There's Just Too Much That Time Cannot Erase

December, Happy Birthday Ames

I was woken up by the feeling of someone leaning over me, opening my eyes to be staring right into Gerard's deep hazel ones.

"Happy birthday," he smiled as he leaned down and kissed me softly.

"Twenty-four, yay," I said sarcastically, causing him to laugh as I shut my eyes again.

"You're already awake, so I might as well tell you that Robbie's litteraly a haf hour away from here," he smirked, laughing as I bolted up into a sitting position, glaring at him after feeling a headache coming on from the sudden movement. "And you're 24, not 40."

"Yeah, you're right, you are old," I said grinning.

"Okay, just for that smarty, I'm punishing you," he said jumping on me, pinning me down on the bed as he tickled me like crazy.

"Okay, okay, I take it back!" I said laughing, looking up at him as he finally stopped. "And you should take that as a compliment, Johnny Depp is like fourty and he's still cute."

"Good to know you goof ball," he said rolling his eyes as he leaned down and kissed me again. "Now get dressed and I'll feed Hayden."

He let me up and went across the hall and into the nursery, picking up a cranky and now one month old Hayden. I kissed her cheek before Gerard took her downstairs, the clock revealing that I had about twenty minutes before my brother would be here. I found a pair of black jeans and a corset, making my way into the bathroom for a shower. I applied some eyeliner and a pale red shadow to my eyes after getting out, and suprisingly enough, the corset fit perfectly as I got dressed. I was out of the bathroom and downstairs in a flash, walking into the kitchen to see Gerard holding Hayden in his arms, her small hands overlapping his as she held onto her bottle.

"Mommy looks very pretty today," he smiled as he looked up at me standing in the doorway. "I would say what really crossed my mind but there's a baby in the room."

"And daddy looks amazing as well," I said as I walked over to the two, kissing Hayden's cheek and hugging Gerard from the side. "My turn to make breakfast."

"Not on your birthday babe," Gerard said kissing my cheek, moving Hayden into my arms and sitting me down on a stool at the counter as I watched him set to work. Soon the two of us were eating a normal breakfast of pancakes and eggs, Hayden sitting in the middle of us and still finishing her bottle. I'd managed to convince him to let me doing the dishes, the door bell ringing as soon as I was done.

"I got it Ames," Gerard said as he picked Hayden up, holding her securely on his hip as he left the room.

"Hayden! Oh my gosh you are so cute honey!" I heard Carrie's excited voice say, Gerard chuckling as the group turned for the kitchen.

"It's the beautiful Mrs. Way!" Robbie smiled as he walked in the kitchen, wrapping me in a hug and ruffling my hair once he'd let go. "With a flawless looking baby might I add." He smiled as Gerard handed him his neice, Hayden looking up at him with curious eyes.

"Well you didn't think we'd come down here empty handed," Carrie smiled after hugging Gerard and I, letting out a sharp whistle. My jaw dropped as I heard the patter of paws outside the kitchen, two of the most beautiful creatures I'd ever seen coming in and sitting right down in the doorway. Layka's silvery gray coat was practically glimmering as she sat beside her son, a jet black wolf with icy blue eyes, just like the pictures we'd gotten of him. "I present to you Layka and Shadow," Carrie laughed upon seeing my shocked face.

"Aww, he's adorable," I smiled, leaning down in front of the one we'd dubbed Shadow and rubbing his neck, his blue eyes looking intently at me.

"You guys are going to love him, he's a total sweetheart," Robbie smiled, crouching down beside me and letting Shadow sniff Hayden over, making the four of us laugh as he licked her face, Hayden letting out the most adorable giggle we'd ever heard.

And this was only the beginning of the bond that'd form between Hayden and Shadow as they grew.

That Night

"Never again will I look at pasta the same way," I groaned as I fell onto the bed, Gerard laughing at how dramatic I was being.

"It's not my fault you decided to pig out tonight," he teased as he climbed into bed next to me, tucking some hair behind my ear as he smiled at me. "Happy birthday Ames."

