Chapter Two

Three men walked into the bar, two of them bald with goatees with the third having a full head of hair and a beard. Everyone stood, except for me who had no idea what in the hell was going on.

The big one in the middle spoke first.

"I am Ivan Checkov, and you will be closing now." He spoke slowly, with a thick accent.

Something right then clicked in my head. The Russians.

Fuck.

"Checkov." Murphy put an arm around Rocco. "Well, this here's McCoy. We find a Spock, we've got us an away team." He smirked. Laughter was heard for a moment.

"Me in no mood for discussion." Ivan snapped and pointed at the bartender. "The rest of you, go now."

"Why don't you make like a tree and get the fuck out of here!" the bartender snapped. There was chattering amoungst everyone. Connor grabbed his beer and looked at the Russians.

"You know he's got till the week's end, right? You don't have to be hard-asses, do ya?"

"Yeah, it's St. Patty's Day." Murphy held his beer. "Everyone's Irish tonight."

"Mmm." Connor agreed as he sipped his beer.

"Why don't you just pull up a stool and have a drink with us?"

Ivan stomped his foot like an ill-mannered child, causing me to jump and drop my glass of beer and break it. "This is no game! If you won't go... We will make you go."

"Listen, if you want to fight, you can see you're outnumbered here." Connor started. "We're trying to be civil, so I suggest you take our offer."

"I make the offers." Ivan pointed at himself.

"Hey, Boris." Rocco held his hands up, his forefinger sticking up at the ceiling and his thumbs out, the other fingers were down. He took a few steps, breaking peanut shells along the way. "What would you do," he pointed at the man with both hands. "If I told you your pinko Commie mother sucks so much dick, her face looks like an egg?"

From the bikers, there was laughter. But all Rocco recived in response to his ill-mannered joke was a punch to the face. The brothers glared at him as the bikers seemed to gang up a little bit.

"Fuck you!" Murphy yelled. I got up and hid behind the bar. Both of the brothers spoke-I knew it was them-but I had no idea what they were saying, as they were speaking a different language.

That was when the fight started.

Men yelled, glass broke and pandamonium was everywhere. I looked up as Murphy was alone, with the guy with the full head of hair in front of him about to knock him out, near the wine holder and a few men were going to help him.

"Stay away!" Connor yelled. "He can take care of himself!"

Murphy grabbed two bottles of wine and hit the man over the head with them, causing him to slump over, unconcious.

And that, my friends, was the moment I fell for Murphy MacManus.

The bikers took Ivan down quickly, slamming him to the ground and knocking him out momentarily. The other cueball man I couldn't see, though he too had to have been knocked out. I walked out from behind the bar as the brothers heaved Ivan onto it and tied him down with rope that they had found. Connor grabbed a bottle of alcohol and opened it. With an unlit cigarette in his mouth, he poured the contents of it on Ivan's ass. I sat down next to Murphy, who was lighting his cigarette.

"What's he gonna do?" I asked.

"You'll see." Murphy smirked and turned back to watch his brother, who lit a match.

"He's not..."

"He is."

Connor threw the match onto the puddle of alcohol on Ivan's ass, making him scream in pain.

"Oh my God...!" My hands covered my mouth and I shook my head to clear it.

What the fuck did I just see?

I walked into my apartment at ten thrity at night, shutting and locking my door. I didn't bother to shower. I didn't bother to change my clothes. I walked into my bedroom and flopped onto my bed, falling asleep instantly.

The next morning, I woke up later than usual. I had no hang over, but I sure as hell felt as if I could have slept more. I looked at my sweater, which was now stained with the dark beer-what was it, Guinness?-that I was drinking last night.

I looked at my clock and hurried out of bed, running to the bathroom to take a shower.

Little did I know, this was the first of many times I would be breaking my habit.