Chapter 40

After watching the fireworks together in the back yard, Jon and Dorothea wished them a good night and prepared to drive back to the hotel the four of them were staying at.

Richie asked his daughter to help him clean up the table and take dishes inside to load into the dishwasher.

Sarah in return, put her hand on his arm as he made ready to get up, she stopped him. "How about you get Daniel ready for bed? I'll help clean up." She offered as she passed Daniel over to his lap.
He took his son from her and held him close. "Are you sure?" He asked.
"Of course, you did all the work tonight, I'll do this."
"Okay." He agreed.

With Daniel on his lap, he still helped stack the places he could reach around him, perhaps he would eat another rib or two before Sarah took it all away. He'd work out tomorrow.

Daniel started snuggling into him and that was the sign for Richie that he was ready for bed. He got up from his lawn chair and took Daniel to the kitchen, where by now the sink was being filled and the dishwasher was being loaded as well.

"You don't have to clean everything up." Richie said as he grabbed milk from the fridge and grabbed one of Daniel's bottles.
"Rather get it all done, then it's done." Sarah replied.
"I know," He sat Daniel down on the counter so he could pour milk into the bottle, "but it's late and you're probably tired as well." He picked his son up again and walked over to the microwave, heating up the milk.
"I'm alright, Ava's loading the dish washer so that'll do most of the work anyway."
"I guess so."
"Besides, I can sleep in tomorrow." Sarah pointed out with a smile.
Richie smiled back at her, then the microwave beeped at him. "I like the sound of that." He agreed and took Daniel's bottle out of the microwave. "I'll see you in a bit." He said before leaving the kitchen and taking Daniel up to his room.

Once in Daniel's bedroom, he laid him down on the change table and started undressing him, changing his diaper and dressed him in his pajamas before getting comfortable in the rocking chair and feeding his son his bottle.

It didn't take long for Daniel to dose off as he drank his warm milk and cuddled with his dad.

When Richie was sure he was sound asleep, he put the bottle away and got his phone from his pocket. He found the email Jon had sent him earlier and opened the file that showed him the tour schedule along with all the other information about rehearsals or media days.

Today was the last day of August, in three days school would start. There would be two days for rehearsals in New York before they'd fly to Mexico on the 9th. They'd fly home on the 23rd and then it would still be about a week before the concert in Vancouver so he would have time to see Caleb, he liked that idea. He scrolled further down to the list, after the show in Las Vegas, they'd have a couple days off so he would have enough time to go home for at least 1 night, maybe they would be able to celebrate Thanksgiving in October as well, Sarah would definitely enjoy that. At the end of October there would be a handful of days off before doing 5 nights in November, then the rest of the month off. At least he'd be home for American Thanksgiving then. December didn't have many nights either and after that he'd be home for the rest of the holidays.

All in all he didn't think it was a bad time to come back, sure he would miss out on birthdays but he also knew Ava was understanding about his work, she has known her whole life what it was like. For Daniel, he felt a little different. His first birthday was a big milestone but he also wouldn't know the difference if they celebrated it early or later. He would be there for Daniel's first Christmas where he would be able to open his own gifts and be amazed by everything that comes with the holiday.

He smiled at the memory of Ava's first Christmas, the bright, big eyes looking everywhere, discovering all the sparkling and colorful lights.

He would be committing to just about 2 months of touring, then they'd have to work on a new album before another tour would start. Two months and then they'd take a couple months break again. It probably wouldn't be until later into the next year that they'd start writing or composing for a new album.

Two months was all he wanted to commit to, at least for now. See how the last legs of the tour went instead of committing for a lifetime.

Chapter 39

A little while later he was heading down the stairs with Ava, her friend and Noah in tow behind him.

Once they reached the ground floor, Ava turned to walk to the living room, just before Richie stopped her. "Ava, come help carry things outside." He asked, making sure she came to the kitchen to help as well.

