Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 16:17:54 GMT From: AD . Subject: Tests of Friendship 10 I know we're skipping ahead a bit in the start of this chapter, no, you haven't missed anything, I have. This chapter starts a few days later, after there final French concert. Thanks for all those who have emailed me, and keep it up, I live and thrive off email, trekster2@hotmail.com as always, or if you can't get through try trekkiead@yahoo.com, although I don't check that one as regularly. Well, am I going to be mean and end the story? I don't know yet, I am thinking about it. If I do, as I've said before, I would definitely be interesting in getting a co-author to help me out with the story. Drop me a line anyway if you're interested. Legal stuff, you know the drill by now, don't read if you're not supposed to according to your own local laws. This story is fictional, and intends to imply nothing about real life, no matter how much we'd like. This story is copyright to the author, and any unauthorised reproduction is strictly prohibited. That's that over with, now on with the show! Jeff, my proof reader, in his proof asked where his plug was? In your bathroom? Thanks for being there mate, and go read his story, 'Twist of Fate'. Also, I like a new story, which is progressing in terms of chapters VERY quickly, that's 'Ryan and Lance'. Go read it if you have any time. Sorry for the change in formatting in this chapter as well. This may or may not be permenant from now on. Chapter ten: I lay back in the large comfortable leather seat, oblivious to the world around me, the stewards bringing offering us a glass of wine or whatever else took our fancy. I pulled myself up straight in the chair and glanced around the private waiting room, the grace and beauty of Concorde viewable out of the large windows. I declined the offer of a drink and glanced around, seeing the other guys sat around the room, Brian and John asleep next to each other. It had just turned 5am, and we had been travelling straight after the final concert in Marseilles since 11pm French time (1 hr ahead). The flight was due to depart at 6am, and arrive in New York at 4am EDT, to be followed by yet another connecting flight to Orlando. I had managed to overcome some of my nervousness of leaving behind my whole life, but it could not be reasonably expecting for one to remain calm. In truth, I was probably scared to death of what would happen to me, whether Justin's mom would accept me, whether I would be able to let myself live off Justin's wealth. I had never liked charity, and had never taken charity off anyone, I had always tried to remain **dependent, and up until now I had succeeded. But, all good things must come to an end eventually. I leaned over to Justin, who was starting to doze off, but decided to let him sleep for a few minutes. I pulled out a book out my pocket and opened to the marked page. I'll fill you on a little on the preceding situation. After the Paris concert, the French tour continued, and it was decided for John to return with us, since he lived in New York anyway. The **Caen and Marseilles concert both going ahead as faultlessly as I had began to expect. The relationship between the guys had far from improved. Howie and Chris both became isolated, and didn't hang around with any of the other guys. It served them right though, as far as I was concerned. They would be forgiven eventually, but it would take a very long time for the events to be forgotten. Other than that, not much happened over the few days until we found ourselves sitting in the Heathrow terminal waiting room half an hour ago. I put my book down as one of the stewards came round and told us that the plane was now ready for boarding. I was oblivious to the senior managers and crew who were on the flight back with us, sitting over at the other side of the room, talking amongst themselves. I hadn't interacted with any of them much, and I got the impression I wasn't much liked. I woke Justin gently, and we walked along the walkway into the plane. This was my fifth flight on Concorde, and every time was just as good as the first. I always find it a completely thrilling experience to be thrown back into your seat under the massive power of acceleration at takeoff, thrusting the plane effortless to it's cruising speed of 1200mph. I took a seat on the front row of the plane, Justin next to me, Kevin and AJ on the other side of the cabin. I stowed my travel bag in the overhead locker before leaning out in the alley to take a glance into the cockpit of the plane, the pilot, co-pilot and engineer all seated in there respective positions. As the co-pilot turned in his seat I almost fell into the alley. I thought I recognised the face earlier, but now I was certain the person sitting in the co-pilot suit was my previous flying tutor when I took my private jet license. I decided I'd have to pay a visit to the cockpit later in the flight. After another half hour of waiting, everyone seemingly asleep again except for myself, the captain came over the intercom asking everyone to buckle up as we taxied towards the runway. I sat upright as the plane suddenly shot down the runway accelerating at a massive rate, for an object of that size, seems unfathomable. After what seemed only a few seconds, we were in the air. I could hear the sound of the nose cone being brought up for entry into supersonic flight after what seemed only a few minutes, but in reality, was probably slightly longer. Once the plane has reached it's cruising altitude of 50'000ft the captain came over the intercom again. