Quaranteam - Book Two (Ch. 09)

Chapter Nine

December 14 ^th , 2020

When he woke up in the morning, he was surprised to find that nearly everybody but him had been up for at least an hour with one exception, as dear Emily had wrapped her arms around him in the middle of the night and snuggled in against him as hard as she could, not letting go, so her face was up against his collarbone, and she had drooled all over him in her sleep. The others, however, had quietly gotten up, showered, and dressed, and as much as they would've loved to let Andy sleep in, he needed to get up and get his shit in gear, so Sarah woke up Emily and Niko woke up Andy.

He made Emily shower by herself as he reviewed the morning news on his iPad. They'd continued with the debate about what should be in the Male Protection Act, and he couldn't bear to turn on C-SPAN to watch the discussion live, because he knew he'd only end up yelling. As soon as Em was out of the shower and drying her hair, Andy put the iPad down and headed into the shower.

By the time he was coming out of the shower, the ladies of the other room had brought all their things over to Andy's room, each of them ready to check out, with the exception of Emily, who was finishing putting on her makeup.

"Thank you for giving me a second chance, Andy," Melody said first thing when she saw him.

"You really don't have to keep saying it every morning, Melody," he laughed as Niko walked over towards him.

"You've got an interview with the New York Times in about an hour, but we can go downstairs and enjoy lunch while you're doing that," Niko told him like she had his entire schedule for the day mapped out. "They would've loved to talk to you yesterday, but they understand you were in transit, and apparently the bookstore's done pretty well in terms of letting people know they're going to have a book signing."

"I can't imagine anyone's lined up or anything."

"Oh, there's people lined up," Niko said with amusement.

"And a handful of protestors too, so we'll need to exercise some caution," Alexis added.

That sentence hit Andy in the face like a bucket of cold water. "Excuse me, what now? Protestors? What the hell are they protesting?"

"Your preferential treatment, your survival when so many other men died, plus the standard 'don't inject me with your microchips' nutcases, although the store's been advising them to steer clear of being in public, for their own health."

Andy rolled his eyes. "Okay, look, I get them being angry that I lived and lots of other men didn't, but I'm with them on that. And what's protesting going to get them? Protesting me especially! I can't change any of it."

"What's that King Missile song you used to love, dear?" Fiona asked him. "Where the man goes 'what ever happened to protesting nothing in particular, just protesting, because it's Saturday, and there's nothing else to do?' It was on the album with that 'Detachable Penis' song that was everywhere for its 15 minutes of fame."

"Yeah, well, I somehow doubt any of these people will remember that song, love," Andy chuckled. "Anyway, let's get downstairs. I'll bet the Times reporter's already here."

By the time they hit the lobby, Andy was ready to have his game face on for the interview. The last month or so, he'd done plenty of interviews either by Zoom or by phone, but this was the first in-person interview he'd had since the 60 Minutes interview that had certainly changed his life.

The woman doing the interview, Claire Russell, was in her early thirties, and more than a couple of times, Andy almost felt like she might have been flirting with him, or maybe that was just because Sarah and Fiona had gotten a little overprotective a couple of times and interrupted before Andy could answer a question. The interview hadn't felt combative, but twice Claire had asked Andy to speak for the women in his life, and each time, either Piper or Ash had been like, "we're right here, you can ask us, and we'll speak for ourselves." The rest of time, the interviewer had been smart and focused on why he was on tour, what he hoped to accomplish and whether or not this was the right time to encourage people to get out of the house.

"Look, anyone who's paired up and has taken the Quaranteam serum one way or another, it's safe for them to travel," Andy said, in exasperation. "We need to start getting used to the new normal, and it isn't living at home, never going outside again. That was the old normal. This normal, people can go wherever, as long as they're paired. But people aren't going to believe that until someone's showing it to them. So that's what I'm doing."

They headed from the hotel straight to the bookstore. The drivers they'd had yesterday came back to pick them up again today and would be with them until they were dropped off back at the airport in the evening.

