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"The future is too bright to dwell on the past. Life moves fast, run faster." - Frank Iero

Photograph.

The band watched Gerard sympathetically as he scrambled all over the bus. Earlier, the bus had been broken into by some crazy fans. The guys had spent the last few hours trying to figure out what they had taken. Most everything had been accounted for, except for a few things. Some of Frank's shirts, a couple of Mikey's signed comics, Pedicone's camera (which was practically empty), and the biggie -- Gerard's photo album of his pictures of Bandit and Lindsey. People had witnessed the break in, but the perpetrators had not been caught, nor had they even been seen by anyone who could do anything about it. It happened hours ago. They had to leave the state in two more hours. Unfortunately, this meant that they most likely would not be getting their stuff back.

This was Gerard's fourth time searching the bus. Yet everyone else seemed to agree --- the album was long gone. Mikey tried to tell him this numerous times, but each time Gerard would say that he just needed to check "one more time". Frank knew that the poor guy was just in denial.

Eventually, Gerard realized it too. And when he did, he bursted into hysterical tears right in the middle of the bus.

No one was sure what to say. Mikey wrapped his arms around his brother, offering everything from gallons of coffee to comics in a frantic attempt to make him feel better.

Frank felt very angry at the fans who did this. If you could call them fans. They had just gone too far this time. Those photos had been a collection of Gerard's favorites, and they had been the only copies. They were the only thing that connected him to home while he was on tour. Fuming, Frank looked outside the bus window. A gaggle of fans still remained outside the bus, still waiting to see if the musicians would make an appearance. Frank was surprised. It was hours after the show they had played.

Frank sighed and looked at his band mates, who were all trying to console Gerard in their own way. Yet Frank knew their efforts were futile. There was nothing that would console Gerard now except getting back those photos. Frank walked to the bus door and stepped out of bus unnoticed.

Immediately a mob of fans came towards him. He held his hands out as though to ask them to stay back, but of course they didn't care much. He felt someone tugging at his sleeve.

"STOP!" Frank shrieked at them as loud as he could. At the very least, this made them step back a little. Frank felt a bit bad for scaring them, but he had to do what he had to do. Once he saw he had their attention and their restraint for the most part, he tried to address them a bit more calmly.

"Now. Is anyone who got into our tour bus earlier still here? Or anyone who knows them?" he asked.

Many of the fans exchanged glances, many of them seeming confused. A few shook their heads.

Frank tried to push a bit harder, "Look. I know you don't want to get in trouble, and we won't press charges or anything. But the people who got in took something very important to Gerard and we would really like to have it back."

Finally a small voice piped up and Frank's heart skipped a beat, his hopes raised. However all the person said was "Is Gerard going to come out and sign for us?". Frank sighed in disappointment before giving a harsh "No."

And then off in the corner somewhere, he heard one fan whisper to another "Told you. Gerard's a fucking doucheba---"

"HEY!" Frank screamed, most likely confusing and alarming all those who hadn't heard what he had. "HE IS FUCKING CRYING HIS EYES OUT IN THERE BECAUSE FUCKTARDS LIKE YOU DON'T HAVE ANY FUCKING RESPECT FOR OTHER FUCKING HUMAN BEINGS! HE WORKED HIS FUCKING ASS OFF TO PUT ON A GREAT SHOW FOR YOU TONIGHT, AND WHAT DOES HE GET IN RETURN? HIS SHIT STOLEN! AND ALL YOU CAN FUCKING THINK OF IS YOURSELF? WELL FUCK YOU! SEE IF WE EVER FUCKING COME OUT TO SIGN AGAIN, BECAUSE I'LL SURE THINK TWICE BEFORE I DO!"

Frank looked around at the gaping faces of his fans, all their jaws dropped to the floor. He felt a flash of embarrassment for his outburst, but it was easily overpowered by his rising fury. He at least had the sense to turn back before he said any more things he would probably later regret.

~

That same night, after everyone had gone to bed, Frank had found a lone Gerard sitting on the couch in front of the TV. Frank thought before approaching, wondering if Gerard wanted some time with himself. Yet he hated to see his best friend look so sad. He walked over and sat next to Gerard, who didn't even turn to indicate that he had noticed him sit down. Frank looked up to see that Robot Chicken was on the screen, yet it was muted so he didn't figure Gerard must have been paying too much attention to it. They sat in silence for a while before Gerard finally spoke.

"How am I going to tell Lindsey?" he croaked.

"She'll understand." Frank consoled.

"She shouldn't have to understand. This shouldn't have happened at all. But it did and it's my fault. I put our family in this situation..." Gerard mumbled miserably.

