"I didn't try to kill myself," Frank said for the nineteenth time.
The doctor wasn't listening. "Look at this," she kept saying to the nurse helping her sew Frank up. "Look at this; he's not even bleeding anymore. And he missed the artery by less than a centimeter."
The nurse nodded and leaned over to take a closer look. She looked like she might be pretty under the mask, Frank thought. "And they're both exactly the same shape and size on both sides. I don't know how he did that."
"Stop saying 'he'," Frank gritted. "I told you, I didn't do this."
"What do you do for a living, Frank?" the doctor asked, carefully pushing the little curved needle through the ragged edge of Frank's skin.
"I'm a body piercer."
The doctor's eyes flicked up to meet his. "You must need to know a lot about anatomy for that, right? So you don't hit anything important?"
Frank rolled his eyes. "Where's Doctor Durning?"
"Are you under a lot of stress in your life, Frank?"
"There's not enough stress in the world to make me suicidal, lady. You don't know me."
"So what happened?"
Frank didn't say anything.
The doctor snipped off the end of the thread. "Frank, self-inflicted wounds are usually a sign of - "
"I didn't inflict anything!" Frank shouted, making the doctor jerk back a little. "I can't tell you what happened because I don't know, all right, just sew me the fuck up so I can get the fuck out of here."
"You'll need to stay at least overnight for observation," the doctor said calmly. "And I want you to talk to someone from psych-"
"No," Frank interrupted her again. "I don't need a fucking shrink, all right, I need, I need a fucking exorcism or something."
"Your friends seem to agree," the doctor said, standing up.
Frank said, "What?"
She took off her mask, and so did the nurse. They were both pretty, actually. "I'll be back in a little while, Frank, don't think about making a run for it."
They left, and a few seconds later Brian appeared in the doorway, towing Mikey Way behind him. They stepped into the room, followed by - oh.
"You should have called me," said Gerard, coming straight over to the bed and pulling up a chair. He looked back at Mikey and Brian. "Can you give us few minutes, guys?"
Brian's eyes kind of bugged out of his head. He was used to being the one who knew what to do and what was going on, Frank knew, but who could tell a priest to back off? "I'm not sure-"
"I need to talk to Frank," Gerard insisted.
Mikey exchanged a complicated, wordless series of facial expressions with Gerard - Frank could do that with Mikey too, a little, but this was seriously Olympic standard - and tugged on Brian's sleeve.
"Come on," he said. "Let's call the shop and make sure Bob and Toro are okay."
"I want to stay with him," Brian said obstinately, taking another step towards the bed. "He shouldn't be with a stranger."
Mikey looked at Brian like he was crazy. "It's not a stranger, it's Gerard."
"Yes," said Brian, "And it's awesome that you two are mind-meld buddies, but we don't know him."
"Oh." Mikey turned that over in his head. "Huh. I guess."
"It's okay, Brian," Frank told him
Brian followed Mikey reluctantly out of the room, and Gerard turned back to Frank. "How are you doing?"
