Part 180
Howie locked his dressing room door behind him wanting some privacy and knowing the guys would be concerned. He could hear the water running in the bathroom. ‘God…a familiar place for us lately’ he thought as he went in with Sarah.
Sarah looked up at him in the mirror and went back to splashing water on her face.
Howie put his hands on her waist and asked gently, "You okay now?"
"No," she said tearfully. She turned around in his arms leaning against the counter. She reached up to play with his hair. "Why?"
"I was ready for a change, Angel," he said as he caressed her cheek wiping the tears away. "Do you really hate it THAT much?"
Sarah looked at his hair running her fingers through it. "No, I don’t hate it THAT much. You just….surprised me. Howie, we ALWAYS share EVERYTHING. Why not this time?"
"I don’t know. We’ve had so much going on, I just didn’t think about it. Plus, I wanted to surprise you."
Sarah smiled, "You succeeded there!"
"Kevin warned me…that I should have told you. Sarah, please, tell me what you think…honestly."
Sarah looked at it again. "It’s different."
"Is that it?" asked Howie with a touch of fear in his voice.
"I like it," she said shrugging her shoulders. "You’ve got that ‘JBF’ look everyone talks about Nick having."
Howie grinned impishly, "Really?"
Sarah laughed. "Yeah, and you look really sexy," she said as she ran her hands through his hair. "I’m sorry I blew up at you."
"It’s okay. I kinda shocked you with this," he said giving her a quick peck. Standing back up, Howie looked at her closely. "Sarah, you don’t look good."
"Gee…thanks, Howie. What a wonderful thing to say to your wife!"
"That’s NOT what I meant. You’re pale. Are you okay?"
Realizing she wasn’t going to be able to hide it from Howie as easily as she had from Becca, Sarah shook her head, "Not really. I started feeling bad while we were shopping."
"Morning sickness?"
"Some of it…I’m tired, achy, nauseous, dizzy. And if I could throw up Orlando, I would."
Howie brushed her hair back behind her ear. "I didn’t help with my
little surprise either. Did you tell Becca or Sonja?"
"No…but Raoul noticed something."
Taking her hand in his, Howie led her to the couch. "Let’s sit down for a few minutes."
"Don’t you need to go back out?"
"Yeah, but I’ve got time for my wife who needs me right now," he said pulling her into his lap. "What did you get me for my birthday?"
"Surprises. You’ll just have to wait, won’t you?"
"And I can’t ask Jesse, can I?" teased Howie.
"NO! The little brat doesn’t even know what SHE’S giving you. I have them with me now."
"Really? Can I open them?"
"Ummm….I don’t know. You were pretty mean not telling me you were gonna cut your hair."
Howie lowered his head pretending to be ashamed. "I’m sorry, Angel. I promise to never do it again."
"Well….I guess you could open the ones I was gonna give you tonight, after Jesse went to bed," laughed Sarah. "They’re in my pocketbook."
Sarah started to get up but fell back into Howie’s arms. "Angel, are you okay?"
"I just got dizzy, that’s all," she said trying to pass it off. She really felt like she’d been run over by a truck but she knew that if Howie knew the truth, he’d make her go back to Kevin’s and rest. "You’ll need to get them for me, D."
Sarah slid off his lap and Howie got up to get her pocketbook then rejoined her. She pulled out three boxes and handed the first to him saying, "You’re gonna think this one is really teenybopper."
"Why?"
"I’ll explain when you open it."
Howie took the box that Sarah handed him and opened it quickly. Inside was a pair of diamond studs and he looked up at Sarah. "What’s so teenybopperish about these?"
Sarah pulled her hair back so that he could see she’d gotten herself a pair to match. "Becca and Sonja both laughed at me when I said I wanted us to have matching earrings. D, I know this is all high schoolish but I never got to do this stuff in high school…You know, wearing my guy’s class ring or his letter jacket, matching clothes. I was dating Russell at the time when I should have been dating the high school football captain or the really cute guy in the drama department," said Sarah as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Howie smiled, "I think it’s sweet, Angel. Tell you what, when we get back to Orlando, I’ll go by the house and get my class ring for you. Mama has it, I think. I never gave it to a girl to wear."
Sarah wiped her tears away. "You’d do that for me?"
"Yes, Angel. I love you and if we’d dated in high school, I’d definitely have given you my class ring."
Sarah reached up and touched his cheek. "You’re so wonderful to me."
Howie handed the diamond studs to Sarah to put in for him and then took the second box that was in her lap. He opened it to find a beautiful black onyx ring. It was just like what he’d told her he was looking for and he was surprised to see that she’d actually found it. "Where’d you find this?"
"I’ve had this one for a while…along with the next one. When you
described it, I went to a jewelry store in Orlando and told them about it. They
said it could be specially made so I told them to go ahead. It was suppose to
have been your wedding present but I didn’t get it until about two weeks ago
so I decided to hold it for your birthday."
He slipped in on his finger to find that it fit perfectly. "Sarah, this is AWESOME. Thank you."
"One more…and this isn’t what I originally planned to get for you." Howie opened up the last gift and pulled out a beautiful silver pendent that hung on a leather necklace. "It’s a Jerusalem Cross. The crusaders wore them centuries ago and when I saw it, I thought of you. They traveled a lot….like you. You’re my crusader, spreading your music to the world."
