sneaking onto the stage with their mother, adding their voices to the song being sung. Maybe they will. She turned toward the crowd to get a better view, standing on her tip toes as she did so. Suddenly she heard Lola's name being shouted from just a few feet away. Looks like someone spotted me, she thought. She gamely turned and waved, flashing a smile at what appeared to be a dozen teenage girls reaching out for her. "You having a good time tonight?" she yelled to them, knowing her voice would barely be heard this close to the speakers on the main stage. As the girls nodded and shouted their affirmative replies, Lilly reached out and shook their hands, bravely bearing the death grip squeezes several of the girls gave her. It had taken her some time to get used to "being a rock star," as she termed it when talking to Miley, but she had finally done so after years of adjusting.
One of the girls screamed out, "I love you, Lola! Will you give me a kiss?!" while another yelled, "You're so fucking hot, Lola! Make love to me!"
Lilly smiled. It had taken time to get used to requests like those, too, but answering them had always been easy. "Sorry," she yelled back with a friendly smile, "but I'm a one-woman kind of girl, and my heart belongs to that woman up there on stage!" Along with my body, my spirit, my happiness and my soul. "Enjoy the show!" she said, waving her goodbye as Miley came back to the edge of the walkway with her two guest singers.
Lilly stepped away from the front row as she reached up and helped the two girls down from the stage. "So what did you think?" she asked with a knowing smile as the two girls waved up to Hannah, who had started "Fallen Angel" by now, blowing a kiss to Lilly as the song began.
"That was awesome!" yelled Jenny, her grin fixed firmly on her face.
"Yeah, yeah!" echoed Violet. "That was way cool!"
Lilly grinned at their reactions. They'll be walking on air the rest of the night... and probably most of the next day, too. "Come on, let's get backstage so we can catch Hannah when she takes a break to get a drink. She likes for me to be there, so she can sneak a quick kiss while changing clothes."
"Okay!" said Violet, taking Lilly's hand as Jenny did the same. They carefully retraced their path, being careful to not trip over the multitude of wires taped to the floor as they made their way back to the stairs leading up to the curtain. Lilly smiled at Kendra as she helped the girls up the stairs, then she motioned for Kendra to go on ahead of her. She turned and took one look back at her wife, who was already looking her way. As Lilly waved, Miley blew her another kiss, drawing more cheers from the crowd who could guess what the gesture meant. "That's my rock star," Lilly said proudly and more than a bit possessively to herself as she used her hands to part the curtain and climbed the stairs back to the wings.
After the afore-mentioned drink and kiss break, Miley changed clothes and went back out for the last scheduled part of the concert. After that was complete, she returned for two encores, performing two more songs for each encore as the crowd continued to lustily cheer for her. When the concert was finally over she was thoroughly drained, but she refused to let any of that fatigue show as she waved goodbye to her fans and thanked them for coming out to see her.
Backstage, Lilly could see how tired Miley was in her body language. Part of her was beginning to wonder if having her cousins backstage was such a bright idea, but she knew that Miley would have insisted on them being there even if Lilly had expressed any concerns. Well, at least she can sit down and relax in the dressing room. "Come on," Lilly said to their three guests. "Let's head back to the dressing room. Sometimes it takes a few minutes for Hannah to get there." Lilly peered around until she saw Roxy; she motioned for the bodyguard to get Miley and bring her on back to the dressing room. Roxy nodded and immediately moved to retrieve the tired superstar. You rock, Roxy.
Violet and Jenny were still running around the dressing room, examining everything they could find when Miley came through the door. Without a word Lilly immediately made her way across the room, wrapping Miley up in her strong arms as the singer sighed happily. "I can relax now," Miley said. "I'm safe in your arms, baby."
Lilly felt her heart skip a beat at the simple and unexpected admission. "C'mon," she said softly. "Let's get you over to the couch and off your feet. You need to rest for a bit." She helped Miley stretch out on the couch, fluffing a poofy yellow pillow for her to recline on. Lilly bent over and kissed Miley on her sweaty forehead. "I'll get you a washcloth for your sweaty face," she said with a smirk.
"You love my sweaty face!" said Miley over her shoulder as Lilly walked to the bathroom.
