Did We All Fall Down, Well After All

::Bob’s POV::

Ray and I turned off the movie, growing bored of the simple story line. A whimper came from the back of the bus. We looked at each other, both thinking the same exact thing. “I’ll go,” he offered. I nodded and pulled out my phone to call Hannah. We hadn’t talked to her in a few days. I’m surprised she hasn’t called us yet. I quickly scrolled through contacts and punched ‘send’ once I reached her name. She picked up the phone on the first ring.

“Oh my god! Bob! I’ve missed you.” I laughed.

“Hello to you too. How is everything going back in Jersey?”

“It’s great. Jamia is staying with us. She says she’s going to take me into New York tomorrow and we can go shopping and eat food! But my feet have been hurting a lot lately cause I’ve been walking around. I have a lot of nervous energy and not a lot to do. They’re trying to keep me busy. Alicia says she might come and stay too and bring Bunny! You remember about Mikey’s cat right? Apparently he’s growing really quickly. Oh! That reminds me. Yesterday we went to the doctor’s office place or whatever and they told me that my baby is growing fast, but there is nothing to worry about. So if everything is normal that means I can come back and stay with you guys right??” She had said everything so quickly I had barely caught an entire sentence. But I understood the last one.

“It’s best if you stay there with Donna and Jamia. I don’t know a lot about babies, but the stress of touring definitely won’t be good on the kid.

“Alright. Is Dad there? I want to talk to him.” I winced. My eyes wandered towards the small hall and barely caught Ray helping Gerard into the back lounge.

“Um, he went to go eat with the rest of the guys. But I can have him call you when he gets back.”

“Alright. I have to go anyway. Grams is callin’ for lunch. Send them my love! Bye Bob.”

“Bye.” I didn’t hear Frank, Mikey and Christy come in.

“Who was that?” Frank asked curiously.

“Hannah. She’s fine.” Frank and Christy smiled, and you could see the traces of one on Mikey.

“Where did Ray go?” At the mention of his name, he came out of the back room. Christy ran through our small group to hug him. He happily took her up into his arms and kissed her lovingly. It was nice to see Ray with someone. And Christy was a really great girl.

“He just woke up. He seems to be doing fine. Bob, you did a clean sweep of the bus right?” Ray asked me. I nodded.

“Went through his bag and took out everything.”

“Everything as in what?” Mikey asked. I was wavering on whether or not to answer. It would break Mikey even further to know all of what I had found in his brother’s bag.

“It’s not much,” I lied. “He’ll notice it’s gone. We need to keep him distracted. We have a show tomorrow and he needs to be sober for it or else rumors will start.” Just then, Gerard broke through the back door and paced towards us.

“Morning sleepy head. Have a good nap?” Frank tried to sound cheery. Gerard’s eyes squinched shut as he ruffled his hair, making his bed head look like sex hair.

“Surprisingly yes.” He was being cooperative, making conversation. This is good. This is really good. “Do we have any food? I’m starved.” He reached over towards the refrigerator, pulling out the box of frozen waffles and taking to out. He attacked them with his mouth, eating them cold.

“Hannah called,” Mikey chirped up, trying to act normal as well. Gerard’s eyes lit up as he pulled out his phone from his jacket. He glanced at the screen, studying it for a bit before smiling then put it up to his ear.

::Gerard’s POV::

I had a text message that read: I have it. As ecstatic as I was to receive it, I wanted to talk to my daughter. Not being drunk or high at the moment made me feel somewhat normal, but still a bit depressed. Withdrawal was always the worst. I took another bight of the cold waffle from my left hand as my mother picked up the phone.

“Gerard?” she asked. There was an uncertainty in her voice. So maybe she didn’t mean what she said before. She’s still talking to me.

“Hey mom. How are you?”

“I should be asking you that. Yo—“

“Please, I don’t want to talk about that right now. Is Hannah there?” My mother sighed.

“Yes. But I want to talk to Mikey once you are finished with her.” My brother was leaning up against the wall, his eyes staring at the computer over on the table, absent mindedly chewing his fingers. I had noticed when he we were teenagers that he never actually bit his fingernails. He just took the whole finger and nibbled on it. I knew I was causing him to return to the state he had been a little bit over a year ago, and it made me feel guilty, but part of me didn’t care. This, in turn, made the remorse grow.

“Of course.” She set the phone down to most likely go retrieve Hannah. I heard a faint shout of ‘Oh my god! Dad!’ in the background, causing me to smile.

“Daddy! Hi!” she pronounced excitedly into the receiver.

“Hey sweety. How are things going?”

“Great. My baby is healthy. I am healthy. But I’m really sleepy right now.” As if on cue, she yawned. “See? And I’ve been talking to Bert-“ My heart stopped beating. I didn’t hear the rest of what she said as I felt my entire body stiffen up. Mikey sat down beside me, putting his hand on my shoulder. I looked over at him and snapped back, regaining the ability to hear my daughter’s voice as she finished with “Isn’t that exciting?”

“I’m sorry. I zoned out. What?”

“The show in Chicago on Halloween and Frank’s birthday and Charlie is coming and Jamia told me that Billie Joe from fucking Green Day is going to be there too!!”

“Shit, really?” I forgot about her even saying Bert’s name as she mentioned one of my old pals from back in the day. I placed the phone to my chest. “Billie Joe is coming to the Halloween show.” I heard a few gasps and saw Frank pump his fist in the air. “Well that’s exciting. Glad to hear that everything is going great with you.” Cause it sure as hell ain’t doing to swell here. “I need to go find some proper food. I love you Hannah. Stay safe.”

“I love you too Daddy. Can I talk to Uncle Mikey for a bit?”

“Sure.” I handed the phone over to Mikey. He pressed it up to his ear.

“Hey Hannah.” I stood up and went for the pantry above the small kitchen area. My eyes met those of someone I wasn’t expecting.

“Hey Christy.” I rummaged through the shelves trying to find bread.

“Gerard, we can go get you a burger or something if you want?” she offered. I gave up.

“Nah, I’m fine. I think I’ll just go back to sleep.” She gave me a small smile as Ray wrapped his strong arm around her small shoulders. It made me a bit jealous, but I let the emotion pass, knowing fully well that I had something better.