Six Feet Underground

THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO GERARD, LYN-Z, AND ALL OF MY LOVERLY READERS, NEW AND OLD! I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS STORY AND THERE MIGHT BE A SEQUAL, IF SO, I WILL LET YOU ALL KNOW BY POSTING THE LINK HERE, OR JUST CONTINUING HERE...

AN: Okay, so you know, this is gonna be the last chapter[maybe]. And, the most of the story, up to now took place in 2006/2007 so Mikey and Frank were 26/27 ish. The part in the first two chapter took place in the 80's/90's [mostly the later] while Gerard was in school, and the journal's took place during the 90's.
Just thought I'd clear that up for you because I, myself, was getting rather confused on the dates, but that could just be me and my weird obsession with having to have everything make sense in the dates and ages, though I kinda suck at that [can't you see I'm trying my hardest?]
I hope you all enjoyed this story as much as I did and went through all of the emotions [mostly crying] that I was trying to get you to feel.

TEN YEARS LATER

Mikey sat on the floor of the living room, just looking through all of the home video's he and his husband, Frank, along with their two children, Anay and Gerard, had acquired over the years. Countless birthday parties and other random video's with moment's in Anay's and Gerard's lives they had captured on film were stacked in the cabinet. Even a few video's Mikey and Frank were given from their parents were mixed in with the others.

But one stood out to Mikey. He hadn't remembered seeing that one in their before. And he had watched all of these videos rather frequently. Racking his brains to remember what the tape was of, Mikey pulled it out and stuck it in the old VCR that was probably one of the last ones around now, as all of the new technology had long since replaced tapes and VCR's. But Mikey had never wanted to give up the memories that wouldn't be the same unless they were on VHS.

Thinking it was one of the few tapes his mother gave him not long before she passed and he over looked, Mikey pushed the VHS into the VCR and changed the setting on the old TV in the living room as he grabbed the remote to both the VCR and the TV as he stood and walked over to the a lazy boy recliner and sat on the edge. He pressed 'play' on the VCR remote as he turned the volume up slightly on the TV, knowing it had been turned down last night as Gerard had been watching cartoons and fallen asleep once again on the couch.

Static flashed on the screen before the actual picture showed up.

Mikey stared at the TV as he watched the slightly familiar carpet of the house he once lived in, before he was forced to move, slid in and out of focus. His mothers voice told him that she was the camera woman and that she was making a fuss over how his father had used the camera last and had messed with the settings. Mikey could practically hear the roll of his fathers eyes as his mother finally got the camera's focus to her liking.

Donna brought the camera up off of the rather old carpet and Don came into view. He was standing, rather smugly, next to a young fourth grader who was sitting glumly in a wooden dinning chair. Mikey instantly recognized what this video was of and who was slumped over in the chair.

"Come on, honey. Please smile for me, I really want to capture this moment so you can look back at it and show your children one day." Donna pleaded with her eldest son.

"Mom," he whined. "I don't want to have this.. embarrassing moment caught on tape. It'll be used against me one day.. and it will be ALL YOUR fault!"

"Gerard!" Don scolded. "Be nice. That is no way to talk to your mother."

"Sor-" Gerard began to apologize but was cut off when a younger boy ran into the view and jumped at Gerard.

"GEE!" a younger version of Mikey screamed.

"Mikey!" Gerard tried to say as enthusiastically as his brother, but failed in his glumness.

"I found the weirdest thing on your bed!" Mikey said, his eyes shinning as he showed Gerard the item that was on his bed. "Why was there a girls dress and tights on your bed, Gee?"

"That's his costume Grandma made for him, Mikey," Donna told her youngest.

Mikey looked at the camera, and odd expression written on his young face. "Why would Gee wear girls clothes?"

"It's for his play, hon."

"Oh," was all Mikey said.

About a half hour into the video, Gerard had walked into the room, wanting to ask his dad if he wanted to go out to the park and play catch, but soon changed his mind as he saw the look on Mikey's face as he watched the play of Peter Pan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyRfo8lzAu8
THAT'S A VERY GOOD VIDEO OF THE SONG GERARD SINGS IN PETER PAN. IT'S NOT HIM SINGING, AS THAT WOULD BE SO AMAZING TO FIND. BUT, IT'S JUST AS GOOD. IF YOU OWN LIFE ON THE MURDER SCENE YOU SHOULD REALLY GET WHY THIS IS ON A VIDEO THAT MIKEY OWNS.

"Are you ready for today's lesson?" Gerard asked the rest of the cast on the stage as he stood off to the right side, slightly facing the audience, but still facing the Never Land boys.

"Yes, Peter!" they all responded in unison.

"Listen to your teacher," Gerard said as he moved to center stage, in front to the group of Never Land boys, most of them nodding as they watching him, totally into character. "Repeat after me.."

The music to the song I Won't Grow Up filled the auditorium as Gerard waited for the moment to begin his lines. Once he received the cue to begin, he opened his mouth and began the fun song in his young voice.

"I won't grow up," he sang as Mikey watched him from his living room, years and years after Gerard had played Peter Pan back in fourth grade.

