FicWad

-Be A Man About It.-





"Look!" Frank whispered in to Hayley's ear. Hayley's eyes moved upwards towards the sky. "See that?" Frank asked, grinning. He was standing behind her, his hands firmly placed on her waist. Hayley's eyebrows raised slightly as she expressed her confusion, "I see a lot of stuff Frank." She muttered.

Frank laughed, "That star!" He pointed to the star he had been focusing on.

"Yeah, I see it... along with a lot of other ones." Hayley said, trying to figure out which star he was actually talking about.

"That star is gonna be here every night. Every night you find a star and every night I'll find a star and together that will connect us." Frank mumbled, inhaling Hayley's scent as his head rested upon hers. "That way on tour we can still hold on to something."

"I'm gonna miss you." Hayley admitted.

"Not nearly as much as I'll miss you." Frank whispered, detesting the idea of being separated for any length of time. It just seemed cruel and unnecessary. Love had to take a backseat to dreams sometimes though. And Hayley promised to wait for him. He believed her.





*



Frank's eyes were downcast as he waited. He was waiting for the chance to see Hayley. Would he frighten her? Should he just turn around and go straight to the cops to turn himself in? He didn't know. He had so many questions flying through his head yet he didn't have an answer for any of them. Once again he dialed the number to Hayley's fathers cell phone, hoping to get a hold of him. He hadn't been able to so far. Kyla hadn't been able to drag Alex away from Hayley.

"Robert Parker speaking." Frank's heart froze for a second as the man's voice came through clearly. He hadn't expected him to pick up. He hadn't all the other times!

"Mr. Parker I- uh... I have to tell you something important." Frank choked out finally after a long silence.

"Who is this?" Robert Parker asked.

"This... is... It's been awhile, this is Frank Iero." Frank didn't even know if the man would recognize him by his name.

"What do you want?" Robert snapped, recognizing the name immediately.

"I, well... Hayley needs you." Frank stammered, nervously trying to avoid the entire situation of explaining what he had done to Hayley over the phone. He knew he would have to own up to his actions eventually.

"What? Where is Hayley? Put her on the phone now!" Robert demanded, worry edging in to his voice.

"She- She can't talk to you right now. She's in Mercy... She got admitted last night. She needs you." Frank whispered, loud enough for the man to hear.

"What happened? What is her condition?" Robert asked, voice becoming edgier with each word spoken.

"She... I don't know right now. It's-It's bad." Frank said. "Just... how long will it take you to get here?"

"I'm out of town on business." Frank could hear him checking something. "I'm going to have to call the airport. I'm looking at a ten hour flight, depending on when I can get booked. Frank, you have to stay with my little girl. Tell her I'm coming." Robert said, sounding pained. "Tell her I'm sorry. I haven't been a very good father but I'm coming and this time I won't walk out of her life."

Frank inhaled deeply, "I'll tell her Sir. Just hurry. She needs you." Frank wanted to be the one Hayley needed but he had burned that bridge with his actions.

"I'll be there." Robert said, searching for the number to the airport. "Just tell her Frank and don't you dare leave my little girl when she needs you."

If only he knew how things were now... Frank shook the bitter thought from his head, "She's in room 312 at Mercy Sir. Goodbye." He couldn't stand to hear another word come from the man's mouth, spoken with such pain and concern.

As Frank hung up he noticed he had a missed text. His heart skipped a beat as he read the text from Kyla, notifying him that she had gotten Alex to go to lunch with her. He could go see Hayley now!

Frank nervously peered around the corner, hoping they were already gone. His palms were sweaty and he momentarily forgot to breath, finding himself gasping for air. What if Hayley didn't want to see him? He couldn't push that thought from his mind, despite how hard he tried.

Frank's footsteps seemed to echo loudly down the hallway, only to be matched by the sound of his heart loudly thudding against his chest. The doorknob to Hayley's hospital room seemed to become instantly slick with the sweat from his trembling hand.

The doorknob seemed to make up it's own resistance and Frank was having trouble getting it to turn. Finally he applied a little more pressure and nearly gasped as it turned easily, allowing him access to the bedroom. The temperature in the room seemed to increase substantially from that of the hallway and as Frank stepped inside he felt as if he needed to go back outside to a place were there was snow. It was much too hot.

The door seemed to close with more noise than a door normally would and Frank attempted to look anywhere but at Hayley at first. He wasn't sure he could handle seeing his own handiwork.

