Infinity Chapter 16 - Carrick's Discovery

[itztigress3]

Chapter 16 – Carrick’s discovery
POV:   Zac
Word count: 3297

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Today was the last day of Hanson Day festivities, just the show this afternoon, so I had Alexander in the office with me while Emily handled the store. I hadn’t gotten to see him much the last week at all, it had been after 1 when I got home and during the day it was hectic and fast and he was with Emily most of the time or later part of the week, Carrick. I hadn’t gotten anything this week and the detective said there really wasn’t much I could do without knowing an identity of the caller because it really could just be some random fan. She made me promise if they got worse or became threats to myself or anyone that I’d call.

Alexander and I stayed in the office all morning, I played with him and got to just spent time with him which was important to me. I gave him lunch about 11:30 and afterwards he laid down for a nap. Carrick came in about ten minutes after he was down.

“Dude, can I use your computer to check my e-mail?”

“Sure, mine’s already on and up. Don’t touch Ems though, she has shit set up way differently and if you mess it up she gets mad.”

“No problem. I can stay here with him if you want to head down and see her or fans.”

“I should do both.”

I left him sitting in the office and went downstairs, I got Emily lunch and she and I ate together in the backside of the store. I then spent an hour mingling with the fans there in the store and outside. It was about thirty minutes before I had to leave for the sound check and I went up to check on Alexander, who was playing with his toys in the crib, but Carrick gave me a strange look.

“Everything ok?”

“I should be asking you that Zachary.”

He rarely ever used my full first name so that caught my attention and I looked at him. “What is it?”

He slid the chair some and there was my e-mail program, one I had forgotten to close before I left. But the picture on his screen was of Emily and Alexander and it was taken the day before, Emily had worn the grey button up shirt with bright blue flowers, she’d put Alexander in a grey onesie with blue pants. I remember because I said they kind of matched.

“It’s um...a good picture of my wife and son.”

“It is, I agree and I thought maybe you e-mailed it from your phone but then I realized your phone is right there. Confused I scrolled down to a
very good shot of Alexander with me, but I wasn’t in the picture. Then I saw the message, asking if that was close enough for you, asking if you enjoyed the thongs. What the fuck is going on Zachary? Because if you are cheating on Emily, I will personally beat your ass.”

“I am not cheating on Emily!” I said.

“This sure sounds like it Zachary, pictures of your wife and son and then asking if you liked the thongs. Is your mistress following Emily?”

“I don’t have a mistress Carrick, I am not cheating on Emily, I wouldn’t do that to her.”

“Then do you…” he trailed off and minutes later Casey and Emily entered the room.

“It feels very tense in here.” Casey said.

“I agree.” Emily said.

“Everything is fine, we were just discussing something.”

“Well, it’ll have to wait to be finished. Taylor and Isaac are waiting on you right now, there impatient. I came to get Alexander.”

“Actually, Ems if you want you can leave him here. I plan to sit here for a bit, I’ll bring him down with me.”

“Are you sure?” She asked.

“Yeap, this way you can finish and close out the store properly and you won’t have to worry about him getting bored.”

“Ok.” She said. She kissed Alexander and they left the room, she gave me a final warning to get down quickly.

He sat quietly until he saw them crossing the warehouse floor and then he looked at me. “You and I will have a serious discussion on this and you better believe me Zachary, I don’t want any bullshit answers from you. You need to go to your sound check.”

One part of me felt like I was being treated like a child here, but he was older than me and I didn’t have time to explain anything and what if he mentioned it to her?

“Stop fretting Zachary, I’m not going to say anything to your wife until you and I talk. Go!”

I turned and after kissing Alexander on the head I left and went to meet Isaac and Taylor. Shit! I should have closed that program, but would Emily think the same thing if she stumbled upon them? Sound check shockingly went well, but Carrick ignored me when I tried to call him and after the show we had several hours of breaking down stuff, putting up equipment, and setting the studio back up. Emily took Alexander home about 8:30 and by the time it was just Carrick and I it was after 1 in the morning. As we drove home I tried to talk.

“No Zachary. You’re tired and so am I. We will pick a time tomorrow and you and I will do something away from Emily.”

“How do I explain that to her?”

“I’m sure you can find some reason.”

He was still irritated and mad so I left it alone, Carrick wasn’t Casey. I knew if this was Casey beside me I could temper him with sex or some favor for the future but Carrick was straight and he wasn’t into me that way. He went straight to the guest room when we got home and I fixed a bowl of cereal and then went to the bedroom. Alexander was laying beside Emily in the bed, so I gently got him and laid him in his crib, patted his butt a few moments until he was back asleep. I then stripped and laid down.

“Zac?”

“It’s me, we’re home.”

“Now? Baby you were home a like eleven, did you leave again?”

“Em, sweetie I think you’re very tired. It’s after 1.”

“Oh, maybe I was dreaming, I am tired as hell.”

