A/N: this takes place post season seven, but I have made some changes to make it AU. Most noticeably is that Mickey is still around, and I will probably bring back Mandy also.
Debbie Gallagher needed a job. Fiona selling the laundromat left her unemployed yet again. Neil's disability checks paid for most of their expenses, but she wanted more for her daughter, she wanted Harry to not have to wear the hand me downs from relatives or what she could afford at Goodwill.
The problem was, she was a 17 year old high school drop out with her GED and a disabled fiancee and baby to care for. She wasn't an ideal candidate for most job openings. She had been walking Harry down the south side streets walking into any business with a help wanted sign and putting in an application. None of them seemed promising, as she heard "we'll call you" over and over. She started debating going to Fiona to beg for an opportunity helping her with the apartment building she was flipping. The idea made her stomach turn, she was barely on speaking terms with her sister, and knew Fiona was just waiting her her to screw up again so she could tell Debbie "I told you so."
Just as she was ready to head back to the home she had made with Neil, she saw a help wanted sign in a shiny new window of a previously dilapidated building. She wandered across the street, her hope sinking into her shoes as she read the business name: The Adcroft School of Dance. Debbie couldn't dance, she could barely walk without tripping. Still, she opened the door, resolving herself to try.
The building had been renovated, but didn't have the shiny feeling of gentrification that most of the new businesses on the southside did. The floors had been refinished, not ripped up. The brick walls didn't feel like a hipster addition. The reception desk was plain and utilitarian, not much more than a wooden box with an older desktop computer on it. There was a small waiting room with windows for viewing the actual dance studio. Debbie walked hesitantly past the waiting area towards the ajar studio door. "Hello?" She said, taking Harry from her stroller and holding her on her hip. She poked her head into the room and saw a young woman and a middle aged woman looking over paperwork. "Hello?" she said again, shrinking back slightly as a two sets of steel blue eyes shot to the doorway where she stood. "I saw the sign in the window…." She added pushing the door fully open and stepping inside.
The older woman smiled, her expression softening. Her dark brown hair had been streaked with grey, and her face showed the lines of age as she smiled. She was a striking woman and had obviously been beautiful in her youth. "Oh of course. I'm sorry, we must have not heard the bell." She gestured for Debbie to come closer and Debbie obliged, bouncing Harry slightly to keep her quiet. "I'm Dana Adcroft, and this is my daughter Rebecca." The woman told her.
"Debbie Gallagher." Debbie said with a resolve to her voice. Dana hadn't sneered at Harry, she hadn't made an excuse for Debbie to leave. Debbie had to make this work somehow, even if the daughter was still examining Debbie carefully.
"Well Debbie, I'm sure Becca would be happy to talk to you, if you wouldn't mind I'd be happy to take this little one for you." Dana smiled at Harry, clearly anxious to hold the little girl.
"Oh." Debbie said, unable to keep the confusion out of her voice. "Okay, sure." She recovered, smiling her brightest smile at the daughter, who returned it with the ghost of a smile. Becca motioned Debbie to a room, not much bigger than a closet with a small desk, computer and a handful of chairs. It was their attempt at an office Debbie supposed as she sat across from Rebecca. She examined the girl while she shuffled papers on the desk, searching for a notepad and pen. She bore a striking resemblance to her mother, but her build was slighter, with long legs and delicate features. Her dark hair was piled on top of her head in a neat bun, not a piece out of place, and her makeup was light, but deftly done. There was no black smudges under her eyes or lipstick outside the lines of her lips. Debbie wondered absentmindedly if girls like Becca and Fiona were taught something in their teens that she had missed, as she'd always felt like a child playing in her mother's makeup even now that she was a woman herself.
"Debbie?" Becca said, snapping Debbie back to attention. "How old are you?"
"I'm 17." She told her. "I have my GED so school hours aren't an issue but I might have some issues with Harry.. My daughter… her um childcare? I would maybe need to bring her with me sometimes but she's a good baby and I can try to see if I can get someone to watch her…" Debbie felt he words coming out of her mouth, but couldn't stop herself from volunteering all these details to the stranger in front of her. "I would work hard, I'd do whatever you would need…" She was pleading now, just a step from throwing herself at the girl's feet.
