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Author's Note: Please read and review. I'd really appreciate it.

"All parents damage their children.
It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass,
absorbs the prints of its handlers.
Some parents smudge, others crack,
a few shatter childhoods completely
into jagged little pieces,
beyond repair."

― Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Shameless in Hillwood (working title)

Chapter One: Tired of this shit

"Shit!" Fiona cursed out loudly. It had been another chaotic morning in the Gallagher household. Debbie had already left for school. Liam smelled as if as a manure truck passed by. Aside from the typical craziness of getting half-assed lunches ready, permission slips signed, and a detention slip for Carl she felt as if her world was falling apart. She received the letter from Carl which was already a week late. She immediately knew what it was going to be about. It was similar to one they received last year.

"Fuck! CARL" Fiona yelled, "This is another parent-teacher conference isn't it. Didn't we tell you to cut the shit and keep the violence to regulated sanctioned violence for kids? Hell we let you blow shit up in the science fair."

"They didn't like my art." Carl responded flatly.

"Seriously?" Fiona exasperatedly responded, "What the hell is it with these damn hippie teachers? You've already stopped the biting, kicking, and punching. What do they want now?"

"I don't know," Carl said again as he took his brown paper bag, "they want a meeting with dad."

"Of course they do," Fiona said through gritted teeth, "we don't even know where the hell Frank is."

Fiona followed Carl to the front door. She rubbed his head and gingerly placed a kiss on his head. There was a lot Fiona had to do that day. There was a lot on her mind. She had to take Debbie to a doctor's appointment that afternoon. Fiona would then have to make her rounds at the grocery store to get the deals and bum diapers off other mothers. Liam was already growing out of them and she had to think how she'd budget the pull-ups in. Fiona knew Liam would have be potty-trained quickly, that would make things much cheaper for her. Fiona yelled after Carl.

"No blowing shit up, no bullying and remember those damn teachers like rainbows, glitter, and hope," Fiona yelled, "Just make shit up all right!"

Carl nodded and waved as he headed down the street. Fiona took a deep breath and back into the house. She cleaned up the kitchen in record time. With Liam's diaper changed, Fiona got ready for day at work cleaning up a clogged sewer. That would give her seventeen dollars an hour, and working from 9:30 to 3:30 with that frustrating half hour unpaid lunch would give her about ninety dollars before taxes.

Fiona would have to worry about the household budget later. Right then she had to get ready, take the train and get to work. It was a dirty, disgusting, foul-smelling job but at that pay rate it helped with the bills. Who was she to deny a job? With Liam in tow, she walked over to V's place. Thankfully it wasn't V's live streaming day.

"What's up girl," V said smiling, "got Liam for me?"

"Yeah," Fiona said giving V Liam's diaper bag who draped it onto one arm, and hoisted Liam into V's other free arm, "I gotta do that cleanup gig. But I'm gonna drop by the motel and I'll pick up the toiletries for us later."

"I hear ya," Veronica said smiling, "You gonna be leaving at 4?"

"Nah," Fiona responded, "They're letting me stay until 3:30. I should be back by no later than 4:30. Gotta take Debbie to her doctor's appointment at 5:30."

"Thank god for late appointments," Veronica replied.

"You're telling me," Fiona agreed, "Then I gotta make a stop that damn grocery store… ugh I hate seeing that smug bastard. Plus those women are such bitches."

"They still giving you a hard time?"

"Yes and now I can barely use any coupons," Fiona said frustrated, "it's like they totally can't see that the old woman just wanted some. Course I let them know. I mean they were totally played. Oh and put a notice to find Frank."

"What you need him for?"

"Another parent teacher conference for Carl," Fiona stated, though Veronica had already known which Gallagher even before Fiona said Carl's name.

"Sure thing, I'll let the bar know and Kev will get the word out."

Veronica and Fiona said their goodbyes. Fiona had an hour to get her job worksite. She was definitely thankful that the site was close by. The next six hours she spent cleaning up. It only took an hour for her sense of smell to acclimate to the foul smell. Plus her duct tape had stayed put letting her have clean feet for the appointment later.