"Thank you, but I'm sleepy Gee," I yawned, causing him to chuckle as he pulled the blanket over the both of us, holding me close to his chest as his hands ran through my hair, he knew full well that that relaxed me. I drifted off to sleep, curled up beside my husband, knowing that I was the happiest person in the world right about now. Only, neither Gee or I expected the one wake up call in the middle of the night that would keep us cautious for weeks.

A Few Hours Later

"Get off Layka," I groaned when I felt the moisture on my face, meaning she'd just licked me.

Now usually Layka would hop right off unless she was feeling definat that day, but the licking continued and I opened my eyes to see that it wasn't the green eyes of Layka looking down into mine, no, these eyes were blue.

"What's up boy?" I asked yawning, not feeling to crazy for asking an animal a question since it was something I'd done before.

He nuzzled his face into my neck, whimpering almost as if he was trying to tell me something. I followed after him as he hopped off the bed, and when we arrived in front of Hayden's door that I'd left cracked open so that we could still hear her, I thought Shadow was just messing around. And just as I was about to sigh and turn back for the bedroom, Shadow stopped me. He litteraly turned around and blocked the doorway, looking up at me like I had issues or something. Two times I unsuccessfully tried to step over him and he wasn't having it, he eventually grabbed hold of the bottom of my long t-shirt, tugging me back to the nursery door.

It was then that I decided to find out what was wrong with this loony wolf, opening the door and letting him follow behind me. Nothing seemes amiss once I'd flicked on the lightswitch, the window was closed, nothing was broken, and upon checking, there was no one hiding in the closet with a baseball bat waiting to kill me or whatever strange scenario you could think up. Some lightbulb went off that caused me to walk across the room to Hayden's crib, and I could've fainted at what I saw. Hayden couldn't breathe, she was trying to scream out, knowing that one of us would come in, but she couldn't.

I quickly scooped her up in my arms, trying not to give myself a panic attack as I walked back across the hallway, Layka joining Shadow as they followed me, Layka jumping onto the bed to get a head start on waking Gerard.

"I'm up, I'm up," I heard him yawn. "Amy?"

By now I was already crying in panic, not sure whether mine or Hayden's lungs would collapse first, for the first time in many months, I was having a panic attack.

"What's wrong babe?" Gerard asked, immediately getting up and turning on the lamp beside the bed, running over to where I was standing with Hayden in my arms, her short and choked breathing being the only thing allowing me to grip onto reality.

"Sh..hadow woke me up...Hayden can't breathe...I'm so scared Gerard," I choked out, his arms wrapping around me as he tried to calm me down.

"It's probably just an asthma attack honey, Mikey had them all the time when he was a baby, come on," he said grabbing his cellphone off the nightstand, hand on the small of my back as he guided me into the bathroom. He sat me down on the counter of the sink, dialing 911 and taking Hayden from my arms at the same time, sitting on the side of the tub and turning on the shower. "The steam helps the lungs clear out and start working again, just like an inhaler," he comforted me, the hospital soon picking up on the other line.

"Hi, my name's Gerard Way and my wife had just checked in on our daughter, yes Hayden. She's not able to take in more than a short breath and she feels feverish," Gerard said. "Yes, she's only a month old, could it be an asthma attack this early? Yes, I know about the steam thing. Okay, will do, thank you," he said before hanging up, turning the knob on the shower to hot water in order for the room to steam up.

Sure enough, after about five minutes, Hayden was breathing in normally, looking up at her father like everything was perfectly okay.

"There's my little fighter," he smiled down at her, kissing her nose before turning off the water and standing up. "The nurse at the desk says Hayden'll be fine for tonight, we just have to keep an eye on her tonight and bring her in for a checkup tomorrow," he said as he got down to my level, wiping away some tears from my eyes before I buried my face into his neck, trying hard to control my own breathing.

We went back to bed a few minutes later, this time Hayden lying on her back between us, Gerard pulling me as close as possible and resting his head against mine, softly singing the lyrics of Desert Song in my ear.

"She's going to be okay Amy, I promise," he whispered, the last words I heard before reluctantly drifting off to sleep.