Hold My Hand (Sequel to Saved: Adopted by Brendon Urie)

Chapter 1

Abby hated tour.

Sure. The first couple of weeks were fun. Abby got to see behind the scenes at her dad's concerts. She got to watch him do what he loved every night (okay, every other night or two), and she got to see how much he loved what he did, how much he loved his fans and performing. But now she was sick of it.

Abby hadn't imagined that going out on tour with her dad meant that Abby would never see her dad. Every day, when she woke up, he was usually already off the bus and in the venue, or off at a radio station for an interview, or at a TV studio, or somewhere in the venue being photographed or interviewed. If she went to go find him, Zack usually told her he was busy and he'd come find her when he was done.  He almost never did because there was always something that came up.

So, it should have come as no surprise to anyone that Abby was currently lying on her bunk on the bus, scrolling through Instagram on the phone her father had bought for her, and was currently pissed off. She hadn't seen her dad all day today. And she'd been too annoyed by the time the show started, that she didn't bother to stay and watch. Kala followed her from the Tour Catering area back to the bus where the two ate a silent dinner. Abby buried her face in her phone and then decided to go to bed. Kala tried to talk to her, but realized Abby's mood was not conducive to a conversation.

"Everything okay?" Brendon said, coming onto the bus after the show. "Where's Abby?"

"She's in bed, Brendon," Kala said.  "And I think you need to have a talk with her."

"Why? What  happened? Did she do something? Did something happen? Is she okay?"

"Brendon, how well did you prepare Abby for your life on the road?"

"What do you  mean?" he asked.

"I mean, did you prepare her for the demands on your time?"

"She knows I'm busy," Brendon said.

"She knows you're busy, yeah. But did she know how busy you'd be? And did  you stop to think that you need to make time for her, too?"

"She's not a baby, Kala. She's capable of entertaining herself, if needed."

"Brendon, she's your daughter. She's never lived this life. She doesn't know what tour entails.  All she knows is that she's out here with her dad, and doesn't see her dad as much as she'd like.  Bren, you need to make more of an effort to spend time with Abby. She misses you. And she's getting pissed off. She wasn't prepared for this type of life."

Brendon sighed.  He'd told Abby he'd be really busy on tour, and that there would be a lot of demands on his time, but maybe he hadn't told her exactly how busy he'd be. He agreed with Kala, he  needed to make more of an effort to make sure Abby knew she was still number one to him.

"Where is she?" Brendon asked Kala.

"She's been in bed for hours. I think she's probably asleep by now. I haven't heard a sound from her bunk in a couple of hours."

Abby, overhearing this conversation and not wanting  to deal with her dad right now, turned over, pulled her blanket up over her shoulder and closed her eyes.  She evened out her breathing hoping to make it look like she was asleep.

"Abs? Abby, you awake?" Brendon whispered.  Abby continued breathing steadily. She heard Brendon sigh.

"Good night, kiddo. I'm sorry we didn't get any time to connect today. I'll see you in the morning," he said, and kissed Abby's head. As soon as she heard him move away, she frowned.

She listened to Zack come on the bus and say hello to Kala, who told him to be quiet as Abby was sleeping (she was not), and heard him talking to Brendon about the next day.

"It's an off day. I want to spend some time with Abby. Kala pointed out, I kinda didn't prepare Abby for tour life, and she says Abby's feeling a little abandoned," Brendon said.

A little abandoned? Abby thought to herself.  How about completely abandoned?

Despite feeling upset, Abby fell into a fitful sleep.

In the morning, Abby woke up to a quiet bus. Did everyone leave and leave her alone?

Abby got up, used the washroom, brushed her teeth and got dressed.  She took her Switch and moved to the front of the bus where Kala was sitting reading a book.

"Good morning," Kala said, cheerfully. Abby did not reply, but poured herself a bowl of cereal and sat at the table to eat while she scrolled Instagram. 

"Want to go into town and wander around?" Kala asked Abby.

"No," Abby replied.

"Want to go into the venue and see what's going on?"

"No," Abby replied.

"Is there anything you'd like to do?" Kala asked.

"No," Abby replied, rinsing her bowl and flopping onto the couch to continue scrolling.  She saw some photos from the concert the night before. Her dad was smiling and laughing. He seemed happy.

Abby screenshot the photo, giving the photographer credit, she posted on her own page:

"Dad looks like he's having fun.  Too bad he forgot he brought his kid along."

Kala's phone dinged with a notification. She followed Abby's account and saw that Abby was the new post. She read it and frowned.

"Abby, take that down," she said.

"No," Abby said.

"That's not fair. You know your dad is busy."

"Yeah, and he forgot in all his busy-ness that he has a kid and brought her along," Abby said, standing up and going to the back of the bus.  She went into Brendon's room, since he had a bigger, almost a bedroom, at the back of the bus. She lay down on his bed, and tried to keep her composure. She wanted to cry, she felt so alone. But she also didn't want to cry and let anyone know how she was feeling.

"Where is she?" she heard from the front of the bus.

"In her bunk, I think," Abby heard Kala say. She heard heavy footsteps and the sound of the curtain on her bunk being wrenched back.

"Abby!" Brendon said, loudly.  Abby didn't respond.  She stayed curled up on his bed. Brendon's heavy footsteps started to approach the back bedroom.

"Take that down!" he said, angrily, at his daughter, curled up on his bed.

"No," Abby said.

"Abby, take that post down.  That's not fair.  I haven't forgotten you're here. I've been busy.  I told you before we left I was going to be busy and we wouldn't have the same amount of time together that we have at home."

"I didn't think that meant you'd spend literally no time with me at all!" Abby shouted back.

"Abby, I spend time with you," Brendon said.

"Yeah? Do you? How much time did we spend together yesterday? How about the day before that? Do you know that it's been four days since we had a conversation? Or since we spent more than five minutes together - sleeping not included."

"Abs, that's not true. We had dinner together yesterday, didn't we?"

"No, Dad," Abby said, emphasizing the word 'dad' with sarcasm. "I ate dinner here. On the bus. With Kala. Like I did the day before and the day before that. And you didn't even  notice!"

Abby got up and ran. She ran off the bus and kept running.

Brendon ran his hands through his hair.

"Brendon?" Kala said. "I thought today was an off day? You left the bus before anyone woke up."

"I know, I know. It was supposed to be, but there was an issue with Denver, and I had to go talk to logistics and the manager and figure out something."

"Brendon, you promised today you'd spend with Abby," Kala reminded him.

"I know, I know.  I'm screwing this whole thing up," he said, sitting down on the sofa, and moving when he felt something poke his thigh.  He pulled whatever it was out from under his leg. It was Abby's pass.