Forget About It

“I’ve been debating who is going to kill you first, Frank or Hayley,” Brendon says to Gerard who’s in the driver’s seat of his car.

“Probably Hayley, because I’m not going to let that short stack get the best of me,” Gerard replies.

“You two should really invest in some sort of work therapy, because it’s getting a little insane.”

“What can I say, I hate him. I hate him the same way I hate it when your ear buds get stuck in the wheel of a rolling chair,” Gerard says.

“Whoa dude. That much? Really?” Brendon asks.

“You have no idea.”

Gerard and Brendon are getting to the house first, and only they are going to be parking their car in the front of the house, otherwise it’ll look suspicious. Brendon left Patrick his keys so that he can come later and enter around the back, but they’re going to switch off nightly. Hayley won’t be getting to the house until tomorrow because she’s staying back at the office. Gerard and Brendon are going to be on watch until dinner, and then the other two or three, respectively, have night watch. Schedules will probably mix up a few times if they have to stay a while, but so far that’s the plan.

Thankfully the house comes fully-furnished, but it’s minimal so they don’t have much, but it’s enough. None of them are entirely sure how it’s going to work since they’ve really never done much of anything like this, but it should be pretty basic. They’re not all going to be sleeping at the house every day, but it looks like they will be the first night.

“Oh god I wish we were just looking for a murderer or something,” Brendon complains as he sits back in his seat, “we’re not in fucking narcotics! I’m not a part of the LAPD. They’d be so much better at this.”

“You know they’ll run into jurisdiction problems and besides, narcs are of better use in the Bronx. Quit your complaining, it won’t be too hard.”

“Too hard, no, but it’s going to be so boring!”

Gerard rolls his eyes, and is glad to see that they’re nearly to the house, but it’s taking longer because of the time of day, “if you keep it quiet, then you can play music, but I swear to god if you make us look suspicious I will disembowel you.”

“Ow. Ew. That’s gross,” Brendon replies.

Gerard laughs and teases, “So is your face, so get a paper bag or something.”

Brendon fakes a laugh and then flips him off, “love you too jackass.”

They get to the house at a quarter to noon, and there aren’t that many people up and about on the street. It’s a pretty quiet little neighborhood which is a strange sort of a place to cook drugs. The team still isn’t positive what kind of lab they’re running, but it’s almost definitely not weed. That shit is grown, not made. Gerard would guess cocaine or heroin.

“When are the others getting here again?” Brendon asks.

“What time is it now?” Gerard asks and Brendon gives him the time, “then they’ll be here in under an hour.”

“Got it,” Brendon says, as Gerard is setting up equipment in the upper bedroom where the best vantage point is. There’s four bedrooms which is quite a bit, and so far they’ve designated this one to be the best place to keep all their spying stuff. Brendon and Gerard get the bedroom adjacent to the spying room, Frank and Patrick get the one downstairs next to the kitchen, and Hayley gets the last one upstairs. That is if any of them get to actually sleep. They can’t mess too much up because they’re only going to have the house for a little while.

“Heard a car out back,” Brendon says half an hour later.

“You go let them in, I’ll stay here,” Gerard replies. When he thinks about this a little too hard it feels like voyeurism, which is why he’s decided not to think about it too hard.

Gerard doesn’t hear anything for a few minutes and then he hears the door downstairs slamming, and the loud voice of Frank. He’s honestly not sure what’s going on down there but he decides not to think too much about it. Frank has an obnoxious voice. By obnoxious, he actually kind of likes the way it sounds, but it’s annoying because he wants to hate it.

“Gerard! They’re here!”

“No shit,” Gerard calls back.

There’s a stomping around and then Brendon is back in the doorway with him, and he sits down next to Gerard.

“Frank had a message he wanted me to pass along to you. He says, and I quote, ‘Fuck you.’” Brendon relays to him.

“Well fuck you too, Frank,” Gerard yells, slanting his head for it to be heard out the door. It's quiet for a few seconds before he hears the obnoxious stomping of feet downstairs.

"You two just love each other, don't you?" Brendon teases, but falters when Gerard sends him a glare filled with spite.

