I don't own Shameless.
You Won't Know: Chapter 3
As much as he hated to say it, the first time Ian got hurt in the line of duty he was beyond ready to come home. He'd been overseas for a little over six months and had heard very little of what was going on at home. Namely, he had no idea what was going on with Mickey, and every time he brought it up in a letter or one of their Skype dates, Lip always side stepped to topic.
The day Ian had gotten hurt he was at his wits end. He was running on even less sleep than normal and had been waiting for a mission that Sergeant Kleinfelter had been warning them about for weeks. They headed out early that morning, the sun barley up. He sat in the back of the Humvee, his head ducked as Kleinfelter ran over their objective one last time.
Reagan's legs twitched next to him, and Ian had to stop himself from reaching over to grab his leg to stop him. The Humvee pulled up to their designated spot, the troop jumping out and falling into position. Ian crouched along the side of the building, waiting for his sergeant to give them the signal. Reagan crouched just behind him, waiting to take Ian's lead.
"We might be here for a while," Ian whispered, watching as Sergeant Kleinfelter whispered something to Sampson, his hands waving in signals that weren't for them.
"Yeah, I know," Reagan sat, letting his head fall back against the building. They stayed there quietly, on edge as they looked around and waited. "Hey look, a puppy!" Reagan whispered, nudging Ian's arm.
"Yeah, I see it," Ian whispered, glancing back at Kleinfelter again. Out of the corner of his eyes, he watched as the puppy approached a bush that was wrapped in barb wire. He felt Reagan stiffen next to him when the small pup's paw got stuck in the wire. "Don't fucking move, Reagan," he mumbled, watching as Kleinfelter and Sampson moved into position.
"We can't just leave it like that! It's hurt and it's stuck," Reagan whispered, starting to inch past Ian. Ian stuck his arm out, pushing the younger boy back behind him.
As soon as Kleinfelter gave the signal, Ian moved out of their position, falling in behind the rest of his troop. The only problem was that Reagan didn't fallow. Instead he snuck around, trying to rescue the stupid puppy. Ian let out a low growl as he fell back.
"Reagan, let's go! You're going to get us killed," he hissed. Instead, Reagan waved an arm back at him and moved closer to the bush. Ian kept an eye on his feet, knowing that the young boy had screwed up as soon he put his foot down. "Reagan, don't move. Seriously. Look down." He looked down, and then looked back up at Ian with wide eyes.
"Gallagher…" he whispered and Ian cursed under his breath. The boy was standing on a trigger that was a weight sensor. There was no way that Reagan could get away from it buy himself. He glanced back to see that the rest of the troop was already in their next position and would be no help to them now.
"I'm going to hit you and you need to just go with it, okay? That's the only way we're both going to get out of this. Just go slack, okay?" Ian said, letting his gun drop down to ground beside him.
"Just get me out of here," Reagan said, his voice cracking. Ian nodded, taking a step back to get a better running start.
"Okay," Ian said, his heart racing. This was so stupid. Why was he always in these stupid situations. "One. Two." He didn't get to three, before bursting off, slamming into Reagan and trying to throw them as far away from the blast as possible.
He let out a string of curses as the shrapnel cut into his back, his brain rattling around in his skull as he and Reagan landed nearby. He felt like his eardrums had burst while everything sounded like it was underwater.
"Gallagher!" He could hear someone yelling, and he tried to life his head, to let them know he was okay and that they needed to check on Reagan first. But everything hurt and moving made it feel worse. "Medic! We need a medic over here!"
"Gallagher? Gallagher!" Ian let out a moan as Sampson tried to roll him over. "Gallagher, can hear me?"
"A fucking puppy," Ian moaned before he passed out from the pain.
"This is stupid," Mickey mumbled, picking up the same card and putting it down again and again.
"If it'll help you remember, then it's not stupid," Lip said with a chuckle. Mickey groaned, siting the card down again. "Just think about it. Where have you seen the blue square before?"
