Hey! Hope you're all doing well. Thanks so much for all the encouragement. I really appreciate it. Tried my best on the editing.

Chapter Three – Trouble Came Running

"… Here it come running

Here it come running again

Trouble come running

Here it come running again…"

– Spoon

"Ow! Fuck Debbs!"

"Just hold still."

"Be gentle then."

Fiona marched towards them and yanked the cloth Debbie was using to clean the most recent cut Lip had acquired at his hairline "Know what?" she glared.

"AHHH!" Lip screamed when Fiona pressed the damp towel harder into the fresh scrape "Damn it Fi!"

"Clean it your damn self." She threw the rag at him and made Debbie stand up from where she had been sitting at the kitchen table with him. "Come Debbs move." Fiona ushered Debbs towards the stairs.

"Hey, Fiona. I'm not a ki…"

"Debbie just…go." Fiona headed for the stairs as well, before getting a second wind and turning back to berate him "I mean, Jesus Lip! What is it with you? You just stick it in every girl you see?"

"Well I do have some standards…" he shrugged "there not that high but they're something at least."

"Oh that's funny, Lip." Fiona faked an impressed face before scowling "Let's see how that comedy act helps when you've got two kids to take care of… 'cause hey," she gestured wildly between them "… in case you've forgotten our earlier conversation, I sure as shit am not raisin' anymore goddamn kids."

Huffing out a weary breath, Lip gently prodded at the ache on his right shoulder "Would you relax? There's no way that little zygote's mine."

"Like the way Karen's might not have been yours?"

"Ah." Lip pretended to ponder for a moment "Not exactly, 'cause ah I'm pretty sure we'd have to had slept together for those kinds of odds. And what's more, Karen's still might not be mine either."

"Right, sure." Fiona scoffed, angrily picking up dirty dishes from the crowded counters and throwing them in the sink "And Frank isn't passed out drunk in some gutter right now."

"You know? I find your consistent lack of faith truly awe inspiring." He grimaced patting the open wound at the crown of his head.

"Yeah, well in this house that shouldn't be a surprise." She stared at him for a breath "Lip, how can you be sure?"

"I know 'cause I didn't sleep with Mae, she…"

"Mae! It's Mae now?" Fiona interrupted with an exasperated question "You suddenly remember her name?"

"You slept with Mae?" Debbs' voice carried from the stairs, where she was still parked and listening from.

"Debbs!" Fiona yelled walking towards the stairs, it was clear with the sound of pounding footsteps that Debbie got the message to get her butt upstairs.

Lip rolled his shoulders, putting down the towel and looking for a spare cigarette on the messy kitchen table as he replied to Fiona's question "I was just trying to piss Kev off."

"Real mature." His tired sister mocked, lolling her head back to stare at the ceiling.

"Hey! I wasn't the one throwing punches for no fucking reason." Lip pointed in the direction of Kev and Vee's house.

"From what I can tell it's still a pretty good reason." She ground her teeth and stared at him with doubt evident in her eyes "All we have is your word for it and the fact that she yelled in your face doesn't really work in your favour either." She laughed without humor "Jesus it's like I'm lookin' at another freaking Frank!"

"Hey!" Lip banged his hand against the table, causing Fiona to twitch in surprise. She stared at him wide eyed, he had no idea what he must have looked like, but he knew that her saying that about him and Frank made him seethe. "Don't fucking say that shit to me…" he said in a low voice.

Fiona took a minute to respond, her shock fading away quickly "You know what? You're right. I mean at least Frank managed to keep it in one chick. Congrats you've surpassed our rat of a father." She threw more plates into the sink.

His mouth drew into a tight line, "Look…" taking a calming breath and deciding to relent Lip, chewed on the side of cheek before carrying on "there could have been…"

"Oh yeah!" Fiona interjected angrily, accusingly glaring at him "Could've been what?"

Stalling for a second, Lip raised his arms in defense "All right, so maybe I remember coming home and her being on the couch…" he frowned "or maybe it was my bedroom floor and…"

"Jesus Lip!" Fiona flung another dirty dish towel in his direction causing Lip to jump out of his chair to dodge the flying item.

"My boxers was still on!" He yelled in retort, though as soon as he had said it he knew how lame it sounded.

"And where were your pants?" the eldest Gallagher raised her eyebrows to illustrate exactly how lame his point had been.

He winced "I don't remember that. Just it sort of smelt…"

She grimaced "Smelt?"

'Hmm…' he could feel his nose tinge as the memory came back to him.

"Like girl…" He explained, causing Fiona to further screw up her face in disgust.

"Ew, Lip."

