Post two
Again I stress I am not making any type of point by writing this. I think it's as stupid as you think it is.
Book One
Chapter Five
Hard Rock Live
About a month later a new show was begun on MTV, called Hard Rock Live. It wasn’t some lame concert thing, or a bunch of rock stars with a talk show, it was Mad TV and the singers were talented. The cast consisted of Good Charlotte, Les Requins, Linkin Park (often times without Chester due to some family issues) Hilary Duff (to both Joel and Sharon’s dismay) and Ashlee Simpson (cast due to lack of females). Often if not always the band members pets were included (yes, Cashdogg and Sharon’s always in heat Cocker Spaniel Jinx) They made fun of, sang and had a good time. That was the whole purpose of the show. Soon, due to its mostly graphic nature (language and sexual content), it was moved to VH1.
The first episode was less than great.
The actual episode was good to the end, the show was shot live and later re-aired when the station had nothing better to show. The only reason it wasn’t totally great was that during the final number (featuring Sharon and Jinx) Joel came out and hauled Sharon off the stage for reasons the audience never quite figured out, but everyone knew it wasn’t part of the script.
Here is what happened.
The show started out kind of slowly, the random jokes were kind of lame but the skits were great, each rocker adapted some characters to play and earned one or two signature ones that never would be forgotten and would be shown on many episodes due to their popularity. Tow were Joel and Sharon as an incest driven brother and sister, often mistaken at different events (in this, particular episode at the prom) as an actual, legal, morally ok couple. The crowd was laughing so hard even Sharon and Joel had to stop for a giggle every so often. There was also on the show Benji and Joel making fun of Twincest rumors, holding hands and making googly eyes, at the second from last skit Lana and Sharon ambushed them, a bit of fluff as the couples kissed.
. . . It was a mystery as to how Joel and Sharon forgot all about Elijah . . .
Backstage, Joel watched with a smile as Sharon sat, singing a random Barbra Streisand song while Jinx humped her leg, she stood from the stool and went closer to the audience, keeping a straight, mournful face as the dog followed, humping, humping, humping. The last line of the song came and Benji set Cashdogg loose to get into something with Jinx. Someone tapped Joel’s shoulder and he turned to look at him. "Hey, Joel right?"
"Yeah," they shook hands. "Mike Shinoda?"
"Uh-huh. Sorry I couldn’t perform tonight, the wife kept me home most of the day. I snuck out to see how it went." They both turned and looked at Sharon, smiling as they audience applauded hers and the dogs’ antics. Mike nodded to her. "Sure is pretty."
"Yeah . . ." Joel lolled.
"Great bang too."
Joel spun to face him. "Pardon?"
"Oh come on Madden, everyone on this show, nix the ladies has had her, where the hell do you think her band got instruments before they had money? Donations! I’ll bet you that Jess girl and her are closer than they seem too!"
Benji had heard it all and knocked Mike to the ground, began punching him as hard as possible, and it was impossible for anyone to pry him off, it took Billy, Paul and Chris together. Joel was preoccupied walking onto the stage, his eyes narrowed as the bright lights hit him, but he wasn’t out long enough to adjust, he grabbed her arm, and literally pulled her stunned form from the stage, and hauled her as she struggled back to the dressing room.
" . . . the hell’s gotten into you? Joel, ouch, let go! Hear me? I said let the fuck go."
He threw her in and slammed the door behind him, and locked it, turned and looked at her. "Do you know Mike Shinoda?"
"Well, duh! He’s on the show!"
"From anywhere off of the show!" He hissed, crossing his arms.
She thought for a moment, eyes widened. "Um, yeah, he was one of Elijah’s friends." She shrugged. "He got Alecia a guitar for her birthday before we could afford one."
He was silent, eyes raised from where they had been focusing on the floor as he listened. "Did you ever sleep with him?"
"What?"
"You heard me Sharon!"
"No! Never! I hardly ever knew him, we had dinner once, me Elijah and his wife. I’ve never slept with him!"
"What about Benji?"
"JOEL!"
"And Paul, Billy, Chris? Hell, the guys in the other band? Any of them?"
