As the night wound down and only a few regulars were left drinking, the twins spent more time talking to Rocco about Einin than enjoying the booze Doc kept feeding them. Rocco was on the verge of hammered and Einin took the seat beside Connor, all three watching as Rocco went to lean on the brothers, missed tragically, and hit the floor with a hollow thud. The three looked at Rocco a minute before the boys looked at her and she smiled at them lightly.
"Enjoying the night?" she asked, that tantalizing Irish twist to her Boston accent luring both brothers into her every word. Connor and Murphy grinned, Murphy nodded as he said,
"Aye, pretty lass like ye te look at how could we not?"
"That yer ma t'ere on te glass?" Connor added pointing to the picture Doc motioned to earlier. Einin looked up and nodded with a fond smile.
"She's a bit smaller than I remember but," she scrunched up her face and hummed with fake thought, amusing the brothers. Murphy chuckling as Connor rolled his eyes jokingly. "Aye, that's her." Connor and Murphy gestured to the bar as Murphy said,
"Buy ye a drink, t'en, any family o' Doc's is family te us." Einin smiled gratefully as she nodded lightly and thought it over, looking at the brothers curiously. They exchanged looks and then grinned at Einin boyishly.
"Oh now I know you're both trouble," she laughed gesturing between their expressions. Connor put a hand to his heart as Murphy gasped in shock,
"What's t'is now?"
"Trouble ye say?"
"Not us!"
"We're angels, hand te God!" Einin gave them a skeptical look but then her grandfather was calling everyone's attention and she knew what it was about so she quickly jumped the bar to stand beside him reassuringly. She knew the Russians were closing in, the Italians already had their hands everywhere, and South Boston just wasn't the city it was all those years ago. Doc was losing the bar, there just wasn't any way he could pay the mafia off to leave him be or keep him safe. No one had that kind of pull and he had remained neutral this long he wasn't ready to throw in towel and dignity, no matter how much he had put into the bar and its patrons.
As Doc spoke, Connor and Murphy exchanged looks, watching as Rocco managed to pull himself to his feet somewhere in the middle and lean on the bar between the twins. Einin looped her arms around her grandfather's arm and kissed his cheek in the hopes of consoling him, smiling adoringly at his patrons who were already discussing how to keep her family in business. She was genuinely touched by their non-acceptance of Doc's and McGinty's fate, she knew her grandfather was a beloved barkeep but she had no idea it ran this deep. Family and liquor really made blood thick, even among the non-Irish Bostonians. Rocco offered to see if Papa Joe would help, but he was quickly shot down by the patrons and a smack to the head from the boys. Murphy gave her a warm look, as if telling her he wouldn't let any Mafioso take over McGinty's. As the crowd quieted and Doc went on to say he didn't want anyone knowing, the regulars laughed at his attempt at an English proverb. Doc never managed to get a good handle on American proverbs, he always confused them and if that was because of his Turetts or something else no one really minded, they just enjoyed poking fun at it. The fun was cut short however when the doors to the bar were violently shoved open and three large strangers walked into the room. The crowd around the bar parted like the Red Sea, Rocco and the boys merely turning around while Einin and Doc looked up curiously and in concern. Einin absently tugged her grandfather further behind her as if to protect him as the largest man, a Russian it became clear, spoke,
"I am Ivan Chekov and you will be closing- now." The boys glanced at each other then the Russians as Ivan attempted to intimidate the men into leaving, he even glanced at Einin and chuckled in a way that made her skin crawl as he added, "You- you stay, too." The men glared angrily except Connor and Murphy who grabbed their beers, inviting the Russians to join them for a drink.
"Everyone's Irish on St Paddy's Day," Murphy insisted, but the Russians were having none of it- and before Einin could blink, there was a bar fight unlike anything had ever seen.
Doc pulled her down behind the bar shielding her head from the breaking glass and the various bodies being thrust against the bar. As one of the Russians pinned Connor to the bar and reeled a fist back to knock him in the face, a fist the same size as Connor's head, Einin popped up with a wine bottle and slammed it over the man's head causing him to stumble back and Connor to look at Einin with a boyish grin and split lip.
"Good work, lass," he complimented as Doc yanked her back down and Connor threw himself over the pool table onto the man hovering over Murphy.
"St. Paddy's Day always like this?" Einin laughed over the loud noises going around before Ivan was thrown onto the bar drunken and Connor and Murphy threw their belts down in front of him.
"Another hand here, sweetheart?" Connor asked with a grin and Einin looked up at the men and then Doc and then the Russian before slowly standing and taking one of the belts. Murphy took to tying one of Ivan's hands down and Einin quickly strapped the other behind the bar while Rocco knocked out the second one, the one whose head bled profusely from Einin whacking him with a wine bottle. Connor woke Ivan with a bourbon ass bomb, lighting the man's rear on fire while Doc and Einin took a step back and exchanged looks.
Kicking the three mafia men out of the bar to seek medical aid, shouting in Russian to which the twins easily replied, Einin kissed Doc's cheek and pulled her coat on just as Connor and Murphy came back in.
"Are ye leavin' Einin?" Murphy asked looking the woman over as she pulled her hair out of the neck of her jacket. She nodded as Doc looked around at all the mess.
"I told Doc I'll be over in the afternoon to clean up so he can get home, he needs to rest and hopefully your friends won't drop back by. Don't wanna be here if they do," he explained and Connor exchanged a look with Murphy.
"Doc, mind if we walk yer little bird home, tonight?" Murphy asked and Einin fixed them with a look, cutting Doc off,
"I can walk the six blocks home."
"Aye sure ye can, sweetpea, but we'd feel better if ye let us walk ye," Connor said rubbing the back of his neck and looking up at her almost sheepishly. "Help us sleep tonight." She studied them with a set in her jaw, biting her lip harshly as Murphy watched her with his keen eagle like eyes. She sighed and nodded in agreement earning a grin from both MacManuses.
"Okay but I don't want either of you showing up randomly at my door," she warned as they got their coats and slipped them on. Einin turned to Doc who was pulling his keys out of his pocket, "C'mon grandda, we'll walk you to your car."
