Part 21:

A/N: Well it's June 30th and I finally decided to write this chapter I know, you poor babies, it took me effin forever to write…. Anyway, I just got another idea to put in this chapter. So. Here comes Part 21.

A/N: NOW IT'S JULY 11, and …. Yes. I'm still workin…lol.

A/N: July 22nd…Yes, I'm still working. And Tom is a stupid fruitcup and I fucking hate his guts. I might be the only person in the world with clinical MySpace addiction and he shut it down for today. Fucking douchebag, I hope he dies.

A/N: November 22. WOWWW. It's been monttttths. I AM SO SORRY. God. But this will be updated TODAY. So don't worry.

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After what Ashley had just told him, Craig sat, staring at her for a few minutes. Unable to comprehend properly what she'd just said, he gave her a blank look, hoping that she'd explain it more. When she didn't, he asked questions.

"But, Ash…we only—and only a couple times—how can—we used—Ash, how can you be pregnant? We did everything we could to prevent that," Craig whispered.

Ashley looked at Craig in the eyes. "You did everything you could to prevent me getting pregnant. But that was you," she said sternly.

"What?"

"Craig…"

"Ash, it doesn't matter. But—are you going to keep it?"

"I don't know."

"It's so important to me, baby, please…" Craig begged her. The look he gave her almost made her burst into tears.

"It's not your decision."

"Yes it is!"

"No, Craig…it isn't."

"It's part mine."

"No. It's not yours…it's not your baby. It's Sully's."

Craig's breath caught in his throat, and he was unable to move or breathe.

"I think you should go," came a voice from the doorway. Craig looked up. It was Caitlin, coming to save the day, and he'd never been more happy to see her since she moved back in. Ashley nodded at Caitlin and stood up from the porch, hoping that Craig would forgive her somehow.

Caitlin stared pitifully at her stepson. "Come on, let's go inside," she said calmly. She took his hand and pulled him into the house. His hand was cold and shaky.

The second that Caitlin closed the door behind them, Craig began to sob uncontrollably. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and led him over to the couch. She immediately picked up the phone and called Joey.

Joey, who was at work at the time, was finishing up washing a red sports car, much like his own. His phone began to ring and he stumbled with the sponge he was using. "Hello?" he said, after almost dropping the phone with his soapy hand.

"Joey, it's Caitlin. You need to come home right now."

"W-what? Is everything okay?"

"Hold on," Caitlin mumbled. She put the phone down on the kitchen counter, and Joey could hear everything that was going on, but he couldn't understand it.

In the background, he could hear Craig gagging, coughing, and bawling, and Caitlin trying to get him to calm down. Joey got in his car about a half-hour later and drove home.

By the time he got there, Caitlin had gotten Craig to take a short rest; he was sleeping on the armchair. "What in the hell happened?" Joey almost shouted when he walked in the door.

"Shh!" Caitlin hissed. But it was too late; Craig had already woken up.

When he opened his eyes, Craig thought at first that it was just a dream, this whole thing with Ashley and the baby…but the looks on Joey and Caitlin's faces proved him wrong. Caitlin pulled Joey away from the room and out onto the front porch, and Craig listened closely to what she was saying: "Ashley's pregnant with another guy's kid." The words stabbed him in the heart for the second time that day. This was all real.

They came back inside, and Joey knelt down in front of Craig, who was still sitting quietly in the chair. Craig leaned forward and wrapped his arms around him. Joey held Craig for a few moments before standing up and guiding him over to the couch. They sat down, and Craig looked at Joey. "I love her, and she…she doesn't even care," he whispered. Joey could hear the pain in his voice and almost cracked up himself; however, he had to be strong for Craig so that he'd feel safe with him in the future.

"You'll be okay," Joey assured him.

"No I won't," Craig argued back.

"It's gonna take some time, but it'll feel better."

"I'll never love again!" Craig said dramatically.

"Yes, you will, Craig. Calm down."

"I can't! I'm in pain, Joey, can't you see that?!"

"I can, but you need to calm down. You're gonna make yourself sick."

"I already am sick. I need to—go call—um—Emma. Yeah. I need to call Emma, Joey. I need the phone."

Caitlin picked up the phone from the end of the stair railing and handed it to Joey. Joey held the phone in front of Craig, and said, "Call."

Craig snatched it from his hand and rushed upstairs. Sitting down on the bed, he dialed Ashley's number.

"Hello?" Her voice came out like a disgusting insult; but she was crying, hard. Craig hung up quickly. He sat the phone down on his bed.

……………………………………………………

The phone that he'd had on his bed since that morning began to ring. He looked at the number…It was Sean.

"Hello?" Craig said quietly, after making him call several times.

"Craig?" Sean asked.

"Yeah," he answered.

"Hey…"

"Hey."

"Are you okay?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm perfectly fine. The one girl I loved more than anything just told me that she is pregnant with someone else's kid. But YES, Sean, I'm just fucking grand."

"Craig…hold on."

"What?"

"Hold on." Sean hung up the phone.

Craig threw his phone across the room, and it hit the windowsill and fell to the floor.

