So Long and Goodnight...

Gerard’s P.O.V.

Complete silence was the only sound that filled the room for the better half of a minute as everyone took in the sight before them. Helena, back from the dead in a dressing room of a gig we just played in downtown Los Angeles, California five years exactly since the very last time we (well I) saw her. I couldn’t blame them for being a bit speechless.

The silence was suddenly shattered by the sound of Brooke bursting into tears followed quickly by Autumn. This was the first basic sign of life Autumn had shown since that night. I saw Raven jump at the sound of her sister’s tears (she was so unaccustomed to the sound) and that seemed to snap her out of her trance and put everything in perspective because before I knew it, Helena was on the floor. Raven had literally tackled her and Helena was somewhere between tears and laughter.

“Oh my fucking God,” Raven sobbed as she hugged her long lost friend. “Is it really you?”

“Yeah,” Helena sobbed back. “It really is.”

“Good,” Raven replied, still sobbing. “Cuz I would hate to do this to an innocent stranger.”

“Do what?”

“This,” Raven said and suddenly punched Helena in the arm with all the strength she could muster.

“OW!” Helena cried, holding her arm. “What the fuck was that for?”

“For leaving me, you fuck! These were the worst five years of my entire life and I missed you and you’re never fucking leaving me again because I’m just gonna tie you up and shove you in my closet and force feed you all the gross vegetables that nobody ever eats.”

“You don’t have to because I never plan on leaving you guys ever again. That is …if you’ll take me back.”

“Helena,” came a very familiar voice but different in a way that none of us had never imagined. It was Bob and he was …crying. Bob, the tough guy, the rock, the guy who had never showed any signs of weakness in his life …was actually crying. “It’s impossible for us to take you back …since we'd never even think about letting you go.” And with that he broke down and so did Helena and she pushed herself up and off the ground and ran over to Bob, throwing her arms around his neck as they sobbed into each others shoulders.

She was instantly surrounded by all her friends, every single one of them sobbing and shoving each other out of the way for a hug. She made damn sure they all got at least ten hugs a piece, and let them know personally just how much she’d missed them since she’d been gone.

“Holy fuck, you guys,” Helena said after everyone had calmed down just slightly as she sat on the arm of the couch beside me, my arm casually draped behind her. I didn’t want to advertise that we were technically “together” when I was still kind of “technically” with Alexa but I was still haunted by the unrealistic fear that all of this was just another one of my nightmares and if I let go of her for one second, I would wake up and find that none of it was real and I couldn’t let that happen again. Not this time. “So besides becoming rockstars,” she continued with an overwhelmed laugh. “what the fuck have I missed?”

Literally every eye in the room snapped at once to Mikey and Brooke. Brooke was sitting in Mikey’s lap still, crying quietly as she stared, unbelieving at her friend. When she noticed everyone’s eyes on her she smiled and sniffled, trying to find the words to speak.

“Well um,” She started timidly. “Mikey and I have been together this whole time and a few months ago actually he um,” she smiled wide, unable to finish the sentence as fresh tears sprang to her eyes and Mikey lovingly squeezed her hand. Finally, Brooke just held out her left hand for Helena to see. The diamond sparkled in the dim dirty light of the room and Helena jumped up so fast I thought someone had just shot her and her jaw dropped open.

“Oh my… you mean? You’re ENGAGED?!”

Brooke was overwhelmed with so many emotions that she couldn’t say anything so she just nodded her head vigorously in confirmation of Helena’s inference then Helena grabbed her by the wrist, pulled her out of Mikey’s lap and hugged her as the two of them jumped up and down in the middle of the room, screaming as the rest of us laughed our asses off.

Two guys from our crew, one of them a guy we called Big Worm (our self proclaimed body guard) ran into the room alarmed by the sound, looking ready to rip the head off of anyone trying to hurt one of us.

“Oh. Sorry, Worm,” Brooke apologized.

“Yeah my bad, dude,” Helena added with a laugh.

Worm just laughed and rolled his eyes as the guy he had come in with cursed under his breath and stomped out. “Don’t mind him,” He said in his deep, gruff sounding, but somehow still friendly voice. “He hasn’t killed anybody in about a week and he’s really got the itch.”

“I’ll remember not to get in his way,” Helena joked.

