Ashes To Ashes (Priest!Gerard Frerard) [SEQUEL]

Ten

Ten

Kellin was easy to convince. He already knew most of my problems anyway, so it didn't come as much of a shock to him when I turned up with Dewees (along with his luggage) and Hannah. In fact, he just sighed and turned the kettle on without a word.

"Go on" He said once we'd set down the bags and pulled up some chairs "What's happened now?"

I was brief about Dewees situation, but that didn't really make it seem any less of a crisis. As I talked, Hannah made coffee and Dewees did some serious staring at the floor, probably craving another fix by this point and so desperately trying to fight off the urge. It wasn't like there were any drugs in the house anyway, so he didn't really have much of a choice. Perhaps this would be a good thing for him,now he would have no choice but to give up. 

"You better pick out a guest room then" Kellin sighed to him once i'd finished "looks like you'll be staying here for a while."His house seemed more like a hotel at this point, or to be more accurate perhaps a hostel for messed up teenagers. 

"Is that ok?" Dewees finally spoke.

"Of course, just pick out one of the rooms on the left, Frank's already claimed one of them. Do you want a hand with your bags?"

"No, it's fine" he started to pick them up off the ground, hands shaking a little from the withdrawal we'd no doubt be seeing a lot more of in the next few hours. "Thanks Kellin."

We waited until he was out of earshot before we spoke again.

"This can only be temporary" Hannah spoke, voicing the thought i'd been too tired to say myself "he's going to start going through withdrawals, and it won't be pretty. He needs a proper rehab, somewhere far away where he won't be found."

"Where are we going to get the money to do that?" I snapped a little, but she ignored my tone of voice. She clearly had more patience than the rest of us. Or maybe she was just less tired of all this shit than I was. 

"My parents have quite a few paintings. We could-"

"Kellin, we can't sell off your parents art collection to send our friend to rehab" I cut him off "you've already done enough as it is, I can't let you do that too. He stays here for now, until I figure out something." It was my problem after all. I brought him to kellin's, so I should be the one to figure out how to get him to rehab. 

"Fine" he shrugged "but the offer's there if you change your mind."

"I won't."

Hannah jumped in at this point, taking charge of the conversation again.

"Ok, he stays here for now. Moving on - what are you going to do Frank? When this guy finds out that Dewees is missing, he'll come looking for you no doubt." As she spoke, Kellin crossed the room and drew the curtains on the evening outside.

"Just in case" he mumbled. His house was safe for now, but we couldn't afford to get over confident. Not with both of us now under his roof. 

"Anyway" She continued "Does he know where you used to live? Or your college? Are there places he'd look for you in?"

"No, just Dewees' house, it wouldn't exactly be hard to check the local collages so I guess going back next week isn't an option for me anymore" in a weird way i'd been almost looking forward to going back in September, a mere week away by this point, just for the sense of normality and mundane routine that collage gave me. However now it seemed that Ian was going to destroy that for me too.

"You need to keep a low profile then" She grimaced "It's all we can do for now except keep you house bound, and I doubt you'll be up for that."

"No way" as soppy as it sounded, i'd rather risk it than go without seeing Gerard.