Catch Me If You Can - Part 17
Part One / Part Two / Part Three / Part Four / Part Five / Part Six / Part Seven / Part Eight / Part Nine / Part Ten / Part Eleven / Part Twelve / Part Thirteen / Part Fourteen / Part Fifteen / Part Sixteen
----Day 31----
The geyser went off again.
“That never gets old,” Bert said before eating the last bit of his sandwich.
“Yeah, that is still really cool, even after the fifth time,” Gerard agrees, sipping his coke. After he was done, he set it down and checked behind himself.
Bert watched him curiously.
Gerard then laid down, stretching out along the rug.
Bert smiled at him before following his lead and sprawling out alongside Gerard and the remnants of their lunch. He snaked a hand between a bag of chips and a plate with a few sandwiches left on it to grab Gerard’s hand.
Gerard smiled and squeezed his hand.
After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Bert’s phone rang. He jumped and let go of Gerard’s hand to dig around in his pocket. He glanced at the caller ID.
“Frank? That better be you...”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“Oh thank god. Last time-”
“Yeah, I know, you got Mikey. Sorry about that. He took my phone after he found out that I’d kinda been helping you and couldn’t get through to you on his phone. He thought maybe you were ignoring his calls.”
“Well, we weren’t.”
“Then why weren’t you accepting calls?”
“My phone was off.”
“Oh... well, look guys, they know you’re heading for L.A. I wouldn’t doubt if someone’s already there waiting for you.”
“Don’t you know?”
“They, uh, decided not to keep me completely in the loop after they found out, just in case I was passing on info to you.”
“Fair enough... I’ll guess we’ll just have to run the risk.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you wanna talk to Gee-gee?”
“Yeah, put him on.”
“‘Gee-gee’?” Gerard asked, reaching out for the phone. Bert smiled and shrugged, handing over the small device.”
“Hey, Frankie!” Gerard chimed.
“‘Gee-gee’?”
“Don’t start....” he laughed.
“Yeah, but... ‘Gee-gee’?”
“I don’t know.”
“How are you?”
He looked over at Bert, who was ambling towards the bathroom and smiled serenely. “I’m great.”
“Yeah? So you worked it out?”
“Worked what out?”
“What everyone else already knew. Duh!”
“Frank!”
“What?! We did! We knew exactly why you two ran off. So, are you married yet?”
Gerard rolled his eyes. “No, but not for any lack of Bert trying.”
“You went to Vegas?”
“Yes. How the fuck did you know?”
“Dude, it’s Bert we’re talking about here.”
The older man sighed. “You mean; you talked to Patrick, who talked to Brendon, who we ran into in Vegas, who told Patrick, who told you.”
“....there’s also that.” Gerard laughed. “Oh, shut up.”
“Hey, Frankie? What were you warning Bert about?”
“Oh, that...they know you’re heading for L.A., so there’s probably someone already there, waiting for you guys to make an appearance.”
“...yeah...but... maybe it’s time to face the music.”
“Gerard, you don’t believe that.”
“No. Not at all. But we’re gonna have to run the risk if we wanna keep going.”
“You’re gonna go now, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.” He watched as Bert started back towards him. “But, call Mikes, tell him I’m really happy. Can you do that for me?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you. Bye, Frank.”
“Bye bye, Gee... oh, and, Gee?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
“Love you too, Frankie... bye.”
“Bye.”
With that, Gerard hit the disconnect button just as Bert sat back down beside him.
“What’s up, baby?” Bert asked.
Gerard shook his head, smiled and crooked a finger at Bert. Bert leaned forward. Gerard leaned in and pecked him on the lips.
They spent the night in a nearby hotel, deciding it was much too late to start the drive to L.A.
-----Day 32-----
They reached L.A. by evening, having stopped only twice for food.
“Hey, let’s stop there, see if they have any vacancies,” Bert said, pointing out the window. Gerard kept driving. “Oookay... somewhere else then... how ‘bout there?” Gerard drove straight past the second one too. “Dude, where’re you going?”
“We’re going straight to the airport.”
“Why?”
“We can’t stop here, Bert.”
“Why?”
“You heard what Frank said. There’s probably already someone here, waiting for us.”
Bert nodded. “Yeah, but can’t we at least stop somewhere to rest for the night.”
“After.”
“After what?”
“After we get tickets.”
“To where, might I ask.”
