Chapter 10 - Final

"Mack! Do you know anything about carpets?" Tommy's voice echoed through the near empty union hall as he burst through the doors.

Johnny Mack was sitting at a small table toward the front with a couple of Dokey's survived degenerates. He looked up but stayed silent as Tommy approached.

Michael O'Kerffe stood and leaned close. "Donnelly, you're not wanted here."

Tommy shot him a look. "I'll leave that to Mack."

"You listen to me." O'Kerffe growled.

"That's enough, Michael-step out!" Mack never raised his voice.

Tommy focused back on Johnny. "We're trying to fix up our place for Ma, but Kevin messed up the carpet measurements.

Mack leaned back and pressed his pen under his chin. "I didn't know she'd been hurt until Detective Stein came poking around here a few days ago."

Tommy was getting frustrated and he leaned on the table. "You told me early in the year that you like us… so are you going to help? Dokey's not here to stop you anymore!"

Mack let a slow smile creep across his face. "Yeah, you did handle that well." He let his hand fall to his lap. "You still living in the same place?"

"Yeah… yeah we're still there."

"I haven't been there since your dad was alive." He stood and reached across to shake Tommy's hand. "I'll be there in an hour."

Tommy headed home, a certain relief felt as he journeyed the 30 minute walk from the union hall. By the time he had reached his destination, Jenny was back with three bags of carefully wrapped dishes and picture frames. They sprawled across Helen's new mattress with the salvaged photos and new frames.

"The broken glass scraped the pictures up pretty bad." Jenny whispered as she carefully wiped tiny shards of glass off the glossy surfaces. "As it is, she doesn't have many pictures of your dad."

Tommy nodded. "I don't think she expected she'd ever lose him. When he died she put a lot of money into buying a camera. Told us she has to preserve the important moments."

"She never uses it." Jenny said after spending a moment thinking about it.

"For a while she did, at birthdays or around Christmas and she has some from when Matthew Farrell was born.

Jenny nodded as she carefully pressed a picture of Bobby Donnelly holding an hour old Jimmy into a frame. "I guess when you only have a few it makes them that much more precious."

They were startled by a knock on the open bedroom door and Mack poked his head in. "You two are some kind of distracted. I yelled in and no one answered."

Tommy and Jenny exchanges smiles and Tommy stood. "Ma and Jimmy could be here anytime, we need to get started."

Mack crossed his arms and grinned. "No, we have all afternoon. I ran into them down town and gave them tickets for a movie in the city. It'll be 8 before they're back in town."

"Thanks, Mack." Tommy returned the smile as he followed Mack into the dining room.

Kevin was just coming back in behind them as they left Helen's room.

Mack slapped him on the back. "What'd you do wrong, Kevin?"

"I measured!" Kevin all but shouted.

Mack laughed. "Don't worry, I have an idea." He circled around the carpet in the empty room and squatted down on the far end. "Give me a razor, Kev."

Kevin slid it across the floor and slumped back into the chair to watch Mack slice a chunk off.

He held it up and tossed it to Joey before looking back at Kevin.. "Take that to Steven's Tactiles and tell him you want four remnants no smaller than 3x10 in coordinating brown.

Joey stared at the remnant in his hand. "But this is beige."

Mack glared at him. "Go back to jail, Joey."

Tommy was glaring too. "Did they beat you there, Joey? Coordinating doesn't mean the same."

"I knew that!" Joey protested as Kevin pushed him towards the door.

Tommy glanced toward the ladder in the corner. "Wait, where's Sean?"

Jenny shrugged. "I don't know, I came in with you."

Tommy grabbed the phone and dialed Sean's cell. The voicemail picked up right away. "Sean, get back here, we don't have time for this!"

"I'm right here."

Tommy peeked around the corner to see Sean standing in the doorway with the paint pan.

"They shut our water off on a count of Ma not paying any of the bills." He shrugged lightly before pouring a decidedly not-white color paint into the pan.

"The water's off?" Tommy wiped his mouth, his eyes almost wild. "I said white, Seannie."

"White's boring." Sean threw a fresh plastic cloth down and reached for the brush when Mack grabbed his arm.

"Ten hours ago you could paint, now you have to wait until the carpets laid, too much dust. Mack helped Sean bag the paint supplies up to keep it from drying out. "Tommy, call this number, tell them it'll be paid and give them my name."

