-Gerard's POV-

It had been 3 weeks since we met up with Jessica and I had actually only seen her about 4 times. I mostly stayed in the basement with Bandit. Drawing or writing lyrics that would never be part of a song. Bandit played in her small play pen and made coos of joy. I smile at her and return to drawing, yet another picture of Lyn-Z as a super hero. There's a knock on my door and I look up. Mikey and Frank would have just come down, no knocking.

"Yea?" I call up.

"May I come down?" ask a very feminine voice

What the hell does she want?

"I guess." I mutter as I quickly try to cover my artwork.

I hear her open the door and walk down the stairs. She stops and leans against the wall just looking at me, not saying anything.

"May I help you with something?" I ask as I lean back from my desk.

"Not really. I just wanted to see how you were…I guess." She looked around. She was uncomfortable, but hey guess what, so was I.

"I'm good." I say as I turn my chair to face her. Seriously, what the hell could she possibly want?

"Mind if I sit?" she ask and then plops down on the bottom stair before I can say anything.

"So listen," she says as she stares at the ground "Mikey said you normally aren't so reclusive and I wanted to know if was because of me? Are you uncomfortable that I'm here? Cause it's not right for you not to feel secure in your own home. I can totally leave dude. I've lived alone out there for months and I would gladly do it again if you wanted me to." she finished as she looked up.

I thought about what she said for a moment. No, I was actually glad she had come. It made the guys happy. They had another person to talk to, another opinion, another sad face to see every morning. I wasn't uncomfortable with her presence, I just wasn't use to it.

"That's not it at all. I just I don't know, I'm not use to your being here yet, you know? I'm kind of like nervous around people I don't know." I said as a swung my chair back and forth.

"I can understand that." she nodded.

We sat in silence for a while. She was staring at Bandit. I turned around to discover my daughter sleeping. Like a little angel. I turned back to face Jessie ( as the guys now called her). I never actually looked at her before. Her hair was dark and down to the middle of her back. She had huge sad brown eyes. Her lips were delicately sad. She had a round face. She wasn't very tall, but she had a sense of strength about her. She was lean and fierce, and so very sad. I was sad too. I looked away.

"I like your drawings." she said as she stood up and looked around.

She only looked at the ones on the walls. She didn't touch or shift anything around. I liked that.

"Thanks" I muttered as I watched her walk around

It was like she was invading my privacy, but she wasn't.

"So I don't know much about you. Except you come from Georgia, you're 18, and you don't like eggs." I remembered that last part from a conversation she and Frank had one morning.

She smiled when I said that last part and then turned to face me.

"I couldn't say the same for you. I know that your name is Gerard, you're originally from New Jersey. You were the lead singer of my favorite band, and you smoke. You were married and you have a child. You like to draw and had a comic book. " she said as she sat down on the ground facing me.

Those are all typical things a fan would have known. We stared at each other a minute. I knew other things about her too, but she didn't know that I sometimes sat at the top of the stairs listening to their conversations. Her favorite color is green. She has way too many tattoos for and 18 year old. She likes jazz, and dislikes polka music. She misses Wes. That was one conversation I had closed my door on. When the guys brought up their wives and she brought up Wes. The talk of lost loved ones was too overbearing for me. I never thought about Lyn-Z unless I was drawing and even then I just focused one the drawing. Sitting here with Jessica, I noticed she reminded me of Lyn-Z. I turned away. She didn't look like her, she didn't speak like her, hell she didn't do anything like my wife, but there was something that made me think of Lyn-Z and I couldn't look at her anymore. Jessica sensed something was wrong. I heard her stand up. She put her hand on my shoulder and then she left.

-Jessica's POV-

I walked back up stairs. Frank was sitting at the kitchen table reading a book.

"Hey" I said as I sat across from him.

He looked up, then at the basement door, and then at me.

"You spoke to Gerard." Not a question, but I nodded anyway.

"Did he say anything interesting about why he doesn't come hang out with us?" he asked as he looked back down at his book.

"Nope" I said. I never asked him why, but I had a feeling it all revolved around me.

"So what did he say." he asked as he turned the page.

"Not much." I said before getting up and heading for my bedroom.

I enjoyed Frank's company more than the other guys, but at the moment I needed to think, and thinking is best done in privacy. I closed my door behind me and lay down on my bed. Gerard was weird, and I liked weird. Weirdness is a puzzle and puzzles are fun. Frank was nice, and had tons of energy. Mikey was sincere. I was at a strange place on the road of my life. Broke down with no options ahead. I enjoyed all of their company. Well ,except Gerard, I hadn't really been in his company until today and it hadn't been so bad. I thought about how my life could possibly play out. All of the scenarios ended with me dying alone. I wondered if the guys had the same thoughts. I fell asleep while thinking about it all, and had the weirdest dream.