Hell or High Water

One Year Later...

Frank sighed as he followed one of the many orderlies to his room.
"Well here we are, you'll be sharing a room with...oh my...Mr. Way, I'm sure you two will get along fine." The pink haired man said, his voice slightly strained at the end. Frank raised a brow.
"I'm not being stuck with a guy who set his friend on fire am I?" He joked lightly. the orderly however did not laugh, instead he froze and nearly snapped the pen in his hand. "Right?" Frank asked slightly freaked out.
"No Mr. Iero, luckily for you he doesn't really talk."
"Okay?" Frank mumbled, crossing his arms. "So are you going to open the door or are we going to stand here all day?" The orderly shook himself out of his daze and gave Frank a nervous smile. He unlocked the door and pushed it open. Frank rolled his eyes and walked in. He flopped down on the not-so-springy mattress and crossed his legs.
"Breakfast is at 7:30, lunch 12:00, group 3:45, dinner 6:00, lights out 9:30. During those times you can hang out either in your room, the garden or the piano room, any questions?"
"Yeah, when in the hell can I leave?"
"When you get better."
"There is nothing wrong with me, I don't see why you guys don't understand that." Frank replied waving his hands around to exaggerate his point.
"Well the most normal looking people turn out to be the craziest."
"And normal is an insult considering it's just a setting on a washing machine so I don't see why people take it as a complement."
"Well Iero, I don't know what to tell you."
"First your name so I don't have to stick with calling you 'that orderly that took me to my room' would be nice."
"Alex, my name is Alex and I'm afraid I have other people to attend to so I'll see you later Iero." Alex replied walking out of the room. Frank chuckled and closed his eyes. Not too long after Frank rolled to his side and opened his eyes. A small body was curled up in the corner at the far end of the room which was still fairly close to Frank. Frank got up and walked over to the figure and crouched.
"Hey? You alive?" Frank asked poking the figure's side. "No?" He leaned closer and pushed a little harder. The figure lifted his head and looked up at Frank. "Yes." The figure went back to his original position. Frank sighed and stood back up. he stretched and walked around the room.
"So are you going to just sit there or are you going to talk?" Frank asked already getting annoyed. The man in the corner still did not respond.
"He won't talk ya know." A young man with large glasses and light brown hair stated from the door. Frank looked up at him with his arms crossed.
"Why not?"
"Don't know, he won't tell me sadly. Anyway I'm here to bring him his food considering he won't leave the room." the young man said crouching beside the man with a tray of food. "Gerard, it's time to eat." Gerard still didn’t respond. The young man sighed and sat the tray down beside Gerard.
"Are you his baby sitter or something?"
"No, I'm his brother. My name is Mikey and you'll be seeing me come in here often so don't mind me." Mikey said awkwardly from the floor. Frank chuckled and nodded.
"Alrighty then." Frank sighed and sat down in his bed. He observed as Mikey laid everything out for his older brother without a single complaint. "How long has he been like this?"
"For months..." Mikey mumbled. "I don’t know why but, if I was here, I would have stopped it from ever happening."
"When did you start here?"
"When I found out my big bro was locked up, I already had my degree so I got a job here."
"Interesting..." Frank mumbled and drew his knees to his chest. "So what else there to do here besides...you know the garden and piano room?"
"Well there is random activities that you can do but I don't think you'd like them."
"What are they?"
"Uh...there's art projects, cooking things, random things like that." Mikey replied. Gerard looked up at Mikey and gave him a faint smile. He tried to speak but nothing came out. Mikey smiled sadly. "It's no problem Gee, we'll try again tomorrow."
Gerard uncurled from his ball and slowly began eating the food. He scrunched his nose up in distaste and pushed it away. Mikey sighed. "Gee you need to eat, no matter how nasty it is. You haven't eaten In such a long time and it's killing you." Mikey stated and pushed the plate back. Gerard shook his head and stood up. Frank winced when he heard all of Gerard's bones crack at one time. Gerard walked over to his side of the room and picked up a notepad. Mikey sat down next to him and peeked at what he was writing.
'I'm sorry Mikes but I'll throw it up anyway.'
"It's fine Gerard, I'm just worried that's all." Mikey sighed and rubbed his arms.
'Well if I hadn't set Matt on fire then none of this would have happened.' Gerard wrote and sighed.
"But it was an accident so there's nothing to feel guilty about Gerard." Mikey said holding the venom. Gerard shrugged and sat the pad aside. "I'll go get you something better to eat, something more fatty." Gerard let out a chuckle that sounded more like a wheeze. Mikey chuckled and left. Frank crossed his legs and stared out the window. Gerard fidgeted nervously and kept looking at Frank then the door. Frank however noticed this and smiled.
"Hi, I'm Frank." He said softly. Gerard froze and stared at him, shock painted across his face. Frank cocked his head and stood up. He walked over to Gerard and paused before sitting down. "Do you mind if I sit here?" Gerard was snapped out of his daze and shook his head quickly. Frank smiled wider and sat down next to him. “So what do you do for fun around here?” Gerard picked his notepad back up and started scribbling words down. He passed it to Frank with a shaky sigh.
‘I use to go to the art workshops but they said the things I drew scared the others so I just stopped going’
“How old are you?” Frank asked passing the pad back.
‘24, you?’
“20, so what are you here for?” Frank mumbled.
‘Schizophrenia, or that’s what they tell me’ Gerard wrote rolling his eyes. Frank chuckled and crossed his legs. Mikey walked back in with his shirt stuff with random items of food. He sat down on the other side of Gerard and dumped the items onto the bed. There was bags of chips and cookies along with three juice boxes. ‘Mikes, you are fucking awesome’
“Thank you, now eat up. I have to get back to the piano room but I’ll be back later.” As Mikey went to get up Gerard grabbed his wrist. Mikey sighed. “Gerard I will be back before the sunsets okay? I promise” Mikey said giving his older brother a hug. Gerard let go and watched as Mikey left. Gerard sighed and grabbed the grape juice box. He stabbed the straw into the small hole and took a drink out of the box. Frank got up and walked back over to his bed. Gerard finished eating and tossed the trash in the wastebasket outside the door. He walked to his desk and pulled the drawer open. Gerard pulled out a sketch pad and sat down on his bed. Frank laid down and started staring out into space. Gerard glanced up at him and went back to his drawing hoping his brother would keep his promise.

Notes

Short but it'll most likely get longer