Jimmy stepped carefully off the train onto the subway platform, Helen right behind him. Although Hell's Kitchen was a major part of NYC it was not Manhattan. Jimmy wasn't comfortable with the amount of people and the busy rush. He grabbed Helen's arm to keep her from being run into by some asshole. "How'd we let Mack talk us into this?"

"We didn't." Helen mumbled. "He said jump and you did."

He rolled his eyes as they ascended crowded steps to the street level. He examined the tickets and pointed up Broadway. "The movie theatre is on the corner past East 4th Street."

Helen glanced down at his leg and than back up at him. "Why'd we get off here? It's at least 12 blocks, Jimmy."

He smiled at her sudden concern. "Yeah, good exercise right?" He looped his arm through hers earning him an eye roll as they started off.

Two sodas and a large popcorn later they were settled into the sixth row as they waited for the feature to begin.

Helen had lapsed into a complete silence as she sat with the popcorn on her lap.

"You okay, Ma?"

"Hmm?" Helen watched him a moment before looking toward the ground, a shy-like and out of place smile on her face. "Yes, Jimmy. It's been a long time, but I finally feel like everything's going to be just fine."

"Yeah, so do I. Tommy handled things good." Jimmy gave his brothers credit for nothing.

Helen watched him closely. "Tell me about rehab, is it all outpatient?"

Jimmy nodded. "The lady in enrollment thinks I should do inpatient, but that's all medical and psychiatric, I don't need that."

She smiled softly as the lights began to dim. "You know, the last time I saw a movie your father and I skipped class to see it. Star Wars I think."

"You were too busy making out to care what movie it was." Jimmy whispered.

She smacked his arm. "You're terrible.

"Yeah, I know it." He eased down and leaned his shoulder against hers, falling asleep in five minutes.

Joey and Kevin hauled the dark brown pieces of carpet up threw them down outside the apartment door.

Mack stepped over it and unrolled one of the pieces, measuring out exactly when he needed. "Kevin, I laid the carpet glue and the tack strip along the back wall. This piece will lay along it, you and Joey set it, flush against the wall."

They nodded and carried the piece in.

"Sean?"

Sean poked his head out into the hallway. "Yeah Mack?"

"I can cut it out here. When they've laid that piece, go ahead and start painting the wall and trim there. We're running out of day."

Tommy finished cutting the end pieces to the measurements Mack gave him after the first was set. When all three edge pieces were tacked down and set along the three walls, Tommy and Mack carefully laid in the center beige piece, melting the seams together with a heat gun.

"Joey, help Sean pain, but lay enough drop cloth first. We should be able to finish it with enough time to move the furniture."

Helen watched the credits pour slowly down the large screen while moviegoers filed out in an endless stream. She nudged Jimmy, startling him.

"Over?" He mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"You missed the whole thing."

He grinned and eased himself up off the cushioned theatre chair and dialed home. "You do know I'm killing time, right Ma?"

"I figured as much. Are they cleaning the house?"

"Yeah, they-Tommy! Hey, we're done in the city!"

Tommy hung the phone up and glanced around the room. The painter's tape had been pulled up, and the drop cloths thrown away. The carpet was sealed and set and an extra chunk of brown had been cut into the hallway near the entrance door to help bring the colors together. The top half of the room was painted an off white and the bottom half a medium brown with a fancy strip of molding running along where the two colors met.

Kevin and Joey were playing cards on the floor and Jenny had finished tacking up pictures on the left wall in a block setting. They were all pictures of the boys as babies, mostly from the hospital.

Sean and Mack were polishing off the second of two extra large mushroom and pepper pizzas.

"They'll be back within the hour." Tommy announced finally.

Mack reached into the box to gather bits of cheese and mushroom and licked it off his finger before closing the box and stacking it on the too-full garbage. "Alright, we get the hutch moved in first, than that dresser thing."

After the hutch was moved to center on the far wall, Jenny set some of the broken statues on top. "She won't replace these?"

Tommy shook his head. "There's no way. They were the first things she and dad bought after they got married."

Jenny nodded and placed two brand new prayer candles in between.

