Chapter 4

The Present~~

Amelia’s troubled green gaze still centered on the man on her couch. “Had things only been different, had I not been so young and stupid, we would have had so much more time.” With a sigh Amelia stood and went to the window, gazing out at the softly falling snow. At least the snow seemed to be letting up, that was one problem that might resolve itself. Behind her a slight groan echoed. Turning her gaze from the window to the man once again she watched as blue eyes undimmed by time slowly opened to gaze around the room.

She watched silently as his eyes flitted around the room, confusion evident in his gaze as he tried to place where he was.

He muttered, “Where the hell am I?” as he started to stand. Soft laughter accosted his ears and a sweet voice uttered, “I wouldn’t stand too quickly if I were you.”

The blue gaze swung her way as he continued his motion up, not realizing the blanket that had until now covered him begin to slip its way to the floor, leaving him quite naked to whatever was in the room with him. Amelia’s cheeks blazed a path of pink across her cheeks as her cat green eyes took in the vision before her. She full out laughed at his next statement. “And where the holy fuck are my clothes!!!” As he began to turn to the sound of laughter, he realized that his head was pounding a statacco beat inside his brain. “Damn my head hurts.”

Hearing his softly muttered exclamation of pain sobered Amelia immediately. As she stood there he swayed suddenly, still a bit weak from his frozen ordeal. Moving to his side she motioned for him to lie back down. “I found you nearly frozen in the middle of the road. What the hell were you doing out in a snowstorm dressed the way you were? No one in their right mind would do that you know. I nearly hit you, nearly wrecked my car because it was so icy. Sheesh someone your age should know better. Couldn’t get you to town so I brought you here, and as you WERE soaked to the bone and I have no one else here I had to take your clothes and dry them. Pneumonia ya know.”

Before she had a chance to keep rambling his soft voice rumbled, “Ya think I could have something for the headache? Aspirin, Motrin, silence?” Amelia looked up at him a bit startled, her diatribe halted as quickly as it had begin. “Hmmm,” she quizzed him, “still grouchy when you feel bad huh?”

His blue eyes studied her intently, from her long wavy auburn hair to startling gold flecked eyes. She was pale, but not sickly so, and petite, yet he could tell she was curvy in all the right places. She was in fine shape, a hint of muscle definition in her arms and those long legs. She was dressed comfortably in an old knit sweater and jeans and he liked what he saw, but she didn’t look familiar at all. She seemed to know him though, and he couldn’t figure out why.

Amelia watched him as his eyes flitted nervously over her. Her head tilted slightly to the side, as her lips quirked. “Cat got your tongue?”

Wryly he mumbled, “that cat got more than my tongue I think. Sorry babe, you seem to know me, but I have NO idea who you are. Come to think of it, I have no idea who I am.”

Amelia sat back, stunned amazement in her bright green eyes. Her thoughts scrambled over each other as she tried to make sense of his statement. Had whatever gave him the lump on his head done more damage than she had thought, or had she meant so little to him all those years ago? Was this a blessing in disguise? Maybe she could get him to town or to the police or someone and let them handle it without him ever realizing who she was? That would solve a few problems wouldn’t it? She wouldn’t have to explain why her name was Amelia now, why she didn’t look a day over the age of 25, or have to explain Adam. Standing so quickly she made him dizzy she rushed out of the room. His quizzical blue eyes watched her leave, and even though the pain in his head was nearly more than he could bear, he had to admit she had one fine back view as well.

Rushing into the laundry she pulled his now dry clothes from the dryer and made to return to the living room. Stopping in the kitchen on her way back she got a glass of water and bottle of Ibuprofen for her “patient”. Making her way back into the living room, she lay his clothes next to him and held the glass out to him. As he took it she opened the medicine and offered it too him. He took 4 and popped the pills quickly, silently thanking the heavens she at least had something to take the edge off whatever was plaguing him.

Suddenly out of nowhere she heard the very loud rumble of a stomach. With a shake of her head Amelia smiled. “Well there’s your clothes, seems your hungry too, so while you dress, and before I get you back into the car for the trek to town so they can get you home, I’ll just go fix you a bite to eat. Soon as your dressed just come on into the kitchen.” With that she headed back the way she had left, unable to resist turning back to sneak one last gaze before he was clothed. With a muffled sigh she went on into the kitchen to fix her hungry guest some food.

Within minutes his nose was filled with the delectable scent of bacon and eggs. Making his way into the kitchen, he leaned against the door frame and watched the lady who had come to his rescue quickly serve up a plate of food. Setting the plate, along with a nice large cup of hot coffee on the table Amelia nodded that he should sit and eat. Not having to be told twice he made his way to the table and attacked the food as if he had never had food that good in a long time.

Amelia walked over to the window, seeming to study the scene outside while actually watching over him as he ate. It was a silly thing, but she had always enjoyed watching Jon eat because he didn’t just eat, he treated each bite as an experience. That habit seemed not to have changed over the years. He would take a bite and chew so slowly wringing each little flavor from the food. Looking at him you would never have thought he could eat so much and enjoy it so immensely but he could. She remembered all the times she laughed over his eating habit only to have him shrug it off with a, “but I work it off on stage babe, fuel for the Jon machine is all it is.”

Watching him eat brought back so many memories, ones she thought she had buried deep so long ago. Turning her head back to the window her mind once again traveled down memory lane.

1986, Vancouver Canada.

It had been a full month since Jon had walked from her living room. It was a full month full of days in a too busy diner, and nights of quiet tears as she cried herself to sleep each night. She missed him, God she missed him. At this point she would have given anything just to see him walk into the diner. Clearing what seemed to be the millionth table that long day she heard the bell over the door jangle. With a soft sigh she took the dirty plates and placed them in the wash bin then snagged her order pad and made her way to the newest customer. Without even seeing who she was talking too Jacqui spoke. “Hi, I’m Jacqui, what’ll you have?”

“You,” was the soft reply.

Arching a brow, a tired Jacqui retorted, “Sorry sir, not on the menu today. How about something you can actually have?”

Suddenly 3 voices chimed in where only one was before. “Nope, gotta be you, only you can fill what needs filling.”

At that comment Jacqui finally looked at who was sitting before her. To say she was stunned was putting it mildly, but stunned beyond words was exactly what she was. There before her was Tico, David and Richie. Before she could frame a reply, Richie spoke up again. “You see we have this friend and he’s hungry but wont admit it.”

Tico chimed in, “Yeah he’s got these hunger pains he won’t admit too and its doing him in.”

David added his two cents to the mix “He’s really hungry you know, and when hungry you get all snarly and such.”

Richie took back over, “Jacqui, our friend, he’s just not that easy to live with right now, and every song he wants to write just shows that hunger. Won’t you please help us make our friend better? Yeah he got mad, and he did stupid. He won’t come back and apologise, he just keeps being hungry. Help us help him Jacqui, before he drives us all nuts.”

“He misses me?” Jacqui heart thundered in her chest, her eyes misting over.

“Honey the word missing just doesn’t describe what he’s going through. Come to the club tonight and you can hear for yourself just how hungry that man is.”

Jacqui studied Jon’s friends closely. She could see their worry and weariness. Slowly she began to smile. God had dropped the miracle into her lap, she wasn’t about to turn down the chance. Nodding her head swiftly, she agreed to go to the club and try to talk to the man who had walked away a month ago.