Smack!

Mandy's face feels like it's on fire as she grabs her injured cheek with one hand and tries to catch herself with her other hand. Her attempt is futile and her body slams into a shelf, knocking it over as flotsam and jetsam go scattering across the floor under her. She stares at the objects strewn around the floor from her fallen position on all fours. That hated burn betrays her own will as the objects blur through the tears welling in her eyes.

Never again, she had said last time. Never again, he had promised. Never again, she now vows as her hand slowly slides forward to wrap around the smooth glass edge of the bottle that had broken in the fall, its sharp edge beckoning her like a moth to the flame.

She is going to kill him now, watch him bleed right here in her bedroom.

But before she can move there is a commotion behind her. She turns her head in time to see Ian, dressed in nothing but boxer shorts and a tank top swipe his leg out and take Kenyata down. In a flash of movement, the redhead jumps on the huge man's back and slams his forehead into the floor. Kenyata lets out a yell and rolls over, sending Ian flying. But Ian is fast and there is murder in his eyes.

Before Kenyata can even get off the floor, Ian jabs his fist into his throat and stops him cold. His hand flies to his neck and he struggles to breathe. Ian quickly takes advantage of Kenyata's weakness and jumps on his chest pounding his fists into Kenyata's face furiously. But Ian's strength wanes quickly. After all, he has been sick for over a week now and Kenyata manages to roll them and get Ian pinned under his significant weight.

Kenyata pulls back his fist and it lands on Ian's face with one sickening thud but the sound of a gun clicking and Svetlana's voice yelling, "Stop" freezes him before he can throw another.

She is standing over the fighting men holding the gun a foot away from Kenyata's head with two hands, her eyes cold and deadly.

"You will not touch orange boy or Mandy… ever again. Get up and get fuck out of house. You show ugly face again, I will fill you with bullets and dump your body in lake."

"C'mon now," Kenyata says while slowly getting to his feet. "You're not really going to shoot anyone. Put the gun down."

Without a second thought, Svetlana adjusts her aim and puts a bullet through his upper arm then turns the sites right back at the center of his head.

"Fuck me!" Kenyata yells and doubles over grabbing his injured shoulder at the same time as Ian bucks and frees himself from under the man. From the living room comes the shriek of Yevgeni's voice, obviously woken in fear as the loud gunshot hit his little ears.

"You don't bleed on floor. Get out," Svetlana commands without the slightest waiver in her voice.

Mandy looks back and forth between her bleeding boyfriend bent over in agony to her best friend who is cautiously eyeing the proceedings and back to Svetlana who hasn't batted an eye.

"Fine! Fuck all y'all," Kenyata grumbles. "Who wants to stay here anyway with white trash, whores, and crazy fags?"

"You want another hole in chest?" Svetlana growls. "Orange boy's not crazy and this whore might just be last face you see so you should stop talking."

Kenyata musters up all of the dignity he can (which isn't much after hitting a girl, getting beat up by a queer, and shot by a Russian hand whore) and stalks out the front door of the Milkovich home once and for all, mumbling curses under his breath but not daring to say them out loud with Svetlana still pointing the gun at him.

Svetlana lowers the gun and exits the room without a word. Ian is breathing heavily with a faraway look in his eye, but he still manages to help Mandy to her feet and sit next to her on the bed, pulling her close with a comforting arm around her shoulder. Mandy can feel Ian vibrating beside her and she worries about the man who has been battling bi-polar disorder. Since Ian's depression kicked in, she has Googled manic depression and bi-polar disorder and, while some of what she read was beyond her comprehension, she does remember that traumatic events can trigger or worsen an episode.

The last thing she wants is to see Ian get worse. It has been terrible watching him go through this depression. She had tried – heck everyone had tried – to talk him out of it, to cheer him up and convince him to participate in life again but the depression had taken a strong hold and she feared for her best friend. Seeing him crash and sleep though the better part of almost two weeks has been terrible and now this happens, just when she had started to see sparks of life in Ian again.

Svetlana returns a moment later with a crying baby in one arm and towels for Ian and Mandy to clean the blood off their faces draped over her arm. Mandy notices she still hasn't let go of the gun.

Ian does a quick swipe of his own face to get the blood out from under his nose then he turns to Mandy and cups her chin in his hand as he dabs gently at her cheek. Mandy winces as it touches the bruise and Ian mumbles apologies. Not for the first time, Mandy secretly wishes the sweet redhead had been straight. Her best friend has been kinder to her than any other man, and that includes all of the ones she had actually slept with! Mandy leans her head on Ian's shoulder and Ian tilts his head into hers.

"How do I keep ending up with assholes?" Mandy says as one tear escapes her eye. She isn't sure who she is more angry with – Ketyana for being an abusive asshole or herself for crying and showing her weakness. She swallows down any more tears quickly. "Growing up as Terry's punching bag I always swore it would never be me when I got older."

Svetlana raises her eyebrows, "Terry hit you, too?"

Ian huffs, "Yeah, that evil sadistic prick that you seem so fond of… that's not all-" Ian catches himself before he lets out Mandy's secret.

Mandy looks up at Svetlana and sees understanding dawn in her eyes. Without Ian saying anything, she knows.

"My father… he hurt me, too," Svetlana says as she sits next to Mandy.

"Men are assholes," grumbles Mandy. "Maybe not Ian," she concedes and bumps his shoulder affectionately.

"No," Ian says, "I'm with you. We've sure all got shit fathers, anyway."

