My Way Home Is Through You

When Ray opened his eyes the next morning, the first thing he saw was a mass of curly brown hair that wasn't his own. Momentarily startled, he began to sit up. It was then that he saw the little face underneath the dark curls, and he remembered.

He lay very still and gazed at the sleeping child. Her anguish from the night before seemed to have slipped away as she slept through the night, replaced by a look of utter peace. She was snuggled against his side with Brownie Bunny clutched tightly against her chest.

Ray tore his eyes away from his daughter and glanced towards the windows. Weak rays of sunlight streamed through the blinds and he wondered what time it was. Craning his neck upwards, he peered at the alarm clock beside the bed. It was only a few minutes past eight o'clock, but he knew he needed to get up.

He slowly pulled away from Anna and got up from the bed. He headed back into the tv room and picked up his phone. He wasn't surprised to see that he had three voicemails. He dialed the number to retrieve them and Gerard's voice began to speak.

"Hey, man, hope everything was okay last night. Give me a call when you get this. Don't make me worry about you, dude. Bye."

He grinned as he deleted the message and waited for the next to start.

"Hey, Ray, it's Mikey. Listen man, give us a call soon, or come on down to the bus, let us know what's up, okay? Bye."

The third message was from Frank. "Ray, dude, what the hell? Why aren't you up yet? These guys are driving me nuts, they're worried sick about you and Anna. Get your ass down here or call us or something, Gerard's having a cow here, man."

Taking the none-too-subtle hint, Ray dialed Gerard's number and waited. The phone had barely rung once when Gerard picked up.

"Hey, you okay? Is she okay? What happened?"

"Gerard, we're fine. She's still sleeping," Ray answered. "Just had a rough night."

"What happened?"

Ray hesitated. "She woke up and... She forgot that Jenna was gone."

"Oh, Jesus," Gerard murmured. "Poor baby. How'd she handle it?"

"Cried herself to sleep."

"And how'd you handle it?"

"I cried, too. You have no idea..." His voice trailed off.

"You okay there, Ray?"

Ray cleared his throat. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"All right." Gerard didn't sound convinced. "Hey, how about you bring Miss Anna down for breakfast once she gets up?"

"Sounds good to me, Gee," Ray replied. "Frank booked us a suite with a kitchen, but we don't have anything up here."

"Great! We'll see you when you get down here."

"Later, man."

He hung up the phone and peeked back into the other room. Anna was sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"Daddy?"

"Good morning, baby," he said gently. "How you doing?" She yawned and simply nodded. He took that to mean she was okay.

She climbed off the big bed and stretched as Ray opened the blinds and let the sunlight in. It was a beautiful day in New York City.

"Hungry, kiddo?" he asked as he turned back toward her. She nodded again. "How would you like to go eat breakfast with Gerard and the guys?"

A grin broke out over her face and she exclaimed, "Okay!"

"Okay!" he exclaimed in agreement. He got her suitcases out once more and began to rummage for something for her to wear. He found a pair of shorts and a t-shirt for the warm summer day, and decided her little sandals from the day before would be just as good for today. As he folded the other clothes and put them back into the suitcase, he was amused to see a tiny black t-shirt with the "Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge" album cover on it. He hadn't even known the shirts were made in children's sizes. Shaking his head, he thought that by this point, he shouldn't be surprised to see one of Gerard's dancing skeletons on an infant's onesie anymore.

So Jenna had been a fan. The fact that she had bought this shirt for her daughter said it all. Ray was touched by this knowledge. With a sad smile, he folded the shirt and put it away.

After helping Anna get dressed, the pair made their way down to the lobby and out to the bus parked in the back lot.

As they made their way across the parking lot, Ray couldn't help looking around suspisciously, making sure they weren't followed or watched. He didn't want his daughter to be exposed and exploited for the sake of a story. While My Chemical Romance wasn't a tabloid band, a false rumor could still mean trouble for them. Ray thought the fans deserved to hear something like this straight from them. He felt he owed it to them, and to his daughter as well.

The door to the bus opened before they had even gotten to it, and a grinning Frank poked his head out.

"Come on, come on!" he exclaimed. "We were beginning to wonder!"

The others were waiting for them in the living area. Ray chuckled to see that Mikey was sporting quite a bruise above his right eye, presumably where he'd been elbowed during the previous night's brawl over the remote.

"All right!" exclaimed Gerard once the two were in the bus and settled. "Miss Anna, are you ready for breakfast?"

Anna blushed and nodded. Ray had to admit that Gerard was quite good with children. He seemed to have Anna eating out of his hand.

After breakfast, Gerard managed to find a few toys for Anna to play with. Frank burst out laughing when he saw that he'd given her the action figures of themselves.

"That's hilarious," he giggled. "I've never actually seen anybody play with these things before. Well, except you, Gee!" They all laughed at that.

"Shut up," Gerard said, grinning. "At least I didn't give her the little guns that go with them." Ray was thankful for that.

"Look!" exclaimed Anna, holding up the figure of Ray. "It's Daddy!"

Ray sat down beside her and picked up the Frank doll. "And who is this?" She scrutinized it for a moment.

"Frankie!" she exclaimed, her face lighting up. Moments later, Frank and Mikey were both down on the floor as well, joining in on the fun.

"So what's on the docket for today, guys?" Bob asked from his spot on the couch. "We don't even have to be at the venue for sound check and prep until five."

"Really?" Ray looked up in surprise. "What time are we going on?"

"Not until eight thirty," Mikey answered. "There are three other bands before us."

"Oh, that's right," Ray said, remembering now. "The charity thing. There are, like, four bands other than us tonight, right?"

Gerard nodded. "Tonight's just a short set." He paused and looked down at Anna, who was happily playing with the toys. "That's probably a good thing, though, considering."

Ray nodded and watched as his daughter made the Bob doll do a mid-air flip. Taking a deep breath, he looked back up at Gerard.

"Do you think Brian would look after her tonight while we're there?" he asked slowly.

Gerard nodded. "I'm sure he would."

After a moment, Bob said, "We still haven't figured out what we're doing today. I mean it's only 9:15." He paused. "Doesn't this hotel have a pool?"

Mikey laughed. "Bob just wants to go swimming!"

Anna perked up at the mention of a pool. "Pool? Daddy, can we swim?"

Ray bit his lip. He couldn't swim. Of course it would be the one thing she asked for. Then again, in a hotel swimming pool, there would be less risk of drowning than in the ocean. At least they could keep to the shallows. And if Bob and the others were there, it wouldn't be so bad.

"Sure, baby," he said slowly. "We can go swimming."

Anna clapped her hands and gave him a bright smile. In that moment, Ray didn't think he could deny her anything.