Ava turned back around and followed her dad and brother to the kitchen. "So Jon's here?" She asked once they were in the kitchen and Richie opened the fridge to retrieve everything he needed. "Yeah," he replied, "figured we would have a labor day get together." He explained to her, not wanting to let her know too much about what may or may not be happening. Starting out casual, he could still see where it goes and ask what his family thought about it as well. "Can you grab the flat of soda and the box of beer as well?" He asked her, dividing tasks between children. "And actually put them in the cooler outside, not on top or near the cooler, inside it." He clarified for her.
In response, Ava rolled her eyes but grabbed everything he asked for.
After Noah had put down his new e-reader, Richie handed him some packages of meat that he could carry with one arm.
Following both teenagers, he grabbed the remaining items.

Halfway out the kitchen, he turned around and headed back to the kitchen island, where he added Noah's electronic to his pile of items.

Once outside, he dropped all his items with Noah on a side table by the barbecue. "Can you go turn on the outside music?" He asked as he handed him his e-reader back, knowing he would be spending most of his evening reading at the table while everyone would be lost in conversations.

With Daniel on her hip, Sarah got up from her chair next to her mother and walked over to her husband.

"Do you need a hand?" She asked him gently.
He looked up at her and his son, giving them a small smile. "No, I'm good." He said as he started arranging which foods to put on the grill first.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah." He reassured her.
"Even with..." She trailed off as she nodded in the direction Jon and Dorothea were sitting at the table with their children.
Richie looked over, then replied. "We talked. We're good."
Sarah nodded. "Okay." She leaned over to kiss him and walked back to the table to continue her conversations.

The outside speakers were turned on and music started playing around them.

Once his vegetables skewers for appetizers had grilled on the barbecue, he brought them over to the table as he left his racks of ribs and potatoes to themselves. From the drink cooler, he grabbed his own drink.

"Jon? Want one of these near beers?"
"Sure, sounds good."
"Does anyone else need a drink?" He asked before he left the cooler.
Ava raised her hand. "Can I have one of those?" She asked among mumbles of everyone else declining a drink.
He grabbed another, then noticed Noah walking back out to join the rest of the family. "Noah?" He asked, gesturing to the cooler.
"Sure." Noah walked over and grabbed a can from him.

Richie passed out the drinks and took a seat next to Sarah. He opened up his can, then grabbed one of the skewers he had just made when he noticed Noah struggling to hold the can still with his arm in a cast and opening it with his free hand. Reaching over, he opened the can for him. He loved his dorky son.

A few minutes later he went to check on the barbecue, this time Jon got up to follow him, leaving the rest to their own conversations.

They talked casually as Richie turned all the meats and potatoes to ensure they all cooked evenly before he added more to the grill.

"You said Caleb is in Vancouver during our show in October, what's he doing there?" Jon inquired.
Richie shook his head, still not believing it. "That's where he's going to university. He's going to UBC, apparently they have a better film production course there than they do anywhere in Los Angeles." Richie grunted. "Sarah was pretty upset about it but I get it, he wanted to do it on his own, you know? Prove that he could be on his own two feet."
Jon nodded, he understood that as well. "He's taking film production?" He asked.
"Major in film production and a minor in music technology. He wants to make music for movies and tv-shows and such."
"That's pretty neat."

Just then Jon's two sons ran past them, into the house, followed by all three teenagers.

Once all the food was ready, Jon helped carry it all over to the table with Richie, who grabbed them another round of non-alcoholic beers before sitting down and joining the wives. Minutes later, the children returned, all in swimsuits carrying towels, except Noah who joined them at the table while the four others went straight for the pool. On a regular day Richie would prefer his kids having dinner as a family but today he didn't care. Ava seemed to have fun and that was good enough.

Chapter 38

"You miss me?" Richie asked skeptical, he hadn't exactly heard much from Jon in the last couple of months. Then again, he hadn't contacted Jon either.

Jon shrugged, not knowing what else to say as Richie sighed and looked back up at him. "I miss you too."