Becca listened, her brow furrowed intently as she watch Debbie nervously stumble over her words before finally trailing off. "Finished?" Rebecca asked her, an amused smile playing at the edges of her mouth. Debbie nodded, glancing out the door where Dana was bouncing Harry on her knees and making faces at her. "Have you ever even taken a dance class?" Becca asked her, her eyes softening as she watched Debbie watching Harry.
"No." Debbie admitted, her shoulders slumping in defeat as she looked at her hands.
Becca blew out a breath, "then I guess it's a good thing I don't need a teacher." She grumbled, as if in annoyance with herself. Debbie looked at her hopefully. "Don't get excited." Becca warned her. "I need someone to handle the reception desk. It doesn't pay well, and you'd have to be nice to all the parents and kids… even the assholes."
Debbie brightened. "I'm great with people!" She declared.
Rebecca looked amused, a smile threatening her face again. "I see that." She looked at a calendar. "Can you start tomorrow? You can bring your daughter while you figure out childcare as long as you can do your job too."
"Sure!" Debbie said excitedly, her whole face beaming. "Do you need to ask your Mom or…"
Becca snorted. "I'm the only one whose opinion matters here Debbie. My mom is just… a silent partner. We live upstairs, so she'll be around, but you work for me. Got it?"
"Yep. Got it!" Debbie said, resisting the urge to squirm in her seat from her excitement.
Rebecca gave her a smile in spite of herself. It was the first full smile Debbie had seen, and she looked more like Dana than ever. "Be here tomorrow at 2." She told her, motioning her head to the door as her way of concluding the meeting.
Debbie threw open the door of the Gallagher house, wheeling Neil in while he held Harry in his lap. "I got a job!" She declared happily to the clan in the kitchen, putting the final touches on their weekly family meal. After Carl's departure to military school and Debbie moving out, Fiona realized how much they had drifted apart and started the ritual several months prior. No One had protested, and often time Kev and Veronica would join Fiona, Lip, Ian, Mickey, Debbie, Neil Harry and Liam for dinner.
"That's great Deb!" Ian declared happily as he pulled rolls off a baking sheet and put them into a bowl.
Fiona's face flickered displeasure for a brief moment before she masked it. "Doing what?" She asked, a bit more harshly than she had intended. She had already planned on letting Debbie assist in the renovations at the apartment building and had debated offering her a waitressing position when she turned 18.
"A receptionist at a new dance studio a few blocks from here." She chirped smugly. After all, it had taken Fiona till her mid twenties to get an office job and she had managed to screw it up. Debbie wouldn't make that mistake.
"The pay is shit and the owner might be a bitch" Neil offered. Lip snorted, most people were uncomfortable with Neil's unfaltering honesty but Lip found it amusing.
"Well luckily, Gallagher's are used to shit pay and bitch bosses." He teased, giving a grin to Fiona, who glared teasingly in his direction.
"Yeah, at least she didn't waste her time fucking up college." Mickey added chuckling at his jab.
Lip took a pull from his beer, sneering at Mickey. He'd enrolled in the local community college, but it was a far cry from MIT. He'd fucked that up royally and he knew it. "When do you start Debs?" He asked, changing the subject.
Debbie began chatting happily to Lip and Ian about her new job and the family settled into their dinner, feeling almost as they had before everything upended. Before Lip was kicked out of school, before Fiona's arrest, before Harry and before Ian's bipolar diagnosis. They were happy drinking beers and eating cheap spaghetti. It was chaotic and dysfunctional, but it was family.
Debbie cheerfully waved as the last group of people left the studio, locking the door behind them as they went. She gave Harry a bottle and began printing out the schedule for the next day to give to Becca. She had been working at the studio a week now and was settling into a routine. Becca was quiet, but seemed fair and every once in awhile Debbie would even catch her cooing softly to Harry.
