A/N:

italics flashback, bold Joey observations

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I look up at the clock from the counter. 3:30. I sigh. Another two and a half hours still on my shift. Jenny went someplace with her Dad and that left me to watch the Diner. Barely any customers all day either. I pick up the phone and dial the Firecracker. As soon as the other end picks up I hear laughing. "Yeah?"

A voice in the background says, "Say Firecracker you idiot! You want Jimmy to kick my ass?! Better yet, I'll kick it for him."

A sigh, "Alright, alright. Keep your shirt on. Firecracker. Are you happy now? Have I met up to Jimmy's goddamn standards? Hello?"

I wet a rag in the sink. "Joe, it's me. Put Jimmy on."

There is a long silence and nervous coughing. "Umm-- hold on a sec, okay?"

"Yeah." There is fumbling and alot of discussing on the other end. What the hell? "Joey?"

"Yeah he's not here, Mad. He left like two or three hours ago. Hasn't been back since."

I furrow my eyebrows, "No, I know he's there. The vendors come on Wednesdays."

Another long silence. I hear talking again in the background and a hang up the phone. I cock my head to the side, "Put Kevin on the phone." Whenever I want to know something, I ask Kevin. He's incapable of lying to me and when he tries, I always know.

"Kevin's busy. He's mopping the floors-- and waxing them." Joey says quickly.

"Bullshit Kevin's mopping the floors. He doesn't clean anything. He wouldn't know the difference between a mop and a broom. Now, where the hell is Jimmy?"

Another silence and a hang up. I knew where Jimmy was now. He's upstairs with her, and they're watching the bar. Son of a bitch.

I look down at the phone and slam it down on the reciever. Know that feeling you get when you're so mad at someone that you actually invision their violent demise? Maybe it was that time of the month or I have finally lost it, but I want to kill him. He promised me over and over again. How stupid was I?

I don't even bother taking my apron off. I charg out from behind the counter, turn the sign to closed, and slam the door behind me. I fumble for the Diner keys in my purse when a customer walks up behind me, "You closing early?"

I don't respond. I was on a mission. The keys are shoved at the bottom. I jiggle the lock and pull the door to make sure. The customer is still standing there. "Lady?"

I spin around to face him. This poor shmuck had no clue what kind of danger he was in. "Yeah, we're closed! What the hell does it look like? See the sign? Closed!"

He jumps back about two feet and continues down the block to Mulligan's. I start to walk in the opposite direction, but stop. Yeah, there was no way in hell he was going to have a good day. Not if I was right about what Jimmy was doing upstairs. I cross the street to my apartment to pick up a little something.

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I slam the bat down on the bar, standing between Kevin and the stairs. "Move Kevin! I'll smack you over the head with this, I swear to God!"

Kevin shields his face with one hand, trying to get the bat with the other. "Will you just give me five seconds to go and see if he's up there?!"

I shove him hard in the shoulder and he falls back, "Move!" I don't even check to see if he's following me. He wasn't.

Kevin looks to Joey, who's hiding behind the counter with his mouth dropped open. "She may kill him this time. If she doesn't, he's gonna kill me. Damn."

A needle. A large rubber tie. A metal spoon. Jimmy and Joanie on the couch fondling eachother. Did I mention he was under her?

The door wasn't even locked. Hell, it wasn't even closed all the way. I didn't make an introduction. They had no clue I was standing across from the couch.

"Everyone in the neighborhood was talking about what happend next for weeks. I mean, they didn't shutup about it. Did she really beat the oldest Donnelly kid with a bat? No, I heard it was a sledgehammer. I heard it was a shovel. I heard she shot him in the chest five times and two of the Donnelly brothers helped her bury him in some abandoned lot in Jersey. Let the record show that the weapon of choice was the first guess and there was no bloodshed."

I make my way down the staircase, pass by a terrified Kevin and Joey, and start down the basement stairs. I can hear Jimmy yelling hysterically and then curse at Kevin for not warning him that I was coming up. I stand at the bottom of the steps with my eye on the table next to the freezer. He had been working on it for two months. Everytime I see it laying down here I want to scream. But I always keep quiet about it. I hate that birdhouse. This ugly, worthless piece of shit wooden box that he only worked on when he wasn't sober. Who's ever seen a bird in Hell's Kitchen small enough to fit inside this thing anyway?

Not me. And that's why I start hacking it just like I did the glass table in front of his couch. He limps down the stairs and stands behind me.

I turn to face him with the bat still clutched in both of my hands. My grip on the weapon grows tighter by the second. His hands elevate from his sides slightly and then shoot back down like they're on fire. I smile, getting in his face. "What are you gonna do, Jimmy? You mad? Huh?"

His expression is stone cold. "You think I care about that ugly freakin' thing or the table, huh? You come in here out of nowhere mad as hell and start smashing things while I'm talking to a friend upstairs?" He laughs, "You know how stupid you look right now, right? I wasn't even doing anything."

"I really hope that's the smack talking and you don't actually think that I don't know what you and that junkie whore were doing up there."

He cuts me off, "You're fuckin' paranoid. That's your problem. Always with the paranoia. Jimmy's doing this, Jimmy's doing that."

