I do not own Boondock Saints.
McGinty's pub was crowded and loud when they arrived, but Audrey had been expecting that. In fact, she'd been counting on it. St. Patty's Day had that bar so crowded, it be hard to find anyone in particular in the crowd. Even if they walked in carrying a cake.
Grace was close behind her. "How did you find this place?" she asked, worry lacing her voice. Audrey only shrugged in reply. She hadn't really found it, she'd just run as fast as she could for as far as she could and this was where the creep had caught her.
She walked up to the bar and found the MacManus boys immediately in their place of honor right in front of Doc. She figured those were probably their spots, like their names were written on the stools. "Here you go. Red velvet, cream cheese frosting," she said, placing the cake platter on the bar. "We're even."
The boys looked just the same as they had before. She supposed she did too, but her life had been getting a lot better recently. Her black eye was healing well; it was currently in that sickly green and yellow stage. She and Grace had a new apartment, so they weren't imposing on her father's old friends anymore. She'd done well in six days. At least, that's what she told herself.
Money was still an issue. Grace was doing her freelance journalism thing, and Audrey had started selling baked goods. They were both spending a lot of time volunteering in a free clinic for the sick and injured, run by the Catholic church.
"Well," Connor said, "Look who remembered us Murph!"
Murphy looked at her then peered through the platter's plastic lid. "I still say she's probably a terrible cook."
"Try some then," she said, turning to Doc. "Got any plates back there? And a knife and forks would be nice."
"S-s-sure, l-lass," he said, quickly bringing out the requested items.
"Who's this?" Connor asked, looking at the girl behind her.
She turned and pulled Grace to stand beside her. "Connor, Murphy, this is Grace. Grace, this is Connor and Murphy MacManus."
As she spoke, she pulled the platter's lid off and served it up. The boys both took a bite at the same time, and then made the same disgusted face.
She scowled at them both, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'd hit you, but you might choke," she said. "If it's so awful, spit it out."
Connor broke first, swallowing and laughing. "Pretty good, I'll admit," he said, taking another bite.
"Told ya," she said, cutting some more slices. "Though you should have let me bake the spiced cake with penuche frosting," she said, grinning. Connor made a face.
Grace laughed grabbing a piece of cake for herself. "I know it sounds disgusting, but it's really quite good. Audrey's a fabulous baker." She got her cake and sat herself on the nearest bar stool; the one on Murphy's other side. Audrey pursed her lips, and looked at the one between the two boys, which Grace was obviously leaving for her. She didn't want to sit though.
"What is penuche anyway?" Connor asked.
Audrey opened her mouth to reply when someone burst in behind them. Both the MacManus boys grinned wide when they saw him, shouting a chorus of "Rocco!" Audrey was on the other end of the spectrum, suddenly frozen in horror.
He was one of Yakavetta's.
Common sense made her calm down. He probably wouldn't know who she was, it was obvious he wasn't here on business and he couldn't be more than a package runner anyway. And he was welcome here. All good signs, she told herself. Her heart started beating regularly again.
"Hey Fuck Ass!" he said to Doc. "Get me a beer!" Everyone cheered and Rocco sat down in between Connor and Muphy, forcing her to scoot over until she was practically sitting in Murphy's lap. Not liking the new position, Audrey disentangled herself from the Irishman and stood behind the three of them. "What's with the cake?" Rocco asked.
"She baked it for us," Murphy said, motioning to Audrey. Rocco turned around, and Connor took over the introductions. "Rocco, this is Audrey and that" he said, pointing to the blond girl, "is Grace. Audrey and Grace, Rocco."
She stuck out her hand. "Pleased to meet you," she and Grace said as Rocco shook Audrey's hand.
"What do you have to do to get one of those?" Rocco asked.
"Save her hide," Connor answered.
She scoffed. "And then be a pain in the ass about it. It's not like you did anything more than look threatening." She turned back to Rocco. "You could just pay me to make you cake."
"Can I have some of that?" Rocco asked. She shrugged.
"It's theirs," she said, indicating the twins. "Ask them."
The twins weren't going to jealously hog their cake (especially since Grace and Doc had already stolen themselves a piece.) No sooner had Rocco snared a piece than many of the other patrons asked them for some. It was really too big a cake for them to eat by themselves anyway, and it was very quickly decimated.