They met eyes, "Yeah?" Jon asked.
Once again, he leaned back in his chair along with a sigh. "Yeah man, you've been my best friend for the last 30 years, of course I miss that. You know me better than I know myself sometimes."
"Same here." Jon agreed. He shook his head before taking a drink from his water.
Richie sat up and waited for him to finish before he spoke. "You know what, you were the one person I wanted to talk to the most and you weren't there." He sounded more angry than he intended but he did not care, he was honest.
"I know." Jon owned up.
"Those six weeks, I just wanted to be able to talk to you about how stressful it's been and how scary it was. It fucking scares the shit out of you when your son that's hardly even 6 months old gets so sick that he needs help to fucking breathe. Who do you talk to that about?"
Jon nodded. "I understand. I know. I was dealing with my own shit, with Steph, and your solo album-"
"My solo?" Richie cut him off. "How was that hard for you?" He realized he was sounding harsher than he intended.
"Because I wanted to work on the band's album and get on the road for that but I didn't want to force you into that either because I knew the solo was important to you which was why I tried not to show that I was excited for this new album we made and take away from your solo." Jon rambled his explanation. "I felt bad for being so excited about it so I avoided having conversations with you. I thought you might think I wasn't happy for your solo. I didn't want you to think," he made air quotations, "I wasn't allowing you to pursue your own music."
As Richie listened he ran his hand over his forehead, into his hair, where he ended up scratching the back of his head. "I wouldn't have thought that. I was excited for the band's new album too."
"And then with all of Steph's stuff, I just wanted to ask you for all this advice about what to do and how to handle it and..." He trailed off in thought, "I just needed to talk to you but I couldn't because that'd be inconsiderate."
Richie frowned at him. "How so?"
"'Cause you've dealt with going to addiction counselling and I didn't want to be the asshole that brought it up."
"Fuck man, if you needed to talk about that, I would have talked to you about that."
"So..." Jon started, "basically we were both too wrapped up in our own issues, not wanting to depend on or hurt the other to realize we needed each other?"
Slowly Richie nodded, a grimace forming on his face, "Sounds like it." He agreed.
"We're both fucktards." Jon concluded.
"Assholes." Richie agreed.
"Fucking cunts."
Richie laughed at that one.
"Oh!' Jon exclaimed, his mood changing entirely. "Jake told me of this one, douche canoe. what the hell is a douche canoe?"
Richie looked at him with a frown, but answered him trying to sound as serious as he could. "Obviously it's a douche that owns a fucking canoe." He pointed out.
"'Cause that's an insult." Jon said sarcastically.
"It just is." He shook his head, knowing it was a dumb insult but Jake was 11, at least he wasn't using his father's foul language. "Just like twat waffles."
Jon burst out laughing. "What?"
"Twat waffle." Richie repeated. "Kids are way more creative with insults than we were."
"Guess so."

Their conversation stalled, realizing it, Richie checked the time on his watch. 5 o'clock was approaching, dinner would be soon and he still had to start the barbecue as well.

"Wanna head downstairs?" He asked Jon, figuring he could help him cook the meat. At least that would be manly, unlike going to buy it from the grocery story according to Noah.
"Maybe in a minute."
He could sense there was something else Jon wanted to talk about but nothing was coming forward and he didn't want to continue to wait for it, besides that, he was getting hungry. "So..." He started, making Jon look up at him. "What's up? What are you thinking?"
"I was thinking of the tour, we head out again in two weeks to South America for a short stint down there."
Richie nodded in thought. "I'd have to talk to the missus but yeah." He shrugged, once again Jon watched him closely as if inquiring if he was sure. "Do you have the itinerary?"
"Yeah, I've got it." He wrestled his phone free from his shorts' pocket and unlocked it to search for it in the files he had stored on the device.

Once he found what he needed, he passed the phone over to Richie.

He grabbed the phone from Jon and enlarged the print so he could read it more easily.

