I'm the Last One That You'll Ever Remember

No one in the Iero dining room said a word to Frank who made it vocally clear that they were up to something before he strolled in from the bathroom. Even though he was correct they weren’t about to tell him a thing. But for how long would they be able to keep their mouths shut? Gerard had no idea, and so he spoke up with a half-lie on his lips. “Actually, baby, I was just giving an independent toast to your family. I wanted to show my gratitude to them for all they’ve done for our family since we moved back to New Jersey.”

Everyone expelled a long held breath when Frank’s hazels lit up. He totally fell for Gerard’s trickery. Setting a hand over his heart, he closed the distance to his chair. “Aww, you really did that, baby?” He allowed Gerard to guide him to his seat before reaching out to place hand on his cheek while overlooking the awkward feeling in his belly he’s been experiencing since dinner. “Aren't you the sweetest?”

Turning his face to press his lips against the palm of Frank’s hand, Gerard grinned down at him. “It was nothing.”

Blithely rolling his eyes at his lover, Frank turned his fixation onto the big cheesecake on his plate that had his name written all over it. But he couldn’t relish the entirety of it when the pain in his belly began to start. Unclear if this was simply false contractions or the real deal, Frank sat back and paid close attention to the emanating pain he championed through. By the time he was convinced that he might actually be going into labor, a sharp pain shot through him, racking his entire body and making him careen forward with a gasp. Everyone at the table went hushed as they all stared at him with concern. “Shit, I-I think the baby is coming, you guys!”

“WHAT!?” Gerard shouted, staggering to his feet so fast he sent his chair back and skidding across the hardwood floor. He stood with light brown eyes magnified, pale skin even blancher, and his jaw hanging open in a floored hysteria. Bounding forward with the rest of the family, he adhered onto Frank’s side first, skimming his hair aside as his hectic eyes darted over him. “Oh god, how are you feeling, baby? Are you okay?”

Edith retreated with Margo to assemble Lorenzo, Venetia and Jovani around herself while watching Gerard tremble in a scare. Naturally, of course he would! This is the first birth that he’d ever witnessed with Frank and with his first child, she thought to herself as she reached out to capture Margo’s hand. “Don’t worry about the kids, I’ll watch them. You just help everyone get Frank to the hospital.”

“Thank you, Edith!” Margo praised her before clutching the back of Peter’s shirt and tearing him out of the crowd surrounding her son. “Peter! I need you right now. We need to round up all the things Frankie’s gonna need in the hospital right now! Frank can take care of him just fine without us.”

“You got it!” Peter backed, dashing alongside his sister-in-law for the few bags that were packed just in case of emergencies...the emergency being Frank going into labor while visiting their place without his own bags he packed at home.

“You’re alright, son.” Frank Sr. settled his only child quite cooly, getting up and returning with a stethoscope to listen to his son’s heartbeat. He would whisper words of comfort whenever his whimpering son required it until he realized he didn’t because Gerard was doing all the comforting for two people. “Okay, Gerard, we need to get him to the car quickly, but carefully.”

Gerard knew he’d look deplorable to his own Killjoy family. He looked like a trembling weakling next to Frank whose face was nuzzled in his neck, panting harshly. His light brown eyes blinked dumbly at Frank Sr. “H-How would we do that!?”

“You take one arm and I’ll take the other. We need to move slowly.” Frank Sr. instructed him as he got up to gently guide his crying son out of his chair. Bothered he would have to do this alone, he looked down to Gerard to rehash his orders, but was appeased when the tall man came to the rescue to Frank’s other side. Sprawling each arm around their necks, they gradually steered the pregnant man to the car outside. “That’s it, slow steps.”

“ARGH, IT HURTS!” Frank cried out, his ears barely able to pick up the sounds of his own children wailing from seeing their mother in agony. He was in so much agony he could barely walk on his own. Dropping his weight onto the other two men completely, he sobbed out. “I CAN’T, DADDY! I CAN’T! G-GEE!”

“Can’t I just carry him!?” Gerard begged Frank Sr, his eyes glazed with tears he hadn’t yet grasped were even there.

“It’ll hurt him more, but it might have to be our only choice if he won’t move!” Frank Sr. notified him before nudging his son to gain his attention. “Frankie, listen to me! You need to get moving or else you’ll get carted to the car.”

“I-I’ll try!” Frankie whimpered, and only took one step before nearly toppling to the ground were it not for his baby daddy and father. “AHH! Daddy, I-I can’t! I’m sorry!”

Obtaining the signaled nod from Frank Sr., Gerard whispered to Frank tenderly. “I’m sorry for this, my love.” Before he could get a response back, he had hauled his lover up into his arms, cringing at the scream that spewed from his lip. Swiftly by Frank Sr. 's insistence, Gerard fast walked to the car, passing Margo and Peter for the second time as they stockpiled the duffle bags into the trunk of the vehicle.

Frank Sr. darted around him to open the door of Frank and Gerard’s new Cadillac Escalade gifted by Uncle Peter and Aunt Edith. Attentively, they both eased Frank in comfortably. Out of the corner of his eye, Frank Sr. spotted his wife hastening over to them. “What is it, Margo? Is everything packed?”

“Yeah, everything is there.” Margo confirmed, a little out of breath. “We’ll get the kids ready and we’ll meet you guys there, okay?”

“I’ll drive, sir!” Gerard reported soundly, needing something else to do to help as he got into the driver’s seat.

Frank Sr. nodded to him before brushing his wife’s hair from her eyes. “Alright, we’re getting out of here now. The sooner we do the sooner we can meet our grandson!”

“You better not deliver him until I’m there, you hear me?” Margo badgered him before leaning up for a kiss goodbye.

Soon, Frank Sr and Gerard were on the road to the hospital. Gerard didn’t talk much, but then again he was focusing extremely hard on not heeding the groans and cries Frank was emitting. Still, Frank Sr. felt he should check up on him. “How are you doing up there, Gerard?”

“We gotta get to the hospital.” Gerard rambled shakily, his light brown eyes scouring the road for any cars that could get in his way. A car crash was the last thing they needed right now. “Frankie needs a doctor. He needs the hospital. We gotta get to the hospital.”

Leaving Gerard to his rambling drone, Frank Sr. looked to his side where his son was breathing heavily and crying as wordlessly as he could. Offering his own hand, his son grasped onto it with a whine. “You can do this, son! This isn’t anything you haven’t gone through before.”

“And yet I keep finding myself d-doing this shit again!” Frank growled back, gritting his teeth as another contraction hit him hard and made him arch in his seat. “GOD, why do I-I keep doing this!?”

“Beats me, son.” Frank Sr. smiled at him. “But don’t you worry, after we get your son out of there we’re gonna buy you a limitless fund of condoms.”

Frank snorted in diversion, then grimaced at the pain. “Yeah, right. The day I see Gerard wearing a condom is the same day pigs start flying.”

“HEY, FUCKING MOVE IT, YOU ASSHOLE!” Gerard suddenly thundered at another driver, sticking his head out the window while he pummeled down on the car horn. “MY MAN IS GOING INTO LABOR AND I’LL BE DAMNED IF ANYONE GETS IN MY FUCKING WAY! IF YOU WANNA DIE TODAY I CAN MAKE THAT HAPPEN!”

“Is...Is he normally like this when he drives?” Frank Sr. inquired covertly to his son, gaping at Gerard’s road raging.

Frank stammered over his words, his eyes wide with panic. “Uh...n-not all the time. I-It’s something we’re still working on.”