Everyone had been so supportive the last few days. The cast, crew and guest stars had all expressed concern and did their best to take care of Carmen (except for the few that were just a tad resentful that Zac had given the position to his niece and not to them or someone else they thought would be better).
Her heart was pounding loudly in her chest as she heard the announcer speak, and she was certain everyone would be able to hear it.
“Labels and Jellyspoons! Welcome to another episode of ‘I Must Have Been Insane That Day’, with your host, Carmen Hanson!”
The audience cheered as cued, but there was no mistaking the murmuring that was going on as Carmen entered the floor. As she stepped up to centre stage, the nervousness lifted and she knew she was in her element.
“Greetings y’all,” Carmen said cheerfully. “For those of you how missed out on the news headlines this week Zac’s been in a motorcycle accident. He’s going to be okay, but it might be awhile before he’s hosting another episode. So Uncle Zac’s asked me to step in for him. You may or may not remember me from a few years back I did an episode...”
A clip from that episode showed up on screen.
“Aww, I was sixteen and oh so cute and fluffy,” Carmen chuckled as the scene faded back to the live show. “Okay, enough about me! On tonights show we have performances from Monkey Business and Radiation. Not forgetting Davy Wilson and Hannah Lauren. But first we have some messages from our -”
Before Carmen could finish the classic line, Dylan and Baz from the band, Monkey Business came running out on stage, ‘chasing’ each other with inflatable hammers. Dylan whopped Carmen over the head cheerfully to which Carmen responded by hitting Dylan back (without even glancing in his direction) with an inflatable hammer she had of her own hidden behind the counter.
“Sponsors.”
The scene faded to the commercial break depicting Carmen in an inflatable hammer war with Dylan and Baz.
In his hospital bed, Zac chuckled. He so knew Carmen would do a good job. He should have thought to have invited her as a co-star on the series years ago.
He closed his eyes briefly as the commercials played. He needed to talk to Isaac and Taylor and not just over the phone. Kelsey was trying to talk them into coming up. They needed to come up. He needed to talk to them. It was important.
Twenty years ago the kind of damage he had sustained would have left him paralysed or dead. That kind of experience does tend to make one rethink their life and decide on what was most important. He had that which he valued most: wife, kids (although his relationship with Hope could bear some improvement), but there was something else. Something that had been missing from their lives for quite some time now, and he wanted to bring it back.
Music.