The Story of Us (Book 1 of "The Story of Us" Series) [Completed]

Chapter 13 - Starts with Goodbye

[Nick]

I had never seen Harley as upset as she was when her father told us that her mother died instantly in the wreck. I don't even want to imagine what she's feeling right now. Then again, I did think she was dead from a plane crash for the majority of a day until she showed up at my hotel room door. That's the closest thing I'd ever experienced to what she's going through.

What makes it so bad is that she and her mother had become so close lately. She came out to visit us on my tour a few times to go over business stuff and just to hang out. The last time we saw her was three weeks ago when she flew to Philadelphia to go over some stuff with Harley. We stayed an extra day, heading over to Washington to go sight seeing and I think she really enjoyed herself.

And now she's gone.

The thing I'm most worried about is how this is going to affect Harley in the long run. I wonder if it's going to set her back even more, especially now that she's lost her manager yet again. More importantly though, she lost her mother and after what happened on 9/11, I'm scared.

[/Nick]

[April 2003]

"Harley," Nick said, knocking at the bathroom door a little later. He had already seen Harley's sister-in-law leave, go to the store and go back upstairs. "Are you okay in there?" The door opened and Harley moved so Nick could walk in. "Are you okay? Why did, what's her name, Kelly, why did she go to store for you?"

"My period's late," Harley whispered, pointing to the two pregnancy tests on the counter. "It's probably just stress but I don't have a migraine so I just wanted to be sure."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Nick asked as he started to panic. He lowered his voice and sat down next to her. "What did they say?"

"Waiting," she said, tucking her hair behind her ears. "I got Kelly to get me two just to be safe, but what if I am? What the hell are we going to do?"

"Just wait and see before we freak out," he said, his hands shaking. Harley looked at him and laughed at him insinuating she was freaking out. She leaned her head on his shoulder and felt his arm wrap around her. "This is probably the last thing we need right now."

"Kind of ironic considering my Mom was always telling me about being careful," she said as Nick chuckled. "You know she grew to love you, you know that right?"

"I know, we had a talk not long ago," he said as Harley lifted her head to look at him. "She said she was wrong about me and about how she was glad you had someone who you could count on."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"It was a private thing," Nick smiled as he looked back at the counter. "How long do we need to wait?"

"It's been over three minutes. I took them right before you came in," she said, looking at Nick. "Do you want to or do you want me?" He pointed at her and Harley stood up, walking to the cabinet slowly. She opened her eyes, looking down at the counter and took a deep breath.

"What is it?" Nick asked.

"Negative," she smiled, turning around. She ran up to hug Nick tightly and started to laugh. "Both negative."

"That'll teach us about being more careful," he said as she nodded, moving away from the hug. "You know that if you were, we would have gotten through it, right?" Harley nodded, walking over to wrap toilet paper around the test before putting them in the trash.

"Come on," Harley smiled, taking Nick's hand and leading him out of the bathroom. As they walked towards the staircase, they paused, hearing Harley's father and brother arguing.

"I don't care if you don't approve of what she does, she's an adult. Don't treat her like she's five.

"So says the man that still gets mad when she gets on stage on television half naked."

"She's my daughter, of course I'm going to get upset when I see my little girl like that, but she and your mother have gotten close since she was almost in that plane and she's taking this pretty hard. Don't give her an even tougher time."

"What the fuck is your brother's problem?" Nick whispered as Harley shrugged and continued walking down the stairs.

"I think you should just leave," Harley said, staring at Mark. "Really, when was the last time you came home, Mark? Don't come in here telling Daddy how to run things and don't come in here telling me that everything I've ever done is wrong because it's not. This isn't about you approving of what I do for a living, or my boyfriend, or how my father treats me. It's about our mother dying and if she was here right now, she would have already slapped the shit out of you."

"She would have," her father spoke up. "And if you don't straight up, I'm going to slap the shit out of you." Nick snorted and everybody looked at him. "Nick..."

"Yes, sir, shut up, I know," he said, sitting down at the bottom of the stairs.

"Harley, what did the test say?" Kelly asked, walking out of the kitchen. Jon and Mark both looked at Kelly and then at Harley. "I got her two pregnancy tests when I went to get the baby some diapers."

"Pregnancy test?" Jon and Mark both said as Nick jumped up, and started running up the stairs, stumbling over his own feet. He knew his ass was about to get kicked and he was going to hide.

"Thanks Kelly, very subtle," she sighed, looking at her father. "It's stress. My period was late for God's sake and it's all this stress I've been under. I just wanted to be sure and they were both negative, like I thought they would be. Are we done yet or do you want to give me a fucking exam?" she hissed, looking at the stairs to see that Nick was gone. "Great, now he's scared you guys are going to kill him. Do you want to make my life anymore stressful? I tell you what, I'm going up to my old room. Come and get me when you finish the funeral arrangements."

With that, Harley walked back up the stairs and to her old bedroom. She slammed the door and sighed, seeing Nick's feet hanging out from up under the bed.

"Nick," she sighed, sitting down on the floor beside her bed. She saw his head peek out and she smiled, watching him crawl out from under the bed. "They're not going to do anything to you."

