Fall Out Girl

Six months later, I was typing the last few sentences of my report on the enzyme. I was having a hard time with putting the right words on the paper, though. I was never good at writing things and comparing them to other things so that they become more understandable. That was always Patrick’s thing. He was better with words, and Pete was the best. I haven’t seen the guys since the day in the hospital.

Thinking about them made me even more frustrated with myself. I couldn’t concentrate anymore and this was due tomorrow morning. It didn’t help that Jarek was crying in the other room. No doubt, he needed his diaper changed. I yelled for Brian to take care of it and returned to looking at the Word Document. I was fighting a losing battle.

Brian’s POv
I woke up at 3am to see that Emmy had not made it to the bed. Sighing, I got out of bed and headed into the lounge, where I knew she would be passed out on the bed like she always was lately. I hated to see her running herself into the ground. For the last month, she was incessantly writing her report. She was up at all hours of the night and barely looked after Jarek anymore.

My suspicions were confirmed when I saw her hunched over with her head on the desk next to her laptop. I gently rolled her out of the way and looked over her work. After reading over the entire thing thouroughly three times, I got the gist of what she was trying to say, wrote the ending , printed the document, and saved it to the computer as a safety precaution. I then picked her up, changed her clothes, and moved her to her side of our bed. I kissed her temple before snuggling into her.

I love my wife, but I don’t know how much longer I can take this. Hopefully, everything will even out in the end.

Roxie’s POV
I smiled at Emmet as he babbled in his high chair, spilling spaghetti-os all over the tray and covering his face in the sauce. I couldn’t have asked for a better child. He was always calm and quiet and did whatever I told him. Watching him grow these past two years has been so scary, exciting, and exhilarating all bundled into one.

“Ok, Space Cadet, it’s time for a bath since you’re done eating.” I cooed to him as I picked him up and set him down on the floor so I could wipe his face clean. He giggled and got out of my arms.

“Ma! Mamamamamamamama ma!” he squealed running through the halls. At first I was dumbstruck, that was the first time he had ever said a coherent word. A loud bang and my son’s cry woke me from my blissful trance. I ran throughout the house to find him pushing on the wall right next to the door to the livingroom.

“Emmet?”

“Mamamamamamamamama,” he wailed, pushing the wall even harder.

I sat down next to him and scooped him up in my arms. “Emmet! Emmet, look at me!”

When he looked at me, I realized that his eyes were completely cloudy. What kind of mother doesn’t realize that her child’s eyes were growing cloudier by the day? A horrible one.

I brought him with me as I stood up and walked out the front door. Even though I was a doctor, I needed someone else’s medical opinion. I was crying the entire way to my hospital. It didn’t help that Pat wasn’t picking up his phone.

“Hey, this is Trick. Sorry that I can’t come to the phone, but if you leave your name a short message I might get back to you.”

“Patrick Martin Stump, I know you’re this big hot-shot star and all now, but when your wife calls you to tell you that your son is blind, it’d be nice if you picked up!” I screamed into the phone, narrowly missing another car. I hung up the phone and threw it to the floor of the passenger side.

“Yes, Roxie, your son is blind,” Dr. Roberts confirmed. “You knew this was going to happen.”

“I know, but…can we tell how long he has been going blind?”

He sighed and placed his hands on my shoulders, making me look into his eyes. “Roxie, you know that we can’t do that. Just let it go and let him live to the best of his abilities.”

“I- I can’t. I is it so much to ask for a normal life? A normal, perfectly healthy child that I can raise to adulthood and let them bury me instead of me burying them?!” I screamed.

Dr. Roberts- Rick- brought me into a tight, but soothing hug. “Roxie, the moment you said ‘yes’ to Patrick is the moment where you should have realized that your life will never be normal. And that’s a good thing, Rox. Who wants to be normal when they can be extraordinary?”

“It’s just…hard.”

“I know it is. Life’s a test. If it were easy, then we wouldn’t have a job. If it were easy, there wouldn’t be pain and suffering to sing about.”

“Thanks, Rick.”

“No problem. Now go ahead and call your husband back. Knowing you, you left a bitchy message on his voicemail.” He said with a smile, pulling out of the hug.

“You know me too well.”

“It’s my job.”

Everything will be okay…I hope.

Pat’s POV
We just got back from an interview when I was checking my messages. Most were just Dirty prank calling me and leaving me dirty messages. The last, though…the last message was from Rox. What I could gather was that Emmett was blind and Roxie was pissed at me for not answering the phone. As soon as I wrapped my head around the meaning of the message, I shut myself in the back room of the bus and called my wife.

“Pat?”

“Yea, Honey, it’s me. What’s wrong?”

“Our son is blind… and I’m so scared.”

“It’s ok, Rox, we knew this was going to happen. I’m going home in less than three weeks. Can you be strong for me until then?”

“I- I’ll try.”

“Emmet being blind isn’t the only thing, is it?”

Silence.

“Rox, what else is wrong?”

“N-nothing. I’m fine. I’ll talk to you later tonight. It’s time for Emmet’s nap. Bye, honey.”

Click.

“Did you get my messages, Trick? Funny, huh?” Dirty asked from the other side of the door.

“Yea, hilarious.” I replied, trying to mask my confusion. I kept staring down at my phone.

“Hey, Man, are you okay? I didn’t think those messages would offend you- they haven’t before.”

I hadn’t even heard the door open. “No, Man, it wasn’t that.”

“Ooooh, trouble in Paradise?”

“You could say that. My mom is getting weaker by the day. My twin is about to go off parading her work to the mass media, leaving her husband and son. My wife is having a nervous breakdown. My son had his death certificate given to him when Rox was six months pregnant. And where am I throughout all of this? Sitting in the back of a van, on the opposite end of the country.”

“Damn, I didn’t know it was so bad.”

“Yea, well it is. Life’s a bitch sometimes.”

“Well, hey, you’ll pull through. Just like always- you’ll see.”

“Thanks, man.”

“No problem. It’s what I do.”

I gave him a look and we both started laughing.