carl was sitting against his headboard on his phone, waiting for rylee to wake up. he had only been awake for a few minutes, when he noticed rylee start to move around.
"good morning, sunshine." he said when she flipped on her back and rubbed her eyes.
"morning" she mumbled with a smile.
"baxter's leaving tomorrow," he told her, "he's gonna come by here before he leaves."
she nodded, and was about to say something when the door swung open.
"get the fuck up, ian's gone." mickey commanded, then immediately left the room again.
"shit." carl swore, standing up and walking out to mickey as rylee got dressed, then joined them.
Mickey was pacing around the living room, explaining to Carl that ian had been acting weird last night, so mickey convinced him to sleep it off, but when he woke up ian was gone, and won't answer his phone.
"he's not at work, or the bar, or kev's, or my place, or-"
"okay okay. mickey, call the police stations. Ry, call hospitals." carl instructed, "and... i'll call monica."
"hey, i can call her if you want." rylee offered quietly, "you don't have to, you can call the hos-"
"i got it." he cut her off, walking to the kitchen. Rylee and Mickey looked at eachother for a moment, then pulled out their phones and started making calls.
__________________________
"where the fuck are you?" mickey yelled into his phone, "i thought we were fucking past this. i love you, ian, fucking call me back."
"do you want me to try him again?" rylee asked after mickey threw his phone onto the table.
mickey shook his head, "did fiona find anything out?"
"all she found is that monica really is in minnesota like she said," rylee told him quietly, "but she can't leave work yet. i'm sure she'll find something when she gets back home."
"ry." carl whispered from the top of the stairs, then gestured for her to come up there.
"cash saw ian this morning." carl blurted right when they entered his room.
"what? who?" rylee asked.
"lip told me a while ago about how he was fucking his boss from his old job," carl explained, "so i went by there and asked when the last time he saw ian was, and he said that ian came in this morning and got some food, and asked cash for a ride toward the suburbs past the train station."
"well okay, lets just tell mickey and go to where he dropped him off." rylee said, heading toward the door, but carl stopped her.
"no, don't tell mickey." he said quickly, "he always gets pissed when it comes to cash; i guess he shot him or something. he didn't drive him anyway, so it doesn't matter."
"so what are we gonna do?"
"drive to the suburbs," carl shrugged, "look around."
"right but maybe we should like... plan it out better."
"well fuck, ry, i don't know what to plan when i've never fucking been there before."
"yeah okay." she said quickly, "let's just go i guess."
__________________________
"why the fuck are we going to the suburbs?" mickey asked from the back seat of the car. Carl had told him to come with on their way out, but didn't tell him why.
"Ian's there." carl said simply.
"what? how do you know?"
"i don't for sure."
"christ, carl." mickey scoffed, "why the fuck do you think he's in the middle of nowhere?"
"do you want to look for Ian or not?" ian snapped, which shut mickey up.
Once they got there, they walked around the main street of the town, going into every store, asking if they had seen Ian. After about fifteen minutes of no luck, mickey stopped in the street and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. he lit two, leaving one in his mouth and handing rylee the other, just as a woman with a stroller walked past, then stopped.
"um, could you put those out?" she asked, putting a hand on her hip, "there's children around here"
"it's a fucking sidewalk." mickey said loudly, "just walk away"
"i have an infant." she repeated, pointing to the stroller in front of her.
"okay then stop fucking standing here." mickey rolled his eyes, turning his back to her.
"are you even of age?" the woman asked, now speaking to rylee.
"jesus christ, we have better shit to do." carl snapped, annoyed with all of them. He grabbed rylee's wrist and walked past the woman.
mickey followed behind them as they walked into the next store, mumbling, "i fucking hate suburb moms"
"hey, you seen this kid?" mickey asked, showing the cashier a picture of ian.
"yeah, he was in a while ago. he got some chips and redbull."
"how long ago?"
"like an hour or two. maybe more"
"real fucking specific." mickey snapped.
"it's not really in my job description to keep an eye on your boyfriends whereabouts." the cashier rolled his eyes.
"did he say where he was going?" mickey asked, ignoring his last remark.
"no, he just kept rambling about going on an adventure." he told mickey, who swore something under his breath and walked out of the store. Rylee thanked the cashier for his help, then joined carl to follow mickey.
__________________________
Rylee walked into Carl's room to get dressed after a shower. They went home after the store that Ian had gone to, because they realized they had no substantial information, so they decided to wait for fiona to come home.
"hey," carl walked in, "your phone was buzzing."
"who was it?"
"don't know." carl mumbled, "it died before i saw."
she plugged him her phone, then got dressed and brushed her hair before looking at her phone.
ian gallagher
6 unread messages
"who is it?" carl asked, after rylee sat staring at the screen for a moment.
she looked at him and shook her head, "it's nobody."
_______________________
(oh jeez. (read that like bob pinciatti))