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have now reached our cruising altitude for the flight. Our arrival in New York is expected to be 4:15 local time. You may now proceed to unbuckle your seat belts if you so desire, and give your legs a little stretch." After he signed off I caught the attention of a stewardess walking by. "I was wondering if it would be possible for me to go up to the cockpit?" "That's not standard procedure so, we don't allow passengers into the cockpit." "Well, I'm a fully qualified pilot, and the co-pilot is a good friend of mine. I'm sure if you tell him who I am, he'll have no problem with me coming up." "I'll just go and have a word with him sir, who should I say you are?" "Simon Willliams." I said as she walked towards the door, gently knocking before pocking here head round the corner. After a few seconds she came back and waved me upto the cockpit. I got out my seat and walked towards the door, stepping inside into the relatively cramped forwards space. I pulled down one of the seats and looked over at Phil Scotts. I shook hands before greeting him slightly more warmly with a slight hug, as best as could be managed in the situation, before being introduced to the rest of the crew. "Well Simon, what have you been doing with yourself?" "Oh, I'm not too bad, I've been in a tight spot with the business, but nothing to worry yourself about, I'll pull through, I always do." "I'll give you that, you're a survivor. Tell you what, would you like to have a sit down, I know how much you always wanted to take one of these babies out for a spin." "You remembered?" " So did you, last time I saw you, you were still flying 747s." "He got a promotion from me. How about you take my seat?" The captain spoke up for the first time, getting out his seat, taking a step out the cockpit as I got into the pilots seat. I thanked him gratefully and took a seat in the front of the plane. It wasn't possible to see out the front, due to the fact the nose cone has been raised up for super sonic flight, visibility really limited to the two small side windows. The thought of being at the controls of such a powerful plane however was quite thrilling at the time. I was half expecting something to go wrong, knowing my luck, like a rudder falling off, or something along those lines... Nothing happened however, as I sat peacefully in the seat, the four Rolls Royce engines pushing the plane and it's 100 passengers forwards at mach 2.02, causing the nose cone to heat to almost 130 degrees Celsius, and the plane to be up to 24cm longer than when it took off, due to the heat developed by the friction of such high speed travel. **Reluctantly, I left the pilots seat and returned to the cabin, to find everyone fast asleep, a few quite snoring sounds coming from the front of the cabin. Looking around the cabin as a whole, most of the passengers were, in fact, asleep. I walked over to the steward cabin opposite me and got a cup of tea before returning to my seat. I watched the inflight movie, as I can never fall asleep on planes, it's a bad habit if you happen to be flying one. It was the first time I'd seen 'The Matrix', and I found it quite interesting, well, in fact, it was a darned good movie. I went to take the headphones off, but the news came on, so I stayed listening to the latest information on the situation in Kosovo. After a short while, the plane began it's decent and deceleration, landing in New York at just past 4am, right on schedule. Justin stirred as the cabin pressure began to cause a slight pain in his ears. I smiled over at him as he stretched back and yawned, giving his hand a quick squeeze. Once the plane had parked up at the terminal building, we all exited, except for Joey, who was still snoring and fast asleep. Lance woke him, and he jumped straight up, catching on the seat belt, resulting in him being pulled right back down again, which cause a few laughs. As we walked through to passport control, I had to split up with the guys, being a foreign visitor, while they got to go through the American nationals section. Justin wanted to come through with me, but I pushed him into the appropriate queue with the rest of the guys, and their security personnel. As yet, no fans has turned up, except it clearly couldn't be long before they managed to find the guys. I was standing in the relatively short line, since several desks were open. I pulled the passport and visa card out of my carry on case ready for my turn. As my turn approached, I walked up to the desk and saw a younger man sitting in the chair. I placed my passport on the desk as he took it off me, before reeling off the default set of questions. "How long do you intend on staying in the US sir?" "As yet, it's an indefinite period." "Uh huh. Can you be more specific please?" "I'm over with some friends on a visit. I might be going on a tour round the US with them, and I can't give you precise