Union

"Do you need to talk?" Billie Joe said to a disgruntled looking Rose, as he sat down on the edge of her bed in an upstairs bedroom in his own household.

Rose had been laying on that same bed for days, barely speaking a word to anyone. Her mind was in the same place as Billie's would be right before a concert. 'I need my space right now. Something really big is about to happen.' Or in Rose's case, something really big 'did' happen.

"Are you just going to keep giving me the silent treatment?" Billie sighed as he smacked the mattress lightly with the back of his hand.

Still no answer from Rose. She just rolled over and turned her back on her cousin. Anger, lies and betrayal welled up in her from the inside out. She was still in firm belief that her whole family had plotted against her.

"Fine...I'll leave you alone. Know this though Rose, 'Green Day is officially back on tour this Friday'. And if you don't get your shit together by then; Tre's going to leave, and you won't see him again for a long time," Billie said with seriousness in his voice.

This comment from her cousin made Rose feel she simply must say something. "Billie, you sound like you're sticking up for that asshole."

Billie shook his head, "No, I'm not sticking up for him..."

"What are you doing than?"

"I'm letting you know, that Tre has been trying really hard the whole time he's been in the hospital. He's been trying hard for you. And no one else but you," Billie stated.

"Oh, for me? What...is Mike brainwashing you or something?" Rose said as she stared at the shadow her cousin was casting on the wall.

Billie laughed slightly. "No..."

"Okay, because last week you would have said differently," Rose sighed.

"Oh okay, what would I have said?" Billie said with some sarcasm in his voice.

"Hmm...you probably would have said, 'Tre's being a dick, and I'm not that surprised. He's pretending to try right now, but all he really wants to do is get back with you and bang,'" Rose said mimicking her cousin's voice in almost his exact tone.

This made Billie Joe laugh hysterically. "I don't think that's true...but holy fuck you sound like me."

"Yeah..." Rose said, not letting her cousin see a small smile appear on her lips.

"He doesn't know you're pregnant..." Billie said.

"What?" Rose said with amazement. She hadn't brought it up, but she had assumed Billie or Mike might have brought the topic up with her husband.

"Yeah. Well come on Rose, the man just tried to kill himself. I can't tell him now that his wife is pregnant and no one knows whose the baby is," Billie sighed.

"I agree..." Rose said quietly.

"Adrienne and the kids are coming to Europe with us. So if you decide you're not going to come...you'll be left alone," Billie Joe said as he placed his hand on the back of her shoulder.

"How the fuck am I supposed to be able to face Frank, Billie?" Rose said as she felt a tear trinkle along her nose.

"Well...if you want...I guess you could stay on the bus with me, Adie and the kids," Billie said kindly.

"I could?" Rose said with relief.

"Yeah...I mean, I'm sure Mike and Tre will probably be causing too much chaos on their own bus. They have a tendancy of doing that on the road. Hence the reason I have to have my own bus..." Billie laughed.

"Really? I thought it was just 'lead singer arrogance syndrom'," Rose giggled.

"It is a bit..." Billie grinned. "Hey, did you just laugh?"

"Umm, no..." Rose said and she crossed her arms.

"Oh my God, you just fucking laughed..." Billie repeated again with excitement.

"Shut up, I did not!" Rose shouted.

Billie started mocking her immaturily, "Rose just laughed. Rose just laughed. Haha haha ha ha."

"Stop it!" Rose shouted crankily.

"Okay! Okay! Calm down woman!" Billie said as he jumped up from the bed.

Rose rolled over once again, this time facing her cousin. "Billie...you've been really nice to me, everyday since I've lived here. So...if I forgive you for helping my mom dump me here, can you promise me you'll never do anything behind my back again?" Rose said suddenly.

"Umm...sure," Billie said. He didn't want to bring up again that he knew nothing about it; he thought he would let it slide though.

"You promise?"

"Yes...I promise."

