*** Author's Note: Most of the chapters will start with a quote from the chapter or from one of the Boondock Saints movies.

"And shepherds we shall be for thee, my lord, for thee.

Power hath descended forth from Thy hand

Our feet may swiftly carry out Thy commands.

So we shall flow a river forth to Thee

And teeming with souls shall it ever be.

In Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti."

I sighed and fell onto the couch, gazing around the living room at the stacks of unpacked boxes.

"Remind me again why we moved here?" I questioned my best friend Becky as she and my other best friend Mitch came in from the hallway that led to our bedrooms which were, annoyingly, also full of unpacked boxes.

"Because we need to be out on our own." Becky sat down beside me. "We need a chance to have fun and get away from all the family drama. We can't do that in Ohio."

"So we moved to Boston?"

"What's wrong with Boston?" Mitch asked.

"Nothing I guess. I just don't get why we moved into this shitty neighborhood."

"'Cause it's a completely Irish neighborhood, that's why," Becky answered. "And we'll fit right in."
I rolled my eyes. The three of us were Irish that much was true. Although there was some debate as to whether we were completely Irish. Aside from the fact that my first name was Gaelic and the three of us could pull off pretty good Irish accents there wasn't much information that would tell us just how Irish we were.

"You mean this is the only place we could afford."
"Yeah that too."

"C'mon Kieran," Mitch said, sitting down on the arm of the couch and putting his arm around me. "Give it a chance."

"I know what'll cheer you up Midge."

"Who said I was depressed?" I blinked at Becky. "I'm annoyed."

"All the same I know something fun we can do."

"But we've hardly unpacked anything."

"I could use a break," Mitch replied.

"A break from what?" I demanded. "We've hardly done any—"

"Just shut up and get your coat." Becky stood up and walked to the door to our apartment. She crossed her arms and began tapping her foot, looking like an impatient mother.

"Fine whatever," I muttered as I got up and grabbed my coat from the pile we had made on one of our chairs. Mitch grabbed his and threw Becky's to her.

"All right, let's go." Becky opened the door and waved us into the hallway before joining us and locking the door. We followed her out of the building and onto the sidewalk. She looked up and down the street several times before nodding to herself and leading us toward the south end of the street. We reached the corner where we turned left and head up three more blocks and then crossed the street. We stopped in front of a small building. I looked up at the sign on the building and laughed.

"McGinty's Irish Pub? You're taking us drinking?"

"Why not? A bit of drinking always cheers us up."

"I'm in." Mitch turned and grinned at me. "C'mon Kier, you know you want to."

"We're skipping unpacking to get drunk? We could have done that after we—"

"It would have taken us half the night to unpack," Becky interrupted. "And it's never as much fun drinking in at home as it is in a pub." I wanted to argue but I knew she was right. I sighed and nodded in agreement.

"All right." Becky grinned as she held the door to the pub open. "Time to get our Irish on." Mitch and I laughed as we followed her inside. We walked down the small entry hall toward the sounds of loud voices and glasses clinking together. As soon as we walked into the main room the voices stopped. Every guy at the bar turned to look at us.

"I told you we should have stayed home," I hissed at Becky under my breath.

"Well don' jus' stand there all night," an obviously Irish voice called. A man with brown hair leaned away from the bar and smiled at us.

"Aye, come 'ave drink!" another man with an equally Irish voice agreed. A man with dark brown hair leaned around the first man and smiled at us as well. I started to inch back toward the door but Becky grabbed my wrist and dragged me with her as she and Mitch walked over to the bar. We sat down and Becky made sure that I was the one next the guy with the dark brown hair. I scowled at her as she scooted her stool closer to the bar. She knew how shy I was and had purposely made me sit next to the guy so I would have no choice but to talk to him.

"Wha'll it be?" the bartender, an old man with white hair and glasses, asked.

"Whiskey," we replied in unison and then laughed at the old habit of answering questions directed at us at the same time. The old man set three shot glasses on the bar and grabbed a bottle and filled them.

"There yeh go. FUCK! ASS!"

I jumped at the sudden shouted expletives and nearly spilled my whiskey. Luckily I was Irish enough to have been taught how not to spill my alcohol.

"Don' mind 'im lass," the guy next to me said, leaning closer to me. "He's not cursin' at you."

"Good to know," I replied quietly before drinking my shot.

"Don' think I've seen yeh three around 'ere before," the other man said, leaning forward so he could see us.

"Just moved in," Becky answered as she drank her shot.

"Nice ta meet yeh," the guy next to me said. "Name's Murphy." He held out his hand.

"Kieran," I replied, shaking his hand. It was warm and rough.

"Becky." She reached around me to shake Murphy's hand.

"Mitch." He couldn't reach Murphy from where he was so he just settled with giving him a wave. The other man got off his bar stool and came to stand in front of me.

"I'm Connor." He took my hand gave the back of it a quick kiss. His hand was just as warm and rough as Murphy's. I felt my face get warm but I managed to smile at him. He released my hand and did the same thing to Becky before shaking Mitch's hand. Becky looked back and forth between Connor and Murphy.

