So... It's been a while... I apologize. I hope someone out there still want to read this! So, here it is! I have a few more chapters written already, as well, so there will be more updates. Read and Review please?
Disclaimer: I own nothing Boondock Saints, etc etc etc etc.
She wasn't sure how long she'd stood there, but she did know that as soon as she got home she'd passed right out. The next morning, she made her way to the kitchen of her apartment, rubbing her temples as she started the coffee pot. Just as she'd finished up preparing her large cup o' joe, her phone started ringing, causing her head to pound.
"Hello?" She answered it groggily, flinching from Nora's screams on the other end. "Nora. N-Nora! Stop screaming, please? My head is killing me."
"Yer head is killin' ya? Good! I'm glad! Ya know ye scared tha shite outta me last night. Ya star'ed actin' all weird, and then ya jus' take off. Wha tha hell got inta ya?"
"I drank too much, that's it. Started seeing things, and whatnot."
"Tha only t'ing I saw was me best friend actin' like she was seein' ghosts! Seriously, I didn't get a call from ya and I though' ya died er somt'in."
Nidra sighed, dropping her head onto her table as she took a seat. "Trust me, I'm fine. What time is it, anyways?"
"Nearly three o' clock!"
"Shhhit. Look, I gotta get ready to meet Aidan for dinner at five. I'm sorry I freaked you out, I just got too drunk. Won't happen again, I promise."
"Yeah, better not! See ya at work on Monday?"
"Yep. I'll get you two Danishes, how's that?"
"Deal."
Nidra chuckled as she hung up the phone and took a moment to collect herself. She was seriously going to drive herself into an asylum if she kept up with these damn dreams. Nightmares, more like it. Always about Murphy, of course.
"Hey babe." Nidra kissed Aidan's cheek before she sat down across from him at their table at Aidan's favorite restaurant.
"How was las' night?" Something in Aidan's voice said he already knew it didn't go as planned.
"I got really drunk, and apparently I started acting funny and just ran out of the pub." Nidra shrugged. "Was fun up until I started seeing things." Chuckling, she smiled at the waiter. That is, until she realized who it was.
"Evenin' folks." Romeo flashed a smile between the two, but his gaze shifted to Nidra as he held up his order pad. "What can I make for ya?"
"Nothing." Nidra forced a smile as she looked over at Aidan. "We're leaving."
"Wha?" Aidan furrowed his brow. "Nidra, we jus' got 'ere."
"I know!" She stood quickly, her chair falling over from the sudden movement. "Let's go! Now."
She turned to pick the chair up, but a hand beat her to it, and she followed the hand up with her gaze, before she came face to face with Murphy. She stood up straight, turning and avoiding looking at either he or Romeo.
"Is something wrong, madam?" Romeo smiled, and Nidra's grip on her handbag tightened.
"What're you two doing here?"
Aidan looked between the three. "Ye know dem?"
Nidra shook her head, but Murphy interjected.
"Indeed, she does. Mind if we 'ave a word with 'er?" He reached for Nidra's arm, but she yanked it away.
"I mind." Her voice was dark as she looked back to Romeo, who was suddenly gone. "Fuck." She turned to Murphy, finally, but kept her gaze somewhere else. "Go away."
"No' til ye speak ta me."
"I have nothing to say."
"Um," Aidan stood from his chair, stepping towards the two. "Is der a problem, 'ere?"
"Yeah," Murphy narrowed his gaze at the other man, "you."
"Me?"
Nidra shook her head, turning and grabbing Aidan, dragging him to the front of the restaurant. People were watching the trio.
"No, Aidan, no problem. Let's go."
"Wait, if 'e has a problem, I'd like ta address it."
"Trust me!" Nidra threw a glare over her shoulder at Murphy, who was following them. "You don't want to address it with him, okay? Just, let's get the fuck out of here."
Once outside, Aidan pulled the female to a stop, turning as Murphy came out of the doorway after them. Romeo appeared a few seconds later.
"Oudda da way, I need ta speak ta tha lady." Murphy stopped right in front of Aidan, who refused to move.
"She clearly doesn' wan ta speak ta ya, so why don' ya just bug off?"
Before Nidra could stop it, Murphy sent a fist across Aidan's face, and the taller man went down.
"Aidan!" Nidra hurried over to the fallen man as he attempted to register what had just happened, but she was grabbed around the waist by Murphy, who walked her a few feet away, pushing her back against a wall and placing his hands on either side of her head. "You fucking fuck!"
"Listen ta me!"
"No!" Nidra sent her own fist across Murphy's cheek, which stunned him, but not enough to make him back off. "I said go away! I didn't want to see you last night, and I don't want to see you tonight!"
"We need ta talk-"
"I have nothing left to say!" Nidra felt her eyes welling up with tears, but she refused to cry for him, not again. "Just, disappear again! Wasn't so hard the first time, was it?"
By this point Aidan was standing again, rubbing at his jaw. Nidra glanced over at him, hands balled into fists at her sides as she looked back up at Murphy. He was so close to her, she wasn't entirely sure if she was shaking from anger, or from excitement. Perhaps it was both. He'd been the only man to ever make her feel truly loved, and here he was, like he'd "poofed" out of a cartoon or something and just appeared back in her life.
"I have quite a bit ta say, lass." Murphy's voice was much lower, and it made Nidra's stomach twist anxiously.
