The Thursday night gig is much better, he's on the Green Dragon room stage, bigger crowds, more money. The manager is pleased with Nico's performance. But the manager is also very clear: he got this gig because his association with Jackie has left the whiff of fame on him, but if he can't keep the crowds coming while F Hole is on tour & he isn't being seen with Jackie, he's back downstairs for a Weds. night gig. If he's lucky.

Being on a rock stage anywhere draws groupies out of the woodworks.

Of course you always have to make nice with the fans when the club owner is looking.

Ugh, it's a skankfest, and it's centered on Nico! They aren't rich, they aren't hot..Nico has no time for these women. Unfortunately, the wealthy women he does have time for are becoming frightened away by the crazy obsessed fan that still follows him around though Jackie is on tour & nowhere near Nico. The small step up Jackie represented for him is not much compared to what he has lost. This gig still doesn't pay enough to pay the rent, and with his other source of funding being scared away.....

When a car shows up at his apartment, with a driver who tells him Jackie sent him to pick Nico up, she's up in the mountains somewhere & she wants him brought to her, Nico almost says no. She's already brought him too much trouble. But who ever really says no to a celebrity? In a few hours he's up in a cabin in the mountains she's taken exclusive use of, sipping champagne in front of a roaring fire. They're in the middle of nowhere, her band isn't anywhere to be seen..."Aren't you supposed to be on tour?" Nico asks her. She snuck off, she says, got on a different plane & came back to Cali. She's hiding away from the media & from the record company & tour manager & the whole freaking world, in this cabin for awhile. But she didn't want to be completely alone, she tells him she missed him quite a lot on this tour, or at the least the part of the tour she did.

Nico's never believed all these stars who say they hate their fame & are always trying to 'escape', he always assumed it was a big put on. But he knows what she means when she says she's missed him.