"Joel Madden where the fuck did you get this BULLSHIT?"
"Did you? Did you sleep with my brother or my friends or those other guys?"
"No!" Her cry surprised even him, she tangled her fingers in the long curls and then buried her face in her hands. "Why are you doing this to me? What did I do? Why?"
"You . . you swear you didn’t?"
She was sobbing, and she fell to the floor, legs tucked close, side leaning against the table. "No, I’ve only ever loved you." She was sobbing still, didn’t realize what she had said, didn’t realize he was staring in complete and total shock at her, most of all didn’t realize just how true it was. What she felt for him was nothing like what she had once felt for Elijah, she would give up fame for him, it had never been what she had wanted, she had wanted love and music brought her that.
He was shaking, he knelt close to her and reached out, brushed the thick mass of curls from her face and slid his fingers along her chin, gripping and forcing her to look at him, even with the smeared makeup, running mascara and lines in her foundation from where her tears had slid down, in his mind and heart she was utterly beautiful. "Wh." He found strength to ask, despite his pounding heart and tight throat. "What did you say?"
Now she was shaking worse than before, her eyes widened and she pulled away, stumbled blindly across the room, a hand against the wall to support herself. "I-I’m sorry." She whispered.
He stood again, glanced at her. "Your sorry because you love me?"
"No," she was weeping again. "I’m sorry I said it."
"Why?"
"Because you can’t love me."
He froze, he was angry now, and he wasn’t afraid to show it. He marched up to her and spun her around despite her cries, slammed her back against the wall and he held her wrists. "How can you get the nerve to say that? What did I do to make you think that! Huh? What?!"
"You said it." She gasped. "You said it."
He calmed, just slightly, his face falling into a frown. "How could you have listened Sharon? I was afraid, I was a fool! An idiot! Don’t you know I love you Shar?"
She calmed considerably, her breathing became normal, but her heart still pounded like a drum. He smiled down at her look of awe, and released her wrists, slid his hands to rest on each cheek, holding her face gently as he sang under his breath. "Wouldn’t it be nice if we could wake up in the morning when the day is new? And after having spent the day together, hold each other close the whole night through."
Slowly she smiled, he pressed his forehead to hers and softly she sang. "Happy times together we’ve been spending, I wish that every kiss was never ending."
"Wouldn’t it be nice?" They laughed after he sang this and he nuzzled her nose with his. "I do love you Sharon, I have and will. I love you so much!"
She nodded softly. "I know. I uh," she shrugged casually. "I guess I love you too."
He raised an eyebrow. "Well we’ll have to make you certain of that!" And he pressed his lips unmercifully hard against hers. She slid her arms around his shoulders and he around her waist, holding each other close.
. . . The whole night through . . .
Jess’s playful eyes glittered and she pulled the door silently shut, motioned for Benji to follow her where they wouldn’t be heard, once in his and Paul’s dressing room (Paul had already changed). "Kissing." She reported. "And they’ve finally admitted it."
"All right." He whispered, pulled her against them. "But we’ve always been a step ahead of them."
She raised a brow. "What do you mean?"
"Well," he began. "It’s September, December we get a break so I was thinking if you were ok with it. . ."
She tightened her grip on him, anxiously meeting his gaze. "Yeah?"
+++++
Thou must read the next chapter to find out what they do in December
Book One
Chapter Five
About One Year Later
On a crisp January morning over a year after it had all come together Sharon sat in her Waldorf apartment, flipping through a scrapbook. She paused on one particular page, smiled and smoothed her fingers over it. It had been taken 13 months ago, in Los Angeles, the small December wedding of Benji and Jess, Sharon and Joel had attended as well as Ms. Madden, the twins mother, and the other band members. Smaller, blurrier newspaper and tabloid pictures surrounded the original print, as well as articles. The phone rang and after raising her eyes to it she set the book aside and answered it. "Hello?"
‘Sharon, it’s Joel. I’m at the hospital.’
She sat with the phone cradle in her lap. "Hi, how is she?"
‘She’s fine, you’ll never guess what it is.’
"I certainly can try."
‘Go ahead.’