Mickey chewed on his lip, his eyes roaming the blank side of the cards. He glanced up at Lip who gave him an encouraging smile. Finally Mickey reached out, picking up a card from the middle of the top row. He gave Lip a blinding smile when that card ended up being the blue square.
"See. You can do it."
"Lip…Lip right?" Mickey said quietly, adding the two blue square cards to the small stack he had started.
"Yeah," Lip said, giving him another small smile.
"When do I get to come home? I don't like it here. Someone….I think someone screams every night and I can't sleep." Lip bit his lip, knowing that the person who's been screaming was actually Mickey himself.
"Once you get more of your memory back, bud. It's not safe for you right now…We don't…We don't live in the best neighborhood."
"I just want to go home…" Mickey trailed off, getting up from the little table in his room and throwing himself on the bed. "At least I think I do."
"It'll come back to you," Lip said quietly from the table. "It's not going to be easy, but it'll come back to you at some point." Lip looked up when a soft knock came from the door.
"Mr. Gallagher?" the nurse asked quietly. "There's a call for you at the nurse's station. It sounded like an emergency." Lip sighed, climbing to his feet.
"I'll be right back Mick," he said, following the nurse to where a phone was waiting for him.
"'Lo?' He said, running a tired hand over his face.
"Lip? It's Fiona. Ian's been hurt."
"Fuck, what happened?" Lip groaned, glancing back at Mickey's room.
"There was some kind of explosion where he was trying to save some other kid in his unit. They said it's not life threatening, but they're sending him home for a little while to heal." Fiona sounded like she was close to crying again.
"When will he be home?" Lip asked quietly.
"The officer I talked to said next week. Their currently treating a bunch of burns and cuts over wherever they are. Once they say he's stable they'll fly him home."
"Okay. Um, I'm going to stay with Mick for a bit longer. I kind of upset him so I might as well ride that out until he forgets. But I'll be home as soon as I can, okay?"
"I love you Lip," Fiona said seriously. "Just come home quick."
"Got it. Love you, too."
Ian woke up to an obnoxious beeping in his ear. It took him a minute to remember what had happened, but when it all set in, he tried to sit up as fast possible. He let out a pained gasp as he laid back, the beeping in his ear sped up.
"Corporal Gallagher, glad to see you back in the land of the living," the doctor said, grabbing his chart off the end of the bed.
"What happened?" Ian asked stupidly, squinting as he rubbed at his eyes.
"Well you got the poor end of the stick while trying to rescue and idiot who was rescuing a puppy."
"Reagan…Is Reagan okay?" he asked, letting his eyes fall shut.
"Corporal Reagan is fine. He'll be back with your unit tomorrow. You, however, get to enjoy a little home time on medical leave. As long as your fever stays down today and tomorrow we'll be sending you home Friday to recuperate. Now get some rest."
Ian let his head fall back, a low sigh escaping his lips. "All this for a fucking puppy."
Lip and Fiona stood right past the security gate, waiting for Ian. Lip paced back and forth, running his hand through his hair every so often.
"Will ya stop doing that?" Fiona said, glaring at Lip with her hands on her hips. "You're making me nervous."
"Do you know the extent of his injuries? I mean you said it was life threatening but what is it? I mean I already spend most of my days in the hospital with Mick. I don't want Ian to be fucked up, too," Lip said, flicking at his nose. He would kill for a cigarette, his nerves getting to him.
"Officer O'Grady said he took a lot of shrapnel to his back and his legs. He's got quite a few burns too."
"So nothing permanent."
"Unless you count scars and mental bullshit," Fiona said, smirking when Lip rolled his eyes. "Here he comes," she mumbled, moving up closer to the gate.
Ian sat in a wheelchair, a pair of crutches balanced over his legs. His right leg was straight out in front of him, and Lip was sure that it was probably wrapped tight in a bandage under his uniform pants. He sat stiffly, and Lip could tell he was trying to keep his back from touching the back of the chair. The airport assistant pushed Ian through the security gate and up to Fiona and Lip.
