A Way Back Home | Adopted by Gerard Way (Book Two)

Déjà Vue (67)

A/N: buckle your seatbelts kids i'm so sorry about this

• • •

Listening to music that's just a little too loud as the shitty car speakers rattle, windows rolled all the way down because we can't contain our joy, this night couldn't get any better. I'm overwhelmed with happiness and I couldn't care less about the fact that I haven't listened to Fall Out Boy in a while and fucked up on the lyrics to Sugar, We're Goin Down.

It's not just about the fact that we'll be arriving in Jersey very soon (were about to leave New York state), that I'll get to see my dad, my girlfriend, all these people I've been missing for months, so much so that it feels like I left a piece of me behind when I left. It's not just that I'm going to get to meet my baby sister, Bandit, for the first time. Hold her in my arms and tell her she's a perfect little angel I can't wait to watch grow up.

It's that my voice will be raw by the time the sun comes up from screaming lyrics at the top of my lungs. I haven't felt this alive, my heart hasn't swelled like this with excitement, pure glee, even contentment, since the night Emerald crashed her lips against mine after we'd counted down to, "HAPPY NEW YEAR!" all those months ago.

And it's that I dug myself into a hole after that. Spiralled into a pit of self destruction and lies I vowed never to return to and felt like I'd never be able to crawl out of, but now I feel like I finally have. I feel like I've learned to breathe again after months of being stuck under water.

"Oh my God, I love this song!" Ryder yells over the intro to American Idiot.

"Everyone loves this song!" Krash yells back.

"DON'T WANNA BE AN AMERICAN IDIOT," we all shout in unison as we zoom across the George Washington Bridge, leaving Manhattan and entering New Jersey. "DON'T WANT A NATION UNDER THE NEW MANIA!"

"Are you crying, Way!?" Raven asks, peering at my face under the passing street lights and headlights from other vehicles, leaning over and basically shouting in my ear so I can hear.

I put a hand up to my face and wipe the tears off my cheeks I didn't even notice were falling. "Happy tears!" I tell them. "I'm so happy right now!"

If we weren't on our way to my home, I wouldn't want this journey to end. We have hours worth of music and stamina, fuelled by the night air and the bass thumping in our chests.

But every journey has to come to an end.

Ryder mutes the music. "What the fuck are they doing?" he asks no one in particular, squinting through the windshield.

My eyes widen. "Krash, step on the brakes."

"Shit, shit, shit," he says under his breath as we approach the car stalled in the road up ahead.

"Krash step on the brakes!" I shriek.

But we're going too fast. We'll hit them dead on, so he panics and swerves.

You know how they say your life flashes before your eyes? Well it's true. Every moment of it— every smile and laugh, every tear shed, every memory you thought you'd forgotten— compressed into just a few chaotic seconds before it all fades to black.

• • •

Gerard's POV

Mikey and I weren't planning on spending the night sitting on the couch, but we've been here for the last few hours after we discovered a Star Wars marathon was playing. We sat down just as The Empire Strikes Back was starting.

It's nearing 1am, Lindsey is asleep upstairs and so is Bandit. I asked if they wanted to stay down here, but Linds suggested we wait a few years to introduce the baby to the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire.