Hospital Bed

Gerard watched from the sidelines as Frank tried to push one foot to pass the other. His fiancé had started rehabilitation a little over a week ago after having to be wheeled around everywhere for a month before being able to do so. Sweat glistened off of Frank’s forehead and his panting became louder and louder as he grew more tired, but Gerard knew he’d keep going until he collapsed from exhaustion. He still had no idea that it had been five years and it was becoming very difficult to hide the truth from him. Gerard felt very guilty every time he avoided the question of what the day was. Frank was asking more questions and becoming visibly more uneasy. He started looking at his body more and realizing the small changes that he been done to him with time. He snapped out of his thoughts when Frank lost his balance. He quickly ran over and caught him, holding him tightly and stroking his sweat filled hair.

“That’s enough for today. Please, whenever he’s ready, escort him back to his room for rest. He did very well today, but I’m sad to say that he’s a little behind on what we had expected from him by this time. At this rate, the time he’d be discharged is next year,” the nurse spoke. Her voice sounded a little too curt for him. He gave the woman a hard look.

“Listen, lady, he works himself to passing out every day for this. If you have a problem with how slow his progress is, then you try switching places with him and working as hard as he does. See if it’s easy,” he snapped. The nurse slightly glared at him before nodding and leaving the facility. He picked up the love of his life and sat him in his wheelchair.

“Gerard, you didn’t have to be so rude to her,” Frank groaned as he opened his eyes. His sudden sentence took Gerard by surprise.

“She had no right to say that you basically weren’t trying hard enough,” he argued. He pushed Frank out of the facility and started their way back to Frank’s room.

“But she’s right. I need to push myself hard. So that’s what I’ll do tomorrow and then I’ll even have you help me whenever you’re not at work.” Although Gerard wanted to argue more, he chose not to say anything. Frank just wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, and he wanted that just as much. He’d do anything to help him. After helping Frank into his bed, he tucked in the smaller male and lowered the bed.

“Get some sleep, okay? It’s almost four, so I need to head into work,” he explained. Frank nodded and turned over, putting his back toward Gerard. This caused the older male to sigh sadly, lean over and kiss his forehead, and walk out the door after turning the lights off. He stood outside of the door and leaned against it, putting his head in his hands.

“Gerard? Everything okay?” He recognized Ray’s voice. He looked over at the wild haired doctor and gave him a small smile.

“Yeah, it’s just,” he sighed, “Frank is starting to, like, question time and it’s getting harder and harder to avoid telling him the truth.”

“I know. He’s attempted to ask me things whenever you’re gone. He claims that you’re lying to him and hiding something. His first guess was that you were cheating, honestly, but then he seemed to think the thought itself was completely idiotic,” the doctor chuckled. Gerard’s mind instinctively wandered to Mikey. He visited with Gerard often and he and Frank had taken a liking to each other much to Gerard’s relief. He was afraid that Mikey’s poker face would anger Frank, but he assumed that Frank must have tried because he was Gerard’s brother.

“When do you think it’ll be safe to tell him?” He asked after a short moment of silence.

“Well, that’s the problem. I don’t know how he’ll react. We could try to ease our way into it by maybe showing him a new movie or a magazine or something, but then his brain may go haywire and go into overdrive by questioning everything,” he sighed. “So I’m not really sure. It’s been two months and I’m not sure how things will play out personally for you both.” Gerard nodded in understanding. There was nothing he could do, so he’d have to let things go as they will.

“I gotta head to work. You’ll call if anything happens, yeah?” Ray nodded and Gerard went off on his way. Frank lay in his bed, staring out of the window. He oddly didn’t feel sleepy, but felt like he was trying to remember something that was on the tip of his tongue. He sat up and searched his brain.

Frank, Morrisey won’t stop barking. I think he misses you, so come over,” Gerard whined over the phone. He heard their beloved dog crying and his heart clenched.

“Aww, he misses me! I’ll be on my way, okay?” He said as he put his jacket on and slipped into his shoes.

“Awesome. We’ll be waiting for you, babe,” Gerard answered before saying bye and hanging up.

“Where’s Morrisey?” He asked himself aloud. Gerard hadn’t brought him up once and he barely spent any time at home since he was always either at work or at the hospital, claiming that Mikey could handle things on his own for a while. But whenever Mikey was here with him, which was often, who was taking care of their baby? He’d ask him whenever Gerard came back. He looked at the clock on the wall. He wouldn’t be out for a long while, but he could sleep until then. He laid back down and snuggled up into the blankets, letting out a sigh of relief.

He knew Gerard could tell something was wrong. They’d been together long enough to read each other like a book. His head started hurting so much that it was almost unbearable. He pressed the call button above his bed and waited for a nurse to come in.

“Mr. Iero?” A nurse walked in. Oh. It was the nurse that made Gerard uncomfortable. He didn’t know why, but he felt like he did. Like Gerard might have told him, but he forgot. She was very pretty and held a sort of resemblance to his fiancé, but she had an off atmosphere about her. He didn’t like whenever she was in the room either. She felt cold.

“Call my doctor in here, please,” he requested. He heard the door close and became thankful she didn’t move any closer. After a few moments, Ray came in.

“Everything okay, Frank?” He asked. Frank shrugged his shoulders.

“My head hurts, Ray. I feel like everything is off. Like people are constantly lying to me,” he explained.

“Frank, please, no one is lying to you, okay? Everything is fine,” Ray assured.

“No! Everyone is lying to me! No one will tell me the day or the year! Tell me, Ray, what is today’s date?!” He yelled. Ray hesitated.

“Here, do you want me to call Gerard? I can call him and he’ll be right over. He works just down the street, okay? I’ll give him a call,” he stated calmly.

“No! Fuck Gerard! He’s not going to tell me the fucking truth!” He screamed. Ray scrambled for his phone and quickly dialed Gerard’s number.

“If you only knew each other for two weeks, then how do you know each other so well?!” Frank growled.

“Gerard, get back over here now! Frank is… He’s losing it. He’s questioning everything. We’ve gotta tell him,” Ray said. After a few words exchanged, he hung up and waited patiently for Gerard to come back.

“Tell me what?” Frank questioned once more.

“We’re waiting for Gerard,” was all he said.

Notes

I found a little bit of inspiration to write this chapter, so I hope you all enjoyed reading it. Give me some feedback :D

-OAIF <3