Chapter 3: Family

Mary spotted the car pull up and made sure she was outside to greet them when they returned. To her confusion, not only had Gerry returned with Erin and Orla, but Michelle and Clare had appeared from the backseats too. Eyeing the friends chatting away behind her husband, she furrowed her brow at him, to which he could only give a dorky grin.

"We picked up the strays on the way. Seems neither Michelle nor Clare had much success in their adventures".

Mary rolled her eyes at his explanation but as he went to go around her to get into the house, she held a hand out to stop him. It was Gerry's turn to furrow his brow, but she only shook her head, waiting for the girls to catch up and they too gave her inquisitive looks as to why they weren't allowed into the house.

"James's here…". She started.

"So, he's always here". Orla quickly piped up, Mary halting any further questions with the serious look often reserved for the wooden spoon treatment.

"You all need to read this before you go in".

She offered the letter to Gerry first, who put the shopping bags onto the ground and looked over it intently. Every few seconds his eyes would shoot up to Mary's, almost trying to ascertain whether what he was reading was true. Gerry was a gentle man by nature but reading Kathy Maguire's hastily drawn up letter set off a deep rage within him.

"Jesus Christ". He murmured, trying to contain the rage, passing the letter over to Michelle who almost snatched it out of his hands.

The girls all crowded around Michelle as she placed the letter between them, Orla hanging over from behind them, almost on Erin's back. Gerry held Mary's hand as the four young women's facial expressions turned from curiosity to sombre, taking in what James had a short while earlier. They both knew how much the girls cared for their wee English fella, even if it was disguised behind a veil of insults a lot of the time, and how much some cared more than they realised.

"That bitch!" Michelle spoke up first. "I'll kill her".

That was the reaction they knew was coming.

"Michelle!" Mary cautioned. "That isn't what he needs to hear right now, ye hear me?".

"Aye". The sniff that came from Michelle offered as good an indication of any as to how much it affected the group.

"Why would she do that?" Orla pondered, and with tears in her eyes, she clearly understood the gravity of what Kathy was doing.

"I don't know Orla love". Gerry, setting aside his own anger, tried to comfort her.

"Oh god! He came back, chose us and now this…". Clare began her customary panicking.

"He came back because he worked out what a fucking snake she is". Michelle butted in.

Erin had stayed silent so far but when Mary caught her daughter's eyes, she could only feel her own heart shatter because she knew Erin's had to. As angry as Michelle was at what her Aunt was doing, the emotion on Erin's face gave away a far more deep-rooted pain than the aggressive front of her friend. It only confirmed to Mary what she had suspected when it came to Erin's feelings for James.

"Can we…". Erin stopped, a tear falling down her cheek. "See him?"

Her sniffling as she spoke up did not go unnoticed by Michelle or Clare, though Orla herself was too busy hugging her Uncle Gerry to notice. Any further questioning of Erin would have to wait though as Mary accepted the request and let them into the house, with Orla still clinging to Gerry as they made their way to the kitchen. Mary stood aside, allowing Michelle to go to her cousin first.

Joe had returned to Baby Anna but side-eyed the girls as they walked on through. When Granda Joe looked solemn then the gravity of the situation became even more apparent. James stood in the kitchen, hands in his pockets, leaning against the drawers. His eyes were red and stinging, and tears still ran down his face when he caught the movement of the girls towards him. Michelle threw herself at him and the tears flowed merrily again as he accepted her embrace and the hardened exterior that she built crumbled as she cried with him. He grasped her tightly, burying his face in her hair, clenching her tighter. She pulled away eventually and their eyes met with a shared sense of grief, confusion and anger. The other girls rushed in to fill the gap vacated by Michelle. Clare and Orla both grabbed a hand each and buried themselves into his hand. They too were crying, and he noticed it with Orla especially as the usual free spirit and energy that she radiated had been grounded by melancholy. Clare sniffled quietly on his other side, squeezing his hand like her life depended on it. The depths of her kindness continued to amaze him.

And Erin. She had almost thrown herself at him, wrapping her hands around his neck and bringing him in closer to her. He didn't miss the small kiss that she left on the side of his cheek. In a different time and a different place, he may have thought more about it, but James focused on the kindness of the gesture, too emotional to delve any deeper. After all, they were just friends, and a friend always offers comfort when another is at a dark moment in their life.

The girls all pulled away and they stood in a comforting silence for another minute, James drying his eyes when the tears had stopped. Mary, Gerry and Joe, with Anna held tightly to him, had all lingered at the edge of the kitchen and for a second, he panicked that they may have seen the kiss Erin gave him and what they might say about it. But looking at the three adults, he could only see their own upset.

"If I ask her nicely, maybe Mammy will let me share her and she can be your mammy".

Only Orla could say something like that at such a time and James found himself smiling at her generosity, even if it was ridiculous that she had suggested it. She did not know it, but in a room with air polluted by the bitter sorrow that the letter had instilled, Orla had restored a normality. Everyone began to laugh at the suggestion, a brief and gentle laugh, but a laugh that made them all stronger. As a family.

"Listen son…". Joe began to address the young man and they all turned to look at him. "You might be an Englishman and ye might have that stupid accent… But you're one of the family now and this family looks after its own".

It was at Joe's words that James knew that the decision he made had been vindicated. An outsider, an Englishman in a place where being English could get you killed with one wrong move, accepted by a family of families. A group of good people, tough but with undying loyalty to those they considered one of their kin. No matter who they were or who they wanted to be.

He may have lost one family on the 2nd December 1995, but he most certainly gained another.

"Gerry, don't stand there gawking ye feckin moron, get the rest of the shoppin' in".

Yep. That family.