Chapter 94

Tonight was the last concert before a few days off and heading up to Canada. The guys would head back to New York for a couple days and Richie was happy to spend some time in New Jersey, visit his mom for a few days with Daniel and Sarah. The little boy had not seen his grandma is a while and being so close, it only made sense.

Having a show so close to home meant that their families came out see them. These shows were planned with thought. A Friday night, so the children would be able to come as well. In reality they were more happy to see their dads than a concert itself.

"Ready for another show?" Richie asked as he walked back into the dressing room after visiting with Jon to discuss the setlist.
"Not as excited as Daniel." Sarah said as she passed him over.
Richie gladly took his son from her. "I'm playing a solo song right before the encores so try and keep Daniel awake for it, I don't want you to miss it."
Sarah raised an eyebrow at him, wondering. "Are you dedicating a song to me?" She asked in a teasy sing song voice.
"Maybe I will." He used the same voice to tease her back before reaching in for a kiss.

A few minutes before the concert would start Sarah followed Dorothea and her two youngest boys to a little spot in front of the stage where security stood. They found a side stage view but would be perfectly able to see their men.

Daniel had finally gotten used to wearing headphones that protected his hearing and didn't try to pull them off everytime Sarah put them on him. He had accepted his fate and didn't bother once all night.

The crowd around them started cheering as Sarah and Dorothea looked up at the stage where Tico had sat down at his drums, followed by Richie and David joining on the stage. Together they started the opening notes to the song and not much later Jon joined them all on stage too.

Sarah loved watching her man on stage, he always looked so passionate when he played guitar but even more so when he was able to share it with everyone and she loved to see that. Their shows had changed somewhat since the last time she had joined them on tour in Europe. She had noticed it during the last two weeks, Richie sang more parts of the songs. Sometimes starting a song or sometimes singing the second chorus by himself while Jon pitched in on guitar. It was subbtle but noticeable.

Towards the end, they made a show of switching places as Jon called Richie on his microphone and beckoned him to come over to the center of the stage. Richie walked over with a what do you want attitude and stood next to Jon, waiting for him. "Show 'em what you got." He said into the microphone for the whole crowd to hear.
In return, Richie played the opening notes of one of their most known songs on his guitar, showing off.
"No, no." Jon told him, keeping up their act. "You've got to sing for them!"
Richie gave him a look, acting like he was surprised. "Who? Me?"
Jon laughed and slapped his shoulder. "Yeah, you!" Then he walked away and headed down the back stairs, leaving the stage.

Now Richie stood at the microphone, ready to play his own song for the crowd. Standing there watching out over them made him feel great. For one song, he was in charge.

Sarah had seen them do this almost every night but it seemed clear to her that to Dorothea this was new. Their banter was cute to Sarah and she had started to like when they did so on stage, it showed they still had fun with what they did.

After Richie played his song, he followed the same direction Jon had left the stage, with David, Tico and Hugh behind him

"They loved that." Richie said as soon as he found Jon, he had changed and was almost ready to go. Richie did the same and pulled his shirt off as he was handed a new one to change into.
"Yeah, I could hear those cheers." Jon agreed with him. "I like the bit, people seem to like it."
"Yeah, exactly." Richie said quickly.
"Everyone ready for encores?" Jon asked as he looked around. "Let's show them what we've got with these last 4 songs!"

After the concert ended, Sarah followed Dorothea and the boys to the backstage dressing rooms where they found the men still in the hallway telling each other how great the show had been.

Richie looked up when Sarah approached with Daniel in her arms. She quickly reached up for a kiss.

Now that he was safely backstage, Daniel pulled off his headphones and interrupted his parents kiss to pass them to Richie.

"Thank you buddy." He said as he took the headphones, then held his arms out to take him.
Sarah gladly passed him over. "He had a lot of fun but I think he'll be asleep before we get to the hotel."
"We're not going to a hotel." Richie said, a little confused. "We're flying to New York and then taking a car to mom's." He explained, reminding her.
"It'll be the middle of the night when we get there." She pointed out.
Jon chimed in quickly to that. "That's probably the earliest Joan will have seen Richie come home."
Richie scowled at him. "Fuck off."
"Pretty sure you used to get home when the sun rose and got up when it started setting."
"As if you didn't." Richie countered, knowing Jon had been a close second back then.
"No, I was the one knocking on your door waiting for you to get up. I would've come in to wake you up myself but it wasn't ever safe to walk in to your room."
Richie rolled his eyes at that.
"I've seen more women leave that room than I can count."
"Fuck you." Richie told him, a tad annoyed that he had brought it up to begin with. It was almost thirthy years ago.

"Cars are here!" They heard from behind them. They all knew what that meant and gathered their belongings to head down to the back exit, ready for some travel time.