Part 269

As they walked into the venue together, Sarah had her head on Howie’s shoulder, exhausted mentally from all that had been going on in her life. Nick and Howie were both worried about her but were keeping silent praying that performing and getting back to normal would help Sarah snap out of this.

The three were met by Jesse’s squeals as she ran through the backstage area. The cause of her squeals came charging after her growling like a bear.

"MOMMIE! DADDY! HELP ME! Bribear’s gonna eat me!" squealed Jesse as she ran behind Sarah.

Brian stopped short in front of Sarah, Howie, and Nick. "Oh, hey, Howie….Sarah!!"

"Hey, Brian," smiled Sarah. "What ‘cha doin’?"

"He’s CHASING me, MOMMIE! Can’t you see?" responded Jesse in a tone as if to say ‘Mommie-don’t-you-know-anything’.

Howie picked Jesse up, "Oh, no!! We can’t have Bribear EAT you, now can we? I’ll protect you, Princess."

Kevin and AJ joined the others.

"Sarah, you need to go out and do sound checks," said Kevin.

Sarah shook her head, "Not tonight, Kevin."

The guys looked at each other and Howie shrugged his shoulders.

"Why not?" asked Kevin.

"I’m tired and I just can’t face a crowd tonight," answered Sarah as Howie set Jesse down.

He put his arms around her and she rested her head on his shoulder as he said, "Angel, you’re letting them win."

Sarah looked up at him tearfully, "I just can’t do it, D. I’m tired…"

Nick put his hand on her shoulder squeezing gently. "Sis, you’re tougher than this. Go do sound checks and you can curl up on a couch with me afterwards to take a nap."

Jesse tugged at Sarah’s hand. "Mommie…you’ve gotta sing tonight."

Sarah looked down at her daughter, those blue eyes looking at her with all the innocence of childhood. She had no clue what evil had just rocked their world, just that she’d almost lost her mother. "Baby, I can’t…."

Pleading, "But you GOTTA...you just GOTTA, Mommie!"

Kneeling down, Sarah cupped her daughter’s chin in her hand. "Why, Baby? Why do I just GOTTA sing tonight?"

"Cuz…when you sing…you make everybody happy, ‘specially Daddy. He can’t stop smiling when you sing."

Sarah’s heart melted and AJ said, "Now how can you say ‘no’ to that?"

Standing up and sighing, "I can’t. Okay…I’ll do the show. Who’s going with me to do sound checks?"

Knowing Sarah was tired and that Kevin could be relentless, Nick said, "I’ll go with you, Sarah."

"We’ve got a meet-and-greet to do, Nick," said Kevin. "No one’s gonna be able to go with you, Sarah. Just do the same songs as last night."

"Okay, but what about the song with ‘D’?"

"Angel, we’ll practice it later, before the show."

"You two don’t need to practice," smirked Nick. "You’re the PERFECT couple."

Howie hugged Sarah, "Yeah, we are!"

The others laughed and Kevin said, "We’ll see you in a little while, baby. ‘Mook’ and the others are waiting on you."

"Jess, I want you to take a nap," said Sarah. "You’re gonna be up late again tonight."

"I’ll get Raoul to take her out to the bus," said Howie. "Go rehearse, Angel."

Sarah gave him a kiss and Jesse too then headed out to practice while the guys went to meet the latest round of fans.

Part 270        The Dance Index(3)