Frank comes up the stairs and stops when he sees Gerard's hate filled stare.

"Honey, I'm home," Frank sneers, pasting on a smile so fake it looks drawn on with crayon.

"Aren't you supposed to be coming through the front door when you say that?" Gerard says sarcastically.

"Aren't I supposed to be coming to a home cooked meal when I say that?" Frank snaps back. Gerard sees red spots in his vision at the implication of him being a stereotypical housewife from the 1950's or something.

"I swear to fucking-"

"Not again boys," Brendon says sternly, pinching the bridge of his nose with a pained look on his face. "Frank, why don't you go and set up the room you're going to be staying in? You’re sharing with Patrick, just go do that, and... yeah?"

Frank gives Gerard one last glare before turning to leave. Only he pivots and faces them again, this time with an excited look on his face.

"Oh, hey lets go introduce ourselves to the neighbors!"

Immediately Gerard shakes his head and Brendon gives him a disapproving look.

"Absolutely not."

"I'm not sure that would be the best idea Frank, seeing as we're trying to stay on the down low from these guys," Brendon explains logically.

"No, but see, it would be better if we went and introduced ourselves to them and acted like nothing was wrong. Because if we just moved in and didn't even acknowledge them, that would seem even more suspicious, wouldn't it?" Frank tries to explain his reasoning.

Gerard answers, "Are you deaf? Or just plain fucking stupid? By what I've heard so far, I'm guessing both. No means no, Frank."

"Look, I wasn’t fucking asking you, so why don't you just go and find yourself-"

Gerard interrupts, "If you just listened to orders once in your fucking life-"

"Stop! Jesus, if I have to hear one more argument between you two I'm going to put you both in a time-out. Quit it already!" Brendon snaps, having heard enough from the two bickering men in front of him for a lifetime.

"Frank. We are not going to introduce ourselves to the people we're supposed to be spying on. End of story," Gerard says slowly, like he's trying not to blow off his handle.

"Fine. I won't go and introduce myself," Frank turns and finally heads back downstairs where he belongs.

‘Good’, Gerard thinks, 'Hopefully he'll stay down there.' He makes himself more comfortable and looks up innocently when Brendon shakes his head.

They stop when they hear the front door open and slam close. Gerard rushes back to look out the window where he sees Frank sauntering over to the exact house he specifically said not to go to. Gerard growls and grabs his jacket, already stomping down the stairs and ignoring Brendon's protests.

Gerard flies out the door and practically runs to where Frank has already reached the door, and is already talking to their suspects. How he can talk and smile so easily when he just disobeyed direct orders is beyond Gerard. He just clenches his fists and grinds his teeth, walking up behind Frank and setting a hand on his shoulder.

"-yes of course! And here’s my boyfriend now," Frank says, with that fake smile plastered to his stupidly white and perfect teeth, like he didn't just fucking ignore Gerard’s and Brendon's wishes. Gerard may in fact kill Frank for making Gerard’s cover the role of boyfriend.

Frank continues, “We were just-”

"Heading back home," Gerard finishes for him, smiling at the big balding man in front of him. He reluctantly sticks his hand out for the man to shake. The two men in front of him are not particularly polite looking, and Gerard is actually a little intimidated.

"Gerry. Pleasure to meet you," Gerard says, slapping a smile on his face.

“I was just greeting the neighbors, no need to get so testy,” Frank says.

"Well, we'd really love to stay and chat, but we've still got a load of unpacking to do, right Frank?" Gerard fumes, and his grip on Frank’s shoulder is not exactly a pleasant one. It’s turning his knuckles white, even.

Frank nods a little stiffly but shakes both of the men’s hands once more. "It was a pleasure meeting you two. Hopefully we'll see you soon."

The men both grunt without saying a word to Gerard, and the two step off the porch. Once the door is shut, Gerard tightens his hand on Franks shoulder to the point of actual pain.

"Ow ow, what the fuck-" Frank squirms away, but Gerard has a firm grip on him.

"You're so fucking dead, I swear to god."