Insert Romantic Title Here

Gerard gently played with my hair as we solemnly watched them strip Emily’s bed. That whole night was filled with thoughtful mourning. Emily had all given us something different, and for that, we were eternally grateful to her.

A black pen scribbled hastily against a piece of paper that was placed on a tray. It broke all the silence as the sheets were folded and put in a laundry basket. The words it scratched were illegible to me at the moment, but of course, the fact that I was lying down didn’t help my vision either.

I moved my head to look up at Gerard. The scribbling stopped. He smiled sweetly down at me and kissed the top of my forehead.

Shivers went down my spine at his touch. I felt like a teenager again, getting shivers and butterflies when he was near me. But all at the same time it was all very comforting having him.

My head bent back down to its normal position and I placed my hand on Gerard’s stomach. It rose and fell with his breathing.

His hand came out of my hair and lifted my chin to look up at him.

“Just checking…” I muttered.

Gerard smiled again and placed his hand in my hair again.

“I’m not going anywhere…”

I wasn’t exactly sure if he intended for me to hear that or not. But I heard it, and the fact is, that it was a very nice thing to hear.

My eyes scanned the room.

Melissa and Mikey were whispering to each other something that couldn’t have possibly been heard by anyone else. I could tell they were straining just to hear each other.

Bob, Jackie, and Frankie were sitting in a line with their heads up against the wall. Bob and Jackie’s hands were intertwined and every once in a while Jackie would poke Frank, just to keep him in tune with his surroundings.

Ray kept one hand over his ear for one reason or another, and was bobbing his head up and down. It wasn’t a fast bob; it was more along the lines of slowly nodding. He kept his eyes close and every once and a while his lips would mouth something I couldn’t understand.

I pursed my lips from one side in impatience. What I was impatient of I had no idea. That’s when I remembered the scribbling pen.

My neck strained to see when Gerard was writing. He noted my obvious struggle and chuckled to himself.

“That any better?” He tilted the tray at an angle so that I could see his writing perfectly.

“Yes, thank you!” I smiled up at him.

The scratchy handwriting was difficult for me to read. But I managed to read through what he had written so far.

I barely made it through the words without getting teary eyed. This was clearly about the Emily experience.

“What are you going to call it?” I asked, my voice unstable.

He sighed and looked back at the sheet of paper.

Without another word he moved it back in its horizontal position. The pen in hand, and determination in his eyes he scribbled a single word on the top of the paper.

I took the opportunity and took the paper off the tray for myself.

“Cancer…” I read aloud.

My head tilted back onto Gerard’s stomach. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in.

Before I knew it, Ray had taken the paper from my hand and began reading.

I opened one of my eyes and scanned his expression for any sign of emotion. There was nothing. His eyes rapidly fluttered to and fro as he read line after line.

My head leaned back again and my eyes closed. I felt the paper find its way back into my hand.

“Gee…” Ray started, his voice full of emotion that his face did not portray. “What if I told you I know how this goes?”

I looked up at Gerard to see his reaction.

“I’d say,” He began. “I’d say that I’d love you forever. Because I have no fucking clue how it should go.”

Ray smiled and took the paper from my hand again. He passed it around the room. One by one everyone read it. The message of the song slowly sinking into the atmosphere each time it was read.

“That’s beautiful…” Melissa whispered to Mikey when she was done. He nodded and passed the paper over to Jackie and Bob who passed it to Frankie.

Frankie swallowed and handed it back to Ray.

“That’s one of the best things you’ve ever written.”
-----
Over the next week Gerard’s bones mended themselves and his deep red scars became pink. And it wasn’t long until we were able to hit the road again. Sure, Gerard’s arm was still in a sling, but he could still sing.

All the dates on the tour had to be pushed back two weeks, but we didn’t care, as long as they got to play the original places we’d be satisfied. They just didn’t want to disappoint all those kids.

We were rolling through an empty country road that sped along side a vineyard. The sun was low in the sky and we were coming up on the city in Spain where they were supposed to perform.

“I’ve always wanted to go to Spain,” I thought aloud as I leaned forward and stared out the window.

“Well, then. Welcome!” Gerard joyfully whispered in my ear and gently kissed it.

I turned around and smiled at him.

The others were working in the back on a song Mikey had started a while back and they left Gerard and me alone up front, with the exception of Chad driving the bus.

“Seriously! Isn’t it gorgeous?”

“Mm, sure is.”