As he read, he chuckled. "Liar." Rehearsals would start next week, then they'd be off to South America for two weeks. "Sure the South American leg is short but then it's straight to Canada and the rest of the country a week after that."
"It's a little over a month." Jon tried to sound more optimistic to make it look more appealing. "But then most of November we're off and then just a little trip to Japan and Australia." He said. "It'll be warm there."
"It'll be warm here too." Richie pointed out.
Jon shrugged.
"Vancouver sounds like a good plan and I could visit Caleb," he looked up at Jon with a shrug, if he was there, why not. "Tacoma show will be on Ava's sweet 16 though." He frowned at the schedule, starting to remember it. "L.A. and Las Vegas shows are the weekend between Ava and Daniel's birthday." He thought out loud, wondering what to do with that and feeling a little torn. 

He also knew these dates last year when the entire tour was being planned. A year ago he was happy with having the weekend between their birthdays, that way he was fair to both of them but now he wasn't sure and felt divided on a decision.

Richie gave Jon his phone back. "Send me the schedule and I'll talk to Sarah about it. See what she thinks as well."
"Sounds good." Jon selected the file and hesitated to send it off, "Text or email?" He asked.
"Fax it to me man." Richie laughed at his own joke. "Email." He clarified as he got up from his chair. "Now let's go cook us some meats."
"Sounds good." Jon got up and followed him out to the hallway.
"I'll meet you downstairs, gonna go get Noah before he finishes the entire Harry Potter series."

Chapter 37

"What are you doing here?" Richie asked confused to see Jon in his living room along with his wife and youngest sons. He was too taken aback to react how he wanted to and he knew he could not react that way. Not in front of children. Who was he kidding, he knew he wouldn't just lose his temper on Jon. He'd known him forever.

Jon had gotten up and walked over to Richie. "Do you have a minute to talk?" He asked, wanting a more private place than the living room in front of their families.

"Sure, my office?" Richie asked him, taking a step back so Jon could leave the room as he watched Sarah who was sure to keep an eye on him.

Dorothea feigned disinterest and acted as if she was busy showing Jacob and Romeo how to play nicely with Daniel and having a conversation with Abbey.

Jon nodded, leaving the room and headed towards the staircase. He knew where to go anyway.
Richie turned around to follow him up the stairs but looked back into the living room and gave Sarah a questioning look, a frown on his face. She just smiled back at him and gestured for him to go upstairs. He didn't know if this was her doing, if this was set up or not but he followed Jon up the stairs.

The office was the first room straight across the staircase before the hallway split up into the master wing and the teenagers bed rooms. Jon stood by the door, not wanting to intrude in his space and waited for Richie to open the door before entering the room. Richie followed and gave the door a little push, not bothering to close it all the way. Sarah would not hear them from downstairs and he was sure Noah had more important things to do than listen in on a conversation. Besides that, it was a casual conversation, not a meeting.

"So..." Richie said as he sat down in his office chair and leaned back in the chair. Not trying to show his discomfort but tried to seem as casual as he could.

On the other side of his desk, it was noticeable Jon wasn't as successful in trying to seem casual. He started to look nervous as if he was trying very hard to think of the correct words. Richie knew what he felt, he wasn't often lost for words in casual situations but often during formal events, especially when he had to give a speech. He would need weeks to prepare it and now he was right here, supposed to have a serious conversation, one he could not even remotely close have prepared for and he was at a loss for words. How did you start a conversation with your estranged best friend?

Richie sat up and looked at him, questioning, wanting Jon to start the conversation simply because he felt too stubborn to do so himself. He stood by his choices. There was more pressing realities than missing out on a leg of the tour. He understood many fans would be disappointed he wasn't there but if they had known why he wasn't, they would understand where he was coming from. Most of his fans are parents themselves, they all knew a child would come before anything.

Jon looked up at him and sighed, lost for words as well. He had no clue as to how to start a conversation after months of silence.

