Chapter Text
"Has anybody seen Dave, the new bodyguard?"
Julie took this as her cue to shove her phone back in her pocket and push off of the wall she'd been leaning against while the band was doing their soundcheck. "Unfortunately for us, due to an... incident, Dave couldn't make it." Despite trying to be diplomatic about it, it was clear to everyone that she really wanted to say me instead of us.
"Who are you? An incident... what does that even mean?" the guitarist with the shaggy brown hair asked. He exchanged a panicked look with his band-mates.
Deciding to start with his second question, Julie scoffed. "It means that the fucking asshole decided to take one last security job at a venue in Phoenix before starting his job with you guys. Got kicked in the head by a first time crowd surfer who panicked when they reached the front barrier and now he has a concussion."
"Ouch. That would do it," the bassist winced. "Is the label sending someone to fill in?"
"Not the label, no", Julie sighed.
The guys all exchanged glances again, the drummer cutting his short, flipping some of his blonde hair out of his face, to look at Julie again and ask, "Who are you, again?"
Looking first up to the ceiling, then closing her eyes for a moment, Julie takes a deep breath. Lord, give her the strength to get through this day painlessly. "I am the miserable SOB that happened to owe Dave a favor."
The statement is met with incredulous silence. Yep. This is going exactly how Julie knew it would. It’d be great if they would stop exchanging glances with each other. It was getting super annoying. Julie shifts her stance automatically, distributing her weight more evenly between her feet, giving her more stability. She glares up at them, daring one of them be the one to break the silence. To be the one to voice the thoughts so obviously running through their minds.
“You?” The word drops into the space between them, raising in pitch with disbelief. Julie shifts her stare to the offender. She wasn’t expecting it to be the drummer but the longer she stares at him the more she sees him begin to squirm. Her surprise quickly fades as she sees more and more tells that this is one anxious boy. He lets out an awkward chuckle, “...okay.”
“You can’t be serious,” Shaggy Hair bites out. A range of emotions dart across his stormy eyes before settling on angry.
The other guitarist, who also has shaggy hair (Damn it, she’s going to have to figure out a different adjective to use to differentiate between them. Maybe floppy?) reaches out like he is about to stop the other. “Luke, don’t—“
“You're so tiny, I bet you get lift off every time you sneeze.”
Asshole. Ope, there it is. She found her new adjective. Someone was going to have to hire a bodyguard to protect this pale-ass white boy from his bodyguard if this conversation was allowed to continue. Fists clenching at her sides, Julie glares at each of them.
“Don’t leave the venue. Better yet, stay in the green room. If you feel the need to do something stupid, wait a few days and do it on Dave’s time.”
And with that she turns around and walks off to find their manager to discuss the itinerary for the upcoming days. She hears a disappointed “Dude” come from the bassist as she rounds a corner, heading towards the offices of the building.
Their manager ends up being a thin man, balding prematurely, named James “but everyone calls me Jimmy”. Julie’s conversation with him is immediately more bearable. Jimmy has worked with Dave before and trusts his judgment in who can stand in until he gets cleared to work. It looks like all that’s left on today’s docket is a small meet and greet before the show, and the show itself. So, Jimmy uses the time before the M&G to introduce Julie to the rest of the crew.
"This is Siobhan, our sound-tech," he says, gesturing to a woman with a purple asymmetrical haircut. Julie reaches out to shake her hand. Jimmy continues, "she also is in charge of the merch booth. We'd be lost without her. And that," he turns in the direction of a man that looks like a heavier set Steve Buscemi, who has a plate piled with food and was walking towards the exit, "is Archie, our driver." Archie waves before he steps outside. "You can get properly introduced later. He likes to get a nap in before the longer drives like the one we have tonight."
"We are glad to add you to the family for the time being! Wish it could have been under better circumstances," Siobhan's smile falters a bit. "Guess we wouldn't need you if that were the case, though."
Julie gives a small chuckle. "It's nice to meet you, no matter the circumstances. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help out in the down time." Just then, her stomach gives a loud grumble.
Siobhan laughed. "Get yourself some food," she nods towards the catering table. "I have to go set up the merch before doors open, but Jimmy can help me with that. I might take you up on your offer tomorrow! So no take-backsies!" And with that, they're off to continue setting up for the evening.