He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my ear. We gazed out the window at the passing vineyard in silence. I thought I could hear the gears in Gerard’s head churning thoughtfully as the rows and rows of green passed us by.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked quietly.

“I’m thinking… About how nice this feels.” He squeezed me tighter. “To finally be able to hold you.”

I smiled.

“It’s nice to be held,” I responded and held his hands closer to mine.

He nestled himself closer to me. I didn’t know that was possible, seeing we were already wrapped in each other.

My heart rejoiced at being so close to him. Having his sent stay fresh in my nose, and getting lost in his mess of black hair. It felt like I was finally home.

“I love you, Katie.”

“I love you, Gerard.”
-----
It was finally our last show on the Europe part of the tour. We drove our way through many countries and eventually made it to Venice, where the last show would take place in one of the largest arenas in Italy.

Nerves were running high backstage. We could hear the crowd’s excitement, even though the show was still thirty-minutes away.

The guys were doing their pre-show preparations while Jackie, Melissa and I nervously stood around the stage door. We had to leave soon, but we didn’t want to leave our friends’ sides until it was absolutely necessary.

They finished their warm-ups.

“How are you feeling?” I asked Gerard moving a piece of hair away from his eyes.

“Nervous.”

“You shouldn’t,” I giggled. “You’ve played arenas before.”

“Not as big as this…”

I pulled him into a tight hug.

“You’ll be perfect,” I comfortingly whispered into his ear.

Before we left he pecked my cheek and held my face in his hands.

“I can’t say it enough,” Gerard started. “I love you.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll never loose meaning.”

I walked to the stage door where the others were waiting.

“I love you, too,” I sweetly called back at him and blew him a kiss.

Melissa and Jackie were starring at me with strange looks on their faces. Each of them a different emotion. Jackie was more along the lines of ‘this-has-just-started-and-I’m-already-getting-annoyed.’ While Melissa’s was ‘I-can’t-believe-how-adorable-this-is.’ Yet both of them were relieved, that it had finally happened, and that the arguing had stopped.

I think we were all glad that the arguing had stopped.

It was defiantly hard to find a good spot on the floor. All the people were crowded up by the front of the stage, and surprisingly the back was jammed just as much. So we settled on a decent spot on the side by a wall.

There must’ve been something in the water in Italy, because all of these people were extremely tall. I’d always known Italians to be short…

Though our view of the stage wasn’t very good we could still hear perfectly. So when the guys came on stage we didn’t need that much of a view anyway, we’d seen so many shows it wasn’t even funny. We knew what they looked like.

We danced to our hearts contents during every song. This time, it actually was dancing, not just jumping up and down. We spun around in circled and waved our arms around like nerds, but we didn’t care how we looked. And because of that, it was one of my favorite shows ever.

This show was also the first show that I ever got sucked into a mosh pit.

Besides from getting my hand stepped on and getting a few bruises it wasn’t that bad. But I’m never doing it ever again. Ever.

Jackie and Melissa also got their share of ‘last-show’ fun.

Melissa got carried away, literally, by a rowdy crowd of men who decided it’d be fun to lift her up and send her to the other side of the arena. She only got so far until someone didn’t put their arms up, so she fell on top of them.

“I think I bruised my tail bone…” She commented after we met up with her again.

Jackie’s tale wasn’t quite as exciting or painful. All that happened to hear was that she got beer spilled all over her, multiple times, by the same crowd of guys that lifted Melissa up.

After that we decided to move away from them.

The show ended with an encore of the newest song we’d written. It wasn’t Cancer; it was one that was the basis of Gerard’s epiphany that death comes in the form that you want it to.
It finished with a bang and the band jumped to backstage.

The lights went up and we watched as the crowd walked away with smiling faces. We heard a lot of positive comments on the new song.

Before the arena was completely empty we made out way backstage to congratulate the guys on a great show. But they were too interested in way we had so many bruises and why Jackie was all wet.

“What happened to you hand?” Gerard’s eyes went wide. “Are you okay?”

He took my right hand and gently kissed it.

I hadn’t noticed before but a large majority of my hand had turned purple from when someone stepped on it.

“Is it broken?”

Gerard turned my hand over and gently ran his fingers over my bruised skin.

“I’m fine,” I laughed pulling my hand away. “I just need ice.”

He led me over to the first aid station and treated me like I was a broken china doll.

“You know you don’t need to do this,” I told him after he handed me the ice pack wrapped in paper towels. “I can take care of myself…”

He laughed nervously.