They hear someone come through the front door and a moment later Mickey comes in the room and looks around at the scene. Blood is splattered in several places around the floor. The shelf is knocked over, its contents splayed out around the room. Svetlana is sitting in her robe on the bed with a gun in her hand bouncing a whimpering Yevgeni in the crook of her arm. Mandy is leaning into Ian holding a bloody towel to her face. And Ian is sporting a black eye and blood is drying on his chin and chest.

"What the fuck happened in here?!"

"Kenyata's gone," Mandy mumbles.

"What, you three ganged up on the stupid prick? Shit, wish you had waited for me. Wanted to kill that mother-fucker for weeks."

Svetlana gets off the bed and walks towards the door. "We don't need you to get rid of useless man," she says as she passes Mickey on her way back to her room.

"Yeah, fuck you too," Mickey hollers at her back before turning back to Mandy, "What? That fucker Mike Tyson your ass again? Or lemme guess, you fall again?"

"Fuck you, Mick. He's gone and this time I'm not letting him come back."

"No. This time I'm not letting him come back. Fucker shows up here again, he's meeting the business end of my glock. No more crying wolf, Mandy."

"What do you mean?!"

"The hell you think I mean? 'He hit me. He didn't hit me. I'm leaving him. I'm staying with him.' You been playing these games for years. You let Lip fuck around with that blonde psycho and you went back to him. Hell, I almost kicked the shit out of this one 'cause of your bullshit." Mickey lets out a defeated sigh, "You gotta stop, Mand."

Mandy fumes. How dare Mickey tell her about relationships? He's the one that fucked up his own life six ways to Sunday, not standing up to Dad, marrying a whore, and breaking Ian's heart. Mickey's decisions had sent away not only his boyfriend but her best friend. Ian was the one person who was kind to her, the one person she could always rely on, the one who had never let her down. He had been her rock through most of high school and no one seemed to care that when Mickey dismissed him, he wasn't the only one left heartbroken.

Mandy had broken up with Lip at the same time that Ian left and she couldn't remember being so lonely in years. Kenyata was a cheating abusive dick, Mickey was a drunken mess, their dad was back in prison, and she was stuck in a house full of whores who spoke to each other in Russian, ignoring her completely. And worst of all was that Ian disappeared and left her with no one.

She gets up and storms past her brother, heading into the kitchen for some ice for her face. She watches out of the corner of her eye as Ian makes his way to Mickey's room to clean up and presumably hide back under his blankets. Mickey follows him in and she can hear the concern in Mickey's voice as he asks Ian if he's OK.

When Mickey emerges a few minutes later he makes his way to the kitchen, takes a beer out of the refrigerator, and plops down in the seat across from Mandy.

"He OK?" Mandy asks tilting her head towards the room where Ian is undoubtedly going back to sleep.

Mickey looks away and biting down on his lower lip, "I don't fucking know. Shit, when was the last time he was OK?"

"I don't know… how long have you been married?" Mandy deadpans.

Mickey raises his eyebrows, purses his lips, and he gives her the finger.

"Seriously, Mick, you know you don't have to stay married any more, right?"

"Oh great, I'm gettin' relationship advice from the girl holding frozen peas to her face."

Mandy rolls her eyes, "You're such an asshole sometimes. And besides, I just got rid of my dead weight. Maybe it's time you did the same?"

"God, you're a pushy bitch, you know that?"

Mandy gives him a pointed look and a smirk. "Runs in the family, I guess. I just happen to be the pushy bitch whose right."

Mickey pauses for a beat, "What about the kid?"

"So now you care?"

Mickey huffs and stares at a spot on the floor.

Mandy shrugs, "We take care of him. Wouldn't be the first kid from the South Side with divorced parents. I can help. Ian seems to like the little rugrat and his family can help too."

"I don't have time to deal with that shit right now. I got a business to run and Ian…." Mickey's voice waivers and Mandy can see a vulnerability in him that surprises even her. Sometimes she still can't believe how much her hard-ass of a brother cares about the redhead sleeping in the next room.

"It doesn't have to be today, Mick. It just… feels like time to get our shit together. What you said... about me… you were right. I'm tired of getting fucked by assholes and you should be tired of getting fucked over by Dad."

"Jesus… we done here, Oprah?" Mickey downs the rest of his beer and stomps off to the living room where he flops onto the couch and pretends to watch TV. But Mandy can see the cogs in his mind turning. She smiles internally. Sometimes her brother is so transparent that she wonders how she ever missed what was going on between him and Ian for so long. She has done her job though, planted the seed.

She's already forced one dumb-ass man in her life to get his act together and, even though Lip didn't take her with him, she will always feel a little bit of second-hand pride that she was the one who helped him get out of the South Side. Now she just needs to fix the two other dumb-ass men she loves. She makes a promise to herself to help Ian out of his depression and to help her brother realize that he deserves happiness too. And maybe, just maybe, she can try to find some happiness for herself along the way.

Author's Note: Sorry for the really long hiatus between updates to this fic. End of the school year stuff has had me swamped. Thanks for your patience and for sticking with this story during the long updating gaps. Hope you liked my take on Mandy. Ian's disappearance after season 3 had to have been almost as hard on her as it was on Mickey but that perspective kind of got lost in season 4. I wanted to explore how difficult it was for her to lose her best friend and boyfriend at the same time while watching her brother suffer through his loos as well. And, it's high time she got rid of Kenyata and realized that she deserved so much better… they all do.