Gerard had no idea where he was, or how he had ended up here, but it seemed as if he was floating in a world of hazy darkness. He was standing on something; he couldn't catch a glimpse of it because of the murky atmosphere, but he was too afraid to move, just in case his next step would cause him to plummet downward into an unseen chasm.

The air felt heavy, ominous almost, and Gerard was afraid without truly knowing the reason for his terror. That didn't change the way he was feeling, no matter how hard he tried to convince himself that everything would be fine if he just stayed calm.

That wasn't the worst thing though - no, it was the fact that he was completely alone that had Gerard's knees shaking and a cold sweat breaking out on his skin.

Gerard tried to scream for help, even though it would probably accomplish nothing, but his throat had closed up, and he couldn't force any sound to escape his lips.

Suddenly, whatever Gerard was standing on began to move, and he was hurtled forward against his will, heading toward an unknown destination with no way to stop himself.

As Gerard traveled through this mysterious place, he began to catch sight of other figures trapped here with him, and even though he tried to grab their attention by waving his arms, they all ignored him.

Most of the people he glimpsed were strangers, but as Gerard's forward motion continued, he began to see people he knew and loved; his grandmother, Mikey, Ray, Bob, each of them not paying Gerard any mind as he passed them by.

"Hey! What is going on?" Gerard finally found his voice, but it was too late, all the familiar faces of his friends and family had already disappeared into the mist.

"Please - don't leave me..." Gerard whimpered softy.

Suddenly, the fog clogging the air began to clear, but before Gerard could properly observe his surroundings, the platform he had been standing on tipped sideways, causing Gerard to lose his footing with a startled cry.

Gerard didn't fall for very long before he landed on another section of invisible floor with a painful thump, but he emerged relatively unhurt except for a few bruises that is.

Shaking his head groggily, Gerard heaved himself back to a standing position, and the first thing he noticed once he was upright again was Frank's small figure hanging in front of him.

Frank was suspended in midair, dangling on hidden strings like some sick version of a human puppet. His eyes were closed, and from his limp posture, he appeared to be unconscious.

Gerard rushed to his side as quickly as he could, no longer afraid of tumbling through the floor if he made a misstep; Frank had erased all of his previous concerns entirely.

Just before Gerard reached his boyfriend, whatever had been holding him up was cut abruptly, and he collapsed onto the floor in a tangle of limbs.

Dropping to his knees, Gerard gathered Frank into his arms, brushing his hair back from his eyes gently as he held him close.

"Frankie..." Gerard whispered, trying to get some sort of response out him, but he remained silent.

"Help us - please!" Gerard called out loudly, but no one answered, and Gerard was beginning to panic.

Just when Gerard didn't think their situation could get any worse, Frank began to fade away, his body dissolving into thin air in his arms as Gerard watched helplessly.

No matter how tightly Gerard clutched to him, Frank continued to turn even more translucent, and it wasn't long before he was gone completely.

Gerard didn't know what had happened, but his heart ached as if it had been pierced with a blade, and somehow he was certain that Frank was never coming back.

A harsh sob ripped its way out of Gerard's chest, followed by a wave of tears that he was powerless to stop. Once again, he was left alone, with only the darkness and his pain for company.

"Sir," a distant voice interrupted Gerard's emotional agony, but when he lifted his head, he didn't see anyone in the nearby vicinity.

"Hello?" Gerard called out, twisting his neck around in an attempt to try and find whoever had spoken, desperate for someone to end his solitary suffering.

"Sir - please wake up," the same voice reached his ears again, this time with an exasperated tone to it, and that was when Gerard realized that this was all a dream, and as soon as that fact sunk in, he awoke with a start.

"Sorry...'m awake," Gerard mumbled groggily, prying his eyes open to view a red haired female nurse shaking his shoulder gently. Gerard was surprised that he had managed to drift off given how wired he had been earlier, but all the stress of this morning's events must have tired him out more than he thought.

"You came in with Frank Iero, correct?" she asked as soon as Gerard had heaved himself into a sitting position.

"Yes, I did - is he okay?" The last dredges of sleep fell away from Gerard as soon as he heard Frank's name, but he still remembered his dream, and fictional or not, the implications of it had made him frantic to see Frank again.

"We have his test results back from the lab, and his doctor is waiting to discuss them with you."

"Thank you," Gerard exhaled loudly, relief flooding his body when he realized that he wouldn't have to wait any longer to find out what was wrong with Frank. The dream had unsettled Gerard, and he wouldn't be able to shake off its effects until he saw Frank with his own eyes.

"Come this way," the nurse beckoned for Gerard to follow her down another white hallway that looked identical to the one he had been in when the first nurse had found him.

It wasn't long before the nurse stopped outside of a door labeled 212, telling Gerard to wait inside until the doctor arrived before leaving him alone.

Gerard pushed open the door with shaky hands, revealing a set of white walls and two white beds, complete with white sheets to match, and Gerard was reminded of how much he despised that color.

Gerard shuddered to himself as he stepped further inside, trying to stamp down on his rising panic. Gerard hated hospitals; everything just smelled wrong, even though it was all so clean. No amount of sweet spray could cover up the sickly stench of this place, and Gerard found himself wondering how many people had died in this very room.

Needing to focus on something else - anything really, Gerard glanced around rapidly, and it was only then that he noticed that he wasn't alone. One of the beds was empty, but the other was obscured by a hanging curtain, and Gerard hadn't seen the dark head of hair peeking out from under the sheets until he had stepped away from the doorway.

