All That I've Got

“Something’s wrong with him.”

“Hold him still.”

“Should we call them?”

“He’s waking up!”

The last voice was Natalie’s. Frank jerked into consciousness. It felt like hitting a brick wall face-first. His eyes shuttered open, and he took in the group amassed around his bed. That brought him to reality completely, and his brain was filled with an information stream of the night before.

“What’s going on?” Frank asked suspiciously, sitting up and backing against the headboard- as if that would help him escape a possible attack.

And an attack was exactly what Frank’s brain was warning him about. Chris, Alex, Natalie, and one of the other guys from last night were standing around his bed, watching him with curious looks.

“You started freaking out,” Alex said. He looked disheveled, and Frank couldn’t tell if that was just his look or not. “It was a night terror or something.”

Running a hand through his hair, Frank registered that his heart was in fact running itself against his ribcage, and he was sweating lightly.

“Why are you all here then?”

Frank had read about night terrors, and he didn’t think they required an entourage of strangers watching him.

“You became unconsolable, and we couldn’t get you to wake up,” Chris answered for him. He had a concerned expression, and Frank could make out lines from where Chris had made that face many times before.

“I’m- I’m fine,” Frank stuttered, feeling exposed, a thin sheet the only thing between the onlookers’ gaze and Frank’s boxers/pale legs. “It was a nightmare.” Frank wanted to cringe at the memory of it, but he shoved the urge aside.

No one moved, and Chris’s lines just deepened.

Then, from somewhere in the apartment a baby started crying, and the world unfroze.

“I better go help,” the man next to Chris said. He was young, with a wide jaw and chin-length hair. He had an elfish look, with slanted eyes and a pretty bone structure.

“I’ll come, too, William,” Chris said, then he shot Frank another over-worried look and hurried out behind the other guy.

Frank turned to Alex and Natalie, who’d stayed. “Since when did you guys have a fucking baby?” he sputtered.

Natalie cracked a smile and sat at the foot of Frank’s bed. Alex remained upright, looking kind of shaken, but he gave a weak grin.

“Not our baby,” Natalie said, crossing her legs. “She’s Aaronlyn’s.”

Frank had been wondering where Aaronlyn had gone last night. He’d only just met her, but it seemed fitting that she’d be a mother, with her calm tone and thoughtfulness.

Suddenly, Frank’s heart seized on the word ‘mother’.

He had a mother out there. Someone who’d loved him and raised him, and now had been torn away from him.

Fuck, he missed the idea of his mom so bad he wanted to scream.

However, when the other two looked at him oddly, he hitched his breath in a few times and managed to push the thought away.

But it didn't stay gone.

“Huh. It’s still weird. This whole place is weird. Like Chris obviously isn’t your father, either of yours, and- fuck- Alex, you’re like nineteen. . .”

Alex’s face pinched up a bit at the words, and though Frank was pretty sure not a lot of things must make him uncomfortable, this topic must be an exception.

The air had turned sluggish, taut with tension, and Frank knew there were secrets in its midst- in the silence.

Finally, Alex spoke, “He’s not related to us. No one in the apartment is related to each other, save for Aaronlyn and Ana, the baby.”

Frank kept his mouth shut, hoping to get more information, but neither of them offered any up. Eventually, Natalie hopped up.

“You should get dressed. Chris will want to talk to you about school and clothing and other things you will need,” she flounced around Alex’s chaotic room as she spoke, gathering clothing items.

She flung them at Frank when she stopped moving, and Alex made a protesting noise. “Hey that’s my stuff!”

Natalie shot him a glare, “The kid has no memories, and now you’re going to deny him clothing?” she said fiercely, and when she set her hands on her hips, Frank had to stifle a laugh.

Alex cracked a smile, “I was kidding, of course I wouldn’t. He can even have my pink belt.”

For some reason that tempted Frank, and when he told them that they cracked up and Alex offered it up.

“You might need it if you’re going to wear my jeans. I swear, you are the smallest person I’ve ever seen.” Alex moved so Frank could maneuver past him toward the bathroom, hands full of clothing.

Right before Frank shut the bathroom door, he winked over his shoulder. “Trust me, not all of me’s small.”

He smiled when he heard Alex yelp and yell “I’m straight!” again.

-----

The jeans didn’t fit, as Alex had predicted. They sagged and the fabric of the legs bunched up around Frank’s feet where they were too long. He felt like a little kid wearing his dad’s clothes, playing grown-up.

