Miss me? (A gallavich story)

What he has to do

Ian felt surprisingly calm as he sat in the holding cell they had directed him into hours ago. It was a good plan and he had faith in it, if everything went down as it was supposed to he should be out in no time. The thing that was working his nerves was the thought of Mickey, and knowing that he was probably freaking the hell out. He shifted his position until he was laying down across the metal bench. He thought back to Frank and grappled with the conflicting feelings his father brought on. On the one hand all of the Gallagher's lives would be better with Frank removed from the equation, but did he really deserve this? Spending the rest of his days behind bars? Although, knowing Frank he'd probably find a way to make the experience go in his favor, he'd just have to find some poor bastards crazy enough to go along with his daily shenanigans and he'd be set. The more Ian though about it, the calmer and less guilty he felt, almost as if he was slowly being relieved of all of the weight of his problems, able to breathe once again.

***
Meanwhile Mickey was freaking out. Tugging at handfuls of his hair as he tried to sort through the thousands of thoughts rapidly running through his brain. It felt as though whenever Ian was within reach and they could finally start to be happy, Ian was taken away from him. He wanted to call the other Gallagher's, to try to find someone who cared about him too to help him figure shit out. But it felt too risky, he unfortunately had to just wait it out and hope that the plan worked out.

Frank stumbled in through the back door and didn't make it much further than that before collapsing backwards onto the tiled floor, Mickey rolled his eyes but went up to him and tilted him on his side so that he didn't choke on his own vomit. To top it all off he even chose to bunch up one of the dishtowels and slid it under Frank's head. Consider it one final act of kindness before he was gone.

***
Ian wasn't sure how long he'd been asleep when the sound of the lock sliding out of place and the door opening woke him.

"Gallagher" a loud voice boomed that belonged to a scrawny guy with bad facial hair, "come with me."

He was lead into a room where a man in a dress shirt and a bald head sat next to one of the cops that arrested him. He was told to sit, clearly they didn't feel like waisting time.

"We tested the knife found in your home and were pretty surprised by the results."

Ian didn't say anything for fear of his voice betraying him, so he just raised his eyebrow questioningly.

"We confirmed that it is in fact the murder weapon, and we found your fathers fingerprints on the blade."

They paused long enough that Ian knew that they were expecting a reaction from him. "Frank killed Caleb?" He paused for dramatic effect before continuing, "are you sure?"

"It looks that way, the only thing we haven't quite figured out is why."

Of course, they were looking for motive. Ian hesitated, a hint of guilt returned to him and for a moment he wasn't sure how to continue. But then he thought of Mickey, of how much shit he's been through, of how he deserved to finally be happy for a while. And then he thought of Mickey's father, and motive came to him.

"Frank... He never approved of me and Caleb. He was always giving Caleb these dirty looks and saying how I just need to find a nice girl to suck my dick and that I'd be done with Caleb, with guys in general.

"But then one day he walked in on me and Caleb while we were... you know.  He was drunk, and he got angry and I think that set him off. I never thought he'd actually kill him though."

The story came out fluidly, he added the right amount of emotion into his voice, but that part wasn't entirely faked. This was wrong, Frank wasn't homophobic, hell he barely batted an eye when he walked in on him and Mickey. He never even met Caleb, Caleb wasn't part of anything real in Ian's life, he only exposed himself to what he could handle and for that he never met Ian's family. God, he couldn't even picture him and Frank in the same room. He didn't deserve this. Ian rubbed at his eyes and they came back wet. He was crying.

The two men looked away from him timidly. "We're so sorry for your loss." The bald one said with a genuine tone.

The officer obviously felt the need to apologize as well. "And we're sorry for putting you through all this hassle."

They both stood, bald head extended his hand to which Ian awkwardly shook. "You're free to go, allow yourself some time to grieve."

That's exactly what Ian was going to do.