Union

"You know Adrienne. I'm thinking we should get a temp. drummer while Tre's in prison. I want to ask him how he feels about that. I just need to be able to play, and I bet Mike is looking for something to relieve some stress right now too," Billie said knowingly, as he sat down on the bed of their upstair's master bedroom.

"I don't think the gold record thing is happening again after Germany, Billie," Adrienne answered her husband honestly.

"Fuck...I know. And that was entirely my fault. I'm such an idiot," Billie sighed sornfully. "We still have fans though. Of course we do."

"You still have fans... But don't blame yourself," Adrienne said comfortingly, as she sat down on the bed next to her husband. She placed her arms up around his neck and looked him in his piercing green eyes. "You're beautiful..." she smiled.

Billie breathed, and looked at her as if to say, 'you know I think you are more beautiful'. "Those teenagers are all dead because of my stupid personal issues. I should have left my emotional baggage at home," he said quietly, while returning eye contact with his wife of fifteen years.

"If only you'd let go of your misery Billie. You've been holding onto it far too long. I mean-- I know losing your father so young must have been so hard for you. But--but you're 37-years-old now. You really need to let your father rest--and stop wrecking your life over him. He wouldn't have wanted you to, and you know it," Adrienne grinned like miss-know-it-all.

Billie nodded subtly, "I agree."

"See..." Adrienne said, letting her grin turn to a smile.

"Yes...I see...I see how hot you look right now," Billie grinned, as he tackled her back on the bed and the two both broke into a fit of laughter.

***

"Can I call my wife?" Tre questioned a guard, stepping out of a lineup of prisoners, just as he was about to grab his tray of food off a trolly, in the prison's cafeteria.

"Cool, get back in the lineup," the guard said coldly.

"Look, I'm not trying to be a problem. I just need to make sure she's okay. She might be in danger. I just need to know if she's okay, that's all," Tre pleaded.

"Cool...I said get back in the fucking lineup," the guard repeated again, without any care in his voice.

"Can I talk to the warden?" Tre asked.

"COOL!" the guard shouted, bringing forth many stares, from all the other inmates and guards.

"Fine..." Tre sighed sadly, and he stepped back in the lineup without anymore fuss.

"Dick..." Clive whispered to Tre about the guard, from where he was standing straight ahead of him in the lineup.

***

Rose was sitting quiet and fearful on her bedroom floor, as she'd been instructed to, by two strange men who had forced their way into her house. They stood about her, one pointing a gun at her head, the other searching the master bedroom for any new valuables.

One of them automatically reached for the French rug that lay about the bedroom floor. Rose felt shocked as she watched this stranger locate her husband's hidden safe, and configure it's combination lock almost instantly.

It was at this moment she realized she was dealing with her first attackers, and she became hysterical with fear. "What the hell do you want?" Rose asked quietly, as crystal tear drops rolled down her pale cheeks.

"Aww, doesn't your husband tell you anything?" the unmasked man holding the gun asked her mockingly. This unmasked man, named 'Snake', we have come to know and hate.

"What--what are talking abo..." Rose started, but was cut off and startled even more by the sound of the doorbell chiming down in the foyer.

"What the fuck..." Snake snapped, as he took the safety lock off his gun, making a startling loud click sound, which frightened Rose.

"Please don't kill me!"

"Go check it out!" Snake snapped at his crime partner, before turning back to look at Rose. "Don't move..."

"What the hell do you want?!" Rose screamed. She knew it was a worried and frantic Mike at the front door. Now that the other man was going down to check on things, Rose worried greatly for the bassist's safety.

"What do I want? I want one thing..." he said, and he grabbed Michelle's crib by one of its wooden bars and violently pushed it over. Rose screamed again as her daughter's bed came only inches from hitting her.

"What--what--what do you want?" Rose begged to know.

"I want revenge for all the times I stood idle while your pathetic fucking ass loser of a husband beat me up," Snake said, and he narrowed his eyes when he looked at her. "He's just a killer wannabe as Johnson called him. Ah Johnson... My favourite guard. I miss that son of a bitch."