"By doing what?" Frank tried to reason with him.

"I don't know...by being famous....by being in this band...I ruin everything..."

"Gerard!" Frank laughed, "If it weren't for this band, you wouldn't have Lindsey and Bandit in the first place!"

"I know... I just...hate the way things are sometimes...ya know...I always miss Bandit so much..."

Frank frowned. Gerard seemed to be coming in and out of focus. His eyes were glazed over, and Frank knew how tired he must be. They had done 2 performances and 3 interviews in one weekend. And then this had to happen. He grabbed Gerard's shoulder and squeezed it.

"Hey...you want me to get us some hot chocolate?" he suggested.

"Shouldn't you be going to sleep? It's like 6 AM. We have to get up for the radio interview at 9." Gerard mentioned.

"I'm not going to sleep until you feel better." Frank admitted.

Gerard smiled "Yeah hot chocolate would be nice."

Frank nodded and left Gerard to sulk alone for about five minutes. He came back soon enough with two mugs of hot chocolate with marshmallows and a large fuzzy blue blanket that was bigger than him. Gerard grinned a real grin and Frank smiled in return. He handed Gee his mug and sat down with him, placing the blanket over both of them.

"TV isn't much use when its muted." Frank laughed as he grabbed the remote and took the tv off its silence. Gerard frowned again, staring into his mug.

"What's wrong?" Frank asked, worried.

"Nothing... just... reminds me of a picture I had in there of Bandit with a milk mustache...it was my favorite picture...and now I'll never see it again..." Gerard sighed.

"Oh, sweetie...come here..." Frank pulled Gerard into his arms. He felt something wet start to run down his arms, and he knew Gerard was silently crying. He wasn't sure what else to do except continue to hold Gerard, cradling him gently until he finally fell asleep.

~

1 week later.

"What are we doing here Frankie?" Gerard huffed as Frank grabbed another pair of pants from the hanger.

They were crammed in a dressing room at a mall in Florida, and Frank had spent the day making Gerard try on all sorts of outfits. Some of them rather tacky, in Gee's opinion. He noticed however that all of them were rather former attire, like Frank was dressing him for some sort of prom.

"Just put this on... perfect!" Frank exclaimed happily.

Gerard looked in the mirror. Frank had dressed him in something of a golfers attire. He had a little hat to match it too.

"I don't have a whole lot of money on me Frank..." Gerard reminded him.

"I got it covered." Frank assured.

"Why?"

"You'll see."

Frank brought Gerard to the cashier and paid for the clothes as he said he would. He then took Gerard out of the Macy's and into the rest of the mall. They stopped momentarily at a bathroom, and Frank had Gee change into the clothes they just bought in a stall. Then Gerard followed Frank to a little place just a few stores over. Gerard looked around and it took him a while to realize it was one of those stores for professional pictures and portraits. Gerard smiled a little, getting the hint as to what Frank was trying to do. He appreciated the thought, he really did. Frank was truly the best friend anyone could have, Gerard contemplated while he watched Frank talk to the counter woman. However pictures with your best friend didn't quite replace pictures of your daughter's first years as a person. Yet, it was still nice. Frank motioned him to follow him around the counter, to the back of the store.

When he turned the corner, Gerard Way was met with what would be one of the best moments of his entire life.

Everyone was there. Mikey was there. Alicia was there. Ray was there. Christa was there. Jamia was there. Cherry was there. Lily was there. Lindsey was there. Bandit was there. They all yelled "Surprise!" as soon as they saw him, each of them with massive grins.

Gerard was speechless as Lindsey, Jamia, and Alicia each came up to hug him. It had been such a long time since he had seen any of them. And of course, the best hug of all was the one he had to kneel down for. Bandit waddled up to him yelling "DADDY!" happily, and Gerard had to blink away tears. "Hi baby..." he said as he picked her up and kissed her forehead.

He looked at his beautiful wife and asked, "What is this? Where you all doing here? Not that I'm complaining..."

"Frank told me what happened with the album." Lindsey explained, and Gerard looked at Frank, who looked very satisfied with himself. "We all wanted to cheer you up, and he had a great idea, so we all flew in."

Just then the photographer motioned them to go inside the photo room. Frank nudged him. "Are you ready for a new favorite picture?"

Gerard chuckled, "You're amazing Frankie..."

"I know." Frank said with a wink.

They all lined up in the photo room together, placing Gerard in the center while Bandit perched herself on his lap. Lindsey curled up on one side of him, while Frank nestled into the other. They faced the camera, ready to build new memories together -- one day at a time.

END.