The Journey Thus Far: A My Chemical Romance Novel

Chapter 5: Explaining the Story Once Again, or Not Thankfully

Chapter 5: Explaining the Story Once Again, or Not Thankfully

"Shhh, it's okay baby, it's okay," Gerard whispered as he bounced her up and down the next morning. It had been a long night for Gerard. Helena had woken up about twelve times for various reasons and Gerard just considered himself lucky to not have his mother come into his room. "Okay, how about a bottle?" he tried. He had finally given in.

Sighing, he grabbed her baby carrier, a clean bottle, and walked into the kitchen.

In a half asleep haze, he repeated the process he had gone through four times the night before. He placed the carrier on the counter, put Helena in it, opened the bottle, filled it with the formula and water, put the cover on, shook the bottle, popped it in the microwave, and walked over to Helena. She was fussy but he had decided to just leave her in the carrier and rocked her while he hummed. It didn't do anything because she was hungry, but he kept going.

"Come on Princess, Daddy almost has your bottle ready," he whispered right as the microwave beeped. "Finally," he sighed in relief. The process of testing the heat of the formula was quick enough and then he managed to pick her up and walked into the living room. No one was awake yet and he sat on the couch, the bottle already in Helena's mouth. Gerard sighed as he just watched his daughter with a small smile on his face. He thought she was looking at him, but then remembered that she couldn't see him.

"Hey Gee, hey Mini Gee," Mikey said as he came in. "Did you guys sleep okay last night?"

"No," Gerard moaned as he sank deeper into the couch. "We were up all night. I swear, the only way I'm going to get through parenthood is if I lived off of coffee."

"That's how I was until Mikey was five and in school," their mother said as she came in and scooped Helena out of Gerard's arms, taking the bottle with her. "Hello Precious. And who are you?"

"Umm Mom, meet Helena Leala Way, your new granddaughter," Gerard said hesitantly. "Please don't kill me. I only adopted her yesterday."

"You adopted this beauty?" his mother asked as she grabbed a dish towel from the linen closet and started to burp Helena.

"Yep. I found her abandoned in an alley way, brought her to the hospital and decided to adopt her."

"I have a feeling that it's a very long story that Mikey already knows," his mother sighed as she rocked Helena. "And you look tired. Go back to bed. I'll take care of this little girl for now. You get some more sleep and tell me the story later."

Gerard sighed at the thought of sleep, but, "I can't," he sighed. "We need to finish recording today. We don't have a lot of time or money. We can't skip today. Can you just watch Helena while I shower, get dressed, and pack her stuff? Frank can watch her at the studio since he's not recording today, but he's still coming, and he knows how to feed her, burp her and change her."

"Are you sure about that hunny?" his mother asked as she repositioned a now sleeping Helena so that they were both more comfortable.

"Yeah, he helped me buy some stuff for her yesterday and picked her up from the hospital with me. I showed him the basics while I waited for her doctor to come and release her into my care. Plus I can always write down the steps for him just in case he forgets. Let me get you her clothes and a clean diaper. I'll pre-make a few bottles before I go so that all Frank has to do is heat them up. Can you please just get her ready while I get ready?" he asked, no, he pleaded and begged his mother.

"Yes, just get me her things. And I won't tell your father. Not right now. But you will," she said softly at first, but she got sterner the farther into the sentence she got. "Now, you have several choices. You can tell me and your friends the full story later after recording, call us during break and tell the story with the phone on speaker, or you can tell your friends before you leave the studio and then tell me and your father after."