Quickly making her way over to the table, Julie looks at the spread before her. She’s starving. The airline only provided a small bag of pretzels and she came straight to the concert hall from the airport. As she grabs a slice of the ridiculously long sub sandwich and begins eyeing the fruit options, someone sidles up next to her, casting a shadow across the table. Looking up, she sees that it’s the bassist from earlier. The serious set of his face doesn’t look like it comes naturally. Like it would be more natural for a smile to sit upon it.
“Look. That was completely uncool of us”, he rushes out once he catches her eye, like he’s worried she will turn away and walk off again.
“I’m used it.” Julie turns back to the table and decides she's in the mood for an orange.
“But you shouldn’t be and I’m sorry that we perpetuated a sexist stereotype.”
That gave her pause. Deciding to give the guy a chance she grabs an orange and cocks her head towards the edge of the room in invitation to follow her. He scrambles after. Taking a bite of her sandwich as she walks, she swallows once she leans up against the wall. “I appreciate the sentiment,...”
“Reggie”, he supplies.
“Julie.” She takes another bite.
“Nice to meet you, Julie.” A small smile makes it’s way to his lips before quickly disappearing again. “The guys and I have been pretty stressed about this whole thing, which is no excuse, but Luke more so than the rest of us. I mean, I get it... Look I'll try to talk some sense into him, but please, go easy on him if he does something dumb again. Well, go easy on us. We’re all idiots most of the time."
Julie snorts at that statement. Giving in to the grin that statement produced. “I’ve found most men are”, she quips. Stuffing the last of the sandwich into her mouth. She begins to peel the orange as she chews.
Reggie laughs and a full smile settles onto his face. She was right. Smiles were at home there. “So, Julie, what got you into the bodyguard business?”
“I’m not, actually.” She laughs at Reggie's confused head tilt. It reminded her of a puppy. Offering a slice of orange to him, she explains. “I’m part of a stunt work troupe. We get contracted to choreograph action scenes and be stunt doubles provided we have someone that fits the body type and skin color requirements."
"Wow." Reggie says in awe. "So you can do car tricks like in Mad Max? That's so cool! Wait, how does that get you a bodyguard gig?" His head tilts the other way. Julie holds in a giggle as best she can.
"Dave knew I could handle the job due to my hand to hand combat experience," she emphasizes with a chuckle, "and that I would take the job seriously. But most importantly, I owed him a favor."
And really, that is the most important part. Sure, she is good at what she does, and she will take this job seriously, but she hasn't taken a contract that would put her near the music scene before, and only this favor had the ability to make her take this one.
"Wait. Wait waitwaitwait so you can actually do the fights like in STAR WARS??", Reggie nearly screeches.
Julie winces at the proximity to her ear. "I can hold my own, yeah. I don't do as much with hand held weapons, but I had to learn to even be considered for the troupe. One of my coworkers did have the opportunity to create some early mockups of fight scenes for The Mandolorian. He bounced ideas off me and a couple of others a few times. Pacing a fight and keeping it visually interesting can be a bitch in the industry. A fresh set of eyes are always welcome."
A dumbstruck look has pasted itself to Reggie's face by this point. In a hushed, almost reverent voice he states, "Oh my god, you're a badass." Getting louder, "Julie, you have to teach me! I want to fight with a light saber! Teach me the way of the force! Be my jedi master! Please please pleasepleaseplease!"
“Well, we probably won’t have time before I head back to LA. But I'm sure we can make something happen next time you find yourself out west.”
“Yes! We're from LA! You are the best! My people will get in touch with your people and by that I mean I will message you! But how can I message you without your number? Can I just ask for your number? Should I ask if you are on Twitter or Instagram instead? This is the best thing ever! Can I hug you? But we just met, maybe a hug is too forward—“
Julie laughs at the onslaught of questions directed her way amidst the stream-of-consciousness monologue, and interrupts “Sure, Reggie. I could use a hug.”
As soon as gives the go ahead, he has his arms around her in one of the best bear hugs of her life, if she’s being honest. She wraps her arms around his shoulders and, yep, those are her feet leaving the ground. Laughter bursts out of her and she can’t hardly make the words to ask Reggie to put her down. He begins swaying back and forth and her legs feel like a pendulum as they swing. It’s the kind of thing Carlos did to brag that he was taller than her after he had that growth spurt in high school. The moment gets interrupted when Shaggy Hair (not Asshole) approaches them.
“Reggie, put the lady down we gotta go get ready for the meet ’n’ greet.”
Reggie pouts but sets Julie back on the ground. Before he can respond Shaggy reaches a hand out towards Julie. “Sorry I didn’t try to cut in sooner with Luke, earlier. I’m Bobby. Look forward to working with you. We’ll try to do better in the future.”
Shaking his hand, Julie raises an eyebrow at him when he says ‘try’. He clears his throat.
“We will do better.”
Julie smiles. At least some of the people she will be stuck with for the next several days will be tolerable. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Julie. Now let’s get you boys to the meet and greet. Can’t keep those adoring fans waiting.”
Time must hate her. Because how else can you explain this night being so boring and dragging on for-freaking-ever? None of her favorite people are texting her back. Carlos and Tia have excuses. Carlos has an exam coming up in one of his college courses and Tia had a big dinner event she’s been planning for weeks. But her dad? He probably just set his phone down somewhere and wandered off. And it’s probably still on silent from the photo shoot he did that afternoon. So, she won’t likely hear back from him until mid-morning tomorrow. And where the hell is Flynn? She constantly has her phone glued to her hand, so why hasn’t she responded? Julie sighs. Flynn probably got caught up in one of her projects. They are practically the only thing other than sleep that keep her from checking her phone.
The meet and greet had passed without any incidents. Just giggling women, men trying to act casual at meeting the band, some cute couples, and a few local radio personalities trying to get promotional sound bites for their stations. All that, Julie could handle. It wasn’t interesting, but that’s the hope of all bodyguards. When things are interesting in this line of work, the chances of someone getting hurt increases. Boring means the people in her care are safe. Okay, she'll admit that she can live with the boredom. But did it have to make the night take three times as long?
No, the meet and greet wasn’t the problem. It’s what came after. The show. Julie had brought her noise cancelling headphones, but they can only do so much when you are standing within 50 ft of a speaker at rock concert. The soft voice from her current audio book was having issues competing with the thrumming bass that made its way in. Each new song that blasted past the over ear headphones barrier had her feeling more on edge. Every kick of the drums that hit her, powerful enough that they threatened to override her natural pace of breathing, had her muscles tensing up. Attempting to come up with a different way to distract herself, she tried playing some games on her phone, but now she’s starting to regret choosing 2048 when the third unsuccessful game leaves her feeling pissed off on top of the anxiety. She checks to see if she had somehow missed a text from Flynn, and seeing that she hasn’t, pauses the audio book, locks the phone, and shoves it into her back pocket. Walking over to the catering table, she grabs a water bottle and downs half of it in one go, trying to settle her nerves. The beat has stopped and Julie can hear a low voice through the sound system. She can’t make out the words, these are some of the best noise cancelling headphones that are on the market right now, but the low mumble has her looking out onto the stage.
The guys are smiling. At each other; at the audience. Sweat running down their faces but you can tell they are having the time of their lives. Asshole-- ugh. Fine. Luke. (What? Flynn is the one that generally holds grudges. Not Julie), Luke has finished saying whatever little speech he had and he, Reggie, and Bobby have all turned to face their drummer. Alex, apparently. She guesses she did at least learn something from the meet and greet. Alex counts them in and the song starts, looking more like a jam session amongst friends than one of the last songs in an hour long set. Just as the intro is transitioning into the first verse, Luke kicks off the drum platform, spinning around to face the crowd, and reaching the mic just in the nick of time. He definitely knows how to captivate an audience. Arms glistening under the lights. Wait, what? Why is she even watching this? Julie quickly brings her phone back out to start the audio book back up. Noticing she has several texts from Flynn, she busies herself replying for the remainder of the set.
After the encore, the band rushes off stage, placing their instruments into the waiting guitar stands. Reggie lets out a few whoops, clapping Alex on the back, while Bobby and Luke exchange words that have all of them grinning ear to ear. She can tell they are close, the easy camaraderie reminding her of her friendship with Flynn. Letting them bask in their after performance high for a little while longer, Julie uses the time to pack away her headphones in her backpack. When it looked like they were splitting up to gather their gear, she makes her way over. As she approaches, Reggie and Bobby grin at her. Alex looks sheepish, while Luke gives her the shortest of glances, picks up a nearby amp and moves to step around her for the door.
She crosses her arms, "Dude, what is your problem??"
Behind him, the rest of the band all start trying to shut him up before he starts.
“Luke—“
“Don’t be stu—“
“Just drop it—“
"Why should I trust a little thing like you? You're going to get yourself hurt." he shoots back with a glare, arm muscles flexing as he grips the amp.
