Unholyverse

~Part 17~

Mikey agreed, but he also thought that handing back to the care system wouldn't help, when they'd been desperate enough to do anything to get away from it. "Isn't there, like, can't the Church look after them?"

Gerard gave a hollow laugh. "Yeah, I'm sure Mark would be just thrilled with that. One of the homes they were in before they were separated was run by the Church."

Oh. "And...it wasn't nice?"

"No," Gerard said shortly. "It wasn't."

He obviously didn't want to talk about it, which meant Mikey didn't want to hear about it, really, because anything that Gerard didn't want to talk about had to be pretty fucking bad. He just rubbed Gerard's shoulders and made a sympathetic noise.

"There's just no way that it's over," Gerard said, rubbing his eyes. "My guess is that this shady guy, whoever he is, is draining more people in Chicago itself. But I can't figure why he needs Pete."

"Well, but he won't have him anymore, right?" Mikey pointed out reasonably. "I mean, won't that ruin his plans?"

Gerard shook his head, his mouth set in a grim line. "I don't know, Mikey. Seems like they always find a way."

Whatever Gerard's misgivings were, the show that night went off without a hitch, and afterwards Pete was totally fine, no ill effects at all. He practically danced off the stage and immediately wrapped Mikey up in a tight, sweaty hug, dancing him around a bit so Mikey had to cling to his shoulders in case they ended up on their asses on the floor.

"Magic," he said, beaming, and pressed a wet, smacking kiss to Mikey's cheek. "You're totally magic, Mikey Way."

Patrick and the other guys were smiling so hard Mikey was a little worried they might hurt themselves. "This is what he's like," he heard Andy say to Bob. "This is what he's really like, when he's okay."

Everyone was in a good mood after that. The band because Pete wasn't fading away in front of their eyes anymore, the crew because the tour was a breath away from being over, and Bob because he kept remembering things that his Mom cooked that he couldn't get anywhere else and couldn't wait to have.

"I mean, I don't want you to think I only love her for her food," he said seriously. The crew were still loading the buses back up, and Mikey was keeping Bob company while he had a smoke. "But good God, the woman can cook."

Mikey nodded, lifting his hand to shade his eyes from the sun. "I believe you, man."

"Plus you really can't get good pizza outside of Chicago," Bob mused.

"Hey," Frank scowled, leaning on the wall next to Mikey and lighting a cigarette of his own. "Jersey pizza is the best, man."

"You know I'm not even going to dignify that by debating it with you," Bob said lightly. "Don't even try."

"Hey guys, good news," Brian said, snapping his phone shut as he came out to join them. "I just spoke to Craig, and it turns out he sits on the board of a charity that helps troubled teenagers. He thinks he can find somewhere safe for Danny and Mark to stay."

"Seriously?" Brian nodded and Mikey thumped his shoulder. "That's so awesome, man, Gee's gonna be stoked."

Brian grinned. "It means they won't have to go back to a group home, won't have to be separated. I think Mark's still going to need someone keeping an eye on him, but-" he was cut off by his phone ringing again; he looked down at the display, raised his eyebrows, and answered it. "Ray? Why are – what?" Brian frowned. "Why? But – okay, then. We'll be right there."

"What is it?" Mikey said as soon as he hung up.

"I don't know," Brian said worriedly. "He's upstairs with Gerard and the kids. He said we need to get back up there."