With the doctor's appointment done, the groceries purchased, and the toiletries delivered Fiona could finally start on dinner. After nuking the chicken nuggets, slicing up the boiled potatoes and the store brand mac-n-cheese she yelled for her siblings. After dinner Fiona talked about the parent-teacher conference, and the information about Frank whereabouts meaning she had no clue where he was.

She only had a few days to find Frank. Thankfully the end of the year was fast approaching and that would mean that everyone would find some sort of work to bring in money to last them through the winter. The squirrel fund was securely hidden away especially after Fiona drank the kool-aid before and believed Monica had changed and was sorely disappointed. However as much as the Gallagher siblings were dismayed that despite Frank being a total fucking asshole it turned out he was the good one. Though it was not saying much.

Even with the occasional well-paying job it was always temporary. The seventeen an hour job was usually a few times a month gig. The work she had selling cups was terminated when the company had to lay off some employees. Of course because she was some of the last hired, she was the first to be laid-off. She was receiving some unemployment but it was going to end soon especially when she was only there for a couple of months. The three tier system wasn't in place since Congress had vetoed it for that year. The economy was in the pits and that meant that she'd be passed over for the office jobs that she'd get from to time to more qualified applicants.

Tonight was the special night when all the Gallaghers settled into the living room to watch whatever was on Discovery or Animal Planet. It was a stipulation of Fiona's. She made that whatever television they watched they would watch it together when able and it would be a somewhat educational show. Fiona had figured that it would at least give them some more education that a broken-down, Southside public school couldn't always give even if it was one of the better schools.

The first crisis of many was well underway. Fiona was distracted throughout the show wondering how she was going to deal with the parent-teacher conference. She was certain that it was the same female teacher from last year that was giving her grief. It seemed that the teacher had a chip on her shoulder about seeing Carl not get expelled. However Carl had "turned around" his time at school. Fiona wasn't sure why there was such a vendetta. Fiona had the mantra of "no fucks with the Gallaghers" running through her head.

Lip turned his head and whispered, "Okay Fi what's up?"

"Not only do we have a situation with Ian running away," Fiona sighed, "we're having another parent-teacher conference this year."

"Well shit," Lip replied, "any sign of Frank?"

"No," Fiona said shaking her head, "but I've asked V to put the word out to everyone even the people who hates him. I figure that being a father is such a torture that they'd love to see Frank squirm."

Lip let out a scoff. "Yeah good plan."

They had managed to find Frank. He had been staying at a shelter that offered alcoholic anonymous however knowing Frank he might have been trying to get cleaned up but he'd only move onto to something else. He was sitting at a table eating his soup and bread when he looked up.

"Finally my family cares to see me. Do you know the struggles I've been going through?" Frank said with disgust, "I get busted by the man for taking care of business in the street yet they don't offer any means of relieving oneself in public. Here's the hoot they then cite for something they know people will do. And you know why? So that the politicians can get their second jet, so that they do some fine dining and don't get me started about their accepting bribes from the companies that want to enslave us into buying the latest product while having the jobs shipped out to third world countries and us Americans are left jobless. Do you know why? Because they're greedy, they don't care about us. They're the real terrorists and yet the government gives them handouts. They give the ones who don't need it so that people like me, good honest people, are left out in the cold!"

"Frank!" Fiona shouted, "Shut up."

"We need to have you come to Carl's parent teacher conference."

"No way!" Frank responded.

"You're coming," Fiona said angrily, "You're going to, for the few times in your life, actually give a shit for your kids."

"I care for my kids!" Frank said another bite of soup, "I'm giving you the best kind of education you can ever receive. The truth of life. The fact that you can't rely namby pamby bullshit that schools are trying shove down your throats. It's not about peace, coming together, but watching your own back, learning to survive. It's crazy out there and you have to know how to survive."

