Casual Sabotage

17 - High School Bleachers

Lip wanted to let Ian calm down for 10 minutes before going upstairs. He was confused that Ian hadn't made a sound since Mickey dragged him into their bedroom.

When he entered the room, Ian sat on the ground in front of the bed, his wrist was cuffed to the end of the bed. He sat there quietly, just staring at the ground in front of him. He didn't look up when Lip came in.

"Ian? Are you okay?", Lip asked softly. Ian looked up, he was biting his lip hard, sitting there like a lost puppy.
"Where is the key for the cuffs?", Lip asked and generously ignored that Ian and Mickey kept black, fuzzy cuffs in their bedroom.
"On the dresser."

Lip went to the dresser, where some roses were withering away, he took the tiny key and opened the handcuffs. Ian quietly crawled into bed.
"Are you alright, Ian? How are you feeling?"
Ian just lay down on his pillow and pulled Mickey's pillow against him.
"I want Mickey", he mumbled.

Lip nodded, he could guess that Ian was currently going from manic to depressed.
"Do you know where he went?"
Ian shook his head, "Wanted to give back the car I think."
Lip nodded, "Okay, I see what I can do to get him back here."

"Tell him, I'm sorry", Ian said sadly, when Lip turned around.
"Okay."
"And that I love him."
"Sure, Ian. Take a nap, yeah?"

Lip went to the door.
"Highschool Bleachers.", Ian said suddenly when Lip wanted to close the door.
"Huh?"
"Try the Highschool bleachers. He said he wants to burn something down."

Lip didn't really understand what the Highschool bleachers had to do with this, but he just promised him to go to the Highschool bleachers and left the room.

Lip told his siblings to leave Ian alone for now and left the house.

He needed a while until he arrived at the Highschool bleachers by foot. He wondered what he was supposed to say to Mickey. Bipolar was a hard thing to deal with, he couldn't force Mickey to take care of Ian like this. And Mickey obviously didn't understand the disorder or Ian, much less was he able to handle it. Restraining Ian to the bed definitely wasn't a long-term solution.

He got to the high school field and already heard a deep, dark 'clonk' noise over and over again as if someone was hitting against the metal posts of the bleachers with something.
Lip needed some time to locate the noise but eventually found Mickey hitting a thick tree branch against the bleachers, until it finally broke in half and Mickey hurled them away.

"You know, in wood versus metal, wood will always lose.", Lip said. Mickey looked up.
"Yeah? Maybe I should slam your head against this, see if it works better"

Though the obvious threat, Lip walked up to him.
"The fuck do you want? Leave me alone. I'm done with you fucking Gallaghers!"
"I talked to Ian."
"Yeah, how did you do that? There a secret to get through to that scrambled brain?", Mickey barked and now grabbed a stone from the ground and threw it against the metal post, it bounced off and flew into Lip's direction like a bullet. Lip quickly jumped out of the way.

"Could you stop that?"
"No"
"Ian calmed down."
"Oh did he know?"
"If I made an educated guess, I'd say he's slipping into the depressed episode now. You said, he already had those, you remember? You know how to deal with them."

Mickey looked at him, "I don't know anything anymore!", he yelled at him, "I don't know who that fucking man is at all! I don't know why I fucking bother! Why me, huh? Everyone is coming to me 'uh you have to take care of him wah-wah' Fuck you!"

"I get that you're frustrated, Mickey, but he needs you. You're his boyfriend."
Mickey scoffed, "I've been his boyfriend for the longest fucking time. He doesn't fucking care who I am or if I'm there."
"That's not true.", Lip said, "I know it's frustrating and it's hard and shit, but it can be okay. This isn't a death sentence. We just need to get him through the depressed episode now and then have to convince him to go to a hospital."