Union

An hour and a half later, Green Day and its backup band had already arrived at the stadium. Rushing into their dressing room, they all prepared for the stage.

Rose sat down with Adrienne, April and the kids, in a far corner of the secluded backstage dressing room; as the guys were all getting ready around them.

Tre was darting about; catching Rose's attention. Throwing on a plain white t-shirt, trying to do his hair he would glance at her every so very often.

"I don't see why some musicians wives find this such a big deal. I really don't have a problem with Billie traveling and..." Adrienne stopped when she noticed Rose wasn't listening to her. "Rose?...Rose?!"

"Wha? What?" Rose said turning her head away from her husband and looking back at Adrienne.

Tre turned his head and took a noticing to the fact that his wife had seemed very fixated on him the whole time. The couple still could not conjure up the ability to have a proper conversation with each other.

"You...umm...you seem a little distant right now," Adrienne said.

"Who me? No, not at all," Rose lied with a forced smile.

"Okay..." Adrienne smiled in return.

Billie Joe was not ready and dressed yet, but the band were all standing about doing a run-through of the songs they would be performing.

Rose went back to looking at Tre, all though she was trying to be unobvious; she was more than obvious.

Billie Joe started going through a road case, singing along to an acoustic Jason White was playing on. Billie got dressed in behind a curtain and came out with a nervous sigh.

"Ten minutes!" someone shouted as they stuck their head in the door.

Looking once again at the now stage-ready Green Day, Rose smiled, "You guys needed to lose the suits."

Billie Joe just grunted, "Hmm..." and rolled his eyes at her.

"Well...hmmm! You too..." Rose laughed. In mid-laugh her eyes rejoined her husbands once again; and the two had a chemistric-filled moment of feelings for each other.

"Okay, let's go boys," Adrienne said standing up from her chair.

"Let's do it!" Mike shouted as he patted Tre happily on the back and made for the door.

Tre seemed to have a sudden hype and relief from his stresses, because at this moment his attitude changed. "First show, let's make it extra super cool! C'mon Bill!" Tre said with excitement as he draped his arm over the lead singers shoulder.

"Shut up!" Billie shouted crankily.

Everyone having exited the room, they quickly neared their way to the stage, walking the long winding halls of the backstage. "Woot! I feel good right now!" Tre gloated.

Rose gave a subtle glare behind her husbands back. How could he possibly be feeling good right now? She knew she wasn't feeling happy. She hadn't felt happy one day since her twenty-first birthday.

The sound of the impatient crowd grew louder as the group of familiar faces went into a darkened area behind the stage, which was occupied by roadies and technicians.

In the darkened stadium a guitar tech handed Billie Joe his guitar. Green Day took the stage, much to the pleased screams from twenty thousand of their fans.

Starting into the first song of their show, the lights became very alive. Billie started on his guitar before looking down and realizing it was a replica of Blue.

This stirred very bad emotions in him. But none the less, he continued playing.

Rose, Adrienne and the boys slinked aside, in the area generally gapped between the barricaded crowd, and the stage. April had opted to get a view from the other side of the stage.

Rose and Adrienne were both quite shocked to see Billie playing one of his Blue replicas. They knew he had specifically requested to the techies to not be given one of them.

Finishing off the first song, Billie Joe promply left the stage with his guitar. Mike and Tre sat idle for a moment, curious as to what their lead singer was doing.

Billie was very angry and stormed backstage in a hurry to talk to the guitar techs. "WHO THE FUCK GAVE ME THIS GUITAR?!" he shouted at the top of his lungs over the sound of the puzzled audience.

Adrienne knew something bad was happening, and she made her way back behind the stage. The boys followed their mother, without her notice.

Rose stayed behind, nervously looking on at Mike and Tre. She shook her head, unsure of what was going to happen. Tre grinned at her, he was well aware of her presence in the massive room.

There were fans screaming and growing restless as they wondered where Billie Joe had disappeared to.

Adrienne, coming closer and over the loud audience she heard her husband.

".....NO! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GIVE ME A FUCKING GIBSON!"

Adrienne began running towards the sound of her husbands voice. Finally reaching him she grabbed his shoulders and tried to pull him back, out of the face of a guitar tech. "Billie! Calm down!" she shouted.