"CRAIG! STOP THROWING THE PHONE!" Joey shouted from downstairs.

"NO!" Craig yelled back. "I'LL THROW THE FUCKING PHONE IF I WANT TO!"

Joey stormed up the stairs and threw open the door to Craig's bedroom. Craig jumped up and glared at Joey.

"I will throw the phone if I want to," Craig said in a cold, yet soft voice.

"Give me the phone, then."

"No."

"Give me the phone."

"NO!"

"Fine. Whatever, Craig."

Joey turned and left the room, taking one final glance at Craig before closing the door.

Well, Craig thought that was about the most horrible thing he'd seen in his life: Joey walking out the door and leaving him alone forever.

He couldn't find the feeling in his body to get up and go stop him.

He laid on his bed in a hopeless manner, with his head at the foot of the mattress, staring at the door, and waited for Joey to come back. He looked pathetic.

The door opened again and Craig looked up, hoping against hope that it was Joey.

But it was Sean.

Craig dropped his head back onto the foot of his bed and let his arms hang off the side of the mattress.

When Sean entered the room, what he saw was enough to give him nightmares for the rest of his life. On the nightstand was a small mirror with grains of un-snorted cocaine lying in stenciled white lines.

Sean sat next to him on the bed and put his hand on his shoulder.

He saw blood dripping down Craig's fingers, and onto the carpet.

"Dude," Sean said.

Craig looked up.

"What?" he demanded.

"Why in the fuck—?" Sean rushed toward the bed and raised Craig's arm. "Why did you do it? WHY DID YOU DO IT?"

"You don't know what it's like, Sean…You have no idea. It makes you feel so much better…and…"

"Don't talk like that. It's not gonna make you feel better for much longer."

"Yeah, it will. I'll feel better soon."

"No, you won't."

Craig looked into Sean's eyes.

"I want this."

"No. You're not gonna get it. You're being selfish."

"They left me…everyone left me."

"Who left you?"

"Ash…and then…Joey…"

"What do you mean 'Joey left' you?"

"He's gone…he left me."

"He's downstairs! He's sitting at the table!"

"You mean he's not gone? He didn't leave?" Craig cried joyously.

Tears welled up in Sean's eyes. It hurt like hell to watch his friend go through this.

"He's still here," Sean whispered.

"THERE'S STILL HOPE!" Craig mumbled. "Oh, my God…"

"No, buddy—stop. Please, just stop."

"JOEY MIGHT STILL LOVE ME, SEAN! WHY WOULD YOU TRY TO TAKE THAT AWAY?" Craig shouted, getting up from his bed and running down the stairs. He saw Joey sitting at the table, just as Sean had said. He ran to Joey, and knelt down in front of him. Joey looked at him with sincere concern.

"What in the---?" Joey said, looking down at Craig's arm.

He rested his hands on Craig's shoulders, and Craig stared back into his eyes with that look…something was not right. Joey could tell.

"Why don't you just go clean that off, and wrap it up, and then go sit down in the living room, Craig? It might help you calm down a little. Just go sit down. Okay?"

Craig could trust Joey right now; he was all he had anymore. He went and obediently sat down on the couch. Taking the first aid kit, Joey sat down next to Craig, and examined the deep wound before taking an alcohol pad and cleaning as much blood as he could from his arm, and then wrapped the cut in gauze.

"I need you to help me get him to the hospital," Joey said flatly, after returning to Craig's room to talk to Sean, who was taking the cocaine from the nightstand and dumping it out of the window.

"What's wrong?" Sean said quietly.

"He hasn't been taking his medications; he's having an episode. He needs to go to the hospital, right now, before he literally kills himself."

The two went back downstairs, and Joey entered the living room, where Craig still was, sitting alone. He looked perfectly content in his little spot on the couch, as if he'd forgotten about the whole morning.

Joey took his arm, and pulled him away from the couch. "Craig, I just remembered…you're supposed to meet your new doctor today. Okay? So let's go."

Craig allowed himself to be taken into the car, without a single struggle. He rode along in the car, buying into the whole 'meeting-a-new-doctor' thing.

When they got there, Craig was sitting in the waiting room, waiting to meet his doctor. Joey had been down the hall for quite a while now, and he wondered where he'd gone off to.

He began to fidget around, twitching, and tapping his hand on the arm of the uncomfortable chair he'd decided to sit in. What a bad decision he'd made; his butt was starting to hurt. Joey came back, along with two other doctors, who looked at Craig, and Joey helped them escort Craig to a room.

"I thought you said I was getting a new doctor today," Craig said softly as he sat down on the sterile bed.

Joey left the room. "Where are you going? Joey? JOEY!" he shouted as he watched Joey leave for the second time that day.

"He'll be back," a doctor assured him.

"Are you my new doctor?" Craig asked, with a childish smile on his face.

"No, I'm just a different doctor. I'm sorry to disappoint you. Now…Craig. You're going to have to sit here for a while before we can help you. Can you do that?"

"Yep!"

"Okay."

Craig looked around the room, and suddenly, a bad feeling came up into his mind. This wasn't right, was it? This wasn't meeting a new doctor, somebody lied.