“I dunno,” Gerard answered with a shrug “I was thinking... Hawaii.” He turned and smiled shyly at Bert “Yeah?”
Bert grinned. “Oh?”
“Oh.”
“Okay, sounds good to me.” He giggled.
----
They got to the airport and parked the car somewhere safe, but where Jamia would be able to find it when she came looking for it. They took all of their things out of the boot, stuffing their belongings into the suitcase and throwing the perishables away in the nearby bin.
“What about the keys?” Gerard asked.
“Um... hold on, I’ll call Frank,” Bert said. He quickly pulled out his phone and dialled Frank’s number. “Hey, Frankie.... yeah, I’m good. You?... cool... now, I need to know, what about the car keys. What do we do with them once we get to- No! We’re not in L.A.! No, just... shut up! What do we do with the keys?.....okay, so she does have a set? Good. Okay, thanks, Frankie.... Love you too, munchkin... bye.” He hung up and turned to Gerard. “The keys come with us.”
Gerard nodded and picked up the suitcase. “Let’s go.”
----
They got to the front desk after queuing for half an hour to find out that there were no seats available on flights to Hawaii until the next afternoon. They thought about it for a minute before agreeing, and buying two seats. They completed the transaction and headed out.
They never noticed the lady picking up the telephone as they left.
----Day 33-----
The alarm buzzed obnoxiously and continuously.
Both men groaned, rolling to try to cover their ears.
“Why the fuck did we even set that thing?!” Bert yelled, his voice muffled by the pillow he was face-first in.
“I don’t know...”Gerard mumbled. He suddenly sat up straight. “We’ve got a flight today.”
“Wha...?” Bert’s eyes flew open as Gerard stumbled out of the bed. “Oh!” He sat up and watched Gerard run into the bathroom, leaving him to switch off the alarm. After doing so, he sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing his eyes tiredly and trying his best not to flop back onto the bed and go back to sleep.
Gerard ambled out of the bathroom a few minutes later only to have Bert jump up and run at him, knock him clear of the door and dart in. He laughed, making his way to the kitchen to start some coffee.
The water had just finished boiling when he heard the flush and he’d just finished pouring the water into the coffee mugs when a pair of arms wound around his waist.
“Hmm, coffee? For me?” Bert asked, leaning his chin on Gerard’s shoulder.
“Haha, yes. And for me,” Gerard replied.
“Aww, but I thought both cups were for me...”he pouted.
“Bertie, it’s instant. Do you really want both?”
“Ah, I guess not.”
Gerard picked up the mugs and started to turn around. Bert’s arms were still wrapped around him, preventing him from turning very far. “Bert, if you want the coffee, you’ve gotta let me turn around.”
“I will. But first, give me a kiss.”
Gerard rolled his eyes, but indulged him, turning his head and kissing Bert on the lips. Bert smiled and let him go, grabbing one of the cups from Gerard’s hand. He sipped it, then paused.
“I think this one’s yours,” he said, pulling a face “Not sweet enough.”
Gerard only laughed at him, before trading cups.
“What time does our flight leave?”
“4 o’clock.”
“Cool, so it’s what? 10 o’clock now... so we don’t need to be at the airport for like, 4 hours...”Bert rambled between sips of coffee, nodding to himself. “When do we have to be checked out by?”
“10:30.”
“Oh....crap, I guess we’d better get moving then.”
----
They were out the door in less than 20 minutes, checked-out in 25 and on the road in 30. They were quite impressed with themselves.
----
“You looking forward to Hawaii?” Gerard queried, smiling at Bert as they ate.
“Yeah, totally,” Bert responded enthusiastically.
“Excellent. It should be loads of fun.”
“Yeah, it should.”
They both grinned at each other.
----
They parked the car in the airport’s lot for the second and final time before heading inside. They lugged the suitcase towards the check-in line together.
Behind them, a group of men stood. One pointed towards them.
Gerard and Bert were oblivious as the men started towards them. They were talking softly, but excitedly about Hawaii, when the older man froze.
“What’s wrong?” Bert asked.
“I smell Ray’s cologne...”
“There’s a reason for that,” a high-pitched, but distinctly male voice said from behind them.
Neither could move quick enough.
A set of arms locked around each of their bodies, trapping their upper arms against their bodies.
“Shit...” Gerard wilted.
Bert started squirming. “No! Put me down! Branden! Put me down!”
