Micky was afraid to leave the house for fear that he wouldn't get back on time. He hated to admit this to the guys, and he was absolutely certain that Davy was catching on. It was hard to hide things from Davy, he knew.
He wasn't sure what the guys would do if they knew that Maggie threatened him with starvation if he wasn't on time. They would probably look at him as if he were stupid. It was only food, Micky, they would say, and shake their heads. They would be ashamed of him, maybe for letting a woman pull him around and control him.
Ordinarily, Micky would have agreed with them. But this was different. There were too many... benefits...to Maggie.
Somewhere deep inside of him he knew he was making a mistake. Mike must have known. Mike, who'd had a horrible feeling about this from the beginning. How had he known?
But Micky was afraid of Maggie, as much as he hated to admit it, even to himself. She knew exactly which buttons to push to make him feel as though he were low.
The gig they had the following night went well. Davy admitted to himself that he admired Micky. However low he might be feeling, whatever problems he might be having, he still poured his energy into a song, so that the audience was unable to tell anything was wrong.
But Davy knew. To him the happy note Micky sang with sounded horribly sour, even though he was in tune. To see Micky smile almost made his stomach churn. But they both got through the gig, and Mike and Peter didn't seem to notice anything was wrong.
By the time the gig was over, Micky was exhausted. He'd put all of his energy into the songs, hoping that no one would notice his true feelings, and it had left him exhausted. He was afraid he'd fall asleep in the car as he drove home.
Unfortunately, he saw as soon as he entered the house that he would get no rest that night. He was home on time, but Maggie was waiting for him.
Dressed in the most revealing nightgown he had ever seen.
The evening afterwards, they had another gig at the same club. This time, Davy had no worries about Micky being upset or anything being wrong. He seemed to be genuinely happy, and his singing reflected it.
Afterwards, he drove home, but this time he wasn't exhausted. This time he was invigorated. If this night went as good as the last night, he was ready.
The gigs at that club went on for six weeks, and then the Monkees were unemployed once more. But they had an offer already from another club almost the next day. Micky's problems were forgotten by this time, and they all were eagerly looking forward to the new gig. Things were going well.
At least, until the night after the first gig.
