A:N/ I was very happy with all the reviews from everyone. They made me smile! And here's the chapter earlier, as promised, when I receive lots of reviews. Enjoy!
Lip and Liam had been gone before Tessa had even woken up. Usually a light sleeper, she hadn't even heard them moving around while getting ready for the day. It was a little after eight in the morning and Tessa sighed. She had taken some time off from work so she could help the Gallaghers, but hadn't told Lip in fear of his reaction. She had so much paid-time off accrued; she figured now was a good time to use it.
Tessa didn't really want to go sit around with Fiona today, so she focused on cleaning her own house. Fiona had texted her telling her that her probation officer was going to show up today, and that she was hoping Tessa would come by later so they could hang out.
It took her about an hour to respond to Fiona's text message. She finally agreed to come by around dinner so she could help once all the kids came home from school.
It was around five o'clock when Tessa walked through the front door of the Gallagher household. Fiona was in the kitchen working on a calendar. Unwinding her scarf from her neck, Tessa sat down on the stool near the kitchen counter.
"What's that?" Tessa asked.
"Trying to plan our meals out. I can't leave to get a job until a report is filed, and my PO said that could take two weeks."
She saw how exhausted Fiona looked. She didn't blame her. She would have been up all night thinking about how she was going to take care of her family too. But Tessa wasn't going to just let them go without food.
"You don't have any money left from your job?"
Fiona shook her head. "I caught up on old bills," she confessed.
Tessa nodded. "Well you know I can grab food from the diner. I have a few days off but I can swing by or Sam can grab something. The food gets thrown out anyway."
Fiona smiled at her friend and nodded. "Thanks," she said.
"So…" Tessa said slowly after a moment of silence. "Did I miss anything today?"
Sighing, she shrugged. "We kicked Sammi out last night. Lip and I got into a huge fight. Debbie got her period this morning." Fiona listed off a few more things. Tessa knew about the fight but hadn't been informed on what it was about. However, given the current situation she could only guess it was about Fiona and the possible jail time she was looking at.
Smirking, Tessa looked at Fiona. "I'm sure she loved waking up to that."
Fiona scoffed. "Yeah. She wanted nothing to do with me when I tried to help her."
Tessa shrugged. "It's an awkward thing in general. I'll say something to her to let her know she can come to me too. It might be different coming from someone who isn't her sister."
"Thanks," Fiona said.
The sound of the door opening caught both of their attention. Lip walked in with Liam in one arm, and a garbage bag full of food in the other.
"Hey. My first class tomorrow is at 11:30, so we're gonna stay here tonight, and then Friday it's 8:30 AM so we're gonna stay at the dorms tomorrow night."
"Got it. Got it." Fiona nodded, reaching for Liam. She had really missed her little brother.
"Hi! Hi, hi!" Fiona gushed as Lip put Liam in his highchair.
"Hi, my big boy! Did you miss me today? Yeah. Oh, you did?"
Tessa watched the two for a moment and watched as Liam paid little attention to his sister, and more to the toy in his hand.
"Oh, you brought dinner. That's great." Fiona walked over to the fridge and wrote on her calendar. "That means we can move tonight's mac and cheese to tomorrow, which gives us an extra day of food before we panic."
"Panic?" Lip asked.
"Yeah. I got to pay the heat and electric before I buy groceries. It's pretty bleak. I got a check coming from the cups, but that's gonna cover rent, and food-wise, we're low on everything but macaroni and mayonnaise."
Tessa scrunched her nose up in disgust at the idea of mixing the two together.
She opened her mouth to remind Fiona about the food she could get from the diner, but Lip cut her off before she could say anything.
"You saved nothing from your job?"
Fiona shrugged. "I was trying to catch up on old bills." She looked over at Liam in an attempt to change the subject. "How'd he do today?"
"Yeah, he's fine."
Debbie and Carl walked into the house. "Carl got suspended," Debbie announced.
"What?" Fiona asked, her eyebrows rose in concern.
"Shut up, ass-brain," Carl spat.
"Hi, Lip," Debbie greeted her older brother, walking over to give him a hug.
