Hollie and Nick entered the Gallagher house after the end of her shift at the Alibi and found Mandy Milkovich snuggling up to a very awkward looking Ian while Carl sat on the floor in front of the TV.
Ian turned around at their entrance, "Hollie! your home." He said and then mouthed the words 'Help me'
"Hey Ian, Mandy." She nodded at the girl. When Mandy turned away Hollie shrugged signalling that she didn't know what to do. 'Sorry' she mouthed to him.
She pulled Nick up the stairs by his hand and into her bedroom, locking the door after her.
"What's going on with Ian?" Nick asked her.
Hollie shrugged, "He's smart he can figure it out" she grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him into her, kissing him passionately, "now let's stop talking about my brother" she muttered against his lips as she pulled him toward her bed.
|🚬|
The next morning Hollie was woken by Fiona opening her bedroom door and calling, "Ten minutes to get downstairs" she then left to wake everyone else up.
Hollie sat up and shivered, "why is it so cold." She muttered as she found some clothes for the day and brushed her hair while Nick went downstairs as he was dressed before her.
"Someone get the door!" Fiona yelled when someone rang the doorbell.
When Hollie left her room Carl almost ran straight into her with the kill bat in his hands, "no no no no no" she grabbed the bat from his hands, "the bat is for killing not for taking to school. I don't think Fiona wants any more notes from your teacher."
She hung the bat back on its peg on the stairs and headed to the kitchen to have some breakfast.
Fiona answered the door and Steve walked through, "befriended the brother to win back the girl?" Fiona asked.
"Is that what I'm doing?" Steve asked sarcastically.
"You tell me" Fiona muttered.
"Why is it so cold in here?" Steve asked.
"Where's my damn toaster?" Kevin asked as he walked through the door with bread in his hands, "who borrows a toaster?"
"Carl stop doing that," Hollie told him when she saw that he was trying to melt action figures again.
"Yo, yo, yo, Destructo, that's my toaster." Kevin lifted Carl from his seat in front of the toaster.
"I'm trying to make melted man," Carl said as he stuck the two action figures together.
"Yeah well use a blowtorch like a normal kid."
"Don't you dare go anywhere near a blowtorch Carl" Hollie told him as she loaded the washer with dirty clothes.
"Hey fi, some flower delivery guy was looking for your address" Kevin handed a bouquet to Fiona.
"They're from him, toss 'em." Fiona took the flowers and threw them in the trash.
"No they're not" Steve shook his head.
"Yes. Four bars. Thank you, Beaver327." Debbie said as she placed the laptop on the table.
"Back for more abuse," Lip said eyeing Steve.
Hollie patted Steve on the shoulder as she passed him, "You're like a boomerang." she teased.
Steve shook his head"Yeah, no, I lost a bet to Ian on the game. Need to see what tickets he wants." He explained.
"And we live in the 1700s where telephones haven't been invented yet." Fiona drawled unamused, "so of course, you couldn't just call."
"Not when I knew you were dying to see me."
Hollie tried to turn on the oven but it wouldn't light, "shit" she walked up to the corkboard on the wall, "goddamn it. The gas bill's late."
She handed the letter to Fiona, "no wonder it's freezing in here." Fiona said as she read through the letter.
Steve grabbed the note from the flowers and read it out, "'Fiona, thanks for a night I'll never forget. Tony.'"
Fiona snatched it out of his hand, "give me that."
"Who the fuck's Tony?" Steve asked.
"You hooked up with Tony?" Kevin asked.
Nick laughed, "how charitable of you."
"Wait, Tony the cop? That Tony?"
"Yeah. And we had a nice time okay?" Fiona said, "Tony's sweet. And he has a real job."
Kevin and Nick pretended to snore, "sorry, I totally fell asleep when you were talking about him." Kevin joked, "How long was I out for?"
"Lip, phone," Fiona said and lip tossed her the phone.
"What exactly does 'hooked up' mean?" Steve asked.
"Are you stupid Steve?" Hollie asked jokingly.
"Last time I checked, penis goes into vagina," Kevin said as he turned back to his toast.
"Wow," Steve sighed.
Debbie was opening the bag of pastry that Steve had brought but Fiona grabbed it out of her hand, "No. Okay? We're gonna have oatmeal this morning." She told her.
"Go get the hot plate would you debs?" Hollie asked her.
"Jesus you sure didn't waste any time, did you?" Steve scoffed.
"That's hardly anything to do with you, Steve." Hollie defended her sister.
|🚬|
"I think I can see my breath" Ian shivered. Everybody had put their coats on and were getting ready to leave the house.
"We need $587 or they won't turn the gas back on" Fiona sighed.
"I'm taking the PSATs for some polish kid over on Ridgedale." Lip said, "he's supposed to give me like 100 bucks"
"I saw an online that we could get an extra $200 a month from the state if we say carls retarded," Debbie suggested.
