"Ghost of You"
(My Chemical Romance song. Very appropriate, i think. This chapter features Jimmy Eat World lyrics. Brace yourself, loves. You in for quite a shock. Don't worry, its a positive. Yes this is a very long freaking chapter. I was thinking of cutting it into two parts, but why? I send these out whenever I finish. And I'd already have it done, so, hang with me here. Even though it is about the size of my three shortest chapters put together, with a footnote, AND director's commentary. But it's a good chapter, eventful, so I doubt you're not gonna like it. You can call it, your Extra-Special-Edition-Twice-As-Long-Double-Episode-Chapter-Thing.)
That night. You know the one.
Jack's eyes opened. He winced in pain, and let out a groan of immense pain. 'Am I dead?' He wondered. 'Is this hell? Cuz, I'm pretty sure I don't belong here. I demand my ticket get rechecked. I demand a refund.' The severe pain hit him once more. 'I demand some pain killers. Damn.. So, AM I dead? No flames, no fury, no furbies. It must not be hell. Alex..' He spotted her. She didn't move. She was unconscious. 'Well, she's here, so it must be heaven. Wait, Jack, that would mean she was...no, I'm still alive.' He decided, since he was losing blood and energy still, he should find some help. And so he started attempting to crawl. He had just started, and 'Ah! Yeah, I'm alive. I'm in death pain, and I'm in a dark alley. Yeah, I'm still in Detroit. Beats being dead. I suppose.' And despite the pain, he crawled. It was probably one of the hardest things he'd ever done. Somewhere on a scale from one to withdrawal, this ranked pretty high. 'There's no way I should be alive.' Every few movements he'd have to stop, let out a cry of intense pain, god this hurt him. He had to keep going though. But soon he neared the sidewalk, where a couple was walking not even 100 feet away. "Help, please," He said, not even knowing if they had heard him. But when you see some white boy bleeding profusely in an alley, you can't really just stroll on by. Then the blood loss kicked in, and he lost consciousness. Unfortunately, he never got the chance to tell them about Alex.
Jack woke up in a hospital bed, with a killer pain in his chest and abdomen. He WAS stabbed twice and shot. Alex...where was she? Was she okay? Did she..did she think he was dead? Oh God, Alex. She had been through so much shit, could she handle this? He had to face it, she had never been, in the, what, two, three weeks he'd known her, she had never seemed the most emotionally stable. And how were Jeremiah and the family? How did they take all this? Jack wanted desperately to go home, but remembered the assassin's warning: If he returned, they would kill him AND Alex. He couldn't let anyone hurt her. But then, a nurse, maybe about 35, in colorful scrubs and a blonde ponytail entered the room. He had seen her before, but where?
"Oh my God! You're awake. You've been unconscious for four days. We didn't know if you would make it. You're lucky to be alive. Umm..we couldn't contact your family, because you had no ID."
"Um, when can I go? When did I get here? And how?"
"Oh, a young couple brought you in. They saw you, crawling out of an alleyway, and saw that you were hurt, and they called you an ambulance. You can go home as soon as we've made sure you're alright, and contacted family. Then you'll have to deal with police though."
Jack realized where he had seen her. "Oh my God, you're Kat's friend. I've seen you at the bar before. Um, maybe you would understand. No police. No contacting family. I need to get out of here."
"But--"
"C'm-here," He motioned for the woman to come closer, then lowered his voice. "I can't have police. No family either. I have to stay away. Do you understand?"
She seemed not to understand completely, but was now too intrigued to go. "Why not? What happened?" Jack knew this girl was like them, a former fuck-up. Maybe he could trust her.
"Some guys attacked me, me ALONE," he lied, but she got it. "They wrecked me, bad, as you can see."
"Yeah," she scoffed a small chuckle. "No shit."
"Anyway, they said they would kill...more people, if I lived and caused more trouble for them. A person who means a hell of a lot to me they said would die next time too. But this person thinks I'm dead. And I've gotta take care of this in my own way, ok? I've got some people who will protect her, and make it safe for me again. You understand, right, Libby?" He said, reading off her nametag.
