You're My Favourite Sound

Frank had smoked enough cigarettes to make himself stop crying, but as he drove over to Gerard and Mikey's, he couldn't get his body to stop shaking. Never in his life had he felt this much pain over anyone.

He stopped abruptly infront of the house, sulked up the driveway and let himself in through the back.

"Geeee," Frank yelled and collapsed in one of the kitchen chairs, burying his head in his hands.

"Frank, how did yo- whoa, hey man, whats wrong?" Gerard said upon entering the kitchen. He rushed over to the table, closely followed by Mikey, who had come down to see what the commotion was about. The two brothers shared the house with their wives when the two ladies could make it down to LA.

"She said it was over," Frank whispered, finally repeating the words that had echoed in his head, out loud.

"What? Why?" Mikey interrupted.

"She said she had to marry Ethan and it was the right thing to do and that it was over. Gee, you gotta help me fix this, how do I fix it?"

Gerard stared at his hazel eyed friend in disbelief. From the moment he first saw Frank and October together, he knew that they were meant to be. But he never foresaw this coming.

"I-I don't know what to tell you, man," Gerard mumbled softly. His stomach turned as he watched the last shred of hope fall from his best friend's face.

As hard as Frank tried to fight them, a single tear fell from his glazed eyes. In a fit of frustration, he picked up the glass of water that Mikey had gotten for him and threw it up against the wall, shattering it into hundreds of pieces. The Way brothers both took a step back as their bandmate flew out the back door. Gerard patted his younger brother on the back lightly as Mikey stared at the door in horror.

"He's just, he's just really upset," Gerard tried to reassure him, as he looked slightly shaken by Frank's rage.

"I know," Mikey whispered, "I just wish there was something we could do." Gerard nodded and grabbed his coat.

"I've got to go find him, he's going to end up hurting himself," he replied to Mikey's quizzical expression.

"Right," Mikey agreed, "I'll wait here in case he comes back."

While Gerard was out wandering the streets of Los Angeles, looking for his distraught friend, Mikey was back at the house, pressing 'redial' on the phone, waiting for October to pick up. He had left at least five or six messages, all telling her to call as soon as she could.

Mikey had drifted off to sleep right before Gerard came in the back door with an extremely less sober Frank. Hearing the alarm as the back door opened, Mikey jerked up and raced into the kitchen to find Frank slouched over, supported only by Gerard's arm.

"Gee, I miss her," Frank repeated over and over again.

"I know, buddy, we'll work it out, you just need to get to bed," Gerard comforted his friend.

Frank mumbled some more indecipherable dribble as Gerard and Mikey both hauled him upstairs and into one of the guest rooms. They dropped him onto the bed and Gerard closed the door behind them as he and his younger brother walked out into the hallway.

"October isn't answering her phone," Mikey muttered as they began to walk back down the stairs.

"Apparently she and Frank both deal with these things in the same way, she probably passed out," Gerard added woefully.

"I can't believe he got drunk, after all the shit he went through to get sober," Mikey replied, shaking his head.

"I tried to stop him, but..." he sighed and shrugged, defeated, "Love changes people."

October awoke the next morning with the worst headache and an aching in her gut. She let out a loud moan as she tried to roll over. Suddenly, another wave of nausea swept over her and she threw herself off the bed to race to the bathroom.

Emerging a few minutes later after spitting out her mouthwash, October walked into the kitchen to see Ethan standing at the kitchen table.

"Still feeling rough, huh?" he commented softly as his fiancee let out a soft groan. She felt like shit.

"Mmm," she muttered in response.

"Here, try some cereal," Ethan said, placing a bowl in front of her place at the table. "I have to head off to work, but do you want me to call a doctor?"

"No, I'll be okay. It's just a hangover," she replied, slightly distracted with the spoon in her cereal bowl. This time the hangover thing was true, she wasn't particularly sober when Alex had to drive her home last night.

"What pocessed you to drink so much in the first place?" questionned Ethan, putting his finished bowl in the sink.

"I... just felt like it," she merely shrugged. "Haven't been out with Hazel and Joshi in a while so thought I'd have some fun."

Ethan arched an eyebrow, "At work?"

"Well... Alex was there..." He smirked.

"How're the pair anyway? Still not heard anything?"

October shook her head, "Nothing. I'd call them myself, but it's really their deal, you know?" Plus the fact she had her own deal going on at the moment.

"Fair enough," shrugged Ethan, and picked up his wallet and keys, before giving her a sweet kiss on the forehead. "Feel better soon, I love you."

"I love you, too," she whispered in reply, and watched him walk out of the front door.

October rested her head in her hands and felt her eyes begin to sting again. Finally, she threw her spoon back in her untouched cereal and stormed back into the bedroom. She slammed the door shut and crawled back into bed.

