Chapter 22

Over the next few days, Baylee recovered and was back to his normal self. Brian had asked that they still not go out anywhere so they were stuck at home. Emily decided that now would be a good time to start teaching Baylee how to play the piano.

“Baylee! Look at this.” Emily held out a book.

“What is it?” he asked.

“It’s a book for you to learn the piano with!”

“What’s it called?”

“It’s called Music for Little Mozarts.” Emily showed him the book and introduced him to Beethoven Bear and Mozart Mouse as they went through some of the very beginning basics. By the end of their first lesson, Baylee had learned to play two songs, and he must have played them a million times, at least that’s what it seemed like to Emily.

“Baylee, why don’t we go outside and play?”

“No, I want to learn these songs so I can play them for Daddy.”

Emily smiled, realizing that you couldn’t really discourage someone from practicing, so she resigned to tolerating Twinkle Twinkle for the rest of the day.

Finally, he was ready. “Miss. Emily, I want to call my dad and play for him.”

Emily called Brian. When he picked up she said, “Brian, Baylee has a surprise for you. Hold on a sec.”

Emily held out the phone as Baylee played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star perfectly from start to finish. Baylee took the phone from her.

“Did you hear that, Daddy?”

“I sure did! Was that you playing?”

“Yeah!”

“Wow! You were so good! Daddy’s proud of you! Did Miss. Emily teach you that today?”

“Yeah, and Beethoven Bear showed me where to put my hands.”

“Who’s Beethoven Bear?”

Baylee tried to explain to Brian but she was positive Brian was even more confused and probably picturing a bear sitting in his living room teaching his son to play the piano.

“Hey Baylee, do you think you could play that song again for the other guys? I’ll put you on speaker phone.”

“OK!” Baylee raced back to his seat and played it again. Actually, he played it twice because he wanted to.

Emily could hear everyone applauding through the phone and cheering Baylee on. His face was beaming when he hung up and called Leighanne to perform for her as well. Once he was done, Emily convinced him to play a game with her with the promise that they would learn something new tomorrow.

Chapter 23

Baylee and Emily continued their routine together until it was once again time for them to re-join the tour. Leighanne was meeting Brian the day before so they could have some time to catch up and then Emily would bring Baylee to meet them in LA where they would stay the week while Leighanne was on her last photo shoot.

Their flight was in the afternoon and much to Baylee’s dismay, they would not make it in time for the sound checks this time. Instead, they went right to the hotel where they’d wait for Leighanne to join them that evening. Baylee was so excited that he was practically bouncing off the walls. Emily managed to keep him occupied by having him make a book for his mom, which meant that he had to color at least ten pages and then think of a story to go along with them.

Finally, Leighanne walked in the room.

“MOMMY!” Baylee ran to her.

“Hi Baylee! Mommy missed you so much!” she gave him a big hug.

“I made you a book!” Baylee went to show her his creation.

Emily stood back and let them catch up for awhile.

“Emily, thank you so much for taking care of him. You have no idea how much we appreciate it.”

“It’s my pleasure. He’s such a joy to be around.”

“Thank you. Listen, I’m here to relieve you for the day! Unfortunately, we’re busy tomorrow so you’re stuck with him for one more day, then you get a break for a few more days.”

“Not a problem. Just tell me when to be back here tomorrow.”

“How about if you come back around 9?”

“Ok. I’ll see you then. Goodbye Baylee!”

“Bye.” He was busy coloring a picture for his dad.

Emily hadn’t expected to have the rest of the day free and she almost didn’t know what to do with herself. Wait a minute, yes she did. She went immediately to take a nap. Once she woke up, she decided to go for a soak in the hot tub. She knew AJ would probably call her to go out but she was determined to hide from him. She had convinced herself that the theory of out of sight, out of mind worked for crushes.

She made sure to be gone before the guys got back to the hotel, deciding to go check out Rodeo Drive and Hollywood. She didn’t buy much because it was all stores with outrageous prices but not wanting to say she went and didn’t buy anything, she bought a new shirt for whenever she got to go clubbing next. “Wishful thinking.” She muttered to herself, trying to remember the last time she went dancing.

AJ tried to call her but she didn’t pick up. She imagined he had also stopped by her room, which he did.

“Brian, you know where your nanny is?” he asked over the phone.

“Leighanne gave her the day off; she said something about going to Rodeo Drive.”

“Damn! I love shopping there.” AJ was mildly disappointed that he didn’t get to spend the evening with her, and decided that he’d settle for Kevin and Howie and Kristin again.

Emily managed to sneak back into the hotel undetected and went to bed early. “One more day and then more freedom!” she told herself. She got up the next morning and ordered herself some room service for breakfast before going to meet up with Baylee.

“Good morning, Emily.” Brian greeted her at the door.

“Hey guys! How are you?”

“Pretty good. Did AJ get a hold of you last night? He was disappointed you went shopping with out him.” Brian smiled.

“Oh, um, no he didn’t.”

Brian suspected something was up with that and made himself a mental note to try and do a little detective work to see what it was.

