Chapter 23

Amelia studied Richie a moment, her green gaze curious. “What do you mean Richie?”

“Well hell Red, you ain’t blind. Look at the man. He’s 45 and looks years younger. I swear there’s been days when I wondered if the book Dorian Grey wasn’t written because of him.” Richie grinned slightly before continuing, “Seriously though, as neat as this place is, I’m wiped, anyplace a man can crash around here?” Both Amelia and Joe shook their head no. At that Richie sighed. “Guess we need to hit a hotel then.”

Within minutes Richie had flipped open his cell and made a couple of calls, getting the three of them a suite of rooms at the Hotel Monaco. In some way he was being devious, it was the hotel they stayed in 20 years before. He was betting on something there jogging his bro’s memory. He liked luxury too though, and the Monaco was known for it. Either way that place was the ideal spot for them to rest up in.

Amelia grimaced as she listened to him make arrangements. She remembered all too well what had happened there, and understood what Richie was trying to do, complete with him calling her the pet name he had called her twenty years before. She was a bit unsure of how easily Richie had adapted to what she had told him and had taken it as business as usual. On top of that she wasn’t too sure how Adam was going to like the fact that they hadn’t stayed put and waited on him. Jon out in public in a city known to be crawling with immortals even on the slowest of times was just thumbing their nose at immortal convention. She knew too though, that when Sambo had his mind set on something he was as bad as Jon, he got what he wanted when he wanted it. That goofy grin was as lethal now she realized as it was 20 years before and that was something that was awesome, Richie in their corner only promised to make things easier. Calling him had been the right idea and she was glad Joe had pushed her into it.

She mentioned calling a cab only to have Richie offer up one of his famous shit eating grins as he explained he had a limo waiting. With a soft laugh she hugged Joe and gave him the name of where they’d be and a password she’d set with the concierge so Adam could get to them. Within moments all three were settled into the limo on the way to the hotel. Arriving, Richie waved a bellhop over and had him take the luggage. Amelia noticed the six different bags and arched a brow Richie’s way. “You’re worse than a woman Sambo. Six bags?”

“Red, half of those are Jon’s. I kind of figured he might be in the need of some of his own things, so I personally,’ he puffed his chest a bit feeling proud of himself, “packed a couple of bags for him too.

Jon punched him in the arm lightly. “Thank you Rich.”

In short order they had left their instructions at the concierge and made their way to the suite of rooms given them and each had chosen a room and placed their bags down to be unpacked later. She wandered into the bathroom and showered off the grime of travel, her mind wandering down the corridor of memories with Jon’s name on it. With her shower finished and a clean set of clothing making her feel nearly human again she wandered back out to the living room only to find that The King of Swing was on the couch playing at being the King of Snores. Jon was no where to be found so she went in search of him, worried he had decided to take a walk. She took a peek into one bedroom and saw it empty with Richie’s bags tossed haphazardly against the bed. As much as things had changed some things had remained the same and she doubted he would unpack anything the entire time they were there. Moving on to the next bedroom she heard the shower going and a golden voice humming. Jon had had the same idea as she had it seemed. Moving back to her room she lay down on her bed and within moments had fallen into a light doze.


She slowly awakened to a low murmur coming from the living room. Standing she moved into the living room, a slight smile on her face. Richie and Jon both looked her way as she entered the room. She was dressed simply, but then she always was, in snug fitting jeans that buttoned and a soft silky blouse in a faint shade of purple. Both men gave a whistle of appreciation, although Richie’s whistle earned him a swift punch in the arm, as she walked over to retrieve her jacket. “I’ll just let you two get to know each other while I run down and get us a bite to eat,” she said as she made her way to the door. “I’ll be back in a few minutes so don’t go anywhere!” As she made it to the door a knock sounded. Opening the door she saw a rather aggravated Adam standing on the other side. Shaking her head she swiftly slipped through the door and motioned for Adam to follow.

Jon gave Amelia a swift nod as they vanished. Richie who had turned to see who was at the door grew quiet as he recognized the man Amelia had just left with. It was the man she’d thrown Jon over for twenty years earlier. He had to tell his friend, but the question was how. It was obvious to him that with every glance Jon gave the redhead that he was still smitten with her. Maybe it was the fact he could only remember that time of his life, Richie wasn’t too sure, but he knew that although Jon had finally moved past that time, he had always carried a small torch somewhere deep within him for that tiny red-headed woman.

Richie was so lost in thought it took Jon five minute to reach him. Having no luck he finally reached over and pinched his nose shut. “Hey Asshole, Earth to Asshole, come in.”

