FicWad

"Help!" Frank screeched. "Help!" he strained his vocal chords, trying to be heard. But it had begun to rain, thunder crashing overhead, lightning illuminating the skies and streets. Nobody could hear him.

He felt so guilty, so ashamed. A knot squirmed in his stomach, twisting and manipulating around his insides. He opened his mouth and set forth a dejected sound, a low, long wail, resonating around the alley. It was a heart-crushing, meloncholy sound, blaring in Frank's own ears to the point where he couldn't stand himself.

Sobbing, he lay his head down on Gerard's chest, crying into his blood-soaked t-shirt. He strained his ears, desperately listening for a pulse of some sort, but the thunder was rolling loudly above, and Frank's own heart was pounding in his ears to the point where he couldn't even hear his cries of agony. Sniffling, he lifted his head and spotted his cellphone a few feet away, long-since forgotten as it had fallen out of his pocket. He scrambled for it, snatching it up out of a puddle, praying to God that it would work. Fingers trembling, he dialed.

"911, what's your emergency?" a cool female voice rang out over the roar of the storm, which was picking up.

Fresh tears welled in Frank's eyes out of relief. "Yes," he choked out. "I need...I--they--my friend, he--he might be..." he couldn't speak, couldn't find the words to tell what happened.

"Young man, slow down. What happened?"

"I--they--I can't hear a pulse, I can't hear his heartbeat!" Frank sobbed into the phone. "My--he just--"

"Where are you?" The woman asked firmly.

"I--I don't--"

"Okay, I'll trace the call. Is it an ambulance that you need?"

"Y-yes" he gasped, biting his lip as more tears slid down his cheeks.

"Okay," she said. "Do you want me to stay on the line?"

"No."He hung up and crawled back over to Gerard. He sniffed once more, feeling the tears prickling at the backs of his eyes once more. "Just hang in there, bud," he told the older boy reassuringly. "I love you. Just hang in there,"

It seemed like a long time before Frank heard the ambulance sirens, but when he heard them, he jumped up, ignoring the pain shooting through his body. "Help," he called out. "Help!" He grabbed Gerard around the shoulders and tried dragging him out to the street, but he was too weak and collapsed in a puddle. The medics rushed over with a gurney, lifting Gerard onto it and helping Frank to his feet.

They loaded into the back of the ambulance and the medics started hooking Gerard to all sorts of things, sticking him with needles, machines whirring.

"Are you alright, kid?" one of the medics asked Frank, who had forgotten about the dried blood caked all over his jaw and soaked into his t-shirt.

"Yeah," he mumbled. "Is he--I mean, is he still--?" Frank couldn't get the words out. His heart pounded in his chest, and he felt sick to his stomach. The medics looked at each other.

"Well..." said one. "We can't seem to find a pulse...but we're trying real hard," he assured Frank, whose face fell, fresh tears, hot and wet, streaming down his face once more. He gritted his teeth and prayed to whoever was up there listening to bring Gerard back. Frank hung his head, trying to hide his tears from the doctors, who noticed and busied themselves with Gerard. More tests, more injections, more of whatever would help. Please, Frank begged silently. Please, please...

Beep...

Beep...

Beep...

Frank's head snapped up, staring intently at a monitor behind the medics. Flat line, flat line...there! The green lazer streaked across the screen had jumped. There again! Frank looked to the medics, begging with them to give him some hope...

"Hey, we've got something!"

Frank's shoulders shook with sobs as he collapsed back against the wall of the van. He choked out cries of relief, thanking whoever had answered his prayers.

Gerard heard someone in the room crying. It was a soft, choked off kind of crying, but definitely crying. He struggled to open his eyes, but found that he couldn't; his eyelids were just too heavy. Every part of him hurt, throbbing in pain, especially his head as he tried to remember what had happened. The pain was too much and he made a gentle sound in his throat.

The crying stopped, and someone grabbed his clammy hand in their own warm one. "Gerard?" Mikey? After much effort, Gerard managed to crack his eyes open the very slightest and lock gazes with his brother. "Gerard!"

Mikey tackled him with a hug, smothering him, weeping with relief. "Gerard!" he repeated, over and over again. "Gerard, Gerard! Oh, Gerard, I thought--the doctors said...I'm just so glad you're awake!"

"Mikey," Gerard mumbled thickly into his brother's shoulder, who lifted off and looked at him. "What happened? What am I doing in a hospital?"

"...Don't you...don't you remember? You were walking home from school and found Bob and his cronies beating up Frank, so you tried to save him. They started beating the shit out of you and then ran away. You...you--Frank called the--the ambulance and they came and--they said you...Gerard, they said..."

"What? I what?"

"...They said you died."

Gerard paused. "I...died?" Mikey nodded. "How long have I been--"

"You've been in a coma for about three weeks."

"Three weeks!" Gerard shot up in bed, immediately regretting doing so because it gave him a pounding head rush. "How...?"

"The doctors said you might...they said that it was possible that you--you might never--" Mikey couldn't finish the thought; it was just too horrible to imagine.

Gerard rubbed his baby brother's back soothingly. "It's alright, Mike," he cooed. "I'm awake now, right?" Mikey nodded, taking deep breaths. He sniffed a few times and sat up a bit straighter. "Where's--"

"Mom and Dad were here for a while," Mikey explained. "But...you know, work. They both had to go out of town yesterday, and they won't be back 'til next week. They said to give you their love if you woke up," Gerard nodded, taking it all in.

"And...Frank?" The real question that had been burning inside Gerard since he'd woken up.

Mikey cleared his throat. "He's been here every day since it happened. He was messed up pretty bad too, but he was able to go back to school. He's here day and night on the weekends, though," he added.

"...Really?"

"Yeah, he said he didn't want you to wake up and have to be alone. I finally made him go home last night. I told him I'd stay with you."

"What's today?" Gerard asked, glancing out the window, as though the answer to his questions were flying around out there.

"Mmm...Saturday. Frank said he'd be back first thing in the morning, it's still early...six a.m. I'll go call him..." With that, Mikey got up to call Frank and tell him that Gerard had indeed woken up. Against all odds, the older Way had come out of his coma.


Hello again, my dears! First things first, the LAST chapter, which I didn't have an author's note on for obvious cliff-hanger reasons; what did you think of it? Am I just so evil for that little turn of events? Muahahaha...

But I don't know...was the whole little twist with it too much? I showed it to my friend and she mentioned that it kind of didn't fit with the rest of the story (even though that's what I thought a TWIST was...), but yeah.

Sorry I didn't update for a few days, but I was chillin' out with my buddies in Universal Studios, about 3 hours north of where I live, so I was on total vacation from the internet. =]

That being said, please go forth and submit your comments/reviews. As much as I hate to say it, pretty soon this story will come to an end (and I'm rubbish at sequels, so don't even think it...), and it will be time for me to write another story. How can I improve without your lovely comments/reviews/critiques? Thanks to everyone who's still reading! OverAndOutxx