All is Found - Chapter 28: Chapter 28

After I got off stage I was met by Thea. She was waiting backstage after I handed my guitar off to a stage hand. I walked quickly into her arms and immediately kissed her. When Thea pulled away I looked into her eyes and smiled.
"I loved the song." She said.
"I'm glad." I said. "Let's get back to my dressing room, I need to shower and then we can check on Pat."
"Lead the way." Thea said.
Alyssa joined us on the walk to my dressing room and told me that I was already trending on twitter. I got Alyssa to send me some pictures the photographer took during the song. It's time for me to publicly come out. After I showered and changed I sat on the couch and typed up an instagram post with a few different pictures of Thea and myself over the course of our relationship so far. Once I was done I read it over to make sure everything made sense and showed it to her. Thea read it over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I showed it to Alyssa just so she is aware of what I'm about to post and I hit send.
I put my phone in my pocket and Thea and myself went to check on my band. Once I made sure they were okay we went up to the suite to see Pat. Halsey hasn't come on and I was glad to catch him before her set started. When I walked in everybody started cheering and Pat pulled me into a tight hug.
"You were amazing out there Ash." He said in my ear.
"Thank you. I'm glad you got to see me on stage again." I said and pulled away from Pat.
Pat let me mingle for a few minutes with everyone else in the suite before I came back over to him with a glass of champagne. He quickly accepted it and we sat down in one of the sets of chairs to watch the start of Halsey set.
"Ed would have loved to be here." Pat said and looked down into the glass of champagne. Before I could reply movement over his shoulder caught my eye. Ed is sitting next to Pat and beside him Ashley and Asher were watching the show.
"He's definitely right I loved your set Ashlyn." Ed said and smiled at me.
"I know he would have." I said and looked back at Pat.
"I'll always watch over him and you too Ash." Ed said and watched as Halsey started jumping around the stage to her song Nightmare.
"I can't believe you get to play on her tour every night Ash!" Ashley said and started jumping around to the song.
"This has been one of the best tours of my life. Halsey has become a good friend to me and I'm surrounded by a great band and friends and I don't want it to end." I said to all of them.
"Then you should take Halsey up on the offer to go to Europe with her." Pat said and finished his glass of champagne.
"I might." I said and looked out to the stage.
"Seriously Ash, we are so proud of you for getting this far. The show was amazing and now you're out in public, you just get to be you." Asher said and smiled.
I took a deep to keep the tears away and I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up and saw Thea standing behind me. I pulled her arm around my chest and kissed her hand. When I looked behind Pat, Ed and my siblings were gone and I sighed.
"You okay?" Thea asked in my ear.
"Yea" I said and turned to kiss her cheek.
Thea came over into the seats and I stood to watch the show with her. I refilled my glass a few times and danced around with her and Lindsey as the show moved along. As the show was coming to an end I needed to get back backstage. So I said good night to everyone and thanked them for coming out and made sure everybody had rides home. Once everyone was covered, Thea and I went backstage for the end of Halsey's set.
My band was already on their way to the hotel for the night and I texted Alyssa to make sure what time the bus would be by my house tomorrow to pick us up to go to New York. Thea and I watched Halsey's encore on the side of the stage as she closed out her night. We hung around for a few minutes after the show before Thea and I went back to her house for the night. I didn't want to turn on the electric for just the night so we stayed at her house.
Waking up in her arms the next morning felt like a dream. After being away for so long I thought I was imagining things. When I realized I wasn't I pressed my face deeper into Thea's chest and signed.
"I'm not a pillow you know." Thea mumbled.
"Sh, I wanted to sleep in." I said and felt myself relax some more into my girlfriend.
"It's already after noon babe." Thea said.
"Fuck. I don't want to get up." I said and refused to move.
"Well you don't have too much of a choice. We need to be at your house in less than an hour and you still need to shower." Thea said and ran her hand over my naked back.
I sighed and looked up at her. Thea cracked her eyes open when she felt me move and smiled at me. I didn't say anything but got up from bed and walked into the bathroom to start the shower. Thea followed me into the bathroom and we showered together. When we were done we changed into some comfy clothes and drove to my house.
All of my bags were still on the bus so I had to wait for them to get here before I could start to repack so Thea and I sat on the couch together. I almost feel asleep in her arms while we waited but luckily, Charlie laid on the horn and I woke up. Thea opened the front door and I slowly walked out front to meet them.
Alyssa and Nikki jumped off the bus when Charlie opened the door. They walked right into my house as Thea helped me get my bags from storage. Since there are only two weeks of tour left I was able to leave a lot of what I brought with me at home to avoid the extra money I would have to spend later to bring it all home.
"Is this where you recorded all of your new stuff?" I heard Nikki say. I was finishing up in my room when I heard her voice down the hall. I zipped my luggage up and walked into Ashers room.
