Panel 1: The blonde, pregnant woman who was at the bar the night SABEL was playing shows up. She’s wearing the same varsity style jacket over a dark blue t-shirt with a graphic of a loading bar that’s three quarters of the way full. Standing beside the table, she puts an arm around Val’s shoulders as he happily hugs her belly. She greets him: “Hey babe.”

Val: “Hey! How are my girls?”

Blonde woman: “She’s good. I’m exhausted. Ready to be off of my feet for a while.”

Panel 2: The blonde woman sits in the empty chair beside Val and immediately picks up a tater tot as Val introduces her and Darrell: “This is our new drummer, Darrell. This is Chris, my girlfriend.”

Darrell: “Nice to meet you.”

Chris: “Same. You a Portlander?”

Darrell: “No, I moved up from California.”

Panel 3: Chris happily eats tots as Val replies: “Chris and I came up from Eugene a few months ago.”

Ty leans in from Darrell’s opposite side: “Another bit of good luck for us. We’d been out a bassist for like six months.”

Darrell, to Ty: “You get a lot of turnaround in the band?”

Panel 4: Ty, though still smiling, looks slightly sad. “Our old bassist had been with us almost from the start. Same with Cody, our drummer. It’s just been a shitty year for us. But we’re turning it around.”

Panel 5: Leah aggressively shoves a finger in Darrell’s direction: “So don’t fuck it up for ‘em, new guy.”

Darrell, smiling: “I’ll do my best.”