times for the length of the stay. I'm actually considering the possibility of immigration." "So the nature of your trip is pleasure then?" "It is." "Can you give me an address where you will be staying for the first part of your visit?" "Er.., I know it's Orlando, but I can't be more specific than that. I could get my friend over here, he's just gone through the other desk." "Ok then, if you could wave him over here sir." He said, as I motioned, Justin already looking in my direction waiting for me. He started walking over to the desk **immediately. "What wrong Si?" "The officer would like an address of residence." Justin gave the immigration officer his address, before standing at my side. "Is there any other contact information you can give me sir?" "I have a mobile, but it's on a british number." "That will be fine sir, what's the number?" "011 44 7967 366 475." "Ok sir, that's fine then, if you'll like to proceed through the door on the far left and follow the signs for baggage reclaim." I walked off with Justin, picking up my passport and visa card. We met up with the other guys standing at the exit from the immigration department. We exited along the corridor and followed the signs to the baggage reclaim area. The peace and quiet that had been experienced until this stage was suddenly disrupted however, by the sounds of a slightly stifled scream coming from just behind us. I glanced behind to see 4 early-teenage girls each whispering to each other, while staring at us. We kept walking, not wanting to make any kind of scene, until one of the girls approached the group, "I was just wondering, are you, well, are you them?" you asked, stuttering slightly, her nervousness conveyed in her voice. "Well, if them means the British Royal family, no. If them means 'N Sync and BSB, then yes." JC said, smiling slightly, not stopping the walk to the baggage track, the first of the suitcases beginning to appear off along the track. Nothing of any importance should be sent up here, since the guys baggage should be collected by the transportation behind the scenes, rather than being sent up, but things did have a good chance of going wrong, and usually one or two bags were missed. Now was not any exception, as John's five suitcases surfaced (yes, five), mine, and one of JC's. We put them onto baggage carts, and one of the assistants came over and took the three trolleys off us and wheeled them over to the rest of the baggage, where they would be rechecked in for the next flight for us. It was quite nice not having to do anything yourself other than getting on the plane and flashing your passport every now and then. I wasn't completely certain what to expect as we exited the terminal and passed into the main arrivals hall, and had fully braced myself. The hoard of screaming fans took me completely by surprise, simply due to there **sheer numbers at what was now 5am in the morning. They must have been several hundred screaming teenage girls waiting in the arrivals building, fortunately kept behind the barriers. The guys did there duty, going and signing the odd autograph, shaking the odd hand. It took us over another quarter of an hour before we managed to get through the crowd and check ourselves back in at the desk. We headed directly for the VIP lounge again, to try and avoid the crowds, taking a seat in the deserted lounge area, complete with waitress service, and some very comfy chairs. Our flight to Orlando was scheduled to depart at 5:45am, but had been delayed till gone 6. That gave us about twenty or so minutes before we would board the plane. I walked over and picked up a copy of 'USA Today', and read through the headlines. I felt a hand on my leg and looked over towards Justin, who was smiling over at me. I returned the smile, before stuffing the paper into my travel bag. A few seconds later, we were told to head over to the gate for boarding. We got to board the plane first, to avoid any problems getting on a crowded plane. The flight wasn't too long really, approaching three hours maybe, with a brief breakfast served at 6:45am for those who were awake. The realisation of that fact I would soon be face to face with Justin's Mom at the very least was becoming far more of an increasing reality every second, and I was becoming more and more afraid of that moment. I didn't want to say anything to Justin though, since he'd only worry. I was hopeful everything would go fine. It was always a very dodgy thing though as far as I was concerned, **convincing ones **sexuality to your parents, and then presenting them with your boyfriend in one quick breath. I just hoped his Mom would be understanding. "Ladies and gentlemen, we're now in final approach for landing at Orlando. The weather is warm, but with severe thunder storms I'm afraid. It's nothing we can't handle though, current conditions at the airport are acceptable for landing, although we may have a bit of a bumpy ride down. The correct local time is 7:35am. Cabin crew you have 5 minutes, then take your seats for landing." The voice of the first officer came over the intercom system. I pulled myself upright into the seat of the **Boeing 737 and made sure my seat belt was fastened. I looked over at Nick, who had turned as pale as a sheet. Landing in a