"Do you want a piece?" Connor asked when there were only two left.
She shook her head. "Not at all. I made it remember? I had to lick the bowl and everything." Which wasn't true, she'd simply washed it down the sink. Usually she let Rochester lick the bowl, but this was chocolate and he couldn't have it.
"Sure you don't want anything?" he asked again.
She smiled and indicated the beer she'd ordered about an hour ago. "I'm fine." It would probably take all night for her to finish it. She didn't really like alcohol; caffeine was her drug of choice.
Connor shrugged, and took the piece he'd been offering for himself. "Suit yourself."
Eventually, she managed to snag one of those bar stools, one on Connor's other side. Most of the St. Patty's crowd had left, and she was thinking about going too, whether Grace wanted to or not. Rochester would be worried. But she needed her platter, and there was one piece left. It had been sitting there, mocking her for over an hour now. And it's not like the conversation was overly stimulating.
"It's not that I'm homophobic," Rocco was saying. "It's just that I'm afraid of faggots." She snorted, and the twins laughed out loud. "What?"
Doc chose that moment to gather everyone's attention. "I got some bad news. Looks like I'm gonna have ta close d-down the bar. The Russians have been buying up buildings all over town, including this one... Fuck!... Ass! And they're not letting me renew my lease. I got the end of the week to come up with 26,000 dollars, or they take the place. I left them a note telling them not to show their faces t-. They been pressuring me ta close and take the last few days ta get all my shit outta here but it's my right to stay open t-ta the last."
There was a chorus of disappointment. This was unacceptable. "Maybe I can talk to my boss," Rocco offered, but Doc shook his head and waved Rocco's words away. Audrey didn't blame him. Involving the Yakavetta family was not going to make any problem better.
"L-l-listen," Doc was saying, "I don't want anyone ta know until the last possible moment. So you guys keep your traps shut!" He peered over his glasses at the row of people in front of him. "Ya know what they say; People in glass houses sink ships."
She laughed right out loud at that.
Rocco chuckled. "Y'know Doc, I gotta get you a, a, like a proverb book or something. This mix and match shit's gotta go."
"What?" Doc asked, inciting a chorus of chuckles.
"Well, a penny saved is worth two in the bush, isn't it?" Connor said, imitating the bartender.
Murphy followed with, "And don't cross the road if you can't get out of the kitchen." Everyone laughed, including Doc, who poured each of the boys another shot of Hennessey.
Grace was having a great time. She was going to kick Audrey's butt for failing to mention that the MacManus boys were smoking hot. She was fiercely glad she'd decided to come with her friend for this little event. Especially because she got to sit next to the darker twin. He turned out to be a bit of a Trekkie, too, a major plus.
Suddenly, the door slammed open, and everyone turned at the same time to see three big men walk in. If they aren't Russian, she thought, tucking some of her blond hair behind her ear, Rochester's a poodle.
The three men came to stand just behind the bar. As one, all the patrons stood from their stools and faced them. She did too, seeing that the others had come to the same conclusion she had. The Russians were here for Doc. They would protect him.
"I am Ivan Checkov," said the biggest one, the leader. "You vill be closing now."
"Checkov?" Murphy asked. He gestured to Rocco. "Well, this here's McCoy. We find Spock and we have enough for an away team."
She couldn't help but laugh at that. "Save the whales," she cheered quietly. Apparently, though, Chekov had no appreciation for Trekkie humor. He looked like he was about to lose his short temper.
"Why don't you make like a tree," Doc said, "and get the fuck outta here!" Grace moaned a little at Doc's continued failure to get the sayings right.
Connor and Murphy each turned and grabbed a Guinness with their Hennessey free hand. "Listen fellas, he's got 'til the end of the week. You don't have to be hard asses, do ya?" Connor asked.
"Yeah," Murphy added. "It's St. Patty's day. Everybody's Irish tonight. Why don't you just pull up a stool and have a drink with us?"
"This is no game!" Chekov said, losing his temper and swatting the beer out of the twin's hands. "If you do not go," he threatened, "ve vill make you go."
Connor looked from one side to the other, seeming a little confused. "Look, if you want to fight, you can see you're out numbered here. We're trying to be civil, so I suggest you take our offer."
"I make the offers," Chekov replied. Grace tensed, her flight-or-fight instincts perking up.
