I'm back because procrastination = good (okay I know that math is wrong but I haven't figured it out yet) and because it is STILL the one-month anniversary of Jailbird's fanfic debut. Also, as an added bonus, after you read THIS story you can go read my new story Built From The Same Stuff which is about a teenage Boyd and Della bonding. Enjoy!

Louie tried to be a good brother and uncle, which sometimes meant that he took his niblings on tediously long mall trips, and sometimes meant that he invited Violet out to see his pub under construction and give her a break from the triplets.

Violet was the only one he knew he could totally geek out about the pub with. Aunt Daisy was in his corner when it came to interior design and most of the adults in his family liked the idea of free drinks but Violet was the only one he knew who was going to appreciate the floorplan and the nitty-gritty details of the renovations.

"If I hadn't become a paranormal investigator I would have gone into architecture," Violet said.

"Speaking of paranormal investigation…" Louie said, bumping Vi's shoulder with his own.

"Yes, Lena and I will cleanse the pub of evil spirits, on the house."

"Thanks, Vi. You're the best. Free drinks for my favorite paranormal investigators."

"Have you settled on a new name for the business?" Violet asked as they approached the pub and what would be the new part of the pub.

"I have some ideas. Not revealing anything before Christmas though."

Violet side-eyed him with a frown.

"Really? Keeping secrets from your family?"

"You guys didn't tell us the names of the triplets until three weeks after they were born," Louie pointed out.

"See that's not fair. There are three of us and it took that long for all of us to decide on names. I wanted color names, Huey wanted a cool acronym for their initials, Gosalyn still secretly thinks that Azure isn't a real name. You guys knew as soon as we did."

"Violet, I love your son with every part of me but Gosalyn is right. Azure is not a real name."

"He who lives in a glass house should not be throwing stones, Llewellyn."

"Uncle Donald told me that mom was going to name me Rebel so, I guess I can't judge Azure too much."

Violet stifled a laugh and they headed over to where Craig was talking to a construction worker.

"Hey, Craig! This is my sister-in-law, Violet. Is it alright if we get a peek inside? I've kind of been gushing to her about the floor plan."

"Uh," Craig looked at the construction worker, "This guy owns the buildings. Is it safe for him to go in?"

"Oh, sure, you can look around real quick. We'll take a lunch break. Just don't mess with anything. Because you're the one paying for it if something happens."

Louie laughed and nodded, "We'll behave. Oh, and Craig. I got you and Brooke a little something for Christmas, as my favorite employees and one of my favorite couples I thought it was only right that I got you something." Louie passed over an envelope with two very good tickets to The Nutcracker. He knew that Brooke was a big fan of the arts and that Craig was a big fan of holding Brooke's hand and watching the excitement on Brooke's face during a performance of the arts.

"Thank you so much, Louie, I don't know what to say. I didn't get you anything…"

"Nonsense, there's no need to get me anything. You're responsible for keeping this place in business, and that's present enough."

"Oh, Louie, is it okay if we hang up a rainbow pride flag behind the bar?" Craig asked before Louie and Violet could head inside.

"Abso-fucking-lutely it is. On one condition, you hang a trans flag next to it. We want everyone to feel welcome regardless of sexuality or gender identity. Except bigots. And pedophiles."

"Except bigots and pedophiles," Craig echoed with a nod, and then Louie and Violet went to go explore the property.

"This is nice, I can see your vision. You'll get a lot more foot traffic with extra seating."

"Plus we're going to add in at least two pool tables and a small stage for live music."

"Good plan. You're not worried you'll run out of space, though?"

"Oh, no, we've got the best guys on the job. We're gonna make sure everything fits and functions as it should. And we're gonna do it all without any health-code violations because I'm not the kind of guy who bribes fire marshals anymore."

"Ah yes, the redemption arc. Huey and Gosalyn told me you'd turned over a new leaf. I wasn't aware you'd been messing with poison ivy in the first place, pardon my convoluted metaphor."

"No, no, I'm following. I don't mess with poison ivy anymore. It's not worth it." Though they were following this metaphor Louie was still nervous talking about this right now with his family. His mask was slipping and he'd been waking up in the middle of the night before Boyd even moved from his spot in Louie's arms.

When Louie woke up in the middle of the night these days, Boyd would get up and make Louie some calming tea. Boyd would sit up with Louie, whether or not Louie wanted to talk about what was keeping him up. Louie still hadn't figured out how to vocalize it yet.

"Can I talk to you about something, Violet? I'm trying to be open and honest about how I'm feeling with Boyd but I don't really know how to explain it. So…"

"So you need a sounding board? I don't see why not." It was Christmas break and her kids were all over the place. If Louie needed emotional support for twenty to thirty more minutes then Violet would be emotional support.

"Ah, let me buy you a coffee. Then we'll talk."

Louie bought Violet a coffee and himself a hot chocolate and croissant

"So what's on your mind, Louie?" Violet asked, taking a long sip of coffee as she waited for him to answer.

"It's been a little over half a year since I started dismantling the uh. The poison ivy garden. It's just now catching up to me how big and dangerous an undertaking all of that is. Hopefully, the city is safer now that my influence isn't looming over it but there's going to be a power vacuum that will be filled, and that's kind of my fault too."

"I don't think you can entirely blame yourself for that. It's just the nature of the universe, Louie. Junior Woodchuck Rule #18, Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. There are heroes in this city, and I know all you've done to help them fight the rising crime rates." All Louie had really done was put the heroes on his payroll and make sure they had enough money to effectively fight crime, but he supposed that was better than actively going against the heroes for fun and profit.

