Andy woke up the next morning on the floor of the basement with a blanket over him. Jamia and Claire were both still asleep on the couch and chair respectively with their own blankets, but Frank had disappeared. Andy slowly pushed himself off the floor, already regretting not having a pillow. He rubbed at his stiff neck and walked up the stairs into the living room. He was about to head up the main stairs, but a voice behind him in the kitchen made him turn around.

“You fucker,” is how Andy was greeted when he walked in the kitchen. Alicia, the Way brothers, and Frank were sitting around the kitchen table, along with Chris Gutierrez, recently flown in from Chicago, if the suitcase next to him was any clue.

“You motherfucker,” Chris said again, this time getting up to give Andy his second bone crushing hug of the week.

“Why the hell didn’t you call me when you and Joe left Fall Out Boy?” Chris asked angrily as he pulled away.

“I didn’t call anyone,” Andy explained. “I’ve only been talking for about a week.”

“Talking?” Chris asked. “What the hell happened that turned you into a clam? Again?”

“Giant light,” Joe said as he stumbled into the kitchen behind Andy, eyes stilled blurred with sleep. “Crash. Bang. Boom. No hand.” Joe’s wild arm gestures, which Chris and Andy narrowly avoided, added to his eccentric appearance. Mikey forced Joe into a chair with some coffee before Joe could start tripping over kitchen appliances.

“What?” Chris asked blankly. Andy held up his plastered hand in reply.

“Completely destroyed,” Andy said. “Crushed bones, nerve damage, everything. Pete did it. Well, he had Dirty do it.”

Chris was about to reply, when Claire burst into the kitchen, followed at a much slower pace by Jamia. The two women crossed the kitchen, Jamia to sit by Frank, Claire to swat the same man on the head.

“Why did you let me sleep in that chair, you jerk?” Claire asked.

“Ow, damnit!” Frank yelled. “Andy was taking up most of the floor space and I didn’t want you tripping over him, damn!”

“And you, of all people, should have called me,” Chris said, giving Claire a light shove.

“Where the hell did you com from?” Claire asked in surprise, finally realizing Chris was standing next to her.

“Oh, I had an interesting phone call the other night from Pete. Yeah, he was spewing some sort of crap about some bullshit quest for power that you could have called and warned me about!” Chris ranted. The Ways and Frank had obviously heard the rant already, but Claire, Andy, and Jamia were stunned silent and Joe looked up blearily from his coffee.

“I mean, come on,” Chris said. “Three months ago, Andy and Joe disappear and then two months later you and the rest of Street Team vanish too, and don’t tell me a goddamn thing! I had to find out from Pete, fucking Pete, that all of my Houdini friends are hiding up in New Jersey!”

Chris’s shouting had attracted Rachel, Ray, and Melanie and the three of them were clustered around the doorway. Andy looked back and forth between Chris and Claire who were locked in a staring match. Before Frank could start taking bets on who would crack first, Claire blinked and sighed.

“I’m sorry, Chris,” she said.

“Yeah, yeah.” Chris rolled his eyes, but stepped forward to give Claire hug anyway. “Just don’t do it again.”

Now that the tension in the kitchen had dropped, everyone still standing filtered in and grabbed a seat at the table. Andy found himself between Mikey and Chris and when he turned to give Chris his own apology, he was waved off with a, “It doesn’t matter, dude.”

“To bad Bob’s not here,” said Frank. “Then it’d be a real party.”

“If you guys are serious about fighting Pete, you’d better join Bob in Chicago,” said Chris.

“Why?” asked Ray.

“Chicago is Pete’s home. Fucker may live in LA now, but Chicago’s still in his blood,” Chris explained. “He still thinks of it as his city. He’ll want to get control of Chicago first.”

“How do you know?” Frank challenged.

“He told me,” Chris answered simply. “Remember, I told you he called? When he called, he just assumed I was with him, God knows why, and started yammering away about how Chicago was his first priority. He hung up on me when I told him I wanted no part of his crazy scheme.”

“That works,” Rachel shrugged.

“So, wait, we have to pick up and go to Chicago now?” asked Frank.

“I got plane tickets when I picked Chris up at the airport,” said Mikey, tossing a stack of tickets onto the table.

“How’d you know to do that?” Ray asked.

“Chris called me last night and told me to,” Mikey shrugged.

“Mikey, you’re the reason the ‘jumping off a cliff just ‘cause your friends do it’ cliché exists,” Frank laughed. He sobered up a little as he took one of the tickets and read the information printed on it.