"What's going on?" he demanded.

"What?" said the other doctor.

"What in the hell is going on?"

"You need to be here for a while today. Not long, just a little while."

"Why?" He was getting scared. What if they were lying again? What if he was here for the rest of his life?

The doctor did not answer. The two of them left the room, and Craig almost started crying. What in the hell was going on? Why couldn't he know?

Joey finally returned, and told Craig that he needed some help. He still didn't understand. What was wrong? He didn't feel bad at all, except for being locked up in this room right now.

"Listen," said his stepfather, "there is something wrong. I've told you so many times to take your medication, but you didn't listen, and you're having an episode. You need to be here."

Craig bowed his head in shame. Joey was disappointed in him, and apparently, he wanted to get rid of him forever.

"Fine. Just leave, then. I don't need you."

"Craig?"

"No! I don't need you. You don't need me, I don't need you. I think we understand each other, now, go."

"I'm not leaving."

"GO!"

"Craig. If I were going to leave you, don't you think I would've done it years ago? Don't you think I would've just abandoned you, left you with your father? Left you to be most likely killed? I'm not going anywhere, and I don't care what you say."

"Fine. Then don't leave." Craig wasn't even able to catch how Joey had manipulated the conversation in time to turn it back around.

Joey smiled sadly, touched Craig's shoulder, and left the room.

He went to the waiting room, where Craig had been just a few minutes before.

He sat down in a chair, very much like the one Craig had found himself sitting in, and broke down into tears. How could this be happening? Why now? Why did Craig have to suffer so much?

He felt strongly for his stepson, either out of pity, blatant love, or maybe a combination of both. Whichever one it was, he felt for him in his condition, and couldn't bear to leave him alone. But if he were going to stay here the entire day, he was not going to sit this whole thing out in a waiting room alone. He called Caitlin, and asked her to bring Sean along with her, if he were still there. He was.

When Caitlin showed up, Sean and herself sat with Joey in the waiting room, and Joey told them the situation: Craig had been off his medications for too long, and they were going to have to run a quick test and make sure that when he started taking them again, they wouldn't be too strong. Meanwhile, Craig was sitting alone in a room, with no one to talk to. Joey suggested that Sean should go in and talk to him for a few minutes, just to make sure he's doing okay; he didn't think he could bear to look at Craig again until the end of the day.

Sean walked down the halls to the room where Craig was situated, and opened the door slowly. Craig was sitting on the bed. "Hey," Sean said as he closed the door behind him.

His friend looked up at him, but it was not the same look as he'd given him earlier. He was no longer sad, no longer hopeless, or afraid. He was frustrated, and angry. It scared Sean a little, but he didn't leave. He couldn't, not now. He was already here. He could not let him know that he was afraid of him.

He sat at the foot of the bed, and Craig stared at him with narrowed eyes.

"Do you need something?" he said.

"I wanted to come make sure you were doing okay, not doing anything stupid."

"Are you saying I'm stupid?"

"No, I'm saying you do stupid things," Sean shot back. They were being at an even level of anger right now; Craig was angry at the world, Sean was angry at Craig for cutting himself, and finding the cocaine lying around.

"I could kill you in one swift move, Sean, don't forget that. Ever."

"Maybe if you had a knife on you, buddy. Oh, wait, that's right. You carry one around with you everywhere, don't you?"

Craig began to shake. He could control himself. Control. Control. He couldn't speak.

"Yeah. One swift move. I dare you."

Control is gone.

One moment, they're sitting on the bed together; next moment, Craig has Sean pinned on the floor, trying to make it seem as if he'd won. Sean allowed him to sit there for a second, but quickly flipped positions, and soon, Craig was the one that was down.

"What are you DOING?" Craig shouted.

"I'm helping your dumb ass. Now go ahead and hit me. Take your frustrations out on something other than yourself for once."

Craig began punching Sean's shoulders, stomach, chest, and arms, but he couldn't seem to reach his face. Sean took every hit; Craig would feel better in the end. He wouldn't be so upset. Eventually, he grew tired, and laid on the floor, quietly. His breathing was heavy, and Sean helped him back up onto the bed.

The two young men sat in silence for a short period of time.

Hearing something coming from the other side of the room, Sean looked up. Craig was crying, and it broke his heart. He got up from where he'd sat near a corner on the floor, and walked over to the bed. He wrapped his arms around Craig, feeling his shaking and hearing his apologies. "I wanted you to do it. It's okay, don't worry about it."

"I always screw everything up," Craig sobbed. "Always. I'm the reason Ashley's having someone else's kid, she doesn't love me, she never did. I screwed up, I'm not even good enough to be a father, I've heard it so many times…"

The stress of the day's events and the fact that his friend was crying in his arms came down onto Sean and he silently cried, too, only Craig didn't know it. He was only thinking about his pathetic life. He hated himself.

After all was said and done, Craig was allowed to go home, but wouldn't go to sleep until Joey consented to Sean spending the night with him; he didn't want to be alone, and he and Sean had a lot of catching up to do.