7

7. Jadis, meet the press

Gerard

I stared at myself, in the airplane mirror. Frank and Mikey were right; I was being stupid zombie-man. Fuck, I'd probably scared the shit outta Jadis. I took my medication, and ghosted back to my seat.

"…He's just taking his meds, so he's not as…" Frank's voice trailed off. I stood beside my seat silently. Jadis' eyes were diverted, looking at Mikey.

"Petulant?" I supplied. Jadis' eyes flitted up to mine. "I'm sorry, Jadis. I'm a fuckwit. I understand if you hate me. I hate me. I'm just very tired, confused, and anxious and I hadn't taken my meds. But I love you, Jay." She stood up, walked over to me and hugged me.

"I love you, too, dad." She whispered. Suddenly, the cabin started to shake; turbulence, great. Jadis abruptly stopped supporting herself. I clung onto her, making sure she didn't hit her head. Within a second, her entire body went limp.

"Jadis?" I asked. She didn't move. "Jadis?!" I yelled, shaking her. Still nothing.

"What happened?" A female flight attendant asked.

"She just, fainted!" I yelled.

"Calm down, sir. You should all buckle up; the turbulence is going to get a bit worse."

"But she fucking fainted!"

"Strap her in too." The attendant said nonchalantly, turning away. I threw my head back, in frustration, and my sunnies, hoodie and hat fell off. Everyone around me turned and stared.

"Fuck!" I breathed.

The attendant spun around, to see what all the fuss was about. She froze. It seemed as if the world had paused. Nobody, so much as breathed. All eyes were focused on me, and the limp figure of my daughter, in my arms.

After a few seconds, the older passengers, adverted their eyes, to something, they believed, more interesting. Still, the younger, more adventurous passengers remained staring, wide-eyed and open-mouthed at me.

The flight attendant, who had previously been so impolite, scurried back over to where I stood.

Jadis stirred in my arms. I helped her stand upright, as she came round. Stillness remained in the cabin, accompanied by silence. The only sound was the intake of breath, and Jadis moaning slightly.

"Dad? Wha-" She stopped, staring at my face, and realizing my 'disguise' was no longer in place. "Fuck!" She said under her breath.

Silence dragged on, but was interrupted when the plane began to shake, violently. Jadis' grip tightened on my arm. Without a single sound, the flight attendant seated Jadis and I, then scurried off to take her own seat.

Jadis didn't say anything. Not until the pilot's voice came over the loud speaker and said, "We shall be beginning our descent in about ten minutes. Please return to your seats, and strap in." Jadis turned on me. Her face was panicked.

"What the fuck is going to happen when we land?" Her voice was shaking, she sounded like she was on the brink of tears. Shear horror, emitted from her eyes. Her body was shaking, and she had goose-bumps on her arms.

"Are you cold??" I asked. I was avoiding the question, but still genuinely worried about her getting sick.

"A little, but your diverting the question!" A shiver rolled down her spine. I leant over my bag, pulled out my favourite skeleton gloves and another hoodie. I handed them to her. She took them out of my hands, slowly. Her eyes were glued to my gloves.

"Something wrong with skeletons?" I questioned, not wanting to offend her.

"No," She shook her head, "It's just…I've seen you were these so many the times! I never thought I'd actually see them close-up. Then again, I never even imagined meeting you!" She put the gloves and hoodie on, then sat back and basked in the feel of it. Her expression of amazement, made me chuckle. The seatbelt sign dinged alight, and we began our descent. Jadis' hand clung to my arm. She only released her grip, moderately, when we touched down.

We were the last ones to depart the plane. I was, once again, wearing my 'disguise'. Jadis never fully let go of my arm. She was incredibly tense, as were the others. None of us were ready, for what may or may not, await us outside the airport.

"Where are we?" Jadis asked. I realized that I'd forgotten to tell her where we were going.

"We're in Hawaii, Jadis."

"You're joking right?" She scoffed, "We can't really be in fucking Hawaii, can we?"

"By the looks of it, we can!" Mikey said sarcastically. Jadis rolled her eyes.

"We're going to be staying the night here, so you can change and shit. Then tomorrow we're flying to LA, then New York. From New York, we'll drive to New Jersey." I explained to her.

"Bit of trip, but you're so special, Jadis!" Mikey added again. I shot him a poisonous glare.

"Mikey, not here!" Ray hissed. Jadis looked over her shoulder. I followed her gaze, and realized she was looking at Bob.

"He's always in the background, that's why he plays kit." I joked in her ear. She jumped, and spun around. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

We stopped in the terminal. Collecting our luggage, we left as surreptitiously as we could. The six of us jumped into a Maxi Taxi, and headed downtown. Bob had booked us in at a hotel, somewhere more secluded, but still luxurious in it's own ways.

Halfway there, Jadis leant her head against my shoulder. Her eyes drooped, but I could see she wasn't going to fall asleep. Gently, I twisted her body, so she had her head in my lap. I cradled her there while I hummed to her Disenchanted. Instantaneously, she relaxed, and in a few minutes was asleep. I took a deep breath, and started thinking, about the issues we now had to deal with.