“So, we leave day after tomorrow,” Frank said, frowning. “That’s not much time.”

“Where are we gonna stay?” Gerard asked. “No offense, Chris, but your apartment is tiny.”

“I’ve still got my house in Wicker Park,” Joe offered. “It’s a decent size.”

“Oh, you live in Wicker Park, too?” Melanie asked. “The three of us share a house there.”

“That’s so awesome!” Joe said excitedly. “We’ve been neighbors and I never knew!”

“Even with two houses, I don’t think that’ll be enough room for all of us if we’re planning on staying in Chicago for a long time,” said Ray. “We barely manage here, and that’s only because four of us have other homes nearby to escape to.”

“We bought the Majestic Hotel awhile ago,” said Rachel. “You guys can stay there.”

“You own a hotel?” Frank asked.

“When you see this place, you’ll know why,” Claire reassured him.

“So, once we take back Bob, that makes eleven of us,” said Gerard.

“To start with,” Claire agreed.

“Actually,” Alicia interjected. “There will be ten of you.”

“Nine,” Jamia corrected quickly.

“What?” Mikey and Frank asked together, wearing matching looks of confusion and hurt.

“I can’t pick up and move to Chicago, Mikey,” Alicia reasoned, taking her husband’s hand. “I can’t leave Jersey now, not with my dad so sick. My parents need me here right now.”

“But-” Mikey tried to argue, but Alicia shook her head sadly, trying to reassure him with a smile.

“Don’t worry, Mikey,” Jamia said. “Alicia won’t be alone.”

“What are you talking about?” Frank demanded. “Your parents aren’t sick. Last I checked, your dad could whoop my tiny ass at football without breaking a sweat.”

“I know,” said Jamia. “But I’ve got responsibilities here I can’t just drop. And someone needs to take care of the dogs. I have a life here, Frankie, and I can’t just drop it all. It’s just like when I can’t come on tour with you.”

“Yeah, exactly,” Frank said bitterly. “Except this time, I’m not going on tour. I’m going into a war started by some crazy bastard.”

Jamia shrugged and smiled sadly. “I’ve made up my mind, Frankie.”

“Besides, I’ll need the company,” Alicia said. Neither Frank nor Mikey were looking too happy about their lovers’ decisions, but neither continued to argue the point.

“Well, I’d better get ready,” said Gerard. “There’s a lot to do still.” Gerard got up and grabbed his coat, patting his brother on the back before leaving through the kitchen door. Ray followed not long after. Frank and Jamia left last, not speaking, a frustrated look on Frank’s face. He held on tightly to Jamia’s hand, though, the entire time.

Meanwhile, Chris had followed Andy and Joe upstairs to their room and was sitting on Joe’s bed, watching the two start packing up three months worth of scattered belongings.

“So, why didn’t you call?” Chris asked. “Did you think I wouldn’t care?”

“It wasn’t that,” said Joe. “You were gonna go on a book tour soon. I didn’t think you needed the extra stress. I didn’t need the extra stress of talking you into not postponing the tour.”

“Dude, fuck my tour,” Chris said.

“That’s your job now, man!” Joe argued.

“I’m the king of getting free shit, dude,” Chris said. “Did you forget? There’s an entire post in my journal about it.”

“Can you rent an apartment for free?” Joe asked.

“Fruity-”

“Damnit, Chris! I made this decision, okay? I did, I decided you at least deserved to have as normal a life as possible until things got worse, like they are now. One of us, at least, deserved that and Andy and I were out of the running from the start.”

Joe was haphazardly chucking things into his suitcase, an angry look on his face, but Andy had stopped completely to stare flabbergasted with Chris at Joe. Joe continued throwing things for a few moments until he noticed two pairs of eyes on him.

“What?” he asked, sounding much calmer.

“I, uh,” Chris cleared his throat. “Thanks, Joe.”

“You’re welcome,” Joe grunted. He turned back to his suitcase to try and straighten things out.

“It’s all changing now, isn’t it?” Andy asked. Joe stopped messing with his suitcase and he and Chris turned to face Andy.

“A normal life, like you said, right?” Andy continued. “We’re not going to get to be normal anymore. We’re going to have to fight and run and live. So the kids can live. Because we are doing this for them, right? We’re saving the scene to save the kids.”

Chris shrugged. “Hasn’t that always been the message?”