Ian barged in the front door of his old home, throwing it so wide it would have made a dent in the wall behind if there weren't already dents there from years of door-wall abuse, and then slammed it hard behind him. Long past upset, he had now moved onto angry. He had been ranting loudly and animatedly to himself the whole journey home - "What the hell is he doing there?" "What was Lip thinking?" "How the fuck am I supposed to get on with my life now?" - along with wild arm gestures which must have made him look like a crazy person.

"FIONA?!" he yelled out, trying to ascertain her whereabouts in the house.

"SHUT UP!" came a return yell from Carl upstairs.

Ian ignored him as he moved through the living room, but quickly swallowed the diatribe he had ready to spew out when Vicki came from the kitchen towards him, smiling.

"Hi sweetie," she said as she reached him, leaning up to kiss him.

He kissed her back quickly and forced a smile, "Hey! What are you doing here?"

"I said I was going to come by, remember? They let me finish my shift an hour early so I went straight to bed, and then came here as soon as I got up. Fiona was just filling me in about the about the party," she nodded backwards towards the kitchen, "sounds like I missed some fun!"

"Yeah. Yes, it was good. What I can remember." Ian pointed at his head, indicating his hangover.

Vicki laughed, then took his hand and led him towards the kitchen. "Well we've got some sandwiches out, if you're hungry."

Ian sat down at the table, opposite Fiona and Vicki slid into the seat next to him, running her hand up his thigh as she sat down. He picked up a ham sandwich from the plate in front of him and took a bite, but his mouth was so dry it tasted like sawdust.

As he got up to get a beer from the fridge - kill or cure - Fiona piped up, "How was Lip?"

Ian paused, one hand clenched too tight on the fridge handle, his knuckles turning white as he remembered Mickey greeting him at Lip's door.

"Ian?" Fiona asked again.

"He wasn't there. I must've just missed them. You want a beer?" he said, attempting to steer them away from the subject.

However, Fiona didn't answer, instead getting up and picking up her phone from the counter top before walking over and taking the bottle from Ian's hand. She twisted the cap off and took a swig, then started pressing buttons on her phone.

Ian sighed, and turned to take another beer from the fridge. Then he heard Fiona's voice again.

"Lip, it's me. Can you call me when you get this please? And I mean as soon as you get it this time. Thank you!"

She hung up the phone. "I'll see if I can get them to come by after they've been to Reese's parents' this afternoon," she said.

Ian was glaring over the top of his bottle by this point. He wanted, no needed to know what was going on.

Fiona must have sensed something was up, because she turned to Vicki at that moment and said, "Hey! Did you meet Kev and V's girls yet? They said you had to stop by as soon as you arrived. No time like the present, huh?"

Vicki stood up, and let herself be led towards the door. "Oh yes! I haven't met them yet, but I'm dying to! You coming, Ian?"

"You go on," he gestured with his bottle, "I'll be over in a bit. Not sure if my head can take any more Justin Beaver for a bit."

Fiona walked Vicki over to the Ball house and then returned alone. She was barely back through the door, when she let out an "Okay buddy. What the hell is going on?"

Ian had been pacing the room, and now he stopped. He pointed a finger at Fiona, "why don't you tell me what's going on?"

Fiona slapped his hand away, "What the fuck are you talking about? You left to see your brother. You came home with a face like thunder, even though you said he wasn't there. How the hell would I know what was going on?! What is the problem here, Ian?"

"I ran into Mickey fucking Milkovich there, that's my problem!" Ian all but yelled.

"At Lip's place?" Fiona asked, confused.

"YES at Lip's place. Don't tell me you didn't know!"

"Didn't know what? He was living there?!" She asked a little more insistently.

Ian was more ranting to himself at this point though, "So this is why Lip 'suddenly' couldn't come yesterday? It all makes perfect sense now." He started pacing again.

Fiona took a step towards him, tried to get him to stop moving. "Ian. IAN!" But he wouldn't stop pacing for even a moment so she ploughed on, "What do you mean 'it makes perfect sense'? What… does Mickey have to do with Lip not coming here? Ian STOP!"

