drown (joshler)

part twenty two

a/n: this chapter cover is a church in downtown buffalo that josh is going to visit in the next couple chapters. i was being edgy and put a b/w filter over it and wrote some p!atd lyrics on it. enjoy this chapter!

josh sat in his chair, tapping a beat on his knee. he was content, and surprisingly so was tyler, which almost never happened. tyler was getting his blood taken again. josh and tyler watched as the thick, red liquid ran up the clear tube into the syringe. the doctor took the needle out and walked out of the room.

josh held his suitcase in one hand and tyler's hand in his other as he stood at the side of his bed. tyler gripped on his hand, knuckles turning white.

"it's gonna be okay, tyler. it's one night and a day, that's it. ill be back by midnight tomorrow at the latest," josh said, running his hand over the little hair tyler had growing back. "you're gonna be okay."

josh was leaving for buffalo today, he was going to meet ryan at the airport on the outskirts of the city, and ryan would drive him to the apartment he had set up for josh and tyler. he would be gone for the weekend, leaving friday and getting back sunday night. the flight was only about forty minutes, but ryan insisted he flew him in. he had a lot of money.

tyler was, in its simplest terms, fuckin' scared. he didn't know if he would explode like he would before while josh was gone, or worse. he wasn't prepared for josh to leave right after his whole ordeal. nurse jack would be there, which wouldn't be too bad since he was so nice, but so many things could go wrong.

josh let go of tyler's hand, leaned down, and kissed tyler on the lips. a slow, soft kiss that held for seconds as quiet tears fell down tyler's cheeks.

"hey," josh said as he broke the kiss to wipe the tears off tyler's cheeks. "no tears, baby." he turned and stood at the door way. "i love you, very much, tyler robert."

"i love you too, joshua william." josh smiled and closed the door to room 3009.

the loud close of the door left tyler with the soft beeping of his monitor and the other hospital sounds. he stared ahead of him, watching out the window as the april rain poured down on the sad, grey city below. he thought about the apartment they would probably end up moving into, the beautiful city they were going to live in.

for the first time, tyler thought everything was going to be okay.

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tyler woke up, distorted, confused, and for the first time in years, not really that tired.

he had gotten 8 hours of sleep.

he immediately lurched for his phone and turned it on. 8:03AM. he opened it and called josh. it rang once before he picked up.

"ty guy!" he said into the phone.
"josh! you'll never believe it!"
"what?"
"i got eight hours of sleep!"
"tyler," josh paused. "i am so, so proud of you."
tyler smiled and blushed. "thank you josh. gotta go."
"love you, ty."
"love you too."
he hung up and sighed happily as he put down his phone on the side table.

he watched the late april rain run down his small window. the background white noise of the hospital beeps and fluorescent lights calmed tyler as he sunk down into his bed.

nurse jack turned the corner and opened the door to room 3008, a room that is connected to  room 3009 with nothing but a curtain keeping the rooms private and separate. jack was followed by two people, a man and a woman. the woman was clutching the cross on her necklace, and she had tears in her eyes. the man was stone faced, holding his wife by the shoulders.

nurse jack waved weakly and pulled the curtain back to reveal a boy, no older than nineteen. he was thin, black short hair and freckles. from what tyler could tell, he seemed to be just under 6', so a tad taller than tyler. the boy had been crying just as much as his mother, and his neck was deeply bruised; purple, blue and green splotches covered his neck and eyes.

the parents only stayed in the room for five minutes before leaving. tyler couldn't hear them because he had just woken up and his hearing needed some time to thaw in the morning, but he imagined they were talking about his situation and other hospital stuff.

nurse jack left the room without closing the curtain, leaving the two rooms connected. tyler stared straight ahead at the boy's bed, not ten feet away. the boy turned his head and looked at tyler.

"what's your name?" tyler whispered, and the boy jumped at the question. "sorry. didn't mean to startle you." he said, quieter.

"that's okay," the boy whispered back revealing a medium toned, broken voice. he spoke slurred and quiet. "i'm frank."

tyler smiled weakly. "my names tyler. what're you here for?"

"attempted suicide," he said, looking down at his hands. "sort of. i pretty much beat myself up until i couldn't see or hear. i thought i was dead, but apparently it was just a three day coma."

"that's what i'm was here for too," tyler whispered back. "originally. four suicide attempts in three months." frank widened his eyes. "yea. then, i was diagnosed with lung cancer. so i've been here on and off from july to october, then full time since the end of october until now."

"i'm sorry," frank said. "can you repeat the last thing you said?"

as tyler repeated how long he had been at the hospital, tyler watched as frank stared at tyler's lips. his mouth moved with tyler's, repeating what he was saying.

frank is deaf.

tyler immediately felt awful for making this poor boy speak for so long, it must be so hard to read lips and form a full sentence and say it as well as he did. thank god tyler had a deaf friend in middle school, and his leftover signing skills were mediocre, but he could still talk to frank.

tyler signed 'are you deaf?'

frank's eyes lit up, and he eagerly signed back 'yes, i am completely deaf in my left ear and 3/4 deaf in my right. i am glad you can sign.'

tyler smiled and thought before he signed 'sorry i made you talk for so long.'

'it's okay, i'm alright with talking. getting better. i really appreciate you signing, though. a lot of my friends don't bother.'

tyler felt bad for him. 'that's awful.'

frank smiled. 'i get by.'

nurse jack came in just then and wheeled frank's bed out of the conjoined room. frank waved weakly at tyler as he disappeared into the hallway and nurse jack pulled the curtain back over.

tyler wouldn't know until two years later, but frank died that evening during surgery. he was too weak to survive during surgery on his appendix. his last words to his mother before surgery were signed.

'that boy in there, tyler? he's a real great kid.'

second a/n: yes i put frank iero in my fic fight me