FicWad

I awoke slowly, my eyes opening to see the face of the man I loved with all my heart still sleeping at my side. For several minutes I simply watched him breathing in and out, wishing moments like this could last forever. Suddenly his eyes fluttered open and he gave me a sleepy smile.
“Morning, Count” I said kissing his cheek.
“Good morning, my love.” He answered. “How long have you been watching me?”
“Just a few minutes.” I stretched out my legs and yawned.
“I like to watch you sleep.” He said surprising me. “I do it often.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Yes. Really. I especially like it when you smile in your sleep. I always hope you’re dreaming when it happens.”
“If I’m dreaming and smiling it is because you are in the dream with me.” I whispered.
He pulled me closer and kissed my lips gently. “As much as I’d love to stay like this we need to get moving. We’ll stop for breakfast on the road.”
I sighed, “I suppose me must rejoin the land of the mortals. But tell me one thing. Where did these wonderful costumes come from?”
Gerard laughed, “Worm is a talented man. I told him exactly what I needed and he did the rest.”
“Promise me you’ll wear yours again.”
“Oh, big into the vampire fantasy?” He teased.
I rose up on one elbow and looked down into his face. “You are one hot vampire.”
He laughed again. “Yeah, yeah so I’ve heard. Rumors about me being a vampire aren’t new.”
I brushed a strand of black hair from his eyes. “This is one movie we’ll have to repeat.”

About an hour later we were on the road again headed towards the next venue. As soon as Gerard spotted a restaurant we pulled in for breakfast. It was crowded but we found an empty booth. As soon as we slipped into our seats a waitress appeared with two glasses of water and menus.
“Morning, folks.” She greeted us warmly. “The special today is the Big Breakfast. It’s got two eggs, three pancakes, hash browns, bacon and toast.”
“Sounds good.” Gerard said handing her back our menus. “We'll both have that.”
"How ya want those eggs done, Hon?"
"We''ll both have them over easy....and bring us some coffee, will you?"
Our waitress nodded and wandered off.
“Gee, I can’t eat that much.” I said shaking my head.
“Gotta keep your strength up.” He laughed. He reached across the table and took my hand in his. He was about to say something when his cell rang. I watched as he fished it out of his pocket, looked at the number and frowned. “Mom” he said.
The waitress reappeared at that moment with our coffee. She quickly set the two mugs down along with a small pitcher of cream. “Don’t answer it yet.” I urged, leaning over the table to whisper to him as soon as the waitress turned away.
“I never called her back.” He admitted. “She’s gonna be pissed.” The phone continued to ring.
“You can call her back in a minute.” I wanted to talk to him before he spoke to her.
“Are you worried she’s gonna upset me?” He asked. I saw him push the button to silence the phone.
I took a sip of my water before answering. “Yeah, but I also wanted to remind you that now that all the guys know I’m pregnant we really need to tell her.”
“Shit, you’re right.” He frowned. “So why don’t you just tell me what she’s gonna say ahead of time.”
I picked up my wrapped silverware and fiddled with it absentmindedly. “Okay.” I agreed sadly. “I feel bad because your mom sorta caught me in a lie and I did my best to get out of it.”
“This doesn’t sound good.”
“When she called yesterday morning looking for you I could tell something was wrong but at first she wouldn’t tell me what was bothering her. But there was something in her voice that worried me so I called her back.” I took a sip of water then continued. “When I called her back she told me that Helen had just left.”
Gerard sat back in the booth and I could see he was becoming nervous. “What did Helen say to her?”
“She wanted to talk to you.”
“Helen wanted to talk to me?”
I nodded, “She told your mom that several people had told her they’d seen Merri in town.”
“Christ.” Gerard whispered.
“Helen said that Merri had been spotted at a party.”
“Tony’s party.”
“Yeah. I told her that I was sure if you’d seen Merri at the party you would have mentioned it.”
He sighed, “What aren’t you telling me?”
“I didn’t know that your Mom had talked to Alicia before calling me. Alicia told her that Mikey had seen Merri and that he’d told us in the car after the party.”
“Fuck.” He ran his hand over his face. “So then what did you say?”
“I tried to think fast. The only thing I could come up with was to sorta tell her the truth. I told her about the fight that had broken out and how we’d all taken off when the police had arrived. I said that we were so distracted that when Mikey had mentioned it we weren’t really paying attention.”
“This shit just keeps getting deeper and deeper.” He whispered.
“She seemed to accept my explanation.” I took a deep breath, “But then she wanted to know what the fight was about. Shit, I was really trying hard not to lie any more than I had to, you know?”
He nodded, “I understand. What did you tell her?”
“That a merch guy who’d been fired by the band had started shit with you.” I paused “I was shocked when she asked me if it had been Troy.”
He shook his head. “Mom never liked him.”
“I didn’t realize she knew him. Then she asked me what he was doing now.”
Gerard turned to gaze out the restaurant window. “You tell her he’s dead?”
“Yeah she was shocked. She’d seen him in town just a few weeks ago getting into a car with a blond. My first thought was it was probably Carrie. But when I said that your Mom said if I was talking about Carrie Long it wasn’t her.” I reached across the table and covered his clenched fist with my hand. “Gee, when we saw Carrie at that party you acted like you barely knew her but Donna made it sound like you knew her pretty damn well. She said you used to bring Carrie to the house.”
The waitress arrived with our breakfast before he could answer. She sat our plates down, asked if we needed anything else. We shook our heads and she left. The whole time I watched Gerard drumming his fingers nervously. I had been right, this wasn’t something he wanted to discuss.
“Gee?”
“Laura, let’s just eat, okay?”
I knew there was no sense in asking him anything else at the moment. I picked at my breakfast keeping my head down. Gerard ate without looking at me once. The next time he spoke it was sharply to remind me I needed to eat more than just a few bites. I nodded and tried to choke down more of the food.
When I set down my fork again I guess he figured I wasn’t going to eat any more. I started to slide out of the booth when he spoke. I stopped.
“Laura, I’m sorry.”
“Look, Gee. You don’t have to tell me about Carrie. It’s okay, doesn’t matter.”
“I just don’t want to hurt you.” He said softly.
His words confused me. “Hurt me?”
“Maybe I’m just tired of you having to find out about my fucking perverted past.”
I saw the despair in his eyes. “You don’t have to tell me.” I said again. “But I want you to understand that there is nothing from your past that would ever make me love you any less.”
This time I slid out of the booth and headed towards the restroom. When I returned to the table he was waiting having already paid the check. He took my hand as we left the restaurant and headed towards the car. We got in but he didn’t start the engine. Instead he turned to me. “Carrie, Troy and I hung together a lot. Troy and I would fuck her at the same time.”
“Oh.” Why I hadn’t expected this I didn’t know. “Okay, well... that’s cleared up.”
“That’s all you’re gonna say?” He sputtered.
“Well, what do you want me to say?” I challenged.
“How about that I’m a fucking piece of shit for lying to you by pretending I didn’t know her that well?”
I took a deep breath, “The past, Gee. It’s in the past. But if you ever touch her again you’ll be singing soprano.”
He shook his head, “I don’t ever want to touch her again. You’re the only one I want.”
“Fine.” I said reaching over and securing my seatbelt.
“God, I love you.” He said reaching over and turning my face to his. He kissed me passionately. We were pulled apart when his cell began to ring again. Gerard groaned after seeing it was his mom calling again. I decided he’s had too much drama for one day. I took the phone from his hand and answered. “Hey Donna. Yeah, he’s here but I need to talk to you first. There is something we want to tell you.” I was right. Once she heard about the baby she didn’t bring up anything else.