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

Frank was gently woken up the next day by his mother, and father coaxing him awake. His mom smiled down at him nervously while his dad stood behind her with his hands buried deep in his pockets and a look of uncertainty shadowing his face. “Wake up, honey. The day has finally come for your operation. Dr. Gardner is coming down to have a meeting with the three of us so you need to be up and ready for him before he gets here.”

Frank’s eyes were still heavy with sleep, until the word ‘operation’ brought up all the anxiety he was feeling the night before, but this time it was followed by an almost toxic feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. “Operation? You mean…”

Margo nodded as she pulled his blanket back a little. “For the abortion, yes. Did you forget about that already, my silly pumpkin?”

He ignored his mother’s favorite pet name for him and pulled himself up in bed. He hesitantly glanced at his father to see how he was faring after their talk last night, but Frank Sr. was too busy looking towards the door to see the fear in his son’s eyes that mirrored his own. Looking back at his mom, Frank could see that she seemed a bit off, not just in her behavior but also in appearance. Her face was pale and her hair wasn’t as polished and perfected like it always was, strands had escaped her poorly styled bun and was falling around her face and down her back. She looked like she hadn’t slept at all. “Yeah…I guess I did.”

Feeling nauseous, Frank got himself out of bed and went into his bathroom to take a shower. When he came back out Dr. Gardner was sitting with his parents and they were all speaking in hushed tones. The minute they noticed Frank had entered the room, they broke apart from each other to flash him a cheerful smile. “There you are, Mr. Iero. I was just telling your parents what’s going to happen in the next few minutes when we begin your procedure. You haven’t changed your mind yet, have you?”

Every fiber in Frank’s being was telling him to drop everything, leave the hospital and hitchhike back home so that he could escape beneath the sea of his comforters again where it was safe, but that wasn’t what happened. “Y-Yeah! Of course, I haven’t changed my mind.”

Frank wanted to vomit right then and there, and had to lean himself against the wall for support because he felt so weak. Dr. Gardner’s mouth was beginning to move again, but Frank couldn’t understand the words he was saying. The churning in his stomach currently had his undivided attention and was refusing to settle down. His mouth became dry and in an instant vomit came exploding past his lips and onto the floor right in front of his parents and the doctor, who managed to jump back in time before they got hit.

“Oh my little pumpkin!” Margo cried as she stepped past the vomit to help her son to the bathroom. She guided him back into the bathroom in time for him to heave into the toilet, and held his long damp hair back for him. “It’s okay honey, just let it all out.”

“M-Mom, what’s wr-wrong with me?” Frank struggled to say before he gagged.

“It’s just morning sickness, pumpkin. It’s normal when you’re pregnant.” Margo informed him soothingly as she rubbed his back.

“Oh…I thought it was just my nerves.” Frank confessed now that his stomach was settling down.

“I’m nervous too, pumpkin, but the worse has yet to come. Now, hurry up and brush your teeth. You don’t want to be late for your operation.”

___________________________________________________________________________

Frank didn’t think he could get any more terrified than before, but he was. The time had come for him to go under general anesthesia, but Frank could feel his entire body starting to freak out. He was perspiring like crazy, his eyes were watering up as if he were about to burst into tears any minute now, and he was having difficulty breathing evenly. He was already lying on the operating table, all dressed up in his paper gown and his plastic hair cap as expected with a whole team of medical professionals walking around him speaking in medical terms that he didn’t understand. Frank knew his father was there in the room with him, what with him being a doctor himself and all. Having the knowledge that he wasn’t alone in this previously gave him all the confidence he needed to push on through to get this operation done, but that was no longer the case.

Goodbye for now, Black Opal.

The nurse was now standing over him telling him to that she was going to put a breathing mask over him and that he’ll need to take deep breathes so he’ll be unconscious throughout the whole process. She told him that he would need to count backwards from 10 for her, and what was left of Frank’s sanity completely flew out the window. In the blink of an eye, everything around him went into slow motion. His eyes widen up in complete horror at the nurse that was slowly inching the mask down towards his face, which prompted her to call his father over to support the poor boy.

