Chapter Text
As he sits in the dark apartment, he can hear the familiar sirens of the Jersey police rocket by in the night. The red and blue sirens light up the walls illuminating an easel and a wall with shelves of paint. Frank looks at the mess of bright red hair on his shoulder, checking to see if the noise had awoken him. The owner of the hair, Gerard, was still fast asleep on him, but he wasn’t complaining. The two were watching a movie, as is their Saturday night tradition, and almost every single time he falls asleep on Frank. As the credits scroll by, he can hear the faint snoring coming from his shoulder letting him know Gee is fast asleep. Frank carefully grabs the remote off of the couch’s arm rest and turns the TV off. He takes one last sip out of his soda and puts the remote back where he got it. He adjusts the blanket, then Frank rests his head on Gerard’s, taking comfort in his presence. Now that he thought about it, he can’t even remember what movie they were watching. He wasn’t paying attention, he had been focused on Gerard. Something was off tonight. He seemed to have been less engaged. Like something was bothering him. As he drifts off wondering about what could be bothering Gee, he hears the door creak open and two people enter.
Frank awakens alone on the old couch, surrounded by chip bags and soda cans. The sun is high in the sky, snow is falling, and he sees two extra pairs of boots by the door. “Mikey and Ray must have gotten back early,” He stands up and stretches. Frank trudges over the window and in the reflection he can see that he looks like a mess. His long hair is sticking out everywhere, he is wearing a hoodie that is way too big for him, and Batman pajama pants. He pulls his hair back into a small bun, and turns around to head toward the kitchen but something catches his eye. The easel has something on it. He starts to carefully creep over to it, knowing Gee doesn’t like people near his work station. As Frank sneaks toward the station he accidentally trips over his own feet, causing him to bang his foot on the leg of the coffee table. The tremor causes a crystal flower vase to fall off it and on to his foot and shatter. He screeches and collapses in to a cursing heap on the floor, grasping the injured foot. He looks at one of his hands, blood. “Great. Fucking amazing,” He thinks.
Someone says in the kitchen, “Hey, Mikey watch the pancakes, I’ll go check on Frank. That sounded bad.” He hears the person briskly walking down the hallway. “Hey, Frank you okay?” Gerard asks as he emerges from behind the corner. His hair is pulled back and he is wearing a kiss the cook apron and black pajama pants.
“Yep, I’m o-fucking-kay. I’m just on the fucking floor clutching my god damn foot because everything is fine.” Frank angrily mutters.
Gerard taken aback, “I’m sorry…I was just…I’ll go.” He turns around and starts to leave.
“I’m sorry. I’m just…” Frank sighs. “I smashed my foot. I’m angry at myself. It hurt."
“Oh, okay… Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Could you help me get to the kitchen to get an ice pack and a bandaid.”
“Ooh, ouch. That bad?” Gerard hesitantly starts to walk over to him.
“I haven’t looked at it yet, I just know it’s bleeding, a lot.” Gee bends over and wraps his arm around Frank’s waist and pulls him up so that he is on his good foot. Frank is still holding his injured toe and is leaning on Gerard.
“Um, how are we going to do thi-” Gee sweeps Frank off of his foot to carry him bridal style.
“This seems to work,” he gives Frank a big cheesy smile and laughs. “Plus you’re pretty light, I thought you’d be heavier.” Gerard unsteadily sways side to side then takes an uneasy step forward. Then another, more steady. Then he was more comfortable and started walking. He carried Frank through the hallway. Making an extra effort to keep Frank’s head away from the framed comic book covers hanging on the walls. When they’re in the kitchen Gerard places him on one of the stools at the breakfast bar next to Ray, then goes to get an ice pack, a rag and a box of bandaids.
Ray turns to him and asks, “What the fuck happened in there, you sounded like a you had been shot,” he pauses then looks at Frank’s foot, which he was still clutching, “Holy shit dude, is that blood?”
“Damn, that is a lot. Can you hand me the paper towels?” Ray staring at Frank’s bloody hand, still covering the toe, shocked that he is so calm, silently reaches over his food, grabs them, and hands them to Frank.
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
“At first it hurt like a bitch but now it just hurts so much I can’t even feel anything.” Frank removes his hand then screeches for a second time. “Holy shit! Gee, I don’t think that bandaids will fix this!” The toe was broken, there was bone sticking through the skin. There were cuts all over his foot bleeding badly from the flower vase. Frank’s previous chill was nowhere to be found. He was screaming and hyperventilating. Gerard, carrying all of the supplies quickly runs into the room. He looses his socked footing on the tiles and slides across the floor straight into Mikey. He screams in pain and surprise as his older brother barrels into him making his head slam into the counter and knocking him out and to the floor and causing his head to split. It starts bleeding quickly.
“Shit, Mikes. Hey, Ray help Mikey.” Gerard scrambles around the floor, trying to pick up all the things that he dropped. Ray leaps off of the stool and grabs the paper towels and sprints to Mikey. Gerard on the other hand was freaking out.
On top of the fact that the can’t swim, dance, and not knowing karate, he has no medical training. Frank wasn’t helping, he was screaming and squirming and just generally being uncooperative. Gee was trying to wrap the foot in rags, remembering something about keeping pressure on injuries. He frantically looks around for the car keys but he can’t find them. So, instead he shouts at Ray, “Hey, Mikey’s no longer bleeding, go find the keys and start the car,” now to Frank. “Calm down. You were fine until you looked at it right?” He receives a small nod. “So, don’t look at it, don’t think about it.”
“It’s hards to not fucking…ah, shit... think about it when you’re doing whatever the…ah fuck…hell you’re doing.” Frank gasps out through waves of pain. Gerard was about to respond when Ray barges into the room.
“The car is ready. Let’s go,” Mikey, who was awake sitting propped up against the cabinets, pulls himself off of the ground and shuffles over to Ray and out the door. “We should probably get him checked out too.” Gerard stands up and hauls Frank off of the stool and into his arms. He was breathing quick sharp breaths and his eyes were screwed shut in pain.
He was muttering, “Think nice thoughts…keep calm…you’re cool…everything’s fine.” Frank groaned. Gerard had decided to opt for the elevator instead of the stairs to avoid further injury from the icy steps. He pressed the button to call the elevator, then saw their neighbor looking out of the window. He smiled, she was a nice old lady who when they moved in baked them cookies. Then Gerard realized how bizarre they look. He was still wearing his apron, a t-shirt, pajama pants, and no shoes, while carrying Frank who was moaning and occasionally screaming while holding bloody rags to his foot. He quickly looked away and entered the elevator as soon as it arrived. The one story decent seemed to take eternity.
When they reached the bottom they saw that Ray had pulled up the car and Mikey was sitting in the passenger seat. Gerard carried Frank the last part of the way to the car and placed him in the backseat. Then he went around the other side and got in. “Step on it.” Ray speeded down the narrow streets and to the nearest hospital. When they arrived, Ray pulled up to the Emergency Room entrance and said,
“Take Frank and Mikey in, I’ll find a place to park.”
“Okay, I'll take care of him.” Gerard swiftly gets out, knocks on Mikey’s door, and goes around to get Frank. He opened the door and got out, standing on his good leg. Gee picks him up bridal style again and carries him through the sliding doors to the ER followed by Mikey.