"I understand. So, I gotta get you outta here?" She whispered.
Jack nodded. "That would help. Thanks."
"Yeah. I gotta plan. I know where all the cameras are that can see into this room. I can so come up with a plan. But it'll take a couple days. You got time?"
"Yeah. They think I'm dead. I got all the time in the world. She's in no danger."
"Okay. I'll work on something, and we'll get your ass outta this place. You can stay at my apartment. I'm pretty sure my couch has your name on it."
So for the next month, after he was done healing of course, Jack started trying to find out who sent his attackers. He had no clue. He remembered one man he may have contributed to the incarceration of, but that man was dead. Then he remembered something from that night.
They had asked for Mercer, but they had never asked a first name. What WAS Alex's last name? Had she ever told anyone it was Mercer? Or maybe they had just assumed? Jack thought, and figured this must be a mix-up. Not many would come after Jack, alone, his family maybe, but he knew people had come after Alex, this could be another friend of hers. Alex is a gender-neutral name, and anyone would assume her last name was Mercer.
"Oh my God," Jack said. "It was her they wanted all along."
But if news of them killing a male, or attempting to do so, was heard by their employer, they would come back. And word would most likely be heard. They would return, but that'd be okay, the brothers would work it out. But he'd have to warn them first. He had made Libby promise Kat would not find out. But word had to be sent to them. So eventually he told her to tell Kat, and Kat alone, who would tell the others. But not Alex. He wanted to go to her himself. He needed to see her.
So he told Libby to go down to the bar, and tell Kat. Which would be hard, she had just lost her little brother, and now she would find out all the mourning she did was for nothing. But he had no choice. He figured she would understand. After she would have a heart attack, that is.
After Kat was told, and days went by, he received word that all was clear and he could return home. Libby had gone out, and Jack was packing his things. He heard the door open, and Libby ran in. "You want it to be special when you go back right?" She asked.
"Uh, yeah. Why?" Jack then saw a small, yet significant, slip of paper held in front of his face. He smiled.
a few days before
Alex took a sip out of her water bottle, then set it aside, and strummed Jack's guitar. The sound was so beautiful. But the chords seemed so flat compared to hearing Jack play. 'Oh, God, Jackie,' Alex thought, looking at his picture on the nightstand. 'Baby I want you here. I want to hear you play. I wanna feel you kiss me. Just hold me. I just, I just want you in my arms.' Their show was soon, very soon, it was next week. It had been almost two months since she lost her boyfriend, the only man who ever loved her, the only man she ever loved. The only person she ever lost, and longed for.
Then Kat burst in through the door. She was out of breath, as if she had run there. But her face was incredibly pale, for such a tanned girl (she had moved to Florida when she got out of the service, only to later return to Michigan, and her tan stuck with her, surprisingly). Her auburn ponytail was frazzled.
"What's going on?" Alex asked, coming to the top of the stairs.
"N-nothing. Nothing's wrong, nothing's wrong." She actually managed to keep that sounding casual and non-chalant. Nicely done, Kat. "I just, need to talk to Bobby."
"I think he went to go visit Kerrie."
"Really?"
"No. I lied," And she wasn't being sarcastic, she REALLY DID lie. She felt like it.
"Oh. Where is he then?"
Alex went over and banged on the bathroom door. "Bobby! Kat needs to talk to you. Hurry the fuck up. This seems urgent."
"I'm coming, I'm coming," They heard the toilet flush, and Bobby exited, starting downstairs.
"Tell me you only took a piss," Alex said. "Cuz I didn't hear no sink, and I'm a little freaked out. You know what? I don't REALLY wanna know. Carry on." She said, and returned to Jack's room. She walked in, and had another overwhelming spell. The scent of Jack came to her, and brought tears to her eyes. She quickly wiped away the tears. This happened sometimes. She would flash back to when Jack was here,and it knocked the shit out of her. In a matter of speaking, it "hurt so good".
"What the hell?" Bobby yelled from downstairs. Alex once again ran to the stairs, about half way down.
"What is it?"
"Nothing!" Kat and Bobby both yelled.