"Huh...wha? What?" Rose questioned. She had no idea what he was talking about. Tre hadn't exactly told Rose he was in prison with the man who raped her. It is quite safe to say, he hadn't told her, out of love. Tre never wanted to burden his wife's already fragile mind with the terrible happenings of the inside of North Kern State Prison.

"That's right princess... 'Cool', prisoner #822346... You know what?" Snake asked her in a mocking tone.

Rose gasped, shook her head and had her eyes wider than Billie's in the video for Basket Case. "I--I..."

"I promised that freaky eyed ass son of a bitch I was going to pay you a visit. And here..." Snake began, but was cut off by the sound of gunfire ringing in the downstairs.

"Ahh!" Rose gasped. She was so fearful Mike had been killed. She clenched her eyes shut and tilted her head back to rest on the wall behind her.

"Who is it?! Who's down there?! You fucking know, I know you do slut!" Snake shouted as he glanced towards the bedroom door.

Rose shook her head irratically, "I-I--I don't know."

"Don't fucking lie to me!" he shouted, lunging forward and smashing her across the face with the side of his gun.

Rose fell flat against the side of a dresser feeling disorientation. She came back to herself after hearing someone else enter the room once again.

"Aww look what I found. It's her boyfriend..." the nameless man laughed as he dragged an injured Mike Dirnt into the room, and threw him down beside Rose.

"Oh my God Rose..." Mike gasped when he saw her bruised face.

Rose turned to look at Mike, and she saw him clutching a severely bloody stomach, that had obviously fallen victim to a gun. "Oh my God... Mike your stomach," Rose cried as she held her hand out to touch him.

"I'll be okay," Mike answered her comfortingly.

"Yes... That's really cute, now shut the fuck up," Snake snapped again.

"My--my baby is all alone downstairs..." Rose said quietly, as she looked between the two men.

Snake sighed, and rested the side of his gun up against his own head in a thinking type manner. "Hmm... What to do... What to do... oh I know!" Snake shouted suddenly as he came to a quick conclusion and turned back to look at his crime partner. "Bag the baby."

"What!? I--I'm not a baby killer," the other man replied quickly.

"You're right... You have to kill the baby first to get that title. Now do it man! I can hear the baby screaming all the way fucking up here! It'll draw in unnecessary attention," Snake cross-examined.

Rose wasn't sure she was really hearing what they were speaking of properly. "What?" she squeaked out. She turned to look at Mike who had his eyes closed and appeared to be murmuring something to himself. He looked as though he were praying.

"DO IT!" Snake shouted aggressively.

"Fine..."

"Oh my God... Please don't..." Rose weeped as she saw the other man leave the bedroom. She went to stand up and chase after him, but Mike had reopened his eyes and held her back, for her own safety. "NO! PLEASE! LET GO OF ME! DON'T HURT MY BABY!"

Mike pulled the distraught woman back down to sit beside him and placed his arms around her tightly. "Shh...it's okay," he hushed her.

Rose shook her head and gritted her teeth, as she had her hands placed on Mike's arms, gripping them like she'd never let go. Mike practically buried her face in his chest, trying to shield her from the happenings that were taking place around them.

"You're fucking sick..." Mike barked at Snake.

"Thank you," Snake smile psychotically.

Some minutes later, without the sound of any gunfire, the other criminal returned to the upstair's bedroom. "I couldn't do it man..."

Rosed sighed with relief.

"Oh my God! You're so fucking stupid!" Snake snapped at his partner. "Here! Watch them, I'll go do it myself!"

Rose looked up from Mike's chest at the kinder criminal, and pleaded him, "Please don't let him kill my baby! Please!" She heard Snake aggressively running down the stairs.

Just then the phone rang and the footsteps discontinued. Rose looked up again at the phone that was on her night table. "It's Frank..." she whispered knowingly.

The aggressive footsteps were heard returning back up the stairs, and Snake reappeared in the bedroom. He darted over to the phone and examined it. "North Kern State Prison..." Snake said, reading out the call display.

"Can--can-can I talk to my husband?" Rose asked, her lips quivered with anticipation and fear.

"You're fucking daft aren't you bitch?!" Snake shouted, and he sat down on the edge of Rose's bed while repointing his gun at the drummer's wife and bassist.

Rose placed her chin to rest on Mike's shoulder, applied pressure to his stomach with her hand, and whispered in his ear, "I have something to tell you..."