"Hey Boris," Rocco said, and Grace bit her lip. He was about to do something stupid, she could hear it in his voice. Chekov turned to him indulgently. "What would you do," he began, "if I told you your pinko commie mother sucks so much dick" Chekov punched him in the face, but amazingly Rocco still managed to finish the joke on the way down, "her face looks like an egg!" That was pretty much all he could do though. She didn't know as much about medicine as Audrey, but she knew he wouldn't be doing much for a while.
Suddenly, Connor spoke to them in fluent Russian. Murphy added something in the same language. She was quite impressed. She couldn't make heads nor tails of Russian.
The Russians looked simply dumbfounded, completely unable to grasp the fact that these Irishmen were speaking their language.
The boys then downed their glasses of Hennessey. She had time to think Here we go, before they each dropped to one knee and punched Chekov in the quads.
The whole bar erupted from there. Grace was grabbed by one of Checkov's men. She quickly broke his hold and twisted away from him. The Russian made another grab, but Murphy came out of nowhere and started throwing all kinds of punches and kicking all kinds of butt.
The Russian was bigger than him though, and picked up the Irishman and threw him on a bench lining the wall, closing in on him. Murphy had nowhere to go. Grace stepped forward, but Connor stopped her.
"Stay away!" Connor yelled. "He can take care of himself!" Grace watched as Murphy pull two wine bottles from the shelf above his head and slam them so hard against the other man's temples they broke. She was frozen in place for a moment. His expression captivated her. It was one of absolute fury, dark as the night and focused on a single point.
Audrey grabbed her arm, breaking the spell. "Help me with this," she said, waving a first aid kit in Grace's face.
"Where did you find that?" Grace asked. Audrey shrugged, then turned to the rest of the bar.
"Is anyone hurt?" Audrey asked. Grace sighed. Her friend had been born a doctor.
The guys all smiled and laughed. "Just the Russians," was the general consensus. The boys began to lift up Chekov, but Audrey wouldn't let Grace watch. Instead, Grace was dragged over to the big man Connor had thrown against the wall.
"You know what to do," Audrey said, handing her the necessary supplies. Grace sighed. Some people lived by the Bible. Audrey lived by the Hippocratic Oath.
Grace watched as Audrey went over to Murphy's fallen Russian and pulled on some rubber gloves. She put on her own gloves and examined the unconscious man. There was some glass here and there. She picked it out carefully and bandaged it, but some of those cuts would need stitches.
A scream from the bar made her whirl around. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Chekov on fire. "What the hell?" she heard Audrey shout, and watched as she ran up to the bar. She grabbed the Russian leader's leather jacket and used it to smother the flames. "That's awful. Things like this come back to haunt you, dickhead!"
Audrey and Connor were glaring at each other. "He deserves it," Connor said. Grace stood, ready to intervene if this went badly.
"He's beaten," Audrey replied, going behind the bar, finding a cloth, wetting it, and wrapping some ice in it. "He's a bastard, but you've already won. There's no need to torture him."
"Why are you helping him?" Rocco asked, accusing.
"I'd rather help someone who doesn't deserve it," Audrey said through clenched teeth, "than deny help from someone who needs it." She didn't look at anyone, busying herself with cooling down the affected area. Grace hoped Audrey wouldn't try to treat that particular wound herself. She sighed in relief when she realized Audrey was just going to use a bandage to keep the ice in place.
"You're going to go to a hospital," she said to him rather brusquely. Grace sighed. Audrey really hated this man, but she would help him anyway. Grace had never been good at that sort of thing.
Grace didn't like the way everyone was staring at her friend. Some of them were looking apologetic, and others angry. She could not decipher the looks of the MacManus boys. Rocco looked like he hadn't decided how to feel. She removed her gloves and walked up to Audrey, who was glaring daggers at everyone, from Doc to Checkov to Connor.
Grabbing her friend's shoulders, she gently steered Audrey out of there. "Bye," she called quietly over her shoulder.
When they were outside, Audrey said, "We forgot the fucking cake platter."
"Language," Grace said, sighing.
Thank you the reviews! :D I'm glad you like the story, and you think they fit well. I cannot tell you how much I worried about that. Especially since these first few chapters are kind of mish-mash.
Read and Review