Work Text:
(Joe's POV)
I glance over at Patrick belting out a note I know all too well on "Hum Hallelujah", melting into the guitar as I play along to it. It's the last show on this tour and I am sort of devastated, but I know we will be back one day. As the final beats, riffs, and notes of the song come to an end I hear Pete scream something into the microphone. I am too dazed to hear properly; we exit the stage. "Goodbye Detroit," I whisper to myself backstage. We walk to the dressing room to just sit down and chill for awhile before Marcus calls us telling us we need to leave.
"Good show." I hear Patrick say after a few minutes. I nod. "I'll miss being out on the road," he continues. We all will, I think to myself.
"I will too," Andy responds. I feel my body trying to put me to sleep, but I have to stay awake until we get on the bus.
After about 20 minutes of chatter about the new album coming out. Marcus comes through the door to tell us it's time to go. As we walk out the door of the venue into the cold February air, we start walking to the bus. I am slowly tagging along behind them all when I suddenly feel a hand cover my mouth and a sharp stab of pain in my side; did I really just get stabbed? I feel blood trickle down my side, and I hiss as the object is slipped from where is was buried under my skin.
The hand slips off of my face and I hear the person run away, behind me before I scream and Pete, Andy, and Patrick turn around. Patrick goes completely white. Pete looks at me with his eyes wide and lips quivering. Andy, he looks like his best friend died, which I believe is about to happen. Pete and Patrick immediately run to catch the bastard and Andy kneels down next to me wiping a tear off of my face that I didn't know was there. He yells to Patrick to call 911 after he looks at my side making Patrick stop running and take out his phone.
"Andy, I know I'm not going to make it. The ambulance won't get here soon enough, I'll bleed out." I tell him. He slips his hand over the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. He is crying now.
"I'm not giving up on you." He says and leans down to kiss me. I can tell he already knows I am going to die, though, by the way, he's shaking and holding on to me tightly trying to take in my warmth before it's all gone. "I love you." He says as he holds me. I can feel his tears soaking my shirt.
"I love you too, but all good things must come to an end, sunshine," I tell him. I feel him tense up and hold me tighter when I say "end". I hear Pete yelling curses in the far distance and see Patrick standing over me.
"I called 911, the ambulance should be here soon." He says. I can tell he's trying to sound helpful, but his voice is shaky and dry. He kneels down on the other side of me whimpering in my ear "Stay with us Joe, please don't l-leave." and with that, he starts breaking down. Pete is running back over to us.
"I didn't catch the fucking son of a bitch, I'm so sorry." He says, standing over all of us. He too kneels down, grabbing my hand and squeezing it with an arm around Patrick's shoulder trying to calm him down. He is telling him I will be fine; I won't. My vision then begins going blurry, but I can faintly hear a siren masked under the sobbing around me.
"No, no, no, please don't go!!!!" I hear Andy faintly yelling as I can't breathe any longer. The last thing I hear is him screaming for me to come back, and everything goes black...