"Fuck." Richie sighed frustrated. "What happened to us?"
Jon chuckled at his frustration but he felt the same way. "A lot of shit." He finally answered Richie's question. "How's Daniel been doing?" He asked, genuinly concerned about the little boy he got to reacquaint with just a little while ago.
"Pretty good." Richie said as he leaned back in his chair again. "After his pneunomia cleared up, he's been good."
"Pneunomia?" Jon asked confused.
Richie almost chuckled. "Yeah man. He got it good. He started with a cold, then went into whooping cough, which is why they had to admit him to the children's hospital because he couldn't breath because of it. Then we finally get to take him home after like three weeks so he could recover at home with us but of course his body and immune system are low because of it and he gets pneumonia a week later." He shook his head, still amazed at how crazy last spring had been for their family. "So we take him back to the children's hospital and he gets admitted for another night and gets antibiotics but he did well and we went home the next evening." Richie explained the whole story.
"Wow." Jon said in disbelieve. "David told me about it but I had no idea it got so bad."
"I think it was June when he was finally better. At the same time Ava refused to stay at Heather's house which, I mean, it didn't make anything more complicated but just added onto the stress, you know?"
Jon nodded, acknowledging that he did understand that feeling. "How come she didn't want to stay at Heather's?"
Richie sat up in his chair and faced Jon. "Because the asshole she was dating then couldn't keep his hands to himself."
Jon's eyes went wide, immediately feeling angry himself. "What? Did he..." He trailed off, not wanting to speak the words.
Richie shook his head. "No. He was being a fucking creep. He'd sit unnesecarily close to her, hug her, hold her when she didn't want it."
"Fucking perv." Jon sneered. "Did you kick his ass?" He asked.
"That dude is lucky that I never got to meet him and Heather won't tell me his name. She had not been dating him very long yet and obviously broke up with him as soon as she found out." Richie explained, feeling protective of his daughter was something he would always  be. "How's Steph?" He asked in return.
"She's doing alright." Jon said. "As part of her charges being dropped against her, she had to join one of those group programs. She had to go to meetings twice a week for drug abusers for like 6 months, I think." He frowned in thought. "By then of course the school had expelled her for the rest of the year." Jon sighed, still in disbelief. "I always taught them to not do stupid things like that and then Steph, you know?" He looked at Richie.

Richie nodded, he did know. He understood what he meant. Daughters were precious, they had to protect their little girls.

"Now she's repeating her last year in college, at a different school so she should be graduating next spring."

Richie nodded. "That's not bad. Caleb left just last week for college too. Kids get old man." He sighed. "I mean, I've only known Caleb for 2 years and I'm sad he left. I'm gonna be depressed if Ava leaves me.
"You'll be crying for weeks." Jon agreed.
Richie laughed. "Stupid thing is that I probably will." He shook his head as he got up and walked to the drink cooler he had in the corner of his office next to some filing cabinets for all his legal papers as well as unfinished and unwritten songs. "What do you want? I've got water." He looked around in the fridge. "And more water apparently."
"You know what," Jon said, "I think I'll just have a water."
Richie tossed him a bottle and sat down again. "So what brought you here today?" Richie finally asked the question they needed to reach.
Jon sighed again, delaying his answer he took a drink from his water bottle first. "I miss you man."

Chapter 36 Labor day weekend 2013

A/N I was thinking about this a while ago and then over Christmas I was bored and read the entire story again and I felt inspired so here we are. It's going to be an augmented reality from now on though, just so you know. Let me know in the comments if I should keep going or not. Next couple of chapters are ready to go.

As always, comments are supportive.

A week later school was starting again for Noah and Ava.

Noah was glad to start his senior year, glad to have only 1 year left at school. He was not excited about having to start with a broken arm and worried how he was going to carry his books or backpack around.

Ava on the other hand was happy to get back to school but mostly cheerleading. This year she could become cheer captain, if she decided to pursue it. It would take up more of her time and she also wanted time to model so she was not entirely sure just yet.

Summer was almost over. Labour day weekend first and Tuesday they were off to school once again.

"Sarah?" Richie asked as he came down the stairs.
"Yeah?" She called from the living room.
"Do you mind if I head out with Noah?"
"Where are you going?"
"Haven't decided yet  but school's gonna be rough with a broken arm and how is he supposed to read books?" He asked. "He probably can't even hold a book." He explained.
"You're probably right." Sarah agreed with him.
"I know I'd be very sad if I couldn't do the one thing that brought me joy."
"So you're getting him small books he can hold with one hand?" Sarah joked.
"I was more thinking of an e-reader."
Sarah smiled up at him. "That's very thoughtful." She said.
"I figured I'd take Noah out, get the last couple things for the barbecue tonight, get him some electronics." He explained his plan proudly.

