Hey, everyone. So, as it were my Christmas break starts next week and I don't have internet at home. I'm going to try to get at least another one up before then, but with finals, we'll see. Thanks for the great feedback on the last chapter. It makes me smile. :) Also, just to clarify, I've never seen the second movie and don't have any plans to include it in this story or anything.

Thanks for reading and let me know any thoughts you've got! :)

"Damn, Murph, will you shut up!" Stripes laughed despite the hot blush on her cheeks. Murphy was her babysitter for the day and he was in a particularly ornery mood. She suspected it was to get her back for making him do her laundry. He wasn't easily embarrassed but she definitely was.

He grinned, "Am I embarrassing ye, Stripes?"

"Yes, for God's sake, you're belting out songs across campus. You can't sing that high and I work with these people," she laughed again. Murphy's complete lack of dignity when he was feeling ornery amused her.

" Aye, Ma." Linking his arm through her good one, Murphy gave her a smile reminding her of a self-satisfied four-year-old, "Grá agat dom."

"Unfortunate but true, I do love you anyway." Grabbing a hold of the door handle to the history building, she commented, "So, you're lucky, Murph. I only have one class today and I teach it."

Groaning just to annoy her, he questioned, "And this is at all good how, Stripes?"

"Da had to sit through four," she replied, leveling a look at him. Murphy was very quiet after that…

TBS TBS

"So, what's next? Are we done?" Murphy questioned as Stripes dismissed her students and headed toward his seat in the back of the room.

"You wish. No, I've got four hours of office hours next. You get to teach me that wonderful language of yours."

Slinging an arm around her shoulders, he sighed, "Ye know, Stripes, sometimes I think ye're too much trouble fer my own good."

"Darling, I do what I can."

"Don't let Conn hear ye talking like that, Stripes. He'll fuckin' kill me," Murph joked.

Letting out an exasperated noise, Stripes threw her one good arm up in the air, nearly smacking him in the face. "What is it with you and Da and bringing up me and Conn? Seriously? What is the fascination ye two have for something that isn't fucking there?" She stomped forward, leaving a shocked and rather confused McManus in her wake.

Shuddering a tad bit, Murph shook his head in confusion. He would never understand women. He'd accepted this simple fact long ago, but the depth of which they confused him baffled him sometimes. Swearing lightly, he jogged after the apparently jilted in some way one before him.

Her long black hair swayed dangerously behind her as she trudged up the stairs toward her office. Murph stayed a step below her for the two floors and stayed silent until she all but threw the few belongings he allowed her to carry down on the chair in her off…no, that room was a fucking closet. He kinda felt like a mental patient in the claustrophobic, medically white room. He guessed Stripes had felt that way at some point, too, because she'd hung cut-out stars from the ceiling tiles. Pulling his train of thought back to the issue at hand, Murph sat down across from her.

By then, she had crossed her good arm over her sling and had a look of pure irritation on her face that he hadn't seen since the last time she and Rocco had been in the same room. His stomach gave an unpleasant clench at the thought of Roc, but if he did say so himself, Murph was rather good at burying his feelings until a later time. They always came out but he could delay, especially if denied alcohol.

Staring at her until she finally looked at him, Murphy began, "Stripes, why are ye so fucking mad? I'm just a poor fucking guy that ye didn't have the decency to let get drunk before ye started pouting. Also, if ye give me the excuse that I should already know, I will chuck yer fucking underwear out the window when we get home."

He watched with amusement as ever so slowly the corners of her mouth refused to stay down and a small smile appeared. Finally allowing herself to laugh, Stripes sighed, "I'm sorry Murph. It's just that no one's ever really teased me about this stuff before. It's…weird."

"Nobody's ever teased you about liking their twin brother before? Odd… I thought that happened to everyone."

Smacking his knee with her now only socked foot, Stripes corrected his sarcasm, "No! I've never been teased about liking anyone at all!" Catching herself, she hurriedly added, "What makes you think I like Conn like that anyway?"

"Because I'm still breathin'," snorted Murphy. It was pretty fucking obvious.

Her mouth opened and closed without a sound a few times before she commented haughtily, "I just don't understand why two men only ever want to talk about it. Do you do this to Conn when I'm not around, too?"