She smiled and pulled her feet up onto the recliner. "Let me see, a boy?"
‘Close.’
"Close? How can I be close? It’s either a boy or a girl!"
‘That’s only half of it. Twins Shar, she had twin boys this morning, she’s exhausted and Benj, he just can’t stop crying.’
She felt a soft, warm smile fill her face. "Twins? My Lani-Lulu survived giving birth to twins? Holy cow!"
‘Be nice, she went through a lot and it was a huge surprise. Oh you have to see them, they’re so cute, you will right?’
She stood and set the cradle onto the table. "I’ll meet you out in front of the hospital in about a half hour, ok?"
‘Great! See you soon, sweetie!"
"Love you."
"Love you too."
She hung up the phone and began moving to get her coat when the phone rang again. "Hello?"
"Yoo-hoo sweetie, it’s Ann."
"Hey you, what’s up?"
"Nothing really, any news? We’re all itchin’ over here."
"I just got off the phone with Joel actually." She moved to gaze out the window. "It all went well, Jess is fine."
"Yes, yes, this is important, but we both know mostly we want to know what she had. Boy, girl? Both?"
Sharon laughed. "No, no, not both. But she did have two."
"Didn’t getcha."
"She had twin boys, Joel says everyone’s fine, a little surprised and she’s exhausted, he says Benji can’t stop crying."
"Awwwww, how sweet! Wow, gosh, woah, I mean . . . Twins!"
"Yeah, I was actually about to head over there, shall I give your fond wishes?"
"Do, I’ll let everyone know, give us a call later, we’ll be at the studio until late."
"Ok, bye Ann."
"Later Sharon."
She met Joel outside the hospital 15 minutes later, they kissed, embraced and hurried up to the maternity ward, she had wanted to see Jess right away but stubborn as he was he lead her to the glass encased room of infants. He bit his lip and looked around, then brightened, pointed to two babies on their left, a piece of white paper taped in between their little cribs. MADDEN TWINS scrawled onto it in black Sharpie.
"There," he whispered, smiling drunkenly. "See them? Aren’t they beautiful?"
She shifted her gaze from him to the newborns, studied the sleeping babies carefully. They looked eerily like Benji, same cheeks, forehead, just the basic facial structure reminded her of Joel’s brother. They had lots of thick, dark brown hair, and for twins that had to share food and space, were considerably chubby, adorable. "Yeah," she whispered, leaning closer to him. "Beautiful."
He guided her down the hall to a guarded room, they were allowed in and smiled, hand in hand as they saw Jess and Benji reading together, the heavily tattooed man carefully snuggled up to his copper haired, fair skinned wife. Both looked up simultaneously and smiled, Jess sat up and laid back against her husband. "Hey!" She said softly, she sounded incredibly tired. She, Sharon and Joel exchanged kisses and the other two sat, Jess gestured to the book. "Names."
Sharon smiled warmly and joked. "Yeah, guess Damien won’t work for them."
"It’ll work for Damien," Jess said, grinning smugly. "But his brother needs a name too," she pointed to a particular one. "We were thinking Dillon. Damien and Dillon Madden."
Joel smiled all the more. "That sounds lovely, hers or yours Benj?"
"Well hers of course, she went through the horrible pain and weakness of giving birth to twins, she gets to choose."
"Excuse me," Jess drawled dryly. "But giving birth to those boys was hardly what I would call ‘weak’." She shifted and closed the book, set it on the bedside table. "You want to talk about ‘weak’ go in front of a mirror and try to life Joel above your head!"
"Ooooo salt!" Sharon gasped between laughs. "All right boys go have a drink, let us be alone."
"Can’t," Benji said, shifting to sit on the edge of the bed. "We both have to sign the birth certificate when the nurse comes in, should be about ten minutes."
"So what’s going on in the world outside, Shar?"
"Absolutely nothing, why?"
"I’m bored." Jess announced in a regal tone.
"HELLLOOOOOO!" All cringed at the sound of the nurse’s voice, a bike horn meets Bozo. "Do we have names?"
"Yes we do."
