Interlude Part Two -- Kenny

"I figured I'd find you here," Kenny continued, as if he hadn't heard. "What's up? The doctor in there?" He peeked around the corner into the hospital room.

Kenny was holding a large bouquet of flowers. Jeff sat up.

"Yeah. He said it'd be a few minutes."

"How is she?"

Jeff shrugged. "She's...fine I guess. I don't know what I expected."

Kenny raised an eyebrow and waited for his brother to continue.

"She's in a lot of pain, I think. And she -- she started talking to someone who wasn't there. It's like..." He shook his head. "She seems perfectly lucid, and then I saw that and I think about all the stuff they must have her on....God, I hate this!" he exclaimed. "I hate seeing her like this."

"Christ," Kenny said. It came out 'kroyst'. It was always amazing to Jeff that Kenny, who could talk like a normal person when away, would have a toe-curling accent the minute he stepped off the plane at home. "What about...Todd said something about her not being able to walk?"

"Yeah. She's got surgery or something at the end of the week to fix it." Jeff pressed his palms to his eyes. "I can be here for that at least."

Kenny snorted. "You're not still blaming yourself for this, are you?"

"What I'm saying," Jeff said, his voice cold, "is that I'm glad that I don't have to be in the middle of fucking Oregon or something wondering if my best friend is bleeding her life out on an operating table. Or if she's ever going to walk again."

Kenny opened his mouth to reply, but stopped when he noticed the doctor standing in the door to Cassie's room.

The doctor nodded at Jeff. "You can go back in whenever you'd like," he said, then glanced at Kenny and back at Jeff. "I only ask that you keep your voices down. Some of the patients are still trying to rest." Without another word, he headed away down the hall.

Kenny glanced briefly at Jeff, who was just getting to his feet, then strode into the room, flowers held behind his back..

"Sandraaaaaaaa!" he exclaimed. The doctor's admonition to keep quiet had no apparent effect on him.

Cassie's whole face lit up. "Kenneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeth!" she replied, just as loudly, as Kenny swept down on her and practically lifted her off the bed in a bear hug. Cassie hated being called 'Sandra, so Kenny had always done it. And she called him Kenneth to get him back.

Kenny was producing the flowers from behind his back. "Brought ya a li'l something," he said.

"Oh, Kenny, they're beautiful," she said, a little breathlessly. Jeff resisted an urge to roll his eyes. Always on with the ladies, was Kenny. Cass went along with it too much, really. But then, she'd always liked Kenny, ever since they were kids.

"...don't have a vase for them," Cassie was saying, "though they might have something down at the nurses' station. Jeff, you wouldn't mind running down there, would you?"

"Oh, sure. No prob. Back in a few." Cassie thought she saw annoyance cross Jeff's face as he turned to leave the room. The tension between him and his older brother was palpable.

Thank God I dodged that bullet.
The last thing I need is Jeff and Kenny duking it out in the hospital.
And me not able to pull them apart.

"You're looking well," Kenny said, sitting himself down next to her. Cassie found herself grinning. Kenny was just that way. He carried his mood around him like a weather system. If he was in a good mood, it was hard not to be right there with him.

"Am I? Thanks, though I imagine I look a sight. Jeff was here when I woke up so I haven't had a chance to make myself beautiful for visitors." Cassie pretended to be rearranging her hair -- what little of it she had. It had been shaved post-accident and it was slow growing back in. "I probably still have bed-head."

"Nah, you look great. I'm glad. We were worried about you," Kenny said.

"Me?" Cassie made a dismissive gesture. "I'm fine. I mean, I'd like to be out of this room a little more, but I can't complain about the company. At least not this morning."

"Well, I'm very flattered."

"I was talking about Jeff."

Kenny groaned and put his hand on his heart like he'd been shot. "Not you too!" he said. "Honestly, between you and him I get no peace at all."

"He says you're staying here to record the album," Cassie said, trying to steer him out of dangerous waters.

"Yeah. It's easier to get the feel of it when we're here. Getting back to where the music comes from, you know?" Kenny grinned. "You're gonna love the new stuff. Jeff wrote some amazing lyrics for this...well, I don't want to call it a ballad, exactly. But it's a bit more laid back than what we're used to...."

"I think he played some of that last time he called, just the music, though. He didn't have any words yet. Kind of goes..." Cassie closed one eye, trying to remember. She hummed a few bars.