Richie walked back up the stairs and headed for Noah's bedroom. The door was left ajar and as he knocked on it, the door opened up.
Noah folded his laptop shut and looked up at Richie from his place on his bed.

"You okay?" Richie asked.
"Yeah." Noah replied quickly. "Did you need my help for the barbecue?"
"Actually I do. We need to go to the store and get the last items we need. Your mom's watching Daniel and Ava will be here soon so she can wait for Ava as well while we go be manly men and get meat." He explained.
Noah chuckled. "So manly. The grocery store." He put the laptop down and got up from his bed.

A little while later they were in the car, Noah next to Richie as he drove to the store. Noah was preoccupied with his phone as Richie was explaining a driving manouver to him. "Are you reading?" Richie asked, noticing Noah had heard absolutely nothing of his explanation.
"Yeah, I got the Amazon app and it lets me read books from their store. I've only got free ones and they're either smutty or crappy." Noah sighed.
"Smutty?" Richie asked.
"You know..." Noah said.
"What?"
"Sexual."
"Oh." Richie caught on. Different subject please he asked of himself. "I thought you were reading that Hunger Games?"
Noah chuckled. "That's been a while. Divergent is what I was reading last."
"You read a lot books. You can't blame me for not keeping up." Richie complained. "Hey, have you thought of taking literature at college? You read so much anyway."
Noah shrugged. "I don't really read classic novels and stuff though. Like Shakespeare and stuff. Not my thing."

Once at the mall, Richie looked for a parking spot. "Okay, so when you need to park between two cars..." he trailed off and looked at Noah, "hey Noah. Attention."
He locked his phone screen and looked up.
"So when you park between cars, see you don't always have enough space to make one smooth move so," Richie started showing as he was explaining, "you get in position, then you put the car in reverse and very importantly you do a 360 check before you reverse, adjust your wheels. Then back into drive, get between and straighten out." He turned the car off.
"I can't drive for another month." Noah pointed out, holding up his broken arm.
"You can always learn."

They got out the car and Richie headed to an electronics store where he asked the store assistant for help instead of browsing while Noah wandered off.

The store assistant showed him to the e-readers and explained the features on each one of them. Richie asked his many questions and was pretty amazed at the capacity of these small electronics.

While talking, Noah had wandered back to him as he had gotten bored of the rest of the store. The e-readers caught his interest and he started fidgeting with one as Richie thanked the store assistant and asked Noah what he thought.

"This one has Harry Potter as it's demo book." Noah said. "The boy who lived." He read aloud in a fancy voice.
"Do you want it?" Richie asked.
"No, I've got the whole series."
Richie laughed, he may not know what book Noah was reading at what time but he knew he had the Harry Potter series, a Slytherin as himself would at least know that much. "The e-reader. Do you want the e-reader?"
"Oh." He had not thought of that. He liked his books, an e-reader was an electronic.
"It holds thousands of books, it also has a note pad and you can put notes in the text, highlight words and look up definitions and," Richie paused for dramatic effect til Noah looked up at him, "it has text to speech so it reads to you."
That caught Noah's interest.

On the drive to the grocery store, he didn't mind Noah fiddling around with his gift. He was happy to see Noah happy.

"Chapter one. The boy who lived. Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense."

A robotic male voice read from the device.

"Sorry," Noah apologized as he fidgetted to find the off button as the story kept going.

Richie sushed him. "I can't hear it when you talk over it."

At home, he pulled into the driveway and noticed an extra car that he didn't recognize. Had Heather bought a new car? Ava should have arrived a little while ago by now. He got the grocery bags from the back seat and followed Noah into the house.

"We're back." He said as he walked in to let Sarah know, sure she was still in the living room with Daniel.