I kissed her. “Go back to sleep, if he wakes up then I’ll get him.”

She laid her head back down and drifted back off. I laid down and eventually fell asleep, thankfully Alexander slept all night.

May 20, 2013; Monday

Emily woke me up at 8 to tell me she was going to go to the studio anyway to count the cash and make the deposit, Alexander was already awake and had already been nursed this morning and was changed and ready for the day. She sat him on the bed with me and kissed my forehead and then she was gone. Alexander laid beside me for a bit, then played and rolled and tumbled all over me. But, at 9 I got up and went downstairs with him. I sat him down in the middle of the living room floor and put all kinds of toys and he was very happy to sit there and play. I fixed cereal and cleaned up the kitchen, decided I wanted to do stew for dinner so I went ahead and cleaned and prepped what I could.
Carrick came down about 11 and looked around.

“What happen to Emily?”

“She woke me up at 8; she went in for a while.”

“Here you were worried about being alone.”

He fixed himself lunch and ate and then we went to the living room, I had Alexander’s bottle ready; he’d been playing contently but was rubbing his eyes some. I picked him up and sat down on the love seat, he didn’t seem content with the bottle and Carrick laughed.

“You know what he wants Zac.”

“I know, but Mama’s not home.”

When he got done eating lunch I changed him and he lay down on my chest.

“Casey’s is not lying; you have that child spoiled rotten.”

“He’s use to Emily holding him until he’s asleep. He doesn’t require us to do this.”

He smirked at me and waited, once Alexander was completely asleep I laid him down on his mat, and I hadn’t even sat down before he turned the TV off and once comfortable I found he was looking at me.

“So, saw the rest of the e-mails yesterday.”

“I figured you would.”

“You want to explain to me what is going on?”

I took several moments to gather the information mentally so I wouldn’t confuse him.

“It was early January, I got a package at 3CG that was photos of me and Kate, Emily and Isaac, and me alone all of them had an infinity
symbol on them. We just guessed that it was a fan who printed them out and mailed them to me, we get stuff at the studio all the time. At Fool’s you remember the inked boards?”

“I do, you and Casey cleaned them up.”

“I got pictures in a text message of Emily and Alexander with her brother Joshua and me alone on the patio. I asked and no real answers and then after the ink this number asked if I liked their surprise. I just wrote it off. Despite the pictures of Emily, they were outside. Later that week I got more pictures of her, sitting outside with snow. Turns out she’d just got done beating her ex-best friend’s ass. The message told me to memorize them, because once I with this person I wouldn’t be able to see them.”

“Zachary…”

“Carrick, it’s some stupid fan. Really, they mentioned rumors of us having problems because I didn’t respond in February. Every photo this person has sent to me is usually of me, dating back to Mayfest in 1995. I have gone to the police and none of the messages are threatening, none are making direct threats, and really the worst picture was of Casey and I in bed at Fool’s last year.”

“Of you and Casey?”

“Don’t even Carrick; you know we share a bed there.”

“I do know and I know that your wife is aware of that and ok with it. But, how would it be bad?”

I took a deep breath. “Well, we were close together and his arm was over my waist. The person claimed they took the photo because the doors weren’t locked. I did what I was supposed to, I contacted the police and informed them about the e-mails and messages, nothing they can do.”

I wasn’t going to tell Carrick that Casey and I had been having sex for over two years, it wasn’t really any of his business and he knew I slept beside Casey a lot at Fool’s, it was better than one of us sleeping on the sofa. I also didn’t need him to know the person knew about our sexual adventures.

“That doesn’t explain the thong comment.”

I signed. “In April Taylor and I got into a fight and while I was in the office I got a message telling me there was a package for me. I went to get lunch and opened it. They were black remote control thongs. I threw them away; I didn’t even keep the box. He or she sent another pair, which are in my truck behind the seat. I destroyed the bullet but Emily and Maddi were there and I couldn’t get rid of them.”

“Go on.”

“I know it’s one person because all of the pictures have the same infinity symbol on them. Really Carrick, the pictures I get are all ones that can be taken publically. Ninety percent are of me. Everything I have gotten of Alexander or Emily were in public.”

“Zac, you realize that means someone followed them or knows where she is. Why have you not told her?”

I looked down at Alexander, sleeping peacefully on his mat.

“I thought when Adam got bad that putting her with someone all the time would help her feel safe. That worked but the problem is she didn’t
feel safe when she wasn’t with us. It took a long time for her to kind of realize she is safe. You see she went to work alone this morning, she’s not alone there but she’ll drive home alone. Six months ago she wouldn’t go in without me. She wouldn’t drive unless I was with her. She went home in February not totally because she needed to spend time with them but because she didn’t feel safe here alone for the week. I started to call her the moment I got pictures of her at her brothers, but then I thought about what she would do.”

“Which was?”