"I just keep losing sleep over this," Louie admitted, "I feel like something is going to happen. Not just to Duckburg but to me, to us. I've tried so hard to stop feeling like a target but I'm paranoid and restless, it's getting bad. It's not even my meds this time, I stopped self-medicating months ago so they should be working. It's just me. I'm just broken."

"So you haven't talked to Boyd about any of this?" Vi asked.

"Not yet. He knows I've been losing sleep, obviously, but he's not going to make me talk about anything until I'm ready."

"You should talk to him, Louie. If anyone is going to be able to make you feel better, it's him. He'll understand your fears and help you come up with a way to address them other than staying up fretting. It's probably just paranoia, Louie. You're not a target."

That was the exact moment the gun went off.

People talk about how the world slows down when something terrible happens but that never happened for Louie. Everything always seemed to speed up for him. He dropped his drink and croissant and shoved Violet away as fast as he could and the bullet tore through his shoulder just as fast. Since he couldn't really see the wound Louie was going to pretend it had just grazed him, getting blood on his outfit that would probably never come out. It wasn't even the worst pain he'd felt all year, but it still hurt like hell. He didn't know why he felt so calm in this moment but there was something almost reassuring about his paranoia being proven accurate.

The assailant was gone just as fast as he was there but his face was burned into Louie's memory. It was someone he'd worked with in the past. Someone fired when a criminal empire shut down. He'd probably planned on robbing Louie at gunpoint for some extra Christmas money but then panicked in the moment and just fired the gun. Louie looked around to see where the bullet had gone after it was done with him and was glad to see no one else was hurt, though several people were staring and someone had stupidly decided to chase down the guy with a gun.

Only after all those thoughts and observations ran through his head could Louie focus on the main thought, which was, "Ow..."

"Louie?" Violet looked at him as his face contorted in pain, "We need to get you to a hospital."

Louie nodded, grimacing, "Right. Call Boyd first, though."

"Louie, you're bleeding excessively."

"Damn it, this was a new coat..."

Violet helped Louie pull his coat down and made a tourniquet out of her scarf while someone called the police and an ambulance. Louie didn't need an ambulance and he certainly didn't want to be billed for one, but he cooperated.

"Call Boyd," Louie insisted to Violet before the first wave of dizziness hit him. He'd been shot. He should not be standing, he was probably going to pass out.

"I'll call him once you're in the ambulance," Violet said.

The police arrived a minute or two before the ambulance. Louie must have looked pretty dazed at this point because they directed their questions at Violet.

"Ma'am are you this man's wife?" Louie let out a laugh.

"I'm his sister-in-law. His partner is going to meet us at the hospital."

"Right. Do you remember what the person who shot your brother looks like?"

Violet looked guilty, "It all happened really fast."

"He had short white hair, was wearing a black coat and a blue and yellow scarf." Louie was NOT about to incriminate himself by telling the police that the guy's name was Thad but the guy's name was Thad. He'd been one of the Jailbirds. That was classified information, though.

The next few minutes happened just as fast as the gunshot, and the next thing Louie was actually aware of was Boyd showing up at the hospital, tears streaming down his face.

"Stop it," Boyd said, practically hurling the newest stuffed hospital bear at Louie, "Stop getting hurt." He couldn't stop crying and primarily looked terrified. Louie's heart nearly broke in pieces but he kept his composure as best as he could for someone who had just been shot today.

Louie laughed sadly, hugging the bear with his good arm, "I don't control that, baby. I'm sorry."

"Are you alright? How bad does it hurt?"

"I'm going to be alright, Boyd. It does hurt but it doesn't hurt like broken ribs or anything so, I'm okay."

Red tinted Boyd's eyes, "Tell me you know who did this to you." Louie had never heard Boyd sound so angry.

Louie stayed calm, "I know who did this to me."

"Who?"

"I'm not telling you. I don't want to be responsible for that guy's death."

Boyd clenched his fists, "I'll figure it out, Louie."

Louie winced, "Please don't. The police are going to find him. They'll deal with it. I created this monster, I don't need you getting hurt or arrested trying to fix my mistakes."

"But…" Boyd blinked, anger, frustration, tears, and the weight of the world in his eyes which were at this point purple from switching between blue and red so much in the last minute.

"But you got hurt, and I'm supposed to be there to make sure that doesn't happen." Boyd was shaking and Louie wanted nothing more than to reach out and pull him into a hug, unfortunately, present circumstances forbid it.

"Boyd you're not some deity, you can't make the world bend to your rules about what and who should be safe. I'm sorry I got hurt but it's not your fault and I don't want you spiraling because of this. I'll be fine in a week or two."

"How'd this even happen?"

"When I pulled out of the crime game I guess I left a power vacuum. It only makes sense that people would start trying to fill it. One of the out-of-work Jailbirds decided to take his anger out on me."

"He was one of the Jailbirds?"

"Yeah."

"So I've probably beat him up before?"

"Uh, yeah, probably."

Boyd managed the tiniest of smiles, "That makes me feel a bit better…"

Louie laughed a little at that and rolled his eyes.

"I might have to be questioned some more, but I think I'll be released today. Which is good because hospital beds suck."

Boyd laughed and leaned over, kissing Louie's cheek, "I'll stay with you until you're free. I'm not gonna let anything else happen to you, babe. I promise."

"I know. But um… Maybe don't make promises you can't keep."

Boyd nodded with a solemn sigh.

"We're going to be okay," Louie said after a moment, "just some of the time things won't be okay. We've got each other no matter what happens."

"Yeah," Boyd agreed, "We've got each other."