I don't own Shameless.


You Won't Know: Chapter 2

"Yeah, Addy will be 4 in April, then we're gonna have another little one due in July. What about you Gallagher?"

Ian jumped, looking up with wide eyes at the three people staring at him. It was late, and they were sitting outside their tent someplace west of Iraq. Ian glanced around , taking a hit off his cigarette as he raised a brow.

"Sorry, what?" He said, letting out a breath of smoke.

"You got a girl back home? Kids waiting for you?" a guy named Sampson asked and Ian snorted.

"No. I had a guy, but…" Ian trailed off, taking another deep hit off his cigarette.

"Had?" his Sergeant asked, and Ian didn't miss how the past tense was what had the man held up, not the fact that Ian was gay.

"Yeah. It's been a while. We're from the South Side of Chicago; being out would get you killed back there. Mick's the real fucked for life type; he'd been to juvie twice before he was eighteen. My drunk of a dad walked in on us once." Ian hesitated when he saw Reagan flinch. "Course, Mick's way of keeping my dad from talking was threatening to kill him."

"He didn't, did he?" Reagan asked, and Ian hated how quiet the boy sounded. The blonde was the youngest of their platoon; having enlisted the day after graduation.

"No. I warned Frank, which pissed Mick off. We got in this huge fight, he said a lot of things I hope he didn't mean, and then he took off and punched a cop in the face. Did two years in juvie for it."

"You ever try to get back with him?" Sergeant Klienfelter asked, stealing a cigarette from Ian's pack.

"Never really got a chance," Ian said with a shrug, staring at his hands. "I was only home a month and he avoided me most of that time. And then the accident happened and I had to leave."

"Accident?" Sampson asked, his head cocked to the side.

"His dad found out," Ian said quietly. "Tried to kill Mick; tried to strangle him and when that didn't work took a baseball bat to his head. He hit him twice before Mick's sister hit him in the head with a frying pan. There was a lot of swelling in his brain and then he was in a coma for two weeks. Mickey woke up the night before I left bet he doesn't remember anything. Especially not who I am."

"Like amnesia?" Reagan asked and Ian looked away, nodding.

"Fuck, Gallagher," Klienfelter said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, well…It's not like we were together anyway."

"You think he'll remember you?" Sampson asked and Ian shrugged.

"It's up to his sister and what she tells him at this point. Kind of hard to make someone remember you from over here."

"Shit," Sampson said.

"Well looks like we've got to get you home in one piece, Corporal Gallagher. You've got to make that boy remember you," Klienfelter said, and Ian couldn't help the smirk that covered his face.


"How about him? Do you know who he is?" Mandy asked, sitting cross legged at the foot of Mickey's hospital bed with a stack of pictures. She was currently holding up a picture of their brother Tommy. Mickey furrowed his brow at her but shook his head slowly. "That's Tommy. He's out brother. He's up state in prison." Mickey nodded but didn't say anything. "Mickey? Who am I?" Mandy asked.

"You're a nurse?" Mickey said and Mandy groaned, rubbing at her eyes.

"No Mickey," She said for the twentieth time since Mickey had woken up. "I'm your sister Mandy. I'm not a nurse."

"Oh. Right," Mickey said, and Mandy could tell he was tired.

"Why don't you take a break? I have to go to work for a little while anyway. I'll stop in and check on you later," Mandy whispered and kissed him on the forehead as she climbed to her feet.

"Okay. Thanks, uh…um…"

"Mandy," she said again, biting her lip to keep herself from crying.

"Oh, right," Mickey said. Mandy squeezed his arm and left, the tears falling in fat drops down her face. Lip was waiting in the hall way and steadied her as she stumbled out of Mickey's room.

"Today any better?" he asked, his arms wrapped tight around her and his face buried in her hair.

"No," Mandy said, pulling away and rubbing at her eyes. "I told him who I was as soon as I walked in this morning at 8:30. By 10 he'd already forgotten who I was again."

"Hour and a half? That's better than last week, right? I mean then it was only an hour." Lip said, flinching when Mandy swatted at him.

"I don't know how much more I can handle," Mandy whispered, taking Lip's hand and leading him down the hall. "I can't take him home like this. He'd be stabbed before he even knew something was wrong. That's not Mickey in there, Lip. That's not my brother."

"I hate to say this," Lip said, squeezing her hand. "But that's what's left of your brother after your dad got a hold of him."

"Yeah, well that piece of shit better thank God he's gotten life in prison, because the next time I see him, I'll kill him on the spot."

"Yeah, well you'd have to beat me to it," Lip said, pulling Mandy close to him as they waited for the bus.


Mandy fidgeted in the chair in Doctor Brim's office while she waited for the man to return. She'd taken over Mickey's job at the Kash and Grab and Linda had let her go early so she could meet with the doctor's to talk about Mickey. Mandy hated doing this by herself, but they didn't have any other family left.

"Ms. Milkovich," an older man said as he entered the office, causing Mandy to jump. "I'm Doctor Steven Brim; I'm your brother's doctor."

"Mandy," she said, shaking his hand.

"Now Mickey suffered a great brain injury…" Dr. Brim trailed off, and Mandy couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes.

"No shit," she mumbled, and Dr. Brim gave her a small smile.

"Mickey is currently suffering from both long term and short term memory loss. The short term memory loss is happening with a span of an hour and a half before his brain seems to reset itself."

