When Frank woke up, groggy and aching a little, Ray was still sleeping like the dead across the room. Ray was a quiet sleeper - he didn't toss and turn like Frank, or snore like Bob or Brian - but occasionally he muttered to himself. Mostly nonsense, but Frank listened carefully and picked out the words 'raspberry' and 'server', which made him smile as he swung his legs out of bed and tiptoed to the bathroom, closing the door quietly behind him.
He pissed and brushed his teeth and then stood there for a while, just breathing and thinking about how Gerard was alive, and back with them, and just in the other room. He still couldn't quite believe it, and the urge to double-check was irresistible, so he padded back out of the bathroom, pulled his jeans on, and made his way down the hall to Gerard and Mikey's room.
Their door was just the tiniest bit ajar. Frank caught himself before he touched it, and pressed his eye to the gap instead. Mikey was sitting up against the headboard, with Gerard's head in his lap.
"You didn't call Mom and Dad?" Gerard was saying incredulously.
"I told you, I didn't feel like you were really dead," Mikey said patiently, stroking Gerard's hair away from his face. "And anyway, thank God I didn't, okay? How would I have explained you coming back?"
Gerard made a noise, almost a laugh or a sigh. Then he said, "Was it a feeling like you had about Pete?"
Mikey frowned a little bit. "At first I just thought it was wishful thinking. But then...well, it got stronger. And - yeah, I think it was. Like Pete."
Gerard was quiet for a while. He closed his eyes. He looped his arm around Mikey's waist.
Frank felt so wrong, standing there spying on them from the hallway like a creep, but he couldn't make himself move away. It was like he was starving for the sight of Gerard, greedy to just be near him, even if Gerard didn't know he was there. And for Mikey, too, for Mikey like this, calm and whole. Frank cast a nervous glance up and down the hallway, and stayed where he was.
"How are you feeling?" Mikey wanted to know. He touched the side of Gerard's neck. "That rash or whatever seems to have gone down."
"Yeah," Gerard said, then shifted around a little. "I don't know, I feel so weird. Like...disconnected, or something. Unplugged."
"You'll feel better after you speak to the Cardinal," Mikey said confidently. "And you have to take it easy on yourself, okay? You've been through...well, we don't even know what. Give yourself a break."
Gerard smiled a little. He reached up and curled his fingers around Mikey's wrist for a second.
"And Gerard," Mikey hesitated, making a face at the opposite wall, before going on, "Do me a favor?"
"Anything," said Gerard.
"Frank."
Frank froze, holding his breath and feeling his heart beat wildly in panic.
"He was out of his mind," Mikey said quietly. "When you were gone. Just - just try to be careful with him, okay?"
Gerard was silent for a long time, during which Frank had to struggle not to throw up or clap his hands over his ears or fall through the door in his desperation to hear what his answer might be. Eventually he said, "I do - I always try, Mikey."
Mikey made a face that was impossible to read, and his voice was equally shuttered. "I know you do."
Gerard rolled over, pressing his face against Mikey's belly. Mikey hugged him close and made a soft sound, and Frank's whole body ached with how bad he wanted to be the one comforting Gerard, how much he would have given to be in that room with them. But then there was a sound on the stairs, and Frank just had time to throw himself a respectable distance away from the door when Craig appeared at the end of the hall, doing some over-exaggerated tiptoe walk that made him look like a spider.
"I don't want to disturb you," he whisper-shouted to Frank. "But your stuff just arrived, and I thought you might be hungry?"
Frank's stomach immediately growled its agreement and he laughed to cover the fact he was flustered as hell. "I'll wake them up," he whispered back, and Craig beamed and tiptoe-walked back to the stairs again.
What a weirdo, Frank thought, not unaffectionately, and raised his hand to knock on Gerard and Mikey's door.
