southside trash [shameless]

• Chapter 24 • Frank •

Jonas kept his promise and showed up at the hospital early this morning, joined by Fiona in the early afternoon.  Fiona apologised profusely for not coming earlier as soon as she arrived, to which I quickly assured her that it was completely fine.

"It was such a chaotic day, I was going to come earlier and make the kids go to school, since it was only a half day, but then-" Fiona rambles out.

"Hey, calm down, it's fine," I assure her, "now tell me about this chaotic day, I want to know everything I missed."

She breaths out with a appreciative smile and starts talking at a more understandable speed. "I covered a shift for Lucia at the bakery, 2 a.m start."

"Yikes," I grimace, "free bread though, right?"

"Exactly," she grins, "oh, the toilet's blocked so there's that."

"Nice," I nod, smirking.

"Ian, Lip and Mandy found a truck full of meat on their way home from school, so the whole neighbourhood has fridges and freezers full of meat," she tells me with a smile, "Kev borrowed Ron's chainsaw and Lip's been cutting up the meat with it."

"Shit," I laugh, "at least it's not Carl doing it."

"Oh, and Frank's signed you all up for credit cards," she scoffs, "good news, you're all in debt."

"Wait what?" I furrow my eyebrow.

"Yep," she nods, "ugh, and Steve keeps trying to get me to go to a hotel for the night," she grumbles, "does he not fucking see I have too much shit going on to just take the night off? Even took Liam over to Sheila's, so he was taken care of."

"You should go," I shrug.

"What?" She stops in her rant and looks at me, "you're kidding right?"

"No, you deserve a night off," I tell her sincerely, "Ian and Lip can handle Debbie and Carl for a night, Sheila's already got Liam."

She looks at me, biting her lip.

"Look, I know you," I take her hands in my own, "you think that this is us saying we don't need you, that we don't appreciate all you do for us.  You think it's a big ol' fuck you to everything you do, but it's not, Fi.  We want you to take a night off because of all you do for us."

She looks at me for a second, "you really think I should go?"

"I do," I smile at her.

"I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't be putting all of this shit on you," she quickly says.

"It's fine, Fi. I like it, I'm missing the Gallagher chaos," I shake my head, assuring her, "now go pack a bag and fuck your boyfriend in a fancy bed."

She giggles with a huge grin on her face, nodding, "okay."

"The doctors said they'd let me out in an hour or two, once they've done all the final checks," I lie to her, "tell Lip to come get me when you see him, okay?"