Reach Out For The Sunrise

The next day at the studio, they walked into the recording room, only to find that Christine wasn't there. Rose, finding this odd, went to her friend Cindy, who was the secretary at the front desk.
"Hey Cindy."
"Oh hey there Rose. How ya doin sweets?" she asked.
"Um...I'm okay, just kinda wondering where Christine is." said Rose, leaning on the big desk.
"Oh, sorry sweetie she's not coming in today. Not feeling too well. Can you call your dad? He might be able to work the soundboard." said Cindy, answering the phone at the same time.
"Oh, no my boys can handle it." said Rose. Dylan, Josh and Alex knew how to work a board. She turned and went back into the recording room.
"So?" said Troy, looking up from his guitar.
"Um, Christine's sick. Not coming in today." said Rose. "Dylan, Alex, Josh can you handle the soundboard?" she asked, turning to them. They nodded and took seats behind the stretch of buttons and switches. Rose, Jordan, Amy, Troy, and Shawn walked into where the instruments were laid out. Today they were going to try to record two or three songs. After they had gotten through the first song, the door opened into the recording room. Joust watched from behind the glass as Alex, Josh, and Dylan were greeted by a very washed out looking Christine, and a very nervous looking Gerard. They shuffled in, barely waving to any of the kids, and sat down behind the soundboard. Rose took a good look at Christine. She hadn't bothered to put her hair up in a ponytail, it didn't even look like she'd brushed it. She wasn't wearing any makeup, and she had dark circles under her eyes, standing out on her suddenly pale skin. She was wearing simple jeans and a pink t-shirt under a grey open zip up hoodie. Rose wondered what was up with her, she always put so much into her appearance. Then Rose looked at her father, he was fully dressed and made up, but his face was incredible pale, his eyes were wide and staring off into space, and he was pulling at his fingers and cracking his knuckles. Rose wondered if Christine's appearance and Gerard's nervousness could be related, but she shook the thought from her mind as Christine came on the intercom.
"Okay guys, I'm here." she said. "Ready to keep recording?" she asked. They all nodded and continued. With Christine's soundboard expertise on hand now, they got through four songs instead of three, and now all that was left to record was the track they'd be doing with Sonny Moore, the one about Stix. Rose was dreading that song. She had cried so much writing it, but singing it? Would she even be able to get the words out?

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Three days later, Gerard and Christine were the same as they had been in the studio that day; nervous and washed out. It looked like Gerard was losing as much sleep as Christine. That day, everyone was sitting around the table, eating breakfast, getting ready to record the song with Sonny, when the phone rang. Gerard bolted out of his seat and ripped up the receiver. He chanced a nervous look at everyone around the table, and stretched the phone cord into the other room. Rose was closest to him, and heard his conversation.
"Hey babes how ya doin?" he asked. A pause. "Oh, you know for sure now?" he said, his voice now worried. "And so what did it say?" Rose wasn't sure, but she thought she heard Gerard gasp. "Are you sure?" he asked. "Positive?" he asked. He gulped. "Okay. Yeah come on over. We'll talk. Over the phone isn't the best way to discuss something like this..." he gulped again. "Yeah, love you too. See you in a few minutes." he walked, paler than ever back into the kitchen and hung up the phone. He walked jerkily over to the table, and past Bob, who was putting his plate in the sink. Right as Bob was walking past Gerard to get back to his seat, Gerard's eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed. Bob didn't miss a beat, catching him by putting his arms under Gerard's armpits.
"DUDE! GERARD!" yelled Frank, scrambling with Mikey and Ray around the table. Ray put his hand on one side of Gerard's face, and with the other hand smacked the other side swiftly a few times.
"GERARD!" shouted Mikey, right into his ear. Bob lowered Gerard onto the couch, his head propped up on the armrest. His eyes shot open and his chest started heaving, taking in huge breaths of air.
"Gerard what the hell was that?" asked Ray. Gerard blinked furiously and his eyes got wide and afraid as they fell on Rose. He spoke right to her, ignoring everyone else.
"Christine...Christine's pregnant." he said. He winced as every jaw in the room dropped.

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A million thoughts were running through Rose's head as she sat in the living room with Christine and Gerard. They were discussing options, and since this baby was going to be Rose's half brother or sister, they figured she should be there too.
"Are you going to keep it?" asked Gerard.
"Well what else would I do?" replied Christine, raising an eyebrow,
"I don't know...abortion maybe?" suggested Gerard.
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" she shouted, standing up. Gerard backed down immediately.
"Okay, okay. No abortion then." he said. Christine sat down. "What about, adoption?" he asked. Christine looked hurt.
"Does this mean you don't want to keep our baby?" she asked quietly. Rose looked at Gerard. He toyed with the idea in his head.
"No, I'd want to keep it. But I didn't think you would..." Christine smiled half-heartedly and took his hand.
"Of course I do." she whispered. "But the question is whether or not you're going to help me with it." she said. Gerard smiled wide and took Christine in a huge hug.
"We're going to have a baby." he whispered. "Hey Rose, you're gonna have a little brother, or sister." he said, looking at her. Rose smiled. She wasn't sure what this baby was going to cause, but she was surprising herself in that she wasn't at all afraid or upset.