Dana hadn't been around the studio much and when she had been Becca seemed rigid and distrustful of her mom. It reminded Debbie of when Monica came around Fiona, but Dana seemed to be 'all there' mentally and Debbie didn't feel comfortable enough to ask either one about it. She'd learned very little about her boss to be honest. Becca was 21 and had studied dance under someone important in Florida. How she ended up in Chicago and why she chose the poverty stricken south side to open a studio in was a mystery. She had low rates, so she wasn't catering to the newest influx of hipsters and young professionals sniffing around the south side. Becca had even agreed to teach a woman's daughter in exchange for the woman cleaning the studio a few times a week.
There was a sharp rap on the door, startling Debbie and making Harry cry out in surprise. Debbie saw Lip and Ian through the glass. Lip waved at her as he took the final drag off a cigarette. Debbie let them in before picking Harry up to quiet her. "What are you doing here?" She asked them suspiciously.
"We can't visit our sister at work?" Ian questioned her as he took Harry, making silly faces at the baby.
She looked to Lip giving him her best serious look, no easy feat as he grinned at her. "Fi wanted to make sure you were okay. You know, you weren't secretly working in a rub in tug or something."
Debbie rolled her eyes gesturing around her. "Clearly I'm not." She paused a beat before adding "just because Fiona thinks I'm a failure doesn't mean I actually am" defensively.
"Relax Debs." Ian told her, putting his arm around her neck and kissing the top of her head. "She's just worried about you. Wants to make sure you're okay."
"Well I am." Debbie grumbled, ducking out from under his head. "I have a little more to do before I leave. You can wait if you want to." She sat back down to finish her last bit of work while Lip wandered around the waiting room and Ian played with Harry. The walls were mostly bare, with a few certificates and trophies from what he assumed were Debbie's boss' heyday. He stepped over to the window separating the studio and waiting room and saw a figure dancing to music he could barely hear. She was leggy and had a slim dancer's body with a pretty, but serious face. She extended her leg effortlessly to her ear and Lip suppressed a groan. It felt like a lifetime ago that Sierra had taken her son Lucas and split leaving Lip alone to wallow in his misery. It had been a blow to his heart and his ego, but he also knew he needed the kick in the ass to make the changes he needed to in his life. He had been a drunk dishwasher who thought he was somehow doing her favor by being in her life. Now he was a more responsible drinker, albeit still a dishwasher, and was attending community college part time.
He realized that he was no longer watching her dance, but that she was staring back at him with a look of annoyance. He gave a half hearted wave, moving away from the window and back towards Debbie and Ian. The studio door opened and Debbie smiled happily. "Becca, these are my brothers: Ian and Lip."
Becca appraised them silently, nodding at Ian before resting her eyes on Lip. "Lip?" She asked.
"Short for Phillip." Debbie explained. "I didn't invite them to come." Debbie added quickly, "they just showed up to see where I worked…"
"It's fine Debbie." Becca told her, giving the girl a quick smile. "You can take off. I'm about to head upstairs."
Debbie snorted. "Yeah? In like two hours?" She grinned pleased to be ribbing her boss. Ian and Lip could report that to Fiona.
Becca rolled her eyes. "Something like that."
"Where's Dana?" Debbie asked her innocently. "I haven't seen her…"
"Me either." Becca said her tone sharpening. She chewed on her lip absently before bringing her attention back to Debbie. "I'll see you tomorrow." She told her in a kinder tone. "It was nice to meet you." She told Ian and Lip. She grinned at Harry and tickled the baby gently. "Bye monster." She teased gently.
"Have you eaten?" Debbie asked suddenly braver with her brothers next to her. "We are having like a family dinner… we have one every week. You could come."
Becca cleared her throat, caught off guard by the question. "I don't want to intrude." She told Debbie hesitantly.
"You wouldn't intrude. There's so many of us no one notices one more." Ian told her. "Debbie said that you aren't from here. If you meet the Gallagher's then you've met about a quarter of the southside."
Becca seemed to be considering the idea, and Lip added, "Our sister would like to meet you. Being Debbie's boss and all."
She looked at him, studying his face for for any hidden intent. Finding, none she shrugged. "Sure… why not?"
A/N: Please let me know what you think! I love reviews!