The way our parents raise us doesn't always have to define us. We can break free, spread our wings, stick out our necks, and do things for ourselves. But, if they start young, if they warp our brains, freedom may not always be possible.

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What do you do for those in need?

What do you do when those people need to be freed?

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The months after Karen had the baby were interesting. Sheila wouldn't venture out much, only staying at home or walking to the Gallagher's to help Debbie learn how to cook.

Karen had disappeared a week after leaving the hospital.

It was all I could do to get her to go on walks with me. She just wasn't the same.

Things with Lip were going well, Ian and Mickey were working through their issues. Carl was doing better in school, he only had three detentions in the last two weeks, Fiona was happy about that.

So when Mandy came to talk to Lip I was concerned. It was clear she had feelings for him but he was always with me, so she never said anything to him about it, that I knew of.

"I need your help," She said. I was in the living room after she gave me a sharp look a few moments before in the kitchen.

"With what, Mandy?"

"I have a half-sister."

"You have a sister?"

"Half. And yes, she called my dad. Apparently her mom OD'ed and died. She doesn't have any other family and she'll go in the system."

"Shit. You gonna go get her?"

"I don't have any way of getting her. Besides she'd probably be better off."

"She's your sister."

"So? I don't know her."

"Then what do you need my help for?"

"I dunno, to talk to I guess."

I sat in the living room but after hearing all this I walked in.

"Why don't you go get her?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why don't you go get her?"

"You heard me, I don't have a way. Besides, what do you care?"

"It's your family."

"So is my dad. And we've seen what he's capable of. She's two states over. She's better off."

"We're going to get her."

I had bought a cheap car with some of the money from the house and planned on getting my license once my leg had finally healed. I had just gotten the ok from the doctor about a week ago.

"I have a car. Lip can drive. You can come with, or give us the address, but that kid isn't going to sit there with a dead mom while the rest of her family sits around with their thumbs up their asses."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Are you coming? Or not?"

And that was how Mandy Milkovich became one of my best friends. A crazy, unpredictable, moody best friend, but a friend. The ride was long and tiring but we got her sister back to the Gallagher's by the next day.

In the end the trip was almost pointless. Molly was actually a boy, and "her" mother wasn't dead. Just an abusive meth addict who eventually came to pick her up. We couldn't keep her agains her mother's will but we did tip off her local police and Molly was put in the system a few weeks later.

Suddenly Mandy wasn't coming to the house to talk to Lip, she was asking him where I was, meeting me at The Kash, and hanging around with the two of us. We were great friends.

So when Karen came back and made it clear that she now knew what she wanted, Mandy was there for me while Lip was in school. Karen wanted him, and even though he made it clear to her, in front of me no less, that it wasn't gonna happen, Mandy had to scare her off multiple times.

It was getting ridiculous, and I knew Lip was worried about me.

"She was sniffing around again today." He said plopping down next to me on the couch. That was one thing I loved about him, he was upfront with shit. Mandy followed behind him with a more than normal angry look on her face.

"Calm down Mandy," he said to her. "You're a great guard dog." He said with a laugh.

"That dumb bitch needs to get her head out of her ass, and back off." She said.

"I don't know what happened on her run away spree but she came back a hell of a lot more persistent." I said.

"She thinks she has a hold on me."

"No one has a hold on you but Lyd. Everyone that spends three minutes with the two of you sickening honey sweet love birds knows that. Someone needs to knock that into her damn head."

"There will be no knocking of heads Mandy. You're even doing better in school now, there's no need to go off on a tangent."

"Doing better in school isn't going to get me anywhere."

"If you hang around us it will."

She got quiet so we started talking about Ian and Mickey, who were going through another rough patch. Terry had found them. Beat them to shit too.

"Svetlana is pregnant." Mandy said.

"Shit, only Terry would force his kid to impregnate a Russian whore."

"He told them they're gonna get married."

"Poor Ian, I asked why he was so beat up the other week but he just brushed it off."

"That would be my dad."

It was a few minutes later that she said she had to go and headed out to meet her brothers and help rough up some kid that owed them money. But Lip and I didn't mind the alone time.

For the next two minutes.

Fiona walked in ranting about idiots at work not understanding how tips worked.

"Some dick tip you with their phone number again?" I asked.

"You would think that they would understand that a required uniform of ass hugging skirts and a tit revealing top doesn't mean that I dressed for their phone numbers. God! Lip let me see your phone I gotta call V and see if any of her other friends know of jobs available. I can't deal with these dumbasses anymore."

He started to slap at his pockets and well shaped ass to pull it out, but the deeper he reached into his pockets the deeper he frowned.

"Ian must have the phone today, it's not in my pockets. Sorry Fi."