***

October 2, 2008

Well, I've been out of rehab for about a week now. My ribs have healed up pretty nicely, but my leg is still a bit painful. It should be better soon though.

All this leg pain sort of reminds me of the time I got that loose bone taken out of my knee. Yeah, that thing bothered me for years. I would freak out if anyone touched my leg there, it hurt so bad.

Or should I say...it wasn't the kind of pain I enjoyed that much.

The doctor said I should be able to play the drums again by the time we get to Germany on Friday. I'm really excited, I've been dieing without my Ludwig.

I have butterflies right now as well. I mean, I haven't seen Rose in forty-five days. (Yes, I'm counting)

I mean, I had planned out that whole second-honeymoon thing real nicely. And then all that crap came up. It kind of took the fun out of getting to celebrate our marriage a second time.

I'm afraid Rose will only be reminded of her assault by the time we spend in Germany. I mean, I surprised her with that right before she went upstairs and answered the door.

Yeah, I still have that day pretty fresh in my memory. Fuck, I felt so helpless. I felt like I should have been able to do something, but just couldn't.

Maybe I'm just a bad husband. I never wanted to be though; It's really shitty everything I've done. I've made a big mess.

Fuck, if I ever find that asshole... I don't care if I go to prison for life, he'll fucking get it.

But anyways...damn, it's so unlike me to write in a journal. What the hell is with that? I guess it comes from Mike telling me not to treat him like he's my girlish little diary.

He's a dick sometimes. But I can see him not wanting me to vent my shit on him every two seconds. That would really bring me down too. And I'm already feeling down.

But I'm also hyped more so than ever before! Almost as hyped as the Idiot tour. Except I know we may never relive those days again. Yeah it's sad, but we've had our fifteen minutes of fame twice before. More than most people get.

Who knows though? Dookie came out in '94, kicked ass. And American Idiot came out in '04 and did awesome. I'm betting on '14 we'll have another unstoppable record!

Three more days until we fly to Germany. I've been anxiously waiting for it all week. It gets pretty lonely sitting in this big quiet house by myself. I'm bored and I miss Rose...

***

"You almost ready?" Billie sighed as he threw on his sunglasses at the same time as sticking his head through Rose's bedroom door.

"Yeah...I think so," Rose answered nervously.

"What's wrong?" Billie Joe questioned with concern.

"Nothing..." Rose answered quickly as she grabbed up a pair of socks from the top drawer of her dresser.

"Rose, fuck off," Billie said jokingly. "Come on, tell me..."

"No...and you fuck off," Rose answered as she pulled her runners out of the closet, sat down on the edge of her bed and started putting them on.

"Fuck, you're so impossible..." Billie complained.

"Ah...duh!" Rose laughed.

"I know what it is..." Billie Joe grinned.

"No you don't, because there is nothing..." Rose said rolling her eyes.

"It's Tre..." Billie said raising his eyebrows at her in a disconcertingly way.

Rose just shook her head and didn't say a word.

"Wait...ahuh....there's one more thing too," he said with a smartassed look on his face. He just knew that he knew everything that ran through the young womans mind. "Also...you're afraid of flying..."

Rose looked up with surprisement at her cousin. "Whoa..." Rose said feeling her face go red.

"I know, I'm awesome..." he gloated egotisically.

"How did..."

"Because, psst.....I am too," he whispered.

"Really? You are?" Rose said, her face returning to its normal pale colour.

"Yeah... So at least if we die we can scream together. We can be like, AHHHHH AHHHHHHH FUCK WE"RE GOING TO DIE! AHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHH!" Billie shouted at the top of his lungs before breaking into laugher.

Rose joined in with his laugher. In fact it made her laugh so hard she had to wipe tears from her eyes, and just about near peed herself. "FUCK, OKAY! I guess if I have to die; dieing with Green Day is the way to do it," she laughed.