"Thank you, Angel." Howie pulled Sarah to him hugging her from behind burying his face in her hair. He had his hand on her stomach rubbing it gently as he placed tiny kisses along her neck. That’s when he realized that she was hot with a fever. He put his hand on her forehead and then both hands on her cheeks. "Angel, you’re burning up!"
The tears started knowing he now knew how bad she REALLY felt. "I know. I’ve had chills and hot flashes all morning."
"You’re going back to Kevin’s."
"NO! Please, D…I want to be here with you," begged Sarah. "I’ll be okay. It’s just a bug. I’ll be fine and it’s NOT like I’m going to be doing anything."
Howie looked at her sternly. "Sarah, if you were just tired and this was morning sickness, I’d say okay but you’ve got a fever, you ache…ON TOP of being pregnant."
Crying, Sarah whispered, "But I want to see this video…I wanna be with you."
Howie laughed softly, "Angel, you’ll see the finished thing and I’ll
bring what we do to you at Kevin’s. You need to get your rest. We’re headed
back out on the road and you can’t afford to get sicker than you already are.
How long has this been going on?"
"It just started this morning, while we were shopping. I don’t want to go back, Howie."
Howie looked around and said, "If I can arrange for a monitor to be put in here so you can watch, do you promise to stay put?"
"Yeah," she said weakly.
"Hold on then."
With that, Howie let go of Sarah and headed out to the studio where Kevin, Alex, and Brian were standing around waiting.
"Where’s Sarah?" asked Brian.
"In my dressing room. She’s sick."
"Morning sickness?" asked Alex.
"No, I wish it were. She’s running a fever and achy along with the morning sickness. Look, I want to see if we can get a monitor put in my dressing room so she can watch."
"We’ll take care of it," said Kevin. "Go on back with her."
"Thanks guys. As soon as we get this done, we can get started."
"Don’t forget the birthday cake," said Brian. "A certain little girl wants some of it and she’s NOT gonna be happy until she gets some."
"Damn….Jesse! Where is she?"
"Nick and Becca have her in Nick’s dressing room playing video games," said Brian.
"I need to let her know what’s going on," said Howie.
Brian said, "Listen, D…Kevin and Alex can handle the monitor in your dressing room and I’ll go talk to Jesse and let Becca know what’s going on. I’ll bring her over if she wants to see Sarah."
"Thanks guys," said Howie gratefully.
As Howie was turning to leave, Kevin laughed and said, "Pay up, ‘Bone’!!"
Howie looked back and watched Alex hand Kevin some money. "What was the bet this time?" he asked.
"Make up sex," laughed Brian.
Howie shook his head and headed back to Sarah. He found her laying down on the couch shivering so he grabbed the blanket on the back of the couch and put it over her, tucking it around her to get her warm as he sat beside her. He told her what the guys were doing and that Becca had Jesse.
Not long after Howie had returned than two men from the studio crew were bringing in the monitor that Howie had requested. Behind them were Kevin, Alex, and Jesse to check on Sarah.
"Mommy…are you okay?"
"I’ll be fine, baby. Daddy’s taking care of me."
Kevin asked, "I should have known you weren’t feeling well when you got here."
"It’s okay, Kev…I wouldn’t have let you say anything anyway. You guys go on and let the birthday boy blow out his candles."
"Want us to save you some of the cake?" asked Alex.
"No…not really. I’m NOT hungry right now. Jesse, do me a favor?"
"What, Mommy?"
"I want you to stay with Aunt Becca and behave please."
"Okay."
"Go on back with her now." Alex and Kevin started to leave too but Sarah stopped them. "Hold it you two!! I sent Jesse out so I could say something to the two of you!"
"What’s that, baby?" asked Kevin curiously.
Sarah smiled, "You guys haven’t looked THIS good since that night at Tabu. Now go break some hearts."
Kevin, Alex, and Howie all laughed and Alex said, "You aren’t THAT sick!"
Kevin and Alex each gave Sarah a kiss on the forehead and left the two alone. Howie asked, "Do you need anything, Angel?"
"No, I’m fine. Go do some work."
"I’m sending Raoul back in here to stay with you."
"Whatever….just go do your video. I want to see you wet!"
Howie kissed Sarah on the forehead and turned the light off as he left the dressing room. True to his word, Raoul joined her and she lay on the couch watching the monitor as the guys and the rest of the crew gathered around for Howie’s birthday cake. Sarah watched and heard as everyone sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him again and Jesse tug at his hand to get him to bend over. She gave him a kiss and Sarah had to wipe the tears.
Blowing out his candles, Howie’s thoughts were on his wife. He didn’t like the fact that she was running a fever for no reason. It was too much like what Caroline had gone through for his comfort. He was going to be sure to ask the doctor at her next check-up.
Seeing that Howie was distracted, Kevin put his arm around Howie and whispered, "She’ll be okay, D. It’s just a bug."
Howie said softly, tears welling up, "It’s just like…"
As if by magic, Kevin read Howie’s thoughts. "Don’t jump to conclusions, D. She’ll be fine."