It was Frank - his Frank, and even though Gerard knew it would be, he almost collapsed in the chair next to his boyfriend as a wave of relief rushed through his body.

Frank was sleeping peacefully, and Gerard didn't want to wake him, so he settled for observing him instead. His color was healthily again, and his breathing seemed even and controlled. The hand that was visible was hooked up to numerous machines, and Gerard cringed when he caught sight of the IV sticking out of his arm, but it was helping Frank, which was something he needed to keep repeating to himself so his fear didn't get the best of him.

Just then, a man entered the room, and Gerard had to assume that this was the doctor. His hairline was receding slightly, and his light blue eyes were covered by wire rim glasses, which he pushed up his nose as he stared down at the clipboard he held in his weathered hands. Gerard felt a friendly vibe emanating from him, and his previous fears were forgotten for the moment.

"Family of Frank Iero?" the doctor asked as he eyed Gerard up and down curiously.

"Uh - sort of, I am his boyfriend." Gerard shifted nervously, hoping that the doctor wouldn't withhold any information from him since he wasn't actually related to Frank.

"Oh...well do you have any contact information for his parents? They will want to hear this."

"He lives with me now...his parents, well, they won't come," Gerard whispered softly. Frank's mother might actually care about whatever was happening to Frank, but he couldn't risk telling her that he was in the hospital; she would be sure to tell his father, and that was the last thing Frank needed right now.

"Oh - well then, I assume you are willing to accept full responsibility for his health care?" The doctor made a few notes on his clipboard as he spoke, a worried expression twisting his kind features.

"Yes, of course," Gerard answered rapidly.

"And your name is...?"

"Gerard Way." Gerard tried to wait patiently as the doctor continued to move his pen across the page, but he couldn't stop himself from pressing him for more information. "I'm sorry, but what is actually wrong with Frank? He was fine this morning, and then he just collapsed..."

"Well, we ran some MRI's and CAT scans on him, and when we pulled up his old medical files, we discovered that he had a history of bad migraines, but his last physical exam was almost a year ago. We did discover the cause of his head pains, but - there isn't an easy way to say this Mr. Way..." the doctor trailed off, placing his clipboard on the edge of Frank's bed before wringing his hands together uneasily.

"Please, just tell me, I need to know," Gerard begged, even though he honestly didn't want to hear whatever the doctor had to say, because it was obviously nothing good.

"He - he has a very large tumor growing on the left side of his brain. Normally, I would operate and remove it before it could do any more damage, but it has been neglected for much too long to risk that sort of procedure. If I even tried to cut through his skull, the pressure on his brain would kill him instantly..." the doctor explained in a sorrowful tone of voice, but Gerard still didn't understand, the full import of his words hadn't sunk in yet.

"What does that mean?" Gerard asked hesitantly.

"The tumor will eventually grow so large that it will move his brain on its own, and sadly, I think that is going to happen sooner rather than later. I have relieved the pressure on his brain as much as possible by removing some of the fluid around the tumor through a syringe, but that is only a temporary fix."

"There has to be a way to help him though...right?" Gerard pressed, his voice wobbling as he spoke.

"Usually, I would recommend chemotherapy treatments to shrink the tumor, but in this case, the growth is so massive, I don't think it will be enough, and Frank mostly likely would not survive the procedure. It is up to you what to do, but I would personally only bring him back for relief of the tension if his headaches get too painful. Judging by his condition, I am giving him approximately four weeks to live, and even if we started chemo today, it wouldn't have enough time to truly do any good," the doctor sighed, sending Gerard a sympathetic look.

Gerard slumped against the plastic chair he was seated in, trying to hold himself together long enough to ask a few more questions, but he was quickly losing that battle.

"So that's it..." Gerard muttered quietly, more to himself than the doctor, but he still received an answer.

"I am so sorry Mr. Way, but all we can do now is to try to make him as comfortable as possible. I have seen miracles happen before, so my estimate might be off by a few weeks, but it doesn't look good for him."

"Can I have a minute to myself?" Gerard choked out as a few tears slipped down his cheeks.

"Of course, I need to go check on my other patients right now, but I will send a nurse in here to give you some more information in a little while." The doctor laid a gentle hand on Gerard's trembling shoulder before leaving the room, shutting the door silently behind him.

As soon as Gerard was alone, he lost control of his emotions, and he surrendered to the wracking sobs that seemed to be physically ripping him apart. This was the last thing he had expected when he had brought Frank in here today, and even though he had been trying to brace himself for the worst possible scenario, this had never factored into any situation he had managed to think of.

Fuck - this hurt, and Gerard felt like he was the one that was dying, instead of Frank. It was as if he had swallowed shards of glass, and each intake of breath caused spikes of fiery agony to erupt inside of him.

This couldn't be happening, none of this was real, but when Gerard looked up, he was met with the sight of Frank's frail body encased in the hospital bed, which ruined his attempts at pretending that this was all just another terrible nightmare.

Curling inward on himself, Gerard continued to cry brokenly, clutching Frank's limp hand as if it was the only thing holding him together right now, because in all reality, it truly was.

Eyy sad stuff is happening.

By the way, I am not sure if all my information on brain tumors is one hundred percent accurate, so if something is glaringly wrong, feel free to point it out, but I'm honestly too lazy to look up any more facts about it right now.

Also, I haven't really edited this, but I will go back and do that when I am more awake.

((((fuck me - I've written almost 10k words today vibes))))

<3 starr