thunder storm always seemed to evoke terror in people. I suppose it's not completely unjustified, after all, there's a lot of stories involving plane crashes in bad weather. The cabin crew quickly walked down the isles, performing there final checks on all the passengers, collecting the odd glass. I noticed Nick quickly swallow back a shot of gin before handing his glass over to the flight attendant. As she took her seat at the front of the plane, it jolted violently upwards, followed by a rapid loss of altitude, before the plane **leveled out. We were passing through the cloud level, fork lightening flashing around us, as the air was rapidly ionising, the outleashing of massive voltages across the sky and towards the ground as the potential difference climbed to the millions of volts required to allow the air to ionise and conduct. The plane shock again, moving sideways, as it swayed side to side. Eventually we came through the clouds, another violent freefall marking our exit from the clouds. The Orlando skyline was visible through the moderately heavy rain. By now, Nick had cowered his head tucked between his knees as he waited for the plane to touch the ground. It would still be a good few minutes yet though. I looked out the window, but couldn't see much off the ground, only the incandescent glow of lights making itself slightly visible. I could see the **ground approaching through the window, before I started to develop a very bad feeling about this. I took a tight hold of Justin's hand, before making sure my bags were correctly stowed away under the seat, seeing he was scared. Hell, I was scared, this was some very bad weather, far more than I'd ever had to land a plane in. I definitely didn't feel envious for the pilots. The plane suddenly lurched to the side, forcing the left wheel to hit and skid in the runway, before the right side crashed to the runway with a bump, due to the pilot correcting for the unexpected gust of wind. The nose wheel touched down slightly more **gently, as the engines roared in full reverse, spoilers, flaps and wheel brakes all trying to bring the plane to a stop on the slippery wet runway. Several sighs of relief were heard around the cabin as it came to a halt. I could imagine Nick kissing the ground as he entered the main terminal building onto solid ground. A few police officers were waiting on our arrival, as the guys body guards and full entourage exited the plane. We proceeded down the longish corridor towards the trams to take them to the main airport building. Several assistants who were always busying around, being as useful as ever walked off to get our bags as they were removed off the plane. We were taking up most of the deserted corridor, all the fans kept outside, or so we were informed by the airport security person who was walking at the front of the precession of the 15 or so people. We climbed onto the tram, still not much being communicated between people. I looked around, seeing the cheerful faces most people were wearing, as a result of being home again. Brian was travelling back to Kentucky with Kevin and John tomorrow, or so I was told by Nick. Nick was off to Tampa tonight, while the others were staying in Orlando. Myself and JC with Justin at his mom's house, Howie and AJ somewhere or other, I wasn't particularly interested. Chris and Joey were in their house together, but I wasn't interested in that really. The tram pulled to a stop and the doors whooshed open, everyone piling out, the luggage somehow or other waiting for us. We all picked up our respective cases before walking out of the restricted area and into the main arrivals hall, the management guys dropping back. The band and all were following later on ordinary flight, ie, no Concorde. I noticed Justin's mum from the odd picture I'd seen of her on the net, and Justin ran over to her, embracing her into a tight hug. I kept my distance as they said their hellos. I was standing next to Brian and John out of coincidence. I leaned over and said my good byes for at least a while. The US leg of the tour was not initially a joint effort, but rather an individual one, and so the two groups wouldn't be doing that much interaction. After a few minutes, I noticed Justin waving me over. I grabbed hold of my two suitcases and walked over. "Well, you're Simon then are you?" "That would be me ma'am. It's a pleasure to meet you finally, after hearing so many good things about you." I said, placing a light kiss on the back of her hand, mustering every bit of aristocratic style I could manage for that time of the morning. "Well, I'm flattered. But no ma'am, I'm Lynn while you're staying with us. Let me just go say hello to the other guys, and then we'll get off. You two say you byes for the time being." We spent the next few minutes saying our goodbyes, a few hugs and all. All the guys staying in Orlando were going to meet up the following day for lunch, but Kev and Bri were going to be disappearing for a while. I wasn't certain what Nick was doing, but I was pretty sure I'd find out soon enough. Finally, Justin, JC and myself all walked outside, waiting for the obligatory signings of photos before we finally piled into the Mercedes M Class parked outside the airport. Unfortunately, the luggage wasn't