Standing By

Decoding and Creating

"So tell us to get it together and move on. No reason to yell at us like kids with our hands in the cookie jar," Scott rationalized.

"—complain about that at least. And if her bad attitude has one iota of effect on Avi's care, there's gonna be hell to pay," Austin concluded.

"Chill," Avi said mildly. "First I've seen of that nurse."

Diana stuck her head in the door. "Linzi, will you help me get Mr. Hemingway up out of the bed?"

"Sure," she agreed, moving the call light to the bedside table. "Just responding to his call light. He's good now."

"Good deal." Diana grinned at her and winked at Adam, who displayed his new belt proudly. She gave him a thumbs-up.

"We've got ten songs," Kirstie reported a minute later. "Royals, Sing, On My Way Home. Na Na Na, Misbehavin', Can't Hold Us. Starships, Happy, Let's Get It On. Cheerleader."

"Hallelujah," Chance muttered. "That was exceedingly difficult."

"We got ours in set order," I bragged.

"We're doing good to establish ten songs we want to perform!" Scott pointed out.

"Well, now that we have..." Kevin perched back on the foot of the bed.

Mitch pursed his lips in thought, peering over her shoulder. He started pointing at songs. "One, two, three, um..."

"Mitch," Avi said patiently. "No one can see what you're doing but you and her. Please use song titles."

I smirked. "On My Way Home at the end."

"Well..." Scott looked flustered, trying to maneuver around tables, trash cans, and Rob and Adam to see.

"Makes sense to me," Kevin offered up. "Why don't we start with a bang with Sing, then move on to Na Na Na, Misbehavin', maybe Happy next?"

"I think that'd—oof!" Scott grunted as he started to stumble over a chair leg, hands flying out to catch himself.

"Here—here." Rob leapt to his feet and pushed his chair in to make room for Scott to get closer to the list. Unfortunately, that had been one of the things he'd been using to catch himself and Scott just tumbled over.

"Scotty?" Mitch asked his fallen friend. "You OK?"

He sat up. "Yeah. Ahh, I'm fine down here, I guess. What KO said is fine with me."

"Sing, Na Na Na, Misbehavin', Happy?" Avi tried to recall.

"Yeah. And Tim's idea of On My Way Home at the end is a pretty good one," he added, making me grin.

"We gonna do Let's Get It On the way we always do?" Kirstie asked. "If we do, how we want to work it in?"

"Yes," Avi decided, seemingly an answer to both questions. Kirstie looked at him, ready for an answer to the second question. "What?"

"How we want to work it in?" she repeated. "We'll be moving people around and need a chair."

He shrugged. "Same way we always do."

"Let's put it towards the end," Mitch suggested. "Let's Get It On, something hard and heavy, On My Way Home."

"Can't Hold Us?" Scott suggested from the floor.

Kirstie was practically drawing a road mad on her paper. "That leaves... Royals, Starships, and Cheerleader for spots five, six, and seven."

"Sounds like Marvel comic book of superheroes," Chance quipped, making Adam and Rob snort.