Mandy walks in just in time to see her brother slam his fist into the wall beside Ian's head, eyes wild and teeth bared. He obviously hears her, because he pushes away from the wall completely and storms out, not even sparing her a glance as he goes. She's undeniably curious at the same time as she wonders if Mickey's just finally lost it.
She doesn't miss the way that Ian's eyes follow him as he leaves with a sort of desperation.
He wouldn't tell her what the fight had been about and the next day he's gone off to WestPoint and she's so busy being distraught and hugging him tight enough to cut off all air to his lungs that she forgets all about the spat he had with Mickey.
Mandy's almost ashamed to admit that it takes her two weeks and a comment from one of her asshole cousins before she realises that Mickey's practically dropped off the face of the earth. Nobody's seen him for two weeks and when she calls his cell there's nothing but the sound of it ringing out in her ear. Either he's six feet under or doesn't want to be found, but either way she worries continuously for a month straight until her and Lip have a screaming match and she gets distracted.
She doesn't think anything of the fact that Ian just grunts and doesn't comment when she mentions that Mickey's missing. After all, they only worked together in the Kash and Grab, why should Ian know anything about where the hell her asshat brother is?
When Ian buys her a plane ticket for her to come up and see him, she walks into an apartment in New York that's obviously home to two people instead of one. Ian just blushes when she asks him who the mystery guy is, pointing out that she could have stayed in a hotel or something, he didn't have to kick the boyfriend out. He doesn't do anything more than admit that he's never been more in love with another human being in his life though, won't even give her the guy's name. But there's a soppy look on his face when he says that and Mandy will admit that she has never seen Ian so happy before.
She'd never completely liked him living away from Chicago, but she can see that he's better off here than he ever could have been in the Southside. Maybe being away from Frank and all of his Daddy Issues helped if it meant that he's been able to settle down here in New York with his mystery boyfriend and what she guesses is a dog. That's judging by the short white hairs all over the couch and the teeth marks in almost everything mildly close to the ground.
When she sees them, Mandy feels like an idiot; because how could she not have known? How could she not have seen it? Really, if she thinks about it, it should have been obvious in a way. All the facts were right there staring her in the face.
She'd gone to New York this time on her own dime. She'd turned up wanting to surprise Ian, just to prove that even though Lip had gone and stuck his dick into that skank Karen again and their relationship had basically imploded, that she didn't hate Ian for it. When he's not home, his neighbour tells her to check the bar a few blocks down called The Hanger. She sees them almost as soon as she walks in.
He's sitting at a table in the back corner, a white bull dog pressed up against his side. And as she stands there watching, none other than her brother saunters up, a pint in each hand and a small smile curving up the corner of his mouth. He's clean, that's the first thing that she notices; and in fact, she almost doesn't recognise him because of that fact. But it's Mickey alright.
They don't touch, they don't kiss.
They just sit there in that corner, dog under the table between them, chatting and laughing as they drink. But they don't have to, because Mandy's many things, but she's not blind. And she knows her brother, even if she hasn't seen him in so long.
And she would have had to be a complete fool not to notice that there is nothing but blatant love and a raw sort of happiness painted onto Mickey's features, practically etched into his face in a way she never could have imagined it being before. Mickey tips his head back at something Ian says and he laughs loud and unashamed and Mandy just turns around and walks straight out of the door again at the sound of it, because she won't burst that happy little bubble for Mickey, not yet anyway.
It's four years later when Ian's out of the army and Mandy's found a guy who she honestly loves. He isn't Lip and maybe she won't ever quite love Tom like she loved the eldest Gallagher brother. Hell, maybe she won't love him like she loved Ian either, but it's something that will last and he makes her happy. He'd never cheat on her, treats her like she's all he could ever possibly want.
And it makes something warm bloom inside of her that even though it isn't crazy and spontaneous and passionate and raw, it's something that she needs. Maybe it's better in a way actually, maybe it's more real.
She's both surprised and not when Ian calls to respond to the invitation she sent him to her wedding and he tells her that he's bringing his boyfriend with him. She's grinning even before he mutters under his breath that he'll have to find someone to take the dog, but they'll be down in time for both the ceremony and the reception. Even before he said that she knows it's Mickey that he's with. She knows that they're still together. She likes to check sometimes in subtle ways, that they're still growing strong.
But that day five years ago in New York she knew she'd seen something that the roots of which were far too deep set in the ground, far too interwoven with each other to be ever yanked out completely. And she's lived with Mickey; she knows he's a dirty, lazy and rude as fuck asshole with a passion for Jell-O and a collection of issues a mile long. She knows that Ian and Mickey's relationship was one that would be full of ups and downs, that when it was good it would have been the best thing in the world and that when it went sour it would have felt like someone was tearing a piece out of them.
She knows because that's what it was like between her and Lip. It had been horrifically amazing, but there's a difference between her and Lip and Ian and Mickey. And the difference is that the boys were both two who were far too stubborn and far too fucking possessive to ever be able to walk away completely.
They'd either destroy each other or be each other's salvation. They would never have been able to stay out of each other's lives, always butting in and getting involved, because that's how they were.
Either way they were going out together.
And that was why she wrote Mickey's name on a place card and grinned when she saw them both walk in together. Her favourite brother looked as awkward as fuck stuffed into a pair of black trousers and a deep red dress shirt. He looked good, when his features relaxed enough so that it didn't look like he was praying for the ground to open up and swallow him whole like she'd been expecting.
She didn't get the chance to speak to them until the reception and then, whilst everyone she'd invited from the Southside was staring at them sitting side by side at the table, Mandy just acted as casual as she felt. Because she'd had time to adjust to the idea of her brother being gay and she'd more than a little bit warmed to the idea of her best friend being the one to steal Mickey's heart. So she just walked over to them and calmly introduced them to her new husband and looked her brother dead in the eye as she said, "You know Mick, you didn't have to take the dog away for the weekend every time I came up, I've been waiting on an introduction to the little shit."
And she told herself she did it partly out of a need to show Mickey that she honestly didn't give two shits about him being gay, that it wasn't anything for him to be ashamed of; but really that was a lie. She only acted completely unsurprised to see the look of complete and utter fucking confusion on her brother's face.
It had her chuckling for the rest of the day.