Even in the middle of the day, New York City still felt somewhat abandoned, something he'd never seen before. Yes, there were cars on the road, but it wasn't wall-to-wall traffic. Hell, it was barely even traffic. The only time the car stopped was for red lights, and even then, they were almost always the first in line at it. He was used to NYC being a constant barrage of car horns and people yelling "fuck you!" at nobody in particular. Instead, the city had an almost peaceful, serene vibe to it. He knew it wouldn't last.

Andy caught Fiona taking photographs of the empty streets every so often, documenting how strange the current fear of going outside was. There was snow on the ground, and the NYC streets weren't completely cleared. The wind had come in since the morning, and he sort of hoped it would discourage protestors from hanging around his book signing, but as they pulled up to the bookstore, he could see it hadn't pushed much of anyone away. There weren't a lot of protestors, but there were still half a dozen people outside holding picket signs. The first one he saw said, "Choose God over 'Science!'" Another said, "You are NOT special!" One with particularly bad handwriting said, "Jesus hates you!" The last one he saw said, "Let me die how I lived - FREE!"

'You will,' Andy thought to himself, 'and that right soon.'

Inside, nearly a hundred people had shown up to get copies of Andy's books autographed, and a big cheer erupted when he entered the store. As he expected, there were also a handful of people in line who'd brought things for Emily and Sarah to sign, if they were doing signings, but both women insisted to the bookstore that they were just here to support Andy and didn't want to deflect focus or slow things down. One of women near the front of the line pointed out that both Em and Sarah were going to be appearing in the upcoming movie adaptation of the first Druid Gunslinger book, and wanted to know if they could sign that for them. Because of that, and because the crowd seemed quite insistent, Sarah and Emily agreed they would sit with Andy and would sign Druid Gunslinger books if requested, but, like Andy, weren't going to shake hands or take selfies.

Before the signing, Andy did a quick reading from the upcoming Druid Gunslinger book, "The Fatal Solstice," which he'd finished a little more than a month ago, something he figured would be a good test of who was here for the celebrity of it and who was an actual fan of his books, and found the audience was enraptured with the section of the story he'd chosen to read, from an early section of the book that hinted at some of the bigger plot he was pushing forward with the series. The audience clapped much louder than he'd expected.

Andy moved to settle behind the signing desk they'd set up for him, Sarah to his right and Emily to hers, with Niko standing behind them as Alexis patrolled the line, sizing people up. Melody was wandering around, trying to do her best to not look like part of Andy's entourage, so she could spot trouble if it sprung up. The Air Force had provided two people to help in terms of security, one on the door, the other also wandering through the line, just making sure people were okay. There had been a metal detector that everyone had been required to pass through to come in for the signing, but Alexis had insisted she be given the space to patrol freely. She, Niko and Melody were, of course, all armed, and they'd insisted Andy wear a bullet proof vest on beneath his t-shirt, something he'd thought was ridiculous, but he'd agreed to do whatever it was that the two women in charge of his safety instructed him to, so he'd dutifully put it on. They'd made him wear one of his baggiest T-shirts, so the fact that he had the vest on wouldn't be obvious.

The signing went off without much of a hitch, although a handful of people had been a little hurt that Andy wouldn't shake hands or take selfies. One guy had had the balls to ask Andy if Emily was a great fuck right in front of her. Emily had, thankfully, been more than ready, and instead of blushing or shying away from it, she took glee in staring the man down, and detailing how much she delighted in ensuring that Andy's balls were never left even a little bit full. The man, completely taken aback by how direct and unflinching she was, had stuttered and stumbled away, being mocked by pretty much everyone else in line, as Emily was grinning from ear to ear.

Andy signed over 300 books over the course of two hours, with loads of people trying to edge in questions about what he was writing next, when "The Fatal Solstice" would be on store shelves, when filming was going to start on "Neon Stonehenge," if any of his other works were going to be adapted, and a couple of questions about what his relocation experience was like and if he was going to write a book about it.

