"The midnight chills,

And gives cheap thrills,

The darkness is my friend,

I'll love you till my time runs out,

I'll love you till the end." - Bach's Revenge debut album, track 8

For someone confined to a hospital bed and who spent the day doing massive amounts of nothing, Charlie sure tired easily. Somewhere along the way, she'd lost a full day. How was that even possible? Her parents were only able to stay for an hour or so before she started nodding off and her mom insisted they leave to check into to the hotel.

Devin was furious; begging to return to the tour bus, but their mother was adamant in her decision and told Devin it wasn't open for discussion. After they'd left, Charlie closed her eyes, just to rest for a while and now it was morning again.

She pushed the button to sit the bed up and cringed. The wicked burning sensation of being shot remained, only it was localized to the incision they'd made. She groaned in complaint until her eyes settled on a familiar face.

"Robbie!"

Robbie stood, his smile a fraction of the size it usually was. "Hey there, beautiful."

"Where's Sebastian?"

"He had to run out for a meeting with management. He tried to put his foot down and tell them to forget it but Moody wasn't having it. I offered to stand guard," he added proudly.

"Thanks, Robbie."

Robbie gave an impish smile "Watching you is hard work but someone's gotta do it." He walked over to the chair and pulled it across the room to sit next to her bed.

"You alright?" Charlie asked.

Robbie looked up, "Huh? Course. M'good."

"Tally okay?"

"Yep. Tal's good. She's with your parents and Devin."

Charlie nodded. "Oh."

The silence that followed was awkward. Not only that, but being quiet was uncharacteristic for Robbie. He looked like he hadn't slept much but there was something else that she couldn't pinpoint. She squinted and examined him further. He wasn't angry, he wasn't sad, he definitely wasn't his carefree self... he looked stressed. Again not a trait she'd associate with him.

"You're worried!" she pointed her finger at him, mentally patting herself on the back for solving the Robbie puzzle. "You're worried about something."

"I'm fine. So," he said, changing the subject. "Lane is gay. That's crazy, huh?"

Charlie smiled. No way was he going to distract her. "I don't think it's crazy at all. Gay, straight or in between, Lane is awesome."

"Yep," he replied. "He kinda is."

"So are you going to spit it out, Robbie Hawthorne?"

Robbie shook his head, "no idea what you're talking about."

"You are a terrible liar. What is bothering you?"

"God you're such a girl," he said, giving her an exaggerated eye roll. "You just won't give up on pressing for details. I'm worried," he admitted, "about how all of this is going to end."

"You guys will go back on tour, and it will end up just fine," she said confidently.

Robbie shook his head. "Sebastian is going to cancel the tour."

Charlie sat up and forward, far too quickly. A searing pain wound its way through her chest. She made a face and cursed. "What? He can't cancel the tour! That's ridiculous."

Robbie nodded. "Says you, me, Sawyer, Lane. After you passed out, he went berserk. I've never seen him like that, anyway yesterday afternoon he told us that you were more important to him than the music."

Panic gripped her. "Robbie, no! Please, you have to stop him. He can't stop making music. Especially because of me. What about the rest of you? He's wiping out everything you guys worked for."

Robbie shrugged. "Well yeah, but loyalty comes first. Even before music. We have to stick with him."

"He's been dreaming about this for his entire life," she said. "He can't give it up for me."

Robbie's smile faded as his lips formed a thin, straight line. He wound his fingers together and placed his thumbs on his temples. His shoulders arced as if he was forcing himself to take deep, heavy breaths. She'd known Robbie almost as long Sebastian, there was more to tell.

"Spit it out, Robbie," she ordered.

"Nothing more to tell."

"Liar!" Charlie accused. "Tell me, or I swear to God, I'm getting up, walking out of here and I'll find out for myself."

His eyes narrowed as his furrowed brows cast shadows over them. "You wouldn't."

Charlie raised her own eyebrows and pulled back the covers, placing her good hand over the IV to indicate that she'd have no qualms about ripping it out. "Wanna make a bet?"

He shifted in his seat, nervous, probably trying to decide if he should call her bluff. She gave it a small tug for show, even though it hurt. Robbie threw his hands up. "Okay! Stop! I'll tell you, just don't do anything like that, Sebastian would kill me."

Charlie leaned back in the bed, removing her hand from the vicinity of the IV, letting Robbie breathe a sigh of relief.

He leaned forward. "Well, it's no secret the guys at Moody are dicks."

"Right," she nodded.

"Well, they're bigger dicks than we ever gave them credit for. Sebastian told them he quit but apparently we signed a deal with the devil when we all crossed the t's and dotted the i's on that contract."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "What does that mean?"

"Don't get mad," he said. "If you do, you're gonna get all worked up and probably have your blood pressure spike or something, and I'd never hear the end of it."

"Fine," she agreed. It was stupid to promise not to feel a particular emotion, but she'd keep them in check.

"Moody thinks this," he motioned across her body with his hand, "is the best thing that could have happened. They think that McKenzie's meltdown and Sebastian's girlfriend being shot right after he told everyone he loved you couldn't provide better publicity. It's in all the papers, in the news, it was even on Entertainment Tonight. That scumbag Bennett said we're getting millions of dollars worth of free advertising."

Her mind flipped like a rolodex about the impact this publicity would have for Bach's Revenge. If Sebastian continued the tour while the news was fresh, the limelight would only continue. People would know who the band was, they would buy tickets just to see the boy she almost died for.

