Always liked the thought of Ian actually joining the army. Got a lot of stories based around the idea of him going away on tours.
When Ian returned home, they were told what to expect. What they weren't ready for was how frequently Ian would struggle. They expected him to maybe have nightmares, be reactive in certain environments. They weren't ready for him to jump at every single noise, wake up screaming every night, but they adjusted, they had to.
It was 3 weeks since Ian had come home and he was exhausted. So was the rest of the house, but they weren't going to complain. "What do we do Fi?" Lip asked one morning over breakfast. Ian was sitting in the living room, watching cartoons with Liam, so Fiona, Lip and Micky of all people were in the kitchen, having a discussion.
"I don't know. Aside from us being there, and looking after him. The only other things would be to get professional help, but the waiting lists for soldiers with PTSD is huge. It could take weeks for him to see anyone." Fiona admitted and the trio sighed. "Then we'll just have to knuckle down. I'm not going to let him suffer alone." Mickey admitted and Fiona smiled, how the hell did Ian win this Malkovich kids heart? "We won't," Fiona says and then grabs her cup of coffee and goes and joins Ian and Liam in the living room, giving both her brothers a grin, Ian smiling tiredly back at her. He'd been up 3 times in the night that she'd heard.
When Lip and Mickey join them a couple of minutes later, Ian actually relaxes and sags into Mickey's side and Fiona has to hide her smile into her mug. Sadly a few hours later, the calm would be broken and Ian would go back to hell.
Fiona was working on dinner in the kitchen, whilst the boys were outside bent over the hood of Steve's car of the week when she heard it. A large bang, followed by a couple of smaller crashes and she was running for the yard. A few houses down a van had swerved out of the way of a kid on a bike and had rammed three cars.
That's not what concerned her, it was Ian shaking on the floor, his hands covering his head screaming out over the noise. Mickey and Lip were crouched down trying to talk to him, but it was obvious he wasn't hearing them. Without seeing him up close, Fiona knew that he wasn't even aware of where he was anymore.
"Get him inside." She screamed out, running down the steps to help the boys as they hurled Ian to his feet as he struggled against them. They dropped him not so carefully on the sofa and then Fiona crouched down next to him. "Ian." She called out gently but there was no response from him. She watched him for a minute, trying to figure out what to do.
She eventually did the only thing she could think of. She grabbed him and pulled him into a hug, wrapping him up as tight as she could in her arms. He tried to fight against it, but Fiona tucked him in close, like she would when he was a kid and right now to her, he still was. "Ian it's okay, you're safe, you're home." She spoke, loud enough for him to hear, over his own voice. She kept speaking, all and any words of comfort she could find.
The boys had moved off to finish making dinner, coming back every couple of minutes to check on them, but Fiona didn't lesser her grip once, and she won't until Ian is back with them. It was nearly half an hour, before Ian's mumbling stopped and Fiona paused in her tirade.
"Fi?" He asked hoarsely and Fiona pulled his head back and smiled at him, before placing a kiss to his brow. "How are you feeling?" She asked running a hand through his hair. "What happened?" He asked, tired, confused and disorientated. Fiona smiled sadly at him as the boys come into the room. "There was a crash outside and you went into a flashback," Lip explained as he crouched on the floor, patting Ian on the knee.
"You scared the shit out of us," Mickey added in, as he sat behind Ian and wrapped his arms around the redheads' shoulders, kissing the back of his head. "Sorry, I don't know what happened." Ian apologised but Fiona just shook her head. "Nothing to be sorry about, I just wish there was more we could do to help." She said and Ian sighed and rested his head back against Mickey's chest. "Well right now I could do with some food." He mumbled exhausted and Fiona smiles, before leaning over and kissing his cheek. "It's cooking, why don't you lay down for five minutes and I'll call you when it's done." She says and gets to her feet and Lip follows her out of the room. Turning around once to see Ian laying down, with Mickey's arms wrapped around him, burying his head into his boyfriend's chest.
Right now this is the only thing they can do to help Ian. But maybe the more they do it, the less it'll happen. Fiona can only hope. She can't bear seeing her little brother suffering like this.
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