A few people turned to look but did nothing.
After a minute, Bert gave up and allowed himself to go limp.
Mikey walked into their line of sight, stopping in front of them. “This your suitcase?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Gerard replied with a sigh.
“You guys are in big shit,” Brian said, stepping up next to Mikey.
The two men, who’d finally been caught once and for all, turned to look at each other.
“Oh well...” they shrugged and smiled.
----
They were dragged up to the Reprise offices without a word being spoken to them by anyone the whole way there. They were then locked in Brian’s office while said man paced the hall outside, trying to calm down.
They listened as someone walked up to him and spoke in quiet, harsh tones. They heard Brian sigh after a moment before he walked in and sat on the edge of the desk.
“You two - Gerard Way and Bert McCracken, front men of My Chemical Romance and The Used respectively - were missing for 33 and 36 days respectively. Do you know how much trouble you two caused?!”
They shrunk back in their chairs.
“But you’re lucky.” He threw a stack of papers at them, then announced, “Your friends love you more than I do right now.”
Feeling confused, they picked up the papers and read them. They were the forms that needed to be filed for leave. And they were approved and dated the day Bert disappeared.
“But, we didn’t...”Gerard started, not thinking.
“I know you didn’t, but.... there’s actually been a logical reason created for us believing you’ve gone MIA on us now. Although, I think Bob had to go on a date with the lady from human resources though. You better thank him.”
They looked to each other, then up at Brian. He was glaring viciously.
“You may have gotten away with this, but you are still in big trouble.”
“How big?” Bert asked without considering the possible ramifications of his question.
Brian exploded, yelling at them for their ‘stupidity’. He told them that if they tried it again, they’d probably be dropped from the label as well as many other threats. He grilled them for at least half an hour, or more.
But through all the yelling, all the names and the threats, they bit their lips and tried not to smile. It didn’t matter how much trouble they were in, or what the consequences were. They had each other, and that’s all that mattered to them.
Through all the yelling, the name-calling and the various threats on body parts, they were alright. They could weather it, because they’d figured it out. They were together, and they loved each other and nothing could take that away.
And through the whole dressing-down, they felt okay because they were there for each other physically as well as emotionally, holding hands.
End.
A/N: If you made it here, congratulations and thank you. Also, sorry for the inconsistent part lengths and the sheer amount of them.
----Day 31----
The geyser went off again.
“That never gets old,” Bert said before eating the last bit of his sandwich.
“Yeah, that is still really cool, even after the fifth time,” Gerard agrees, sipping his coke. After he was done, he set it down and checked behind himself.
Bert watched him curiously.
Gerard then laid down, stretching out along the rug.
Bert smiled at him before following his lead and sprawling out alongside Gerard and the remnants of their lunch. He snaked a hand between a bag of chips and a plate with a few sandwiches left on it to grab Gerard’s hand.
Gerard smiled and squeezed his hand.
After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Bert’s phone rang. He jumped and let go of Gerard’s hand to dig around in his pocket. He glanced at the caller ID.
“Frank? That better be you...”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“Oh thank god. Last time-”
“Yeah, I know, you got Mikey. Sorry about that. He took my phone after he found out that I’d kinda been helping you and couldn’t get through to you on his phone. He thought maybe you were ignoring his calls.”
“Well, we weren’t.”
“Then why weren’t you accepting calls?”
“My phone was off.”
“Oh... well, look guys, they know you’re heading for L.A. I wouldn’t doubt if someone’s already there waiting for you.”
“Don’t you know?”
“They, uh, decided not to keep me completely in the loop after they found out, just in case I was passing on info to you.”
“Fair enough... I’ll guess we’ll just have to run the risk.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you wanna talk to Gee-gee?”
“Yeah, put him on.”
“‘Gee-gee’?” Gerard asked, reaching out for the phone. Bert smiled and shrugged, handing over the small device.”
“Hey, Frankie!” Gerard chimed.
“‘Gee-gee’?”
“Don’t start....” he laughed.
“Yeah, but... ‘Gee-gee’?”
“I don’t know.”
“How are you?”
He looked over at Bert, who was ambling towards the bathroom and smiled serenely. “I’m great.”
“Yeah? So you worked it out?”
“Worked what out?”
“What everyone else already knew. Duh!”
“Frank!”
“What?! We did! We knew exactly why you two ran off. So, are you married yet?”