She locked eyes with him, setting her jaw. "Well I don't want to hear it." There was that pain again, the pain across his features which made her want to die. "Now leave me and my fiancé alone." The term fiancé seemed to knock the wind out of Murphy, and he looked over at the other man, who looked enraged. Nidra took the moment to duck under Murphy's arms and she grabbed Aidan's hand, tugging him across the street to Aidan's car.
The following week was rather uneventful. Aidan had demanded an explanation, and all Nidra could give was that Murphy had been an ex-boyfriend, whom she'd thought was dead, and whom she hadn't really wanted to see anyways. Although he'd questioned her relentlessly, she said nothing more, and went about her normal duties as usual. On the following Sunday, Nidra was at a café near the bookstore sitting on the outdoor patio having some tea when the chair across from her was pulled out and a man sat down. She looked up from her book, eyes narrowing.
"Go away, Connor." She looked back down at her book, resuming her reading.
"I tink we deserve a few minutes o' yer time."
"I think you deserve to get hit by a bus."
"Ye don' mean dat."
"Don't I?" She looked up at him, slamming her book shut. "You guys have some fucking nerve."
"Ye can' seriously expect us ta believe tha' ya moved 'ere and didn't tink ya'd run inta us."
"Yes, actually, I do expect you to believe that because it's the truth. You guys are all dead to me. I never heard from any of you, nothing. You couldn't even let me know that you were all alive?"
"Too dangerous, lass. Ye knew tha'."
"No," Nidra shook her head, "I knew that you left me completely on my own without so much as the decency to keep in touch. Jesus, Connor! You could have sent a fucking envelope with a smiley face sticker! That alone would let me know you guys are okay. But instead I have to sit around, alone, and worried sick about you all. I moved here because I got engaged, and my fiancé happens to be Irish, and his family owns some properties here. That's it. I'd gotten so used to the idea of you guys having been killed in some sort of fire-fight that I actually started to hope it had happened."
"Das cruel, lass."
"Yeah, well, it's true." She raised a brow. "Can you please disappear and let me go back to thinking you're all dead now?"
Connor folded his hands on the table and leaned forward, lowering his voice. "Unfortunately I can' do tha'. See, when we made ya family, we meant it. So, now tha' yer 'ere, we gotta make sure yer taken care of."
"I am, thanks for your concern. Aidan's a doctor, his family has plenty of money – not to mention the millions that I have myself – and I am capable of taking care of myself. But, you boys knew that already, didn't you? Seeing as you did sort of train me to be a killer." There were a few minutes of silence as Connor's expression changed, and the two stared each other down.
"I di'n' believe 'im when he said he'd seen ya." He didn't need to say names, she knew who he was talking about. "Romeo was so excited when he told 'im tha' he jumped a' tha chance ta crash yer dinner."
"Yeah?" Nidra shrugged. "I don't care."
"Yes ya do. Oderwise ye woulda already walked away. I'm surprised ye haven'."
Nidra sighed in a sort of defeat, setting her jaw angrily. "What do you guys want?"
"We miss ye, lass. Believe it or no'."
"I stopped missing you guys a long time ago. Sometime within the past two years. I don't buy your bullshit, either. If you were so worried about my safety, you wouldn't be trailing me like this. Nobody has to know that I know you guys, but you insist on hunting me down and causing scenes in public."
"Murph did it. He couldn' help it. He stayed away fer as long as he could."
Nidra paused, brow furrowed. Stayed away for as long as he could? "How long?"
"T'ree months."
"Jesus Christ." He'd seen her three months prior to the previous week at the bar? That just seemed impossible… Nidra pinched the bridge of her nose. "If you guys didn't want me to be with you when you moved here, then I don't want to be with you now." She stood, tucking her book to her side as she started away from him. "Just leave me alone." She didn't make it a few steps before Connor was speaking again.
"Wha' 'appened ta ya?" She stopped, listening for a moment as she closed her eyes to fight back tears. "Yer diff'ren now."
"Life, Connor, that's what happened. I grew up and realized how big of a joke you guys are. And I was an idiot for thinking that I belonged with you."
"Ye do belong wit' us. Yer family."
She felt the sting of his words, and she backed up a few steps, placing her free hand on the table as she leaned over the man she'd looked at as an older brother. "The only thing I know about the word family is that every person who has ever called themselves that left me. Every single one of them chose to walk out on me. So forgive me for not thinking too highly of the term and what you think it means. I'm tired of being left alone, and I'm tired of losing everyone that I love. So I'm going to marry Aidan, and I'm going to live a safe, normal life. Away from you, away from guns, away from mobsters, and away from Murphy."
Nidra felt a tear slip from her eye, and she wiped it away quickly, standing up straight. "Kindly tell your family to stay away from me."
"Ye di'n' say anyt'ing about happy in der. Yer knew life doesn' involve happiness?" Connor stood now, looking down at Nidra with that older-brother look of his. "I know we hurt ya, but we really do love ya, Nidra. Murphy more than anyt'ing in tha world."
"Yeah, he proved that when he left me alone and pr-" She stopped short, shaking her head. She glanced up, catching Connor's eye. "Nothing you say is going to make me change my mind. I'm done with the lot of you. So, kindly give me the space that I want." As she moved past him, Connor grabbed her arm, and Nidra stopped, keeping her gaze on the ground in front of her. "Let it go, Connor. Trust me, you don't want to bring it up. And… Don't tell Murphy." She looked up at him, and could tell that he knew what she meant. She took her arm from his grasp and headed home.
That's it for this one! Let me know what you think, and I sincerely apologize for the long delay!
