Chapter 43.

I know this season hasn't been the most exciting; it's really more of a filler season but next chapter will be the finale.

Disclaimer: I do not own Shameless.


Tap. Tap. Tap.

Daniela absentmindedly blew out a low breath, her lips pursing, as she read over her textbook. Midterms had come and gone with Daniela feeling pretty confident about her results.

However, at the time she had been quietly freaking out. Two hours before her Chemistry exam she had gotten a phone call from Ian asking if she had seen Fiona. Long story short, she had wound up breaking probation by going on a bender that resulted in her pitched outside a gas station in Cheboygan.

Daniela was just thankful that she was safe. Of course, having broken parole, Fiona was now incarcerated though none of them knew how long for. Since then, she had been making sure to check up on Lip and the kids as well as Ian.

Ever since patching things up, the two had been near inseparable when they weren't busy. Ian had slipped very easily back into their little circle which had Simon and Mandy especially relieved that there was no more tension. Ian still had his moments, however, though they were very few and far between which Daniela considered to be a sign of how happy he was now that he had fixed up all of his relationships.

When he wasn't spending time with them, he was with Mickey; a fact that no longer startled or worried Daniela. In fact, she found it almost endearing how the rough Milkovich would shed his spikes for Ian. Clearly, she had been spending too much time around his sister to register any real disgust towards him anymore.

The notion caused a small amused grin to appear on her face before it was knocked off at the sudden appearance of a body plopping down beside her.

"Hey, stranger," greeted a grinning Chris. Daniela didn't even have time to form a response before he placed a kiss on her cheek.

She sat stunned for a moment before a mustering a small smile for him.

"Hi."

Her eyes remained on her textbook, scanning the words more intensely this time. She was fully aware of him watching her.

"I was looking for you yesterday but your roommate said you had gone home for the weekend."

"Oh, yeah," she nodded, sparing him a short glance. "I went to go visit my dad."

It had been cathartic going to see him after such a hectic few months. Lawrence had been in high spirits with the visit of his children though the term no longer seemed fitting for the pair of them. They were growing up and his short stay on the other side of the glass had alerted him of it even more.

During their visit, it was evident to Daniela that her father was still grieving for his late wife and it didn't take long for her to come up into the conversation, with him asking Jakob to take some flowers around from him. Daniela had later declined her brother's offer to join him, citing that she would stop by some other time but if she were being completely honest, she hadn't been back to see her mother after leaving for college. It never seemed like the right time and she never seemed to be in the right head space for it.

She pushed down the guilty knot in her stomach and focused instead on what Chris was saying.

"Oh cool," he nodded, resting his elbow beside her pencil case. "Does he live very far?"

Daniela inhaled and flipped the page evasively. "You could say that."

"Maybe I could meet him someday," commented Chris, seemingly genuine. Daniela merely looked at him for a second, not bothering to respond. It wasn't exactly something she wanted to spend her time explaining.

Noting her impatience, Chris cleared his throat and carried on. He leaned forward so as to not disturb the other students using the library.

"Look, I- uh. I know things have been a little strange between us ever since the kiss," he began carefully. Daniela's eyes remained on her book though she was quickly losing focus. "And I understand if there are some things holding you back."

Her eyes narrowed to slits as she flicked to the next page. "What makes you say that?"

"Oh come on, Daniela," he said, tilting his head as if it were completely obvious. "I know that something happened to you, and I don't know what it was but I have an idea and I want you to know that-"

"See, I'm going to stop you right there," she interrupted. A single finger loomed in the air between them as she finally turned her head to scrutinize him, her eyes blazing. "Never assume anything about me again."

"Well, what else am I supposed to do when you don't tell me anything?" Chris defended, his own agitation building. "You won't even answer my calls."

"Did you ever think that maybe there was a reason for that?" She snapped. Closing her textbook, she packed up the rest of her stuff and slung her bag over her shoulder.

She took three steps before spinning on her heel.

"You wanna know why I've been dodging your calls?" She asked rhetorically, leaning down to meet his eye line. "It's because anytime something small happens you blow it way out of proportion." Daniela emphasized this by waving a hand around. "And I don't want you to get the wrong idea about this, okay? That night, it was just a kiss. Don't read into it."

"See!" He said, attracting the attention of the other students. A few turned to glare at him causing him to hush his voice. "When I think we're making progress you completely shut me out and it's like we're back at the beginning."