“I guess I am over-reacting.”

“Just a little bit,” Frank put his arm around Gerard’s shoulder and laughed in his face. “It’s okay though, at least you didn’t call 911 or anything.”

Gerard whapped Frank in the back of the head and pushed him off his shoulder.

“Okay, everyone!” Chad charged backstage with a cell phone in one hand and a clipboard in the other. “We’re all done for now! You have a two-week break to do whatever you want. I’ve arranged for a hotel for everyone here in Italy, only its down in Rome, so we have to take the bus there tonight, and tomorrow you’re free!”
-----
The bus ride was relatively peacefully, considering we were all wiped out. Gerard and I decided to start sharing a bunk from now on, so his arms were securely wrapped around my waste. I kept my hands cupped over his own keeping him safe. His head was rested on my shoulder and he whispered in my ears as the others slept soundly around us.

“You know…” He started. “That when we get to Rome, you and me, are gonna have our own room. All to ourselves.”

I smiled, seeing where he was going with this.

“I get the side of the bed closer to the window,” I joked.

He laughed softly in my ear and pulled me closer to him. I felt his warm breath on my neck and it sent shivers down my spine.

“Are you okay?” He asked, noting my goose bumps.

“Mhm,” I nodded and snuggled my body closer to his.

My eyes finally collapsed and I drifted off into calming dreams as Gerard continued to gently whisper comforting thoughts into my head.
-----
I didn’t get a chance to take in the beauty of Rome. When I woke up we were already at the hotel and had to unpack as quickly as possible.

The hotel was just as regal as I’d imagined it to be. Marble floors, gold pillars, sparkling fountains, it was like we’d stepped into the fantasy castle to little three-year-old girls everywhere.

Chad had bought out four suites on the top of the hotel. We got our keys from the front desk and chose random rooms.

Melissa and Mikey got room 311, Jackie and Bob got 312, Frank, Ray, and Chad got room 313, and 314 belonged to me and Gerard.

“Oh wow…” I dropped my suitcase at the door and wandered in the room, completely unaware that I left the door wide open. “Look at this!”

There was a giant king sized bed near the French doors that led out to a small balcony that overlooked the city streets below. Hanging over the windows were sheer white curtains that let just the right amount of light in that made the room look like a dream. A TV was in the corner across from the bed and a giant dresser next to it. In the corner by the bed, next to the nightstand, was a full-length mirror that was adorned with complex ironwork. Two closets welcomed you into the room and were straight across from a tiny kitchen.

But what really amazed me was the bathroom. I never thought I’d seen such a big bathroom before in my life. The bathtub alone looked like it could fit four people. The shower was equally as big and stared back at two sinks. The floors were solid marble and the high ceiling had a sky light in it.

I couldn’t leave my focus off the tub. I’ve always wanted a big one, and this was beyond all my dreams. It had one of those fountain things as a faucet and had power jet settings.

“You’re gonna have to drag me out of this thing after I get in it!” I yelled to Gerard who was putting the suitcase on the bed.

“Or…” He snuck up behind me. “I’ll have to join you inside.”

Gerard turned me around and pulled our lips together.

It took me a moment to relax but I was glad that I did. He felt so nice to me after such a long time, well a few hours, of not being held by him.

This was when I realized that Gerard had never done anything more than kissed. We’d never spent more than a few moments with our lips touching.

It was also in that moment when he decided that that was going to change.

He pulled me out of the bathroom and collapsed onto our hotel bed.

I had to remove my hands from his hair to push the bags out of the way so we could lie down together. But not for a moment did our lips loose contact. They were determined to make this a record-changing day.

Unfortunately we didn’t get as far as we’d wanted to.

“Guys?” A knock came at the door. It was Mikey. “Guys! Open up!”

Gerard sighed, out mouths still close, and tried to get up.

“Katie, you have to get off me,” He said, sternly.

I pouted.

“What if I don’t want to?”

A playful smile spread across his lips.

“Then this happens!” He used all his force to roll himself over and make him on top of me.

“How’s that?”

I gazed up at him and reached out for one more quick kiss.

He kindly obliged and went to open the door.

“Took you long enough,” Mikey whined when Gerard finally opened the door.

“Sorry, but you’re brother was too busy trying to have sex.”

I didn’t have to see it to know that Mikey’s eyes grew wide; the stunned silence was all I needed.

“Just kidding, Jesus, Mikey.”

“Actually,” I said getting off the bed. “He wasn’t.”

