Union

After getting off the phone with a very distraught Tre Cool, Mike drowsily clammered out of bed. His new girlfriend, 'April' hadn't stirred one bit during the whole phone conversation, and she wasn't about to start now.

Mike got dressed in a brown suede jacket and matching pants, went downstairs and made himself some instant coffee. While he waited for it to heat in the microwave he started putting on his shoes in his front foyer.

When hearing the microwave beep, Mike returned to the kitchen to grab up his portable coffee mug. He took it and went.

Getting into his black BMW on a warm aired Tuesday morning, Mike set off for the unknown. He knew he had to do something to help out Tre; how could he though, with no clue of what was wrong?

Some minutes later, and ending up in Berkeley Hill's, Mike pulled up outside of Billie Joe Armstrong's suburban villa. He sighed as he thought of whether this was really the place he should be at this moment.

Not hesitating for one more moment; with his remote, Mike opened the iron gate at the end of the safe-guarded driveway, and drove in.

As he got out of his car, the house seemed eerily quiet. He figured all though it was only nearing five in the morning, he had some right to help; since all the events of the past days had taken place with out his involvement.

He quietly sauntered up the carefully placed stone walkway towards the front door. He had no idea what he was going to do once someone answered the door, but anyhow he rang the doorbell.

He began to ring the doorbell insesently feeling he would need to wake everyone in the house just to be able to get in. "Fuck...come on Bill," he said as he also gave the door an impatient tap with his knuckles.

The front door opened quicker than Mike had expected it would. And there in the doorway stood an exhausted looking Billie Joe with the worlds biggest bruise on his face.

"What are you doing here man?" Billie asked.

"Holy fuck Bill! What the hell happened to your face?" Mike said with surprisement in his voice.

"Nothing...just...nothing. What are you doing here?" Billie asked Mike once again.

"Umm, I wanted to talk to you about Tre," Mike answered as he had still been left to stand outside the door.

"Okay, that might be a good idea," Billie said as he rubbed the bruise on his face gently.

"Yeah, so...are you going to let me in?" Mike asked with sarcasm in his voice.

"Fuck...yeah. I'm sorry man, I've just been up all night. Come on in," Billie sighed as he stepped back out of the doorway to let his friend through.

Mike walked into the front foyer and took off his shoes. "So, where's Rose?" Mike asked as he began to walk into the living room.

"She's asleep in the guest bedroom upsta..." Billie started. "Wait, how do you know Rose is here?"

"I talked to Tre," Mike answered bluntly.

"Oh..." Billie sighed.

"So, you aren't going to tell me where you got that bruise?" Mike asked again.

"Nope..." Billie Joe grinned.

"Okay," Mike nodded acceptingly. He knew he'd find out the story behind the bruise sooner or later anyways.

"So...when did Tre call you?" Billie questioned.

"At about 4:00 this morning."

"Oh, so probably just a little while after we left."

"Yeah probably..." Mike said as he sat himself down on the couch. "Is everybody else still in bed?"

"Yeah... Well, Adrienne was up until about 4:30, but I haven't gone to bed yet. I'm not feeling too good right now," Billie said as he paced the room slowly while talking to his friend.

"Yeah, you must be pretty tired man. Why don't you sit down?" Mike suggested.

"Because....because, I'm just really worried about Tre right now. I'm trying to figure out what the fuck to do. I mean, do you have any idea's?" Billie said as he stopped pacing and found himself a spot in his favourite chair.

"How can I know what to do? I don't even know what's wrong..." Mike pointed out.

"Yeah..." Billie said. "I can't believe it...earlier he told Rose that the family and I knew she was going to move out to Berkeley and it was all planned for her mom to dump her here. Like...what the fuck?" Billie said as he moved about in his chair with restlessness.

"He did?" Mike asked, he couldn't be more surprised to hear that Tre had said something like that either.

"Yeah, like why's he trying to turn her against us? Or a better question would be, why is her trying to turn her against himself?"

"What did he do to turn her against himself? Besides the obvious..." Mike asked.

"He told her that the first time he slept with her was a plot for her mom to kick her out of their house back east. I mean, it's all crap. Why the fuck is he saying things like that?" Billie said as he tilted his head back with frustration.

"Whoa...God she must be feeling confused right now," Mike said sympathetically. "I bet I can understand how she feels actually..."

"You can?" Billie said as he brought his head back level and looked at his friend of twenty-six years.

"Yeah..." Mike nodded. "I mean, I was adopted. Most of that time growing up, I knew nothing about my mom. It was very confusing for me, I felt like I'd lost out, and been betrayed."

"Wow really?" Billie said with surprisement. "You never told me that man..."

"I know..." Mike blushed. "I just...I think if anyone is going to talk sense into these two, I might just be the person to do it."

"Wow...you want to assume responsibily over Tre and Rose?" Billie said with wide eyes.

"Sure. Tre's one of my best friends, and Rose is his wife. I know he loves her, I just need to bide some time. Who should I talk to first?" Mike said, seeking the advice of Rose's older cousin.

"Well, I guess Rose...seeing as how you're already here....start with Rose."

"Isn't she asleep?" Mike asked.

"Not exactly..." said a young womans voice.

This made Mike jump off the couch in fright. "Holy shit!" he shrieked as he turned around to see Rose standing in the doorway, dividing the living room and foyer.

"So, you think you can help me? Is that what you think Mr. Mike Dirnt? You think you can just waltz in and save me?" Rose said with hostility in her voice.

"Rose...don't be like that," Billie said calmly.