"You two wouldn't happen to be brothers, would you?"

"Aye," Connor answered. "Twins actually." Becky studied them intently for a minute. Suddenly her eyes widened and she smiled.

"You're the McManus brothers!" Her voice was full of excitement. "You're the Saints of South Boston!" I felt my jaw drop. Connor laughed and ran his hand across the back of his head, ruffling his short hair.

"Aye we are."

"Wha' gave us away?" Murphy had a cigarette clamped in his lips and was leaning away from me so he could light it.

"We've seen your pictures," Mitch answered, finally picking up his glass and drinking his shot. "From when you were on trial."

"Nice going by the way," Becky complimented them. "I can't believe you guys got off after killing forty-five people."

"I can." I grinned at Connor. "How could anyone disagree with what you guys do? Hell I wish we could do that."

"Damn Midge," Becky laughed. "I didn't know you thought that way."

"Sure you did," Mitch replied. "You know how her temper is." I leaned around Becky to frown at him but could only hold it for a second before I grinned.

"Midge?" Connor asked. "I thought yeh said yer name was Kieran."

"It is I just call her Midge 'cause she's so short." Becky nudged me with her shoulder. "Show 'em." I sighed and rolled my eyes before hopping off my stool. I landed on my feet just inches away from Connor. I wobbled on my feet as I instinctively leaned away from him. Connor reached out and caught my shoulder, steadying me and pulling me just an inch closer to him. I took a deep breath and breathed in the smell of cigarette smoke, whiskey, and Old Spice deodorant. I only knew that smell because that was the kind of deodorant that Mitch used.

"Careful lass," he said in a soft voice. "Don' want yeh fallin' over." I looked up at him and the thought of how nice it would be to have his arms around me popped into my mind. I shook my head slightly, trying to dislodge the thought but it wouldn't budge. Connor released my shoulder and I took a step away from him.

"Aye," Murphy's voice came from just behind me. "I see yer point. How tall are yeh exactly?"

"5'2''," I replied, turning slightly to look over my shoulder at him. Murphy put his arm on top of my head and leaned on me like I was table or something.

"Yeh certainly are a wee lass aren't yeh?"

"Shut it," I snapped as I ducked out from under his arm. I looked up at both of them, trying to assess their heights compared to mine which wasn't too difficult if I figured Mitch's height into the equation. Mitch was 5'8'' and when I stood directly in front of him, the way I had been standing with Connor, I came up to the middle of his chest. Or if I measured it with us standing side by side I came up to about the middle of Mitch's shoulder. I studied the two of them again and figured that Murphy was about an inch shorter than Connor and about two inches taller than Mitch. So that made Murphy 5'10'' and Connor 5'11''.

"You guys are what? 5'10'' and 5'11''?" I asked looking first at Murphy and then at Connor. The two of them blinked at me.

"Aye," Murphy replied slowly. "Nice guess." I nodded and grinned.

"I could take ya."

"Take us? Yeh mean in a fight? Not fuckin' likely!"

"Wanna bet?" I smirked at him but before Murphy could answer Connor stepped between us and pushed us apart.

"Now tha's no way ta behave. Sit down an' 'ave another drink." He gave Murphy a shove back towards the bar. "Why don' yeh sit wit' me?" He grabbed a stool someone had just vacated and sat down, gesturing for me to sit on the one between him and Murphy. I hesitated for a second, glancing nervously at Becky. She grinned at nodded and I grinned back as Mitch rolled his eyes. This five seconds worth of nodding and such amounted to a short conversation for the three of us that went something like this:

Becky: See something you like?

Me: Maybe. We'll see.

Mitch: Oh boy.

I walked back to the bar and sat down between the brothers. Becky scooted over to sit on the stool I had been sitting on before and Mitch moved over to take the one Becky had been sitting on. Becky passed me my shot glass as Mitch passed hers to her.

"Doc!" Murphy called. "How about some more whiskey fer our new friends?" Doc came back to our end of the bar and refilled our glasses before giving Murphy and Connor each a glass.

"You wouldn't be trying to get us drunk now would you?" Becky questioned, leaning closer to Murphy. I could tell by the smile she was giving him that she had taken a liking to him.

"Maybe." Murphy grinned back at her. "Wha' if we are?"

"Then you may just get what you want." Her grin widened. "We came ta get our Irish on." Her voice suddenly took on an Irish accent as she easily imitated the way the two of them spoke.

"Jesus," Murphy replied. "I din' know yeh could do tha'!"

"There's quite a bit yeh don' know about us Murphy McManus," I teased moving from my usual American accent to and Irish one just as easily as Becky had.

"Aye," Mitch agreed, adopting an Irish accent as well. "You'll 'ave quite the time tryin' ta figure us out."

"Sounds fun." Connor laughed. "Let's get started then, shall we?" My friends and I exchanged glances grinning devilishly at each other and then at the twins.

"Aye," we agreed in unison. "Let's see what'cha can do."

The five of us raised our glasses and then threw back the shots.