"That's the one!" Kenny said. "But it's almost done now. It starts off..." Kenny paused for a minute, closing his eyes and tapping his feet until he had the beat. Then he started to sing.

Jeff and Kenny wrote most of the songs for the band together, with Jeff working on the music end and Kenny supplying the lyrics. Every once in a while though, Jeff would do a whole song himself. Cassie always thought they were better than the collaborations, though she had to admit she was a pretty biased judge. Jeff did have a knack of writing to his brother's voice, while Kenny never seemed to realize where his strengths were.

"It's so sad," Cassie said when Kenny was finished. Or, she would have said it, and in fact had opened her mouth to say it, when the sound of polite applause from the doorway.

Of course.

Generally when Jeff and Kenny went out at home they weren't in rock-star mode. Although from time to time they were recognized, but more often people looked at them with a vague "I-think-I-know-you-from-somewhere" expression. All it took, naturally, was for Kenny to start singing, for someone walking by to realize who he was.

The doorway was filled with nurses, interns, and random visitors who had stopped to hear the song. Kenny turned, laughed and waved a little sheepishly.

There was another crowd, one Kenny couldn't see, gathering around the foot of the bed. Cassie turned away from them and focussed on the door.

They're not there.
Got away. Go away.

"A preview from the next album, just for you," Kenny said. There was a little more polite applause before the crowd began to disperse. Figures at the end of the bed began to disappear as well. Cassie stifled a sigh of relief.

"You'll be signing autographs later, I imagine," she told Kenny when everyone had gone.

"That's all right," Kenny said, "I don't mind. I was thinking me and Jeff could do a turn 'round the children's ward after, if he was up for it."

If he can put aside his overwhelming urge to deck you for about a half-hour, you mean.

"That sounds like a good idea," Cassie said.

"So what do you think of the new song?"

"It sounds nice. I can't wait to hear the final version. It's so sad, though."

"Well." Kenny shot a glance over his shoulder before continuing, "That's where Jeff's brain is these days."

"Is he all right? I'm worried about him."

"And he's worried about you too, so you're even."

"He shouldn't be, you know. I'm getting everything I need here."

Kenny's grin faded, and a serious expression came over his face. He leaned in a little closer to her. "You know, 'Sandra..."

"One vase, now filled with beautiful flowers..." Jeff said, and stopped when he saw Kenny's head snap up, and watched him quickly shift away from the bed. "Oh, I'm sorry. Was I interrupting something?" He didn't sound sorry.

"Oh, we were just talking about you," Kenny said easily.

"Were you now." Something shifted in Jeff's expression. Something not good.

"The flowers look great. Thanks for getting the vase for me." Cassie broke in. She hated how her voice sounded. Girly. Airheaded.

"Where would you like them?" But Jeff had gotten the point. Or, at least, his tone had changed.

"Here, I think." Cassie shifted herself around in the bed so she could get at the bedside table. She moved some of the cards out of the way to make room for the vase.

Jeff placed the flowers down with a flourish. "Ta-da!"

"Looks great." Kenny nodded approvingly. "How's your mom, anyway? I'm surprised she's not here."

"Oh, I think she's got something on this morning. Volunteer work or a sewing circle or something," Cassie said. "Frankly, I'm glad to have a morning off. It's hard to have her here for hours, plumping the pillows and making me cups of tea I don't want."

Kenny laughed. "She's the same as ever, then."

"Worse than ever, if that were possible."

"Is there anything we can do?" Jeff was grinning like an idiot. He'd seen enough interaction between Cassie and her mother to know exactly what was happening.

"Yeah, you can both take her out for coffee or something. Then she can natter at Kenny here for hours about how he should really find a nice girl and settle down or something."

Kenny rolled his eyes. "She's still on about that, is she?"

"Oh, I'm sure she'll have several nice girls in mind that she can set you up with while you're home," Cassie said, and patted him on the hand.

"I'm doomed," Kenny said, while Jeff laughed.

"You don't stand a chance," he agreed.

"Okay, enough." Kenny held up his hands. "I'm headed for the children's ward. You coming?" He asked Jeff.

Jeff looked surprised. "Uh, yeah. Sure. That is if it's okay with Cassie...?"

"Yeah, go. Have fun. Drop back in often, though. I miss you guys when you're away." Cassie hugged them both and watched them go.

It took about thirty seconds between them disappearing from view until the time that she started to feel lonely again.

Why do I do this to myself?
God help me, I can't do anything about it.
I'm in love with a rock star.

***

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