"Obviously it IS something. What's going on?"
"It's...It's really nothing. Trust me, okay." Bobby assured her, in that calm, big brother Bobby way. But Alex looked him in the eye, and saw that his eyes nearly teared up, they were looking kinda crying-puffy-red, like he was trying to keep back a tear or two.
"A'ight. But you know how much I hate being outta the loop, Bobby. Ya gotta tell me if something's wrong."
Bobby gave her a slight nod, if you could even call it that, and Alex back upstairs. She grabbed a pack of Jack's cigs, and her lighter (she had her own, for reasons explained later), and climbed out his window, onto the roof. She sat there, and lit a cigarrette. She inhaled, then exhaled with a sigh.
"He's ALIVE!" Bobby yelled, or sort of did, trying not to attract Alex's attention again.
"Yes! He's staying with a friend's cousin. He's safe. But we can't tell Alex."
"Why not!"
"Because the people who tried to kill him, he thinks that maybe they fucked up. That maybe they had assumed HE was Alex. But that would mean, since apparently they referred to him as Mercer, that Alex had gone by Mercer before. Has she?"
"Uh, probably, if she had ever gotten mixed up with some people. Kinda an alias, I guess. I wouldn't be surprised."
"So he thinks maybe these guy'll come back. I mean, word gets back to the source of our problem, they'd most definitely send omeone back to get the job done. We gotta be careful, B. Any day now we could get jumped again. Especially me, seeing as how now they know it's a woman they want. We gotta stay on our toes until we take care-a this shit."
"Okay, alright, okay..." He sighed, distressed, and ran his hands through is hair. "But...my little brother...our little, our Cracker Jack...he's alive!"
"I know."
"This is great!"
"I know!"
"But why can't we tell Alex?"
"He wants to see her himself."
"Is that really the best idea?"
"Yes I think it is. It sounds good. She's taken this the hardest. She needs him now. Have you seen her? She's a wreck. Always wearing his clothes and stuff."
"Yeah. Okay then, we gotta tell Angel. He went out with Sofi."
"They serious?"
"Evidently. She's got him whipped or somethin', man. It ain't right."
"Maybe he loves her, Bobby. Ever think maybe that's why?"
"Yeah yeah. That's what they keep tellin' me."
So when Angel DID come back, Kat filled him in. His reaction wasn't far from Bobby's, and neither was Jeremiah's. So the next few days they were just a little on edge, waiting for an attack. They couldn't be caught with their heads up their asses now could they? Jerry had actually said so himself. Alex was upstairs playing guitar, practicing, trying to get her song just perfect before tomorrow's show. Was she ready for this? Could she do this? Was this right? Would it be like, replacing Jack? Or would he want her to do this. Well it was too late now. She had to do this, and she would. But she heard a knock on the door. A knock on the door was never good, not in this house.
"I'm not gettin' it." She yelled downstairs, and Angel did, his guns on hand. "And if they want to kill me, take a message, or tell them to come back after the concert. I've got important plans, but I'll be sure to pencil them in."
Angel grinned, and opened the door. "Can I help you?"
A gun was pointed in his face a second later. He just grinned again. "Man, did you come to the wrong house. And besides, what kinda assassin are you? You come armed with only one pistol, and alone? Man, that's pathetic." Bobby and Kat appeared over Angel's shoulders with their own guns pointed at the masked man, who ran to a car across the street, dodging bullets, and hid behind the car. He whistled, and three more gunmen popped up from behind that car and another near it. Well, yeah, you know how it goes, there's a big gun fight. Typical. But this time, Jack is NOT shot. Shocking, right? Mainly cuz he's not there. So it's gotta be REALLY hard to shoot someone who's MIA. That would take special powers. And the only special powers in this story are the ones that lie within Jack's beautiful beautiful hair. But I'm just the narrator, so I can't get freaky with any characters. Which sucks because, well, Jack is REALLY hot. That's why I live vicariously through Alex. Anyway, so they're all in the house, four shooting, Sofi ducking for cover, and Alex ran downstairs to help. She yelled to Sofi, who slid her two pistols, and positioned herself next to Jerry.