They'd cut off the number of people in line at 315, but Andy agreed to hang around a little longer to sign a few things for the staff themselves, all of whom had been incredibly helpful for the afternoon, one of whom had even brought a copy of "Fatal Alliances," asking if the rumors were true about someone considering making a movie of it. He tried to keep his answers honest but still a little vague, so that no one would be run around saying he'd violated NDAs or put false hope into the air.

It was true that Maya was in the process of getting "Fatal Alliances" adapted, but she'd actually started to change her mind about how she wanted to do it over the last few weeks, with the thought of adapting it as a television series instead of a movie, something Andy had whole heartedly endorsed, as he'd been unsure that the complexities of the book could be successfully compressed down into just a couple of hours. He'd spent a couple hours a week for the last few weeks helping her break the book down into various acts and divvying things up, as well as offering her points where she could expand upon the book, add additional subplots or buff up the narrative with more time. She'd felt like she'd just about gotten it all together right before he'd left for his trip, and she had planned to start pitching to networks soon.

Once they left the bookstore, they were on their way to the Ed Sullivan Theater, and Andy couldn't have been giddier. Ever since Stephen Colbert had taken over for David Letterman, Andy had seen the man as the heir to both Jon Stewart and Johnny Carson and had always made it a point to watch at least the Late Show's monologue, either on first broadcast that night or on YouTube as soon as it went up later. But Andy had always considered himself just a silly little fantasy writer, and never thought he was going to be the kind of person well known enough to be invited onto the show.

When Andy got there, he was pleased to find that the staff was ready for not just him but the whole Team, and that they had brought in additional people to help get everyone ready in terms of makeup and asking prep questions, discussing what was okay to talk about and what wasn't. And, to Andy's delight, nobody seemed to be assuming that just because Andy was okay talking about something that all his partners would also be.

And, to Andy's great excitement, Stephen came in himself to sit and chat a little bit with him, talking about how weird the whole world had gotten, and if he had any tips for how to keep multiple partners getting along. Stephen's wife Evie hadn't been especially thrilled with sharing her husband with other women at first, but seemed like she was starting to come around, he'd told Andy, who'd nodded and told him that the number one question people had been asking him was, "all these women are getting along most of the time - is that normal now?" And while Andy certainly couldn't speak to anyone else's experience, he could say from his own that he'd found friction between people on the same Team to be relatively minimal, and that he too had wondered if that was simply how things were going to be from now on.

There was some talk about how much he wanted to pitch his book tour, and Andy had stressed that while he wanted to mention it, that it certainly didn't have to be the focus of the interview, considering he knew that Stephen might've wanted to follow up on the 60 Minutes interview, or talk to any of his partners about their experiences. Stephen told Andy that they were the only guests for the evening, meaning they would do about an hour's worth of interview and then edit it down to just the stuff they could use, but would throw the whole thing up on the YouTube channel.

The last thing they asked Andy was if he had any music he wanted to come in on, any songs that the band could cover for his entrance music, and on a split second lark, he asked if they could cover The Charlatans UK's song "Weirdo," and Stephen said that he loved that song, and would be happy to see if the house band could cover a bit of it for him.

About thirty minutes before they were set to go on stage, Andy ran to the toilet and threw up, something that made all his partners laugh. Everyone knew he wasn't sick; it was just stage fright. He had his makeup retouched and then had a good laugh about it himself, shaking his head. He hadn't gotten nervous at anything else, not even the 60 Minutes interview, but somehow the thought of going out and talking to one of his favorite comedians made him so ridiculously on edge that he could barely contain himself.

All of that disintegrated as soon as he heard the Late Show band covering "Weirdo" to play him and his family on. Normally there was just room for two or three guests on the stage, but they'd set it up so they had two couches stage right of Stephen's desk and one behind those two up on risers, so that they could fit nine of them on stage if they wanted, but both Alexis and Melody had agreed they didn't want to be on stage, each preferring if they could stay off stage and do their job in terms of security.

