Chapter 1

"Joey, for the last time..." Jenny Reilley said, not looking up from the ham she was struggling with.

"Is he asking for a job at the restaurant again?" Tommy Donnelly, asked, as he walked over to her.

"Oh, no. He's taken it a little bit farther than that. He's now offering sexual favors..." Jenny smirked.

Tommy wasn't amused "Oy, Joey!" he called out. But Joey was long gone into the crowd of people. Instead, Alyssa Beckham squeezed her way out of the crowd and walked towards Tommy and Jenny. Alyssa was a girl from the neighborhood that had always been tight with the Donnelly brothers. Her father left her and her mother when she was three years old. She was British and Irish; it was a strange mix considering her two mother countries hated one another. Unfortunately, her two parents hated each other as well. She started out living on the Upper East Side with her father, rich from old money and her mother, rich by marriage. Eventually, her father left and took all the money with him. Isolde Beckham was kicked out of her beautiful apartment, and was forced to take her three year old daughter and go back to live in Hell's Kitchen, where she had grown up and sworn to never bring up her kids. Bobby Donnelly helped the Beckhams for as long as he was alive, and after his death, Mama Donnelly continued to be good friends with Isolde. Because of this, Alyssa Beckham was pretty much attached to the Donnellys. She hated sports and couldn't stand stealing things with Jimmy, riding her bike with Tommy, or playing baseball with Kevin. She was like the annoying little sister they never had. The only person that seemed to understand her pain was Sean, who was a year younger than her. Although he liked sports, he enjoyed just sitting around and talking once in awhile. Because of this, most people thought she would end up with Sean in the end. Tommy, especially, pushed her and Sean towards each other. He hoped that, by having them be together, he could keep them both out of the life of crime that the other Donnellys led. Boy, was he off base.

"Lyss.." Tommy smiled when he saw her. He leaned down and kissed her softly on the cheek.

"Hey, Tommy.." Alyssa shot him a smile.

"How's it going?" Tommy asked.

"Not bad. School's going really great, God bless Huey's little heart."

"And your mom?"

"Same old, same old. Deli's doing really good though, ever since Bailey's closed down."

"Good, good.." Tommy answered, surveying Alyssa's appearance for a moment.

"How about you?" Alyssa asked "Anything new?"

"Not as of lately. Firecracker's awesome. Mom's worried as usual. Nothing new in that department.." he grinned.

"And school?"

"Good. Challenging, but I like it a lot."

"Tell me when you start selling paintings. I'll start saving up.." Alyssa smiled, looking past him and seeing Jenny for the first time "Hey Jen."

Jenny flicked her eyes up from the near trance she was in and put her knife down "Hey, Lyss. What's going on?"

"Nothing too much. How are you doing?" Alyssa peered at her for a moment. There was something very sad about Jenny that day, but no one could guess what it was. Not for all the money in the world.

"I'm fine. Just this ham. I wouldn't recommend it." Jenny put the knife down.

"Alyssa, watch out.." Tommy shoved her out of the way, just in time for a bar stool to land in the spot that she was just in "Jimmy, what the hell?" he called out.

Jimmy Donnelly was fighting with a customer again. What else was new? The Firecracker was known for two things. Good booze and good fights. Tommy ran towards his brother to pull him off a man at least a foot taller than him and left Alyssa and Jenny to themselves. The girls looked at each other for a moment with serious looks on their faces and laughed "Typical day at the Firecracker.."

That was a long time ago, however. Long before the accident. Long before Alyssa Beckham came back. Long before she left. Long before the hearts of many were scarred forever.

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Alyssa stood outside of the Firecracker Lounge. From the outside, the place hadn't changed a bit. On the outside, she was a year behind in time and she was still eighteen. But she knew that on the inside, lay something she didn't know. On the inside, she wasn't sure what she would find. The inside, she feared, wouldn't be as welcoming as the outside seemed to be. She took a deep breath and walked inside. In one year, she'd changed a lot. Her bright red hair was the same as always. And her bright blue eyes shone as bright as ever. She still had gorgeous skin that people of all ages envied. But something about her had changed. She had finally grown up. On the inside and on the outside.

"Hey, can I get you something?" Sean said, barely looking up at her. Upon hearing no reply, he looked up again and got a good look at who he was talking to "Alyssa?" he tilted his head to the side.

"That would be me." Alyssa smiled weakly. She wasn't quite sure yet, if he was happy to see her. She got her answer quickly, when he jumped over the bar, picked her up, and spun her around. "You don't hate me.." she said softly, as Sean put her down.

"Hate you? Why would I hate you?"

"I left. I figured that was about the end of our friendship."

"I would've left too under the circumstances. I'm not ending a sixteen year friendship because you were hurt." Sean explained, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear "I'm just glad you're back. Jenny is going to be ecstatic to see you."

"I don't know about that. I think she's kind of pissed."

"What makes you think that?"

"I left her with a bunch of guys. Why wouldn't she be pissed?"

"Jenny's been your closest friend for as far back as I can remember. She'll get over it."

"I hope so. How about your brothers?"

"Well, here comes one of them. You could ask him yourself." Sean motioned to the stairwell at the side of the bar. Alyssa's body froze up. Tommy Donnelly. Her first crush. One of her best friends.

