Page 55 of In the Shadows

This one was a little trickier since he didn’t have his left arm available to brace himself with. I was in position, ready to grab at Carla’s words to do so, but he surprised all of us by taking the step with nothing more than her hands on his hips.

“Fantastic, Joey,” she exclaimed. “Take a deep breath and hold it for five seconds. I know your heart is racing and I don’t want you to pass out. We have time here so there’s no need to rush yourself.” Once he drew in a breath and released it, she moved to change the subject to get his focus off the task at hand while he calmed himself down. “Tell me, how did all of you meet?”

“Stoli and I have lived next to each other since we were five,” he told her. “We met Mickey and Diamond in high school.”

“Wow, so collectively you guys have been together for a long time. That’s amazing.”

“This is a great group of boys,” Joe added. “I’m proud of all of them. In my eyes, they’re my sons as well.”

Joe’s words meant a lot to us. Probably more so to Diamond and I than he would ever know. Mickey had a great family and we were thankful for their support too. Hell, his mom was ready to hop on the next plane out here, but I told him to tell her to hold tight. We’d be needing some of her baking when we got home so she needed to stock up her sugar supply.

When all was said and done, Joey was able to take five steps today before the exhaustion was written all over his face and Carla called it a day. She told us to massage his muscles again later to keep them from spasming from being used after sitting dormant for these last four weeks. They were moving him to a regular room while we were at PT today, so we opted to take him to the cafeteria for lunch while they finished getting it set up. I was sure it was nice for him to stay out of it for a bit, but I figured he was gonna pass the fuck out as soon as his stomach was full.

Our presence in the cafeteria caused some heads to turn, but everyone was respectful of our privacy and extended nothing more than smiles our way. We appreciated that. Joe found a table in the corner and he and Joey took a seat there while the three of us filled up plates and got drinks in the cafeteria line for everyone.

After we got Joey situated with a plate, I turned my phone back on and messages filled across the screen. I found myself smiling like a fool at the positive words from our friends:

“Halle-fucking-lujah!”Ryder had shot over.

“Tell us when to send the plane and it will be there!”Derek sent.

“Give Joey a big hug from us and tell him we love him!”Mom texted.

“Dude I’m so stoked. Can’t wait to tell the guys!”Brad sent, I’d forgotten I’d given him my number and was happy that I did.

“Let me know what you guys need and I’ll get it for you??,”was sent by Easton.

“Happy press conferences all around!”Sal sent. I should be shocked by this but I know to Sal we’re his proverbial sons so this was sent with the best intentions and love.

“What are you smiling at?” Joey asked me.

“The massive amount of texts that just came across my phone,” I told him, handing it over to him so he could read them.

“I look like shit, but let’s send them a selfie. Hey guys,” Joey said, “come stand behind us so we can take a pic of the family to share.”

They gathered behind us, just as I went to hit the button to snap it I turned my head and kissed Joey’s cheek. The smile on his face, the one I feared I’d never see again lit me up inside something fierce. I copied and pasted it, sharing it with friends before happily posting it on our social media accounts with the caption,“I can breathe again!”

By the time we finished eating, Joey was nodding off in the chair. Our skills were clearly lacking as it took all four of us to get him out of the chair and into bed. The nurse brought in the goods to give him his sponge bath and I had her leave them behind and took care of it myself. His bruises were almost gone, which I was happy to see, but the dampness of the bath chilled him, so I slid his sweats back on underneath his gown. They’d removed his catheter earlier this morning before we went to PT making things a bit simpler. The only remaining IV he had was for pain meds which she’d given him a dose of before leaving the room. I was still too wound up over having him back to doze off. With notebook in hand, I curled up in the chair and began re-writing the songs we’d finished but lost as best I could. The ones I’d written alone were much simpler and luckily, I’d taken a picture ofDon’t Doubt Usafter Joey had showed it to me and was able to retrieve it from the cloud.

A couple hours later, he woke. “Have I told you how hot you are in glasses?” Joey mumbled.

I looked up, over the rim of them. “No, but right now you could tell me my shoes were untied and I’d be just as thrilled hearing you say it. Fuck, babe, you have no idea how scared I was.” After setting my notepad down, I sat down beside him on the bed taking his hand in mine before leaning in and kissing him.

“Mmm,” he said. “What are you working on over there?”

“Finished up a new song and was trying to get as much as I could remember re-written for the ones we lost,” I told him, running the pad of my thumb across his jawline before stealing another kiss. Right now, I couldn’t get enough of him. “You should see the shrine out front from our fans, wait I have some pics.” I grabbed my phone, scrolling through to find them and showing him.

“Oh man, the fans. Shit, what about the rest of our tour? We were only half way through it.”

“Sal and Easton took care of that, promising we’d reschedule when we were back to one hundred percent. The fans have shown nothing but support for us,” I said. “Our only focus now is getting you healthy so we can go home.”

“Can we get calls in here?” he asked.

“Well, you’re out of ICU so I think we can. What did you have in mind?”

“I need my Brandon fix,” he said, smiling.

The fact that he loved my family as much as he did spoke volumes to me and he didn’t need to ask twice. I scooted in beside him and hit mom’s contact and she answered on the second ring.

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