Kris and Ginger stayed in the hospital for two days before everyone made the long journey back home. The babies were in no condition to fly, so they took the tour bus across the country to LA. The ride home always seemed longer than anything else, and it felt like Zac spend more time on the bus going home then he did the whole tour. Jenny was getting adjusted to having a little brother and a cousin around, although she obviously was annoyed with the lack of attention she was getting now that there were two new infants in her life.
As soon as they got home Jess went into the studio to begin work on her album, and Isaac flew out to LA to begin working on the new Hanson album. Zac was going back out on the road in a few weeks to promote Ginger's new movie, which was already getting high reviews from the critics who had seen parts of it. The premier wouldn't be for another month, and the movie would be released in late October, just in time for Zac's twentieth birthday.
Taylor, Isaac and Zac were sitting in Zac's music room in his apartment the day after Isaac and Roni arrived. The two were staying in Zac's guest room again, and Isaac and Zac were getting along quite nicely. Neither of them thought they'd ever be this comfortable around each other again, but then again neither of them thought they'd ever speak to each other again.
"So," Isaac said to Taylor as he got his guitar out, "how are you enjoying fatherhood?" Taylor turned around from his seat at the piano bench.
"Well," Taylor said, "I haven't slept in a week, Kris is irritable, and Anthony does nothing but shit, sleep and cry." Isaac and Zac laughed. "It's the best." Zac was twirling his drumstick in his hand. He hadn't played his drums in ages and he couldn't wait to get back on it.
"I've had this melody in my head for a couple of days now," Isaac said, getting right down to business. "It sounds familiar but I don't know if it's just because I've thought of it before or if it's somebody else's."
"Try it out," Taylor said. Isaac played a gripping melody out on his acoustic guitar and Zac tried to pinpoint it to a song, but he'd never heard it before. Looking at Taylor, he just shook his head. "No, I haven't heard it before. Zac?"
"Nope."
"Then it must be mine," Isaac said. "Tay, what can you do with it?"
"Plenty," Taylor said. He turned around and began to tinker away on the piano. Zac continued to twirl his drumstick in between his fingers, thinking, and a couple of lyrics came to his mind.
"Hey, what about�"
Before he could get any further Taylor turned back to Isaac and started to sing a few lines. Isaac picked it up quickly and suddenly the song had taken a completely different direction than Zac had anticipated. When they stopped, Zac spoke again.
"That's great, but�"
"And then I was thinking the chorus could go something like this," Isaac said, cutting Zac off again. Isaac played a few chords on his guitar and Taylor joined in with the piano. "Your voice would do great with the chorus."
"I like yours better for the verses," Taylor said.
"What about�" Zac began.
"We could always switch off," Isaac said. "Kind of like 'Madeline,' only a little edgier." Zac threw his drumsticks down, stood up, and walked to the door. "What the hell is your problem?"
"My problem is that we've been back together as a band for five minutes and you've managed to completely alienate me once again," Zac said. "This is why I went solo. If you don't happen to remember, I'm the reason you guys are even here. This is my apartment, these are my instruments, and this is my record deal. If you don't want to listen to me, then you can find your own contract. I'm out of here." Zac opened the door and headed out.
"Zac!" Taylor said, getting up. "Zac, wait. I'm sorry."
"Me too, Zac," Isaac said. "Come back over here." Zac sighed and came back inside. He shut the door behind him and sat back behind his drums. "Now what do you see for this song?"
"I think everything you've done so far is terrible," Zac said. "This is waaaayy too MMMBop for us. We're trying to get out of that image and a song like that would just set us back five or six years. Now I'm fine with Taylor singing lead this time, but if we're trying to showcase his voice with a chorus you need something higher and stronger than where you're going."
"Like how?" Isaac asked. Zac stood up and grabbed another acoustic from his set of instruments and took a seat in front of his drums. He took the chorus idea Isaac had come up with and raised about a fourth step higher and played it louder. He sang the lyrics he had come up with at the beginning, and Isaac was blown away.
"Do you see what I mean?" Zac asked, abruptly stopping.
"Yeah. Wow, that was amazing." Isaac looked at Taylor, who nodded. "When did you get to be so good at this?"
"I've always been good," Zac said. "You just never let me show you."
"Zac?" Taylor asked. Zac looked at him. "How about you try lead for this song?" Zac smiled.
A half hour later Zac emerged from the music room to get some water in the kitchen. Ginger was in there with Christopher and Jenny. "Hey baby," she said, giving him a kiss as he passed by. "How's it going in there? Are your big brothers playing fair?" He nodded.
"Yeah."
"How's writing going?" she asked. He paused, turning to look at her.
"It's perfect. Everything's perfect." He gave his wife a kiss before returning to his music room, where he and his brothers continued to write their future together, the way it should be.
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