"Billie...shut up," Rose said angrily.

Billie said no more, he just shook his head. He knew Rose's reasons for hatred against him were all false and invalid.

"Rose, I just thought maybe you'd want to talk. You know, you're married to one of my best friends... And he loves the hell out of you, I know he does," Mike said.

"Yeah, I know he does... I mean growing up, I always knew my mom loved me when she called me names and threatened to kill herself because I was such a terrible daughter. "The worst daughter in the world," in fact, if I may quote her."

"I dealt with that shit too!" Mike snapped.

"Man...don't yell..." Billie said as he pointed towards the ceiling, signifying the bedrooms filled with sleeping people upstairs.

"Sorry...but I dealt with it too..." Mike repeated in a lower tone.

"Oh...I see. Well, look at me Mike. I'm twenty-one years old. I should have a bright intelligent future ahead of me. But instead...I've been through so much fucking stress I look double my fucking age!" Rose snipped.

"Yeah, I can relate..." Mike said understandingly.

"Why do you care?! Just go back to your little rock star fantasy world and fuck off!" Rose said as she turned away.

Mike came over to her quickly and grabbed her arm to try and stop her from leaving the room. She reacted by quickly turning around and smashing him in the face.

"Fuck!" Mike shouted as he let go of her arm.

Rose was slightly shocked at what she had done and she stopped walking away. All she did was stare at Mike with wide eyes.

Billie Joe stood back and shook his head, "You're so angry..." he commented to Rose.

"You think I don't fucking know that?!" Rose shouted.

"Shit..." Mike said as he held his cracked jaw.

"You single handedly just assaulted every member of Green Day," Billie said. "You are my cousin," he said proudly.

"What? Is that suppose to be funny?" Mike asked Billie Joe as he held his bruising face and now knew the reason Billie also had a bruised face.

"Well kind of... Can't I bring some light to a constant sad situation?" Billie grinned.

Rose shared the exact same grin with her cousin, but automatically returned it to a scowl. "Fuck off Billie..."

"Rose...okay. Let me talk to you, but don't hit me..." Mike pleaded.

"What's there to talk about?" Rose said as she crossed her arms.

"Look, I need you to tell me all you know about what's up with your husband right now."

"I don't know what's wrong with him. But, I think it's pretty obvious whatever it is, it all leads to a mental institution," Rose stated.

"Yeah..." Mike sighed.

"God he looked scary earlier..." Billie Joe added.

"Yeah, that's not exactly the first time I've seen him like that..." Rose said. There it was again, numbness was settling out, and her feelings were setting in. She started to cry.

"Something's obviously driven him over the edge. When did he start acting like this, most noticibly?" Mike questioned Rose.

"A little while after the break in, and my assault..." Rose answered as she stared up at the ceiling.

"That would have fucked him up a lot. I mean...he was right there when it happened..." Mike said.

Rose nodded and adverted her teary eyes down from the ceiling to look at Mike. "Yeah..." she said quietly.

"Rose, when was the last time Tre hugged you?" Billie asked, oddly enough.

"Pfft...earlier tonight. If, hugging in violence counts..." Rose answered her cousin.

"Well, what about non-violent?" Billie said as he came closer to her.

"I can't remember..." Rose admitted.

"Not even after your ra- after you were attacked?" Mike asked.

Rose shook her head, "No.... He acted really sorry for me to begin with, but he's just seemed to get worse and worse. I really don't know what the fuck has happened...but I've needed him badly, and everything's just fucked..." Rose cried.

"Fuck..." Mike sighed. He felt like he was getting nowhere; nothing he could ask Rose would bring a new and improving developement to the situation.

"Personally, I think from experience..." Billie started. "I think he's on Meth again...remember Mike? Just like he was during Dookie."

"Yeah...he might be. But that was all of us..." Mike grinned.

"Yeah..." Billie said. "I'm actually surprised Adrienne married me around that time. Fuck I was acting like a dick."

"I fucking hate it..." Rose said.

"Yep, that's why we don't do it anymore," Mike said.

Rose gasped suddenly as she suddenly remembered and realized something, "Oh God..."

"What?" Billie said with concern.

Rose covered her mouth. "This is all my fault..." she spoke muffledly.

"What? Of course it's not...what are you talking about?" Mike said.

"It was me... I asked him to buy it that night at the club. I was really drunk. But fuck...he never told me he use to have a problem with it. I had no idea..." Rose said thinking of how naive she had been.

"I'm sorry Rose, no offense, but wasn't Geek Stink Breath enough indication that we were doing Methamphetamine?" Billie asked before feeling bad for commenting in such a way, because the look of guilt was written all over her face.

"I was drunk..." Rose reminded him again.

"It's okay... At least things are starting to make a bit more sense now. Well they are, but aren't," Mike sighed.

A silence fell over the living room. Mike, Billie and Rose all stood a fair distance from each other. Rose continued to cry and she tilted her head up towards the ceiling, in order to stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks.

"Fuck...at least the good thing is, nothing can make this any worse," Billie said with enthusiasm in his voice.

"True enough..." Mike agreed with equal enthusiasm.

"Oh but it can..." Rose said as she adverted her eyes down, and let her tears fall to the floor.

"Oh God..." Billie said bracing himself for it.

"What?" Mike said with an obvious confused tone.

"Fuck Rose....please don't tell me something I really don't want to hear," Billie Joe begged.

Mike turned to Rose as she held off telling them for a few very long moments. "What?" Mike asked again.

"I'm pregnant..."