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“So how mad was he?”  Martha Jane waved her hand at her husband.  Get the kids out of the room.  This is going to be a long one.

“Well, I don’t know if ‘mad’ is the right word…”

“Uh, yes it is, Mel.  It’s the exact, perfect word.”

“Okay, at first, he was mad.  He thought I’d gone behind his back…”

Martha Jane snorted.

“Yeah, I know I did…kind of…but it wasn’t something I could tell him about…it wasn’t supposed to be planned…it was supposed to be…”

“Spontaneous?”  The sarcasm in Mart’s voice was unmistakable.

“Oh, shit!  That makes me sound like Rafe.”  Mel’s voice rose and threatened to become hysterical.  “Do you think he thought I was like Rafe?  He asked me that, you know.  He said, did Rafe put you up to this?”

“Is that how he said it, ‘did Rafe put you up to this?’”  If he had, that wasn’t good, thought Mart.

“Um…yeah…no…I don’t know…let me think…”  Mel tried to pull the words back.  Did Rafe ask you?…did Rafe tell you?…did Rafe…?  “No, that’s what he said,” she said.  “’Did Rafe put you up to this?’  Oh, God, Mart!”

“Now, calm down…calm down…”  Mart tried to send reassurance down the wires.  “You explained it, right?  He was okay at the end?”

At the end.  Right before Toby knocked.

“Yeah, he was okay.”  Melody paused.  “Aw, shit, Mart…” and she explained the hug and the kiss on the hair and the whole knee-buckling, stomach-flipping omilord feeling.  “What am I going to do?” she asked weakly.

Mart didn’t have the answer.  She knew what she should say.  Don’t do it.  You’re so much older.   You’ll just end up getting hurt.  But she didn’t say any of those things.  She knew that Mel had already said those things to herself a hundred times.

“I’m going to tell you a baseball story,” said Mart.  “A long time ago, Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax were sitting around the Dodger dressing room in Los Angeles with the rest of the pitching staff.”

Mel smiled to herself.  Martha Jane Connors was the biggest baseball fan she had ever met.  Martha Jane believed that baseball was more than the national pastime.  She believed that it was a metaphor for life.  Some of the best advice Mel had ever received from Mart had been in the form of a baseball story, so she listened carefully.

“Yes?” she said.

“They were talking about opposing batters.  What was the best way to pitch to them?  They tossed around some names…people threw out suggestions…they talked it over…this guy’s a sucker for low and inside…that guy will always swing at the first pitch…”

“Uh huh,” said Mel.

“Then one of them said, ‘Hank Aaron.’” said Mart.  “There was a silence.  They all looked at each other.  Finally, Don Drysdale said with a sigh, ‘Try not to have too many men on base when he hits it out of the park.’”

Mel digested the story silently.  “So,” she said at last, “what you’re saying is that I can plan for most things…”  She paused.  “…but I should try not to have too much of my heart invested in this…”

“…when he hits it out of the park,” finished Mart.  She didn’t have any idea what she was talking about.  She was just trying to protect her friend from…from herself, mostly.

Melody gave herself a mental shake.  “I’m not going there, Mart.  I’m not putting my heart into it.  It’s just a physical thing…that goddamn elevator!  I’m thirty, for God’s sake.  He’s twenty-three.  There’s no way this is going anywhere.  It’s just…proximity…that’s what it is…we can’t get away from each other…we’re together on the bus…we’re together at rehearsals and during the show…”

Mart’s heart broke for her friend.  The bases were loaded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nick had waited long enough.  He knew that Mel wanted him too.  They all knew it.  He didn’t care how old she was, and he was going to freakin’ kill Toby, if the PA didn’t stop mentioning her age in every sentence.

Nick wanted her in a way that he had never wanted Tamara.  Maybe it was because he’d never had to want Tamara.  She’d been right there.  Always willing.  Eager, in fact.  Nick had never gotten past, ‘Do you want to…?’ before Tamara started taking off her clothes.