Fiona reached out to make him stay where he was, but she needn't have bothered. Ian had already stopped mid-stride and was staring at his sister in disbelief. Is it really possible that Fiona didn't know about him and Mickey? She'd known that Ian was gay, he'd told her that himself – and even then she'd already known. How had she not worked out the rest?

The only person that Ian had ever told about Mickey was Lip. Kash had caught them having sex once, but he was long gone now, and Frank had seen them going at it too, but he didn't even care, despite Mickey's protestations to the contrary. And Mickey of course, but he'd rather die than admit anything happened between them. Hell, he violated his probation just to get away from Ian.

So there was really only Lip. Ian couldn't believe that in nine years, Lip had never shared his little secret with Fiona. Or that somehow Fiona didn't know. Maybe now was the right time to tell her.

He huffed out a sigh. "Okay, you'd better just sit down."

Fiona looked worried, "Ian what is going on?"

"Just… sit down. I'll explain, okay?"

Fiona took a seat at the dining table again. Ian didn't sit. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly through pursed lips.

Then he started. "I'm willing to bet that the reason Lip didn't come yesterday is because he didn't want to explain to me that Mickey Milkovich is living at his house."

"But why would-" Fiona started to interrupt.

Ian held a hand up, asking her to wait as he continued "Because he knows that I would have a problem with it," he took a deep breath, "since I used to sleep with Mickey. A lot."

He stopped talking, and took a seat, but he didn't dare risk a look at his sister. This was the one thing he had kept from her and he was pretty sure she was going to be pissed about it.

The silence stretched on for what felt like about an hour, before he heard Fiona's chair scrape along the kitchen floor as she pushed it back. He glanced at her. She was standing up, hands on hips, looking down at him with something like incredulity on her face.

"You were sleeping with Mickey Milkovich?" she asked, taking a step toward him. Her voice was scarily controlled.

He nodded, standing up quickly.

"For how long?"

Ian swallowed. "Um. On and off… almost a year and a half."

Fiona swiped him around the back of the head, hard. "And you didn't think it was important to tell me this? That you were fucking around with that… that batshit crazy fucking Milkovich boy?! Even when his dad nearly fucking killed you over Mandy? Jesus Ian! What the hell were you thinking?"

"It wasn't like that, Fi!" Ian insisted, backing into the kitchen work surface as Fiona kept inching towards him, clearly fuming, "I couldn't tell you!" he almost shouted, "I was in love with him!"

Fiona stopped in her tracks. "You were what?!"

Ian lowered his voice, and said again, "I was in love with him. He obviously never felt the same about me though. Went to juvie twice to get away from me."

Fiona ran her hands through her hair. "I can't believe this. Why didn't you tell me any of this?"

"Because I didn't want you to hate me? To react like you are doing? I know what everyone thought of the Milkoviches. What would you have thought of me if I told you I was in love with one of them?" He raised his eyebrows at her, questioning, "And you had your own stuff going on, you didn't need me piling my shit on top of it too. Then Monica was home and fucking stuff up. Twice! It was never the right time. And then Frank caught us fucking, Mickey threatened to kill him because he was scared Frank would tell his dad, then he told me I meant nothing to him and the next I knew he was back in jail. I never saw him again. It wasn't important."

"Oh Ian." Fiona sighed and moved to hug him, "Of course it was important."

Ian leaned his head on his sister's shoulder, blinking back the tears that threatened to fall from the relief at finally telling her.

Fiona suddenly pulled back and looked Ian in the face. "Is this why you started that thing with Jimmy's dad? Because of Mickey?"

"It was part of it, I guess," Ian concurred, "Mickey hurt me when he left. I just needed to feel… wanted. But I had no idea it was Jimmy's dad. You do believe me, right?"

"I do." Fiona pulled Ian back into the hug, "Wow. Who'd have thought it eh? You and Mickey."

They both froze with shock in each others' arms when they heard a quiet voice from the doorway.

"Who's Mickey?"