2016:

                                                                                                                                                                                                Ashley's  POV :

     I walk out of the mixroom , into the lounge area , and check out what's going on . Jake and Inna are over in the corner playing air hockey , Andy and Juliet are curled up in a chair together looking at something on her phone , and my two cousins are sitting on the couch with their significant others . Rick has his arm around his new girlfriend , Shannon , and Brian is sitting next to his boyfriend , Scott , ( who is also Shan's twin brother ) chuckling as Scott talks to someone on the phone .

     "Nope , we're not giving you any details . You'll have to wait 'til you get here and see for yourself . No, they're both great , but this way you can't get any preconceptions . Cool ! We'll see you when we get home . Bye !"

     "What was that all about , anyway ?" I ask , as I fling myself into an empty chair .

     "Our stepsister is moving up to Vegas . She's gonna stay with me and Bri until she can find a place ." Scott informs me . " She was asking me about the guys , and I told her she'll have to wait and find out for herself ."

     "Has she got a job lined up already ? They can be kind of hard to find there , you know ."

     " She can basically work from home ." Shannon says , "She's a freelance journalist , but she's also started writing fiction , and her first book is coming out in a couple of months ."

     "What sort of a book is it ?" , Juliet asks .

Scott replies , "Well , she got into role - playing in school , like D&D and stuff , so it's a fantasy novel . The main character is a female fighter who's half - elf and half - dragon ."

     "Wait a sec , I saw something like that in the back of a book I was just reading the other day ." Andy says . "Sort of a preview chapter , I guess . Doesn't she have a brother who 's a gnome or something ?"

     "Yep , that's the one ." Shan says .

     "How the fuck would that work , even in a fantasy novel ?" I ask.

     "The gnome is adopted when his family is killed by ghouls ." Scott informs me .

    "OK , whatever you say ." , I answer . "I don't understand any of that stuff . Never really been my thing ."

     "Well , I played some D&D when I was in college ." Brian says . "So I could probably sort it out . If your sister has half as much imagination as our DM did , it should be interesting . At least we'll have something to talk about ."

     "Well , since you won't be hitting on her , you should get along fine ." Shannon tells him .

     "Is that a not - so - subtle way of saying that your sister is a lesbian ?" Jake calls out from the corner .

     "No , that's my way of saying that she has serious trust issues with men . She's apparently had either bad luck or simply bad taste in boyfriends , so she's basically decided to just say fuck it ."

     "Well , if she works from home , and doesn't go out much , maybe she can help you look out for everything when we're out on tour ." I say to Shannon .

     Yeah , all three of the guys work for the band . Rick is our mechanic ; he keeps up with all the vehicles we need for this traveling circus . Scott is part of our security crew .( He's 6'5" , and looks like a Viking berserker , it seemed like a pretty good choice .) And , since we can't seem to get through an entire tour without somebody getting hurt , we convinced Brian to join up with us , since he's a certified paramedic .

     Strangely enough , at this exact moment , Scott turns to Brian and says "Y'know , I took a glance at your old yearbook you had out the other day , and it said that you planned on becoming an architect . How did you go from there to being an EMT ?"

     I've wondered about that myself , so I sit up and listen to his answer .

     He sort of sighs , and says , "On two separate occasions  during my senior year , I was with a friend when they had a major medical emergency . Both times I thought I was going to watch someone I cared about die in front of me , and not be able to do shit to help them . I decided I didn't ever want to feel like that again . I was gonna go pre - med in college , but my science grades were crap . So I left school and went into the Army to get medic training ."

     "What sort of emergencies are you talking about ?" Inna asks him .

     " The first time it was the appendix . The other was a drug overdose ." , he says .

     "I didn't think you hung out with the druggie crowd ." I say .

     "I didn't . It wasn't accidental ." he shoots back .

     Whoa ! No wonder he decided to change his career path !

     " That's why I don't keep in touch with most of the people I went to school with ." , he continues , "I've never been able to understand  how anybody can see someone going deeper and deeper into a hole , and the only thing that occurs to them is to try to push them farther down ."

     "You're always gonna have to deal with people like that ." , Andy says . "But at least your friend knew that they weren't totally alone , since you were there .Do you still keep in touch ?"

     "Yeah , we talk on the phone sometimes , and we keep up on social media , but we haven't actually seen each other for about six years ."

     "Well , why don't we fix that sometime ?" Scott says ."If you can be okay with my relatives moving in , when you've never met , I think I can be okay with you having a friend come to visit ."

     Brian just lights up at that . " Yeah , maybe we can work on that after we get your sister settled a bit . It would be an absolute blast , you two would really like each other ." he says .

    As he finishes his sentence , Feldy pops out of the mix room and wants us to come in and go over the drum tracks that CC has been laying down , so it's back to work .