Disclaimer: I still don't own Shameless.
A/N1: I really don't know what I'm thinking starting another story since I'm not done with Self Preservation yet. But, I got this idea and I can't get it out of my head. I have to act when my muse is at work. I hope you guys like it.
A/N2: I'm rating this at M, because of language.
Nothing That a Little Maalox Can't Fix-Chapter 1
"Ian, are you done yet?!" Debs yells from the other side of the door.
Ian cautiously raises his head from the toilet, wiping his arm across his mouth. Hopefully he's done. He's been in here for fifteen minutes after he was rudely awakened with a relentless bout of nausea. He's actually pretty shocked that no one has knocked on the door, demanding him to hurry up until now. Then again it is Saturday. No one is in a real rush to do anything. The redhead tentatively stands up and goes to the sink to rinse out his mouth. Because of the frequent vomiting, his head is killing him. The redhead opens the medicine cabinet and takes out the bottle of Advil. He shakes out two and changes his mind. Two is not gonna cut it. He shakes out two more and dry swallows them.
"I need to shower, Ian! I have to get to the Ryan's by ten." Debs yells loudly.
"Fi! Ian's not getting-"
Her complaining comes to a quick end when Ian opens the door to leave the bathroom.
"Finally!" Debs exclaims as she rushes past him into the bathroom.
"Whatever," Ian says with a wave of his hand as he goes back into this bedroom to get dressed. He sees that Liam is still asleep. Why couldn't he sleep during the night? Before Lip moved into Frank's empty room, and Liam moved in with him and Carl, Ian never realized how much his baby brother woke up in the middle of the night. Probably because he, Lip, and Fiona took turns getting him back to sleep. But, now since he's sharing a room with Liam, it's kind of expected that he'd be on Liam duty.
Ian rubs the bridge of his nose. He's definitely going to need a cup of coffee to get through today. He got little to no sleep last night. He didn't get in until after midnight after meeting up with Mickey. He got pretty high and was hopeful that he would just pass out. The never ending nausea that has been plaguing him over the last couple of days makes itself particularly known at night. The pot seemed to do the trick and he thought a good night's sleep was imminent. Within minutes of getting into bed, he was out. That is until Liam woke up at one, three, and then again at four.
When Liam finally fell asleep for good, the pot wore off and the nausea came back with a vengeance. He then spent the rest of the night making frequent trips to the bathroom, Sometimes he puked, other times he just stood over the toilet dry heaving.
Ian grabs the bottle of Maalox that he finally brought into his room after the third trip to the bathroom, and takes a large swig of the crap. He then moves to his dresser and quickly gets dressed. He has fifteen minutes to get to work, and he needs to grab some coffee or he's going to end up falling asleep at the register. As he tightens his belt he notices that the hole he usually uses makes his pants too big. What the fuck. He must be losing weight. He shakes his head and heads down the stairs.
"Morning, Ian." Fiona greets from the counter. She turns to him with a look of concern. "You feel okay?"
"I'm fine," Ian answers as he pours himself a cup of coffee.
"Really? Because Carl told me that you kept getting up to go to the bathroom half the night." Fiona explains.
Ian gives his younger brother a death stare over his coffee mug. "If Carl was up then maybe he could have gotten Liam back to sleep."
Fiona gives him a sympathetic look, "That bad, huh?" She goes to put her hand on her brother's forehead, but Ian quickly moves away from her hand. "You don't look too good, E. Why don't you stay home for the day?"
Ian shakes his head. "I can't, Fi. It's the summer. We all have to work to add to the squirrel fund."
Fiona nods her head in understanding. She's been busy working at the club all summer, and almost never sees Ian because she works at night while he works during the day. Lip told her yesterday that their brother hasn't been looking good, but this is the first time that she has seen her brother in person since Lip told her that he's been looking like crap. She doesn't like what she sees.
"I'm working tonight. Why don't you sleep in my room? I'll tell Lip that he's going to be on Liam duty tonight to give you a break. Sounds good?" Fiona asks.