fitting very well. After ten minutes of re-arranging, everyone was in the car, luggage and all, Lynn driving us all back, Justin feeling too tired to drive, me of course unable. I followed the roads carefully, taking notes of all the streets we went on to pull into Justin's drive. I climbed out the car, and looked onto the large, but modest house that greeted me. I pulled the luggage out of the boot (trunk) before waiting for Lynn to walk over to the door. She turned the key into the lock, deactivated the alarm and waved the three of us inside. I glanced around the *argish entrance foyer, before placing my two suitcases onto floor. I wasn't completely certain how to behave in the situation, I'd never been used to taken charity from anyone before, and I was almost uncomfortable in the situation of being taken into someone's house. Lynn walked over to me, smiling warmly. "Do you want to take these bags **up to your room. I've prepared one of the guest rooms for you. I'll show you where it is, if you two want to go and unpack. I've got some breakfast for you later once you've settled in, and I'll get to know you a bit better Simon." I smiled over at her, before she led me up the wide staircase to the first floor. Justin and JC followed closely behind. Lynn took me down to the end of the corridor, before opening the door and showing me in. JC took the room opposite mine, while Justin next. Lynn left me alone, as I looked around the spacious room, very similar in style to what was now nothing more than a pile of rubble on the edge of Nottingham. I put the two cases on the bed, before unlocking them, and pulling out all the clothes. A few things needed ironing, and I left them out, hanging up my various collection of shirts, jeans, trousers, jackets, and a couple of suits. That was just about all I had left. I open the other case, the laptop stuffed in between a few other miscellaneous personal belongings. I noticed the mobile phone stuffed between a pair of socks, so I pulled it out and swapped the sim cards from the european based mobile. If I had it, I thought it might as well be turned on and capable of receiving calls. You never know when someone might want to call you. It sprung back into my mind of how my Dad always used to take the mobile out with him and turn it off, because he didn't think anyone would be calling, or leave it in the car, rather than carry it round. I wiped a small tear from the corner of my eye, before composing myself. I walked into the onsuite bathroom, and splashed my face with some water, surveying my appearance in the mirror. My hair was a bit disgruntled, my breath smelling a little. I picked up my travel bag from the bed and gave my teeth a quick brush, before deciding to hop into the shower. I stepped into the room, the towel wrapped round my waste as I tried to find something suitable to wear. I definitely tried to avoid looking like a tourist, but not much seemed to be there that would suffice. In the end, I decided upon a light blue short sleeved shirt and some thin cotton pants. I never ever wore shorts, for some reason I wasn't completely certain of. I don't think I even owned a pair. Justin walked into the room as I was still only had the towel wrapped round me waist. Justin grinned heavily at me, before giving a quiet whistle. I laughed at him, before I pulled the shirt and some boxers on, before throwing the towel at Justin, who was staring intently at me. He laughed a little, before jumping into the sofa and waiting for me. I found his antics funny, as I fastened my belt buckle and slipped on a pair of socks. "Shall we?" I said motioning towards the door. It had just turned 8am in the morning, and I was starving. I still had a few more hours ahead of me before any sleep would come my way though. As we were walking down the corridor, JC walked out his room and ran to catch up with us. We headed down the stairs, following the smell of the freshly cooked food towards the kitchen. Lynn dishing out some breakfast round the table, including a stack of pancakes. As I followed the smell, I turned around to see some movement behind me. A little guy, not very old was running down the stairs, still in his pyjamas. I presumed it was Justin's little brother, and Justin seemed as surprised to see him as I was. He ran into Justin's arms, as he swept him off the ground into a tight hug. I smiled at the show of brotherly affection. If my memory served me, I was under the impression Jonathan usually lived with Paul Randall, rather than Lynn. Evidently he'd come round to see Justin after returning from the several weeks away, on the whistle stop tour of Europe. After a few seconds Justin put Jonathan down and introduced me to him. "Jonathan, this here is Simon. He's a friend of mine, who's going to be staying with us for a while. Do you want to go and say hello?" Justin said, giving him a little push towards me. I knelt down to try and get down to his own height level, in my experience, people never liked being looked down upon if they were to be completely comfortable. "Hello Jonathan." I said, holding out my hand for him to shake. "My name's Simon." "Hi Simon." He said, shaking my hand, or a few fingers at least. I'd always loved children, and I always thought I managed to