Brian must have been asleep when the buses finally pulled into the next venue.  When he woke, Leighanne and Baylee were in the front of the bus working on Baylee’s morning work.  Leighanne had decided to home school their son and had taken on all of the teaching herself.  Brian had sat in on a few of the sessions but with his demand of work he wasn’t able to see her in action often.

“How are my two favorite people doing this morning?” he asked as he kissed his wife and rubbed Baylee’s head. 

“Daddy look what I made,” Baylee said holding up a picture of what looked like three people in front of a massive black box.  

“Is that us? With the tour bus?” Brian guessed kneeling down to be at Baylee’s level.  His son nodded eagerly before putting the paper down on the table and tracing letters that were in front of him.

Brian stood and put his arms around his wife, nuzzling her neck. “Why did you let me sleep?”

“You looked so peaceful and I know you didn’t sleep well last night. I thought I’d let you get some extra time in.”  She smiled and patted his arms pulling them off of her.  “Now finish getting ready before one of the guys comes looking for you.”

At that moment there was a knock on the front of their bus door.  “Hello?” Nick’s voice called from the front. 

“Uncle Nick,” Baylee smiled and got off his chair to give Nick a hug. 

“Hey little guy.” He set Baylee down and moved further onto the bus.  “Ready Brian?” He asked.

“Ready for what?”

Nick looked between Brian and Leighanne quizzically.  “Uh, you wanted to help the crew set up.  They have quite a bit of it done and were wondering if you still wanted to join them, I said I’d find you.”

Brian thought about what Nick said and then remembered that he had mentioned it to the crew at the last venue, before the incident with the fan.  Brian looked at Leighanne apologetically but she only smiled and nodded at him.  He kissed her, hugged Baylee and followed Nick off of the bus. 

“Hey guys,” He called out as he passed Howie and AJ sitting outside their buses in what they all referred to as the calm before the storm.   Brian squinted in the sunlight to try to get a better look at the woman standing behind Howie; it didn’t look like any girl that he’d seen Howie dating before.  When he couldn’t make her out clearly he shrugged it off and made his way inside.

The crew greeted him and when he asked what he could do he was shown to a box full of wires.  “Someone decided it would be funny to cram these into the box instead of rolling them up like they should.”  Their head crew guy Johnny explained.   “Can you untangle these?” The man was looking at Brian hopeful and he knew that they had probably planned for these cords to be tangled, it would give him the impression that he was helping while keeping him out of the way.  He didn’t mind though.

“Sure,” he smiled and sat down reaching in and grabbing the wires.  “Where you going?” He asked when he noticed that Nick was walking back towards the exit. 

“You said you wanted to help, I never volunteered. I’m going to play some video games before we actually have to work.”

Brian laughed as he shook his head at his friend.  He set to work watching the crew and untangling the wires.  A girl standing around doing nothing caught his attention.  He looked up several times to see her standing around.  He wanted to flag Johnny down and ask if she needed something to do she could help him but before he could ask the woman turned around and Brian dropped the wires.  It was the fan from yesterday’s show.

She held up her hand to wave at Brian.  He looked for security, how had she gotten inside. Nobody was allowed inside before the state was even set up.  He flagged a man who wore a bright orange security shirt.  The man started walking towards Brian, Brian looked back to where the fan was so he could point her out but she was gone.  Nobody was standing where she just stood.  He scratched his head.

“Can I help you?” the man asked him.

“Uh, I just wanted to know if there is a better seat than this that I could have.” He asked blushing slightly from embarrassment.  Leave it to the rich pop star to request a better seat, right? 

“Sure.” The man nodded and headed towards the back of the auditorium only to arrive shortly with a folding chair with a back. 

“Thank you so much…”

“Tom,” the man supplied.

“Thanks, Tom.”  Brian smiled and took his seat resuming with the job of untangling the wires.

After several hours and the beginning of a headache, Brian had managed to untangle the massive amount of wires much to the pleasure of Johnny.  He thought he had seen the fan two other times but he was cautious to summon Tom again unless he was sure she would stick around.  She was never around after he went back to work and looked up again.  He rubbed his eyes, a headache was beginning to form and it was soon going to be time to start preparing for the sound check concert. 