Ian nods his head as Lip walks into the kitchen. "Man, you look like shit!'
"Fuck you," Ian responds as he finishes his cup of coffee. "I better get going or I'm gonna be late for work."
As he goes to leave, Fiona calls. "Ian, you gonna eat anything?"
Ian can feel the bile rising to the back of his throat. "No time."
"Take a pop tart with you." Fiona says.
Ian swallows quickly, "I'm okay. I'm not hungry. If I get hungry, I'll grab something at the store. Bye, guys." A chorus of good byes follows as Ian leaves the house.
"He didn't eat dinner last night either," Lip says.
"Or breakfast yesterday morning," Debbie adds as she comes into the kitchen with a now awake Liam.
Fiona looks at the door that Ian just walked out of in alarm. She turns to Lip. "Lip, you're on Liam duty tonight. Let Ian sleep. Steve's picking me up from work tonight. He's gonna make breakfast tomorrow. You know how Ian can't say no to French toast. Just watch him. I don't like the way he's looking or acting."
As Lip brings a spoonful of cereal to his lips, he nods his head. "I will."
"I'll keep an eye on him on him too," Debs adds as she places Liam in his high chair.
"Thanks, Debs." Fiona says with a small smile.
XXXXX
"You look like crap, Ian." Linda says to him as he walks in hunched over into the Kash and Grab.
"Thanks, Linda."
She scowls at him, "Seriously. Are you okay?"
Ian takes the seat behind the register, "I'm fine."
"Sure you are. That's why you walked in here like a ninety-year old man."
"It's just a stomach ache."
"You better not be contagious."
Ian rolls his eyes, "Aren't you supposed to be taking the boys to see their grandmother?"
"Well, I can leave now that you're here. Make sure Mickey doesn't take anything. I'll be watching the tapes when I get back."
A day without Linda, he's pretty sure that taking shit is the last thing that's gonna be on Mickey's mind. The ex-con's gonna see it as a free pass to fuck all day. Normally, Ian would jump at such a chance. But, not today. Not when his main goal of the day is to keep his stomach lining where it belongs.
"Here, take a couple of these. It usually does the trick for me," Linda says as she slams down a bottle of Tums on the counter.
"I actually prefer Maalox," Ian quips.
"Here, then." Linda says as she changes the bottle of Tums with a bottle of Maalox. "I better get going, Boys, let's go!"
One of the kids swallows a handful of candy before Linda can yell at him. Just the sight causes Ian to open the bottle and take a large gulp of the antacid.
"No more candy, let's go!" Linda calls again.
As they exit the store, Mickey walks in.
"Mickey, try to keep your hands to yourself."
It's comments like that makes Ian think that she knows about him and Mickey. Granted she has never said anything outright to them, but then again she probably knows better to keep her mouth shut about the matter.
"I'll try to control myself," Mickey replies with a smirk.
"Just make sure that he doesn't contaminate anything." Linda says as she leaves.
"Contaminate?" Mickey asks Ian with a raised eyebrow. When he takes a good look at Ian he knows exactly what she's talking about. "Jesus, firecrotch. You look like shit. You're not gonna spew chunks everywhere, are you? Cuz' I don't deal with puke."
"Fuck you, Mick." Ian says as he wipes the Maalox mustache off his face. "It's just a bug. I'll be fine."
"Good." Mickey replies as he takes a donut out of the pastry case and takes a huge bite. Without a mouth full of donut, Mickey says "because with Linda gone all day, I plan on taking full advantage."
Ian swallows quickly to keep the bile down his throat. He succeeds in keeping it down until Mickey decides that a redbull would be the perfect complement to the donut. After he takes a sip he puts it on the counter. "Hey, my sister isn't gonna be around tonight. Wanna come over -"
The nauseating smell of redbull is too much, and Ian springs off his chair and runs to the bathroom.
"What the fuck?!" Mickey yells towards the bathroom. "Shit." Mickey says as he grabs a bottle of Gatorade out of the cooler and makes his way towards the bathroom. "This is gonna be a fucking wonderful day."