Under the willow tree...(edited)

Once Frankie had regained the ability to think straight, he crawled back into his room and over to his bedside table. Pulling himself up onto the bed, his head spinning at the movement, he grabbed his cellphone and pressed the button to wake it up, then went into his contacts and found his friend's number. Pressing call, he listened to the phone ring for a few moments, unaware of the fact that it was nearly 4am.

When the call was answered, Frankie was almost shocked by Syn's annoyed tone.

"What do you want Frankie? It's fucking 4 in the morning."

"Syn?..."

Frankie slurred slightly.

"Help."

"Frankie?...Frankie what's wrong?..."

Syn sounded more awake now, and worried.

FRANK?!"

"Huh?...oh, yeah...err...Gee...taken."

Frankie could feel his consciousness slipping again.

"Hold on Frankie we're on our way."

Syn hung up. Frankie's fingers lost their grip on the cell and it clattered to the floor as he flopped back on his comforter, eyes closing and mind drifting away.

A few minutes later a car pulled up outside the Iero house, and Syn Zacky and Sniper all piled out and through the still open front door.

"FRANKIE?...FRANKIE, WHERE ARE YOU?..."

Sniper yelled as they dashed room to room.

"FRANKIE?..."

Rushing up the stairs, she saw Linda passed out on the floor.

GUYS...UP HERE..."

She crouched down next to the immobile woman, glancing into Frankie's room as she did.

"Linda...can you hear me?"

She shook the older woman's shoulder.

"Sniper...did you find...oh shit."

Zacky grunted as he saw Linda laying there.

"Frankie's in there."

The black haired girl murmured, tilting her chin towards the room as Syn joined them on the landing. The two men entered Frankie's bedroom and crossed to his side. They looked at each other then started trying to wake him up.

"Frankie?...Frankie come on dude, wake up."

After a couple minutes of shaking their unconscious friend, he finally started to stir.

"Urgh...wha?...Gee?"

Frankie's mind was trying to play catch-up, while simultaneously trying to explode. At least that's what it felt like.

"Frankie?...it's Syn and Zacky..."

Syn said quietly...guessing that Frankie's head hurt rather a lot right now.

"It's gonna be ok. Can you remember what happened?"

Frankie groaned as the boys helped him upright.

"Err...uh...yeah..."

He muttered, screwing his eyes shut against the light that someone had turned on at some point.

"Some of it..."

He pinched the bridge of his nose then continued.

"It was Mikey. He put like, something on my face and things went wonky...then there was a fight...I think...and Gee was on the floor...I...I dragged him into the closet to hide...next thing I knew, it was quiet and we came back out...no one was here. Then...then Mumma came...Mumma!...oh my God, my mom!"

Frankie started to panic.

"She's ok..."

Syn assured.

"Sniper's with her."

"Ok...o-ok..."

Frankie relaxed a little.

"So...then...err...then I think we fell asleep...then I woke up and Gee's...dad was carrying him off..."

Syn and Zacky's eyes went wide.

"He said..."

Frankie sobbed, tears threatening to fall.

"He said I'd n-never s-see him ag-again."

Frankie broke down then and the boys weren't really sure how to handle that, so they just waited for him to take a breath before Syn spoke softly to him.

"We'll get him back Frankie...and we'll make sure that asshole goes where he belongs."

Frankie looked between his two friend's faces, tears still staining his cheeks. He swallowed deeply, then spoke...

"He's not going to jail...he's going in the fucking ground!"

Somehow, Syn and Zacky were ok with that.

When Gerard finally woke up from his chloroform induced sleep, it took him just a few seconds to realise that he was no longer wrapped up in Frankie's warm, protective arms. It took him another few seconds to figure out where he now was.

He was currently naked, with his hands tied to the bottom of a radiator, (that hadn't worked in 10 years) on the floor of his old basement bedroom.

Gerard knew this was really bad.