"Hey, kiddo. How are ya?" He asked, hugging his sister back.
"Hey, bud." Lip ruffled Carl's hair.
"Hey," Carl greeted in return.
Debbie walked around the counter and quickly gave Tessa a hug before she began to take her winter clothes off.
"I need someone to go to school with me Friday morning or I'll be expelled," Carl explained.
"Well, I can't leave the house yet. They need to reschedule. Did you tell them I'm stuck at home?" Fiona rambled.
"No," Carl deadpanned.
"Well, go in tomorrow and tell them I'm sick. I have singles or mono," Fiona insisted.
"I'll take you bruiser," Lip offered as he slid two pans of food into the oven. "What time?"
"8:00 AM," Carl said.
"Oh, fuck. I got class. Can you make it a little later, like, around noon?"
"No, parents will be there and stuff."
Tessa tried to think about how that could work, but wasn't seeing any solution. Frank was far too sick to go anywhere. She just hoped Lip didn't have to miss class, seeing as he had already missed a few when Liam had been in the hospital.
"Hi, new family."
Everyone looked up to see Sammi standing in the kitchen doorway. "Door was open. I won't stay long, just wanted to let you know, dads at Sheila's house. We're living there a bit. It's a really great place. Plenty of room, lots of light."
"Thanks for the update," Liam said with a roll of his eyes.
"Any of you guys have any extra cash? Dad wants money for his surgery."
Tessa scoffed and rolled her eyes. She locked eyes with Lip who gave her the same expression. She couldn't believe Sammi was marching in here asking for money.
"Why not get a job?" Fiona asked, her arms crossed in front of her.
"Right now, my full-time career is taking care of our pops before he goes," Sammi said.
"Well, we're broke. Wish we could help you," Fiona said sarcastically.
"Okay. Doesn't hurt to ask. If anyone wants to stop by, give his morale a boost, hope can heal," Sammi said.
Lip scoffed. "Oh, yeah? Can hope make up for the years of misery that he put us through?"
Sammi shrugged. "Maybe. Come by. Find out." She turned to leave but stopped midway. "He doesn't deserve to go out like this. No one does."
Sammi left without anyone saying anything. Tessa would have to disagree. There were definitely people in the world that deserved to die a slow and painful death. She held no empathy for the Gallagher father.
"Why not ask Frank to go to school with you, Carl?" Debbie suggested.
The backdoor opened and someone Tessa had never met walked through. "Ian here?" He asked.
By process of elimination, Tessa knew this had to be Mickey.
"He's upstairs," Fiona said with a nod in that direction.
Tessa turned and gave Fiona a confusion look.
"Ian's here?" Everyone asked at the same time.
Carl and Debbie were the first to run upstairs to greet their brother. Tessa slowly got off her chair and walked upstairs, hoping everything was okay.
She walked into the room to see Carl and Debbie surrounding Ian and embracing him in tight hugs.
Someone walked in behind her, and she saw Lip giving Ian a grin. "Hey man!"
The two brothers hugged.
"Tessa!" Ian grinned when he saw his friend standing by the doorway.
Returning his grin, she walked forward and engulfed Ian in a hug. When she pulled away, his eyes darted between her and his brother. "Are you two back together yet?" He asked.
"No," Tessa said quickly.
"Uh, yeah. Nope," Lip said awkwardly at the same time.
Ian frowned for a moment.
"Lip says you stole a helicopter," Carl said, ruining Ian's small moment.
His frown immediately disappeared and was replaced by a grin.
"I tried to," he said. "Kind of tipped it. Blades snapped. Motor caught fire."
"Awesome," Carl gushed. "You shoot anyone?"
"I never left basic," Ian explained.
"You can't shoot anyone there?" Carl asked, disappointment clear on his face.
"You can. I didn't."
Carl was unimpressed. "You shot no one. You flew nothing. Why'd you even go there in the first place?" Carl asked.
"Relationship issues," he said, nodding his head.
He didn't look over at Mickey, but Tessa and Lip did.
"Yeah, you okay?" Lip asked, looking back at his brother.
"Yep. All good," he replied.