Exhausted Sharon opened the studio door, was greeted by five pairs of drowsy eyes, she smiled warmly, knowing that they were waiting for and so she sat down at the piano and whipped some sheet music out, passed the different instrument arrangements to the different band members. "It’s time to work on #2 kids."
"Hey, when did you finish this?" Kaye asked, flipping through. "You’ve been working on it for years."
"Finished it when the first season of HRL was done. Now we’re filming the new season and I haven’t had time to pull it out but since Lana’s had the babies her and Benji will be out and we’ll have less stage time without them, so we may as well do this." She turned on the record button and nodded for Ashley to begin on the drums.
Hopefully we can finish this tonight. She thought, smiling as she thought of the newborns. There wasn’t a large piano part, mostly synthesizers and she decided that if Jess wanted to re- record that part she most certainly could. They finished the song at about 6:00 in the morning, working on coffee and Doritos. Joel came in just as they added the finishing touches, he was crisp, refreshed from a full night’s sleep, and clearly taken aback by all their appearances. Ann had gone home some time ago at Sharon’s instruction, even though she had not finished her review of the song for the New York Times, she said she’d finish it at home and have it run that evening just as the song first aired.
Joel gave it a listen, a compliment, and then Sharon a hard time for not having gotten any sleep. She was less than pleased about this, but took his offered ride home, Alecia agreed to drop it off at the radio station on her way home. So they all parted and Joel drove her home, had to stop her from getting a cup of coffee, and had to literally toss her into the bed. While he removed her shoes, she turned onto her back and asked. "Joel, do you want kids?"
"Stop fidgeting, you aren’t making this any easier."
She was half asleep when he awoke her with his response. "I guess so. Don’t know though, the whole twin factor worries me."
She stirred a bit, made room for him to lie next to her, when he did she turned on her side to face him. "Why is that?"
"Well you know, Shar, the doctor’s say a multiple birth could be bad for you."
"Only if I tore, then I’d lose a lot of blood, it was one blood clot, Joel, and my family has a history of them. It was no more of a surprise then my acid reflux, both my parents had it, so I did too. I wish I could get off the blood thinners but my blood would just stick together."
"You just worry about sleep, we’ve got plenty of time to worry about having babies, just sleep." Her eyes shut for a moment but opened again, and he looked dismayed. She smiled, scooted closer, lifted a hand and brushed his side-bangs from his face. "Thank you."
"For bringing you home?"
"For coming into my life. For letting me in yours." A soft, kiss, she was too tired to start something. "I love you Joely-Moley."
He laughed softly, kissed her temple as she dosed off. "I love you, Shamaho."
Book One
Chapter Seven
Hold On (Six months later)
Thunder boomed outside the window next to Jess, causing her to jump, she gazed out it and shook her head, stood and went to the door, opened it for her best friend. "What the hell is your problem Shar? You’re gonna get yourself killed! See the bright stuff? That’s called lightening, it hits when the wet stuff starts falling and it can kill you." She paused as she looked at her friend’s face, she was unusually pale. "What is it?"
"I just had the worst thing ever happen to me."
"Even after Joel left you? Uh-oh, lemme put the twins to bed, come on in sweetie." Jess, (with acquired skill) lifted a six month old onto each hip, an arm around their waists and carried them away, Sharon watched, wiped the rain from her throat. Benji strolled in, reading the Arts section of the paper, he looked up at her and frowned.
"Damn Shar, did you go swimming? Here, give me your coat."
She smiled softly and nodded, slipped out of it without meeting his eyes, Jess came back out and shooed him away, Jess made coffee and Sharon eagerly accepted, the cup alone a relief, it’s heat warmed her hands as she held it between sips. "So what happened today?"
"Well," she began, warmed, and set her cup down. "I went to see Dr. Reynolds for my six month annual checkup, told him about Joel and I splitting. . ."
"And how long ago was this?" Abraham Reynolds, a respected gynaecologist in the area asked as he examined her blood tests, his bearded face tilted the left. He lifted his glasses and looked down at her.
"Erm, about two months ago. Yeah, two months."