"I won't grow up," the Never Land boys repeated after 'Peter'.

"I don't want to go to school," Gerard moved forward a little bit, looking back over his shoulder at the Never Land boys.

"I don't want to go to school."

"I don't want to learn to be a parent," Gerard moved to his right, watching the Never Land boys as the eagerly fallowed him around the stage, wanting to know more.

As the song progressed, Mikey was just.. staring at the TV in awe as this was probably the third time he had heard his brother sing. He was still, to this day, amazed at how wonderful his voice was and what it could have become if he had stuck to singing instead of dropping it not long after the play and began to get into art heavily.

Gerard watched his uncle sing and take the stage like he had owned it at that time as he leaned back into the fabric of the couch. Gerard hadn't heard much about his uncle, as his dad didn't like to talk about him. But, as he had gathered from guessing and just.. being around his grandma's a lot, he was a special man. Someone who Mikey had loved dearly and lost. Gerard knew how his dad felt, even though he hadn't experience the pain and hardships his father had to go through. But, like his grandma had said, he was more like the person he was named after than he would ever know. She had told him that he was very empathetic, much like his uncle.

The song neared its ending, and the longest and highest note, but Mikey couldn't help feel a bit of anticipation as he waited for Gerard to hit the note. Gerard, having never heard his uncle sing before and knowing the song well enough himself, was slightly worried that he wouldn't be able to hit such a high note, being a boy and all.

But once the note came, Gerard fucking nailed it and ended the song with his arms out stretched and the Never Land boys behind him, grinning and trying to huddle in close, but slightly failing and falling away, as planned, from each other as the last notes of the up beat song rang out.

"Wow," Gerard commented as the play, and the video, ended and the TV was turned into static once again.

Mikey, not knowing his son was sitting with him watching this with him, turned to him with shock and tears on his face. Mikey wiped the tears away and looked at the boy that, within the moment, he almost had thought he saw the ten year old Gerard he once knew sitting there looking back at him in amazement. But Mikey blinked and his brother disappeared to be replaced with his son, who everyone, even himself, saw many features of Gerard in him.

"I didn't know Uncle Gee could sing and act..." Gerard said, looking at his father.

"Yeah," Mikey said, turning off the VCR and TV as he stood. "He was amazing..."

Gerard stood also, wanting to know more about his uncle everyone said he was so much like. "What was he like? Did he draw like I do?" Gerard asked curiously.

Mikey hesitated, knowing that the questions would lead into... difficult territory soon and he wanted to avoid that... now. But, he wasn't going to deny his curious son, who, at the moment, was looking up at him with eyes that he could see his lost brother in.

"He... drew. But not what you draw. He was more of the person who would draw heroes and villains. He would draw whole pictures, not just one person and he would always try to explain to me what they meant and what each character was doing in the pictures," Mikey tried to explain, as he walked to the kitchen with Gerard trailing behind.

"Did he read comic books like I do?" Gerard asked, his eyes lighting up as Mikey explained things to him.

"Yeah, he loved comic books. But they were different when we were kids. There wasn't this whole... hologram thing. It was just like a normal book, but with color and really cool pictures." Mikey explained. "I still have all of the books we used to read all the time, if you want to see them."

"Yeah!" Gerard's eyes flashed with interest at the mention of something his uncle had been interested in, and he really wanted to know what the older comic books looked like. He had heard about them from his friends and his dad, but never actually seen them.

Mikey smiled at Gerard, "Okay. I'll go get them in a bit. But first I am thirsty!"

"Okay!" Gerard was so happy that he was able to get his dad to talk to him about the topic that was rarely even thought of in the family, that he really didn't care if he got to see the comic books that after noon or three years from then. "Why don't you talk about Uncle Gee, Dad?"

Mikey froze slightly, knowing that question was going to come up and knowing that it lead to harder questions. "I-I uh... Well, Gerard." He sighed, bending down to his sons level and resting his hands on his small shoulders. "You see.... Your uncle and I were separated when we were younger. We didn't like how we couldn't talk any longer.... and ... it was hard. We were so close.... He... Gee thought that I had......... Well, once I left he wasn't like he was before. It was like.... Do you know what insane is, Gerard?"

Gerard nodded.

"Well, Gee he... kinda went insane after I left.... and it tore him apart, almost literally. No matter how much grandma and grandpa had tried to help him, even hiring others to help him, he never was himself again.

"Grandma and grandpa would come and visit me while I stayed at a relatives house, but Gee never came. He was too depressed to do much of anything. They said that...." Mikey trailed off, not know if this was the right time or not to tell Gerard everything about his uncle or if he should wait a few years. Mikey didn't want his son to think of his uncle any differently because of the things he had done.

"What did they say, Dad?" Gerard asked, looking into his fathers eyes innocently.

Mikey looked at Gerard, knowing that he needed to know sometime. Sooner would be better than later. But Mikey was afraid of how Gerard would take it. He was so young and probably didn't know what drugs were. Nor what cutting was and he didn't know if he wanted to expose him to that just yet. In a few years, maybe, but at ten? He was too young yet. A few years wouldn't hurt, right?