I don't respond. I just stare him down until he moves out of my way, and walk back upstairs. I lay the bat down on the counter next to Joey. "Don't ask me to hide your shit anymore if you're too lazy to pick it up from my place."

Kevin moves towards me, "Mad, do you want me to--"

I put up a hand to stop him from coming any closer. Last thing I need is for a Donnelly brother to walk me home. Even Kevin. "Don't Kevin. Alright? Don't."

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I shouldn't be here, but I had to help with the catering from the Diner-- again. I was actually have a semi-good time until Jimmy showed up banged out of his head with Joanie and started mouthing off about Huey. Since then, I haven't been able to relax, and I broke my vow about having more than two drinks in one sitting.

Worst thing about it was, since Jimmy had shown up an hour ago, I'd broken it four times.

I lift my half empty drink and watch nervously as Jenny and Dokie talk in a corner across the room. He's asking her questions about the night at the hospital. I know it. Besides, any sentence with Dokie, talking, and corner was never a good thing. Especially if you're connected to a Donnelly, which at the moment, I wish to God I wasn't. The only reason I even know Dokey is because I serve him at the Diner almost everyday and I've always liked Huey and his wife Kate.

Otherwise, I wouldn't be caught within ten feet of the man. He scares the shit out of me.

I walk over to Tommy and Kevin at the back table. Kevin has his head in his hands but Tommy is staring at the same thing I am. "What the hell's goin' on?"

Kevin answers me from under his sleeves, "Jenny's talking to Dokie."

I sit between them, "Really, Kevin? I hadn't noticed." I shoot a look over at Tommy. "So, is someone gonna get her out of there or what?"

Tommy puts up a hand, "Not yet. If one of us goes it'll look suspicious. He's gonna know something's up."

I hesitate before I ask, but horrible habits don't stop overnight. "Where's Jimmy?"

Tommy runs a nervous hand through his hair. "Behind the bar sobering up, probably. I'm surprised no one's killed him yet."

I take another drink. "I'd be the first in line. Believe me."

Jenny walks around Dokie and vanishes out the back door. Tommy follows. After he leaves, I stand up too. "I'm gonna tell Jimmy what's goin' on."

Kevin pulls me back down, "Wait 'till he's doing sobering up, huh? No telling what he'll say to Dokie. Tommy'll talk to him when he comes back."

I look over at Kevin nervously. "Kev, what if he starts asking us questions? You know I'm the worst liar in the world, and it's bad enough that Dokie freaks me out even on his good days, and they are few and far between-- I'll tell ya that right now."

Kevin drains the rest of his drink. "Do you see me sittin' over here about to have a freakin' heart attack? I know he's scary. I realize that."

I glance to my right to see if Tommy and Jenny have come back yet. Dokie is standing there instead and looking right at me. He motions with his hand for me to come over and talk. I turn back to Kevin, and try to look a little less terrifed. He looks back at me. "What?"

I grab the full shot glass from him and finish it. "I'm gonna go talk to Dokie."

He looks at me wide eyed. "What? Are you crazy? No."

"He just called me over. Tommy's right, he's gonna know something's not right. He already thinks Jenny knows more than she's telling him."

I start to get up, but Kevin grabs my arm forcefully, and stands in front of me. He actually looks scared. "Just pretend you didn't see him and stay close to Jimmy by the bar. Even if he's still half in the bag if Dokie makes a move he'll do something about it. For once in your life stay out of it, Mad."

I could see in his eyes that he was serious. I was going to back down. I really was. But then I see Joanie messing with the jukebox across the room, and all reason leaves my body. I take a deep breath and glare up at Kevin. "I don't need Jimmy's permission to talk to Dokie about something I don't hardly know anything about."

I try to move past him but he stops me again, his hand still on my arm. "Maddie, you're not goin' over there. It's not happening. If I have to tie you down to a chair, I'll do it."

I can't believe what I'm hearing from Kevin of all people. He didn't want to try and make this right for he and his brothers? Someone had to convince Dokey that they were all at the hospital for Sean the night Huey was killed. "If there's anyway I can make this right for you, Tommy, and even Jimmy-- I'm gonna do it."

Kevin's eyes move from Dokey behind my shoulder to Jimmy behind the bar. "You know what he'd do if anything happend to you because of what we did?"

I push my hair back with my free hand. "Lately, I'm starting to think nothing."

He seems to not think about his answer. "You're wrong. And I'm not saying that because you're my friend, I'm saying it because I know Jimmy. Don't make this about what he's doing-- whatever the hell he's doing with her, Mad. She don't mean anything to him."

Then why is he showing up with her someplace where he knows I'll be? I jerk my arm away from him and walk into the crowd. By the time he regains his stance and can grab for the back of my arm, I was already gone. He sits back in his seat and stares at the back door, waiting for Tommy to come back.

"No matter how bad the situation between Jimmy and Maddie seemed to have gotten at this point, Kevin knew better than anyone that Jimmy loved that girl more than he let people see. Not all people, but certain people. Why? To keep things like this from happening. That was the only way he was ever smarter than his brother Tommy. Tommy loved Jenny but didn't know how to hide it. He could try but it was always on his face. Jimmy saw that love as a sign of weakness, and spent most of his energy burying that love so people like Dokie couldn't use it to hurt him. That plan worked out pretty well until that night."

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