"Damn straight!" Billie said as he pulled her to a stand-up position from the bed. "Now! Let's get our asses on our way to Germany!"

"Fuck yes!" Rose said with excitement.

Rose grabbed the brand new luggage case Billie had bought her and started pulling it towards the bedroom door. This new Louis Vuitton case was a far cry from the one she had originally brought to Berkeley. That case was old, browned with time and had a broken zipper. In other words, it was a piece of shit.

"Let me carry the bag for you," Billie insisted.

"No fucking way. I'm carrying this myself," Rose said proudly.

"Oh okay, I get it... Oh well, break your back being too proud to let a guy carry something for you. You are pregnant though..." Billie Joe grinned, knowing that would get her.

"Hmm...fine," she caved automatically and released the bag from her grip.

Billie smirked and took up the case quickly in both arms. "Ah! Fuck! What the hell do you have in here, an elephant?!"

"Yes Billie...my pet elephant," Rose laughed as she took off out of the room. Slowly she walked downstairs as Billie Joe juggled and swayed the heavy case back and forth behind her.

Eventually getting the case downstairs, Billie packed it into the back of his car and came back inside. He didn't want to have to reenter the house, but had too once again to urge everyone to hurry up.

"Come on you guys! Let's go!" Billie shouted in the front doorway.

"Just a second!" Adrienne shouted from upstairs.

"Coming dad!" Joey and Jakob both called from where they were snacking in the kitchen.

"Hey Billie...I have to go do something before we leave. I'll be right back..." Rose said as she stood in the foyer.

"What? Okay! Hurry up though!" he said with excitement.

"Okay! Okay! Just two minutes!" Rose said as she disappeared back up the stairs.

"What? Two minutes?! That's a long time!" Billie shrieked.

***

Having run up the stairs, Rose slowed down as she made her way into the upstairs hall. She knew what she had to do. And for weeks it had been waring at her to actually do it.

Gently tapping the outside of Adrienne's bedroom door Rose waited for permission to enter. Surely enough it came, "Yes?"

Slowly pushing open the bedroom door, Rose saw Adrienne standing in the doorway to her walk-in closet; packing a bunch of last minute items. "Hi..." Rose said quietly.

Adrienne took her head out of the closet to look at Rose. "Oh...hi..." Adrienne said calmly.

"Can I talk to you?"

"Yeah. Of course you can..." Adrienne said with much friendliness. She threw down one more item in her suitcase and came away from the closet towards Rose. "What's going on?"

Rose sighed," Look...I just really wanted to apologize to you for everything. I behaved terribly towards you; I'm very sorry."

"Rose...Rose...sweetie. You don't have to apologize to me. I totally understand why you were acting that way. I mean, I would've acted in a similar way. Anyone would have. In fact if they didn't, they'd be a freak," Adrienne laughed. "Don't worry about it..."

"But I do... You're so nice. You didn't deserved to be called the biggest asshole in our asshole family. If anyone is, it's me," Rose said shamefully.

"Girl! You are not the asshole! No one here is an asshole. Well except Billie sometimes... But that's a different story...." she giggled.

"So...you forgive me?" Rose asked hopefully.

"Of course! I love you Rose, you're like the daughter I never had," Adrienne smiled.

"Wow, really?" Rose said with shock.

"Yeah..." Adrienne nodded and initiated a hug with the younger woman.

"God...thanks Adi. I love you too," Rose replied and hugged the older woman.

"ADI! ROSE! LET'S GO!" Billie shouted from downstairs.

Pulling out of their mother/daughter like hug Adrienne sighed with a grin, "Hmm...speak of the asshole..."

Rose laughed, "We better go..."

"Yep," Adrienne said. She pulled up her own suitcase and brought it downstairs.

They were now on their way to the airport, to take the bands private jet to Europe, in what would be a ten hour flight. At the airport, Rose would be met with Green Day's bassist Mike Dirnt.

And its drummer; her husband Tre Cool...