Maybe that was what this was about…the fact that he couldn’t have her made him want her more.  Shit, he hated thinking through stuff like this.  He never made any sense.  But what made sense to him was that they were two adults, who could do what they wanted.  And he wasn’t going to pretend anymore.  If Mel was going to say no, she was going to have to say it to him, not run away and hide.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“He wants to see you,”  Jeff whispered in Mel’s ear, as she went past him out the door. 

She stopped and looked at him. 

“In his room,” he murmured. 

Mel gave a slight shake of her head. 

“He said I shouldn’t take no for an answer,” Jeff continued. 

They were in Montreal.

Melody sighed.  Might as well get it over with.  She squeezed Jeff’s arm and smiled.  “I won’t shoot the messenger,” she said. 

Jeff raised his eyebrows.  “But you’ll go?” 

Mel nodded.  This had been going on for days.  Every time he came near her, Nick stroked her arm or touched her hair or…looked at her…

The bus rides had been almost unbearable.  Melody pleaded fatigue and spent the entire time in her bunk with the curtain drawn, only coming out when she was sure Nick was asleep.  When he insisted on a guitar lesson, she sat across from him with her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped tightly around them.  She made him practice with his eyes closed so that he couldn’t look at her.

The concerts were excruciating.  The warm-up bands turned out to be a bunch of great guys…all of them excited at the chance to perform for a sold-out crowd…thankful to Nick for giving them a chance for a reunion.  They had a lot of fun at rehearsals, and every one of them had been impressed enough to say something during their performance.  You’re in for a real treat now.  This guy rocks the house.  Stuff like that.  There was a party atmosphere surrounding the concerts.  Mel heard one of the crew say, “Can you believe we get paid for this?”

But Mel couldn’t get away from it.  She knew some of the guys in these bands and had to be sociable.  There was also the occasional friend who dropped by that she had to introduce to Nick.  Nick took these opportunities to torture her…to drop an arm around her shoulder and say, we’re so lucky to have Mel with us.  Then a tiny squeeze on her arm…or a fingernail run down her back.  She damn near passed out when he did that.

Alias Me had become so hot that Tofu said he was thinking of getting asbestos underwear.  The last ‘alias me’ didn’t go anywhere near the audience.  As far as the band could tell, at that point, Nick and Mel didn’t even know there was an audience out there.

And when Nick introduced her, he saved her for the end, and he walked slowly, so slowly toward her.  The whole crew wondered what he was going to do.  Melody stood rooted to the spot, her wide eyes pleading with him not to touch her. 

“And last, but not least, the most talented lady I know, the incomparable Melody Jones…” 

Nick nodded at her, and Mel did her guitar riff for the crowd.  Nick stood with his back to the audience and ran his tongue over his lips.  Mel was the only one who wasn’t aware of the fact that she did it back to him.

She started hanging around Toby.  She knew Toby didn’t want her anywhere near Nick, so if she hung around with him, he found things to do that weren’t near the six-foot blond with the crooked smile and those hands that…Damn! Damn! Damn!

But she couldn’t hang with Toby at the hotels.  He and Gus pleaded paperwork and disappeared into their room, after making sure that everyone had everything they needed.  Jeff saw what was going on. He tried to decide whether it was a good idea or not.  In the end, he decided that it was none of his business.  He figured he’d just sift through the ashes when they were done.

Melody walked up the hall to Nick’s suite.  She knocked on the door.  She could see that it was propped open with a shoe.  She laughed.  What a goof!  She pushed the door open and knocked again.  “Nick?”

“Come on in,” he said. 

Melody kicked the shoe out of the way and closed the door behind her.  She walked past a closet and peered into the room.  Nick was sitting on the sofa holding his guitar.  He was barefoot.  His feet were propped up on the coffee table, his legs spread apart.  Melody looked around.  Nice place.  Not much different from her room except for the furniture.  A door on her left led into the bedroom.

Nick grinned at her and beckoned her forward with his head.  His fingers continued to idly pick out notes.