"Why do you think I'm getting the washcloth for you?" Lilly replied in a playful sing-song voice as she went into the bathroom.
Miley opened her eyes to find two sets of eyes staring at her from just about a foot away. "Hey girls," she said, putting as much energy into her voice as she could. "You have a good time tonight?"
"We had the best time!" said Violet, quite serious and speaking as if she were several years older than her seven years.
Miley's reply was cut off by the soothing sensation of a cool washcloth caressing her forehead, carefully removing the hot, sticky perspiration and leaving behind a refreshing tingle as Lilly washed her forehead and face. "Thanks, hon," Miley said, looking up and giving her wife a heartfelt smile of appreciation.
"You're welcome, sweetheart," said Lilly as she leaned over Miley and gave her another kiss on her forehead, this one lingering a bit longer.
Miley sat up, adjusting the pillow to keep it behind her head and neck. Lilly quickly scooted a settee over for her to sit on while she lifted Miley's legs, propping her wife's feet up on her lap so she could start taking off Miley's boots. "I get this special treatment because I'm pregnant," Miley said to the girls, as if sharing a secret. Their giggling made Miley grin, something that didn't go unnoticed by her wife.
"No," Lilly said as she tossed one boot to the floor, "you get this special treatment because I love you." As she tugged on the second boot, she added, "And love makes us do crazy things," giving Miley a wink as she yanked the boot off and tossed it on the floor with its mate.
"Amen to that," said Miley softly, giving Lilly a warm, honest smile that conveyed how much she adored and appreciated everything Lilly did for her. She wiggled her toes in their sheer black stockings, reveling in how cool the air-conditioned air of the dressing room felt. "So," she began, looking at the two girls, "how are you two doing with everything that's happened?"
No clarification was needed for anyone in the room. The mood in the room became more somber as Jenny and Violet's smiles faded slightly. "I miss my daddy," said Violet, and the simple ache in that small voice struck clear to Miley's and Lilly's hearts.
"I know you do, sweetie," Miley said as she put her arms around both girls.
"I miss him, too," added Jenny. "I wish he was still here." Kendra sat down behind Violet, resting her hands on her younger daughter's shoulders.
As Lilly saw the tears begin to creep down her cousins' faces, she struggled to keep her own tears in check. She wasn't sure how much longer she could do so, but that wasn't important at the moment. She got up and walked over to the couch, sitting down behind Jenny. "What you have to remember is that your daddy is here in your hearts," Lilly said as she looked at each girl and then her aunt in turn. "And as long as you remember that, you'll always have part of him with you."
Miley took a deep breath, then she said, "I don't know if you two know this, but I wasn't much older than you were when I lost my momma. It took me a long time to get over that, and even today it still hurts some for her to be gone. But sometimes I can see her in the way the sunlight falls on a summer morning, or hear her voice on the wind as it's blowin' through the trees. And then I know that she's never gone completely, not as long as she's in mine and Lola's hearts."
"Does that make it stop hurting?" asked Jenny through her tears, her quiet voice making cold chills run across both Lilly and Miley.
"It makes it hurt less," said Miley carefully, not wanting to lie to them. "But you can make it, and you can grow up to be the big, strong girls that your daddy wants you to be." Her own tears were coming freely at this point, and she didn't try to fight them as she felt Lilly carefully lean in, trying to hug as much of them as she could get her arms around. "Sometimes it's okay for even big girls to cry," she said as all five of them in the room did just that.
Author's Afterword: If I caught you off guard with the seemingly abrupt transition back to Malibu, my apologies, but that's where the story is taking us. You haven't seen the last of Amy and Dee in this story, though, as the two of them will be making a trip out to California before long. But before all that, we have the Academy Awards, the next step of Mikayla's attack on Hannah and Lola, and a little game called the Super Bowl. Will all of that fit into the next chapter? I sure hope so! Plus, each chapter brings us closer to the REAL big event: the arrival of a certain baby girl, whose birth will warrant an entire chapter dedicated to that life-changing occasion. Lots more to come, and I'll do my best to keep up a good pace on new chapters. See you soon!
-- Jo --