Frank awoke to the usually bright sunlight pouring in through the blinds in the Way brothers' guest bedroom. He hadn't felt as hungover as he did at that moment in a very long time. Usually, when he awoke from a hangover of this magnitude, it would have taken him a few hours to remember why he got so fucked up in the first place, but the truth was, he hadn't stopped thinking about it since it happened.

He groaned softly and pulled himself out of bed. After standing very still in order to stop his head from pounding, he finally gave up and painfully made his way downstairs.

Gerard and Mikey were sitting at the kitchen table. Gerard was working on some papers while Mikey was drinking a large cup of coffee and flipping through a 'Bass Guitar' magazine. They both looked up as Frank stumbled into the kitchen and plopped down in one of the chairs.

"Hey buddy, how ya feeling?" Mikey said softly.

"She's still gone, isn't she?" he muttered.

"She's not gone, she's just... she's just doing what she thinks is right, that's all," Gerard added, setting down his pen and looking up at the weary punk rocker.

"No, you didn't see her, her eyes, she's gone," Frank continued to ramble.

Mikey got up, poured another mug of coffee and set it in front of the younger man, shooting him a weak, comforting smile. Frank accepted it, but couldn't bring himself to return the smile.

"I've got to get her back," he slurred and stood up quickly, grabbed his head and tripped over one of the chair legs.

"Whoa there," Gerard said, catching his friend before he crashed to the ground, "I think maybe you should be able to walk before you go trying to get October back. Frankie, go back to bed, October's probably still out cold anyway."

Frank, feeling weak and miserable, shook his head in agreement and stumbled over to the couch. Upon contact, he fell back asleep and Mikey covered him up with one of the blankets that they kept on the back of the recliners.

"He looks terrible," Gerard whispered to his younger brother as they stood over Frank.

"You wouldn't look too amazing either if you just had your heart ripped out by the first person you've ever really loved," Mikey added woefully.

Gerard opened his mouth but then closed it again, feeling that nothing he could say would make a difference anyway. Frank was asleep, hopefully dreaming of more peaceful things, and October, well October was another story.

"I think I should go check on Octy," Gerard said as he and Mikey walked back into the kitchen.

"I think that would be a good idea," Mikey agreed.

When October awoke again, the apartment was quiet. She felt a little better, but now the frustration with her screwed up future dominated her entire body and she couldn't get herself to move. Instead, she simply laid quietly in the bed, allowing a few of the remaining tears to slide out of her eyes and down the side of her face. She didn't know what time it was, but she didn't really care. It looked like it was getting close to late afternoon.

A knock at the front door disrupted October's meandering thoughts, but didn't inspire her enough to try to get up. She just listened to the way the rapping of the wooden door echoed through the apartment, eventually finding its way to her ears and then grew thick and heavy as it entered her brain. It seemed that anything that entered her head at this point grew heavy and tired, eventually giving up and settling in somewhere in the back of her mind. October's entire body felt like a dead weight.

The knocking didn't stop for quite some time. There were voices, maybe yelling for her to open the door, but the voice was indecipherable. Her phone was ringing, too. All these sounds fell cumbersomely upon her ears and grew monotonous and eventually faded out of memory. It had been a while since she had felt this numb before, but it was reminiscent of a very dark period of her life. One that she had not wished to return to at all.

October didn't know how long she had been laying in bed, conscious. She had listened to the front door click open and some hushed voices that eventually grew silent as footsteps neared the bedroom door. Her eyes watched as the door cracked open, but she didn't bother to move her head.

Gerard quietly entered the room, assuming that October was asleep, and she made no noise to convince him otherwise. However, when Gerard's eyes met October's, he shot her a surprised look.

"I thought you were asleep, you haven't been answering anything, really," Gerard added, sitting down slowly in the chair by the desk. "I got the key from your neighbour."

October moved her focus up to the ceiling and shrugged. She had wanted to verbally answer him, but when she considered it, she wasn't positive she had a voice anymore, so she went for a physical movement that she had barely even felt.

"I know you're hurting, Octy, but lying in bed forever isn't going to make anything better," Gerard continued nervously.

"I don't care," the younger girl croaked.

"Yes you do, if you didn't care, you wouldn't be faking rigor mortis in your bed," he shot back. She made no attempt at a response. The truth was, she hadn't felt pain like this before. She hadn't cared about anyone this much before, either.

Gerard stood up to leave the room, thinking to himself that October just needed some space, when a tiny, almost unrecognisable voice perked his ears.

"Gee," October whispered, tears on the brims of her eyes, "It hurts."

Gerard turned and looked at October, feeling his own eyes start to prick with the sensation of emotion rushing to the forefront of his mind. "I know, kiddo, but you'll get through this, I promise."

October curled back up and closed her eyes as the older man softly shut the door. Knowing that he wasn't going to get anymore out of October, he made himself useful by clearing away the mess in the kitchen. He cooked a small lunch, hoping that maybe the scent of food would draw her out of the bedroom, but to Gerard's dismay, the door didn't move an inch.