The Better Life

Thanksgiving! Part 3

Oliver walked alongside Felicity.

"So, right now, there will be V, Kev, V and Kev's twins, their daughter/my best friend Phoebe, Lip, Mandy, Fiona, Debbie, Debbie's daughter Frannie, Carl, Svetlana, and Liam."

"That's a lot," Oliver inquired.

"It is a lot, but Frannie usually plays with Liam, the twins, and Mickey after dinner, Kev watches football with Lip, Carl, and occasionally Ian, and V, Fiona, Mandy, and Debbie usually sit around and talk."

"What do you do?"

"I either talk to Phoebe, read, or pass out in one of the rooms upstairs. That's why I brought a book."

"But you have two of them."

"Brought one for you, too," Felicity explained. "You still like Spiderwick Chronicles, right?"

"Duh, of course I still like the Spiderwick Chronicles."

Felicity handed the book to Oliver.

"Who's Svetlana?" Oliver asked. "You mentioned her, but you didn't say what she does."

"Oh, she's Yev's mama," Felicity said. "She's married to Kev and V."

"But how-"

"We do not question it."

"Hmm."

They eventually arrived where someone was apparently blasting "Enter Sandman" through loud speakers. Mickey opened the front door and made a beeline towards the dinner table. He grabbed a bread roll and immediately got smacked over the head by V.

"Don't touch the food yet."

"But it's on t-"

"No."

Felicity was snickering in the background. She elbowed Oliver lightly.

"Watch this, Olli."

Felicity walked over and grabbed two dinner rolls while she was in the midst of walking. She then circled back to Oliver.

"That's how you be discrete," Felicity said while biting into the roll filled with buttery goodness. She threw the other at Oliver and he caught it. He cautiously took a bite and gobbled the whole thing up.

"And I'll take that," Lip said as he took the dinner roll out of Felicity's hands and took a bite.

"Frick you, Uncle Lip."

"Back at you."

She sighed as he walked off. "That's my Uncle Lip. He's my favorite. He's an a-hole but I love him. He's funny and he tells me stories about Ian."

"The one over there," Felicity pointed to V and explained to Oliver, "that's V. She's an amazing cook and she doesn't take crap from anybody."

"That's Carl. He takes some getting used to. Heck, I'm still getting used to him. I love him though. He lets me ride around in his police car sometimes."

"Over there is Aunt Fiona and Aunt Debbie. Fiona is the momma bear. She raised all the Gallaghers. She cares a lot about our well being. Debbie is Frannie's mother. She... I have nothing. Don't know how to explain her."

"Aunt Mandy is over there, too. She and Lip have an on-again, off-again relationship. She's stubborn but she loves people fiercely. At the table are Svetlana and Phoebe. Svetlana is dating V and Kev. She's Russian and she loves her son, Yev, who you met. She's nice when you get to know her. Phoebe is my best friend. She walks to the beat of her own drum and she doesn't care what people think about her. She's exciting."

Oliver just listened as Felicity explained everyone. He just sat with absolute adoration. This family was just...so amazing. They accepted literally everybody. And being able to know somebody in the room was even better. It made him feel comfortable in this atmosphere. 

V was eventually calling people to the table. Felicity sat in the middle of Oliver and Phoebe. Ian sat on the other side of Oliver and Svetlana on the other side of Phoebe. V sat next to Kev and Mickey in front of Ian because V said there was going to be no funny business this year. Lip was next to Mandy. Carl sat next to Lip on the other side. Frannie was next to Debbie and Liam was next to Frannie.

They all dug in and it immediately became a mess. Felicity and Oliver waited their turn. The arguing did die down and people were finally calming down. Felicity got ham, stuffing, a dinner roll, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and corn. She wasn't the biggest fan of turkey. It was usually dry and she just didn't like it much. Felicity got herself some of the punch V had made.

They all said grace and dug into their food. Multiple stories went around the table.

"So you're telling me," Felicity laughed, "that Mickey peed on the first base at the little league baseball field when he was younger?"

Mickey blushed bright red and rubbed his neck.

"Yes and it was the funniest shit at the time. Dad was too drunk to do anything about it so he got away with it."

When dinner ended, everyone got dessert. Felicity grabbed a piece of chocolate pie, oreo pie, and pumpkin pie.

Needless to say, Felicity's conscious state did not last long. She and Oliver went upstairs to get away from the people downstairs. Oliver and Felicity were reading on Ian's old bed. Oliver didn't notice Felicity was asleep until he heard little humming noises. He looked over and found Felicity nodding off next to him. He covered her in a blanket.

Oliver ended up passing out, too. Ian and Mickey would've taken them home if it weren't for the fact that Mickey and Yev fell asleep, too.

So, Ian went to crawl into his or Lip's bed when he found his kids. He just sighed and crawled into Lip's bed.