"Cool." Lip wrapped his arms around Debbie and Carl. "Cool. Well, let's go get some dinner dorks." He ushered them out of the room but turned back quickly. "Hey, I'll catch up with you later, yeah?"
"Yeah, later, man."
"All right." Lip disappeared out of the room and Tessa stood there for a moment.
She knew Mickey wanted to talk to Ian but she really didn't care. She had really missed the redhead.
"I'm glad you're back," Tessa said with a small smile.
"We have catching up to do too," Ian said with a wink.
She rolled her eyes and turned to leave the room. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," she mumbled under her breath.
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The next morning, Tessa woke up to the sound of pounding on her door. Groaning, she pulled herself out of bed and went to see who it was. Confusion crossed her features when she saw it was Debbie.
She opened the door and gave Debbie a concerned look. "Debbie? Is everything okay?"
"No! Fiona trashed my room. She shoved all of my clothes under my bed and she completely ruined my countdown to losing my virginity poster – "
Tessa laughed and Debbie glared at her. Tessa covered her mouth with her hand for a moment before nodding at Debbie. "I'm sorry. Continue."
"And on top of that I got my period and Fiona only has tampons."
Debbie plopped down on the couch and crossed her arms.
"You done?" Tessa asked, walking around the couch so she could sit next to Debbie.
Debbie gave a curt nod.
"So first of all, why did you have a countdown poster for losing your virginity?" Tessa asked, trying her best not to giggle at the absurd idea.
"Because she's a bitch!"
"Hey!" Tessa snapped back.
Rolling her eyes, Debbie huffed. "Because her stupid PO officer was coming by and everything needed to be spotless. I'm not the one who left the coke out so why do I need to be punished?"
"I'm sure she was just trying to make sure everything was okay for her PO. But I agree that she shouldn't have trashed your…art project." Tessa had found it too funny that Debbie had even made the poster in the first place.
"And I have some pads for you. Not a ton since they suck, but it's something I do have. Now, why don't you want to use a tampon? Did you try and it just didn't work?" Tessa asked.
Debbie shook her head. "No. I'm saving my virginity."
Tessa tilted her head back and stared at the ceiling, a few chuckles escaping her lips.
"You can't lose your virginity to a tampon, Debs."
Debbie raised her eyebrow. "You can't?"
She shook her head. "No. So on that note, why don't you try a tampon." She nodded in the direction of her bathroom.
"Okay," she said slowly. "And do you have a long sweater I can borrow?"
Tessa nodded. "You go try the tampon and I'll look through my clothes."
Debbie and Tessa got up and they both walked down the hallway. Debbie turned right to go into the bathroom and Tessa veered left to enter her room.
She began to look through her closet, unsure if she even had any long sweaters. She didn't have any hanging up so she walked over to her dresser and began going through the drawers.
Some of her drawers still had Lip's clothes in them and she began to take them all out. He could have them back. It wasn't like he was here all the time anyway.
Finally she found a sweater and held it in her hand. She walked towards the bathroom and knocked on the door. "Everything okay?" She asked.
The door opened and Debbie looked defeated. "It didn't work. I got it in a little but then it started to hurt. So I found your pads and just put one of those on. Can I have some for my backpack?"
Tessa nodded. "Of course. Try Googling and you may find a few tricks for the tampon thing. Try to give it another go whenever you get your period, yeah?" She asked.
Reluctantly, Debbie nodded. She walked back into the bathroom and started to grab some pads for her backpack.
"And here," Tessa said, tossing the sweater at Debbie. It landed on the floor next to her but she picked it up and put it on. "You can keep it. I can't even remember the last time I wore it."
Debbie smiled. "Thanks."
Tessa walked down the hallway and stood near the door, playing with her keys on the table. "Shouldn't you be at school?" Tessa yelled so Debbie could hear her from down the hallway.
Debbie walked down the hallway and shrugged. "Yeah but I really needed to talk to someone other than Fiona," she explained. "Hey uhm…do you mind if I spend the night?"
She smiled and nodded her head. "Of course. Just make sure you let Fiona know, okay?"
"Fine," she said with a huff of annoyance.
