FicWad

Monica was driving home from Donna’s and still thinking about Elle. They had told her that the reason she and Kelly were staying at Donna’s was because there was some remodeling going on at the house. To a three year old the story didn’t sound wrong. Still Elle had not wanted Monica to go and had cried when it was time for her to leave. While that had been bad nothing was as heart wrenching as when he had asked about her Mommy. She wanted to know when she was coming back. The question had broken Monica’s heart.
She was almost home when Christa called.
“Hey” she answered faking happiness.
“Hi Monica. How are you doing?”
Monica hated that question. She hated lying. “I’m fine. Did you finish up the packing?”
Christa laughed, “Yeah, everything is boxed up and the movers are gonna be here in the morning.”
“Bet you can’t wait to move into her new house.”
“I just wish I was already moved in with everything unpacked,” She laughed. “So you and Elle gonna help me tomorrow?”
Monica tried to quickly think of an excuse. “Oh we can’t tomorrow. I’ve got a ton of things I have to do.”
Christa was disappointed, “Oh that’s okay, I understand. I’ll have days of unpacking to do. I’m sure I’ll be able to force you into free labor at some point.”
“Yeah” Monica agreed.
“So you heard about Frank didn’t you?”
“Frank? No, what about him?”
“He’s flying home. He was playing tonight’s concert but his wisdom teeth are messed up and he has to get them removed.”
“Oh I didn’t know. I haven’t talked to Gee today. He’s gonna call me after the show.”
“Yeah, I’m waiting for Ray’s call too. Well I better let you go.”
“Okay. Sorry I can’t help tomorrow.” Monica said beginning to realize how hard keeping Liv’s secret was going to be.
“No, problem. Talk to you later.” They disconnected. Christa wondered if everything was all right with Monica. Her voice had seemed strange. She decided to give her another call tomorrow just to make sure she was okay.
Monica was about to set her phone down when Gerard called. “Hey, Gee.”
“Hey, Honey. How are you?” He asked tiredly.
“I’m fine but you don’t sound so good. What’s wrong?”
He leaned back on his bed, “I’m just tired. Sorry I didn’t call today but I never got a minute to spare.”
“So how was the show?” Monica asked. He sounded as if something else was bothering him.
“It was good. The fans at the airport when we got here were crazy. I’ve never seen so many show up like that before,”
“Hey, you guys are stars.” She teased.
“I suppose.” He answered softly.
“Gee, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing really. Franks heading home.” He began.
“Yeah, I just talked to Christa. She told me. How’s he doing?”
“Shit, I guess you think it’s bad Ray called her today but I haven’t called you.” He said angrily.
Monica was surprised, “No, I don’t think that at all. You just said you’ve were busy all day.”
He shook his head surprised by his own outburst. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” Slowly he rolled over on his side. “Hey I’m just being a dick.”
“It’s okay, Dick.” Monica joked. “I love you anyway.”
He smiled, “I love you.” He decided to go ahead and bring up the subject they hadn’t talked about. “Uh, Brian called me today.”
Monica pulled into their driveway and cut the engine. “Yeah?”
“He was wondering what we decided about the adoption.”
Monica sat staring out at the darkness. “What did you tell him?”
“I told him I needed to talk to you. Look, it’s okay if you’re not into this idea. I understand. I’m gone a lot and that would put so much on you.” He reached for his cigarettes, “It’s probably not a good idea anyway.”
She heard something in his voice, “Why not?”
“Well like I said I’m gone a lot.” He tried to phrase his words carefully, “I guess I was just thinking that it would be good to have someone close to Elle’s age for her to grow up with, you know? The other side of the coin is that if Liv does take her back we wouldn’t feel so empty. Kara will be moving and Kell’s getting older.”
Monica closed her eyes and willed herself not to cry. God, she wanted to tell him not to worry, that Elle was going to be there’s. She forced her voice to sound strong. “Gee, I really would like for us to adopt a baby. Tell Brian we want to do it.”
He was about to light his cigarette but stopped, “Are you sure? Really sure?”
“Yes, Gee I’m sure. I want us to have a baby.”
He smiled, “Shit, that’s great. I’ll call him now.” He felt better now than he had all day. “I love you Monica Veronica.”
Tears were falling down her cheeks, “I love you too, Gee.”

“What time are the movers gonna be there in the morning?” Ray asked.
Christa sat down on the sofa and put her feet up on a nearby moving box. “They should be here around nine.”
“Monica gonna come over and help you direct the movers?”
Christa frowned, “Actually I just talk to her a little bit ago. She said she can’t cause she’s busy tomorrow.”
“Yeah, well I guess she does have a life.” Ray teased.
“Yeah.” Christa said. A frown marred her pretty face.
“You think she just didn’t want to help?” He noticed something in her voice.
Christa thought a moment. “No, I don’t think that’s it. She and I have really gotten close. I don’t know I’m probably imagining things. She just sounded wrong.”
“Wrong?”
“Like something was bothering her.”
“Shit.” Ray said thinking he might know the reason.
“What?”
“I just talked to Gee. He’d just gotten off the phone with Monica. He’s all happy cause he and Monica are gonna try to adopt that baby.”
“They are?” Christa was surprised. “I kinda thought that idea had been put on hold. Monica said she and Gee hadn’t even discussed it.”
“Well something must have changed. He told me that Monica really want to go ahead with the idea.”
Christa didn’t know what to say. Maybe Monica really did feel that way but then again maybe she didn’t.
“Hold on a minute, Babe. Frank’s calling.”
Christa waited patiently until she heard Ray’s voice. “He’s still at the airport. He said he feels like shit and just wants to get home.”
“Poor guy.”
“Yeah at this rate it’s gonna take him forever to get home.”
Christa sighed, “It’s taking you forever to get home.”
Ray agreed, “I miss you more each day. I just wanna get home to you and our new house.”
“And the hundreds of unpacked boxes.” Christa joked.

Frank couldn’t remember ever feeling this bad. His whole face felt swollen and the pain was intense. He tried not to lose his temper because he understood the airline was doing all they could to get him home.
“Mr. Iero I’ve found another airline that has a flight leaving in an hour. I can try to get you booked on that flight.”
“Thanks” he said, “I’d really appreciate it.”
She told him to have a seat and she’d see what she could do. Frank fell into the plastic chair and looked around. This time of night there weren’t many fellow travelers. He took out his phone to call Jamia. “Shit” he muttered. The battery was almost dead. Why hadn’t he noticed earlier? He decided to send a text to her instead. The battery should be okay enough for that. He had just hit ‘send’ when he heard his name being called.
“Mr Ireo. I couldn’t get you on that flight but I found another flight that might work for you.”
Frank walked back to the ticket counter, “Okay.”
The woman smiled, “It is a smaller airline so the accommodations won’t be as nice.”
“Look, I don’t care, I just need to get home.” Frank said tiredly.
“Okay let me get this taken care of. You’ll need to head to their terminal now. I’ll phone and tell them you’re on your way.” She gave him direction to the other terminal.
“Thanks for all your help.” Frank smiled. He turned and headed quickly in the direction she had pointed out to him.