"No! This asshole gave me the wrong fucking guitar!" Billie protested against his wife.

"It's okay! Just calm down!" Adrienne shouted again.

Before she could do or say anything else; Billie smashed the guitar tech in the face and ran back off for the stage. Coming back on the stage, with his Blue replica guitar, Billie approached the microphone.

"I'm sick of this fucking shit!" he shouted into the mic. He took his guitar off its strap wielded it upwards in his arms and started smashing it against the stage in anger.

Mike and Tre looked on with disbelief. Mike threw down his bass and Tre jumped up from his drumset and both made a run at Billie to try and contain him.

"Holy fuck man!" Mike shouted hysterically as he tried to tackle his friend with Tre's help.

"Shit man! Chill out!" Tre said as bits of the guitar flew all over the stage.

Watching a fake of 'the guitar' being destroyed, was almost like watching the real thing all over again. Not only did this upset Rose, but she could also see how much losing the guitar had affected her cousin.

Adrienne ran out on stage in a panic and directed Mike and Tre to haul Billie off the stage. "Billie please calm down!" Adrienne started to cry.

The crowd became upset and angry with what was happening. They started heavily pushing on the barricade, desperate to reobtain the band they had waited so many countless months to see.

Security and others started running past Rose, trying to get at the barricade and prevent the raged crowd from knocking it down. She tried to make her way backstage, but people kept running past her; she was getting knocked all over the place.

"Fuck! Let me through!" Rose shouted as she tried to squirm her way through the sea of stadium personnel. After moments, Rose looked back, and this was it. The barricade came down, and the fans were ready to cause mass chaos. "Shit!" Rose shouted as she tried even harder to escape the marathon of people.

***

"Oh fuck! The barricade!" Tre heard someone in the background shout. Mike and Adrienne both became quite worried.

"We've got to get out of here!" Adrienne shouted knowingly as she rounded up her sons and grabbed her husbands hand.

"No! Where the fuck is April?!" Mike shouted at the top of his lungs. "April! APRIL!"

Tre grabbed Mike's shoulder and turned him around, "FUCK APRIL! WHERE THE FUCK IS ROSE!" he burst out.

Adrienne had already run off with Billie and the kids towards the tour bus, for fear of their lives. She was worried for the others, but she knew there was nothing else to be done, except pray.

"MIKE! PLEASE HELP ME FIND ROSE!" Tre cried. Him and Mike got seperated, as Mike left him and went off to look for his girlfriend.

Making his way towards the side of the stage, Tre scanned the crowd of people who were beginning to overtake the backstage area. "Tre!" some people were heard screaming.

He ignored them all and began to shout again, "ROSE! ROSE!"

Besides the redfaced crowd breaking the sound barrier; silence overtook Tre. All he could listen for was her voice. Why couldn't he hear it?

Tre got pushed around to the max; and even fell on the ground and was mildly trampled, before being able to stand himself upright again. "GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!" Tre shouted at the fans in frustration.

Fans were all over the stage as well; destroying the equipment and even beating each other up.

***

Locking themselves inside the tour bus in the parkade, Adrienne, Billie and the kids were surrounded by angry fans. The fans started throwing things at the side of the bus, and even rocked it back in forth as if they were going to try and tip it.

"It's a fucking riot!" Adrienne shouted hysterically.

Billie Joe started crying on the bus's kitchen floor as it started rocking back and forth. Joey and Jakob were distraught and scared, and both in a thousand tears.

Just then the outside of the bus was clouded with a thick white smoke.

"It's tear gas!" Adrienne gasped, and she realized the security were trying to help.

"LET HIM THROUGH!" someone shouted outside.

Not being able to see which bus was which in a cloud of thick gas, Mike Dirnt darted with the help of security for the closest bus. "OPEN THE DOOR!" Mike begged as he began to bang on it.

Adrienne recognized his voice, and quickly obeyed it. Mike rushed in, locking the door behind him. His was blinded temporarily by the tear gas and fell down entering the bus's mid-aisle.

"Fuck Mike! Where the hell is everyone?!" Adrienne shouted with a worrisome tone.