"Uh-huh." He sat next to her, set the papers on his desk face down and folded his hands in his lap. "Well Sharon there’s not much I can do for what we’ve found, just recommend you to an obstetrician and advise you to call Joel up about this."
"How’s that?"
"Well I myself am no obstetrician but I do work in a similar field, your blood tests tell me your pregnant. Couldn’t tell you how far long but I can get you an appointment down the hall for an exam in an hour. Would you like me too?"
Hardly able to speak, Sharon nodded dumbly. She wasn’t angry with Joel, she decided immediately. She would not let this hurt him worse than the events of two months ago had. His mother had tried to come in between them, and found out that Sharon’s sister had had a child out of wedlock, as well as her brother. She had told Joel if he and Sharon had any children in such a way she would disown him, fearing it might happen, Joel had left her before she’d had the chance to become pregnant, or so he had thought. What had stung him the most was when his mother had asked why he couldn’t be more like Benji.
After she dressed she went and got a coffee, the obstetrician would need a urine sample so she may was well get the urge to pee now, as her appointment was in a half hour, the man wasn’t too busy today. She made it back up just in time, gave the sample, and waited, the door opened and she looked at the man, not too much older than her, he smiled at her and closed the door, read through her file. "Hello Miss Mahoney. May I call you Sharon?"
"Yes, please, it feels to informal to be called Miss Mahoney."
He laughed softly. "Well, I’m doctor Finch, you can call me Charles, or Charlie. I hate the whole Dr. Finch thing myself. Um, we have gone through your urine sample Sharon, and it seems that you’re going to be having a baby in a little while, just like Dr. Reynolds told you. Now let’s see how far long you are, hmm?"
She nodded and laid back on the table, she could feel the cold steel even through the cheep paper covering. He pressed his fingers lightly over her, asked her when her last missed period was, took some notes and went over to his computer, told her she could sit up again. He entered some information into the computer and nodded. "Ok, the baby was conceived March 19th and since it is July 22nd that would make you about four months pregnant. You will be due . ." A few more buttons pressed. "December 23rd." He scooted away from the computer on his roller chair. "Now I wanted to talk with you about the father, what’s the deal with him?"
"We broke up about two months ago, his mom threatened to disown him if he got me pregnant outside of marriage, he figured he was saving both of us but it looks like he was about two months too late. Or she was, I don’t know." She shrugged. "It would probably be best not to tell him, just so he won’t worry."
"Well I hate to remind you that you are a popular woman, the tabloids are going to find out and spit it all over, who knows if they haven’t already, I think he’d rather hear it from you."
She sniffled. "Yeah, he would. But I really don’t want to get him in trouble . ."
"Get married after you tell him."
"And then a little more than a month away have an enormous pregnant belly? No offense doc, but I’ve gained enough weight right now as it is. The last thing I need is for me to gain more and get him in trouble for really quick marrying me to save my skin. I’m going to tell him to tell his folks that it isn’t his baby."
"Which raises another concern of mine. With all this lying what if it’s a multiple birth? You know it’s very possible for that, he’s a twin and you have twins in your family don’t you?"
Her face fell. "Oh, God, . . ."
"Don’t panic." He opened his cabinet and handed her a huge box of prenatal vitamins. "Something will work out for the better, right now you have to stay calm and collected, I’d hate to see you have a miscarriage. Oh, what about your blood thinner?"
"I have thick blood, that thins it out." She joked.
"I like you already Sharon."
"Wow." Jess said, wringing her hands due to the cold. She stood and turned the heat up on the thermostat, then sat back down. "You gonna be ok, sweetie?"
Sharon crossed her arms, leaned against the sofa. "Well, I’ll certainly survive. I plan to go back to Cleveland until the baby’s born, try and keep out of the limelight until I can come up with an excuse."
"Stay with us, . ."
"I can’t." She whispered, teary eyes meeting Jess’. "It’s all too close to him."
"Hello dearies!" Both women cringed at Jess’ mother in law’s voice. She walked into the room and looked ready to spit as she saw Sharon. "Oh, it’s you. What are you doing here? Trying to ruin their family as well?"
