Chapter 139 - She's Looking For A Hero

As Monica waited for the helicopter, she couldn't help but feel what she was feeling. 

 She's heartbroken, she's humiliated and all she wants to do was go home and talk to her best friend.  The best friend that she can't bare to talk to from this distance.  

She keeps thinking, actually hoping that she would wake up and this would be just a nightmare.   Some nightmare that he psyche has worked up in her overworked brain.  

 She can't believe that her marriage is over.  And she can't believe, even more, that her husband cheated on her with a friend of hers.  Did he really think that he wouldn't get caught?  Is this what  rock stars do at the top of their game?  Will he do it again?  These are all questions that she's asking herself, but then she reminds herself that he was intimate with another woman.  

That's the moral of her story and while she can't wrap her head around it - she still loves him with all that she can and misses him just as much.  Even though they are probably still in the same city, she feels farther away from him than she ever has before.

She's in the helipad waiting for Rick and his assistant, looking out over the edge of the hotel building.  Her gaze is fixed on the flashing lights and her thoughts are all over the place.  

She doesn't hear Rick walk up behind her.  "Are you ready?"   his voice startles her.  She wipes her eyes to hide that she's been crying and turns around.  He can see that she's upset.  "Hey kiddo, what's going on?'  He asks her, raising an arm to keep his assistant back.  "What happened?"

Wiping her eyes again, "Jon was just here."

Rick is surprised by that.  "Really?  Where is he?"  Rick takes a quick look around.

"He left." she sniffles, "I told him to leave."

Rick puts an arm around her and asks, "Are you okay?  What can I do for you?"

Monica nods her head, "I'm fine.  When will the bird be here?"

"Monica...." he tries to get parental on her, but she doesn't let him.

She takes a few steps away, "I just need to keep busy.  We have a long day ahead of us, I'd like to get to Osaka and do what we need to do."

"We'll get there, but you can't keep this bottled up inside."

"I can't talk to you about it, you're my boss."  she sits down in a waiting room chair, not wanting to make eye contact with him.   She would really rather that he not see in her in manner that was anything less than professional.  She knows she needs to pull it together.

He sits next to her and starts to gently rub her back, "I'm also your friend and if you need to talk, kiddo, please talk.  We have a long chopper ride in front of us and plenty of time."

With a thankful look she tells him, "Really Rick, I'll be fine.  Just some stuff I need to work out and some things I need to take care of."

"Listen, I seen the news and I know what's going on Monica.  You can't deal with this alone and you can't deal with it from here.  How about I get you home, you do your things and meet me later on down the road.  You can pick up on the next leg."  he tells her with a compassion that she can hear.

"No, I'm here to do a job and I'm going to do it."

"Take what you have home and start editing.  That way you can get some of the hard stuff done."

"Rick, I'm not going home.  That's just what he wants." she kind of barks at him, not meaning to.

He pats her on her leg and says, "That may be what he wants, but that's also what I think you have to do.  He loves you and you love him, Monica.  See if there is anything to salvage."

Head in hands, elbows on knees she takes a deep breath and considers for a second of going home.  But her sharp, independent mind stops the thought.  "No, there's nothing left.  After all that we've been through he decides to cheat, how can I be married to that?  With his success and all that's going to come, how can I live like that?"  she asks a question she doesn't need an answer to.  She  keeps going, "Do you know that the day we were married, we were run down in the street in Vegas?  Everything snowballed from there. 

"I had heard something about that." Rick admits, "but you made it through that Monica.  That has to be a little more serious than a one night stand, I would think that your bond over your traumatic situation would have the two of you tight as ever."

"So did I, but I go away for work and he cheats.  He cheats with a roadie for Bruce Springsteen.  I am so humiliated.  A roadie, Rick!  Because of the accident, we miscarried.  I wanted to die and how I feel right now is pretty comparable."  

Rick puts his arm around her and draws her close.  He rests his head on hers and plainly says, "If you can get through the loss of a child, you can get through anything."  He kisses the side of her head, "Monica, please go back to the states and try to work this out.  The two of you love one another and sometimes, that is enough."

She shakes her head no again.

They can hear the chopper getting close, so Rick finishes the conversation with, "If you change your mind, "I'll have Johnathon fly you home once we get back to Tokyo.  Anytime, day or night."

She smiles at him with the steady flow of tears falling from her eyes, "Thank you!  Thank you for looking out for me and thank you for helping me get home."