"Progress?" She spat, already halfway to the doors with Chris hot on her heels. "I don't want to make progress. The whole point of this thing between us is so that we don't. I told you from the beginning that I didn't want anything serious. I thought you understood that." Once they were outside, she spun to glare up at him.

"I did."

"Then what the hell happened?"

"I like you!" He blurted out making Daniela thankful that they weren't in the library anymore. Chris released a long sigh as his shoulders slumped. "Despite how you've treated me this whole time, I like you. God, is it really that hard to believe?"

She laughed shortly. "Considering you were screwing other girls when we started this whole thing; yeah."

"Need I remind you that that has since stopped?" Argued Chris, looking about ready to tear his own hair out.

Scoffing lightly, Daniela rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Okay, I really don't have time for this."

At that moment, a shrill ringing alerted her of an incoming phone call. Any words Chris was planning to say died on the tip of his tongue as she wasted no time answering.

"El…" mumbled a broken Debbie. Instantly, the fire In Daniela's belly ignited even more at the sound of her voice.

Sparing Chris a short glance, she turned and walked away, her hand gripping the phone tightly as she ground out her next words.

"Tell me what happened."

/

It took some time but eventually, Daniela was able to make out enough of what Debbie was saying between her hiccups and once the full picture had been painted, she was fuming.

She had spilled that a week ago she had played a prank on Matty's new girlfriend, something Daniela was quick to chide her on. However, in retaliation, his girlfriend Seema had enlisted the help of her step brother to get Debbie in position for a slurry of degrading photos much to the girl's horror and embarrassment.

By the time Daniela rocked up outside Debbie's school, it had intensified, as if she could sense that Seema was on the premises. It didn't take her long to spy Debbie who was sat hunched over to the end of the steps.

Daniela's shadow over the younger girl caused her to look up, her red puffy eyes staring at her.

"Is she still here?" Asked Daniela bluntly. Debbie nodded and rose from the steps before leading her across the front of the building to where a girl and her kid brother were standing.

Daniela's eyes narrowed on her back before she nodded to Debbie.

"Wait here," she told her before rolling her shoulders and walking forward. Behind her, Debbie watched in a mix of dread and anticipation of what would happen.

Meanwhile, in Daniela's mind, she was trying her hardest to think of ways to deal with the situation as calmly and maturely as possible; something that became increasingly difficult the closer she got.

Plastering on a fake smile, she saddled up beside the object of her anger.

"Hi!" She greeted, sounding overly cheerful. Seema eyed her warily as Daniela placed a conversational hand on her hip.

"Hi?"

"Are you Seema?" Daniela asked, feigning cluelessness.

She watched Seema's eyes narrow in suspicion before she nodded after a moment. Nodding back, Daniela laughed slightly though it was bereft of any amusement.

"Great. You wouldn't happen to be the same bitch who took pictures of my friend Debbie would you?"

Her question seemed to knock the other girl of any composure; her mouth flapping open like a fish out of water. Staring past Daniela's shoulders, Seema narrowed her eyes at seeing Debbie who was watching the whole thing with her arms crossed.

Returning her attention to the fired up woman in front of her, she raised her chin defiantly. "She started it."

"So, what? You just decided to pick on some kid?" Criticised Daniela, leaning her head closer and causing the other girl to retract her own. "I can get her doing some stupid shit, I mean she's young, she hasn't figured everything out yet. You on the other hand," she shrugged a single shoulder. "Well, you don't really have an excuse. You know, I could have your ass for child pornography?"

Seema began to stutter causing Daniela to nod, an all-knowing smile on her face. A second later, it was gone and instead replaced with a look that struck a lick of fear in Seema.

"So what you're going to do, is delete those pictures off of your Facebook or I go to the police," threatened Daniela, her voice dangerously low. She glanced between the girl and her step brother who was now cowering slightly behind her. "It's really up to you."

"I-I'll delete them," stuttered Seema, her eyes wide and lacking any confidence.

Daniela nodded, the corners of her mouth raising. "Good choice." She turned, set on walking away when a niggling thought caused her to turn back around.

"One last thing," she said, raising a finger. Seema frowned, too slow to register the fist coming right at her. It met its target, hitting her square in the jaw.

She stumbled back into her brother who flailed his arms in an attempt to catch her but failed causing her to fall back onto the pavement.

Daniela stood over her, half-surprised with herself. Shaking it off, she focused her glare down at the girl on the ground and pointed a finger at her for emphasis.

"Don't fuck with the Gallaghers."

Glancing to the side, she found Debbie who was smiling in astonishment along with a larger group of students and even a few curious parents. Daniela paid them no mind as she gestured for Debbie to come to her side.

