Forki One-Shots

We Could Have Been Different (We Could Have Had It All)

We had too much happiness, so.....

               🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

"Joel."

He says nothing; there is nothing to say.

"Say something,"she says.

He stays silent.

Zucchini is plastered to the wall, unable to move. He walked in by accident ten minutes ago and was unable to leave without garnering unwanted attention. Instead, he watched his friend's marriage fall apart.

"Joel, Zucchini tell him."

Zucchini nearly gets a heart attack.

"I'm not here,"he says, and bolts out the door. Or tries to. It's locked. He sits on the ottoman by the door.

"What is there to say?"Joel finally says. "You want out."

"I don't think this marriage was ever a good thing,"she says.

Joel feels nothing. He feels a twinge of guilt for being indifferent but it passes. Why should he care? She didn't.

"Do you even care?"she asks.

It hurts; he feels it.

"I did. Now, I don't feel anything."

Moriah sucks in a breath.

Zucchini thinks to himself that this will not be an amicable split. It's hard, considering how they're both his friends. They have no kids to split custody, instead they have family and friends.

"I'll be going now,"she said, her voice shaky.

Joel nods. Zucchini stays silent.

She leaves Joel's office. Joel watches her go.

Then he runs out to the bathroom and vomits.

Zucchini follows him, rubbing his back as he puked. What does one say?

"I hate it so much,"he whispers.

They don't sign papers, but everyone knows. There are whispers.

The band goes on a crazy tour schedule, hardly home. They release three albums in two years, all written on the road. Nobody says anything for a while, but eventually Vince wins them a break, under the guise of worrying about Joel overworking himself. Joel and Zucchini are roommates now, and Zucchini runs after him.

He feeds him, makes him sleep, shower, all the stuff. He doesn't say anything, but it takes a toll. He stopped dating a long time ago; he has no time for anyone but Joel, not even himself. It's just as well he has no other family.

They manage to get a smaller workload. They stay home more. Of course, this is only because Joel started a side solo career and relaunched his acting gig. Zucchini follows him to Hollywood as needed, and cleans up after Joel and whoever he meets at that moment. The other guys try to help as much as possible, but they have kids and wives and other gigs, too.

Zucchini starts a blog to stay sane. Of course, it's still insanity, since he writes his posts at midnight. Joel liked to stay up; Zucchini considered it a win if he went to bed at one.

He and Arthur started a podcast, frequently featuring the other guys. It's easier when on the road, but they make it work. Zucchini starts baking too; Joel's more inclined to eat if the food has sugar and/or cheese. He considers it a win if Joel eats the fruit he piles on top of the cake.

"It's like raising a toddler,"he tells Vince one night. "If that toddler was a depressed workaholic."

He visits Moriah once in a while, whose life is considerably better than her ex's. She has great Joel-handling advice. Helen Smallbone does, too. And when desperate, he turns to Psych: benadryl in a smoothie works wonders for Joel's (and his) health.

But it's not just keeping Joel alive that's hard; hiding his condition was harder. It took the whole band and management to keep a lid on the situation. Therapy didn't work, and three therapists quit on him. He was rarely sober and half functional. Social media made it harder. Fans noticed his behavior on camera and wondered where he was off.

It gets worse when Moriah meets someone new and asks for an official divorce. He grants it, but they spend her wedding weekend doing a Marvel marathon to distract him.

It's a relief when he's forced to have an intervention.

Zucchini feels guilty.

But then he meets a girl and Joel sends him a letter and he feels okay.

Joel will be okay.

They all will.