“Good Idea,” Worm winked with a chuckle and then turned and went back down the hall to whatever he had been doing.

“You guys,” Helena cooed, turning back to Mikey and Brooke. “I’m so happy for you.”

“We should both be thanking you,” Mikey said. “You’re the one who got us together in the first place.”

“I know and damn I do good fucking work if I do say so myself.”

“Yeah,” Frank said with a slightly evil smirk and we were all pretty sure we knew what was coming. “To bad your methods never worked for you.”

“Hey, fuck you!” Helena said trying not to laugh. “I told him in my letter.”

“Yeah and then left for five years and made everyone think you were dead. What was the point of that?”

“Well I never said my theory was perfect, ok?”

We all laughed and Helena came back over and sat on the arm of the couch near me and I slipped my arm around her a bit more confidently this time. Frank frowned a bit.

“Gee, you did tell her didn’t you?”

“Tell who about what?”

“Her,” he said nodding to Helena “about her.” he stressed, holding up his ring finger.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I said a bit surprised at Frank. “What kind of person do you think I am? Of course I told her.”

“Told me about what?” Helena said seriously but the twinkle in her eye told me she was joking and she almost couldn’t hold back a smile as Frank’s face paled and his eyes grew wide.

“Please tell me you’re shitting me,” he whispered.

Helena smiled and Frank knew he’d been had.

“Yes, Frank,” Helena beamed. “I’m shitting you. Now you can stop shitting yourself. I know about Alexa.”

Frank shook his head as he shared everyone’s laughter.

“So hold on a minute I’m still confused. Are you guys like …together then?”

Helena and I smiled happily at each other as the thought of us being “together” floated like music through our ears.

“Yeah. You could say that,” I beamed and saw everyone in the room try and fail to hold back an excited smile and exchange victorious glances with one another.

“Ok,” Frank said diplomatically. “First let me say …FINALLY! Jesus Christ! It only takes you fuckers forever!” Everyone in the room cheered and Helena and I laughed at the cheesiness of it all.

“Actually, five years to be exact,” Helena corrected smugly.

“And second,” Frank continued, ignoring Helena’s smart ass remarks for the time being. “What are you going to do about Medusa?” he asked referring to Alexa.

“Well technically I already broke up with her before I even knew Helena was here so I’m not doing anything wrong.”

“Have fun convincing her of that,” Frank said rolling his eyes. “She thinks you were just upset and didn’t mean what you said and you’ll be fine when you calm down a little bit. Blah blah blah.”

“Then she’s gonna be pretty fucking disappointed isn’t she?” I said with a laugh.

“Ok so let me get this straight,” Mikey said from the other side of the room. “You’re definitely not marrying Alexa now?”

“Let’s see. How can I put this lightly? Um …FUCK no!”

“Oh thank God!” Mikey cried. “I really didn’t want to fucking be that skanks brother-in-law.”

“Don’t worry, Mikey,” I laughed. “You won’t have to deal with that. I’m absolutely not marrying Alexa Shore.”

“And why the fuck not?” came a voice from the doorway to my left. My view of the speaker was blocked by Helena whose back was toward the door so she couldn’t she who said it either but I knew she knew who it was the instant she heard her voice because I watched as her eyes flew open and her breath caught in her lungs and I felt her blood turn to ice beneath my fingers.

I leaned forward and peered around Helena who was frozen in place to address my ex-fiancé. “Because. My love was never for you, Alexa. Never. It always belonged to her.”

“Oh my God,” she said exasperated. “You’re still hung up on Helena? She’s dead, Gerard. I know it hurts you and it hurts me too.” She was such a bad actress and she had no idea …no idea at all. “but it’s time to get over it. She’s never coming back.”

That seemed to melt some of the ice in Helena’s blood and as I watched her out of the corner of my eye, I even thought I saw a small smile play across her lips and then she turned her head, flipping her silky black hair in the direction Alexa was standing and finally met her eye to eye.

“Hey, Alexa,” She purred. “Miss me?”

Now it was Alexa’s turn to be absolutely frozen by shock and that was one part she played very well. Actually …she seemed more shocked to see Helena alive than anyone else previously had. Was I just imagining things or was there really a look of panic in Alexa’s paper white face?