Water Ch. 177 - Damned If You Love Me

Seeing his best friend, his brother in the back of the room infuriated Jon.  Not only because of the moment that he and Beth shared, but because he was in town and didn't call Jon.  Granted, Richie wasn't working and he's free to go where he wants, but Jon has a feeling that Richie came to try and start some trouble.

Beth is off to the side of the table that Jon is sitting at, out of camera view and when she sees Richie, she stands up - giving the press opportunity to snap pictures and start barking out questions.  The reporters agreed to a pre approved list of questions for Jon, but not for Beth. As soon as she realized what she has done by standing up, she sits right back down.  She heard, "Why did you only call Jon once your daughters were dead?"  "Were you angry that he was in Barbados with Dorothea when you called him about the twins?"  "Is it true that your babies were conjoined" and they went on and on.

She looked to Jon for guidance, but he was fixed on Richie.  Richie stood there, Jon sat and with Beth popping up - the reporters had no idea who to take pictures of.

"Come on up here." Jon says to Richie as he waves him up. Anyone that knew Jon knew his smile was fake.  Richie walked up and sat next to Jon, unknowing that Beth shared the information of their kiss.  Richie was in Salt Lake for a reason, Jon just didn't know why.

"Jon!"

"Richie!"

"Jon, Beth!"  was all they heard. This was a reporters dream, specially having Beth hiding in the wings.

"So, why are you out here promoting this album without us, Jon?" Richie looks to him and asks, quite pissed off about it, actually.

Jon looks to his right hand, his brother, his friend and says, "Now, it's just therapy. When I scheduled the dates originally it was out of boredom. You and the guys were busy with solo projects and I wanted to hit the road, so here we are." Jon explains to Richie, but then asks, "Why are you here, Richie?" And the stink eye follows.

Richie kind of chuckles and looks out over the room of reporters and says, "I came to see the solo show. I've never done that before, watch you alone that is.  I want to see if your gig is as great as the press make it out to be."

And the reporters chime in Richie, will you play tonight with Jon?  Richie, will you stay for the show? Richie, what happened with you and Heather.

"I came to see Jon's show. If he'll allow me to play, I would love to. I wrote some of those songs too!" Richie looks to Jon.

Beth is on the side lines watching this nightmare unfold.  She knows that she and Jon agreed that neither of them will mention the kiss to Richie.  Even though Jon wants to punch him in his face.  Beth continues to sit there and she fights her desire to crawl under the table. She can just imagine the headlines and the news now.

Jon finished his press conference, announcing that the proceeds for the solo shows will go to the March of Dimes and that seemed to open the flood gates for the unapproved questions.  Beth wouldn't sit there and listen to them.  She made her way back into the arena and headed toward the back door. 

 

As she's walking, she can hear a commotion behind her.  Quickly looking back, she sees Jon and Richie walking in her direction, both are loud and both are very animated.  Her heart stops as she says to herself, "Please don't tell me Jon asked Richie about the kiss."  She puts her fingers over her mouth and stops walking.  It's better to have them blow out in the middle of the arena, as opposed to in the dressing room in front of other staff and friends. 

 

Jon and Richie get to her and they stop.  She was able to figure out that they were arguing about the shows that Jon scheduled without asking the band to join him.  Richie is pissed, and he has every right to be.  He co wrote most of the material and would love to be playing it, live and raw.  Wanting no part of the discussion, she politely tells the guys, "This is your fight, leave me out of it."  She turns to walk backstage and they follow her. 

 

They get backstage and Beth sees that Jon's dressing room door was open, which was very unusual.  She stops before walking in, letting Jon and Richie catch up.  Jon walks in first with Richie and Beth right behind him.  Jon looks around and sees that someone was in there, and someone messed with his bag.  It's not just a bag, it's Jon's life when he's on the road.  It carries everything he could need out on the road, when he didn't drag Dawn with him.  He decided that the solo shows, he would do just that; solo. 

 

"Someone has been in here." picking up his bag, checking the contents.  He and Beth both had their cell phones with them, but Jon notices that his day planner had been messed with and that made him mad.  With his bag in hand, he walks out of his dressing room and looks for security.  Richie and Beth are left alone, and Richie looks at her with a look of Oh Shit on his face.