"Yea, it took some time to get used to it being a recording studio though. This used to be my brother's room." I said leaning against the doorframe.
"I'm sure he would be okay with you turning it into a studio." Nikki said and stood from the desk chair.
"Yea he definitely doesn't mind." I said and looked at the picture on the desk. It's of Asher, Ashley and myself. I like to have photos of them around when I'm making music. One day before I left for tour I was sitting on the floor in here and Asher walked through the door and looked around. He approved and gave some suggestions for improvements and of course I made them the next day.
"Do you need help with your bags?" Nikki asked changing the subject.
"No I've got it. Do you know where Alyssa is?" I asked wondering where my manager disappeared to.
"Ashlyn we need to hit the road to avoid the traffic when we hit New York City!" Alyssa yelled up the stairs.
"Found her." I said and put my hand on Nikkis' shoulder to pull her out of Asher's old room. I closed the door behind us and looked at the olive green lettering still present on the door. I sighed and returned to my room to grab my luggage before meeting everybody downstairs. Thea took my bag out to the bus as I did a quick sweep of the house to make sure everything was locked down.
Once I locked the front door I walked over to Pat's house to give him quick goodbye before meeting everyone on the bus. Charlie started the four hour drive to NYC as I took a seat in the back of the bus with Thea. Alyssa was working away on her laptop and she mentioned how much my coming out post has been trending since I posted it last night. A lot of celebrities have reposted it and wished me well. Our biggest supporter was Halsey though. She made a post with a picture and video of when she sang for us during her soundcheck and a video. Halsey just finished singing and you could hear Thea say I love you to me. I don't know who captured the moment but when Thea says it you can see the emotion in my face. Her words were sweet and when I see her in New York I need to thank her.
The ride to New York was a quiet one. As Alyssa clacked away on her laptop I cuddled into Thea and turned on a movie that we both feel asleep watching. Alyssa only woke us up when we arrived at the hotel where we will be staying for the next five days. We have a full day off in New York City before we leave for Nashville and I plan on spending the day sight-seeing with Thea.
Tonight Halsey has rented out a rooftop restaurant for us to all have dinner together. I was excited to have Thea around and to have her get to know some more people that I work with. Once we got settled in at the hotel I started to get ready for dinner and went with a fitted red tank top with a pair of light blue jeans and my usual black leather jacket. Just as I finished lacing up my converse Thea came out of the bathroom wearing a deep v neck blue tank top and a pair of black skinny jeans.
"You're killing me." I said and watched her every move as she reached into her luggage to grab a jean jacket.
"You know how I like to dress up every once and while and get out of my uniform." Thea said with a wink as she slipped into her jacket.
"Speaking of, I made us reservations for dinner in two days at a nice place that will require you to dress up." I said reminding her of my plans for after sight-seeing.
"And I have the perfect outfit planned, are you ready to go? Alyssa is going to break down the door if we don't get out of here within the next few minutes." Thea said and grabbed her crossover bag.
I didn't answer her with a response, just grabbed the room key left on the TV stand and opened the door for her. Thea walked out and was right about Alyssa. She was walking down the hall toward our room as we got into the hallway. She hurried us into the elevator and we met my band and some of our behind the scenes staff waiting downstairs.
We all piled into a one of our tour buses to get to the restaurant. A half an hour later I was standing on a rooftop overlooking the Hudson River, a drink in my hand and a beautiful girl by my side. Eli joined us when he got here. Beer in hand to watch as the sun was starting to set. He grilled Thea and said that if she didn't treat me right he would hurt her. Thea took it in stride and told Eli she had no plans on hurting me.
I left them when I saw Ashley walking around the tables greeting everybody. When I saw she stepped away for a moment I walked up to her and tapped her shoulder. She turned around and smiled at me.
"I just wanted to thank you for the words of support on instagram. They mean a lot to me." I said and gave her a smile.
"When I saw the video from my videographer I knew I needed to post it. The love in your eyes was something I hope to find some day." Ashley said and threw her arm over my shoulder. She turned us around and stopped when she saw Thea. Thea is leaning over the edge of the rooftop watching the sunset. Britt is talking to her about something and then she turned away from the edge and her eyes found mine.
"There it is again. The girl is so in love with you. It's so pure and I wanted to show people that love like this exists outside of movies and books. Treasure it, because you never know when it will be gone. Now come, we need to have some shots." Ashley said and dragged me over to the bar.
Tour dinner was an experience to say the least. We haven't had one like this yet on tour and I wish we had. Everyone is mingling around the rooftop and having a great time. Food kept coming and the shots were flowing. Eli was almost has drunk as the night we went out back in January. Britt, Nikki and Diego were sitting around a fire pit with most of Ashley's band chatting while I have Thea sitting on my lap.
"Want to get out of here?" Thea asked as her hand played with the baby hairs on the base of my neck.
"If you want to." I said looking up at her eyes.