He thought for a moment that the whole thing with Frankie had been a dream, but he could still taste him on his lips, could still feel and smell him on his skin and maybe that was worse cause he knew what he'd lost. If he'd never met Frank, then waking here like this would just be another bad day in his shitty life...but he had met him, and it tore at his heart that he'd been taken away from that wonderful, caring, understanding and beautiful boy...and dragged back to this Hell.

Tears dripped from his eyes as he imagined his Frankie, worried for him, looking for him. Would he look for him, or would he write him off as a lost cause? Gerard liked to think that Frankie was already on his way, getting ready to bust down the door and carry him away like his knight in shining armour...but just how realistic was that? Even if Frankie wanted to rescue him, would he be able to?...or would Terry hurt him when he tried? Gerard didn't want that, but he knew that the older man was too strong and if it came to a fight, Frankie would lose.

Shivering in the cold dark basement, Gerard thought he heard noises coming from upstairs. Shouting and banging...it was probably Terry and Mikey, they were normally tight as anything, but Terry could start an argument in an empty room and Mikey wasn't exactly known for his even temper.

Gerard knew that Terry was probably going to come down here soon, and the fact that he had already been stripped told him that his...dad...was likely to rape him again, before beating him for daring to run away. The only possible light at the end of the tunnel was the fact that Terry might be so angry this time, that he might actually kill him.

Shit, you know you're in trouble when the thought of death is reassuring.

Curling into a tighter ball, head pounding from the drug and body shaking from the cold, Gerard listened as the yells drifting to him from above became louder...though he still couldn't distinguish words, or even who was shouting.

Waves of nausea swept over him as the room seemed to spin and sway. Gerard closed his eyes and prayed for this nightmare to end...though he knew without a shadow of a doubt that the only was he was leaving here now, was feet first, in a body bag.

Frankie had the baseball bat now, while Syn and Zacky held Terry's arms firmly...keeping him still and holding him up. It had taken all three of them to subdue him to this point.

"You sack of shit!..."

Frankie spat in Terry's face.

"For what you've done, you deserve to rot..."

He turned to the boys either side of the already battered man.

"Few more minutes, then we dig..."

Terry's bloodshot eyes grew wide and he started to struggle with renewed vigour.

"Hold him still."

Frankie brought the bat back and swung it forward hard into Terry's stomach. The older man's breath was knocked from his lungs and if it hadn't been for Syn and Zacky, he would've been doubled over on the floor by now. He was struggling to pull oxygen into his body when Frank hit him again, just as hard as before.

"Frankie?..."

Syn said quietly but with enough strength to gain his friend's attention. Frankie looked at him, one eyebrow raised as he panted from exhaustion.

"I think that's enough Frankie."

Syn and Zacky looked a little green, which Frankie found odd considering all the beatings they had handed out.

"No!..."

Frankie grunted.

"He deserves this! You agreed!"

Syn nodded.

"Yeah, you're right that he deserves this and more...but you're not gonna do it...we are..."

He indicated Zacky and himself.

"You've got your boy to rescue."

Zacky nodded in agreement.

"Yeah dude. Leave this asshole to us..go find Gerard and get him outta here. He needs you."

Frankie looked between the two older men, and realised they were right. Dropping the baseball bat to the ground with a thump, he turned to go look for Gerard cause his disgusting excuse for a father wouldn't tell them where he was. Before leaving the room he stopped, turned and walked back over to Terry, grabbing the broken man by the chin and forcing their eyes to meet.

"So you know before you die...once I've taken Gerard out of here, I'm going to make sure that he never has to think of you again. It'll be like you never even existed to him, or me."

Frankie dropped Terry's chin and turned to walk away.

"Wait..."

Terry choked out. Frankie rolled his eyes but humoured him...after all, these would be the last words he ever spoke on this Earth. Frank raised an eyebrow.

"Can you...can you look after M-Mikey?"

Frankie scoffed.

"Sure..."

Then he looked at Terry's face.

"What...you're serious?! Uh...yeah, whatever. Where is he anyway?"