The younger girl poked her tongue out before flipping Seema off as Daniela threw her arm around her shoulders.

"I can't believe you just did that!" She gushed as they walked away.

Daniela quirked a brow. "Me neither."

"It was totally awesome though."

"Yeah, yeah." She waved it off before wincing. She looked down at her knuckles and flexed them, feeling a sting of pain. "Just remember not to pick a fight with someone bigger than you." Huffing, she shoved her hand into her pocket before looking at Debbie. "You want to go get a hot chocolate or something?"

"Sure!" Agreed Debbie, her head bouncing in excitement and adrenaline. Daniela's smile grew as she pulled her closer against her side.

/

After a couple of hours, Daniela returned Debbie to her house. By then she was in much better spirits and back to her usual chatty self after having seen that Seema had followed through on her promise and deleted the images. Daniela knew that it wouldn't erase them for good but she at least hoped that they would fade into old news within the week.

They each stepped through the foyer into the lounge, with Daniela's eyes growing wide at the sight and sound of what seemed to be nearly a dozen kids residing in the living room. She assessed each of them and found that they were not familiar.

Moving her gaze around, she saw an Asian woman with a clipboard sitting on the sofa. It didn't take her long to figure out that she was from DCFS.

Debbie, still on a buzz, merely gave the guests a second of her time as she headed straight into the kitchen. Lip was seated at the table having dinner with three other people Daniela had never seen before.

At the sound of Debbie's skipping in, Lip tore his attention away from the adults to look at his sister.

He cracked a small smile at how happy she looked. "Hey, Debs. Where've you been?"

"Lip!" She gushed, grabbing onto his arm. "Oh my god, you should've seen it! It was amazing! Seema, you know, the bitch who's dating Matt? Well, she got her brother to trick me into kissing him in the hallway and then everyone took pictures."

Lip as instantly alert. His brow furrowed as he straightened in his chair to face her completely.

"Wait, what?"

Debbie simply waved it off, unbothered. "Don't worry, it's fine. I called El and she came down and talked to her about it." At the mention of her name, Lip's eyes flicked to rest on Daniela who stood quietly in front of the oven. She offered him a half-smile when their eyes met.

"You should've seen the look on her face when she told Seema she could get her arrested for child pornography." Debbie laughed loudly at the reminder of it. Daniela also couldn't help her small one as she picked at the leftover lasagne.

Glancing up at Lip's dinner guests, she snorted at the horrified looks on the married couple's faces as well as the one of utter glee on the girl's. Under more scrutiny, she realized that this girl must have been the 'Amanda' Lip had told her about. Her smile dropped slightly before she looked back down at the food.

Meanwhile, Debbie crept up on the end of her story by mimicking how Daniela had punched Seema in the face.

"And then she was all like 'don't fuck with the Gallaghers'," she said, putting on her best impression of Daniela's voice causing her to laugh outright.

Lip also chuckled, a little surprised before he raised a brow in Daniela's direction.

"What would your brother say if he heard you were going around hitting people?"

She huffed in amusement and rolled her eyes. "He'll be fine after I explain." Catching sight of her knuckles, she winced at seeing the redness. "Shit, speaking of..." she trailed off and headed to the freezer to grab a bag of frozen peas to rest against her hand.

Lip's grin widened unconsciously before he caught Amanda's look. Clearing his throat, he gestured between her and his sister.

"Right! Amanda, this is Debbie, my little sister. Debbie, this is Amanda and those are her parents, Jason and Sheryl." Debbie smiled at the pair who simply nodded back with strained ones. "She was just telling me about her ex-boyfriend's girlfriend. He's 18." Lip explained before calmly taking a drink of his beer.

"And you're…?" Asked Sheryl timidly.

"14," answered Lip matter-of-factly.

The woman's eyes widened, aghast, as her husband cleared his throat despite the fact that he hadn't yet touched his food.

Daniela's mouth pinched in amusement as Lip told them that there was plenty of dinner left for them.

"Oh, we already ate," said Debbie to which Daniela nodded. "I'm just gonna go up to my room. It was nice meeting you." She smiled once again at the guests before darting up the stairs.

Daniela lingered behind the counter for a few moments, her eyes flicking between Lip- who seemed to be avoiding her gaze- and Amanda, who eyed her curiously. Clearing her throat, she wasted no time following Debbie.

/

Debbie checks her Facebook. People have already seen the photos but she's just glad that Seema took them down.

