Southside ~ Shameless

Chapter 45

As per usual everything had immediately gone to shit. Turns out cousin Patrick had made a fake will signing Ginger's house over to him when he found out that she was dead and his was more recent than there's, therefore granting him the rights to the house.

"You appreciate the irony right?" Said Frank as they all stood around in the kitchen after returning from Gingers funeral, "senseless arguments about who gets what bedroom. Refusing to allow me to stay. Now, nobody gets to stay."

Trying to ignore her father, Hollie walked—waddled—over to the table and sat down on one of the chairs, rubbing her aching back. "Why's he here again?" She grumbled, her eyes falling shut as she tried to ignore her own discomfort.

"There's a small chance he'll be able to help," Fiona admitted begrudgingly, "since he's known Patrick longer than any of us."

"Patrick wants to steal our house?" Carl questioned. Hollie jumped slightly when she felt his hand on her back when he began to copy her actions rubbing circles on her lower back. She opened her eyes and glanced over at him in confusion.

"What are you doing?"

"You can't each right?" He said like it was obvious.

"Oh, uh, thanks."

"He's a contractor," Lip explained to the boy, "he's going to flip it. Slap a coat of paint on it, call it a 'cosy, authentic, pre-war' and offload it to yuppies."

"Not going to happen," Fiona declared firmly, "So let's go over our options."

The other all joined Hollie at the table to discuss potential actions they could take against their cousin so they didn't end up homeless.

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Safe to say it was going terrible and getting Patrick to back off was proving to be much more difficult than they'd thought seeing as the Milkovitchs hadn't even fazed him so they'd resorted to trying to find somewhere else.

"Who's that out there puking on his timberlands?" V questioned as she entered the house with Liam after Hollie had returned from viewing a house with Fiona which had been a literal crack-house.

"Cousin Patrick," Carl answered and Hollie frowned, "what?" She walked over to the window and peeked through the curtains above Carl's head and saw Patrick pulling onto the sidewalk.

"He's got nausea, shortness of breath, blood in urine, severe illness and death."

"Excuse me?"

"What the hell are you reading?" V questioned, spying something in Carl's hand. The boy held up the box proudly, "Rat poison."

Hollie's eyes widened as she looked over at Veronica while Carl handed her the box and made his way upstairs.

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"I have a new respect for baristas. It turns out it's a highly demanding craft, who knew?" said Jimmy as he returned to the house that night, oblivious to the situation at hand. Hollie, V, Nick, Fiona, Debbie and Carl were gathered in the kitchen discussing what Carl had done at a loss for what to do about it, "you just keep burning the sit out of your...what's up?"

"Tell him." said Fiona, looking at Carl who bowed his head guiltily.

"I killed Patrick."

"What?"

Carl explained to him how he put rat poison in Patrick's sandwich while he was there doing repairs for when he inevitably kicked them out.

"Option four:kill Patrick," Carl recalled from the list they'd made the day previous, "Why skip an option?"

"The whole life in prison thing." V pointed out.

Hollie dragged her hands down her face in exasperation, "What the fuck? What the fuck?" She muttered, panic seeping through her bones. Nick placed his hands on her shoulders rubbing them gently, "Hey, calm down, we'll figure it out." He assured her.

Fiona walked over to Carl and leant down in front of him so they were face to face, "I realise you've had sketchy parental role models, okay?" She began, "but as one of your newly appointed guardians, can we agree that offing people is not okay? Can we get on the same page with that?"

Carl nodded meekly, "yeah."

"If this gets back to us, if we get charged with homicide...do you realise how serious that is?" Feeling Jimmy's eyes on her, Fiona turned to face him, "What?"

"Liam," he pointed to the living room where Liam was sitting on the toilet that Patrick had brought. Debbie quickly ran over and grabbed him before he could do anything and took him to the real toilet.

Hollie shrugged Nick's hands off of her, "We need to come up with an explanation in case the cops tie this to us." she said as she walked over to the counter beside V and leaned forward on her elbows, "Like..." she stood up again, feeling to irritable to stay still and placed her hands on her head, "uh...We have rats and Carl threw poison everywhere."

"That works." V agreed.

"It does?" Carl questioned.

"Anyone who knows you will know it's not far fetched man," said Nick.

"Debbie go get everyone so we can get our stories straight," Fiona instructed the girl before sighing, "I'm raising a sociopath."

"I'm sure your cousin went to the hospital so he'll probably live," Jimmy offered, "Hopefully."

The glares he received from the two Gallagher sisters made him shrink and glance over at Nick who avoided eye contact when Hollie looked his way too, silently daring him to back Jimmy up but he knew better.

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Patrick had lived which they weren't quite sure was a good thing once the judge had granted him their house officially.

It was past midnight as Hollie sat alone in the dark living room with only a small lamp on beside her for light. She was deep in thought when she heard the stairs creak behind her and glanced back to see Fiona walking down the stairs, "Hey."

"Hey, are you okay?" Fiona asked softly as she walked around the couch and sat down beside her sister who nodded with a hum.

"This shit is just our luck isn't it?"

Fiona let out a humourless chuckle and nodded, "Isn't it just. The timing couldn't be better too." She commented, "Is she awake?" She nodded to Hollie's bump and Hollie nodded, "Of course, why do you think I'm down here and not in bed?"

Fiona nodded in understanding and held out her hand, "May I?" Hollie nodded and allowed Fiona to gently place her hand over where she could feel the baby moving.

The pair were quiet for a moment as they just observed, appreciating the rare quiet where they could just be Fiona and Hollie for once without the pressure of seeming like they knew how to fix everything.

"I'm sorry." Fiona spoke up, breaking the silence that had engulfed them. When Hollie's brows furrowed she clarified, "For dragging you through so much shit our whole lives."

Hollie shook her head, "Shut the fuck up, you don't have to apologise for anything." She scoffed, "It's Frank and Monica who owe you an apology."

Fiona sighed, "Fine but I do want to thank you for everything. I couldn't have done it all these years without you."

Hollie took her hand and squeezed it, "I wouldn't have left you to do it alone. And I won't. We'll figure this house shit out. Maybe a cage of scenery will be good for us." She tried to think positive but the prospect of living in a crack den wasn't appealing, "Once we give the place a deep clean. Maybe."

Fiona laughed at this and allowed a stray tear to slip down her cheek, "Oh god." She covered her face with her hands as she began to cry-laugh. Hollie tipped her head back and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, feeling panic seeping in again. She took a deep breath, "Were so fucked." Fiona let out as she tried to calm her hysterics.