Gerard rolled his eyes. “No, but not for any lack of Bert trying.”
“You went to Vegas?”
“Yes. How the fuck did you know?”
“Dude, it’s Bert we’re talking about here.”
The older man sighed. “You mean; you talked to Patrick, who talked to Brendon, who we ran into in Vegas, who told Patrick, who told you.”
“....there’s also that.” Gerard laughed. “Oh, shut up.”
“Hey, Frankie? What were you warning Bert about?”
“Oh, that...they know you’re heading for L.A., so there’s probably someone already there, waiting for you guys to make an appearance.”
“...yeah...but... maybe it’s time to face the music.”
“Gerard, you don’t believe that.”
“No. Not at all. But we’re gonna have to run the risk if we wanna keep going.”
“You’re gonna go now, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.” He watched as Bert started back towards him. “But, call Mikes, tell him I’m really happy. Can you do that for me?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you. Bye, Frank.”
“Bye bye, Gee... oh, and, Gee?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
“Love you too, Frankie... bye.”
“Bye.”
With that, Gerard hit the disconnect button just as Bert sat back down beside him.
“What’s up, baby?” Bert asked.
Gerard shook his head, smiled and crooked a finger at Bert. Bert leaned forward. Gerard leaned in and pecked him on the lips.
They spent the night in a nearby hotel, deciding it was much too late to start the drive to L.A.
-----Day 32-----
They reached L.A. by evening, having stopped only twice for food.
“Hey, let’s stop there, see if they have any vacancies,” Bert said, pointing out the window. Gerard kept driving. “Oookay... somewhere else then... how ‘bout there?” Gerard drove straight past the second one too. “Dude, where’re you going?”
“We’re going straight to the airport.”
“Why?”
“We can’t stop here, Bert.”
“Why?”
“You heard what Frank said. There’s probably already someone here, waiting for us.”
Bert nodded. “Yeah, but can’t we at least stop somewhere to rest for the night.”
“After.”
“After what?”
“After we get tickets.”
“To where, might I ask.”
“I dunno,” Gerard answered with a shrug “I was thinking... Hawaii.” He turned and smiled shyly at Bert “Yeah?”
Bert grinned. “Oh?”
“Oh.”
“Okay, sounds good to me.” He giggled.
----
They got to the airport and parked the car somewhere safe, but where Jamia would be able to find it when she came looking for it. They took all of their things out of the boot, stuffing their belongings into the suitcase and throwing the perishables away in the nearby bin.
“What about the keys?” Gerard asked.
“Um... hold on, I’ll call Frank,” Bert said. He quickly pulled out his phone and dialled Frank’s number. “Hey, Frankie.... yeah, I’m good. You?... cool... now, I need to know, what about the car keys. What do we do with them once we get to- No! We’re not in L.A.! No, just... shut up! What do we do with the keys?.....okay, so she does have a set? Good. Okay, thanks, Frankie.... Love you too, munchkin... bye.” He hung up and turned to Gerard. “The keys come with us.”
Gerard nodded and picked up the suitcase. “Let’s go.”
----
They got to the front desk after queuing for half an hour to find out that there were no seats available on flights to Hawaii until the next afternoon. They thought about it for a minute before agreeing, and buying two seats. They completed the transaction and headed out.
They never noticed the lady picking up the telephone as they left.
----Day 33-----
The alarm buzzed obnoxiously and continuously.
Both men groaned, rolling to try to cover their ears.
“Why the fuck did we even set that thing?!” Bert yelled, his voice muffled by the pillow he was face-first in.
“I don’t know...”Gerard mumbled. He suddenly sat up straight. “We’ve got a flight today.”
“Wha...?” Bert’s eyes flew open as Gerard stumbled out of the bed. “Oh!” He sat up and watched Gerard run into the bathroom, leaving him to switch off the alarm. After doing so, he sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing his eyes tiredly and trying his best not to flop back onto the bed and go back to sleep.
Gerard ambled out of the bathroom a few minutes later only to have Bert jump up and run at him, knock him clear of the door and dart in. He laughed, making his way to the kitchen to start some coffee.
The water had just finished boiling when he heard the flush and he’d just finished pouring the water into the coffee mugs when a pair of arms wound around his waist.
“Hmm, coffee? For me?” Bert asked, leaning his chin on Gerard’s shoulder.
