Frank was more of an asshole than Hollie had ever expected. By some miracle he'd managed to outdo himself once again. He had been the anonymous caller who reported them to DFS.
Jimmy and Fiona had just left to speak with a lawyer about the possibility of Fiona and Hollie getting custody of the kids. Hollie was sitting at the kitchen table, twisting in her chair, trying to crack her sore back while Nick was installing a deadbolt on the back door—Hollie had asked him to put deadbolts on both doors to stop Frank from being able to come into the house.
"You okay babe?" Nick questioned.
Hollie hummed, "yeah I'm fine." She assured him but her statement was disproved when she let out a small groan of discomfort.
"What was that?" Nick questioned, panic clear in his voice. Hollie chuckled, "chill out." She told him as she pressed her hand into the top of her bump on the right side. She pushed down slightly, trying to move the baby slightly, "he foot is directly under my ribs and she keeps kicking me," she clarified.
Nick nodded, relief evident on his face. He leaned over from where he was knelt on the floor and placed a kiss on her shoulder before getting back to the lock.
While Nick moved on to the front door lock, Lip and Ian came by the house to look for something. Not long later Fiona and Jimmy returned, "we need a will." Said Fiona.
"What?" Jimmy questioned confusedly.
"You could probably download one from the internet," Hollie called out, assuming her sister was talking about Ginger.
"All right for who?" Jimmy asked.
"Aunt Ginger." said Fiona, "I'm finally going to make it official. I'm getting the house. And I need a w-2 to show I have a job." She said before looking glancing into the kitchen at Hollie, "you'll need one too." Hollie nodded.
"It doesn't matter if you can't get Monica to sign away her rights."
"We don't need her to sign," said Hollie as she stood up from the table, "I've been forging doctor's notes since first grade."
At the sound of the stairs creaking she turned her gaze to the base of the stairs where Lip had just stepped down into the kitchen, "hey, thought I heard the door."
"They let you out the group home?"
"Uh, they cut us loose, dawn til dusk." Lip explained.
"I found them," Ian announced as he walked into the kitchen, holding up Carl's ninja throwing stars, when Fiona and Hollie both regarded him with questioning gazes he clarified, "I'm going to visit Carl and Liam. He asked for M-80s, a Nintendo DS, and ninja throwing stars."
Fiona nodded, "Could use your help," she told him, "I'm getting custody. Well, we are," she gestured between herself and Hollie. Noticing something on the ceiling support beam, Fiona reached up and yanked the ninja star out of the wall and handed it to Ian.
"Of us?"
"No some other kids," Hollie said dryly, "obviously you guys." Fiona shrugged, "it's the only way to bring everyone home and keep it that way."
|🚬|
Sitting in Veronica's kitchen, listening to her rant about her troubles felt like being dunked head first into ice water and made Hollie realise what a sub par friend she was, especially lately.
"...thought it'd be wham-bam-thank -you-mom, but Kev's sperm were as gun shy as he was." V told her dejectedly before picking up something from her shopping bag which looked somewhat like a calendar, "bought an ovulation calendar," she said as she pinned it to the wall in the kitchen, "have to track her damn cycle."
"You're going again?"
"What choice do I have? At least this way I'll know when she's fertile." Guilt struck Hollie in the chest as hard as baby-girl kicked her in the ribs, Veronica sounded so desperate. V was doing something which clearly caused her pain in order to have a baby meanwhile Hollie hadn't even thought about wanting kids until she saw those blue lines—the same blue lines that V was so desperate to see. The universe was a cruel mistress.
"I'm sorry V," Hollie couldn't think of anything to say but that, "I've been so wrapped up in our shit that I've been totally oblivious to what you're going through."
"Don't sweat it." V waved off and though Hollie didn't verbally protest, she wasn't going to brush it off again. "Fi came by earlier, what'd she need a body for?"