"Hey guys," Ian said with a small smile, and Lip tried to smile back. He hated the dark circles under his brothers eyes and the bruised from various IV's and treatments on his arms.
"Hey buddy," Lip said, knowing his smile probably looked like a grimace. "How you feeling?"
"Like shit," Ian mumbled, and Fiona chuckled as the airport worker locked the chair. Lip held the crutches steady and Fiona helped Ian out of the wheelchair, holding onto his elbow until he was steady on his feet.
"Here is your bag, Mr. Gallagher," the young airport worker whose name tag read Alex, said.
"Thanks. Thanks for everything," Ian said, taking a hobbling step forward.
"Thank you for your service, Mr. Gallagher," Alex said. Ian nodded, slowly following Lip out to the parking lot.
"So what the hell did you do while you were off being a hero?" Lip said, sliding into the backseat with Ian's crutches and Fiona backed out of the parking spot.
"There's this kid in my unit. Super young, super innocent, but not quite all there. He saw a puppy while we on a mission and tried to rescue it. He ended up standing on a weight censored bomb. Basically, I had to tackle him off of it to save him. And I took the brunt of the explosion. But I'll be fine. Really."
"Next time?" Fiona said, reaching over and taking Ian's hand. "Don't be a fucking hero."
"Got it," Ian said, a small smile on his face.
Later that night, Ian sat perched on the edge of the couch as Lip dug through his bag. He piled the collection of gauze and creams the Army doctor had given him on the coffee table in front of Ian. He moved around beside his brother, slowly peeling the bandages away from his back.
"Jesus, Ian," Lip mumbled, pausing when Ian hissed in pain.
"I know," Ian said through clinched teeth. "The doc said another quarter of an inch to the right it would have hit my spine and I'd be on permanent discharge. I guess I was lucky. The deepest ones are up here on my shoulder and down by my tailbone."
"That looks painful. What about your leg?" Lip asked as he gently rubbed the disinfectant cream over Ian's stitches.
"Shrapnel cut through the back of my leg. If I bend it, it would rip the stitches out," He said in a monotone voice, hissing as Lip pressed hard on a specifically tender cut."
"Jesus."
"Yeah," Ian said quietly, holding his arms up so Lip could wrap the gauze around his torso. The red head slowly laid forward on his stomach so Lip could get to the cuts and burns on the back of his legs. He mumbled a thanks as Lip handed him a glass of water so he could take his antibiotics and pain pills. Finally, he gently laid back on the stack of blankets Fiona had laid out for him, his right leg propped up on the leg of the couch. "How's Mickey?" he asked after a few moments of silence.
"Slowly getting better. His short term memory is starting to get a bit better. It's not much, but he's remembered who I am for two days straight before I had to remind him again. It's a lot better than the two hour span he had when he woke up."
"But he's okay?"
"Physically? Yeah. He still doesn't remember what happened to him. Or his brothers. Or Terry. And basically everything that Mandy and I haven't told him."
"What about me?" Ian asked quietly, gently rubbing at his sore leg.
"Mandy still doesn't want to tell him about you yet. It's just… It would just confuse him. He doesn't remember anything, Ian. He probably doesn't even remember he was gay. It's not fair to confuse him anymore right now."
"I want to see him," Ian said, turning so he could meet Lip's eyes.
"Mandy will never go for it. I'm sorry, dude, but she's considered his legal guardian and she has to sign off on the visiting list. She won't do it."
"It's not fair," Ian whispered after a few moments of silence. "I just…I just wanted him to admit he wanted me. And now he doesn't even fucking remember me. I just want to see him, Lip. I just…I just want to see him one more time."
"I know, Ian. I know. Just give him some more time." Ian nodded, carefully rolling on his side and pulling his good leg up to his chest. Lip was man enough not to point out that he could hear Ian's sobs or that he noticed the way his shoulders shook. Ian was grateful of that.
AN: Sorry this took so long! Please review!