“She would have flown home and locked herself in this house until I come home. She wouldn’t feel safe alone with Alexander at all; she’d want someone with her all the time. I can’t do that to her again. I can’t risk that she’ll become some hermit and stop living.”

“Do you have the other messages?”

“No. I deleted the text messages and eventually put a stop to those by having Craig put the same program back on my phone, so he or she
cannot text me anymore. They just use e-mail now, I deleted the one account they originally used but they use my primary one and there a member of the fan club, but I don’t know what the person looks like because the only picture is of me.”

“Do you have the pictures?”

“Yes, there on my laptop.”

“Show them to me, all of them.”

I got my laptop and showed him the pictures I had saved, which was all of them. He looked at them all and then sat quietly on the sofa for thirty minutes.

“I don’t know much about how Emily handled being watched, however I will trust your opinion and judgment on why you didn’t tell her. I won’t tell anyone else but you are to keep me informed on this, because if they do get worse or you start getting pictures that aren’t something you can get in public then we have a major problem.”

“I’m just going that it’s some obsessed fan that will stop when they realize I’m not divorcing Emily and I’m not falling for the bullshit.”

“Still Zac, obsessed fans can lead to major problems. This person clearly followed your career and your life. Granted most of these I have seen on the web myself. I won’t tell her but Zac, I really believe you should at least let her know. She doesn’t need to stumble upon the same messages I saw, because my first reaction was you were seeing someone else. That would be hers as well.”

I nodded but I had no intention of telling Emily anything, everything would be fine. It grew quiet for a bit and he finally looked over at me.

“I want to ask you something, I’ll understand if you don’t want to answer.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, what could he possibly want to know? “Sure, but apparently be aware I may not answer.”

“I know how you are when it involves sex; you’re very closed lipped on that. But, there have been things that have made me wonder.”

I wet my lips and waited for his question or for him to say anything else. He waited a few moments before he looked at me.

“Are you bi-sexual? I only ask because obviously your into women, you married Emily and from the way Casey talks your sex life with her is great. But, at the same time I have noticed that you and Casey are quite close. You don’t mind if he’s practically in your lap, you don’t mind when he touches your upper leg and it just seems like you two have been really close.”

I really kind of expected his question to be in that area, but I wasn’t sure how Casey would feel if he knew.

“I don’t need details Zac and I won’t be mad or upset or pissed off and I won’t think anything different of you or Emily.”

Alexander stirred some and turned a bit and I watched him for a moment but he settled back down.

“I was curious before I met Kate, but never acted on it and I am more into women. In a technical sense yes I’m bi-sexual. Yes, Emily knows about it, she’s the reason.”

“She’s the reason?”

I gave him a brief explanation, but didn’t say it was Casey and didn’t give any details beyond I had and liked it but much preferred women, namely, Emily. He paused after the story and then smiled.

“Casey, boy’s he’s always had a crush on you. You chose the right person Zac. I won’t tell anyone not even Casey that I know.”

“Thank you.”

“So, keep me informed on what’s going on.”

“I will, I promise.”

“So, when does little man here start eating solids?”

“We’ve tried every brand, every jar, every flavor and he has no interest in any of them. The doctor assured Emily as long as he’s nursing well he’s fine and it’s not unnormal. We do try, but he just doesn’t want any of it.”

“He seems happy and healthy so you’re doing well, speaking of his eyes are now open and looking around.”

It didn’t take long before he was moving around and I got him, diaper change and we both got down in the floor to play for a while. He had a good arm on him, was sitting up very well and watching him laugh and play made me kind of realize I needed to take a few more steps to make sure that whoever this person was, that they stayed away from him and from Emily.

She got home about 4:15 and he was overly happy to see Mama and content to nurse a bit as well, which was probably why he so happy!

“Did everything go ok at the studio?”

“Oh yeah, we needed to ensure what we had left from Hanson Day and then tomorrow I’ll load the items to the website.”

“Is there anything you don’t do?” Carrick asked.

“Um…record vocals?”

“You play instruments as well?”

“Well, no, but I did do some jingle bells a bit. I can play the drums pretty well but I am no Zac.”

He smiled at her. “So basically you do everything but write, record, and play?”

“Pretty much, I mean they still handle a lot of things themselves and Zac designs a lot of things. But, for the most part I handle everything
else.”

“I don’t see how you do it.”

She smiled at him and Alexander adjusted some in her lap.

“You’ll be there this week, just watch and see.”

“Speaking of, do we have tour people now?”

“Not yet, Casey and I are doing second interviews for a few of them but some we’ve decided on.”

I nodded and while she played with Alexander and kept him entertained Carrick and I fixed dinner and then we ate. Emily sat Alexander at the table in his high chair but he paid us no attention, he instead played with his toys.

Since I had him all day, she declared she was doing the nightly routine, which was fine by me we often switched it up. Carrick and I weren’t up much longer either. I didn’t get any messages that night, which was great.