"I get paid Friday," Ian said.
"I get paid tomorrow," Hollie told her.
"Okay, I'll figure out the rest," Fiona said. She glanced up at the clock to see the time, "school. Let's go. Everyone out."
"I can loan you the money unless you wanna get it from Tony," Steve said as everybody started to leave.
"You still here?" Fiona asked sarcastically.
"Pay me back whenever or not. Doesn't matter."
"Let's go your gonna be late. go." Hollie helped Fiona usher the kids out the door.
"Everyone out. You too. Out" Fiona pointed to Steve.
"I could borrow a couple of grand from you and not pay you back," Kevin said to Steve.
Nick too got up to leave, "I gotta go too" he leaned over the kitchen counter to kiss Hollie and then left. "Bye"
"This a rebound thing?" Steve questioned Fiona.
"None of your business." Fiona brushed him off.
"He know you only fucked him to get back at me?"
"Get out" Fiona snapped at him.
"Dude your such a rookie. Is that your A-game?" Lip chuckled on his way out the door, "bye Fiona have a good one."
Steve eventually left too, leaving Fiona, Hollie and Kevin in the kitchen.
"Hols, this oatmeal." Kevin pointed at his bowl, "I don't know what you did to this oatmeal..." he gave her a thumbs up and went back to eating.
"Thanks" Hollie chuckled.
Frank walked into the kitchen and pulled out what looked like a shopping list from his pocket, "what are you doing here?" Fiona asked, "don't you have a new home?"
"Wanted to spend some quality time with my loving family." Frank shoved the bread on the counter back into the packet.
"Good. You can spend it with Liam while I go to work." Fiona told him.
"I can't. Busy day today." Frank shook his head.
"Doing what?" Hollie asked.
"There's a whole lot goes on behind the scenes to keep this family running that you two wouldn't know about," Frank said as he opened the fridge and started putting things into a carrier bag. "Tits, it's cold in here."
Fiona looked inside the bag, "Why are you taking our food?"
"My food, you mean?" Frank topped up the milk with water so that the carton was full.
"No, I mean, our food." Fiona corrected as she started unpacking the bag.
"Which you paid for with food stamps that are funded by taxes that I pay." He said which caused Kevin and Hollie to laugh dryly, "Since when?" Kevin asked.
Frank looked at him confused, "You live here now?"
"Toaster." Kevin pointed to his toaster on the table next to him.
"I got work so I'll see you later, Fi," Hollie said as she got up from the table. There was a knock on the back door and Hollie opened it to reveal Tony on the other side of it.
"Hi. Fiona in?" He asked.
Hollie gestured behind her and walked past him out the door and started her walk to the Alibi.
|🚬|
Frank was at the bar with a beer and a crossword in front of him, "E-O-R-K-J. What do you think Kev?"
Hollie filled two glasses of old-style and took them over to a table in the corner of the bar, she grabbed the empty glasses from the table and handed them to Kevin when Fiona walked through the door with Liam on her hip.
"I have no idea," Kevin said after thinking for a moment.
"It's 'joker'" Fiona said as she stormed towards Frank, "where the hell is aunt Ginger, dad?" She demanded.
"And hello to you too, my first-born." Frank glanced at her.
"Can I get you something cop-lover?" Kevin asked.
"No." Fiona said as Hollie took Liam from her, "Dad, does Aunt Ginger live in Wisconsin?" Fiona demanded.
"Hi buddy" Hollie whispered to Liam and kissed his cheek.
"That's what I told you, right?" Frank said, sounding quite clueless.
"Then why was there a woman from the social security department at the house saying that Ginger cashes her checks in Chicago?" Fiona asked.
Frank pretended to be shocked, "Ginger's in town and she didn't call me? After all, I've done for that woman?"
"Oh, shit, Frank." Kevin said, "you're cashing the checks."
"What?" Frank said in fake disbelief.
Hollie leaned over the bar and whispered sharply, "Do you know how much trouble you're going to be in?"
"Why all this sudden interest in Ginger, Fiona?" Frank asked as if he were accusing her of something, "now that you know there's money involved you looking for a handout? Well, that money is mine."
"It's Ginger's actually Frank," Hollie said, adjusting Liam on her hip.
Frank ignored her, "I'm the one who's taken care of Ginger all these years. I call her every week. Hell, I've even visited her."
"Good, then you can go get her and bring her home with you." Fiona said, "because that social security lady will be here with a federal agent to interview Ginger." She stormed out of the bar again.
"Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck." Frank muttered to himself as he collected his things and left.
Kevin lifted the bag of groceries that Frank had stolen from the Gallagher house, "Frank you left your-" he sighed when Frank closed the door behind him.
"I'll take it home with me at the end of my shift," Hollie said as she switched Liam to her other hip and grabbed the bag from the bar, "it's our food anyway," she muttered.