"Sean, quit flirting and get behind the bar. I don't trust Joey Ice Cream back there by himself."

"Tommy, look!" Joey glanced at Alyssa pointedly.

"Joey, I don't have time for.." Tommy paused to see what he was looking at and never finished his sentence. Joey smiled, pleased with himself for being able to shock Tommy for once, instead of the other way around.

"Hi..." Alyssa said, after a moment of silence.

"What are you doing back here?"

"I told you I'd be back."

"You left for a year.." he stated the obvious "I'd pretty much given up hope of you ever coming back."

"I.." Alyssa began "I'm sorry."

Tommy stared at the girl in front of him. A little bit less than a year ago, she was thin, pale, and weak in every sense of the word. Now, she looked as if she'd been eating properly, her skin was a normal beige, and every sign of weakness had all but disappeared from her appearance. Wherever she had been, it was good for her. She had made the right decision. It hurt him, but it made her better. "Come here.." he shook his head, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her into a hug.

Alyssa breathed a sigh of relief and hugged him tightly "I'm sorry.."

"It's alright.." Tommy let go of her, taking another look at her "You look great."

"Thanks" Alyssa said, with a soft sigh "I've been feeling pretty good lately."

"Good.." Tommy nodded "I'm really glad. Where are you staying?"

"I'm here for good.." Alyssa said "Living in my old house."

"You can afford it?"

"Long story" Alyssa said "I'll explain it at some point.." she eyed Jimmy coming from the same place Tommy had come from "Is Kevin down there too?" she whispered, looking up at Tommy inquisitively.

Tommy swallowed hard, but shook his head "He'll be here eventually, though. You can't avoid him forever."

"I know.." Alyssa said, smiling widely as Jimmy approached her.

"Kid, you're back!" Jimmy said, putting an arm around her shoulders and kissing her forehead "How come no one told me?"

"Nobody knew" Tommy explained "I just came up here and she was hanging out with Sean."

"And you didn't decide to call us?" Jimmy glanced to Sean for a moment, his arm still wrapped tightly around Alyssa's shoulders.

"She'd been in here for, literally, two minutes. Can you blame me for wanting to talk to her?" Sean defended himself going on the other side of Alyssa "We should call Kevin. He'd be psyched to see you."

"No, no, no, no, no.." Alyssa shook her head "Absolutely not. If he comes in here, he comes in here. If he doesn't, then I'll see him when I see him. Don't call him."

"Why not?" Sean asked.

"Because they were in the middle of a relationship, she wasn't okay, and she wouldn't let him help. Duh.." Jimmy explained.

"Thanks, Jimmy. I appreciate you sugar coating the situation.." Alyssa said.

"Nice, Jimmy. Real smooth.." Sean said, as he elbowed him and walked over to a new customer.

"Look, Alyssa. I have to warn you. Kevin's not going to be happy, happy, joy, joy right away to see you. The rest of us were like your best friends or your brothers. We pretty much left it up to Kevin to take care of you. Because you trusted him more than anyone else. It was a serious blow when you decided to run off on him too" Tommy said, tugging on her arm gently to get out of earshot for Sean "Kevin, Sean, and I count on Jimmy. Sean, Jimmy, and Kevin count on me. That much is known. We all count on Kevin and all together, we protect Sean. Sean hasn't had a complex, because he's the baby and it makes sense. But Kevin doesn't know that we count on him, because Jimmy and I try to take care of most of the family business. He's kind of a clutz. Understand? You counted on him. You made him feel special. And then you took that away."

"Yeah," Jimmy continued for Tommy "The kid's still heartbroken. Hasn't been in a relationship since. He doesn't really trust himself, let alone anyone else."

"You guys aren't the poster children for good relationships, you know that right?" Alyssa looked from one brother to the other.

"Yeah, but this isn't about us. We didn't leave town for almost a year and come back. We're just trying to warn you.." Tommy explained "Kevin's not going to be happy at first. Don't take offense to it. If you stick around, he just might forgive you."

"How about Jenny? Is she going to be happy to see me?"

"What do you think?"

"I'm paranoid. I thought you all hated me."

"Jenny will be easier than Kevin, I'll tell you that much.." Tommy smirked "She'd kill for some estrogen around here other than our mom's."

"Jenny's a forgiving girl. Well, to you that is. I don't know so much about Tommy." Jimmy smirked.

"Wrong time, wrong place, Jimmy.." Tommy shook his head, in disgust at the poorly timed joke.

"Whatever.." Jimmy shrugged "Just consider yourself warned, Alyssa. Wouldn't want to get your hopes up and then have them crash."

"Thanks, guys. I appreciate it. I'm going to go try and talk to Jenny."

"Call me later.." Tommy said "I want to hear about the past year."

"Alright. If I don't call, it means Reilly strangled me.." Alyssa smirked "Which isn't unlikely."

With that, she gave each of the Donnelly brothers a hug and a kiss on the cheek and walked out the door. She shoved her hands in her pockets, and sighed, watching the cold air show up in front of her. She looked both ways and jogged across the street. She turned a corner to walk to the Reilly's diner, when she saw him. Tall, curly-haired, and absolutely gorgeous. She almost had to catch her breath. She didn't come any closer. She almost hoped that if she didn't move, he wouldn't notice her. He was a good three feet away from her, but he stopped in his tracks.

"What the..."