Casual Sabotage

45 - Cousin Power

Ian and Lip didn't talk since November. Tami didn't dare to show up at the house at all. Lip and his little family spent Thanksgiving with Tami's family instead of the Gallagher's.

For Christmas, Lip and Freddie came alone, Tami refused to come to the Gallagher house, Lip was texting the entire day with her instead of helping with food or presents. Mickey and Ian ignored him.

Freddie on the other hand was thrilled to be back at the house and see his aunts and uncles again. While Amy could sit on her own without needing support for a while now, Freddie was proudly crawling over the floor and, due to Lip being busy fighting with Tami over the phone, had to be stopped by his aunt from putting junk into his mouth several times. Franny played with Freddie and was applauding him when he managed to stand on his own little feet while holding on to a chair. Amy was watching Freddie intensely for a while, at some point, Mickey sat down with her on the ground to play with her and Freddie came crawling to them to play with Amy (at least that's how Mickey interpreted Freddie pushing a ball to Amy and laughing brightly when Amy slapped the ball, so it rolled back to him).

Amy was watching Freddie crawling quickly over the floor, she was downright fascinated by it. Mickey was even more fascinated when Amy let herself fall from her sitting position and held herself up right with her twig arms like she had seen her cousin doing it. Mickey kept his hands to himself, although he wanted to help her, but he even more so wanted to see if Amy could figure out how to do this on her own.

At some point Ian came into the living room to see his husband staring dumbfounded at the two children, Freddie was shooting the ball towards Amy, who slapped against it to shoot it back to Freddie and when Freddie crawled away to get the ball back, Amy made a wonky attempt in mirroring the action, before falling over again, unphased by it she sat up again and waited for Freddie come back.

Mickey looked up at Ian, "Our child is benefiting from social interaction.", he stated like it was the weirdest thing that could happen today, "How did that happen?"
Ian chuckled, "Maybe she's just being competitive?"
Mickey looked at Amy and Freddie again, "Yeah that would make more sense with us as parents", he mumbled.

On New Year's Eve, Ian had asked Lip to come over and spend it with them. He even said, Tami could come, and that Amy and Freddie had fun on Christmas and that they could play again on New Year's Eve.

Tami wasn't thrilled when she heard Lip accepted the invitation without talking to her first, but this was his family and he tried to fix what Tami had broken with her comments about Amy, so Tami would either come with them or stay home, but Lip and Freddie were going.

Of course, usually a Gallagher New Year's Eve Party would have meant loud music and a lot of alcohol – but Mickey and Ian were strictly against the music being very loud. They of course couldn't forbid the Gallagher's of all people to get drunk, but they and Lip didn't drink themselves.

"So, Tami won't come anymore?", Ian asked Lip in the kitchen.
Lip shook his head, "No, she spends the night with some friends I think."
Ian nodded and sighed, "You know, Mickey and I will probably never like Tami. But you're still my brother and Freddie and Amy are cousins... we just think that they should be able to grow up together, Amy benefits from it and they seem to like each other."

Lip smiled, "Yeah, I'd like them to be close, too... Not as close as Mickey was with his cousin, though", he said and looked over his shoulder to Sandy.
Ian started laughing brightly, "No, better not. More like us... but Tami has to accept that they're cousins."
Lip nodded, "She will. And she will apologise, too... she's just too proud."

From the living room one of the babies started crying. Lip and Ian quickly went to the living room.
"What happened?", Lip asked while picking up Freddie, who was crying, while Amy sat about a foot away from him, Mickey had watched them from the couch.
"Nothing wild, they were playing with the ball, Amy pushed it back too hard and it hit him in the face by accident.", Mickey explained calmly.