Hollie sighed, "we're getting custody of the kids and we need body to be aunt Ginger so we can't get the house." She explained.
"Custody?"
Hollie nodded, "yeah, well, Frank can't be trusted and we need the kids home permanently."
|🚬|
Later that night, Fiona, Lip and Ian had came home with the body that Veronica had gotten for them from the nursing home. The woman hadn't been identified so the shady morgue worker was letting them borrow her after they bribed him.
They set the body bag down on the floor in Fiona's room and Fiona unzipped the bag and pulled it open to reveal the body. A putrid stench erupted from the body cussing the five of them to gag or retch. Hollie stepped bag, covering her hand with her mouth as she felt vomit creeping up her throat. She swallowed pushing it down before turning back to the others.
Nick shot her a concerned look but she mouthed 'I'm fine' to which he nodded and passed her a tea towel to tie around her nose like the others were doing.
"Geez it fucking reeks," Lip grimaced.
"Need the damn biohazard masks they use when Ebola breaks out," Nick struggled out, sounding strained as he tried not to breathe through his nose.
"This is the best we got. Cover your nose."
"Lip get her legs," Ian instructed as he positioned himself at the body's head.
"We really doing this?"
"I'm not taking any chances." said Fiona as she fully opened the bag, "okay."
The smell somehow got worse and Hollie, unable to take the smell anymore, rushed out the room and into the bathroom. The sound of her puking into the toilet could be heard from Fiona's room.
Nick quickly ran after her and found her kneeling in front of the toilet, haphazardly holding her hair back as she emptied the contents of her stomach into the toilet bowl. Stepping behind her, Nick gathered her hair in his hand and held it out of the way of her puking.
"You okay?" He asked once she'd stopped. She gave him a shakey thumbs up, afraid that if she spoke she'd puke again. With his free hand he flushed the toilet while she folded her arms and rested them on the toilet seat, leaning her head against her skin with a slight groan.
Grabbing a hair tie from the shelf, Nick tied back the hair he was handling and leaned down and pressed a kiss behind her ear, eliciting a small giggle from Hollie. "I'm gonna go help the others, you just sit out of this one okay? I love you."
"m'love you too," Hollie mumbled. With a kiss to her shoulder, Nick left Hollie in the bathroom and pulled his face covering back on before entering the bedroom again.
Together, Nick, Fiona, Lip and Ian lifted the corpse onto Fiona's bed and covered her with a blanket. Unfortunately they weren't done. Ginger Gallagher had a toe missing and this body didn't, so they'd have to cut one off themselves.
Lip held up a pair of garden sheers, "alright who wants to do the honours?" They all remained quiet, shaking their heads. "The real aunt Ginger lost a toe. Somebodies got to snip it." He tried again.
After a few moments of silence, nobody wanting to be the one to cut off the toe, Ian stepped forward. He hastily took the sheers, moving quickly so he could pretend it wasn't happening.
Muttering curses to himself, Ian lined the sheers up with the old woman's toes.
"Won't it bleed?" Fiona questioned, halting Ian's movements. Nick shook his head, "the hearts stopped beating."
Ian inhaled sharply, "okay." He muttered, psyching him self up to do it, but psyched himself out when the toes made a squelching sound as he began to cut. He backed away grimacing, "Fuck. No. No. No."
Fiona took his place, "Glue it shut when I'm done." She was about to cut the toe off when they heard noise from downstairs.
They had not expected to find Debbie in the kitchen, stuffing just about any food she could find into her mouth like a starved animal.
Her foster mother had been starving her and the rest of the kids in her care. While the others stayed down in the kitchen to gather food to take to the other kids, Nick turned back to the stairs and returned to Fiona's room.
He knelt down at the base of the bed, grabbing the sheers from the floor where they'd been dropped by Fiona. He lined them up, let out a deep breath before looking away and chopping. He gagged at the squelchy sound it made as the sheets cut through the small bone, but swallowed down the bile.