Jimmy was quiet the entire tip back home as he contemplated everything that had happened. It was Helen's turn to doze off and she looked peaceful to him. She was alive and doing very well. He patted her knee to wake her. "Almost home, Ma."

She nodded, but didn't move to sit or open her eyes.

"Tired, huh?"

"You wore me out today, Jimmy."

"Don't be too worn out, the house deserves looking at."

"Because it's clean?" She opened one eye to stare at him.

"Yeah, sorta."

"Only sorta clean?"

He laughed as the subway came to a stop, four blocks from home.

Nadine and Joanie hurried into the apartment, Joanie holding a pretty vase with pink roses.

"Oh, wow guys!" Nadine breathed as they stepped in. "This looks great!"

Joanie set the flowers and a twelve pack of Guinness down on the counter and made a face. "I think you were lying to me, Joey."

Tommy laughed and shook his head. "For once he wasn't."

"Your Ma actually drinks this stuff?"

"It's an Irish thing." Tommy slid the case into the fridge and smiled over at Jenny. "Can you stay?"

"Would I dare leave? And miss seeing your Ma take this in? Yes, I can stay."

Mack put the last of the new glasses in the upper cabinets while Sean laid the clean lace tablecloth down.

Nadine took the flowers from the counter and set them in the center of the table.

Jimmy was limping more as they made it to their building, and he slumped down onto the bottom step of the stoop.

"Just rest." She sat down next to him and took his hand. "I had a wonderful day."

"I'm glad to hear you say that, Ma. I'm ready for bed."

She laughed. "Yeah, so am I."

He took a breath and stretched his leg out. "Let's go home." He kissed her cheek and let her help him back up and they slowly made their way up the stairs. They pushed through the hall, and both stopped in surprise.

"Wow guys!" Jimmy managed as he took Helen's coat and purse. "Awesome!"

Mack and Jenny were at the table, the boys were near the window, Nadine was standing in the kitchen. Joanie had already found Jimmy's arms and all were now waiting for her to say something.

Nothing. Not a word passed her lips. She closed her eyes and smiled slightly.

That was plenty for Kevin who hurried over to hug her. "You like it?"

"Very, very much, Kevin." She sat down at the table and Mack slid an open beer to her. "You were involved too?"

"Only after some mis-measurements. Tommy and Jenny orchestrated the plot."

She smiled over at them, happy to see them together again. Well, he did have his hands on her shoulders.

"Everything's going to be good from now on, Ma." Tommy spoke softly.

Helen spotted Joey in the corner, jittery as usual, but keeping to himself. "About time they let you out."

Joey tried to smile, but felt hot tears instead. He crossed the room nearly falling into her as he hugged her. "I'm really glad you're okay, Mrs. Donnelly."

She pushed him back. "I'm really glad you're home, Joey."

Helen relaxed into the new bed, warm thick blankets tight around her. She felt safe and happy. Mack and Joey had left an hour ago, but everyone else was still playing cards at the table. She had just started to fall asleep when the door creaked open.

"Ma?"

"Kevin?"

"Yeah." Not really an answer.

She reached to switch the light on. "What is it?"

"I though you could use some… company… tonight." He paused, feeling like an idiot in his mother's room.

"With everything that's happened, company would be comforting."

He smiled and shut the door to block the continuing noise from the ongoing game.

"Did you lose?" She asked as he crawled in beside her.

"Actually, Ma… I won. Jimmy owes me a six pack, Jenny's buying me lunch, and Seannie's lending me his new car."

Helen shook her head. "You finally win a hand an you get crap for a jackpot?"

"Bragging rights."

"I'll show you bragging rights." She switched the light off and eased back against her pillow. I have four amazing sons, they have some wonderful girlfriends, Joey's back, a new home… I couldn't be happier."

He kissed her cheek. "I love you, Ma."

"I love you too, Kev."

By morning, the Donnelly boys were all sprawled about Ma's room, sound asleep. The girlfriends were in the other bedrooms and Joey was back across the foot of Ma's bed. The Irish might not have taken over the neighborhood, but they were well on their way to becoming the men their father didn't live long enough to see, and the sons who would kill for their mother.

"Joey… you swear, under oath, that this… story… this is the truth?" The latest lawyer slammed the book down against the table startling the jury and judge.

"The whole truth."

"Than how'd you end up back in jail?"

"Oh… that."

Fin.