"You know what?" Fiona responded despaired at the situation at hand, "all I'm saying is show up, lie if you have to, appease the man and we'll score you some oxy."

"I want a bottle's worth," Frank said thinking about the deal, "and I want the good stuff none of that oxy acetaminophen crap."

"Fine," Fiona responded, "You get it if you successfully bullshit your way out of it."

"Fiona!" Frank said admonished, "Do you not trust your own father?"

"Fuck no," Fiona said exasperatedly, "So right now you're coming home and getting cleaned up. It's tonight and I need you to make a good appearance. Just lie."

That night Frank had fortunately cooperated however that was only because of Fiona's promise. He didn't do it for the goodness of his heart. He certainly didn't do it for the love of a parent has for their children. Fiona wasn't even sure if Frank really loved his children or only saw them as a means of opening up credit cards, and getting government assistance.

Everyone shuffles into the house and while one burden has been lifted another is still weighing them down. When Ian had run away Fiona did everything she could to find him. However the police were less than willing to help some kids from the wrong side of the tracks. No one knew where he could have run away to or why. Although the motive as to why was easily explainable much to Fiona's frustration. A look into their childhood and home life would easily give over a hundred reasons why any one of the Gallagher children would want to run away.

It wasn't until January, a few weeks after Ian ran away, did everything make sense and in the worst possible way. When Lip had tried to set up his documents, application and transcripts to be sent to the University of Chicago did they all get the chilling news. Philip Gallagher had enlisted.

"But I'm fucking right here!" Lip shouted while pointing to his face when he spoke to enrollment.

"Yes, however, we are showing a hold on your application. It seems you enlisted a few weeks prior." The woman behind the desk stated.

She was not going to budge. Lip was going to have to figure out how and why the hell Ian was going to risk federal punishment and who knew what else. He had to find out where Ian was. When he did he was going to beat the shit out of Ian. "What the hell was Ian thinking?" Lip thought.

"Okay," Lip said evenly, "Where the fuck am I then."

"Do I look like the army recruitment office?" The woman scoffed.

After a pregnant pause, the woman was clearly not going to offer up more than what Lip would ask. "Then give me the phone number and address of the recruit office."

"Fine," the woman said as she quickly jotted the information down and thrust it toward Lip. The moment Lip had taken a few steps away from the counter he heard a loud "Next!"

They had to take the subway back to the recruitment office. Lip, Fiona, Debbie, Carl rushed into the office. They had to see the office at the recruitment office. The receptionist had mentioned needing to make an appointment. Lip frowned still irritated from before.

"It's an emergency," Lip responded, "like an actual life changing emergency and we NEED help now before it's too late."

Lip spoke to the ROTC representative discussing the issue with Ian's disappearance and the fact that it was due to the fact that he had falsely altered the documents so that he was under the name of Philip Gallagher rather than Ian Gallagher. Lip knew the consequences could not be good at all if Ian was caught but he still held out hope that there was something that they could do so that Ian didn't jeopardize his future. Fiona and Lip were still furious at Ian doing such a stupid move as to jeopardize the career that he was working towards.

The officer looked over Ian's records and had confirmed the seriousness of Ian's falsifying documents. However thankfully there was still a chance that Ian may not face consequences as dire such as facing imprisonment and fines totally ten thousand dollars. It was contingent that Ian was still in DEP or Delayed Enlistment Program, which could be that he could stay in this program for up to 365 days, and not shipped off to boot camp.

If he had been there was little he could do. He would be court martialed, face a hearing, and have a dishonorable discharge. Ian's crime would be seen as a felony. He'd never be able to enlist again. Who knew how the public would see this kind of criminal record.

To their relief he was still in DEP. Who knew how long though? It was imperative that they'd immediately have Ian immediately confess. They weren't sure how the army would look on this but hopefully his coming clean would allow him a second chance.

Fiona took a deep breath. With work being so slim now days and her not wanting to do her own "stream" the way V and Kev did, there was only option left really. The Gallaghers would have to head to the city near the army base. They were going to have to head to the city of Hillwood