"Oh ye don't know the half of it," he smirked. She smiled at him, knowing that they were in all probability far meaner to Conn than her, before beginning to rummage for the notebook she'd been putting her Gaelic notes in.

Murph stopped her cold when he commented with an edge of seriousness, "Stripes, it fascinates us because Da's never seen Conn like this and it's been a long time since I have. When it comes to women, I'm the quantity and he's the quality. I've had ten times as many girlfriends as him. I don't care what he fuckin' says. If he's as open about his feelings and all that shit as he is when it comes to ye, it's a big fuckin' deal. It just takes him a while to realize it, usually. And, given that ye were too fuckin' shy to talk to us for two months, I'm betting it's a bit of an event for ye, too."

Stripes remained very still, blush rising in her cheeks until Murph took pity on her with a smile, "So, shall we get this teacher shit out of the way so I can get back to singin'?"

TBS TBS

With one more day at college being a quiet one, filled only with classes, books, awkward conversations about Connor, and Gaelic lessons, Stripes and Murphy returned home feeling good about themselves. To the surprise of them both, Murphy proved an amazing teacher. There was something effortless about the way he managed to explain everything from sentence structure to pronunciation. Not that Da or Connor was inept, Stripes just learned better with Murphy.

Plus, any of the three McManuses could simply make her laugh when she got frustrated.

He and Conn were doing just that that night after supper as she attempted to distractedly work on the Gaelic translating she had to do. Da walked in, returning from whatever secret things he'd done that day, to smirk at the scene before him. He'd left Conn early that morning, not long after Murphy and Stripes departed, saying only that he had to see Agent Smecker. Conn didn't ask, but had wondered for the rest of the day as he was forced to choose between daytime television and history books. He'd chosen history books…

The three of them were seated around the table, Murphy with his feet up and a beer in front of him, Connor with water and an arm around Stripes waist, and Stripes atop his lap, avoiding his injured side and stealing sips from both boys' drinks at will.

Da raised his eyebrows questioningly as to her position when he glanced at Murphy. There were two perfectly empty chairs right next to them. His son merely grinned with a wink.

Smiling at his entrance, Stripes greeted, "Hey Da, how is Smecker?"

"Fine, lass, fine. He's gotten himself a prosecutor he likes, apparently." He left out the true nature of his business with the FBI agent, because their two hour meeting had not pertained to Papa Joe's legal case. That had been covered in the first few minutes of small talk. No, he wasn't going to tell the lass about the plans he had begun making. "How was school?"

"Grand. It turns out your son isn't completely worthless, after all," she teased. "He can teach."

Murph smirked into his beer, "Only because it turns out ye aren't completely stupid, Stripes."

Connor burst out laughing, causing him to clutch his side in pain, when she grabbed the glass and threw water in Murphy's direction. Hearing Conn groan softly as he moved, Stripes turned with a frown, "You all right?" His smile answered her question.

Chuckling, Da interceded before Murphy could go through with splashing her with beer, "Play nice, now, ye two."

Connor lifted Stripes off his lap and sat her on Murphy's as he rather stiffly got up to refill his glass. Smiling, she said with mock affront, "Jeez Conn, just drop me on Murph. It's like you don't even care."

"Nonsense," Conn grinned, twin looks being exchanged between them.

Murphy finished with a smirk, "We're twins… we share."

Immediately blushing at the implication, Stripes scurried out of his lap before bursting into laughter with them. "Hey, there will be no sharing. I'm going for the older twin."

Grinning as he leaned against the counter, Conn stated, "Ye'd better get Ma to tell ye then or we'll all be in suspense until we fuckin' die."

Frowning suddenly, putting her feet up on the table as Murph slung an arm around her shoulders, Stripes looked Da's way slyly. "Hey, why ask her? She wasn't the only one there that day if I recall the story correctly…"

Da pretended to not catch her drift as he took his place in his recliner and opened the paper, "Don't fuckin' look at me, boys."

"Aw, come on, Da!" Murph protested.

"Aye, ye know how Ma is. She'll never tell us once she's put her mind to it," Conn finished.

Sighing, Da folded the paper down to glance over it, "Let me get this straight. Ye two have been asking yer Ma who's older since ye were little and she is refusing to tell ye."

"Aye."