Ouch.

Natalie had also thrown a gray t-shirt with a british flag on it, but unsurprisingly, Frank couldn’t make himself change out of the Batman shirt. He was glad to find she’d also thrown him a red zipper-hoodie, though.

When Frank emerged, he was a whirlwind of clashing colors and mixed fabrics, the pink belt just topping the outfit off.

Both Alex and Natalie had to clamp hands over their mouths to keep from laughing when they saw him. Frank scowled at first, but soon he was joining them. There was something about them that made him feel good, and he wasn’t going to question it or ruin anything.

But then suddenly something Natalie had said hit him. “Wait- what the fuck- school ?!”

Natalie gave him a ‘duh’ look, one that contorted her pretty face comically.

“Yeah, school,” she spelled out. “You’re only seventeen. Normal seventeen-year olds go to school.”

Frank was sort of frozen with indecision. “But, I haven’t even said I was going to stay. . . and now everyone expects me to go to school?”

Alex messed with one of the strings of Frank’s hoodie. “You don’t exactly have anywhere else to go. And I know this is probably the weirdest setting you’ve ever been in, but you should stay.”

Alex looked up at Frank with large eyes, and Frank decided suddenly that he would stay. He liked it here. And Alex was right, he had no where to go- no one who missed him or knew him in this entire city.

“Okay,” the words were quiet, but grins broke out on Alex’s and Natalie’s faces.

“Chris will be glad to hear,” Natalie jumped over to Frank and tugged on his hand, trying to herd him to the door.

Frank let her, and they ended up in the apartment’s main room.

“I’ll go get him from his office,” Alex said. Natalie forced Frank to sit on the large couch in the center of the room, then bounced her way off into the kitchen.

She came back with a Toaster Strudel and a glass of juice, and sat by Frank. “Oh, no fair!” Frank said, giving voice to the demands his stomach had been making for the last twenty minutes. “I want one!”

Natalie laughed and extended her half-eaten one toward Frank. “Here you go, Frankie.”

Frank narrowed his eyes, and Natalie went to withdrawn it, but right as she went to pull it back from under his nose, he grabbed it and took out a large hunk. Natalie cracked up, the wiggled around on the couch in protest when Frank attempted to give the mutilated breakfast food back to her.

“Yeah, they made quick friends,” Alex said from the hallway. Natalie and Frank’s head shot up to find Chris and Alex walking toward the couch.

“That’s good,” Chris replied, then he stood in front of where they sat. “So Frank, I have some things to talk to you about. First off, we’ll need to get you your own clothes.”

Frank heard Alex laugh and whacked his arm a bit.

“What?” Alex laughed, “Even you have to realize that you can’t wear that horrible Batman shirt forever.”

Frank crossed his arms across his chest protectively, then stuck his tongue out in Alex’s direction.

“Okay, stop it you two,” Chris interrupted, full parent-mode on or something. “Frank, new clothes. Natalie and Alex can take you shopping. In the next couple of days, I’ll get you registered at Alex’s school. Does all that sound okay?”

Frank nodded. But then questions bloomed in his mind. “You said you’d explain things to me last night. Like where I’m from?” Frank couldn’t keep the hope out of his voice.

Everyone looked pained for a second.

Then Chris cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Frank, but we really don’t know anything about you.”

Frank stood up fast. “But- but you have to know! You knew where I was, you knew my name. I know there are people out there that must be looking for me!”

Chris’s face took on it lined appearance again. But he looked set on his decision to not tell Frank what he wanted, though he had promised.

“They’re not looking for you, Frank. As I said before, they’re the ones who left you here,” Chris said quietly, the words punching Frank with each syllable. Chris turned away, looking as if the words had hurt him too, and he went back down the hallway.

It’s the truth, Frank thought, they left me here, why would they want me back? [i/]

Natalie cooed a bit and she brought Frank’s hand into her lap, and scooted closer to him. Alex sat on his other side.

“Frank. . .” Natalie muttered, sympathy in her tone.

Frank jerked his head, and gripped her hand tighter. “You said that there were answers. Will you help me find them, soon?”

Natalie hesitated, then nodded, dark eyes looking into Frank’s. “I’ll help you. But it’ll take awhile, okay?”

Frank agreed. He needed to know, and as long as he was making progress, he could wait.

“Now let’s get you your own damn Toaster Strudel,” she said, and still holding his hand, she lead the way to the kitchen.