"Thanks for today," began Debbie as they laid in her bed. They had been scrolling through Facebook for the past half-an-hour to see how bad the damage was. So far, it seemed quite good considering. While people had obviously saved copies of the pictures, the number of posts weren't as crazy as they had expected. "Really. If Seema had have kept those pictures up, I'm not sure I would've been able to handle it."

Daniela tutted and pulled Debbie closer so that she could kiss the side of her head. "I'm always here for you, you know that. Just promise me you won't get yourself into a situation like this again."

Debbie nodded at her seriousness. "I promise."

The phone in her hand vibrated before both looked to see a message from Matty.

I'm outside, can we talk?

"What should I do?" Frowned Debbie.

Daniela shrugged and nudged her shoulder. "Go see what he has to say.

Nodding, Debbie rose from her bed. She grabbed a jacket and a scarf on the way out the door.

Daniela pursed her lips and sighed before getting up and heading downstairs. Her ears pricked up at the sound of the conversation in the kitchen,

"Unless you got an 'A' in Macro and Philosophy, and a 'B' in Thermo," said Amanda, most likely talking about Lip's grades.

"What?" He asked, clearly confused. "Let me see that." It was quiet for a second before he huffed a laugh. "Holy shit. That's fantastic."

Deciding to say good night to Lip, Daniela moved towards the kitchen but paused dead in her tracks when she saw him lean over to kiss Amanda. She felt a sharp sting in her chest at the sheer joy on Lip's face as he kissed her.

Changing her mind, she turned on her heel before he could see her. Her coat was on and her feet were marching down the steps before she had time to fully process it. She blinked rapidly, trying to control her breathing as well as the burn in her nose that signaled an onslaught of tears.

Groaning, she clenched her eyes shut in an attempt to get rid of them before turning to head towards her house with the intention of popping in to see Jakob when her phone suddenly went off. Ian's name was illuminated on the screen before she answered it.

"Hey," she greeted warmly, shaking off any nagging thoughts about Lip.

On the other side of the line, she heard Ian joking around with someone in the background.

"El!" He yelled, causing her to wince and pull the phone away from her ear. "Guess who just came out?"

Daniela laughed slightly, not sure if he meant who she thought he did. "You're kidding."

"Nope. He's here, he's queer and he doesn't give a fuck."

"You're fucking asking for it now," said the voice in the back who she now recognized to be Mickey.

"Suck my dick," quipped Ian, voice laced with humor which was then mirrored in Mickey's response.

"You'd like that wouldn't you?"

Daniela laughed at their conversation, glad to see that the two had finally made up and that Mickey had accepted who he was.

"Well, I'm happy to hear it," she told her friend before quirking an eyebrow. "He certainly took his time."

"See! That's what I was telling him!"

At the sound of sirens in the background, Daniela frowned. "Where are you?"

"Oh, we're sitting outside the Alibi. We almost got arrested," answered Ian in a tone so cavalier that it sent her into a shock.

"What!?"

"Oh, yeah." She could just picture him shrugging. "It was just Mick's asshole of a father."

Daniela tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and licked her lips. "Well, are you okay? Do want me to come meet you guys?"

"Nah, I think we'll be alright. I mean, apart from the bruised ribs and chipped teeth." Daniela's eyes widened and she wasn't sure if he was joking or not. "We're gonna head back to Mickey's but I just wanted to let you know that the fag is finally out."

The sound of shoving on the other side of the phone rattled in Daniela's ear followed quickly by a pained groan from Ian.

"Fuck that hurt," he cursed under his breath. "Anyway, I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Okay, but call me if the pain gets really bad," she said, already worrying about their health. From the sounds of his groan, it seemed like he wasn't lying about the bruised ribs.

"Will do. Bye, El!"

Huffing a laugh, she tucked her free hand into her pocket. "Bye, Ian."

The call ended promptly, leaving Daniela to wipe some hair out of her eyes as she came to the front of her house. She smiled to herself; the sound of Ian's laughter and happiness filling her with warmth. Beneath that was something less joyful and more morose as her mind drifted to Lip and Amanda.

Telling herself to forget about it, Daniela heaved a sigh before unlocking the door and heading inside.


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We're almost there people! One more to go. Thanks for all of the great comments you guys have been leaving, it's always entertaining to read your thoughts on what's going on.

Special thanks to RHatch89, icantfindacreativeusername, angelicedg, Hapsgurl80, 13teen, littlerosebudbroke, and SilverNightmares for reviewing!

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