"Then, ye two are screwed. I'm not dealing with yer Ma if I spill the fuckin' beans. I'll never hear the end of it. She's already got enough reason to berate me."

Stripes laughed as Murphy and Conn pouted as their latest plans were thwarted. She got up and gave them both kisses on the cheek, "Hey, at least I love you both the same no matter who's older."

Snorting, Murphy muttered, "I sure fuckin' hope not." Stripes slugged him in the shoulder.

TBS TBS

"Stripes, what on earth are ye doin' in there?" Conn and Murphy exchanged a glance as they pulled off their boots and placed their rosaries on the dresser.

Conn added as they situated themselves on her bed, "Ye've been there a fuckin' hour. Are ye still a fuckin' live?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll be out soon," she called with what sounded like a mixture of annoyance and embarrassment. True to her word, she emerged a few minutes later with wet hair and the sickeningly strong scent of fruit surrounding her.

Coughing against it, Murph demanded, "What the fuckin' hell is that?"

Laughing lightly, Stripes answered with a slight blush, "It's hair dye. I had to redo mine tonight." She was immediately confronted with three McManuses sitting straight up and staring at her with surprise in their identical eyes. Busying herself with straightening books she suddenly deemed messy, she queried, "What?"

"But…But it looks the fuckin' same," Conn exclaimed.

She nodded, grabbing the comb off her dresser and beginning to brush the long locks, "Well, yeah. I dye it black. I have been for years."

A twin look was exchanged before her and both shouted at the same time, "How do you really fuckin' look then?"

Da laughed at the slightly trapped look on her face. "Ummm, like this but with not black hair…"

Murphy continued to tease her as she climbed in between them, resulting in him being hit in the arm a few times as he tried to discover her natural hair color.

Conn fell silent, lost in his thoughts as it became suddenly and painfully apparent just how little they knew about Stripes and her past. It bothered him for two reasons, and the inequality of those reasons was what really threw him.

Not that Murphy was stupid in the slightest, but Conn had always been the thinker and planner between them. Murphy tended to let his emotions lead his actions. Most of that time that only resulted in the occasional broken heart or the many occasioned bar fight. Whenever confronted with a problem, Murph always seemed to know what to do instantly. He felt what he felt and he knew what he knew. It's what made arguing with him so damn difficult. Conn was the one that came up with what to do in his head, thought everything through. He was much better at ignoring his heart than his twin. In twenty-seven years, he hadn't figured out if that was a good thing or not.

As all this occurred to him, Conn wished he didn't think about things so much.

Given he and Murph's recent career change, Stripes' lack of a past was bothering his brain. They'd known her for only a little over a month and a half. Given the complete illegality of what they now did, the rational part of Conn's brain was screaming they should be running a fucking background check on her or something. What they didn't know about her could potentially hurt them. Conn knew he couldn't survive without Murphy, and he wasn't about to lose his Da again.

That was what his head was telling him, even with everything she'd done for them. Even if her past didn't have to do with the mob, it could still get them arrested or something. They should make sure.

But what truly surprised him once he thought about it was that all that rational thought was being completely, effortlessly drowned out until he had to actually think hard to find it. No, what was filling his head was the overwhelming need to know what it was about Stripes' past that had hurt her so much. What had made her too shy to talk to people? What had made her so alone? Why did her family hate her so much? How was she getting a master's degree but living in the poorest part of South Boston?

And, for that matter, when had she become so completely perfect?

For the first time in his life when he was not inebriated, Connor McManus's heart was doing all his thinking for him and the fact that it didn't scare him in the slightest scared the fuckin' hell out of him…

He was jolted rather violently from his deep thoughts when Murph smacked him across the back of the head and whispered fiercely, "Conn, move yer fuckin' arm."

He looked down to realize that Stripes had fallen asleep against him and his arm had unconsciously wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. Murphy was kneeling beside the bed, disinfectant and a cloth in his hands to clean the cut on her neck as they'd taken to doing when she fell asleep every night. As Conn rejoined the land of the conscious, Murph grinned, "Aye, wake up and stop fuckin' dreaming about her."

"Fuck you," he whispered back. "Why the fuck do I put up with ye?" It was so damn annoying when Murph was so fuckin' smug about things …and right about them.