"Oh go get dumped for God’s sake. Don’t make me sick." Sharon huffed, standing and picking up her soaked jacket. Jess turned on the couch and looked out the window. "Shar I don’t see your car."
"I walked."
"No chance in hell." Jess stood and crossed her arms. "You aren’t going out in this weather like that. Not with . . Your flu." She grinned smugly. "Flu’s don’t like it when their carrier is cold and wet."
"I’m sure my flu will be ok. Bye sweetie. Goodbye Miss Madden."
"Good riddance."
Sharon headed out into the rain, turned onto the sidewalk and froze, Joel stood, hands in the pockets of his hoodie, eyes wide, mouth half open. "Shar . ." he whispered, more tears leaked from her eyes as she stared in shock at him.
"Joel, what are you doing here?"
"Mom, she called a ‘family meeting’, she in there?"
Sharon nodded. "Yeah, sure is." She picked at her skirt, which was sticking to her legs. "Guess I’ll see you . . ." She mumbled, began to walk away when he grabbed her arm. "Talk to me? In the back under the canopy?"
She was hesitant, wanted to leave but decided if she had a better chance to tell him, now was it. The rain . . . He led her into the backyard and they stood under the canopy that covered the patio. He pulled his hood away and looked her up and down, she pulled her shirt over her slightly exposed mid-drift. "You’re good? I mean, you’re doing ok?"
She nodded and bit her lip. "I, uh, I’ve been a little sick lately, but saw a couple doctors about can only expect the sickness."
"Didn’t getcha." He said, leaning against the cold brick.
She looked down at her hands, where her fingers were entwined, nervously fiddling each other. "Joel," her heart beat ravenously, more tears slipped from her eyes and so she looked at him again. "Promise you won’t hate me?"
His brow furrowed and he breathed steadily, a cloud of steam forming in the freezing air. "Oh God, Shar, of course not! I still love you, so much I just, mom’s in a tight space ad I want to keep her as happy as possible I mean," he shook his head. "God this all sounds so sick, I never once thought of you, well I did, I mean if you would have gotten pregnant she would have hurt you so badly . . . This is safer."
She shook her head, her gaze lowered, but not completely. "No it’s not." She looked at him, he saw the tears and reached up, touched her cheek. "Are you ok, Shar?"
She took a deep breath, his touch comforting. "Joel I . . . I don’t . .. I’m pregnant." She spat out, feeling her heart tighten into a knot. "I don’t expect anything from you, and I don’t want you to get into trouble with your mom so, well I’ll be showing soon, I’m sour months so when I do, and she finds out I want you to tell her you know for certain it isn’t yours."
He was silent, had dropped his hand a bit ago. "What if, what if there’s more than one?"
"I have twins on my side of the family, I can just . . ."
"Don’t be stupid, Sharon, just, marry me, now, tonight, we’ll tell her we’ve been married for five months. Since February, I don’t care what she says, or does, really I don’t I just." He laced his fingers in with hers. "I don’t want to be to our baby what my father always was to me."
"I don’t know Joel, what about your mom?" She was worried, but didn’t want to pull away, he was so much warmer than the rain.
"I don’t give a shit that she wants me at some meeting where she’ll shove how much better Benji’s doing as of family life. I have a chance at my own family."
"She’ll find out eventually."
"Don’t know about you, but I’d rather spend my lifetime with the woman I love than my mother." She laughed, but still seemed hesitant. "Come on baby, Vegas is an hour flight from here, if the weather clears up, we probably should just go tomorrow. But you never know." He pulled her close for the first time in two months. "I love you. And I want to be a father to our baby."
She smiled at him, nodded softly. "Ok, let’s do it."
Overjoyed, he kissed her, hands moved down and felt the bare skin near her hips. "Oh God." He mumbled, pulling away and pulling off his hoodie, which was much drier than anything she was wearing considering he’d come from his car. "You’ll freeze! You’ll get sick!" He helped her into it and they hurried to his car, less than missed by a grinning Benji, looking out the window, once Joel drove away he closed the curtain. "No ma, that wasn’t him."
I don't mind if you tell me what you think, but please keep in mind I only write it because I'm very very sick. ;)