My Way Home Is Through You

The next morning, Ray and Anna packed up their stuff and headed down to check out of the hotel. When they had gotten settled onto the bus for the ride home, Frank and Gerard pulled Ray into the back room, where his laptop sat open on the desk. Bob and Mikey, meanwhile, kept Anna company, pulling out all of the toys Frank had purchased at FAO the day before.

"What's up, guys?" Ray asked with a sinking feeling as he closed the door behind him. He remembered Frank's comment about the kids the night before.

Frank and Gerard exchanged a nervous glance.

"Oh, God," Ray sighed. "Don't tell me - it's on MTV News, right?" At this, Frank smiled.

"No, nothing that drastic," he replied. "In fact, I've been searching around all morning. I've only found anything about it on one fan forum, actually." He sat at the laptop and looked at the screen. "Something called ShotgunSinners.Net."

Ray sat down opposite him, away from the screen. "Appropriately named," he muttered, rubbing his face. He sighed. "What does it say?"

Frank squinted at the screen for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't know, I can hardly read it, it's written really weird, with numbers in place of letters and junk..." He scanned the page for another moment, then said, "Well, here's what I think it says: 'OMG, like, you will not...' Believe? Yeah, that must be believe. 'Believe what I just saw. MCR was in Times Square with a kid. She was on Ray's arms. WTF is up with that? Like, whose kid is that?' " He snickered. "Damn, not to worry, Ray, nobody will even understand how to read this garbage, let alone believe it."

Ray found it hard to return the smile. "There aren't pictures, are there?"

"Just one," said Gerard, leaning over Frank's shoulder. "And it must have been from a really shitty camera phone. It looks like fucking Sasquatch!"

"Well, that would be me, wouldn't it?" grunted Ray, covering his eyes with his hand.

"Seriously, dude, you can't make anything out," Frank said. "All joking aside, it's really fuzzy, and it's only from the back. At best, it just looks like it could be any really tall person with long, curly hair. You can't even tell that it's a kid sitting on someone's shoulders."

Ray sighed. "Are there any replies to the message?"

Frank scrolled down and read further. He suddenly laughed. "Yeah, I'd say so. Apparently, the consensus is that this person, who has been called many nasty names, the leastoffensive being 'stupid teenie,' is lying and trying to start viscious rumors, or that the kid is your niece or something."

Gerard leaned further over Frank's shoulder, squinting at the screen, and laughed as well. "Ouch, dude, that's harsh!" he said.

"What?" Ray asked, tempted to look at the screen.

"This one chick seems to think you're too much of a dork to get the chance to knock anyone up!" Gerard howled with laughter at that.

"What?!" Ray jumped up furiously. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"Aw, man," groaned Frank. "This is why we don't Google ourselves, guys."

"Don't worry, Ray," Gerard said, recovering himself. "There's at least twelve reply messages telling her off for that comment." He continued to scroll down. "Damn! The entire thread got locked for 'unsubstantiated rumors' and 'starting a flame war!' Dude, you caused a lockdown on a message board!" Gerard looked impressed.

"Wonderful," muttered Ray, who still seemed miffed at the slight on his manhood. "So bottom line: does it look like we've got flames to put out?"

"At the moment, no," said Gerard. "Nobody seems to believe it."

"The fact that this kid can't spell real words without inserting numbers and symbols probably helped," snickered Frank.

"But," Gerard said seriously, "I do think you should probably be thinking about making some sort of announcement soon." Ray nodded.

"I know," he sighed. "I still want to get her settled at home first, though."

His bandmates nodded.

"Okay," said Frank, standing up. "Enough of this shit. Let's go play with Anna!"

With a smile, Ray followed his friends out to the living area of the bus and joined his daughter, spending the rest of the two hour trip on the floor, covered in action figures.