Noting the lack of air Richie blinked and looked at his friend. “Man don’t do that, I can’t do without air, hey can you?”

Jon shrugged; he had no idea what he could or couldn’t do anymore. “Man, you were gone, what were you thinking of?”

“Past memories bro, that’s all, just past memories. Hey how did she tell you who you were? I wish I could have seen that one.”

Jon laughed, feeling an instinctual camaraderie with this man. “She, what did she call it? Googled me man.” Jon shivered lightly, “that web thing, way too much info.”

Richie bust out laughing. “Considering what some fan site probably have on them bro, I’m sure it was scary. Seen some scary stuff myself there. Ya know though, getting onto business here, your kids have missed you something fierce. Dot, well she hasn’t shown much emotion, but ya know she never really did all that much.”

Jon looked at him, a weariness suddenly showing in his eyes. “Rich, I’m not too sure how I’m going to handle going home.” He went on to explain the one thing Amelia had left out when talking to Richie, about immortals being sterile. “I don’t remember this Dot, Rich, but what the hell do you do? She’s lied for years, pretending these four children were mine. I can’t remember them or loving them, how am I going to do this? Even if I ever remember her, I don’t think our relationship will be able to live through knowing that.”
“So what if it doesn’t bro? The kids though, you’ll do right by them. You’re a good guy Jonny boy; you’ll do the right thing in the end. But hey, if we’re lucky we’ll get you your memory back before you go home.” Richie gave him a gentle punch on the shoulder. “Thing is though dude, prepare yourself for remembering ok? The past wasn’t all rosy either.”

At Jon’s questioning look Richie launched into his explanation. “Man that concert that night was a killer and after it was over, all Tico, Dave and Alex could think of was sleep. You and me though, we wanted to party off the energy. As usual Red was right there beside you. The three musketeers we were back then. God, man you loved her something fierce. Maybe if we hadn’t taken that limo drivers suggestion things would have been different. We ended up in that bar we were in today, and you know me, there was a band and a spare set of strings.” Jon nodded, a half smile on his face, this memory he actually could access. “You on the other hand were content to just sit in the crowd with her, while I was the man on stage. Not too sure what all happened next, just that the crowd got quiet and there was some fight between this big ugly fucker and some pretty boy. Ugly fucker though he had a tight hold on Red and you nearly went ballistic. You ended up punching the pretty boy; I think he called himself MacLeod, while trying to find Jacqui.” Richie stood and walked to the bar, getting himself a bottle of water before continuing. “Anyway, you found her and we came back here to the Monaco for the night.”

Jon listened quietly; sure he wasn’t going to like the next parts. “Well, the next day we headed out, another concert in the next town to be done. But Jacqui she had gotten kind of quiet and withdrawn, not pushing you away or anything bro, but like she had a world of thought on her shoulders. You just held her every chance you got, hell even during sound check you held her. You told me that man grabbing her had scared her shitless and heck I believed ya. Things didn’t change for a week or two; we moved on to the next towns, she kept acting like a ghost was in the next room and you kept struggling to bring her out of it. You’d put her favorite songs in each concert and even that didn’t seem to help. That final night of the tour though it all came to a head, yeah that night it was bad.”

Jon looked up at his friend who was staring quietly out at the Seattle’s twinkling city lights. “What happened Rich?”

“She disappeared bro, just up and vanished on us all. You hadn’t had a fight, or anything she was just gone with no note or anything left behind. You were destroyed; man I’d never want to see you that way again. She’d left a few scarves behind, seems they were packed in your bags, and you took to wearing them. Two damn years, man, you wore those scarves like a badge of honor. Every damn song was about her in some way. You tried to hide it but up until then you wore your emotions on your sleeve. Two years bro, you kept thinking she’d return and she never did. It killed me, because you see, I had seen her leave and the one thing I always kept from you, was that I saw her leave. She left with that guy at the door Jon, that fucker is still in her life. Hell you end up falling into this immortal thing, which I don’t understand, but don’t care about because after all is said and done you’re my Kidd bro”

Richie sighed, “By 1988 you and Dot were seeing each other again and not long after that you had slipped off to Vegas to marry her. You seemed to be getting it back on track too; songs became more about other things. Sometimes though you’d get this faraway look in your eyes and I’d know a love song was coming, and now she’s back, and all you remember is her. Jon that guy is still in her life, immortal or not, I don’t know what went on with her, but I’m worried bro. You’ve been the rock all these years, kept me strong and mostly on the straight. I’ll be toast if she fucks you up again. That scares me bro, what power she’s held even all these years. Scares me shitless bro.”

Jon looked up at his friend, “scares me too Rich, scares me too.”