"But you text me earlier today," I said.

"Maybe I left it at school?" He said.

"Here Fi, you can use mine."

"It must be in my locker, Mandy asked to use it to call her brothers so she must have put it there when she was done."

"It's alright Lip don't worry about it, thanks Lyd I'll have it back to you in a little while," She said as she grabbed a beer from the fridge and her cigarettes off the table to sit on the back porch.

"How's Sheila been?" He asked me once the door shut.

"She's been alright, I can only ever talk to her, or go over, when Karen is at school though. She said she misses the dinners and having everyone at the house, but she's really glad that Karen is home. She really loves her."

"It's got to be hard to love someone so much for them to just shit all over you all the time."

"Yeah, it would be."

The Gallagher house started to fill with people soon enough and food was passed around laughter was shared. Frank was kicked out, and Fiona had another lead for a new job that sounded promising.

"Hey Ian, can we talk?" I asked as the family sat around the TV. He glanced at his hands for a second and nods before following me out to the back porch. I light a cigarette and take a long drag before passing it to him.

"So Svetlana is pregnant huh?" I ask.

He looks up at me shocked. The purpling around his eye is mostly faded and the scab that had run through his eyebrow was pink with new skin.

"You didn't know." I said. "I'm sorry Ian. That's a really fucked up situation."

"Nothin you coulda done."

"We coulda called the police. Got him locked the fuck up. He violated his parole Ian. He assaulted you."

"Wouldn't have done any good... He made me watch. Beat the piss out of me and forced me to sit there as Mickey fucked her."

"Ian. It would have done a hell of a lot. I'm sorry you had to watch that but you know how fucking scared Mickey is of Terry. That is why he does all this shit. With Terry in prison we can deal with a fucked up Russian bitch with a baby. With Terry out, all you can do is fucking sit there and let it happen."

"So we should have called the police, what fucking good is that to us now?"

"Maybe we can get him to break it again."

He paused with the cigarette half way to his mouth.

"You want to set him up?"

"You're Family, Iee. That means the person you love is family too. Even if it is Mickey fucking Milkovich. No one deserves the shit that you've both been put through... That Mandy has been put through. I say we set him up, yes. If he fucking dies in jail, even better. You know they hate woman beaters and child molesters in County. They don't care how long they're in for, for killing scum like him."

"Jesus Lyd, your talking about getting someone killed."

"I'm not saying that we get him killed, just that it would be an added bonus."

"So what would we do?"

"You remember that schoolgirl costume I wore for Halloween two years ago? It still fits."

"You're going to pimp yourself out?"

"Hell no. I'm going to take him to the Alibi."

He looked at me with a little fear mixed respect.

"You know... I'm glad we're friends. Because I don't think I'd stand a chance as your enemy." He said laughing.

"It's good to at least see you smiling again." He sat next to me as I lit another cigarette and promptly plucked it from my hand.

"Maybe one day all of our love lives will be all sorted and we won't have to worry about crazy whores trying to steal our men," he said.

"So you've noticed the nightmare named Karen is back." I said with a sarcastic smile.

"Oh yeah, she actually tried to befriend me the other day."

"And how did that go?" I said laughing.

"Well she started off sweet but when I told her to get her dick grubbing, small minded, bitchy hands away from me and my brother she kinda tried to kick me in the shin before storming off."

I was full on laughing now.

"She tried to kick you in the shin? How did she try?"

"She has pretty bad aim and ended up kicking the chair I was sitting in."

"Oh my god. She is relentless." We laughed for another minute before realizing the cigarette was a bust and put it out on the railing.

"It's getting cold out." I said.

"Well winter is kind of a thing universally but maybe it's just your soul."

I gasped in indignation and slapped his shoulder, laughing he stood and put his hand out to help me up.

"I am so mad that all of you are so much stronger than me it's not fair," I said as we opened the door and stepped into the kitchen. We were both laughing as we stepped in but when we saw the looks on everyone's faces it died down.

Fiona was standing in the threshold between the kitchen and living room with my phone in her hand. She looked sad but confused. Almost like she was wondering why she was upset.

"What happened?" I asked looking to Lip.

"I don't know, she just got off the phone with Sheila. She called and Fi still had your phone so she answered." He said as he walked over to Ian and I.

"Fi, what happened?" He asked her.

She paused for a moment.

"Karen is in the hospital. She was hit by a car, a hit and run... someone called it in, but when the police got there it was deserted. She might not make it through the night. Sheila wanted to see you."

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Holy shit you guys it has been forever since I updated last!!!

I am so sorry, but I am glad to announce that I will be graduating soon!!!

That means I'll be able to update more frequently!

So thank you for bearing with me and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Here's to many more!!

Drop4Lunar