Snake sat up off the bed and slowly sauntered over to the window, and started tapping his gun against the glass.

Mike looked over Rose's shoulder at the criminals threatening gun tapping gesture as Rose continued whispering to him. "I think they're going to kill us. Mike--I--I just wanted to tell you. I do--I do love you. You've been here for me through thick and thin. It means a lot to me... But--but what we did wasn't right," she sighed.

"I know...what we did was completely fucked up and a backstab to my best friend. But to me...it just felt so right," Mike whispered in return.

"It wasn't though..." Rose added.

"I know, I know..." Mike replied again, as he looked down feeling a sudden shame come over him.

Rose took a deep breath, "You know Mike...I'm pregnant."

"You are?" he asked in soft calm voice.

"Yes," Rose nodded as she kept her chin on his shoulder, and took in the scent of his expensive Armani cologne.

"Does Tre know?" Mike asked foolishly, as he winced at the sharp pain in his injured stomach.

Rose chuckled slightly under pressure, "No."

"What do you want me to do?" Mike whispered.

Rose sighed, "Let me put it up for adoption. Then Frank won't ever have to find out..."

"Adoption? No, absolutely not," Mike said firmly.

"No?" Rose asked. "Why?"

"I of all people know how hellish adoption can be for a child Rose," Mike said as he pulled his head from her shoulder to look her in the eyes again. "I don't think it's a good idea."

"What do you suggest then?" Rose asked, as she looked up at Snake who obviously took a noticing to the fact that the two were having an important conversation.

"We'll tell Tre I adopted a baby. He or she can live with me. I'll raise our child, and like you said...he never has to find out," Mike said, as he brushed her raven hair back behind one ear with his finger.

"That's a great idea. But honestly Mike Dirnt, do you believe Frank will buy that, and not be a little suspic..." Rose started, but silenced herself once the other man came back in the room.

"The baby's in the basement. What do you want to do now?" he asked Snake who was obviously the dominant one of the two.

Snake kept tapping his gun against the window pane in a threatening manner for a few moments, before turning around quickly. "Okay! You, get over there!" Snake directed Mike, as he pointed to a far corner of the room.

Mike held Rose close and looked up at Snake from the floor, boldly answering, "No."

"Excuse me?" Snake said, raising his eyebrows. "FUCKING MOVE IT NOW, OR I'LL BLOW YOUR FUCKING BRAINS OUT! AND THAT WOULDN'T BE TOO PRETTY OF A SITE FOR ROSE NOW, WOULD IT?! MOVE!"

Rose started crying hysterically again. She gripped Mike's arms like she could never let go, but knew she simply had to. "Do as he says Mike," Rose said, giving permission to leave, to the bassist who would have a guilty conscience for leaving her side.

"Okay..." Mike whispered and he nodded his head. Grabbing his stomach, Mike helped himself up by grabbing onto the handles of the dresser they were propped up against.

"That's it...nice and steady. Over there! Over there in the corner," Snake growled, as he pointed at the corner with his gun.

Rose sat in a fetal position once Mike had left her side. She brought her legs to her chest and rested her head down on her knees. Something this non-religious woman ever did, was pray. Yet right now, she felt like reaching out and believing something or someone could help her.

"That's it... Get back down on the floor," Snake instructed Mike. He turned to look at his partner, and then adverted his eyes to Rose.

Rose brought her face up from her knees and looked at Snake but quickly bowed her head again in fear. She began to pray in her mind...

Please God...
I don't know if you're up there listening to me...
I need your help right now. I need your help quickly.
They're going to hurt me...
Please stop them.
I don't want to be hurt anymore...
I know I'm not perfect.
Please forgive me for anything I've done wrong.
Find it in your soul and power to help me somehow.
I need to be able to be with my husband again.
I miss him terribly.
I love him so much.
You know I love him.
Please, don't let them do to me, what I expect.
Send me an angel.
Thank you...
Thank you.
Amen.

Rose broke into more tears, but was startled by a loud crashing noise. "Ahhh!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. Looking up, she saw Snake and his partner laying on the floor near unconscious.

And there in the midst of the room, with a broken guitar in his hands, stood an angel...