Ian found out the hard way about Lip and Mandy being home from their 'honeymoon' when they stormed over to the Gallagher house and Mandy punched him in the face. "Okay, that was not the way I had in mind for this conversation to start," Lip said, grabbing his new wife around the waist and dragging her back.

Mandy ignored him and glared down at where Ian was lying crumpled on the floor. She hit fucking hard; but then she was a Milkovich. "What the fuck did you say to him?" she yelled, looking like she wanted to hit him again.

Thankfully, Lip kept a tight hold of her.

"Who?"

"Mickey, you fuckwit," Mandy snarled at him and he'd never been on this end of her anger before. It was unusual and uncomfortable and he didn't like it. "What the fuck did you say to him, cause he's fucking moping right now and even this Mickey doesn't mope!"

This Mickey?

Ian frowned. "I just told him to go home," he said, which was the truth. He didn't know what the hell he'd done that could have pissed Mickey off and he certainly couldn't imagine the guy moping. He was probably just drunk. "He was on something and talking about himself like there were two of him."

And he honestly thought that would smooth the situation out, but all it did was make Mandy lunge towards him again and Lip frowned. "Mandy, calm down, Jesus," Lip dragged her back again and then looked at Ian, "What was he talking about when he was talking about himself like there were two of him?"

Did that mean Mickey did that a lot?

"Just saying like the old him or something didn't mean it and that he loved me or something and that the new him did as well, but that he sort of hated the old him and I don't know, he wasn't making any sense."

Ian had had a few days to process it and he still hadn't quite wrapped his head around it.

"He told you he loved you and you seriously told him he was on something?" Lip asked and to say he looked incredulous would have been an understatement, "What the fuck, Ian?"

And he could maybe understand why Lip would be surprised. Because hearing an 'I love you' from Mickey had used to be everything he had ever wanted. He'd used to dream about it, to wonder if it would ever happen and then recently he'd convinced himself that he'd just been some delusional kid who had it all wrong from the very beginning. He'd convinced himself it was nothing but sex. And now he had two Mickey's who apparently loved him – which made no sense, whatsoever – and it was a bit of an overload.

"Yeah, because I know Mickey and he just would have punched me for it sometime later if he thought I actually believed him," Ian said and that was the thing, he didn't quite know yet if he believed him or not. It was a lot to take in. They had to give him that at least.

Or maybe Ian did believe him, that would probably explain why he'd broken up with Toby for no reason whatsoever. He was always doing stupid things because of Mickey Milkovich, he was always sacrificing things for him. Giving up people. He'd given up Kash for Mickey, knew he would have given up the army, all of his dreams if Mickey had asked him to.

He was sort of glad and sort of disappointed that he hadn't.

"He wasn't on anything, Ian," Lip said, looking exasperated and still holding Mandy even though she seemed to have calmed down. He obviously didn't want to risk it. Ian didn't know when he'd clambered back onto his feet, he couldn't remember, but he only then realised he was upright again.

"You honestly expect me to believe that?"

Mandy scowled at him, obviously not liking his lack of faith in her brother. But could she really blame him?

"To be fair I didn't believe it at first either," Lip admitted and Ian felt a little better then, almost smiled, because it felt strange not having Lip in his corner, having Lip against him, "I went around and tried to fucking kill him for acting like he didn't know you, for upsetting you."

Ian hadn't known that. It probably showed on his face.

"Mandy, let me tell him," Lip said, looking down at his new wife, "Ian isn't going to go off and start running through the streets screaming it and Mickey wouldn't care about him knowing, he sort of already told him anyway."

Mandy scowled at him and Ian could see the love that she had for her brother written all over her face. He didn't know why, but that surprised him a little bit, because he'd never thought they were that close. Sure, they were the closest of all of the Milkovich siblings, but that had never been saying much.

After what felt like a life time.

And that was how it all seemed to start. Ian felt like he'd never known anything up until that point, like he'd sort of just been drifting along clutching at straws. He felt like suddenly a brand new chapter of a story was starting up and it all started with the words, "Ian, Mickey has amnesia."