L.A., California

Erik watched as the other band members carried Ellen off to the V.I.P. booth. He hopped off the stage and headed towards the bar. He flagged down the bartender. Erik ordered a shot of Jack and took a look around the bar. The place was packed, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. People kept noticing him and offering a friendly wave, which he politely returned. The bartender came back with his drink. Erik took a quick swallow and felt the heat from the whiskey run down his throat and hit his stomach. He put the empty shotglass on the counter and walked off into the crowd. He looked back at the band and saw that Ellen was starting to wake up.

Erik spent the next few minutes waiting for the band to get ready when he heard the man yell his name again. "Erik! Yo, Erik!" Erik turned around and saw the man walking towards him. "Erik! good to see you. It has been awhile. Remember me?" Erik glared at him. "Yes, Corbin. I do remember you. And I want you to leave. Now." Corbin let out a short, loud laugh. "Now, that isn't the way to talk to an old friend." Erik quickly got up into Corbin's face and began to yell. "You are the reason I wasted eleven years of my life! YOU are the REASON I lost everything!" Corbin took a step back and then swung at Erik. He struck Erik right above the eye, making him stumble backwards. Corbin started walk forward, ready to finish the fight. Erik lashed out with his foot, catching Corbin in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. Erik launched onto Corbin and began to repeatedly punch him. Erik continued to pound on Corbin until the bouncer pulled him off. The massive bouncer scooped up Corbin and quickly deposited him outside, checking to see that Corbin was able to make it home.

The bouncer walked over to Erik, who was sitting on the edge of the stage, a dishrag pressed to his forehead, trying to stop the cut from the ring on Corbin's hand caused. "So Erik, who in the hell was that?" Erik looked up at the bouncer. "Just a very dark part of my past." Erik waved down Anna. "I am fine to keep playing. So, when are we getting back to the show?"

Damon was sitting at a bar stool close to the stage when everything happened. The band was playing a Within Temptation song, but the guitarist fainted, and the drummer got into a fight during the break. Always wanting to help those in need, Damon walked over to the lead singer, introducing himself. Anna was the name, right?
"Hey, you're Anna Blackthorn, the singer?" Damon itched his beard, which was getting a bit too long. "I'm Damon Wedge. I saw your little incidents, and I wanted to help. Need a bass player?"

Anna was overwhelmed by the people in the crowd and both Erik and the guy with the beard that was speaking to her."Ya Erik should be good and here ."She handed him the water and the cloth , patting his hand slightly."Can you please go help Ellen and make sure she is alright?" She gave him a quick smile before turning towards the bearded guy." Yes I am Anna and your a bass player? Well...that would be good actually. That's really all we need left is someone to play bass but, can you handle the songs we do?"

She motioned towards the stage and smiled to show him she wasn't trying to be rude, she was just making sure he was at their level of playing.

"I see no problem with you joining, hell maybe we can even use you if Ellen can't play , that is if you have your bass with ya?"

Evelyn had paled at the events that had occurred, oh how she knew this conclusion before it was set in motion. Setting her empty glass down she made her was over to Erik and reached into her good ole bottomless pit where she kept a first aid kit. This little habit she learned from when she would escape through her window on days that her father would get grossly inebriated, her room of course was on the top floor, quite a fall that was when she would slip. Without waiting for his approval she pulled the disgusting dishrag from him and carefully disinfected his wound. "A dishrag? Really? Do you know how many germs you pressed against your open would? Ugh!", she stoped her little rant after she realized she sounded like a doting mother and that she was probably angering and embarrassing him. Abashedly she stepped away from him after smoothing on some liquid bandage onto his wound, "Dont mind me...I just get worked up easily. Silly little Evelyn, that's me. Guess we should see to Ellen..."

"Oh, I can handle anything," Damon chuckled. "Been playing since I was a little boy. My bass is in my truck, I just have to go get it." Damon ran out to his truck as fast as he could, and sped back inside with it. "It's ready, I always tune it before I go." He played a quick bass line to show Anna his skills. "Well, mind if I join you tonight?"

Jon took Ellen to the VIP area, and laid her on one of the better couches. As far as Jon could tell, Ellen was sleeping it off, though she would have a difficult hangover after she woke up though. Jon looked over to Erik and started to his feet when a fight broke out, but didn't have the chance, as it was over before it began. The bouncer threw the other person out. He gently dabbed Ellen's head with the wet cloth. She reacted to the chilled water but stayed asleep. She would be okay. He went over to his keyboard, and checked it over, nodding to the bass player to show he was fine with the addition.

Erik sat on the stage, nursing his head wound when suddenly the towel he was using was ripped from his hand. Evelyn started in on patching him up before he could even say anything. She finished cleaning him up and took a step back. Erik stood up and smiled at her. "Thanks, Evey. And about Ellen..." He looked over at her. "There isn't much we can do at the moment." He could tell that Evelyn was a little strung out from everything that happened in the past twenty minutes. "Some show, huh Evey?" Erik offered his attempt at humor with a disarming smile. He climbed back on stage, shook hands with the new bassist, and sat down at his drumkit. he checked it quicky, deemed it to be in fine shape, and sat patiently, awaiting Anna's instruction.

"Damon Wedge." Damon introduced himself to the group's drummer as they shook hands. The drummer had a pretty bad head bruise from the fight Damon had recently witnessed. "It's Erik, right?" Damon recalled hearing somebody say the name. As Erik went back to his drums and got them ready for the next song, Damon could see he should give a good performance. Damon walked over to the keyboard player, and began to tune his bass guitar. He plucked his top, low string after plugging it into the amp and making sure it wasn't too loud for tuning.
"Didn't catch your name!" Damon asked before requesting help in tuning. "I'm Damon Wedge. By the way, could you play me an E please?" Damon matched his string's sound to the keyboard's tone, and continued to adjust the three strings left.
After Damon was all tuned for the next song, he played a quiet but quick little bass line to warm up. When ready, he found the singer and asked what song they would play soon.