She bit the inside of her cheek but finally made up her mind. She reached onto the table and grabbed her spare key. She handed it out to Debbie. "Here's my spare."
Debbie reached for it but Tessa pulled it back quickly. "I swear if you give this to Lip I'll kill you," she threatened.
Rolling her eyes, Debbie snatched the key from Tessa.
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Tessa sat on the couch with Debbie. The redhead was trying to finish her homework and Tessa was trying to find a movie for the two of them to watch. She had picked up a frozen pizza and it was currently cooking in the oven.
"Oh! What about Bridesmaids?" Tessa asked.
Debbie looked up from her homework and shrugged. "I've never seen it."
Tessa grinned. "Oh we're definitely watching it."
She got up to check on the pizza but a knock on her door caught her attention. Her and Debbie exchanged odd looks. "Maybe it's Sam," she said more to herself than her guest.
Opening the door she saw Lip holding Liam and a bag and Carl on his side.
"Uh sorry to do this but…do you think we could crash here?"
She nodded her head and stepped aside for everyone to walk in.
"Hey Debs," Lip greeted.
Debbie frowned. "Why are you guys here? I was supposed to have a girls night with Tessa."
"Fiona almost burned the house down while she was drunk, so Lip made us leave," Carl explained.
Her eyes went wide and she looked at Lip. "Shit," she muttered. "Are you all okay?" Tessa asked.
Lip didn't say anything but he put Liam on the ground so he could take his winter jacket off.
"Fiona burned dinner. Got anything to eat?" Carl asked.
Tessa tore her eyes from Lip and looked at Carl. "Pizza should be ready in a minute. But if you're still hungry after that, then there's Peanut butter Captain Crunch in the closet."
She walked into the kitchen to check on the pizza. Deciding it was done, she pulled it out of the oven and placed it on the stove to cool. Tessa went back into the living room and placed her hands on her hips. "So Debbie will sleep with me, and you guys can have the pullout bed. Not sure if you can fit all three of you into the double sized bed, but if not then someone can sleep on the floor."
"Debs, can you cut the pizza? I'll be right back." Tessa walked down the hallway to look for the extra blankets the boys would need for their bed.
A moment later, Lip appeared in her room and he sat down on her bed. "Thanks," he muttered. "I don't mean to keep showing up here, but it's easier than trying to fit everyone in the dorm and you know…you said you would help if you could."
Tessa walked around and sat down on the bed next to him. "It's completely fine Lip. You guys can come here whenever you want."
There was a short silence between the two before Tessa decided to speak up. "I think it's the right thing, what you did. Taking the boys out of the house. I love Fiona but she's completely off the rails this time."
Lip nodded, secretly glad to have someone on his side. No doubt Kev and Veronica would always support Fiona, no matter what she did. "I wasn't going to chance her having the house burn down while everyone was sleeping."
Tessa pursed her lips, deciding whether or not she wanted to offer Lip more help. "I can watch Liam tomorrow, if you want. I don't work and I'll just stay here with him. You don't even have to let Fiona know he's here."
His automatic response was 'no', but before he could get the word out, he stopped himself. Even if he had never said it, he did trust Tessa. He trusted her with Liam more than he did with his roommate's girlfriend, Amanda. Amanda hadn't done a bad job with Liam and Lip liked having Liam close, but it still felt weird leaving him with Amanda. He didn't like that Liam would be further away from him while he was at school, but it would make his life a little easier and he would know that Liam was safe with Tessa.
"Okay," he agreed after a moment.
Tessa had to try not to show her surprise, not wanting Lip to change his mind.
"Are those my clothes on the floor?" Lip asked, gesturing towards the pile on the floor.
"Yes…" Tessa said slowly. She had forgotten about them, to be quite honest. "I was looking for something earlier and I found them. I pulled them out because I intended to give them back to you since, you know." She shrugged her shoulders, knowing he would understand what she was talking about.
"But," she began. Lip looked over at her, surprised by addition to her last statement.
"You can keep them here if you want. You've been staying here since the whole Fiona fiasco, and it could be one less thing to worry about." She shrugged again.