Finally Frank let his eyes travel to the bed in to the room, stepping closer to see that Hayley was fast asleep. He didn't let himself look away as his eyes took in her battered appearance. She looked awful. Worse, he had been the one to do that to her.

Frank stepped back in shock as Hayley shifted, eyes fluttering slowly. Frank didn't know if he should run from the room but his thoughts were interrupted as Hayley moaned in pain upon waking. It was too late for him to run now. He had to face up to his actions. She might as well be the first person he faced...

"Mmm..." Hayley moaned again, opening her eyes. It seemed to take her a few seconds before her eyes adjusted to the light in the room and then her eyes snapped to Frank's.

Frank just stared, keeping his distance. He couldn't tell if she was frightened and it seemed to take forever before she finally spoke. "You're hurt." Hayley whispered, sounding concerned.

Frank had no idea as to what Hayley was talking about. "I-I... God, I'm so fucking sorry!" Frank said, voice cracking as he stumbled over his words.

Hayley smiled weakly, "You're bleeding Frank." She said.

What? Frank shook his head, feeling a stinging sensation in his neck. He reached up and touched where his tattoo's tattered remains rested upon his skin. Sure enough the place he had cleaned had started bleeding again. "Get the nurse. She needs to look at that." Hayley commanded.

Frank numbly searched for more apologetic words as the door opened and Nurse Jayse walked in, noticing Frank's bloody neck as well. "Oh my! What happened?" She asked, immediately coming to his aid.

Hayley was now sitting up in bed, watching as Nurse Jayse took a closer look at Frank's neck. She had directed him towards the sink and was now dabbing at his open wound carefully. Frank remained completely silent, wishing for nothing more than to be alone with Hayley once again.

Once Nurse Jayse applied a bandage Frank pulled away, "I-I... Thank you but I'm fine. I'll be fine. I just... I need to talk to her..." Frank said, gesturing towards Hayley.

"Ah, Ms. Parker." Nurse Jayse said, turning to face Hayley. "Feeling better?"

Hayley just nodded.

"I'll leave you to your guest now but later I need to come in and check a few things out with you, okay?" Again Hayley simply nodded.

Soon enough the door shut and they were alone once again.



Hayley coughed after a couple of seconds, a look of pain registering upon her face. "Do you need... need water?" Frank asked, feeling helpless.

Hayley nodded, her throat extremely sore. She subconsciously rubbed at it, clearly defined bruises surrounding her neck. Frank slowly approached the bed with a cup of water he had grabbed from next to the sink. "Here, if it's not good enough I can always run down to the cafeteria and grab you something." Frank mumbled, fully aware of the way Hayley's soft fingers brushed against his as she took the cup from him.

"This will do." Hayley mumbled. "Thank you." She said, bringing the cup to her lips so that she could begin to fix the dry throat issue that she was having. She watched as Frank slowly slipped in to the chair next to her bed.

"That wasn't me." Frank whispered, eyes stuck on his hands which were folded and resting on his lap.

"I know." Hayley's words surprised Frank.

"You know?" Frank asked, confusion obvious in his voice.

"I... I know a little bit about what drugs do to people and I-I know you've been doing drugs." Hayley said, stumbling over her words a little, her uncertainty clear.

"Yeah, I have been." Frank said, sighing. "I-... it was never my intention to hurt you." That was a goddamn lie. Frank bit the inside of his cheek before blurting out the truth, "I did... intend on hurting you. It was the reason I went to see you. I- I'm obsessed, I think. I think it's unhealthy how I feel for you and I can't stop and right now... Right now I need meth real bad Parker." Frank heard Hayley inhale sharply. "But I'm not going to get any. I won't. I- I'll call Mikey... I'll tell him where my stash is... I'll tell him what's happened. I'll go to rehab. I'll go to jail for this. I'm so fucking sorry.... I- fuck." Frank felt like he couldn't breath anymore and his feet forced him to stand. He was going to leave. He had to leave. But instead he walked closer to Hayley's bed, falling to the ground in front of her. "God, what have I done to you?" Frank asked, staring up at Hayley from his knees. He'd never deserved her. She was so perfect. He had ruined something beautiful. He had taken something pure inside of her and broken it in to pieces. Now when he looked at her... It was obvious. She'd never be the same. Neither of them would be.







*

(What'd you guys think? I was a little unsure of posting this! ... I'm going to try to make the next chapter a lot longer. This is pathetically short and I apologize for that.)