"Who are theses guys, Jer?"
"Not really sure!"
"Why are we always getting shot at!"
"They started it!"
"I'm going upstairs, to get a better shot."
"Be careful!"
So Alex ran upstairs, and took position in Evelyn's room. Then, a man burst in through the back. No one heard, except Sofi, who saw him going towards the living room, and possibly heading upstairs. She did something totally un-expected from Sofi. She was in the kitchen, so she came out from behind the man, and hit him over the head with a frying pan, and knocked him out.
"¡No coja con mí, pendejo!" ("Don't fuck with me, Asshole!)
Now let me take this opportunity to say: Go Sofi, it's your birthday, Gon' party like it's your birthday! But Bobby yelled to her, "Sofi, I need another gun! I'm out!" So she ran back in and passed him one closeby. But while she did that, another man came in, and she didn't hear, because passing the guns to Bobby she was shot at, and she took cover quickly. The man figured his men could take on the others, and so he snuck by and went upstairs. How he got up there unnoticed was very lucky on his part. But the descriptionthey had gotten of their target didn't mat anyone downstairs, and so he was sent to check the second floor. He did, and snuck behind Alex, who quickly rolled to the side and dodged him. But wouldn't you know it, she was outta ammo too. So she ran. By this time everyone downstairs was taken care of. Alex ran to the bathroom, but not INTO it, and slammed the door, then ran into Jack's room. The man ran to the bathroom door, and before he could do much of anything, Alex came up behind him and hit him over the head with one of Jack's guitars. The man went down, falling on the floor. Everyone heard, and ran upstairs, to see Alex standing over him with a guitar.
"Huh. So rock n' roll WILL save your soul. Well, not YOURS." She said to the man. "You're fuckin' lucky you didn't break this guitar. Eh, not by much. I have a feeling you're gonna die anyway." She put the guitar back. "Hey! Now tell whoever sent you that the job is done. You're gonna call and tell your boss I'm dead. Okay? I don't care who sent you, I'm dead-ass tired, stressed out, I got a concert to do tomorrow, and I need a cigarrette, which is weird, because I'm not a heavy smoker, and I only did it a couple-a times cuz I was stressed. So I'm gonna let Bobby here and the gang take care of you."
"You're a smoker?" Bobby asked. Alex just shrugged, and walked into Jack's room, and closed the door. Okay, seeing as how this is my story, I can do whatever I want. If I just wanna say, 'Bobby and them took care-a bid-ness', I can. Because right now my main focus is gonna go to Alex and Jack. So, um, yeah, Bobby and them took care-a bid'ness.
Alex woke up pretty late the next day. The show was today, and she was still pretty sleepy. Deek then burst into Jack's room. "Wakey wakey, eggs and bake-y! Mornin' Sunshine. Get up." He shoved her and shook her. She just pathetically moaned, then said, "Alex is not here at the moment, please leave a message after the beep."
"Okay, Alex, the concert--"
"I didn't hear a BEEP,"she said, lifting her arm up in objection, her face still in her pillow. They waited in silence for about ten seconds, when Alex finally said, "Beeeep."
Deek stood up, pulled back the covers to Jack's bed, grabbed Alex and rolled her off the side off the bed. She hit the floor with a thud. "Ow!" She exclaimed, aggravated. "The concert is in three hours. It's an hour's ride, and we've got to set up and everything, and you know how I panic..."
She rubbed her eyes and quickly stood, before pushing Deacon out of the room and closing the door. She quickly dressed in the outfit she had picked out for her performance: her favorite black platform-y type boots, giving her about another good 4 inches, making her about 6 feet tall, semi-baggy, more like just loose blue jeans (cutoffs, a chain, you know how it goes), and a black tee. Not flashy, yet cool. She grabbed Jack's red guitar, took a deep breath, and walked out, to see Deacon, leaning is back to the wall next to the door. "C'mon. Let's kill 'em." He said, and led Alex downstairs.
After the LONGEST-ASS drive EVER in the recorded history of man, "We're finally here!" Will said. "Did I forget to mention? Vengeful Icis cancelled. This is OUR concert! SURPRISE!"