Julie's eyes sweep passed each of the band members, at least the rest of them look uncomfortable, or unhappy in Reggie's case, before shooting daggers off to the side. What bullshit. To herself, she grumbles "I could have been a stunt-woman for the new Lara Croft, but nooooo. I get to suffer this boy band."
With a crash, the amp drops and suddenly Luke is leaning down into her face, hands against his knees like he is talking to a freaking toddler. One of the guys squawks at his disregard for their gear. Her arms drop down to her sides, hands flexing in anticipation. "Hey, who you calling boy band?", he scoffs.
She makes a show of looking him up and down with an unimpressed stare, unlocking her knees and redistributing her weight, ready for a fight. His face was so close and punch-able. He brings his arm up like he is about to clap her on the shoulder. She smirks, internally thanking him for giving her the opportunity to make a few things clear.
Her right hand knocks into his elbow, fingers clutching, pushing his arm off it's trajectory for her shoulder, and grabs his wrist with her left. Taking a step back she pivots her whole body, pulling him off balance. As he stumbles forward, she hip checks him to keep that momentum while twisting his arm down and behind him as he falls to the ground. Keeping her hands wrapped around his arm sticking straight up behind him, she pushes a knee into his back to ensure he stays put.
It was a moment that only lasted seconds. Luke's eyes were wide. It was clear that his brain was trying to catch up with how he went from standing to on the ground so quickly. Julie heard a shout from his friends but they seemed at a loss of what to do. It sounded like they were trying to talk her down. She ignored them. That was unimportant right now. She had a point to make. Making eye contact with Luke, she gave a small push up against the arm she was holding behind his back. His breath hissed out of him in discomfort.
"First off, I did not give you permission to touch me." She states, giving another small push and vehemently continues. "Second, with a little more force, I could easily dislocate your shoulder right now. I won't, as a courtesy to the rest of your band, and for the sake of the tour. It would also be counterintuitive to the whole body-guarding thing. Just know, I am 100% capable of protecting myself. I am 100% competent enough to watch over you. So let me do my job."
With one last push against his arm, she lets go of him and stands up. Reggie immediately rushes over to her.
“Julie, that was freaking badass! High five?” He lifts his hand and Julie hits it with hers. Luke shoots Reggie a betrayed glance as he lifts himself off the floor, wincing as he stretches his shoulder.
“Uck.” She wrinkles her nose, staring at her hand. “Both of you are sweaty and gross.” She wipes her hand off on Reggie’s sleeve and looks over to the rest of them. “I know this is probably different than how you normally pack up but could Luke and Alex gather the gear next to the door and Reggie and Bobby be responsible for getting it out to the trailer? I want to limit how often this idiota" she gestures at Luke, "goes outside."
"I'm not an idi--"
"Idiot until proven otherwise!" she interrupts just a tad too loud. "Anyone who isn't an idiot knows better than to treat an amp, a vital and expensive piece of gear in your line of work, like I have just witnessed. Now put those muscles to use and start gathering things. Chop chop! I heard we have a long drive to Tulsa ahead of us."
"Oh. I like her," Alex stage whispers to Bobby. All three of them have enormous grins stretching across their faces at their band-mates dressing down. Julie raises an eyebrow at them and they all rush to start their tasks. A long exhale escapes her and she deflates just a little. She has no idea where all that came from. It was like she was channeling Tia Victoria or something! Chop chop? Ugh. Why is she like this? As Bobby and Reggie disappear outside, Luke picks the amp back up and lugs it to the door. She asks Alex about the guitar cases. He helps her track them down and place the instruments inside.
"I think we are good to start disassembling the drum kit. Luke, could you start that next?" He looks like he's about to protest but Julie has already moved on. "Alex, are all these microphones yours or do they belong to the venue?" When he confirms that they belong to the band, she assigns him to gathering them all up and putting them in their cases. As she begins gathering the cords, looping them around her elbow, Luke can't hold it in anymore.
"Why are you giving Alex all the light and easy items? He has muscles too! He can handle his drum kit, no problem!" he pouts. It's obvious that he knows it's not an accident that he's been moving all the heavy and bulky things. And while he's no longer glaring at her, she's not sure the pout is an upgrade.
"You're right, he probably can. But unlike yours, his muscles have actually seen use tonight, so I figured he deserved a break."
A guffaw is heard from the doorway, Bobby crashing against Reggie as they both devolve into laughter. Alex turns to Julie, stars in his eyes. "Julie, can we keep you??"