"I don't fucking know!" Mike shouted in reply, as he wiped his irritated eyes.

"Make it stop!" Billie cried hysterically on the floor as he grabbed his head of hair and squinted his eyes shut tight.

***

"ROSE!" Tre continued calling, as he was some what disguised now and blended in with the circus of people. "ROSE! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU!"

In a chaotic mix of onstage fire and violence between fans, a voice called out suddenly, "FRANK!"

Hearing his name, Tre searched everywhere in vision for whom it was calling him. "ROSE!" he called again.

"FRANK! HELP ME! FRANK! UP HERE! HELP!"

Tre searched once again, and this time he spotted what he had missed the first time.

Rose, his wife of two years, the woman he loved, had climbed up one of the stage backdrops, and was hanging on for dear life as fans russled it around in anger.

"HOLY SHIT! ROSE!" Tre cried as he slowly started to make his way through the crowd, and over to the backdrop.

"NO! PLEASE!" Rose cried as she looked below herself, seeing the only thing to be, was a nasty fall into a stampede.

"SECURITY! SECURITY!" Tre begged. No one could hear his pleas for help.

Cleverly thinking, and luckily finding a fire extinguisher attached to the backdrop, Tre grabbed it and started spraying the fans. "ROSE! GET DOWN! QUICKLY!" Tre warned.

To his avail, Rose got down as quick as she could. Tre smashed a few fans with the now empty extinguisher, swooped Rose up in his arms and fought to get her out of the violent crowd.

"FUCK YOU!" Tre raged at more people whom didn't want to let him through.

***

Adrienne hopped in the driver's seat of the bus and scronged about for the keys. "Where's the fucking keys?!" she shouted.

"Adi no! We can't leave! Not without Tre and the girls!" Mike shouted in protest.

"Mike Dirnt! Look at it outside! They're going to fucking kill us!" Adrienne shouted with assurance.

"Let them fucking kill us!" Billie cried.

"Bill! Shut up!" Mike yelled, feeling very upset.

"SECURITY! LET US INTO THE BUS! SECURITY!" another familar voice was heard outside.

More violence was administered outside as security guards had to literally beat people up with batons to try and gain a little bit of control.

"OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!" the voice shouted again as the person began kicking on the bus's door. Mike, with burning eyes, complied this time and quickly opened the door.

In rushed Tre, with Rose in his arms. "Oh my God!" Adrienne said as she turned around from the steering wheel of the bus.

Tre laid Rose down on the bus' sofa, and gasped. He was bleeding and bruising all over the place; as was she. "Fuck!" Tre gasped again. Rose's Screeching Weasel shirt had been ripped to shit, and was blood stained.

Mike was relieved to see his friends were alive, but still worried greatly for his girlfriend.

"Let's go!" Adrienne directed again.

"Not without April!" Mike said angrily.

"Yes! We're leaving her! We're leaving her!" Adi said controllingly.

"We can't!" Mike argued.

Without anymore discussion Adrienne found the keys hidden under the sun visor, started the bus and started to back it up.

People behind the bus, darted in all directions. Others just made way to stop from getting hit.

"No!" Mike shouted again.

"Fuck her Mike! We're all in serious danger right now!" Tre added.

"No!...FUCK!" Mike shouted with frustration.

Police sirens could now be heard everywhere. Tre looked down at Rose, as soon as the bus was scot free from the parkade. "Oh God Rose..."

"Frank...why did this happen?" Rose asked in a quiet voice, as blood trinkled from her injured cheek.

"Because Billie's a selfish asshole!" Mike vented in anger.

"Fuck you Mike..." Billie glared at him from the floor.

Mike had a bashed up face, bloody chest, legs and arms. "We're done...this is it... I'm finished...Green Day's finished," Mike cross-examined as he crossed his arms.

"Fine, I agree... I'm done too," Tre added. He looked at Mike and then back at his wife. "I'm sorry for everything Rose... I'm so sorry," he weeped.

Rose nodded her head, swallowing back a lump in her throat trying to contain the pain she was feeling. And she whispered...

"...You saved our lives." She placed her hand on her stomach and looked into his gleaming blue eyes.