“Haha, yes. And for me,” Gerard replied.
“Aww, but I thought both cups were for me...”he pouted.
“Bertie, it’s instant. Do you really want both?”
“Ah, I guess not.”
Gerard picked up the mugs and started to turn around. Bert’s arms were still wrapped around him, preventing him from turning very far. “Bert, if you want the coffee, you’ve gotta let me turn around.”
“I will. But first, give me a kiss.”
Gerard rolled his eyes, but indulged him, turning his head and kissing Bert on the lips. Bert smiled and let him go, grabbing one of the cups from Gerard’s hand. He sipped it, then paused.
“I think this one’s yours,” he said, pulling a face “Not sweet enough.”
Gerard only laughed at him, before trading cups.
“What time does our flight leave?”
“4 o’clock.”
“Cool, so it’s what? 10 o’clock now... so we don’t need to be at the airport for like, 4 hours...”Bert rambled between sips of coffee, nodding to himself. “When do we have to be checked out by?”
“10:30.”
“Oh....crap, I guess we’d better get moving then.”
----
They were out the door in less than 20 minutes, checked-out in 25 and on the road in 30. They were quite impressed with themselves.
----
“You looking forward to Hawaii?” Gerard queried, smiling at Bert as they ate.
“Yeah, totally,” Bert responded enthusiastically.
“Excellent. It should be loads of fun.”
“Yeah, it should.”
They both grinned at each other.
----
They parked the car in the airport’s lot for the second and final time before heading inside. They lugged the suitcase towards the check-in line together.
Behind them, a group of men stood. One pointed towards them.
Gerard and Bert were oblivious as the men started towards them. They were talking softly, but excitedly about Hawaii, when the older man froze.
“What’s wrong?” Bert asked.
“I smell Ray’s cologne...”
“There’s a reason for that,” a high-pitched, but distinctly male voice said from behind them.
Neither could move quick enough.
A set of arms locked around each of their bodies, trapping their upper arms against their bodies.
“Shit...” Gerard wilted.
Bert started squirming. “No! Put me down! Branden! Put me down!”
A few people turned to look but did nothing.
After a minute, Bert gave up and allowed himself to go limp.
Mikey walked into their line of sight, stopping in front of them. “This your suitcase?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Gerard replied with a sigh.
“You guys are in big shit,” Brian said, stepping up next to Mikey.
The two men, who’d finally been caught once and for all, turned to look at each other.
“Oh well...” they shrugged and smiled.
----
They were dragged up to the Reprise offices without a word being spoken to them by anyone the whole way there. They were then locked in Brian’s office while said man paced the hall outside, trying to calm down.
They listened as someone walked up to him and spoke in quiet, harsh tones. They heard Brian sigh after a moment before he walked in and sat on the edge of the desk.
“You two - Gerard Way and Bert McCracken, front men of My Chemical Romance and The Used respectively - were missing for 33 and 36 days respectively. Do you know how much trouble you two caused?!”
They shrunk back in their chairs.
“But you’re lucky.” He threw a stack of papers at them, then announced, “Your friends love you more than I do right now.”
Feeling confused, they picked up the papers and read them. They were the forms that needed to be filed for leave. And they were approved and dated the day Bert disappeared.
“But, we didn’t...”Gerard started, not thinking.
“I know you didn’t, but.... there’s actually been a logical reason created for us believing you’ve gone MIA on us now. Although, I think Bob had to go on a date with the lady from human resources though. You better thank him.”
They looked to each other, then up at Brian. He was glaring viciously.
“You may have gotten away with this, but you are still in big trouble.”
“How big?” Bert asked without considering the possible ramifications of his question.
Brian exploded, yelling at them for their ‘stupidity’. He told them that if they tried it again, they’d probably be dropped from the label as well as many other threats. He grilled them for at least half an hour, or more.
But through all the yelling, all the names and the threats, they bit their lips and tried not to smile. It didn’t matter how much trouble they were in, or what the consequences were. They had each other, and that’s all that mattered to them.
Through all the yelling, the name-calling and the various threats on body parts, they were alright. They could weather it, because they’d figured it out. They were together, and they loved each other and nothing could take that away.
And through the whole dressing-down, they felt okay because they were there for each other physically as well as emotionally, holding hands.
End.
A/N: If you made it here, congratulations and thank you. Also, sorry for the inconsistent part lengths and the sheer amount of them.