Ian had been in school when he'd first known Mickey Milkovich. Typical school bully. Or maybe not typical because most bullies don't tend to have access to guns. Ian never really had any particular trouble with the Milkovich family because his older brother, Lip was a brain and did most of Mickey's homework for him, which got the Gallaghers a bit of a free pass.
Apart from a slight misunderstanding with Mickey's sister Mandy, the only time they'd ever really come across each other was when Mickey would come into the store where Ian worked after school and steal whatever he could get his grubby little mitts on. He wouldn't even try to hide it. And nobody really attempted to stop him, except one day when Mickey was so blatant about it that Ian just had to say something. Something about having some civic pride. That had gone over really well. It resulted in Ian having dip thrown at him and being told to where to look if he had a problem. (Mickey had told him later that it was basically an invite, that he wanted Ian to come to his house, but didn't think he'd have the stones. That was pretty much how it all started.)
But Ian hadn't thought about that, or Mickey, in a long time. Nine years long. A lot had happened in his life since then. He'd upped his academic game enough to get into West Point, then made it into the army as he'd always wanted. Then a tour of duty in Afghanistan from which he hadn't been sure whether he was going to get back. Then just like that, the war ended and he was home.
And then there was Vicki. She had appeared in his life sometime between joining the army and leaving for active duty. She'd been a friend of the girlfriend of Nick, one of his army buddies. They'd met one night when they'd all been on leave and had been out for drinks. Vicki was confident, she made him laugh and at the end of the night she offered to be his person at home to keep in contact with while he was away, keep him connected with home if his family were busy - which they were. Ian had gratefully accepted and that's how it started.
She'd simply been a good friend in the beginning. She'd sent texts, keeping him up to date on what was going on back home. Then they'd started talking on Skype whenever they were able and he remembered laughing and chatting a lot. One unseasonably warm night in Chicago, he had made a joke that Vicki was stripping off in front of him as she kept removing layers to get comfortable. Her reply had been "I can if you want." And so she did and they ended up having webcam sex, which sounded seedy but wasn't and then then happened at the end of almost every conversation after that. And somewhere along the way, they'd fallen in love. But he'd never mentioned Mickey to her. Or his past.
When he'd come home, his family had thrown a party for him. Well, Fiona and Jimmy brought alcohol and Kev brought weed. It was an interesting night, but he didn't drink or smoke anything. Lip commented that he seemed a bit "out of it" and asked what was wrong. And it was then that Ian realised he missed Vicki. He hadn't told anyone about her yet and she hadn't sought out his family whilst he'd been away either. Not because he didn't want anyone to know, just because he liked having someone to himself for a while.
And mostly because he figured Lip would give him hell after all the crap that had gone on, first with Kash and then Mickey, then with the doctor. To end up with a woman after all of that? He thought Lip would never let him live it down.
As it happened though, all his fears were completely unjustified. They met up with Debbie first, because Ian could always count on Deb to give her honest opinion. She was instantly enamoured with Vicki. The girls went shopping and Vicki couldn't help but love Deb. When they got back from the trip, Vicki demanded to meet the rest of the Gallagher clan and so she did. They met, everyone loved her and they were all pretty angry that Ian had not introduced her sooner.
Returning home from Afghanistan, Ian found he was not as traumatised as he thought he ought to be to be considering some of the things he'd seen, although the army-appointed therapist said that war affected everyone differently (and being a Gallagher he'd probably seen worse shit anyway. Lip said that – not the therapist) He decided Vicki had been some sort of constant for him and he suspected it was her that had kept him feeling so settled the whole time. He proposed to her after a year of being back, not wanting to rush it so it looked like a soldier making a snap decision, but they got married fairly quickly after that.
It was a pretty small wedding. His family had all turned up - except not Monica because she was in some psych ward somewhere again and not Carl because he was doing a stint in juvie for vandalising a cop car – and Vicki's mom and sister had come too. It was good. They drank. Frank was a drunken idiot, but they were all used to it. There was a reception in The Alibi Room for old times' sake, and somehow Frank had even managed to make a great speech about the Gallaghers always being there for each other and that now that meant they were there for Vicki too. Right before he fell off the chair he was standing on and broke his collar bone.
Then they got in their car and they moved the fuck out of the South Side. They had a pretty good life now too. Vicki was a nurse and Ian was working some menial labour jobs. The pay wasn't exactly great, but it helped with the bills and kept him fit. Things were good.
So why now? Why was his subconscious putting him through this now?
He looked over at his wife. She was snoring softly. He rolled away onto his side and closed his eyes again, but he couldn't sleep yet. Something was still nagging him. The only sure-fire way to sleep now was to make himself come, but he was confused as to what he should be thinking about while he did it, so he tried to shut off his brain while he stroked himself as hard as he dare without disturbing the bedcovers.
It didn't take long. And he tried to ignore the quick flash that popped into his head of him bending Mickey Milkovich over the back of his old couch. Eyes squeezed tight shut, he bit his lip, let out a stifled grunt and came into his hand.
What the fuck?