I leaned myself behind the Gerard and looked at Mikey.

“Yeah, I wasn’t. But anyway…” Gerard changed the subject. “What did you want?”

Mikey shook his head.

“I can’t remember. All these sex images have taken over my thoughts.”

“Maybe this will help.” Gerard smacked Mikey’s forehead.

Mikey took a few steps back from the force of Gerard’s whack. Then, shaking his thoughts back together he told us that we were meeting in the hotel restaurant for lunch.

Gerard nodded and told him we’d be down there in five.

After he closed the door he turned to my and kissed my cheek.

Then with his head still hovering around my ear he whispered, “My almost-sex interrupted for food? Defiantly not worth it.”
-----
Gerard and I scoffed down our food as fast as we could. We wanted to go back to our hotel room and spend the day alone together, doing… God knows what.

“I’m done!” I yelled dropping my fork on my empty plate.

“Me too!” He repeated my fork-dropping action only his plate still had half of his food on it.
Melissa eyed us suspiciously.

“You still have like, half you’re food,” She pointed to his plate and pursed her lips. “Where are you in such a hurry to go?’

Mikey leaned over to her and whispered something in her ear. Judging by the look on her face I could only assume that it was Mikey’s incident this morning. No one else had to tell the others what was going on. They were all a lot smarter than Melissa was when it came to these types of things.

“Well, we were going to go shopping today,” Jackie added cheerfully. “A girls day and a guys day. Just so we can get to know the city.”

I leaned over to Gerard and told him that we could always wait until tonight.

“Whatever you want,” He smiled and pecked my cheek.

“But, there’s only one problem,” Melissa spoke up again. “We’d probably get lost again, so…”

Ray raised his hand.

“Me and Bob are smart when it comes to foreign cities. So we’ll come with you!”

Everyone agreed on this idea and we went back up to our rooms to get ready.
-----
It took all of ten minutes for everyone to meet up in the lobby again and say our goodbyes.

Chad told us before we left that we’d meet at seven at a restaurant he’d made reservations with. He gave us an address and told us to use time wisely; he didn’t want to give up the seats because half the party didn’t show up.

Ray and Bob led the way with Jackie, Melissa and myself close behind. It was kind of comical because at every other store we would find something we liked and we just HAD to go inside.

Watching them inside an all female clothing store was probably the highlight of that entire shopping trip.

Every other second they were holding up something and were like, “How do you fit in this?”
Jackie offered Bob to come in the dressing room with her so she could show him. But he just turned a deep shade of red and said that he’d be just fine out here.

At around six o’clock we stumbled upon this open market in one of the smaller streets in the city.

Carts were being pushed and pulled everywhere with their merchandise hanging from the roof or sitting securely in a case.

I watched in awe as the chaos stumbled on around me.

Ray led us through the crowd of people and we made it to the other side of the street where the restaurant was.

We’d arrived about thirty minutes early.

The rest of the guys weren’t there when we got there. But they let us sit down anyway. So much for Chad’s over caution.

I tried to read the menu but everything was in Italian. So I put it down in defeat and impatiently waited for Gerard to arrive.

Bob struck up conversation with the entire table when he pointed out that most of the stores we went in were a waste of time. I hardly listened as the other two were trying to convince him that most of the places we went were for observation, seeing as we didn’t buy anything.

Ray, like myself, remained silent.

I leaned over to him.

“What’re you thinking about?”

His head snapped up and he looked at me with wide eyes, confused for a moment, but recollected his thoughts and spoke.

“Amber,” He sighed. “It’s driving me nuts about what I should do. You know, since we’re on break, and all.”

I placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Well, you know where I stand on this subject. She needs to apologize, not you.”

Ray nodded solemnly.

“I know. I was just thinking, maybe… I could get a second opinion?”

“Go for it.”

Before I could give anymore advise to Ray everyone else from our party walked in and took their appropriate seats. With Mikey next to Melissa, Gerard next to me, Chad next to Ray, and Frank next to Mikey.

Gerard gave my hand a quick squeeze and greeted me with a wide smile.

“I missed you today,” He whispered gently into my ear.

“I missed you, too.”

The waiter came and took all our drink orders. I felt bad but I had to nearly twist Gerard’s arm off just so he didn’t get anything alcoholic. Even if it was forceful, he needed to know that I was watching his back.

