That night I basically slept on top of Thea. The thought that she actually left me was too much for me to handle after the show. I should probably talk with a therapist about it and the other things going on with me. Even though I don't see myself leaving Thea, there is always the possibility that Thea breaks up with me. Once I get home I'm going to find a therapist to talk too.
Today is an off day and tomorrow we travel to Nashville, but we get a late start so I'm happy we get to sleep in again. When I woke up I was alone in bed. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and sat up to look around the room. Thea is sitting at the little table in the room looking out the window. She heard me move around and turned her attention to me. When her eyes found mine she gave me a smile and nodded towards the table.
"I got breakfast, figured you could use the sleep." Thea said.
I got out of bed and walked over to her and planted a kiss on her forehead before whispering a thanks. Taking the seat across from her I took a sip of the ice coffee she got me before diving into the bagel. The news played on the tv in the background as I finished my breakfast. There is a weird tension in the air and I don't know how to break it.
"You okay?" Thea asked after I put my coffee down.
"Yea, thinking a lot about what I'm going to do after tour is over." I said and threw the trash into the garbage.
"And what do those plans include?" Thea asked and shook her coffee.
"You, me, a bed and not moving for 24 hours. Work on some new music. Maybe shop around for new labels." I said rattling off the list of things I had already planned on doing minus look for a therapist.
"That all?" Thea asked and tossed her now empty coffee.
"Find a therapist." I said and ruffled my hair.
"I could give you the information for the woman I see if you want? There are a few other therapists in her practice so even if you don't want to meet with her you can always try some of the others." Thea said and gave me a genuine smile.
"I would like that a lot actually thank you." I said relieved.
"Anything for you baby, now come on, go get dressed, I know that you have a list of places for us to see today before dinner." Thea said and pushed me to get up.
I gave her a smile before jumping over to my bag to find some clothes for today. I had a few stops I wanted to see with Thea and then the rest of the day would be filled with anything she wanted to see. It's been a long time since I've been able to have an off day to explore NYC and I wanted to make the most of it.
Once I was ready Thea handed me Ashers Boston Red Sox hat before grabbing her own Yankee hat then we headed out the door. The first stop on the list is Madison Square Garden. Yes we just played two sold out shows here but I haven't seen it in the day light in years. With fresh film in my polaroid camera I had Thea take a picture of me under the marque that was still up with my name on it. Then Thea and I took a few of ourselves before moving onto Times Square.
We walked around Manhattan for a majority of our day. We stopped at a few major sights along with hitting quite a few bars throughout the day. Thea remembered a general layout of the city from when she used to live in Queens and she took me to some of her favorite places. Throughout the day every once in a while I was stopped by a few fans but nothing overwhelming.
After we stopped at all the places I wanted to stop at we made our way back towards our hotel. Before we got there Thea wanted to stop at one place. She ordered us an uber and when we pulled up outside a NYPD precinct, I had an idea of where we were. We got out of the uber and stood across the street from the precinct. Thea looked both ways before crossing the street and I watched her stop in the middle of the street. I got a picture of Thea looking up at the sign above the door and joined her in the middle of the street.
A car honking gave Thea the push she needed to finish the rest of the walk to the front door. I followed behind her as Thea pushed the door open and walked inside. The precinct wasn't busy on the inside. A few officers were walking around looking relaxed while a white shirt sergeant was sitting behind the front desk working on his computer. I didn't know if Thea had a plan for when we got inside but I was just following her lead.
She looked around the front of the precinct and I did a 360 to check it out. Just as I was about to turn back to her my eyes ran over a memorial. I nudged Thea and she turned and followed my eyes when I nodded. Thea walked over to the wall and looked at all the names lined in neat rows. Her hand shook as she raised it and ran it over the names to stop on the one she was looking for. Preston Ramsey.
"Can I help you ladies with something?" Someone asked behind us and I sighed.
"My dad" Thea said and kept her hand on her father's name. "My uncle" Thea moved her hand to the name underneath, Paul Ramsey. "My dad's best friend, Tony Todd. I can probably name at least another 20 names on this board." Thea said and returned her hand to her father name.
"Can we have a moment please?" I asked after I turned to the sergeant who was standing behind us.
"Take all the time you need, let me know if you need anything." The sergeant said with a nod before he walked back towards his desk.