"Not that. Like cinnamon and shit…" he gestured as though it was obvious "Like girl." He stated once more. "I went to Kev's to see her that morning he told me to stay away from her, though he made his point with more colourful words and being a good fucking friend I stayed the hell away. Figured she'd come to see me if… you know… And this is what I get," he pointed to his swollen eye "...for my trouble."

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Fiona closed her eyes then opened them to wearily state "Whatever Lip, I gotta get ready for work, you just figure it out."

As he watched her climb the stairs the last conversation he had with that prick, Frank, played over his mind. He felt a surge of anger and adrenaline course through him, making him reply resolutely "I have."

"Yeah sure…" Fiona commented dismissively over her shoulder as she continued up the creaking stairs.

Looking around the mess of an empty kitchen, Lip took in the finger paintings stuck to the fridge, the smelly laundry stacked in the corner by the washing machine, unpaid bills spread out over the kitchen counter under mounds of daily crap and other random shit. This was life, those were his brothers and sisters, not his kids, but they may as well have been. It was all so wrong, it all made him want to rip his father's nuts off. Clenching and unclenching his fists, his glanced down at his palms, muttering as he did "I'm not gonna be another fucking Frank."

"What is this Kev?"

"Please baby…" Kevin whined still dressed only his boxers, as he proceeded argue with his wife in front of Mae as if the young girl wasn't even sitting there on their sticky faux leather living room sofa.

"Don't 'baby' me. How long is she meant to stay here?" Vee waved her hand at the light haired girl, without even looking at her.

"She's my niece!" He exclaimed, his brown eyes lighting up with another realization "And that means she's yours too!"

"Yeah and between her, Ethel and Jonah we'll gonna be eaten out of house and home."

"That's…" unable to hold her tongue any longer Mae stepped into the argument, earning an unappreciative look from Veronica "… ah, I have mo-" Mae face lined in confusion as she searched the inside of her bra for the couple of hundred she was sure she had saved "money…" she whispered, too quiet for anyone else to hear. Squeezing her hazel-green eyes shut she breathed "… damn it…" as what had most likely happened dawned on her.

'Rusty, much?' She scolded herself. 'Hug from a Gallagher, should've known better.' The last time she had been here she had been run through that particular gambit. Almost everyone living in that dysfunctional house had attempted to swindle her out of money '… or straight up rob me…' she thought of the first time she had met Frank. She had beaten his ass with the security baseball bat that Fiona left on the stairs. He had woken her up by nosily banging through the front door of the Gallagher household, she had found him in the entryway exchanging his ratty coat for her relatively nice winter jacket. She had screamed, got a couple of good whacks in and he had briefly confused her for Fiona, then asked her for money.

'Not the only time you got an abrupt awakening in that house…' Mae inhaled sharply, shoving that other particular experience out of her mind.

In any case she had quickly gotten wise to the great Gallagher act, eventually she had broken past just being someone that they could skim money from.

Debbie had been so desperate for female companionship, all it took was some shared experience and making hot chocolate to hawk outside of the Alibi to get the little girl to trust her. Carl finally stopped digging through Mae's stuff when she helped him change his sheets one night when he had wet his bed. At first he had threatened to shank her if she told anyone. But that didn't happen, not once she tucked him back in bed and stayed when he asked her to. He wouldn't tell her what was wrong, but he laughed when Mae told him about the time Molly Minken had stuck her hand in a warm bowl of water and made her pee herself at her first and only ever slumber party. 'Shared experience…' Mae could still remember waking up in horror that night with a soaked sleeping bag and the cruel laughs surrounding her. While going through it hadn't been fun, joking about it with Carl had been.

It happened a few more times when Fiona and the older boys stayed out all night. But Mae figured out that if someone was in the room with him he was usually all right. So she had made a game of it each night she was over taking care of Debbie, Carl and Liam. They built forts out of blankets and pillows that sprawled inside the house. 'Which is how you got in this mes…'

"Nope." She said to herself out aloud without meaning to.

"What's the matter with you?" Vee stared at her in amazement. "Feelin' yourself up in front of your Uncle…" she shook her head in disapproval.

"What?" Mae yanked her hand out of her bra "No I just… Gallaghers…" Mae shrugged now, not really in the mood to tell her irritated Aunt that she had lost $300 to an old lady.

"Maybe she could be another foster kid. Her mom's kicked her out…" Kevin went on suggesting.

"Why would they put her into foster care with a relative?" Vee questioned "Let them know she's been kicked out of home they'll probably make you adopt her. Know how much that's gonna fuckin' cost?"

"Shit Vee. You can't seriously be askin' me to shove my pregnant niece out on to the streets!" he exclaimed "She's family."

