Someone Out There Loves You (Adopted by Frank Iero)

21

FRANK

I completely crashed when I got to the hotel. It wasn't so much the flight that wiped me out, being in a band that tours a lot forces you to get used to that, but more the emotional stress of this whole situation. But if things went how I wanted them to and I could adopt Lexa and take her away from the hospital and give her a better life, it would all be worth it. I would do it in a heartbeat.

Laying on the stiff bed wearing only shorts, hands folded on my stomach, I was trying to prepare for tomorrow.

This had to go well.

There was no other option.

The thought of being in the same room as the people who not only neglected, but abused, traumatised and broke the person that I had come to love was enough to make anger surge throughout my body. I clenched my fists in response. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, I forced my hands to relax. If my anger towards her biological parents got the best of me tomorrow, it would blow my chances. I couldn't let that happen. I needed to focus on my love for Lexa rather than my hate for the people who hurt her.

Images of her filled my head. The first time we met, when she turned around and looked at me with wide eyes and stuttered nervously. Then, her becoming more relaxed around me, joking and laughing and starting to smile, and realising how happy it made me seeing her like that because she looked so alive when she was laughing. The pure elation radiating off her when we were reunited after her lockdown. Her spinning around outside the doors every time I took her out, giggling and alive. The face she would make when she was concentrating on playing guitar, and then the purest look she would have when she would get it right. How excited she was meeting the guys.

I couldn't remember the good without the bad. I remembered the first time she really opened up to me, about the depths of the darkness inside her. The first time I took her out, sitting in the cafe, her telling me where her mind had gone in the time we were apart and what she did as a result. Then showing it to me the next day after telling me about everything she had endured in her 15 years on this earth. There was a lot that I still struggled to accept. I didn't want to believe those things had happened; the horrors she had seen, the horrors she had lived, and how most of it was at the hands of the people I would be sitting across from tomorrow.

I sat up and dangled my legs off the side of the bed, rubbing my face. It wouldn't hurt to have a shower and an early night.

Just as I was pulling clothes out of my bag, my phone rang. A quick glance at the screen revealed a number I wasn't familiar with, but I had a suspicion it was Lexa.

"Lexa?" I answered, standing up and pacing around the room. After the topic of her last phone call, I was worried it was something of a similar nature.

"Frankie!" she exclaimed, confirming it was her. I let go of the breath I was holding. She was okay.

"Hey Lex, you're sounding cheerful," I chuckled.

"I'm in a good mood," she giggled.

I sat down on the edge of the bed, a lazy smile playing at my lips. "I'm happy to hear that," I laughed softly. "What's up?"

"I missed you today."

I could imagine her looking down sheepishly as she said that, either biting her lip or fiddling with her hands. The thought made me smile.

"Aw, I missed you too, kiddo. I'll be home tomorrow night, and then I'll come see you the day after. Deal?"

She sighed dramatically, causing me to laugh softly. "I guess I don't have much of a choice, do I?" she whined.