I slipped my arm through Thea's and rested my head against her shoulder. She intertwined her hand with mine and I looked up at her.
"We got a letter that they were adding his name to wall and asked if we wanted to come. Mom and I skipped it; I didn't want to make the trip down here." Thea said and I squeezed her hand.
We stood in front of the memorial for a while. Thea wouldn't take her eyes off her father's name. When I took a peek behind us I could see a lot of officers were watching us.
"How about we go back to the hotel and relax?" I asked when my feet started to really hurt. When Thea didn't answer I squeezed her hand and said her name. "Thea". Thea shook her head and looked at me.
"Ramsey?" Someone said behind us.
Thea and I turned around and looked for who called her name. Officers, young and old, were still gather around to look at Thea.
"That's me" Thea said as an older man stepped forward.
"Captain David Morta, I'm not sure how long you are here for but I can show you around if you like?" The man said. He isn't wearing a uniform but has a gold badge attached to his belt. Thea looked at me and I gave her a nod before she accepted.
David walked over to us and turned around to see officers still standing around the front waiting room of the precinct.
"What are you guys standing around for? Get to work." He yelled and all of the gathered officers scattered. "I knew your father. He and I worked together for years. Always kept a picture of you and Addie on his desk and in his wallet behind his shield. He said it protected him while on the job." David said as we started to walk through the precinct.
"I'll keep that in mind then when I go back to work." Thea said and looked around at open space of a meeting room.
"You're an officer?" David asked.
"Sergeant actually in Salem Massachusetts." I said and watched as Thea looked around.
"Your show the other night at the Garden was something else Ms. Monroe." David said and gave me a smile.
"Thanks" I said and gave him a smile in return.
"I bought my daughter tickets for her birthday and she insisted I take her. Now she keeps babbling on about your new music, it's all I hear coming from her room these days." David said as we moved into another room.
Just as I was about to respond Thea stopped in her tracks and I almost walked into her. The room before us was full of desks and had various officers working and standing around. Her eyes were locked on one desk in particular though, off towards the windows. My response died on my lips as she walked over to the empty desk and touched the exposed table top.
"This was my dad's desk." Thea said and took in the personal pictures of the officer who now claims it.
"It was, Paul sat in that desk." David said and pointed to the desk opposite us.
"This is a lot." Thea said and pulled her hand away from the desk and took a breath.
David put his hand on Thea's back and walked us to an office. His name is on the door with Captain written in gold letters underneath. Thea and I took a seat in front of his desk while David sat behind his desk.
"He was a great man your father. Preston pulled me inside the North tower as the South tower fell to escape the debris that fell outside. When the dust settled a little he told me not to go back up the stairs, that we needed to get out of the tower because it was going to come down as well. We stayed outside around the base of the building for about another 40 minutes trying to help any civilians around get away from the building because we knew if one tower came down, chances were the second tower wasn't going to be that much far behind it.
"Then we heard it. The booming could only be described as a bombs going off and we watched as the top of the building started to pancake in. We grabbed a hold of each other and ran for our lives. We both knew if we didn't get far enough from right outside the tower we would die. As we were running down a block your dad saw your moms ambulance. He pulled the door open and we jumped inside and told her what was going on. Her partner drove down the block as the cloud of smoke started to follow us but it didn't take long before we were surrounded but the dust cloud and he had to stop.
"We waited in the back of the ambulance for what felt like hours just waiting for the dust to settle. It was probably about a half an hour before the thick dust started to settle and we were able to start to see through the dust. Addie used some water she had on the ambulance to get the dust off our faces and out of our eyes. Once we were cleaned up she gave us protective glasses and face masks. Preston just looked at me and we both knew we needed to go back out there and start to help. Preston kissed your mom and we jumped out of the back and started to walk back into hell to try and help find anybody who survived." David said.
Thea didn't say anything as we listened to David. He talked some more about working with Thea's dad and she listened to everything David said. David showed Thea some pictures of them together and it put a smile on Thea's face. As we finished our visit Thea got to talk to some other officers who were on duty. They traded patches and challenge coins and it was nice to see her smile again after talking about her father for a while. I made sure to get a picture of Thea and David together and then David asked if I could get in the picture to brag to his daughter. I just laughed and agreed.