“Well, Leigh and I are about to take off but we should be back around dinner. I promised Baylee we’d order a pizza tonight. He still needs to take a bath this morning, and I told him that if he did, he was allowed to watch cartoons for an hour.”

“Ok. That sounds like a deal.”

Brian and Leighanne left and Emily sent Baylee to his bath right away.

“You don’t want to miss the cartoons, do you?” That got him.

Baylee had been watching cartoons for about a half an hour when he started to get bored and began jumping on the bed again. Before Emily could stop him, he jumped too close to the edge and fell off, hitting his head on the hard floor of the hotel room.

Emily rushed to his side. He wasn’t moving, in fact, he wasn’t even awake!

“Baylee! Can you hear me? Come on Baylee, wake up!”

Chapter 24

Baylee woke up within a minute. He laid there stunned for a moment before he began crying.

“Baylee, it’s ok. You’re ok.” Emily said, trying to reassure herself more than anything. She at least had enough sense to get him to a doctor because he was unconscious and she wasn’t going to take any chances. She opened the door and motioned for their security guard who was out in the hall.

“Everything ok?” he asked.

“Baylee fell off and hit his head. I think he may have a concussion and we should take him to the hospital right away.”

“You want to call his parents?”

“I’ll call them when we get there. Really, we need to go now!” Emily insisted.

“I’ll have the van pulled up right now.” He got on his phone and told whoever was there to bring the van to the side door. He escorted Emily, who was holding a still crying Baylee in her arms, into the elevator and snuck them out the side without being noticed. Emily ordered the driver to ‘drive like hell’ to the nearest hospital. They arrived within minutes.

Emily explained to the triage nurse exactly what happened.

“Did he lose consciousness?”

“Yes, only for less than a minute.”

“Was he alert and oriented when he woke up?”

“He seemed stunned for a few seconds, and then he started crying so I think so.”

She led them into an examination room and Emily laid him down on the bed.

“Make sure he stays awake, the doctor will be in to examine him in just a minute. You can use the phone on the wall if you need to call his parents.”

“Thank you.”

Emily immediately picked up the phone and dialed Brian’s number. No answer. She didn’t know what to say in a message so she decided against leaving one. She tried Leighanne, whose phone was turned off. Emily was saying all kinds of swear words inside her head as she frantically tried to get a hold of someone. She decided to try Kevin. He was family, and he’d probably know where Brian was.

“Hello?” It didn’t sound like Kevin.

“Is Kevin there?”

“He’s busy right now, who’s this?”

“It’s Emily. Can you please get him, it’s urgent.”

“Em, its AJ. What’s wrong?”

“AJ? Why are you answering Kevin’s phone? Never mind. Look, I’m at the hospital, I had to take Baylee to the emergency room and I can’t get in touch with Brian or Leighanne.”

“Fuck! What happened? Are you ok? Is Baylee ok?”

“Baylee fell and got knocked out for a few seconds. I took him here just to be safe. He hasn’t seen the doctor yet but the nurse made it seem like everything was fine.”

“What about you? Are you ok?”

“Could you just please find Brian and tell him to get here?”

“I’ll get right on it.”

“Thanks.” Emily hung up. She wasn’t alright, but she didn’t have the time to worry about herself right now. She went back over to comfort a very scared Baylee.

AJ hung up the phone as Kevin walked out of the bathroom.

“Who called?”

“Emily. Where’s Brian, there’s an emergency?”

“What happened?”

“She took Baylee to the hospital. She says everything’s ok but Brian and Leighanne should be there and she hasn’t been able to reach them.”

“Leighanne is on set for her photo shoot. Brian should be in a meeting downtown with his record execs to talk about his album.”

“I’m going to go get him, stay here in case he shows up back here.”

AJ took a taxi to the studio and demanded the receptionist to tell him where Brian was.

“I’m sorry, sir, you’ll just have to wait.” She said, rather rudely.

“Listen lady, I got an emergency. Now either you take me to him right now, or I’ll find him myself.”

“Suit yourself. I’m calling security.”

“You do that.” AJ said, breaking past her and going down the hallway calling for Brian.

“What is it?” he asked, obviously irritated. “I’m in a meeting.”

“Emily’s been trying to reach you.”

“I just said I’m in a meeting. Why?”

“She had to take Baylee to the hospital. He’s ok; he fell and got knocked out. She took him just to be safe but she couldn’t reach you or Leigh.”

“Shit. Let’s go.” Brian grabbed his things and they took off.

“I got a cab waiting for us outside.”

“You took a cab?” Brian asked, amazed.

“I didn’t have time to wait!”

“There he is!” AJ heard the receptionist down the hall showing the security guards who he is. “I told him not to go back there! Mr. Littrell, I’m so sorry. I tried to stop him….”

“It’s ok. He did what he had to do. My son is in the hospital. I have to go.”

AJ smirked at the receptionist, giving her an ‘I told you so’ look as they walked past security and out the door.

“You’re sure he’s ok?” Brian asked once they were in the cab.

“Emily said she thought so but she hadn’t seen the doctor yet.”

Brian just nodded his head.

“I’m sure he’s fine, Brian.”