"Dude, it'll be alright." Frank told me, as I surfaced. He was sitting opposite me.

"You can't promise me that. Who knows how this'll turn out?" I replied, sleepily. The day had really worn me out, and it was starting all over again! I sighed, and leant right back against the taxi seat.

"Let's just get some sleep, we can deal with the press and shit later." Ray said thickly.

"We wouldn't have to deal with the press, if Gerard wasn't so selfish!" Mikey mumbled to himself, but it was obvious everyone heard him. I jumped suddenly, when Bob abruptly, yanked his earphones out and leapt to his feet.

"Mikey! Shut-the-fuck-up! Nobody gives a goddamn fuck what you think about this whole fucking situation! Like it or not this is the way it has to fucking be! Get over it fuckwit!" He screamed. Everyone stared at Bob, wide-eyed and shocked. Amazingly, Jadis stayed asleep, only stirring slightly.

"Dude, calm down!" Mikey told him timidly. I wanted to get up and soothe one of them, but Jadis would wakeup. I sat helplessly as Bob curled his hands into fists.

"I'm not going to fucking calm down, Mikey!!" He roared, "Why don't you fucking tell your brother, what the fuck you've been saying!" This got my attention. My gaze swerved to Mikey's face. Mikey looked upset, scared and guilty.

"You've been paying me out behind my back?" I asked him softly. It really hurt to know that my own flesh and blood was badmouthing me, without my knowledge!

"I'm sorry bro! It's just that-"

"I don't want your fucking excuses, Mikey! You used to care about me! Now you're fucking being a dickhead behind my back!" I told him harshly, not wanting to yell in case I woke up Jadis.

"You've changed!" Mikey tried defensively.

"So have you! You used to be…to be my brother!" My words slashed through him. I saw it in his eyes. His lip quivered, and his eyes began to gleam with water. I felt a pang of guilt, but the feeling of satisfaction was greater.

"We've all changed." Frank whispered.

"Change is supposed to be good, but it feels pretty shit at the moment." Ray added. The staring competition between Mikey and I ended. We diverted our eyes to the others.

"Can we still be who we were yesterday?" Mikey asked.

"Cool song lyric." I laughed, but the sound was not happy.

"I hope so," Bob said sadly.

"Guys, nothing's going to change drastically! We are still the same guys! We just have a little more responsibility. But that shouldn't be a problem, we're all old fucks!" I said at an attempt to be inspirational, and lighten the mood.

"Speak for yourself, old man!" Frank teased.

"Whatever. I'm tired, how much longer?"

"We're here, actually." The cabby told us. We filed out of the taxi, grabbed our luggage, and within twenty minutes, were curled up in individual beds.

"This is so much better than a tour bus!" Mikey moaned gratefully, as he slid into his bed. Mikey, Jadis and I were in one room; Frank, Ray and Bob, were in the other. Jadis and I were sharing a king-sized bed, because Bob had screwed up the bookings.

"I'm fucking everything up!" Jadis half cried, half screamed.

"Jadis, you're not!" I said.

"Yes! I am! My Chemical Romance doesn't exist anymore! Because of me!" Out of nowhere, Jadis produced a gun. "Wouldn't be grand to take a pistol by the hand?" She sung in a crazy, off pitch voice, "And wouldn't it be great if we were DEAD!" With that she raised the pistol to her temple. She took a deep breath and pulled the trigger, as I launched toward her. The bang resounded off the colourless walls. Jadis' motionless body lay on the ground, unmoving and, simply, dead.

"Jadis? NO! WHY?!" I cried, holding her corpse close. Nothing mattered anymore. Not the blood on my clothes, or the beat of my heart. I dropped Jadis, and instead held her gun. I put it right were my heart was situated, pulled the trigger and…

"Dad?? Dad! Are you okay?! Wakeup!"

"What? Oh my god, Jadis! You're alive!" I held her tightly against my chest.

"Of course I'm alive! Is that what your nightmare was?"

"Nightmare? It was just a nightmare? Oh thank god!!" I said relieved, as I released her.

"What happened? You seemed quite distraught over it. You were thrashing around, calling my name, and I think you were sobbing." She sounded worried but her face showed no evidence confirming it.

"It's just sleeping in a strange bed, gives me nightmares." I mumbled, as I stumbled out of the bed. I shuffled over to the small kitchen space. Mikey was in there, sitting peacefully on a chair. He stood up when I ungracefully walked into the small area.

"I'm not here to start world war three! Chillax," I said as I put the coffee machine on. I poured a mug of coffee, then took it and stumbled over to the table – spilling some on the floor, as I went.

"Gee, I don't think we're going to be able to get all the way to LA without any sort of press catching us." Mikey said gently. I sighed.

"I know. It's inevitable. It had to happen. I just didn't want it so soon. Has it been arranged with the girls, where they're picking us up?"

"Yeah. It's about 8am now. We'll get to New York tonight. You sure you wanna go through with this?"

"Certain." I sculled the rest of my coffee – burning my entire mouth, in the process – then headed to the bathroom to get ready for the day.