"Richie?" She asked. "Come here."

"Gonna put the food away first." He was already on his way to the kitchen and put all the fresh meat into the fridge for the barbecue later. He had a glass of water, then headed to the living room. "What's up?" He asked as he walked in, then stopped in his tracks. "Jon?"

Chapter 35

"Richie, where are you?" Sarah talked into her phone, sounding worried.
Richie sighed before answering but Sarah cut in again.
"I got home and there's nobody here, not even a note. What happened?"
"We're at the hospital."
"The hospital?!" Sarah exclaimed. Her worriedness changed into panic in an instant.
"Noah broke his arm or something." Richie said quickly, informing her as fast as possible. "He wanted to go skating and I went to get coffee and he fell. We've got x-rays, getting a cast now."
"I should come over."
"We're almost done here. We will be home soon." Richie promised although it took him a few minutes to reassure Sarah about Noah's condition.

After Noah had picked out a color for the cast they were ready to go, just as Richie had promised to his wife.

Only half an hour later they walked into the front door at home.

Sarah got up immediately and rushed to the front door, worrying about her son. She fussed and made sure he was feeling better before she let him go to his room.

"How did this happen?!" Sarah exclaimed once Noah left the room.
"I don't know." Richie said defensively. "He wanted to go to the skatepark so I took him there, he was doing fine til I turned my back for five seconds."
Sarah sighed.
"I'm sorry." Richie said, not knowing what else to say. "How did your exam go?"
Sarah looked up at him. "It went well, very well."
"Yeah?"
"I think I did great. I'll know next week and then I should get my certificate a few weeks later?"
"Already?" Richie asked surprised.
"I took on the extra course, remember, so I could finish the course faster because I was doing so well."
"I'm so proud of you." He felt very proud of Sarah for finishing the course she has set out to finish.
"I was thinking to continue with another course."
"Yeah?"
"Why not?" Sarah shrugged.
"Sounds good. You can never learn too much."

Just then Danny made himself heard to them, wanting attention and something to eat.

Summer was ending and soon both Noah and Ava would be back in school. Important birthdays were right around the corner and Richie's obligations to the next leg of the tour weren't very far away either.

Feeling happy with his family, Richie still felt indicisive about going back on the road. 

Chapter 34

He stared out the window a few more seconds before realizing what had happened across the street at the skatepark.

He grabbed Daniel's stroller, forgot about the cups, both coffee and juice and rushed out the door. Only briefly stopped at the edge of the sidewalk to make sure there were no cars before crossing and rushing over.

When he reached the crowding group of skateboarders, they moved to make space for him.

He found Noah.

Noah was laying flat on the concrete ground, his arm at a very odd angle.

Forgetting about Daniel but knowing he was safe in his stroller, he bent down next to Noah.

"Is anybody calling 911?" He called out before turning back to Noah, who was staring off into space. "You okay buddy?" He asked even though he knew he wasn't, he wanted Noah's attention to keep him from fainting. "Paramedics will be here in a minute. Hang in there."
Noah nodded weakly, not able to do much else.

A few minutes later he could hear the sirens of an approaching ambulance. A lot of the crowd has already moved away and now the rest moved to make space for the paramedics.

As a good and responsible father, he stayed with Noah the entire time the paramedics were helping him onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. He didn't want to leave Noah alone but he had to.

"Which hospital are you taking him to?" He asked the paramedics after Noah had been taken care of inside.
"Ceder Sinai is closest from here. You can follow us." The paramedic answered him as they got back into the ambulance to take Noah to the hospital.
"Thanks." Richie said as he hurried back over to Daniel to take him back to the car.

Getting Daniel into the car was a breeze but of course when he needed to hurry, the stroller had to be a pain.

Finally getting it into the trunk a few minutes later, he got in the car and started driving. The ambulance had already gone but he knew where the hospital was.

Praying for green lights, he headed off to the hospital to be with Noah. He knew it would only be a broken arm but that didnt make him any less worried about his son.

Maybe he still hadn't found a way to connect with him but that didn't make him love Noah any less.