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Love And Other Drugs

Epilogue-So Long and Good Night

The lights were dim, the spot light aimed at the very center of the stage was focused on a large screen that had been set up. Soon enough the screen would be lit up with faces and in particular a face that haunted Andy every single day of his life.

Lucinda had been gone for a month and here he was, on a tour that she was supposed to be on. Tonight was even harder because tonight had been the night that he had planned to propose to her.

An elaborate plan had rattled around in his brain for weeks, but it had all gone south when Lucinda had blown up at him that night at her place. Instead of going with his original plan, Andy had driven over to his mostly abandoned condo and gathered what he had needed. It had been too late and all Andy could remember from that night was the black velvet box falling from his hand as he rushed towards where Lucinda's lifeless body lay on the bathroom floor.

Every night since then, his dreams had been haunted by her and the message that played before each show never seemed to help. It hurt to see Lucinda again-it killed him a little bit each night to watch the video play, the montage of her and the Dolls in much happier times. It was almost show time and Andy sighed as he pushed his growing black hair away from his face-he needed to focus.


"Ladies and gentlemen-we would like to play something for you before the band takes the stage." Jon, their tour manager spoke in to a mic and Andy's eyes closed as the house lights went down and all that was left was the spot light on the screen.


Softly a piano began to play-it was a recording of In The End, done by Andy himself for this very reason. There were no lyrics to accompany it, just the music and the sorrowful melody filled his heart with an aching pain. Andy opened his eyes once that tale tell giggle filled the club and once his baby blues scanned over the screen, Andy felt his heart break in to a million pieces.

Lucinda was on the screen-all smiles and laughter as Char teased her from behind the camera.

Alex had wanted to do something to remember Lucinda by and Andy had been grateful that the manager had taken the time to put this entire thing together. It was a video montage of the girls and it played every night before the guys went on the stage.

The Hollywood Dolls were no more.

Charlotte, Madison, Talulah, and Penelope had all decided to disband and go their semi separate ways. They couldn't do it, they had explained to the guys the night before the first show and Andy felt numb as he listened to them. They had tried to audition singers, but no one fit and it had made them feel like they were disrespecting Lucinda's memory by allowing someone else to sing the songs that she had made so famous with her amazing talent.

The girls had disappeared from the spot light, but Andy knew they wouldn't be gone for long. Each one had their own thing-whether it was a line of guitars, drumsticks, clothing or getting in to the studio help other bands produce music...the Hollywood Dolls hadn't really disappeared, but they wouldn't play together any longer.


"What is the one thing you love about being a Doll?" Charlotte's voice rang out and Andy smiled as he mouthed along with Lucinda's answer. He had heard this a million times it seemed and each time it made him smile.

"The freedom. I get to get up on stage every night, sing my heart out for thousands of people and they sing back at me. I can write about whatever I want and I finally feel like I have something in my life that's been missing this entire time..." She was smiling up on that screen, her grey eyes filled with excitement at the new adventure she was about to go on.

"What's that?" Charlotte asked and Lucinda remained silent for a moment. Her answer always managed to bring tears to his eyes and Andy only smiled them away as she answered.

"A family. A huge family filled with new friends and fans who will always be there for me." Lucinda had had a family all along-her diner family back in that small town she had left so many years ago.


Lucinda had never known about the redecorating that Marge had done and Andy knew for a fact that she wouldn't of believed him even if he had told her. That night in the diner, Andy had sat there and talked about a lot of things with Marge and Earl. Mostly it was updating them on Lucinda and how she had been doing before her passing. It had been strange to talk about her with people who knew her during a different time in her life, but in some weird way it had given Andy some closer.


"What's the one thing you hate about touring?" Charlotte was asking and Andy only smirked-he knew the answer that was coming.

"Well as you know our tourmates aren't the greatest people in the world..." Andy smiled-he knew who she was referring to.

"Andy's pretty cute though..." Charlotte said and Andy smiled weakly as he watched Lucinda make a grossed out face with her tongue sticking out of her mouth slightly.

"If you say so..."

"I think I might show him this..." Charlotte threatened and for a moment the camera seemed to wobble. Lucinda had reached out, trying to grab the camera from her bandmate, but she hadn't been fast enough.

"Don't you dare!" Laughter filled the speakers as both girls giggled and the screen changed.


Now backstage footage of the girls in their dressing rooms played over the screen and Andy laughed as a shot of Lucinda dancing to some song came up. Those girls had always known how to have a good time-too much of a good time it seemed. Andy watched as footage of Lucinda played across the screen, some shots from professionally done shoots, but mostly it was just cell phone footage of the girls and even the guys of BVB goofing around. Andy hadn't realized, but the rest of his bandmates had made their way to the side of the stage and someone had rested a hand on his shoulder.

This next part of the video was one of the hardest and it always tore Andy up inside when he watched it, but he could never turn away...ever.


"What do you miss most about Luxe?" Andy cringed at that terrible nickname, but he knew that it would be a long time before people forgot about it.

"Her smile. She always had a smile on her face. Even when she was going through something or was in pain-that smile never wavered." It was Jake on the screen and there was a roar of shouting from the crowd as the screen changed.

"Her jokes. God that girl had the worst jokes in the entire world, but she always told them and they always made me laugh." CC had showed up and the hand on Andy's shoulder tightened-it was CC who had been holding on to him.

"Her determination. She never let anyone or anything stop her-even when she was dealing with personal things, she always wanted to be better." Jinxx said and Andy smiled, nodding his head slowly. Lucinda never gave up-that was why the two of them had butted heads so badly.

