In A Heartbeat

It was weird, strange... Not what I was used to at all.

I sat by Gerard's hospital bed. I'd sat in the same chair for the last two days. I think it must be some kind of sense of duty, which is easy to understand after pulling him from wreckage and bringing him to the hospital, the weird part is the fact I do that for a living, and no-one else has ever made me feel this responsible for their safety.

"So Frank, when is this rest of your multi-million dollar band going to show up and pay their respects?"
"Well, Bob's here tomorrow, Ray is coming in two days and Mikey is in the car here as we speak, but with his coordination he's probably crashed himself, so maybe ten seconds in the back of an ambulance."
I laughed. I knew Frankie pretty well, he had to stay around the hospital for his leg so he would come up the lift to floor four and sit with Gerard and wait for me with either coffee or lollies and talk to me.
It was just how he was.

I should probably explain why Frank dragged his sorry ass up to the fourth floor to see the Gerard Way and only talk to me. Gerard is in a coma. He has been since the operation. It was one of those rare occurrences where the medication mixed with an unknown condition produced negative effects on the patient’s body. In this case it was the anesthesia combined with a previously dormant heart condition; he was lucky to survive. In his case doubly lucky, especially considering the extent of his injuries.
And that's why Frank and I were sipping coffee and exchanging the heartbeats* that the hospital used to fundraise for causes exactly like Gerard's.
I think the duty comes from my not knowing about the condition, especially seeing as how I recommended the offending version of sleepy drug.
Either way, it appears I'm glued to his bedside.

"So how's that Matt dude?"
"Irritating. He still wants to 'explain'. I don't see how he can, unless they were both magicked naked and he somehow tripped into her."
"He doesn't get it does he?"
"Get what?"
"Life, you, anything."
"True that."

Having Frankie around to talk to was a comfort. For some reason, I could talk to this acquaintance of about 3 days as though I'd known him my whole life. He was as close to me as Joel, or Nikki, or Dj and, aside from it scaring me a tiny bit, I loved how easily our relationship grew.

"You know, Bob's bringing the girls with him."
"The girls?"
"Oh my butt! I haven’t told you about the girls yet?"
"No... I don't think so. But you kind of mentioned them in passing."
"Oh, that's right. Want to hear about the girls?"
"Sure thing Frankie!"
"Well. Harley is my sister. She's pretty darn cool. You will love her. I mean, I suppose you will. You love me right?"
"Yah, course I do."
"Well then, you'll love her. She's like me, but kind of quiet. Yeh, so she's related to me. Wendy-Anne Macintosh is pretty much Mikey's and Bob's BFFL. But, if you call her Wendy, she will crucify you. We call her Anna or Mac, cause of the -Anne Macintosh bit. She's loud, annoying. But I reckon you'll love her..."
"Oh cool."
"What's up? You seem distracted."
"Ahhh, I'm just thinking about when Gerard will wake up. What's he like?"

That was probably the most pathetic bit of all. I've never met the guy, but I'm hanging around his hospital bed like he's the love of my life. Every single twitch he makes causes me to jump out of my chair and to his bedside, just in case he wakes up. Before then, I hadn't even asked once about his personality. I just created my own personality for him, from what I heard in the news after the crash.

"Ah, I can't really describe Gerard, he's kind of free spirited, and he cares a lot about people he hasn't even met yet, so I guess he's kind of like you. Actually you remind me of him, but only in a kind of general sense, your actual personalities are so different."
"Wow, he seems great."
"Yeh, he'll surprise you though. No matter what kind of perception you have of him, he'll surprise you."

I smiled slightly. I can't wait till he wakes up, for some reason I have a feeling that something big will happen when he does.