"What the fuck?" Tyler yelled.
"Yep." Deek said. "Excited now?"
"YOU know? Why didn't you tell me!"
"Cuz we wanted it to be a surprise for Alex. And YOU cannot keep your mouth shut to save your life."
"Holy SHIT!" Ales yelled, grinning. "Our own show?" They went in, prepared, set up equipment, and just before the show was starting, Alex's happy look disappeared. "This is bigger than anything you guys ever did with Jack, isn't it?"
"Yeah. But we still have to do this.You're part of our band now. But we will never forget that Jack is an original Spare." Will said. "Hopefully no one else will forget that either. Now let's go out there, and rock and roll."
"Right on! C'mon guys!" As they were announced, Alex came out there jogging, waving. She was on an excitement high, she always wanted to be on stage. She always wanted to be a famous rock star. Now she was on stage. It wasn't huge, it's not like she was at an Aerosmith concert, this was just a concert for a band, who replaced another band. But still, this was awesome. They all entered charismatically, got stationed at their instruments, Alex center stage, and started playing. They started with The Spares' "World's Gonna End", then "Watch Your Back", and some others. But the best part was the finale. Alex's memorial to Jack. A song she wrote herself. She and the others switched to acoustic, and she said over the mic, "This is our last song. I wrote this for, someone who really meant a lot to me. To all of us. He was my life, my new life, and he was also the original lead singer of the Spares, some of you might not know that. So, Jack, this is for you. May angels lead you in." And she started to play, and sing, with Tyler singing back-up:
There's no one in town that I know,
You gave us some place to go,
I never said Thank You for that,
I thought I might get one more chance,
What would you think of me now?
So lucky, so strong, so proud?
I never said thank you for that,
Now I never had a chance
May angels lead you in,
Hear you me, my friends,
On sleepless roads, the sleepless go,
May angels lead you in
So what would you think of me now?
So lucky, so strong, so proud,
I never said thank you for that,
Now I'll never have a chance,
May angels lead you in,
Hear you me my friends
On sleepless go, the sleepless go,
May Angels lead you in
(May angels lead you in,)
May angels lead you in,
(May angels lead you in,)
May angels lead you in
And if you were with me tonight,
I'd sing to you just one more time,
A song for a heart so big,
God wouldn't let it live,
May angels lead you in,
Hear you me my friends,
On sleepless roads the sleepless go,
May angels lead you in,
May angels lead you in,
Hear you me my friends,
On sleepless roads the sleepless go,
May angels lead you in,
May angels lead you in."
When she ended, tears streamed down her face. What was not realized by the others in the band is that someway through the song, Alex's eyes had never moved. She had spotted something. Her expression never changed either. She had locked eyes with a beautiful young man in the audience. Alex smiled, and walked offstage, followed by the band, after Deacon the Drummer thanked them for coming out. Backstage, Alex was...weird. She herself was confused, yet happy. "He's here."
"What?" Tyler asked.
"I don't know. Maybe, maybe he's alive. Maybe he's an angel. But he's here."
"Alex, you're not making any sense. Is this about Jack?"
Alex stood up, and started walking, but Will stopped her. "Alex..What?"
"I either wanna see him or prove to myself that he was never here. I can't go without knowing whether he's here." She looked in his eyes. "I know who I saw Will. You know, too." She ran out, and around, and into the crowd. She ran out to where she saw him, near the front, her eyes darting around. She didn't see him anywhere. The Spares had run after her, and by the time they got to her, she had fallen down in a squat position, her hands covering her head. They stopped dead in heir tracks when they saw a hand reach out to her. She looked up, and grabbed the generous hand. He brought her to her feet, and brought her into his arms. They finally separated, slightly, their foreheads resting against the other's.
"You still have it." He said softly, touching his necklace.
"I always kept it with me."
"I thought I lost it."
"I thought I lost you."
They returned to their embrace. Jack closed his eyes, he had waited so long, now he had her back. This was where he was meant to be. This was home. With her. He belonged here. He would never leave her again.