For the better part of an hour, Stephen and Team Rook held a delightful conversation. The focus started with Andy but had drifted across nearly every one of his fiancées before the interview was done, all of them getting at least a couple of minutes chatting with the genial host, who genuinely seemed like he was fascinated by their life stories and how their experience in joining such a strange new family unit had gone for them.

As expected, Colbert did spend a good ten minutes talking to Emily and Sarah, dwelling on what they'd seen in terms of change, and when they were going to start working again. Sarah took the opportunity to mention that they were going to start in on filming of Andy's first Druid Gunslinger book, "Neon Stonehenge," next summer with the hope of getting it out for Christmas, 2022.

The charming late-night host also spent several minutes talking with Piper about what she knew about when the Olympics might start up again, but of course, she knew about as much as anyone else did, which was to say nearly nothing. But whenever they were going to go up, she would be ready and she would be there representing America.

Andy himself, naturally, got the lion's share of the conversation, and to put him at ease, Stephen even had drinks brought out for the whole Team, as well as one for himself. During the screening while they were in makeup, someone had asked Ash if she knew what everyone in the family preferred for drinks, and so the show had had drinks prepped for everyone - a Guinness for Ash, a Cosmopolitan for Niko, a Whiskey Neat for Sarah, a Mojito for Em, a Midori Sour for Piper, a Grasshopper for Fiona, an Appletini for Moira, and for Andy himself, a Piña Colada. Andy had nearly laughed himself silly when a production assistant had rolled out the drinks cart on stage and began handing them out. Colbert had bourbon on ice.

During Andy's time talking with Colbert, the host asked him about how some of the early days had been for him during the pandemic, how difficult it had been losing his brother and how things had changed for him since the 60 Minutes interview had aired less than a month ago.

They'd been talking over an hour before the host pivoted over to talk about Andy's little impromptu book signing tour.

"Why do this, Andy - can I call you Andy? - Why do this sudden, quick book signing tour of America?"

"I need people to know it's safe to go out there again, Stephen," Andy said, trying to give the host his most reassuring smile. "As long as you're imprinted and vaccinated, there's no reason not to be out in the world again. We've all been living in terror for so long now, and with the death tolls so high, it's no wonder people are scared. Hell, I'm scared, but the only way I know out of this is through, so I'm just going to go around the country, sign some books, talk to some people and show people that the world hasn't stopped just because they've been afraid, and rightfully so, to leave the house. If you've been treated and imprinted, get out there."

"I understand you've been taking pictures of the whole thing, Fiona?" Stephen asked her. "And you said it was okay for us to show some of them?"

"Absolutely Stephen," Fiona replied, as some of the photographs she'd taken over the last day started to fill the screen for the audience both in the studio and at home. "When we were driving from the hotel to the bookstore earlier today, I was just gobstruck at how empty and desolate New York City seemed. It was what I imagined it must have been like a day or two after 9/11, everyone in this state of shock and silence. But the people who came out to the book signing today, they weren't going to be scared into submission. Look at those smiles. They weren't going to be sleepwalking through their own lives, and you could see the light on their faces that they were out of their houses, and that someone had told them it was okay to live again. We need to be safe, but we can't give up and surrender."

"How many more cities are you going to, Team Rook?"

Andy answered, having just glanced at their schedule before he'd walked out. "Jacksonville, Cincinnati, Denver, Seattle and LA, and then one final stop back near home in San Francisco a week or so later. Our tour sort of coincides with a lot of us going and introducing old family members to new partners, letting the families sort of blend and mingle a little bit before everything becomes official."

"Is there a big marriage ceremony coming soon?"

"Early next year," Ash said, jumping right in. "We talked about doing a justice of the peace kind of thing for legal reasons, but none of us wanted it to seem like any of us was more or less important than the other. That's important to us."

"Well, best of luck to you all, and I hope that this won't be the last time we see each other," Colbert said to them.

"Hey, you invite us back, we'll be here, Stephen," Andy laughed.