get on pretty well with them. I never really wanted any of my own though, but I would be lying if I'd said it had never crossed my mind. "Where ya from?" Jonathan asked in a characteristic manner of a five else six year old. "I'm from England. That's where I met up with Justin on tour." I replied, avoiding bringing in any aspects of our relationship to anyone for the time being. Justin would break it to his parents when he thought the appropriate time was upon us. He ran off over to JC next, who got another hug, while I noticed Lynn standing in the corner of the hall, grinning brightly. I walked over to her, "I take it Justin didn't know he was here?" "No, but I couldn't keep him away. He was fast asleep when you got home earlier, I went and got him up and ready after you three disappeared. He's really missed Justin." "That much is definitely clear. Anyway, enough of this soppy romantic stuff! Let's go get something to eat, I don't know about you , but I'm starving!" I said, and we all headed off into the kitchen. Lynn had laid on a full spread for us, consisting of a little bit of everything. There was enough here to feed a small army, or three very hungry guys! Just as I was about to sit down and set into my food, I heard the faint sound of Bach's 'Tocotta and Fugue in G Minor' coming from upstairs, and I excused myself before quickly running into my room and answering the mobile, glancing at the number on the display. "Hello Paul, how's things?" I said, sounding relatively cheerful. "I've got some good news and some bad news Simon." "How about the good first?" "They've caught him. He confessed that he blew the place up." He stopped for a second, as if anticipating a response, when none as received he continued. "John Hillhouse from Hillhouse Hammond & Moore has got back to me. They've agreed to pay off all the companies debts, including wages, leaving the company in a clear." Yet again, another pause followed. "But, they take ownership of all the land, they then sell it, use the money to pay off the debts. We then get what's left over, which they estimate should be an odd million or so." "It's better than I was expecting, I thought we'd still be a long way in the red after this. At least we'll be left intact. What's the total loss then, approaching fourty million?" "With everything that's been lost, all the cars, planes and property it's 34 million pounds, not including the land which has to go to pay off the debts." "That's fair enough. We can split whatever money is left between the two of us, you deserve it." "It's your money Simon, you're Dad left it to you." "And you helped him get it. I was always expecting you to get ownership of the garage, and I would just get some money to keep me going. I owe it to you." "I've got enough put by, are you certain you want to do it?" "I was expecting to have a big round zero in my bank balance. I'll restart a business over here with that money, it's what I'm good at." "Ok then, it shouldn't take too long to sell, John Fox was on us only the other week about buying off the garage in Leicester." "Yeah, it's all pretty good stuff in terms of resale." "Ok then Simon. Look after yourself, I'll call you back with whatever developments occur. The insurance company are going to pay up about eleven million in the next month or so to clear us off of our debts, and then they'll disappear. They were reluctant to pay even that, we had to do a lot of pushing. Oh, and your Bentley, the engine still runs." At that point I laughed a little, they certainly knew how to build them. I went to walk downstairs, and saw Justin standing in the doorway. "I only caught the last bit. What's happened?" "Oh nothing much. The insurance company will pay off our debts, and leave us with the land the garages were on for resale." "That's not that bad. It must be worth a bit of money, eh??" "It's all pretty damaged, the insurance company thought about five million. It's more than enough for us. Anyway, let's not talk about this. Let's get back to breakfast. I'm still starving!" End of yet another chapter I'm sorry this one's brief, but I thought I needed to get something out without waiting too long. The next chapter has a slightly different twist. I've had a lot of work on my plate lately. The next chapter will probably be taking a similar amount of time. Keep the emails up, it helps as an encouragement to keep me going and writing. I've not had a lot of inspiration this chapter on writing, only happened few times. I've got a few interesting things planned over the next few chapters though, so I hope I'll keep you interested. The story isn't ending soon. My other story on the other hand has been delayed. I'll try and get my second story out for the new year for you all. It's a completely different line to this one, and I hope you all enjoy it. Email as always trekster2@hotmail.com or trekkiead@yahoo.com . I'm always willing to make new friends, and email is always welcome. As I got to the bottom of this, I realised what a comprehensive proof Jeff did on this for me, thanks! It seems there's one or two quirks on being English. Floors go Ground, First, Second etc... Pyjamas, things like that. Thanks for reading, it'll be a month or so till the next chapter, and I'm doing a change of pace.