"I'm sorry you have to deal with that shit," he said, sitting up beside her and leaning against the bed. "Your brother is a douche though. No wonder you've never really talked about him."

"Will you do me a favor?" she asked as he nodded. "Go out to the bus and get my keyboard and my lyric notebook?"

"Sure," Nick smiled, leaning over to kiss her softly on the lips.

He walked out of her bedroom and down the stairs slowly, hoping that no man with the last name Harper jumped out to attack him. He eased out the front door and up to the bus which was already unlocked from when he went in there earlier.

As he walked back to get her lyric notebook, he hoped that writing was going to help her with whatever she was feeling because he knew she was sad. But for some reason, that sadness was turning into anger because of her idiot douche bag brother.

[/April 2003]

[Harley]

It was hard to believe that my mother was gone. I would sit in the living room and kept thinking she was going to walk in, telling Nick to get his feet off of the coffee table but she didn't. They said she died instantly so she wasn't in any pain. Her new car that I had bought her for Christmas was totaled in the wreck.

As I sat there at the funeral, all I could think about was how she would have hated all the fuss that was being made about her. She was never one to want the attention on her. She always wanted it on me, which is why from the time I could walk, she had me in beauty pageants. That's why when she realized I could sing, she bought me a guitar and a keyboard and helped me get better at it because she wanted the spotlight on me. And at the funeral, it was all on her and she would have hated it.

My father said she would have wanted me to sing something but I couldn't sing. I had cried so much that I could barely talk, much less sing. The service, however, was nice and me saying that says a lot considering I hate funerals. After the funeral, I wasn't sure how I was going to leave my father there by himself. I wanted to go with Nick like I had originally planned to finish his tour, but I didn't want to leave my father there alone.

Then my brother spoke up, saying he was going to take some leave time from his job and he would be staying there him for a few weeks. Thankfully the two nieces of mine that were in school were home schooled by Kelly so they wouldn't miss school.

Knowing my Dad wasn't going to be alone made me feel a little better about leaving, but it was still tough. I felt guilty for leaving but knowing how much my Mom had grown to love Nick, she would have wanted me to be with him feeling the way I did.

[/Harley]

[May 2003]

Harley sat in the back of Nick's bus, writing in her lyric notebook with her guitar in her lap. Since her mother's death, she had been writing up a storm from all the emotions she was feeling. She wrote a few songs about her mother, especially one she knew she was going to record. She wrote one about how she hated her brother that she probably would bury in her closet. She wrote a few more about Nick and just songs in general about being sad and upset. She knew this record was going to end up being nothing but an album full of tears and anger.

Sure, it had only been a month since her mother died, but she still felt like it was yesterday. It probably always would feel like yesterday and she knew that. She still remembered the last conversation she had on the phone with her. It was about how she and Nick were going to her parents for Easter and her mother was going to make Nick go to church in a suit and tie. Nick never found out about those plans, but thinking about it made Harley smile.

"I think I'm ready to start back recording," Harley said as Nick walked into the back of the bus. "I've been sitting here thinking about it and I've written some good stuff and I think I'm ready to really work on the album."

"That's awesome," Nick smiled, walking to the small closet to pull out a clean t-shirt to wear at the show that night. He looked back and smiled, noticing that Harley had on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers sweatshirt he had given her the second time they met. He loved it when she wore that. "You know, it's May, babe. You don't need to wear a sweatshirt."

"It's kind of cool here on the bus and I'm comfortable when I wear it," she smiled. "There's one song that I wrote that I'm kind of excited about," she said, changing the conversation."

"What about?"

"My Mom," she said as he looked back at her again. "It's about conversations we've had. It's kind of sappy but I think that's okay."

"Sappy is good sometimes," he smiled, taking a clean pair of jeans out his suitcase. She sat there, watching him as he changed pants and looked back down at the lyrics. "So when do you think you're going to want to record?"

"I called the label and told them to set up some time for next week," she said as Nick looked back at her. "I know you're going to be in L.A. with that movie role in that horror movie that you're wanting to do but they're going to want me to be in Nashville."

"We'll make it work," he smiled, standing up to look in the mirror. "We've been through worse, right?"

"Right," Harley smiled as she sat her guitar down in the corner of the room and against the bed so that it was sitting up.

"Besides, in the catering room, they had some kick ass chocolate cake," he said as he looked over, seeing Harley's eyes light up. "Might want to go get a piece before the band eats it all."

"Hell yeah I am," she said, practically leaping off the bed and running out of the room. Nick laughed, noticing her lyric notebook falling onto the floor. As he leaned down, he noticed his name written on the very last page in the back.

He sat down, looking at the notes. It listed Destin, Florida as the place. Maid of honor - Scarlett. Best Man - AJ or Brian. Then he saw different names of flowers and songs and food. First Dance - "You're Still the One." That was the first song they danced to together. He saw a magazine clipping hanging out from the middle of the lyric book and froze, seeing that it was a wedding dress. It was a beautiful wedding dress, something that Harley would definitely wear.

Then it hit him.

"Fuck," Nick muttered, staring at the page in her notebook. "She's planning our fucking wedding."