My Second Chance

A New Beginning

Ray's POV

Slowly, I feel myself begin to naturally wake up, the pain in my stomach lingering.
When my eyes open, I see Mikey sitting next to me, his eyes shut. B, Gee, Linds, Max, Chantie, and Jimmy are no longer in the room, concerning me. In Mikey's hand are a few balloons, a lose grip on them.

I sit up and rub my eyes, cringing at how difficult it is to move my arms considering the amount of needles there are sticking in them.

Mikey sturs from his nap, turning his head to look at me.

"Hey, little one." He gives me a small, sympathetic smile.

I fake gasp, "Ye ol' Michael Way smiled!"

He giggles and rolls his eyes, "I got these for you." He stands up, tying the balloons to the side of the bed.

"Thanks, Mikey," I grab onto his hand, giving it a squeeze before letting go, "Where is everyone?"

"Jimmy and Chant went to get some food, and Gee and Linds left to take your friend home." He speaks, an odd tone to his voice. I choose to ignore it, I have bigger things on my mind right now. I just nod, turning my head to stare at the ceiling.
I gently place my hands on my stomach, sighing deeply.

"I'm sorry, kiddo. You truley don't deserve this." Mikey drawls me out of my thoughts.

"I guess it wasn't meant to be. I just- I just wish it could've had a chance, y'know? To actually live. To walk amongst others. To experience life." I close my eyes, trying to keep myself calm.

"I know, Ray, I know. You're strong. You'll make it through this. This isn't your fault. Some things we just can't control, but one day, you'll have another chance." He grabs my hand, speaking softly. To be honest, I'm not all that used to hearing Mikey talk yet, and I wasn't really expecting words like this. He's very poetic and intelligent, just like Gerard.

"Thank you, Mikey. I know it must be weird for you, as well as the others, considering you barely know me." I sigh, looking down.

"Hey, it doesn't matter how long any of us have known you, your personality drew us all in, and we love you. I'm not gonna lie, when Lindsey first brought you here, we were afraid you were a typical fan who woud freak out over everything, act creepy, and so on. But when we saw how well you handled things, not just with us but with your personal struggles, we knew you were different. You not only gained our trust but our love, and I don't think any of us are going to drop either of those feelings."

I stare at him, trying to comprehend what he just said, "I- um- you talk a lot more when you're not doing an interveiw." I mutter, mentally slapping myself.

He laughs, "I get that you're going through a lot and won't be able to understand certain things for a bit. How 'bout I go down to the cafeteria and get us something to eat?"

"Sounds good."

"What do you want?" He asks, looking concentrated.

"It doesn't matter. I haven't eaten anything in fifteen hours." At that moment, my stomach growls, causing me to blush in embarrassment.

"Gotcha." He stands up and exits the room.

About a minute after Mikey leaves, a nurse enters.

"Hi, sweetie," She greets kindly, "How are you feeling?"

"Okay, I guess." I reply blankly.

She nods, "Well, we're going to switch you from liquid medication to pills, so I'm just going to remove these needles, okay?" She speaks in a calm tone.
"Okay."

"Just keep your arms real still for me."

I keep them as still as I can, and she removes the three needles in my left arm, covering each puncture hole with a cotton ball before covering the cotton with medical tape. After my left is done, she removes the two from my right, the same procedure as my left.

"Alrighty! We're all done!" She grins, removing her gloves and slicking her hands with hand sanitizer.

My arms feels a bit numb, but a lot better than they did. Without the constant flow of medication in my veins, I feel myself wake up a bit more.

She places five pills and a cup of water down on the metal tray next to my bed, "In an hour, take these pills. I'll be back to remind you." With that she leaves the room.

I sigh and close my eyes, taking everything in. The door opens, and Gerard and Linds enter.

Gerard dashes over to me, enclosing me in a tight hug, which I return, "Hey, Gerard." I chuckle.

"Hey, peanut. I'm sorry I wasn't here for you until now." He pulls away, stroking my cheek with his thumb.

"Gerard, you have a career. I understand that you couldn't be here, but you're here now, and I'm greatful for that." I smile, feeling guilty for causing him to fly back out here.

Linds sits down next to me on the bed, "Oh," I speak, feeling a blush growing on my cheeks, "Sorry for calling you, well you know."

"Mom?" She raises her eyebrows, a sly grin on her face. From the corner of my eye, I see Gerard smiling as well. I nod. "Well, about that..."

Oh god. She probably thinks I'm a creep now.

"We got you something," Gerard speaks, "Linds." He looks at her.

What?

Linds digs through her purse and pulls out a folded piece of paper, handing it to me. I give them a confused glance before hesitantly unfolding it. My eyes widen.

I look up at the two, excited looks on their faces.

"Y-you adopted me?" I exclaim, many emotions flying around in my brain.

"You're officially our daughter!" Gerard cheers.

I cover my mouth with my hand in shock.

Before I can speak, the door opens, and in comes Jimmy, Chantie, Kitty, Steve, Frank, Mikey, Ray, Alicia, Jessika, B, and Francess.

"Welcome to the family!" They all cheer in unison.

I smile behind my hand.

"I told you you'd have another chance." Mikey wraps his arm around my shoulder.

"You dick! You knew about this!" I fake glare at him.

"Woah! Language," Frank gasps, "She really is your daughter!"

Everyone laughs, and Ray highfives Frank.

Just as I think the room can't get anymore crowded, Pete fucking Wentz comes in with a cake! My mouth drops.

"What the fudge is Pete Wentz doing here?" I shout, a huge smile on my face.

He bows his head, a smirk on his face, "Everyone knows I get the most badass cakes!" He lifts it up a bit, and in red letters is spelled, "Welcome to the Ways!" beneath that is a family portrait, myself included.

After all of this, I can't help it, I start crying.

"What's wrong, Ray?" B asks, crawling onto the hospital bed.

"Oh, Bandit, for the first time in a long time, I feel truley happy, and it's because of all of you guys." I wipe my cheeks.

A chorus of awes erupts through the room, cuing a group hug.

Here with all of these wonderful people, my family, I realize this is the start of my second chance at happiness.

~~~

That's it! This is the end of the book! Sorry this fic was pretty crap, I lost ideas for it about halfway through, but I didn't want to give up on it. I hope you liked it anyway! One of you asked if there will be a sequel, as of right now, I'm not sure yet. Would you guys want a sequel? Let me know in the comments! I'm working on a few new things currently, so I hope to hear from you guys when I get those published.  Thanks so much for reading!

Xo,

Jo