Warning

I was a young boy who had big plans. Now I'm just another shitty old man. I don't have fun and I hate everything. The world owes me so fuck you."

Billie Joe sat outside at his mom's house and wrote on his computer. It had been over two months since his argument with Adrienne and he hasn't talked to her since. It wasn't that he didn't want to, it was because Adrienne wouldn't answer his calls or messages.

Glory days don't mean shit to me. I drink a six pack of apathy. Life's a bitch and so am I. The world owes me so fuck you.

Warning was no more. Billie Joe took all creative control over the once revered magazine and was redesigning it to what it was supposed to be. Under the name of 'Adeline' with a skull-heart hybrid symbol, it was going to be all about music and a lifestyle that was best left to itself.

He was supposed to be editing articles from his unofficial staff of freelance writers, but he was switching to his Shenanigans folder every once in awhile to type random things from his mind.

He missed Adrienne and the kids, there was no pretending not too. He wondered how things were with them and how the divorce was going, and if it was even going to happen now. Adrienne was fickle like that. Even Tré was having difficulty tracking her down.

Billie Joe took his hands off the computer to light a cigarette. He needed a nicotine shot to calm his nerves. Even the thought of Adrienne put a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach lately and he didn't know why.

His phone rang next to his computer and he answered it instantly. "Yeah."

"Billie," Tre's voice came from the other end. "There's someone here who wants to talk to you." Tre's voice was odd as he talked to Billie Joe. Billie Joe could hear the shuffling of the phone from one set of hands to another.

"Um, Dad?" Katrina's voice came from the other line. "It's so weird calling you that." She laughed nervously.

The cigarette nearly fell out of Billie Joe's mouth as it went lax and his eyes went wide. "Kat," He grabbed the fag and quickly put it out. "Hey, how's it going?"

"Bad." Katrina whispered into the phone. "Mom took him back. She took Dad. . David... whoever back and..." Her voice was breaking up from tears. "Tonight they had a fight and you were brought up and he snapped. He kept hitting her over and over until she couldn't even move. She's at the hospital. I called Mr. Wright because I knew he'd have your number and I got his from Mom's insurance card on the back. Dad...Daddy, please," Katrina was at the point of pleading. "Please, come back and take us back to California with you. Please? We need you."

Billie Joe was speechless. In his mind's eye he could see the scene Katrina described being played out like a gruesome television show. He could hear Adrienne screaming before the scene became of her laughing with him, kissing him, loving him.

"Dad?" Katrina's voice sounded so small, scared and worried.

"I'm on my way babe."

* * *

Billie Joe had hoped with everything in him that he would never have to go into a hospital again. He had spent a good, solid, three months in one recovering from his accident and now Adrienne was there in the white prison.

His shoes made noise as he went down the quiet halls. It was early in the morning. So early that the rays of the sun weren't strong enough to penetrate the thick clouds that blanketed the sky.

Nurses and doctors stared at him as he passed. He was unshaved and had thick bags under his eyes. His heart was beating out of time as he got closer to her.

'Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. Tomorrow is too late to pretend everything's all right now. Well, I'm not getting any younger as long as you don't get any older. I'm not gonna state that yesterday never was.'

His brain wouldn't shut up. It kept running, dreaming, fearing, singing, talking, laughing, burping, hurting, and hoping.

'Bloodshot and deadbeat. Will I go to sleep making your mascara bleed tears down your face? Leaving traces of my mistakes?'

He was standing outside the door now. Room 213. He found it odd that if you flipped the last two digits around, you would get his old hospital room of 231. Maybe that was a good thing.

'If I promise to go to Church on Sunday, will you go with me on Friday night? If you live with me I'll die for you and this compromise.'

Billie Joe took a deep breath, swallowed any pride he may of had before and walked in. The room was dim, only a soft light in the corner lighting the room that was divided by a paper curtain. Adrienne laid on the side closest to the window.

Her face was swollen and her arm was broken. She was breathing without any help though and even in her tarnished state, she still seemed to be resting peacefully. Billie Joe silently took the chair next to her bed and took her unharmed hand.

"I'm sorry." He whispered to her sleeping state. "I should have just done it from here but I put my own selfish wants and needs ahead of what was important, you and Katrina and Jakob. I wish I could go back and redo everything. I wish I was a better man that could actually deserve you. I'm so sorry."

Billie Joe picked up her hand and kissed it gently before tenderly cradling it in his own, noticing the vacancy of her wedding band on her slender finger.

'If I promise to go to Church on Sunday, will you go with me on Friday night? If you live with me, I'll die for you and this compromise.'

Billie Joe sat like that, with her hand in his. The sun was brighter and was beginning to light up the room. He had not slept, he had not moved. He had sat there just like that. "Hey."

Adrienne's eyes flittered open and saw him sitting there, a deep prickle shadow on his face, his eyes broken and sad. "Hey. I heard you last night."

"You did?" Billie Joe's eyes, the windows into his sometimes fortress tight mind, brightened hopefully.

Adrienne nodded. "I thought it was a dream, I really did." She squeezed his hand. "We don't seem to learn from our mistakes do we?"

Billie Joe laughed and shook his head. "No, we don't seem to. We keep repeating them over and over again. Maybe this time something will sink in."

"Will it?" Adrienne's voice was very soft and her eyes were guarded.

Billie Joe nodded. "I'll move Adeline out here."

"Adeline?" Adrienne gave him a curious look.

"That's the new name of Warning, Adeline." Billie Joe couldn't help but smirk with pride. "We release our first edition next month."

"What about American Idiot?"

Billie Joe's smirk got wider. "It's going to be published this spring and I've all ready gotten people trying to censor me."

Adrienne laughed deep within her throat. "Well congratulations. The kids and I are moving out to California so maybe you should stay there."

Billie Joe's entire posture straightened up with that news. "Really? Are you sure?"

Adrienne nodded. "Don't you want to know what we were fighting about?"

His shoulder slumped back down a bit, he wasn't quite sure he really wanted to know. "What?"

"I was taking a pregnancy test when he came home. It was positive."

Billie Joe said nothing, this could go either way.

Adrienne squeezed his hand again. "And he knew that there was no way that he could have been the father."

Billie Joe's eyes widened. "So..."

Adrienne nodded. "It was yours."

"Was?"

Adrienne sighed and swallowed hard. "The intensity of the fight and the stress made me miscarriage. I lost it. I'm so sorry."

Billie Joe took her face and kissed her cheek. "It's not your fault baby." He kissed her lips. "I'm going to get you out of here and I'm never going to leave you again and nobody is ever going to hurt us or our children ever again."

Adrienne was crying openly now as they embraced. She nodded. "To a new life."

"A new life."