We Salute You In Your Grave

Michael's Point Of View.

I could still hear them a little. It was the weirdest thing in the world, being able to hear my friends' voices when I couldn't see them.

I could feel the pain, the rawness of it eating away at my side. I could also feel my body being jostled around as they ran down the empty sidewalks with me.

Footsteps and raindrops were hitting the pavement at the same pace, while the groans of the wounded surrounded us.

All of this was in the background, though.

I could see her.

She was prettier than I remembered...dressed in a white gown, with wavy, long, dark hair past her shoulders, just like it used to be before the chemo.

Before the chemo, and the tiredness, and watching her waste away to nothing before I turned five.Cancer of the frontal lobe.

She was pale, but a vibrant pale. Like an angel was supposed to look.

She glowed.

Her skin was radiant, and the shine was getting brighter as the float she stood on got nearer.

Gray and black confetti, little rectangles of it, were in her hair like snowflakes.

"I missed you, Mikey," she smiled so wide that her eyes and nose crinkled like they used to, rosy porcelain cheeks and all.

"I missed you too, Mama." I felt my ghost-self blink back tears as Gerard proudly helped me up the steps with a gloved hand.

"WE'RE NOT KIDDING! No-- we know the 911 system isn't a joke! We aren't playing, lady! Our friend's hurt! No! Don't hang up--"

Genevieve was arguing with an operator. Figures.

"Son, you've gotten so big,,,I'm proud of you..." A sparkling tear settled in the corner of her eye.

"We're almost there! HANG IN THERE, MIKEY! DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON ME!" Bob's voice seemed shaken. Was he...crying? Sobbing?

"Thank you boys, all of you, for letting me see my little boy again...though he's not so little anymore..." Mom looked over at Gerard and Frank, who were sitting on the float's edge talking to Bob, Mikey, and Ray about something. They turned around and gave her an understanding nod.

"HELP! Our friend's been shot!"

"We need help here in the E.R., stat! Got hundreds of Code Blues coming in!" I could hear the melee going on inside the front lobby of the hospital-- heart monitors, shouting surgeons, and the groans of the few fellow wounded lucky enough to have someone carry them there like I was.

"Wait...'letting you see me', mom? You mean i'm not staying?" My voice faltered a bit, and a lump formed in my throat. The afterlife was really quite appealing once you got used to being able to feel yourself dying. I'd grown attached.

"No, i'm sorry Michael. There's other plans for you...much more important ones."

All of MCR nodded in agreement with knowing smiles.

"I'm sorry kids, you'll have to leave...we're trying to revive him!"

"NO! I'm not going anywhere! Don't touch me! Mikey!" Frankie? She was screaming her lungs out over me?

"I love you, son..." Mom smiled. "And I have some information you'll need later..."

"But...I don't want to leave..." I whimpered slightly.

"Listen, sweetheart..."

"Clear!" I felt the powerful jolt and my knees awkwardly buckled under me.

Mom caught me, getting down on her knees as she gently laid me down on the float's platform.Almost like when she used to tuck me in at night. She rested my head in her lap as my body arched convulsively against my will.

"...A left, a right, and a shot full of ephedrine."

My eyes flickered to hers, then over to Gerard's, whose lips twitched to the side for a second humorously.

"What? What the heck's that supposed to mean? It's a lyric!" I wheezed, feeling my chest burn horribly as if I was being pan-seared alive.

"Clear!

"MIKEY!" Frankie was still screeching away. Wow, she really didn't want me to die...her voice was drowning out everyone else on the other side.

"Be polite!" Mom scolded with a chuckle, her image getting a little blurry around the edges.

"Sorry...1,700 volts of electricity makes you irritable," i breathed between the repetitive shocks.

I guess they'd prepared mom for this, because she seemed unaffected by the fact that I was being yanked out of the Parade with defibrillator paddles. She just looked happy to see me again.

"You'll know what that means when the time comes. It'll be okay, honey. It's time for you to go..." more angel-tears welled up in her eyes, glistening beautifully.

I sniffled, right after a jolt. "See you again?"

Mom nodded.

"And you guys?" I looked over at Gerard, mostly, but I was addressing all of them.

Gerard bit back a smirk.

"Sooner than you think," Frank giggled, before being elbowed into silence by Bob and Ray on either side of him.

Another jolt, particularly painful this time.
"Give 'em hell, kid," Mikey (the real, tall, lanky MCR one) snickered, receiving exasperated sighs from the guys. Bad pun.

Rolling his eyes at his younger brother, Gerard took a few steps forward and knelt beside me, next to Mom, who was absentmindedly running her indescribably soft hands through my hair.

Gerard closed his eyes and took a breath...then sang.

Can we...pretend...
to leave....and then...
We'll meet again...
When both...our...cars...collide...

His voice echoed, and everything snapped into pitch-black darkness.

Ah, crap. i flatlined.

No, wait--

In one fluid motion, my eyes were open, along with the accompanying gasp of someone drowning.

The second half of the gasp was kind of muffled, though, because Francesca's lips were on mine.

Instantly, she was an arm's distance away from the gurney.

I was blinking, looking...eyes darting around to survey my surroundings.

Augh! Bright light. Right overhead.

"You're alive!" Frankie unabashedly enveloped me in a hug that would make an elephant winded.

I grabbed my side with a blood-caked hand, where the bullet wound was neatly covered with gauze.

And sore.

Hm. I'm still in the E.R.?

"Hon, i'm going to talk him to his room..." A nurse had her hand on Francesca's shoulder. "You can come with us if you like..."

Frankie opened her mouth to say something, but a tall guy-nurse walked into the room.

"I'll take it from here, nurse..." His face was obscured by a surgical mask.

"But my shift isn't over--"

"Early lunch break!" the doctor cut her off in an irritated tone. Hm, an American accent. Strange...

"Mmm...alright, then..." the nurse shuffled out of the room, with a confused look.

The doctor pulled up the gurney rails and started wheeling me out the door. Frankie and I exchanged a puzzled glance, while she followed behind the huge tree of a man.