“What did they do to you in there?” Howie laughed at him as he walked out of the venue.

“Hours of untangling wire that I don’t think they really needed.” He shook his head that he just wasted time in an attempt to show he was useful.  He rubbed his forehead, the headache really starting to take effect.

“Howie?” Brian turned towards his friend.  “Have you been out here long?”

“Most of the time you’ve been inside, yes, I’ve been sitting out here soaking in the sun.”  Howie smiled at him.

“Did you see a girl going in or exiting, a girl that wouldn’t be wearing roadie clothes or security outfit?”

Howie shook his head.  “Nope, why?”

“It will sound strange but that fan I met yesterday before, you know the fainting episode.  Well I could have sworn I saw her in there on three separate occasions but if you say you never saw her come in or out and there is no way she came in through the front.”  Brian continued to rub his head, the pain was getting stronger.

“Maybe it was a result of that headache it looks like you are growing.” Howie laughed and reached into a nearby bag tossing him a bottle of Tylenol.   “Take a couple of those and go lie down before we have to really work.”  Brian nodded and took a couple of the pills quickly noting that the usual Tylenol stamp was missing, perhaps he filled up the bottle with a generic pill?  He grabbed a water before heading into his bus. 

“Thanks D,” Brian smiled tossing the bottle back.

“No sweat Brian.” Howie smiled and leaned back in his chair continuing to enjoy the warm day. 

Brian didn’t miss a beat that night during the show.  He couldn’t remember why he felt strange between helping the crew and the family time he spent with Leighanne and Baylee before the show.  He remembered having a headache and Howie giving him something, but why did he have a headache.  Must have been from the wires he untangled. 

“Brian you are on tonight, it’s good to see you back to normal.” AJ said patting his friend on the back.  Brian smiled though he didn’t know why he would have been off any other night.

The concert ended and Brian headed back to his bus to find Leighanne reading a magazine waiting for him.  “I caught a couple of the first songs with Baylee but he was tired tonight.  How did the rest of the concert go?” She asked smiling.

Brian fell onto the couch next to her and sighed.  “It was a great night.” He leaned in to kiss his wife when movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he quickly swiveled his head.  “Is Baylee in bed?” He asked her.

“He is,” She smiled and spoke in a playful tone pulling Brian closer to her.   He shrugged what he thought he saw off and kissed his wife. 

Over Leighanne' shoulder he saw the image of a girl falling to the ground after being hit with something.  “I need to help her,” he mumbled after their lips disconnected.

“Brian?” Leighanne snapped her fingers in front of his eyes. “Who are you talking about?” She asked as she turned her head in the direction Brian was still staring in.   She waved her hand in front of his eyes attempting to get him to come back to the present and answer her.

“What?” He asked as his eyes focused on her again. 

“Who are you talking about?” Leighanne asked looking at him concerned.

“I wasn’t talking about anyone.” He answered honestly.  He had no idea what Leighanne was referring to. They had just been kissing.   “Darn it.” He said as the pain in his head started to take over out of nowhere. 

“What’s wrong?” Leighanne asked him pulling him close to her and wrapping her arms around him.  “Let me get something for you.”  She stood and went to a drawer pulling out a bottle of Tylenol.  She opened it and took a couple of pills out, setting them down on the counter as she got a glass for water.   She filled the glass as Brian stood and scooped up the pills. 

“Howie said you had a headache earlier and told me that these really seemed to help you.  It was thoughtful of him since I forgot to pack Tylenol and only have Advil.” She smiled and held the glass of water out to him to take. 

He smiled at his wife and looked at the pills again, was Tylenol always a slightly yellow color?  He shrugged it off knowing his wife and Howie only had his best interests at heart.  He swallowed the pills and chased them down with the water.

“Better?” She asked as she took the glass back from him.

Brian nodded and headed back to the couch.  “How about we watch a movie before bed?” He smiled at her and patted the couch next to her.  He turned the television on and watched as Leighanne joined him on the couch.  She sat next to him but did not move closer to him as she usually did, he shrugged it off.  If he was getting sick he could see that she would not want to be close to him, she would not want to get sick either.