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

One day after work, Gerard entered the house with little Milo in his arms and Jovani’s hand in his. They had been enrolled in the daycare across the street from their daddy’s job so he could keep a close eye on them during his breaks. With Lorenzo and Venetia being in preschool by Frank’s building of occupation, the last of the children were both being looked after by their father while he was still on Maternity leave. All their bundles of joy were slotted into a place that would care for them and their needs while both parents worked, and as back up they had the grandparents aids whenever they were able to extend it to them in between their own well-off careers. In the future, Gerard hoped his brother and Masika would also be added to the list of recruits too. He was positive they’d prove to be valuable babysitters.

“Hey, my little babies!” Frank cooed the moment his husband and two boys came into view. He had just lowered Marcella into her swing chair alongside her twin sister, Ophelia, when he had heard the front door open and the babbling of his two youngest sons.

Relinquishing his hold on each hand, Gerard grinned as Milo and Jovani both took off to embrace their mother. Selfishly, he stayed behind to take the loving scene in before both Venetia and Lorenzo darted inside the house from the backyard to fling themselves at their newly arrived daddy. Laughing at their energetic demonstration of love, Gerard swept each up into his arms and bestowed a great daddy bear hug on them, making them each giggle with delight before setting them back on their two feet again.

“Hey, hubster.” Frank greeted him immediately with his own embrace and a fleeting, but a deep kiss on his mouth. “How was work?”

“It was alright. The kids fared well at daycare I’ve been told.” Gerard reported to his husband, his arms snaking around his waist as the kids all chatted to both parents about their day at once, regardless if they were listening to them or not. “How was your day?”

“Busy tending to your little fairy and mermaid.” Frank grinned up at him, greedily stealing a few more chaste kisses before asking. “I hate to ask you for a favor since you just stepped through the door, but could you grab the mail for me? I completely forgot to sneak out for it earlier when the girls were both napping.”

“No problem, baby. Your wish is my command.” Gerard granted him, swooping down for another kiss that had Frank forcefully bending backwards and making the kids laugh at the comical action. Righting his husband back up, he began to retreat back to the front door. “I’ll be back in a second.”

“Kay!” Frank waved him bye before crouching down to Milo and Jovani who were beginning to fight over who was gonna tell mom about their day first. “Hey, stop, you two, I can listen to you both just fine!”

Outside the house, Gerard obediently fetched the mail and returned back inside to hail out to his husband. “Got the mail! I’m gonna get dinner started now!”

“Oh my gooood, I love you so much!” Frank praised him from down the hall, surrounded by their needy kids. He knew he should’ve squeezed in dinner today too, but he found himself napping with the twins any time he could. He always told Gerard he was the lousy parent of the two, not that the elder would ever believe him though it was so obvious.

As soon as Frank was able to preoccupy the kids off him, he entered the kitchen while Gerard was still cooking to sift through the mail, separating them into two piles, Gerard’s mail and his mail. He was held up when he picked up a black envelope with his name written on it in white marker. There wasn’t an address or stamp in sight, just his name. “Hmm, I wonder who this is from?”

Glancing over from steaming the assorted vegetables in a pan, Gerard’s mistrustful light brown eyes narrowed in on the envelope in question. A highly suspicious-looking envelope if he ever saw one in his life. “Does it have a returning address?”

“Nah, just my name.” Frank told him with a shake of his head, his hazel eyes still examining the envelope in his hands that had some weight to it due to the long bulge on the bottom that extended from one end of the envelope to the next. Because out of all the mail this one stood out the most, he suddenly got an idea to shake it to get a notion of what was inside. Holding it up to his ear, he lightly shook the envelope, hearing the item inside bounce against the paper.

As Gerard portioned the freshly prepared and seasoned vegetables on six different plates, he scoped out like a hawk at his husband’s fingers pressing down on the item in the envelope, molding out the shape to figure out what it was. Whatever it was almost appeared to be a long pen-like component. With bated breath, he discarded the heated pan in the sink and observed over his husband’s shoulder as he opened the letter and was just beginning to delve his fingers inside for the item when a loud thump of someone falling sounded in the typical rowdy household followed by a sharp shriek of pain.

The sound initiated two other pairs of newly-forming lungs to scream from being jolted from their nap.

“Shit!” Frank cursed before dropping the envelope on the counter and rounding it to uncover the origin of the outcry so he could pacify it. Milo was on the floor rolling, screaming and sobbing as he clutched onto both knees. Nearby stood one of Jovani’s hot wheel cars that the young boy likely slipped on and fell, thus resulting in Marcella and Ophelia crying next. Rushing forward, he swept Milo up in his arms and bounced him as he whispered cooing words and kissed the red spots on his knees.

Back in the kitchen, Gerard was staring at what fell out of the envelope Frank had tossed to the counter for his weeping children.

It was a goddamn pregnancy stick with a post-it note on it.

Reaching for it, Gerard curled his finger around the test and lifted it to get a closer look at the message on the note.

It’s Gerard’s baby. You’re welcome.

It was from Pastel, it had to be. He didn’t need a name at the bottom of the note to be able to tell who the damn sender was! Who else had he knocked up other than Frank throughout their relationship?

Angrily gritting his teeth together, Gerard saw only red as the sounds of his children crying in the next room was muffled into the background. The hand holding onto the stick clenched tightly around the damnable test. In his mind, he cursed Pastel for her maddening and unremitting audacity once again, falling deeper and deeper into his own dark abyss that was the fountain of his apetite for human lives.

Specifically, Pastel’s life.

“Gerard!” A faint voice echoed outside of the world of darkness and malicious intent. It was a world so familiar to him, a world he knew how to naturally operate in, nothing needed to be coached to him.

“Gerard, get over here!” That voice called again, sounding a little bit louder. But nothing would stop him from devising a strategy to locate Pastel’s whereabouts, and play Doctor with her insides from dusk to dawn.

“GERARD, I NEED YOUR HELP IN HERE!” Frank’s voice hollered from the living room where he had three crying babies needing to be soothed and only one of him to undertake the impossible task! His hazel eyes were honed in the direction of the kitchen, wondering desperately where his superman husband was and what was taking him so damn long to respond to a situation he’d normally have under control by now. “WHERE ARE YOU!?”

Somehow, Gerard was able to snap out of his ravaging world of evil like it was a flimsy bubble, and right back into his reality of being both a doting husband and father.

Hearing Frank call out for him had Gerard cramming the pregnancy test in his pocket before rounding the kitchen counter to see the young man holding up a crying Milo who’s arm had the tiniest cut in the world on them, and whose knee was red from falling onto the floor. Venetia and Lorenzo were staring alongside Jovani at their crying little brother while the newborns were wailing in their swing chairs from having been woken up from their brief nap. With a nod to his husband, Gerard told Frank as he began to withdraw from the room. “I got it, babe! Hold on for a second!

Racing back into the kitchen, he fetched the first aid kit for a dinosaur band-aid. With his first paycheck, he had fully stocked first aid kits planted in every room of the house, not just because of his kids having accidents, but because of other outside incursions that might take place. Gerard’s about to dash back out into the living room to slap a bandaid on his wounded son when a thought dawns on him. Frank was gonna find out that he had taken the item from the envelope when he found out it was now empty. Cursing himself, Gerard then recalled he had a pen in his back pocket he inadvertently swiped from work.