Terry shook his head, defeated.

"Dunno...not seen him since yours."

"Huh..."

Frankie grunted, glancing at Syn and Zacky who also looked confused.

"Oh well. Goodbye."

Then he turned and left the room to the sound of screams and breaking bones.

Even though he would've quite happily delivered the final blow himself after what he knew that monster had put Gerard through, he was actually kinda relieved that the boys had taken over. At least now if his mum or anyone else asked, he would be telling the truth when he says he didn't kill Terry Way.

It didn't take Frankie long to search the ground and upper floor of the house, and determine that Gerard wasn't there. That only really left one more place to look.

Opening the door into the basement, Frankie fingertip searched for the light switch then clicked it on.

"Gerard?...you down there?"

He called softly as he made his way down the creaking wooden stairs. No reply. When he reached the bottom step a tiny whimpering noise drew his attention to the space below the stairs. Swallowing thickly, he crept through the dimly lit damp space til he finally found the source of the sound. There, curled up in a tiny, pale and naked ball...his hands tied to a radiator...fresh blood and bruises littering his frail body...was Gerard.

Frankie's lip quivered at the sight, his eyes watered then he pulled himself together and forced himself to move Dropping to his knees next to the boy, Frankie tentatively reached out to him, placing his shaky hand on the younger boy's shoulder.

"Gee...can you hear me baby?..."

Gerard was facing away from Frankie so he carefully rolled him over onto his back.

"Gee?...Gerard?...baby, please?..."

Gerard's eyes were open but he wasn't seeing Frankie or the room he was in. They stared glassily into space.

"Come on baby...please?"

He started to cry, then angrily wiped away his tears. That wouldn't do anyone any good. Frankie shook himself out of his despair and set about untying the ropes that held the younger boy in their grasp. Once he'd freed Gerard's hands, he stood up and quickly searched for something to wrap the small trembling figure in. Across the room there was an old threadbare blanket, laying on a thin dirty and damp mattress. Frankie had a horrible realisation that this had in fact been Gerard's bedroom. Frankie felt sick.

Picking up the blanket, he walked softly back to Gerard's side and carefully wrapped the boy up in the pitiful excuse for a blanket burrito, and carried him up out of the basement.

The screams had stopped now thank God...and the house was quiet. Frankie carried the unresponsive boy up to the top floor and into Mikey's room, where he carefully laid him on the bed then hunted through his wardrobe for clothes that would keep him warm for the journey home. While he was searching, he heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Frankie?...you up here dude?"

"In here Z."

Frankie called back. Zacky appeared at the door a moment later.

"You found him..."

Frankie nodded as he fought to dress the silent, limp boy.

"We're finished. It's done."

Frankie turned dead eyes his way.

"He won't be found, right?"

"Not a chance."

Frankie nodded.

"Ok...you guys clean up, we'll be down in a few minutes..."

Zacky nodded and disappeared back downstairs. Frankie sighed and turned back to Gerard.

"Come on baby, wake up for me...please?..."

Sitting on the edge of the bed as he wriggled socks onto Gerard's tiny, bone-white feet, Frankie couldn't stop the tears that began to fall.

"Gee please?..God please..come back to me?..."

He sobbed, pulling the boy into his lap and wrapping both arms tight around him as he sobbed desperately into his long black hair.

"Baby?"

Several minutes passed and Frankie managed to get ahold of himself again. Taking a few deep calming breaths, he scooped Gerard's lifeless body into his arms and left the room, slowly making his way down the stairs.

Syn and Zacky were sat in the living room, and apart from the fact that neither Mikey nor Sniper were there, the scene was somewhat reminiscent of the night he'd found his Gerard. Frankie frowned at the memory, then cleared his throat to attract the two older boy's attention. When they turned to look his way, he spoke quietly...exhaustion heavy in his voice.

"Ok...let's go."

A couple minutes later they were all in Syn's car, headed back to Frankie's house. Was the nightmare really over?...and where the Hell was Mikey?

Notes