"Her attitude. That girl was full of sass and it always amazed me how she could give me a dose of my own medicine." Ashley replied next and Andy inhaled deeply as he knew what was coming next.


Charlotte's face showed up on the screen next-her light eyes red rimmed and puffy. There was no hiding or denying the sorrow the girls felt and it broke his heart every night that Andy had to see it.

"Her friendship. She was always there for me-even when she was going through her own things. I could and did call her at any time of the night and she always picked up-no matter what. There was one night where I was stranded at a bar somewhere in France and the only person I could think of to call was Lucinda. She showed up, practically carried me back to my hotel room and stayed with me the entire night to make sure I was okay. She was always there for me and I will miss her more than anything." Andy felt a tear run down his cheek and he knew that it was only going to get worse.

"Her little southern drawl. It only ever came out when she was mad, but I made her mad a lot so I got to hear it the most. Her nose would get all scrunched up and she would say these words that I had never heard before and I think my confusion at them only made her more angry." Madison laughed and even though the drummer rarely cried, Andy could see that she had cried the entire time they had shot her section.

"Her wisdom. Lucinda always had the best things to say and always gave the best advice. She knew so much and could really talk about anything. She used to drive some of us crazy with her weird facts or random diatribes that she would go on, but looking back...I miss those facts and those diatribes. I just miss her." Penelope was the next one to come on the screen and Andy only smiled. He and Lucinda had driven everyone on tour crazy because they both could talk about anything that popped in to their heads.

"Her love for being onstage. That girl would get so pumped to get out there-even in the early days when we still sucked and didn't know what we were doing. Lucinda would just soldier on, revving us all up before getting out there to melt faces. That's what she always told us-play to melt faces. I don't even think she knew what it meant or where it came from, but she said it and I think I'll live by that motto." Talulah smiled softly before wiping her eyes, trying to rid them of the tears the seemed never ending.


Andy inhaled deeply-his segment had been left for last and for a few reasons. It had taken him three hours to film, mostly because he couldn't get the words out and when he did get them out they were interrupted by tears. But Alex also claimed that Andy's segment had been the most powerful and he wanted the montage to go out on a powerful note because that's what Lucinda would of wanted.

Andy's face filled the screen and there were loud scream and shouts from the audience.


"Her. I just miss her. You know sometimes it takes us a while to realize when we have something really great and it never occurs to us that that thing was there until we don't have it anymore. Lucinda was my something great-she was and always will be the love of my life. We hated one another for so long and I mean we hated one another hard, but somehow we made it work. Sure I drove her crazy and she drove me insane, but at the end of the day that girl was my best friend and the best part of my life. She always told me that she would love me to the moon and back and whenever I miss her really badly, I usually look up to the sky and sometimes I feel like she's looking back down at me. I took my love for her for granted and that was a mistake I'll have to live with for the rest of my life. We had the best life together and I will cherish every moment I had with her until my last breath leaves my body. I will always miss Lucinda Abernathy-more than anyone will ever know."


With that the screen went black, the spot light having been shut off as the roadies removed the screen. The guys were all behind him, getting their gear on, but Andy could only stand on the side of stage and look out to the spot where Lucinda should of been. He could see a ghostly vision of her in his minds eye, running around the stage like a crazy woman and as the intro music began to play and CC walked past him, Andy smiled.


Lucinda Abernathy had been the best rock star he had ever known and she would always be with him on stage and in life.

Until the very end.

Notes

Well that's it...that's the very last chapter of the very last story that I will write for this site. It's been a pleasure-I do however wish people showed a little more love towards mine and other stories on here-and who knows...maybe I'll most a random song fic here and there.

The reason I wanted to make this my last story was because it was something that didn't end happily and I think most of my loyal readers know I rarely like to keep things happy. It's a bitter sweet story, one filled with lots of love and laughter, but it's also filled with a great and terrible loss. Even though the Andy in this story is fictional-his words ring true. Love your life, love those around you and don't regret anything or hold back.

I'll be posting some extras to this story-including a complete track listing of all the songs I used for the Dolls-in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that.

Thanks guys<3

Comments

@Giacobra

I'm so glad you found this little gem. Sadly this was my last full story, but I do have a few other serial stories on this site which are different from this one, but just as well written. You can find all of them in my profile<3

Broken Wing Broken Wing
4/16/16

So I can honestly say I didn't discover this story until recently. When I first started reading it I knew it would be one of my favorites from this site. I saw the sad ending coming but dear god I was still not prepared in any way. You wrote everything so genuinely and in a way that showed an amazing range of real and raw emotions. I may or may not have been crying profusely through the last chapters. This was a beautiful, bittersweet, and amazing story and I look forward to anything else you may ever decide to write. Thank you

Giacobra Giacobra
4/15/16

I've been reading this story for so long and now it has come to an end. It ended so beautifully. Thank you for the hard work you put into this. This was a great story <3

This was probably the first stories I read here. Every chapter was amazing, and you just as an amazing writer. Thank you for making such an amazing story. It felt so real to be part of the life of Luxe and the Dolls!!

RisenDemon RisenDemon
3/31/16

I'm pretty sure I've done nothing but cry while reading these last few chapters. You do a wonderful job getting the reader emotionally involved in this story, and I'm really glad that I was able to read this wonderfully written piece. Thank you for all of the time and hard work that went into this story. It is definitely one of the best that I have read in a really long time.

LostInTheMusic LostInTheMusic
3/31/16