Caught off guard, she felt Lip grab the side of her face and pull her lips towards his own. His lips molded with hers as he kissed her. For a mere moment, Tessa allowed herself to enjoy the kiss. But after that small moment, she pushed him away.
"Lip, you can't do that," she said, shaking her head. She avoided his gaze.
"Why not?" He asked, growing frustrated by her rejection. "You know I want us to be together. You seem to want that too, so, what is the problem?"
She finally looked at him and she gave him a glare. "Because, Lip. One minute you're pushing me away and telling me to go home and worry about myself, and the next minute you're at my apartment with the kids and you're kissing me." She shook her head and ran a hand through her hair. "It's not fair," she mumbled.
Lip stared at her, willing her to look at him, but she wouldn't. He was at a loss for words. It appeared that Tessa had that effect on him. He always knew the right thing to say, except with her.
He leaned forward so his elbows were resting on his knees. His hands clasped together and he stared at the floor. He shouldn't be dealing with this shit. Tessa was supposed to be the one constant in his life, and he couldn't even get that right. While part of him longed for the careless relationship of just having sex, he knew he would never be able to give up what he had with Tessa.
"You know what I think?" Lip finally asked. He didn't wait for her to answer. "I think us not being together isn't fair."
Tessa finally looked up at him. She looked at him with her eyebrows furrowed and her mouth slightly agape. She had no idea what he was thinking. "What the fuck does that mean?" She asked.
A dry chuckle escaped his lips. He looked over at her and sat up. "It means that instead of worrying about all the little things, you should just admit that we should be together. It's not fair that you're preventing us from being happy. From being…us."
She shook her head and scoffed. "And what 'little things' are you referring to?" She asked.
Lip stood up and threw his arms in the air. "Your issue with long distance. I come home all the time and I'm not even that far away. It's a bullshit excuse, Tessa!"
Tessa opened her mouth to protest but he cut her off before she could say anything.
"And you're always throwing the cheating thing in my face!" He added. "How many times do I have to tell you that I'm sorry? You knew how miserable I was after we broke up. We're not even together and I haven't slept with anyone at school. It's all for you!" He snapped. "Priests get more action than me, for Christ's sake."
She rose from her spot on the bed and stood in front of him. "Oh I'm sorry," she began, sarcasm heavy in her fake apology. "Poor you. I don't know where my sympathy was when I found out you were cheating on me. I was far too busy thinking about how you broke my heart than worrying about how this whole thing affected you. My bad."
"And how many times have I apologized?"
"I don't know! How many apologies do you think it will take for me to forget about you fucking Mandy Milkovich?"
"And I have regretted that since it happened! And I haven't been with, or even wanted to be with, anyone else since this all happened! And I know you haven't either!" He yelled.
Tessa shook her head. "It doesn't really matter how much you regret it or how many times you apologize because in the end, it all hurts just the same."
"And you don't think I'm hurting too? It's torture to see you but not be with you. And the fact that I hurt you fucking kills me. I fucked up. I'm a fuck up. It's what I do. It's the Gallagher way. But I would never fuck up being with you again."
"And I'm just supposed to take your word for it?" She scoffed. "I'm just supposed to shove this under the rug."
Lip ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "I just want another chance."
"Do you honestly think that's a good idea given everything that's going on with your family right now?" Tessa asked.
"It's because of everything happening with my family that makes this the right time. We all would have fallen apart this past week if it wasn't for you, Tessa."
She took in a deep breath in an attempt to calm down and gather her thoughts. "I care about you so much. But I can't take another betrayal like that." She shrugged, not sure what else she could say.
"I fucking love you or some shit, Tessa. And I know you feel the same. You told me as much when you were shitfaced all those months ago."
Tessa froze. Lip had never told her about this. Why would he keep something so important to himself for all of these months? Lip moved closer to Tessa and he lowered his voice. "Just give me a chance."
Grabbing either side of his face, Tessa leaned in and kissed Lip.
A:N/ What do you all think? Amazing, right? I have to give a HUGE thanks to Kayla who helped me with the Tessa and Lip argument at the end of this chapter. Without her, I'm not sure this conversation would have happened as soon as it did. Let me know what you all think!