“Ah, the inner sanctum,” she intoned, reverence in her voice.  She thought she might throw up.

“Yeah, the big star suite,” laughed Nick.

“Nick Central,” offered Melody, with a smile.

Nick set down the guitar and stood up.  Melody stopped smiling.  Her stomach turned over.  Nick walked toward her.

Melody cleared her throat.  “You wished to see me, Sir.”

“Ah, I like that attitude,” he said, stopping in front of her.  “A little humility from the peasants.”  He traced his index finger down the side of her face. 

Melody inhaled sharply.

“It makes me think you might do what you’re told, for once,” whispered Nick.

“And what would that be, Mr. Carter, Sir?” asked Melody, biting her lip.

“This,” he answered, and he put his mouth on hers.  Mel whimpered, and Nick scooped her into his arms.  His soft lips covered hers and made her want to stay there forever.

“No,” she said, moving her head away from him.  “We can’t.  Nick, don’t.”  His lips had moved to her neck.

“Yes, we can,” he murmured into her throat.

“No,” she said, in a firmer voice and found her resolve.  “No,” she said a third time, and he let her go.

“Why not?” he asked.  Nick took her face in his hands.  “I know you want me.  You can’t say that you don’t.  I know you do.”

“That’s not the point,” said Melody, gently prying his fingers from her face and stepping away from him.

“That’s exactly the point,” said Nick.  “I want you.  You want me.”

“…we’re a happy family…” sang Melody, doing the Barney song.  It broke the tension.

Nick laughed.  “C’mon, Mel.”

“No, Nick.  It won’t be good for the tour.  People will notice.”

“Oh, like people haven’t noticed how hot we are for each other already.”

Point taken, thought Melody.

“It’s not the same thing,” she said.  “Now it’s just sparring back and forth.  We haven’t always gotten along.  Could be heat, could be hate.”

They stared at each other.

“I’m thirty,” said a pain-filled voice.

“So what?” said a voice seven years younger.

Mel shook her head.  So everything.

She turned to go.

“Give me five minutes,” said Nick.  “Just five minutes.  Okay?  Please.”

Melody’s shoulders slumped.  “Okay,” she said.  “Five minutes.  But I don’t know what you’re going to say in five minutes that you think will change my mind.”

“I’m not going to say anything,” said Nick, and he swept her into his arms, moving his mouth down over hers.

Melody moaned, and her brain gave way to the rest of her.  There were several moments of temporary insanity before reason fought its way back to the fore.  She put both her hands on his chest and pushed.

“You know what,” she said, backing away.  “This is just hormones.  We’re just horny…maybe not even for each other.” 

Nick shifted his groin, belying the accuracy of her statement. 

“Hell, I’m the only woman around,” she continued.  “Maybe you don’t even want me.”

“So what are you suggesting?” asked Nick in disbelief.  “That I go out and get laid…find someone else, just to see if I really want you…”

Melody nodded.  Yes, that was what she was suggesting.  She couldn’t believe it, but that was indeed what she was suggesting.

“Tamara,” she said.

“I have to do it by tomorrow?”  Nick wasn’t following.

“No…Tamara.  She’s going to be in Toronto, right?”

Nick nodded.  He couldn’t believe this.  Mel wanted him to prove he wanted her by sleeping with someone else.  Women!

“I will if you will,” he said finally.

“What?” 

“That’s only fair.  Otherwise, I’m like…the guy who cheated or something…”

“Nick…”

“No.”  He held up his hand.  “That’s the way it has to be.  If we are going to get each other out of our system, then it has to be both of us.  I’m sure there’s lots of guys around that…”

“Oh, I wouldn’t have any trouble, don’t worry about that,” said Mel.  She couldn’t believe this conversation.

“Okay, then…before Toronto.”

“We’re in Ottawa next,” said Mel. 

“Okay, Ottawa it is.”

Ten minutes later, Melody sat in her room wondering what in the hell had just happened.  Nick sat in his room and wondered who she would pick.