She sighed. "The scumbag Bennett, he's right."

"I know Charlie, they're just gold digging-" Robbie started, and then stopped. "Wait. What did you just say?"

"Think about it Robbie," she said, stating out loud everything that had just passed through her brain. "They're right. This could expand the fan following to epic proportions."

He eyed her skeptically until he decided she was serious. "Yeah, I know. I tried to tell him that. We all did. Sebastian is pretty messed up about this. He's trying to get out of the whole entire contract, not just the tour. We've tried to reason with him, Charlie, we did, but it's no use, he' got his mind set."

"He's crazy," she said.

"He's crazy for you."

She couldn't help but smile a little. "I know."

"He's gonna find a way out of the contract, and if he does, Moody can sue him for breach. He'll lose everything. He'll lose stuff he doesn't even have yet. It's bad. And now it's worse because I've told you. Sebastian is going to kill me."

"I'm not going to tell him, Robbie, relax. But lawsuit aside, he won't be who he is without his music. Point that out to him."

"Been there, done that," Robbie gave a defeated shrug. "Sawyer finally relented and agreed to go with Seb to see if they could convince Moody to go easy on us, what with the lawsuit."

Charlie panicked. "He can't do this! Robbie, what are you doing here? Go and stop him."

"I kinda feel like a broken record here, Charlie. We have all tried to stop him. I even called his mom for God sakes, see if she could talk some sense into him. There's nothing left we can do. Without him, we aren't Bach's Revenge. He's the Sebastian before the Bach, without him we're just Revenge. Sounds sorta like a metal band."

"I'll stop him then," she stated.

"Don't waste your breath, he's not gonna listen," Robbie said.

"I'll make sure of it, Robbie, you have my word, but you have to go."

Robbie looked stunned. "What? Are you kidding? I'm not leaving. Sebastian will flip if I don't stay and hover."

"I need time to think," Charlie said.

"I'll be quiet."

"Please Robbie, I really want to be alone."

Robbie rolled his eyes, "fine, but if I'm your new roommate because Sebastian loses his mind and takes it out on me, don't say I didn't tell you so."

"I won't Robbie, and you'll be fine. I promise."

"Call if you need me to come back," Robbie said. "Seriously."

When he left, Charlie tried to wrap her head around it. Sebastian wasn't going to listen to anyone, but if he was going to try to choose her over his music, she'd make sure he didn't have the choice.

Mac Jensen, Sebastian decided was the kind of man any mother would hope for her son not to be. Guy didn't have a single, compassionate bone in his body. They'd been at the meeting for nearly half an hour and we going around in the same stupid circle.

"My girlfriend almost died," Sebastian said through clenched teeth. "How can you be so casual about this?"

Mac took a sip of his drink, whiskey on the rocks. "Because son, you boys are an even bigger payoff than I could have imagined. You're like a bloody soap opera, the four of you. It fascinates people and when people become fascinated by my product, it lines my pockets and yours. You should be thanking me for the gravy train you're riding."

Seb felt the anger swelling inside him like a tidal wave, threatening to surge forward and destroy everything in its path. Must be what Sawyer felt like often. "Let's get one thing straight. It's our product. It's our music, not yours."

Mac laughed. "Read the contract son, I own you."

Sebastian stood, wanting to flip the table over. "You don't own me. You're not a businessman. You're a bald, overweight piece of crap who wishes he could make music. We'll see how well your tour goes when I suddenly lose my voice."

Sawyer grabbed Sebastian's arm. "Don't waste any more of your breath on this guy, yeah? C'mon, I'll buy you a beer."

Mac smirked. "Maybe you can convince your friend that if he suddenly loses his voice or causes me any trouble, it will be the biggest mistake of his life."

Sawyer kept his cool like Sebastian and never seen before but gave Mac's chair a solid kick as he walked by, "Naw, he already did that. He signed with you."

Sawyer steered him to the parking lot where Lane was waiting, sitting in the Bentley Robbie rented. He was reclined in the chair with the windows down and his sunglasses on holding onto some juiced concoction, probably made with wheatgrass or flaxseed.

When he saw Sawyer and the look on Sebastian's face, he sat up. "How'd it go?"

"It didn't," Sawyer answered. He looked at Seb. "Shotgun. I deserve it for not punching that guy out and for putting up with your dumbass." He climbed in the seat next to Lane.

"Well?" Lane pressed.

"Sebastian is going to screw us all if he quits the band," Sawyer said. "Where are my smokes?"

"Glove box," Lane said. "You can't smoke in this car."

Sawyer laughed. "Don't worry. If the car rental place wants to sue me, they can get the fuck in line."

After Robbie left and Charlie was finally able to grasp the magnitude of what she was going to do, she called her mom. "Mom, I really want to go home. Can you see if they'll transfer me as soon as possible?"

Her mom assured her she would do as much as she could. When Charlie hung up the phone, she unraveled.

She pushed the emergency call button for the nurse who came and held the plastic, kidney-shaped container while she threw up. The thought of hurting Sebastian literally made her sick to her stomach.

Her entire body shook with a terrible chill and the nurse left to fetch the doctor, convinced something had gone wrong with her recovery.

It was pointless, the doctor wouldn't see the gaping hole in her chest where Sebastian belonged. No x-ray would show him that.

Next, she prayed. To make peace with God for sins of her past and to ask him for just one thing. Please God, after I break his heart, give him the strength to forgive me one day.