"Is there anything you can do about it?" Mandy asked, chewing on her finger nail.

"Currently, there's not much we can do. The brain is a very tricky organ; you never know how it's going to react. As of right now, the best we can do is memory exercises to try to improve his memory span."

"What kind of memory exercises?" Mandy asked, burrowing her brow.

"It may seem a little childish, but small things like matching games, go fish, guess who. We'll also give him three different objects each day to try to remember as long as possible."

"Mickey's not going to like that," Mandy said, rubbing her hands over her legs. "Or at least old Mickey wouldn't."

"I understand how this is hard on you, Ms. Milkovich."

"Mandy," she said again, not looking up.

"Mandy. Physically nothing is wrong with your brother…."

"I can't take him home!" Mandy said, looking up with wide eyes. "Not like this. He'd get killed within the hour."

"I understand. I do have a suggestion. We can move your brother to a long term facility. Specialists there will be able to work with him and hopefully increase his memory."

"We don't have the money for that…" Mandy said quietly, looking back down at her hands. "I'm not ever sure how we're going to pay for the normal hospital bills."

"The state's picking up the tab," Dr. Brim said with a small smile. "Since your brother is currently in the middle of a law suit with your father, the state is paying for his treatment as compensation."

"Really?" Mandy said, the weight seeming to lift off her shoulders.

"With your consent, we can move him by the end of the week." Dr. Brim said, sliding a brochure across the desk to Mandy.

"Where do I sign?" she asked and Dr. Brim gave her a small smile.


"Hey, how'd it go with the doc?" Lip asked, opening a beer and handing it to Mandy when she walked into her house.

"They're moving him," she said, taking a gulp of beer.

"Where?" Lip asked his eyes wide.

"Pine Towers," she said as she lit a cigarette.

"The psych ward?" Lip asked, his voice loud as his eyes grew wider.

"They have specialists there that work with memory loss and brain injuries. They don't think he's crazy, Lip," Mandy said with a roll of her eyes.

"Do you think it'll help?" Lip asked, dropping down onto the couch next to her.

"It's gotta be better than what we have already," Mandy said, letting her head fall back against his shoulder. They sat in silence for a moment before Lip cleared his throat.

"We got mail today," he said, digging in his pocket.

"Yeah? You get mail every day," Mandy said, burrowing her brow.

"Yeah, well we got mail from Ian today," he said, glancing up at Mandy's blank expression. "There was a bunch of letters; he's just sending them all to our house since I guess he doesn't know addresses other than ours. But anyway, there was one for you. And one for Mickey…." Lip trailed off, watching as Mandy reached out with shaky hands to take the two letters. She glanced at the names, placing hers on the end table and ripping Mickey's in half. "What the hell?" Lip said, his eyes wide.

"We're not playing this game," she mumbled with a shrug. "It's hard enough getting him to remember me for longer than an hour; we're not telling him about the guy he used to fuck that's overseas in the fucking army."

"You knew about that?" Lip said, his eyes wide.

"Yes, I fucking knew about it; not that either of them actually told me. But I knew, and if you think about it, this is all Ian's fault."

"How do you figure that? It'd been two fucking years since they'd done anything; Mickey was in jail and Ian was at West Point, remember?"

"Had they been careful in the first place, Kermit at the bar would have never saw them those two years ago, and dad never would have known." Lip opened his mouth to argue but Mandy put a finger to his lips. "I don't want to fight about this. I'm telling you now-I'm not telling Mickey about Ian. It's for his own good."

Lip sighed but nodded, running his fingers over the shreds of Ian's letter.


"Gallagher, mail!" Sergeant Klienfelter yelled, dropping a thick envelope on Ian's bunk. The red head tore open the envelope, flipping through the letters three times before he decided there was nothing from Mickey. There was nothing from Mandy, either.

Ian sighed, settling on a letter from Lip. His heart felt like it stopped at the end of the letter.

"All in all, things back here are okay. I've been spending a lot of time with Mandy trying to deal with the whole Mickey thing. Just so you know, things aren't much better. He's got a lot of long term memory loss and short term too. The short term memory loss has gotten a bit better, not much though. He's gotten to two hours before his mind just reset and deletes everything.

"I gave your letter for Mick to Mandy, but Mandy didn't give it to him. She said there's too much shit going on to try to tell him about you. I can't say I blame her; it's hard enough watching him forget her on a daily basis. And it's her choice what we tell him about after all…

"They've moved him to Pine Towers so some specialists that work with brain injuries can work with him. Who knows if it will help; we'll just have to see. I'll try to keep you posted as much as possible. Just keep yourself together and stay safe. I'm going to need you to come home in one piece, okay? Love you, buddy."

Ian kicked the bed frame several times, pulling at him impossibly short hair. He crouched down, wrapping his arms around his stomach as the tears filled his eyes. He hated seeming weak; but this was just unfair. Mickey was the only thing that ever seemed to work for him and now Mickey couldn't remember him. He heard a sound of movement behind him and Ian rubbed roughly at his eyes.

"You okay, Gallagher?" a quiet voice said and Ian looked up to see Reagan hovering behind him.

"I'll be fine, thanks," Ian mumbled shoving the letter under his pillow.

"I'm here if you need to talk," Reagan whispered, and Ian waved off the younger boy. Ian could barely admit what was going on was true to himself, let alone someone else. He'd only been there for three weeks, but Ian was ready to go home.


AN: I hope you liked it. Please review.