Chad helped us translate some of the menu, but I was still really confused. So I settled on a plain ole pizza with the works and some soup that Ray said was really good. Even though I don’t know how he would know, seeing as it was his first time at this place. But I trusted him anyway.

“So what’d you guys do today?” Mel asked taking a bite of a bread stick.

Frank perked up and got into a long-winded tale about how they got lost trying to find the restaurant and how before that a crowd of fans mobbed them.

“Someone even took one of Gerard’s shoes!” He exclaimed throwing his hands up in the air from all the anticipation. “And I swear to God that someone tried to bite my finger off!”

He settled down and sighed.

“One of the best days ever.”

Our food arrived not a moment to soon because Frank was starting to get restless and the people surrounding us wanted to know what the crazy American’s were doing here.

I handled the hot pizza with care and took a large bite. Not the wisest idea, obviously, seeing as the pizza was fresh out of the oven and had steam rising from the toppings.

My hands dropped the steaming pizza and waved around in the air, trying to cool the contents of my mouth off.

Everyone around me looked like they were going to beat me.

Not Gerard, though.

He kindly held his water up to my mouth and told me to drink as much as I needed.

“Thanks,” I muttered to him and put the now empty glass down behind his plate of Alfredo noodles.

“Anytime,” He leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Anything for you.”

Mikey threw a bit of napkin at Gerard’s face just as we were about to get into something that probably wouldn’t be suited for a public restaurant.

“What?” Mikey asked, shrugging his shoulders innocently. “It slipped.”

Gerard shot Mikey death glares but restrained himself seeing as we were in public and already in danger of getting kicked out.

Dinner ended without any other mishaps. We split the bill and headed for the door.

Out of nowhere Gerard burst up and went whispering into Chad’s ear. Chad nodded understandingly and whispered something back.

I pulled Gerard over to my side.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Me and Chad are gonna stop at a few more places, we didn’t get our full cultural experience.”

A twinkle in Gerard’s eye told me that that wasn’t what he was up to, but I didn’t force the matter any further.

“I’ll meet you back at the hotel, I promise, tonight will be amazing.”
-----
It was about twilight when we got back. Everyone gathered in Mikey and Melissa’s suite after dinner. Theirs was just as nice as ours was, the furniture differed a little, and they didn’t have a balcony. But to make for it they had a small living area that had a love seat, coffee table, and recliner in it.

We all sat around this area listening about each other’s day. Frank and Mikey both agreed with Bob and Ray on the whole “stopping at every other store serves no purpose” ordeal.

Though it was a hopeless effort we tried to convince them that it was a need for browsing, so that we could compare all our options before making a serious purchase. They, of course, had no idea what we were talking about and agreed that it was a girl thing, and that subject was dropped right away.

In a few moments of silence the thought of that street came up. The one with all those carts rushing by. That’s when it dawned on me that I really wanted to shop around there.

“You know that market place we passed?” I asked Ray. He nodded. “I really want to go back there.”

“Are you talking about that one by the restaurant?” Frank asked.

“Yeah, you saw it too?”

“We passed it like a million times today,” Mikey piped up. “But we were always to busy to stop and look around.”

“Oh…”

I threw my arms back behind me to stretch them out and gave a quick yawn. I never realized how tired I was until that moment. Today had been a really long day…

“Tired?” Ray asked.

I glanced over at the clock and saw that it was quarter to eleven.

What was taking Gerard so long?

“A little.”

“Well you should get some sleep.”

I crossed my arms like a two year old and told him that I didn’t want to. He laughed and gave up, I was a stubborn ass sometimes, and he knew that.

“He’s right, ya know,” Melissa grabbed my arm. “We’ve got two weeks here, and if your tired the entire time, it won’t be that much fun!”

She pushed me off the love seat and scooted me towards the door. I protested, as usual. But everyone agreed. Then when I threw out the “why aren’t you going to bed” card they all gave me their stupid excuses.

“I have an excuse too! I’m waiting for Gerard!”

“That’s not good enough!” They all shouted back and slammed the door in my face.

“Psh, some friends.”

I sighed and trudged off to my room.

“Well, I guess I could wait for him in here.”

I opened the door to our room and still gasped when the beautiful sight of the suite met my eyes.

It was surreal. This entire thing.

Not only was I in love with the most perfect man ever, but he loved me back. And we were in the most wonderful room in all of Italy.

Now what about that doesn’t scream, “WAKE UP YOU’RE DREAMING!”

I collapsed on the bed with my arms spread out to both sides.

My eyes closed and against my will sleep consumed me.