When you’re ready, come back to me.

“Dr. Iero, I think there’s something wrong with your son. I think he’s about to have a panic attack.” The nurse called over her shoulder.

Until then, I’ll be waiting for you.

Before Frank Sr. could take a step forward, his son let out the loudest blood curdling scream he had ever heard him make inside the operating room. Everyone jumped back and stopped what they were doing as they all looked over at their patient screaming and thrashing around on their operating table as if they had brutally ripped his stomach open. Tears were streaming down Frank’s eyes as he swatted at the nurse that was about to put him under with violent hands. “DADDY!!! DADDY, HE-HELP ME! PLEASE, HELP ME! GET TH-THEM AWAY FROM ME!” The nurse managed to dodge his swings, before jumping out of the way and to safety. Frank reached down to the wires attached to his body with the intention of ripping them out of him. “G-GET THESE T-THINGS OUT OF ME!”

Frank Sr. was right there by his son’s side in a flash, and quickly took control of the situation since everyone was too taken aback to do anything. “Everybody back the hell up! Give us some room!” He wrapped his son tightly in his arm and tucked his son’s head beneath his chin to help soothe him now that he was slipping into a full blown panic attack. “Shh, it’s okay, Frankie, it’s ok. I got you. Just calm down, son you’re having a panic attack, it’s just me and you in the room right now. They’ve all gone, shh.”

With a wave of his hand, Dr. Gardner dismissed the entire staff out of the room, but decided to stay behind himself. He made sure to keep close to the exit just in case his presence would also unsettle the young boy. “Franklin, is he going to be ok?”

“Yeah, he’s gonna be ok. Can you just give us a moment alone, please?” Frank Sr. asked his co-worker who gave him a nod before slipping out of the double doors. Frank Sr. pulled his son away from his chest for a minute to cup his face in his hands and look him straight in the eye. “Frankie, I need you to try and calm your breathing down. It’s going to be ok, son, remember you’re an IERO.”

Frank shook his head as he struggled to follow his father’s instructions. “No no no i-it won’t e-ever be o-okay! I…” He lifted his eyes to his see his dad, but his vision was blurred. “I-I can’t do th-this daddy, I’m s-sorry, but I ca-can’t. I won’t.”

His father simply stared down at him for a long time before eventually letting out a heavy sigh of defeat. “Yeah, I know son. I know exactly how you feel right now.”

Frank made sure his breathing was finally under control before he spoke again. “W-what do you mean by that, Dad? How do you know h-?”

“Because…your mother and I have been feeling the exact same way ever since we signed you in yesterday.” Frank Sr. confessed to his son, trying to hide the shame in his eyes.

“What? Y-You did?” Frank cried out, completely taken by surprise. “Well, what changed your minds?”

His father smirked as he recalled the night before. “Our conversation last night for starters, your mother had called me because she couldn’t sleep.”

“What did you guys talk about?” Frank asked him curiously.

His father chuckled to himself. “She said she didn’t want you to go through with it, because it didn’t feel right. Then she spent the last hour damning your Aunt Edith for using her hippie incantations on her when her back was turned and changing her mind about you getting an abortion.”

Frank couldn’t help himself, but laugh at that information. His Aunt Edith sure did have a way with changing people’s views on things. If she did indeed used her ‘magical powers’ on his mother, than could she have also used it on him and his father too? Considering the sudden change of events, it wouldn’t surprise him if his Aunt Edith did cast a spell on them. How else was it that both he, his father, and his mother all changed their minds about his abortion all in the same night?

“Dad, what happens now?” Frank asked him, wiping the last remnant of his tears away.

His father patted his arm and gave him a smile. “You let me and your mother worry about that right now. When we get home, we’ll talk it over as a family.”