It was an unusually muggy night in St. Louis, and the venue was pure chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The backstage area was cramped, the loading dock was a bottleneck, and two separate opening acts were trying to fight over limited floor space. Gabriel had already tripped over the same power cable twice, Thane was knee-deep in a faulty input patch that refused to speak to the snake box, and Jonah was muttering to himself in double-time as he helped Rico drag the drum riser into position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the middle of it all, Emily stood frozen near the gear wall, clipboard clutched in both hands, eyes darting from crew member to crew member. Someone had just handed her a printout of the patch list, and now a stagehand was asking her\u2014loudly\u2014where the DI box for the acoustic guitar had gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She swallowed hard. \u201cUh\u2026 I think\u2026 it was with rack six? Or maybe\u2026 maybe the fly case by the cable spool?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The stagehand huffed and rolled his eyes, muttering something under his breath as he walked off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emily’s ears were hot. She turned, backing out of the way of a dolly full of mic stands, and nearly tripped into a lighting rack. Jonah appeared just in time, steadying her by the elbow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou okay?\u201d he asked, gently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2026 I don\u2019t think I\u2019m helping,\u201d she whispered. \u201cEveryone\u2019s busy. I keep messing things up. I shouldn\u2019t even be back here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jonah blinked, then quietly motioned her to follow him to the side of the stage, out of the way of the chaos. The muffled thump of a bass test rumbled through the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCan I tell you something?\u201d he said, crouching beside a crate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emily nodded, still on the verge of tears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI used to throw up before band competitions in high school,\u201d Jonah admitted, brushing his hair back. \u201cLike, every single one.<\/em> Even when I knew the routine. Even when I nailed every fill in rehearsal. I\u2019d still sit behind the bleachers and think I didn\u2019t belong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Emily looked at him, surprised. \u201cBut\u2026 you\u2019re you.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He smiled. \u201cYeah. But it took a while to believe that meant something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He stood again, pulling a folded diagram from his pocket. \u201cYou know what this is?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStage plot?\u201d she asked softly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYep. But look closer.\u201d He handed her the patch list\u2014the same one she\u2019d been given earlier. \u201cHalf of this doesn\u2019t match what\u2019s actually onstage. The labels are wrong. The routing is flipped. Wanna impress everyone?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She hesitated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jonah leaned in. \u201cGrab a pencil, and fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Emily blinked, then took a breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She moved fast\u2014quiet, steady, but determined. She traced every box and rack she could find. Noticed that Rack Six had been swapped with Rack Four. Found the DI box buried under a coiled extension reel near the fog machine, exactly where no one<\/em> thought to look. She double-checked the snake inputs, relabeled the patch sheet by hand, and ran it straight to Thane mid-wiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thane took one glance, looked back at her, and raised a brow. \u201cYou did this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Emily nodded, heart in her throat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNice work,\u201d he said simply, and waved her to follow him as he adjusted the gain structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ten minutes later, Gabriel found her coiling cable and handed her an espresso with a little sticky note stuck to the side. It read:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\udca1 Not an intern. Field Engineer in Training. \u2013 G<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n She laughed out loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later that night, just before the show, Jonah found her again, sitting just inside the bus with her feet up, finally breathing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou good?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She nodded. \u201cBetter. Still nervous. But better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He smiled. \u201cYou ever hear the beat of a song where it feels like it\u2019s not quite in sync\u2014but you know if you just wait one more bar, it locks in perfectly?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She tilted her head. \u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s what you\u2019re doing,\u201d Jonah said. \u201cYou\u2019re syncing up. That feeling? It\u2019s not fear. It\u2019s the downbeat.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Emily beamed, pride finally outweighing the doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then Gabriel stuck his head in the bus door and yelled, \u201cFIELD ENGINEER, YOUR PACK SUMMONS YOU. IT\u2019S ALMOST SHOWTIME!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She stood up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ready.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was an unusually muggy night in St. Louis, and the venue was pure chaos. The backstage area was cramped, the loading dock was a bottleneck, and two separate opening acts were trying to fight over limited floor space. Gabriel had already tripped over the same power cable twice, Thane was knee-deep in a faulty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tour-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3134,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624\/revisions\/3134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n