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Joust started recording "Gone In The Rain" with Sonny Moore a week later, delaying because Christine was feeling at her worst with the morning sickness. Rose was really excited to be meeting Sonny for the first time, and sat anxiously in the lobby, waiting for him. Rose almost passed out when she saw him. He looked so cool, so very emo, so very what she needed for her song. She walked right over to him and held out her hand.
"Sonny? Hi I'm Rose. You'll be working with me on the song." she said, smiling and staying as composed as possible.
"Oh hey." he said, shaking her hand and returning the smile. He walked back with her to the recording room where he was met by the whole crew; Josh, Alex, Dylan, Troy, Jordan, Jamie, Amy, and Shawn, who he shook hands with in turn, and Gerard, Mikey, Bob, Ray, and Frank, who enveloped him in a huge hug. They hadn't seen each other in years. Then Sonny grabbed Gerard by the shoulders and stared him hard in the face, then stared hard at Rose and his eyes lit up and his smile got wide.
"LITTLE ROSIE I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT WAS YOU!" he called, running over to her and hugging him. Gerard laughed a little as Rose's confusion spread over her face. As far as she knew, she'd never actually met Sonny. Apparently she had.
"Sonny used to play with you back when we toured together in 2014. He'd do puzzles with you, and read to you, and play dollhouse..." he said, his smile growing wider at every word. Sonny punched him in the arm.
"Hey shut up Gerard I like kids." he said defensively. Gerard just smiled and rolled his eyes. "So we gonna do a song or what?" he asked Rose. "I listened to the melody demo, its friggin awesome." he said, smiling. Joust and Sonny walked back into the recording area and Christine, Dylan, Gerard, Alex, and Josh took seats behind the soundboard. As Rose put on the headphones and cleared her throat behind the microphone, Gerard flicked on the intercom.
"Uh, Rose?" he asked. Rose turned and cocked her head towards him. "You sure you're okay to do this?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. Rose nodded sullenly and adjusted her mic as Sonny did the same. You can do this Rose. She thought to herself, even though she really knew she probably couldn't. Amy struck up the drums, which is what the song mainly was. A drum solo in the beginning, in the middle, and in the fade out. The opening was like an army march, an army war march, like the beginning of Cemetery Drive. That lasted about 30 seconds, before Rose came in with the vocals, with Sonny's faint scream over some of her words.
"Tell me I didn't just hear him say..." she started quiet.
"Say" echoed Sonny.
"This can't be real but you're not here..." she added.
"You're not here" he echoed again.
"This should be a dream but I" she said, her voice getting louder.
"I Got no sleep that night." they cried at the same time. The song was very much a conversation sounding song.
"She never had a chance against the laws that tell us." she said again.
"Who we are and what we do." finished Sonny.
"They change everything with no remorse" she whispered.
"Don't look back don't apologize. They never do they never do." said Sonny in his trademark scream.
"But why did they have to take you away!" shrieked Rose.
"Not me not me why couldn't it have been me?" shouted Sonny in return.
"Because now I just want to" she whispered.
"Be gone with the rain." sang Sonny.
"Just like you." they sang together. And the song went from there. A few times they had to stop, because Rose would start to cry. When that would happen Josh, Dylan, Alex, or all three of them would abandon the soundboard and just run in and give her a hug. Sometimes they'd be crying too, and those moments would only last until Rose could compose herself enough to sing again. She tried to ignore the camera in the recording area, she didn't really want it to see her cry, but they'd all agreed that Gone In The Rain was going to be Joust's first real music video, and it was going to be one of those documentary type videos, which meant that one or all of those hugs would be needed for the shot. The song took a really long time to finish; they'd started around two, and it was now seven and they were being chased out by Cindy, shouting
"Go home, get some rest, you worked hard today, I could hear you guys from my desk. You sound great." Rose smiled weakly and she walked out with Dylan, Josh, and Alex, all with their arms slung over one another's shoulders. Shawn walked behind her running his fingers up and down her back, trying to make her laugh. It worked. Rose felt a little better knowing that she had all her friends with her.

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That night they all did something that they'd only done once before, because they knew if Gerard, Frank, Bob, Mikey, or Ray found out they'd lose their minds; they all slept in one room. They all figured Rose needed the support, so after the guys had gone to bed, Alex, Shawn, Troy, Josh, and Dylan all carried their pillows and blankets into the girl's room, which had a lot more floor space. The girls put all their blankets on the floor, and the boys laid their blankets over the girl's ones, creating one great big sleeping bag in the middle of the room. On this kind of night there was no sex, just friendly stuff. Shawn and Troy tried to object to the no sex law, both earning playful punches to the arms from Rose and Amy, and laughter from the rest of the room. They'd sneak up one at a time to the kitchen and grab snacks to gorge on with the rest of the group, but it came down to maybe getting just four bags of skittles and sharing them, knowing that there'd be trouble if one of the adults woke up in the morning to find the kitchen with maybe thirty percent of the food that was there before they'd gone to bed. They all sat together on the mess of blankets and pillows and talked, laughed, ate, and told secrets. Every now and then shushing one another for fear of being heard from upstairs. Rose couldn't imagine to think what she'd do without these people, and she hoped she'd always be with them.