"Yea I want to take you somewhere if that's okay?" Thea asked.
"Sure baby, let's just say bye first." I said.
Thea nodded and we made our rounds of the party to say goodnight to everybody. Of course we got shit on for leaving early to head back to the hotel. Quite a few sex jokes were yelled as we left the roof and I could only laugh. As walked downstairs to the ground level I could see flashes of paparazzi camera's out front. So after a generous tip to a waiter he showed us the back door and we snuck away into the night.
Thea worked my arm through hers and we walked down the block along the water front. For a night in mid-May it wasn't too cold out as we walked.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"It's just around the block and then I'll explain okay?" Thea said in a somber tone. I didn't say anything but just put my head down on her shoulder as we walked in silence.
When we turned the corner I stopped in my tracks. Before us is the World Trade Center Memorial. I looked up at Thea but her eyes are locked on the reflecting pools. She pulled my arm a little and we continued our way across the street. There aren't many people walking around at this time of night as Thea pulled towards one of the pools.
"I used to live in Queens. My dad was an NYPD Officer and my mom was an FDNY EMT. They were both off from work that day. It was rare that their schedules lined up for them to have the same off days and we were planning on having a picnic in the park after I got out of school that day. After the first plane went into the tower my dad came and picked me up from school before they locked the schools down. They both got dressed in uniform and pushed me into the back seat of the car.
"By the time my dad just got to my mom's station the second plane hit the south tower. Her crew was just arriving and they rushed off toward lower Manhattan and my dad left for his own precinct. I was only 9 at the time but I stayed in the station.
"I didn't see either of them again until later that night. Both of them lost a lot of friends that day and they weren't the same. They both worked on the pile for months and I could tell it took a lot out of them. Four years later dad was having a lot of trouble breathing and when he went to the doctor he was diagnosed with lung cancer. We left Queens after that and came up here to Salem for a change of pace. We only had him with us for another three months before the cancer took him. We only found out after he died that by the time he went to the doctor it was already too late. The cancer was all throughout his body.
"Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer a year after he died. With treatment she was able to live to watch me graduate high school, but she didn't last much longer. We had one last summer together and then she past right after I started my first semester at community college.  After she was gone all I had left was Allison and her family. They left me everything and I stayed in Salem to be with Allison.
"I haven't been here in 10 years and it's the first time I've seen it without the all the fencing around the sight. The city did a nice job."
I was left speechless. Thea ran her hand over some names on the edge of the pool and sighed. This is the first time Thea has ever told me about her parents. I knew the day would come eventually when she would bring them up but I never thought about what she would say.
"My parents met in the police academy and they started dating right away. My mom ended up dropping out to start the FDNY academy but they were head over heels in love with each other. They were married a year later. I came along another year later. My mom was such a nerd when it came to Titans, Greek and Roman mythology and when they found out they were having a girl she wanted to name me Themis, the Titan goddess of divine law and order, as a reminder of where they first met.
"My dad hated it, after I was born he was the one who started calling me Thea. Mom always called me Themis though and they bickered about it all the time. Thea was easier to go by in school. Allison was the first person who didn't tease me about my name. When I told my mom I thought about becoming a police officer, she told me that I was living up to my name."
Thea let out an airy chuckle and looked over to the other reflecting pool. The emotional strength Thea has astounded me. I would be in tears if I were her. I put my hand over Thea's and gave it a squeeze to let her know I'm still here and listening.
"I told her that I wanted to be a police officer to honor my father. My best memories with my dad always revolved around the police station. When I graduated the academy and got my shield number I saw it was my dad's number, 5072. Only my investigator knew about my dad so when I got the number that's what broke me. I survived the academy but getting a silver shield with a four digit number is what broke me. Allison told me it was a sign from my dad. For me to know that he approved of me becoming an officer."
Thea licked her lips and swallowed before looking at me. I could see tears starting to form in her eyes and I pulled her into my arms.
"I would like to know more about your parents when you're ready to tell me baby." I said in her ear.
When I pulled away from Thea I wiped her tears away. Just as I was about to say something a person behind Thea caught my eye. Looking behind Thea I could see at least 25 officers dressed in their formal uniform and they are all looking at Thea. But two people stood out in front of the rest. A woman and a man holding hands, the shield number on the man is 5072.
"We all look over her. Please tell Thea how proud we are of her." The man said. I could only nod at Thea's parents.
"What are you looking at?" Thea asked and turned around. As Thea turned to face her parents I watched as everyone smiled at her.
"Your parents are so proud of you Thea I hope you know that. How about we go back to the hotel now." I said walked in front of her.
Thea nodded at me and I took her hand in mine. As we walked the length of both reflecting pools more officers appeared. They stood at attention as we walked by and when we got to the street I looked back and saw Thea's parents still standing there. I had a hard time keeping my emotions in check as Thea hailed us a cab.