"Family? You wanna talk about family? What has her mother ever done for you? Loungin' out there in San Francisco or wherever the fuck she is. Wasn't she married some bigwig sugar daddy? When did you ever see a hand out from her?"

"Argh! How many times do I have to go over this Vee? He was pushed out by his partners, didn't have a penny to his name."

"Right and your darling sister? What about her?" Vee put her hands on her hips and stared at Kevin coldly "That was 10 years ago and she landed on her feet didn't she? And I doubt she's just been sittin' on her ass since then, am I right?" Vee turned suddenly to Mae, fixing her with a powerful stare.

"Ah… she's done well…" Mae resisted the urge to look down at her feet.

"But that's not the point Vee. She" Kevin pointed at Mae "was kicked out. She doesn't have a thing to her name…"

'Not technically true…' Mae thought of her father. He had taken off pretty soon after losing his job, she could barely remember him but at least he had cared enough about her future to try to set up something. 'Now that's all gone to hell.' Mae looked down at her barely swollen belly, she felt the baby flutter inside her.

Taking in a deep breath, Mae tried to contribute again "I'll get a job… I'll…"

"Nah. Fuck that noise" Kevin butted in "You're too smart to drop out…"

"Clearly not smart enough…" Vee muttered under breath.

"What was that?" Kev immediately turned on his wife.

"Uncle Kevin," Mae said in a clearer voice, bringing back his attention. Looking between the couple, Mae gave her stomach a rub, her voice coming out brokenly when she hadn't meant for it to "Aunt Vee's right. Smart but real stupid."

Something in Vee's face changed, it lost some of its hard edge for a flicker of a moment.

"Nah." Kev determinedly shook his head "You are finishing school. With your grades you got be a shoo-in for a scholarship or somethin'… you pay us back when you get out of college."

Biting her lip, Mae figured it probably wasn't the best time to mention how and why if she were even going to college money wouldn't be a problem. Especially judging by the fact that Vee stomped her foot and marched off out the backdoor of the house, obviously not in the mood to discuss this matter any further.

"She'll warm up…" Kev smiled sympathetically at his light haired niece.

"Yeah. Looks like when hell freezes over…" Mae tried to smile, but she could feel the water beginning to pool in her eyes "I'm so…" she gasped as a few tears escaped "I'm so sorry."

"Hey, hey, hey" Kev moved towards her, wrapping her in a protective hug.

"I had nowhere else…"

"Don't even worry about it" he pulled away to look her in the eye "That's what family's for, kid. Got it?"

"Got it." She smiled, wiping her cheeks. "These hormones are just driving me crazy."

"Yeah I saw." He wiggled his eyebrows in an impressed gesture "You nearly took Lip's leg off."

"Not so sure if that one was all hormones." She laughed lightly with a sniff.

"I don't blame you." Kev laughed too before adding "Fucking prick" in regards to Lip.

"I'm just glad he didn't follow me." She sniffed again.

'Liar…'

Blinking her eyes clear, Mae ignored the voice in her head and focused on the facts "He is a prick." She smiled, staring up at her Uncle. Her chin pebbled in puzzlement soon after "Hey, how'd you know?" she asked just as the house phone rang.

"Know what?" Kev stepped away and began distractedly looking around the living room for the phone.

"Know that it was… you know… him…" she finished, feeling like a coward. 'Can't even say his name.'

"Ah, yeah?" Kev answered the phone, "Jesus I'll be right there. Keep your panties on." He hung up and began head towards the laundry room to find some clothes "I gotta go to work hun. There's food in the kitchen and…"

"How, Uncle Kevin?" Mae question again still fishing for an answer.

"How what sweetheart?"

Sighing and leaning back against the wall of the living room Mae let it go for the time being. "Never mind."

"All right," he panted, coming back fully dressed, he kissed the top of her head "I'll be back around one, Vee'll be back to get ready for her shift, and hopefully she'll have cooled off. Lock the door behind me, don't open it for strangers" he patted his jeans' pockets making sure he had grabbed everything he needed, before heading towards the front door. Halfway out he stopped "Oh! But Ethel and Jonah'll be back from the store soon. She dresses like a prairie girl, you can let her in, but no strangers" he repeated firmly.

"No strangers. But knives in the toaster are ok, right?" Mae asked sarcastically.

He opened his mouth obviously thinking that she was being serious for a minute before realizing she was joking. "See ya' brat." He grinned, closing the door behind him as he left.

"See ya'…" she smiled, locking the door and feeling better for a second, but then the baby moved again and a wave of nausea hit just as there was a knock at the door.

Once again thanks so much for the support. Sorry about editing. Let me know what you think :)