Before we left David pulled Thea back into his office. He pulled a windbreaker off the coat rack and handed it to Thea. Thea looked at him in question but he just nodded. When Thea opened the windbreaker written in silver numbers was her father's badge number.
"When you guys moved to Salem, he left this on my desk. You guys left already when I came by the house to return it. It's been on my coat rack ever since but I think it's time for me to finally return it." David said.
Thea didn't say anything as she pulled David into a hug. It took her a few moments to collect herself and she held the jacket tightly to her chest. We left shortly after that after Thea promised to come back and visit. I called us an uber and we took it back to the hotel. The late afternoon sun shining through the buildings of the drive made being in traffic a little more enjoyable.
"How are you feeling?" I asked wanting to give her the time she needed to reflect on everything.
"Good? I don't know it's a weird feeling. It's just a lot of emotions to try and piece together. I kind of wish I visited earlier but now this just felt right." Thea said and looked at the jacket again. "My mom looked for this jacket when he was getting worse. Dad always said he didn't remember what box he packed it in when we moved."
I didn't say anything but pressed a kiss to Thea's cheek. The traffic started to lift a little and the drive back to the hotel past quicker than I thought it would.
"Thank you for letting me take over most of the day to go there. It meant a lot to have you there with me." Thea said as we got settled in the hotel room.
"Anything for you baby." I said and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
"Didn't you have plans for dinner tonight?" Thea asked as she wrapped her muscular arms around my waist.
"I did but I texted Alyssa to cancel them when we were at the station. I didn't want you to have to sit through dinner after that long emotional afternoon. We can just order room service and relax if you want." I said.
When I realized how emotional the visit would be I texted Alyssa to cancel the reservation for dinner. I explained a little about where we were and she canceled them without hesitation. She did tell me that the band and her are at a little dive bar down the block from the hotel that had some pretty good food if we wanted to join them.
"My band is at a dive bar down the block getting food if you want to join for a little." I offered.
"We can go for a little I just want to relax for a few minutes." Thea said and rubbed the exposed skin on my lower back.
Thea and I both showered separately and then relax in bed for a little while. We met my band and Alyssa at the bar just after 6. Once we reached the table Thea was met with warm hugs from everyone as I ordered us drinks. I didn't go into details about what happened today but just enough to let them know Thea is sensitive right now and to be gentle.
Our drinks arrived quickly as there was only a few other people in the bar at this time and we started to look over the menu. I learned that there burgers are to die for as Diego recounted there dinner here last night. I went with it and got another round of drinks for everyone. Nikki and Britt got into conversation with Thea about something as Alyssa started talking to me about the rest of the tour and the finalized date list for the European leg that would run for all of July and a little in August. It was something to add to this of things to think about. I'm leaning towards going out again as I'm having a lot of fun on this tour.
The night was getting long as the round of drinks and shots kept coming. I tried not to have to many as I didn't want to be hungover on the bus ride tomorrow and continued to people watch. I settled the tab just after 9pm wanting to head back to the hotel to spend some time with Thea before we leave tomorrow. Everybody said bye to each other and we finally escaped the bar.
Thea and I walked back to the hotel hand in hand. As we got closer to the hotel we were followed by a few paparazzi who were lurking around and they snapped a lot of pictures of us. Thea just held me close as we pushed into the hotel. When we got up to our room, I ran a bath wanting to relax some more before this last push of the tour. Once it was ready I slipped into the warm water and felt my muscles relax. Thea joined me shortly after and I held her tightly to me.
We made sweet slow love to each other for hours that night and it was the perfect way for her to cap her visit. The next morning came way too fast for me and I had to rush to pack everything up to get to the bus on time. Charlie drove us to Penn Station and I held back tears dropped Thea off. She is taking the train back to Boston. Our goodbye was private as everybody went into the back and Charlie closed his divider.
"I'll be home soon my love." I said and wrapped my arms around her shoulders.
"I know, I'll be waiting." Thea said in a sad voice. I planted a kiss to her lips and I didn't want to let go. Thea slowly pulled away and kissed my forehead before I release her from my arms.
I watched as half my heart walked across the street and disappear into the station. Charlie drove away once Thea was out of our sight and started driving toward our next destination.
Song on the side is Love Is (Thicker than Water) by Andy Gibb.