**What amazing group of people that I have following this story! Thank you all for the reviews on Chapter 7. I was worried it was too much and too sad, so I'm glad that I wrote it anyway. The next few chapters are going to move kind of rapidly as they follow the movie line. As always, BDS does not belong to me. Enjoy!**

Chapter 8

Gram was buried on Saint Patrick's Day next to my grandfather and mother. It was bitterly cold and the snow still hadn't melted. I wasn't even paying attention to the service. I was watching the group of people who had turned up to pay their last respects. I recognized a few old friends of Gram's. Aunt Mary was there. I got to meet the man who played Bingo with Gram. He was a nice man who was obviously grieving. I gave him a hug and left him to his pain.

The boys had promised not to come and they were true to their word. They would be spending most of the night at the pub and would drink in honor of the woman who raised me. I wasn't worried. They would probably get falling down drunk and crash at their apartment. I would be home in two days and we would figure out where to go from here.

It wasn't surprising that Gram had everything planned out in the event of her demise. I didn't even have to worry about what hymns were to be sung or what flowers to order. Everything was done. After the service, Aunt Mary and I sat with the lawyer for a reading of the will. Gram didn't have much, but it all went to me. There was no debt to deal with and I already had her few worldly possessions, including a hand sewn quilt from the old house. The remainder of the estate would cover all of her final bills and lawyers' fees. I was glad. I didn't want money. Money wouldn't fill the void that she left. If anything, it would make it even more noticeable.

I was glad when the plane touched down in Boston. I was happy to be home, but there was no welcoming committee at the gate nor at baggage claim. I had left messages for the boys with Doc at the pub, but maybe they just hadn't gotten them yet. I hailed a cab and piled everything in. The driver was kind enough to help me carry everything up the steps to my apartment, or maybe he just knew he had a decent tip coming. Whatever the reason, I was grateful.

I kicked the heat up and grabbed a shower. I was exhausted, but I needed Connor and Murphy with me more than sleep. I called McGinty's again, leaving yet another message on the machine. Something didn't feel right. I grabbed my keys and my coat and I headed back out into the world.

The apartment was dark and the door was busted in. I looked around, fear building. Everything seemed to be in place, but the bathroom was missing a toilet and everything smelled… wet.

"We got yer messages, but wanted ta clean up before coming over."

I jumped at the voice in the silence. I turned around and found Murphy leaning against the door jam, Connor behind him in the hallway. I ran to him and threw my arms around his neck. Connor came into the room and fitted himself behind me. There was no place I wanted more to be than pressed between them, but I noticed something peeking out from under the edge of his sleeve. I pushed away from Murphy and whirled on his brother.

"What is this?" I demanded, yanking the fabric up to reveal a bandage on his wrist. I looked at the other wrist and found an identical wrap. "What the fuck is going on? What happened to you?" I took a full assessment of him and then of Murphy. They were pretty banged up.

"Was just a bar fight, lass. Nothing to worry yerself about."

"Nothing to worry about? Are you kidding me? Connor, you look like you tried to slice up your wrists and Murphy, you look like some beat the shit out of you. What happened?" They tried to get close to me, but I took a step back. I needed a bit of distance right now. They weren't telling me everything, that much was certain.

"We went to McGinty's on Saint Paddy's day. A couple of guys wanted ta fight. We let them have it." Connor was cautious as he spoke.

"They must've followed us home. They came back the next day, looking ta even the score. Found me and Con were enough ta beat them again."

"Not without a few marks though," Connor jokingly argued.

"You need to go to the police. These guys could come back again." I was seriously freaked out and they weren't even taking it seriously.

"Already did, lass." Ok, that made me let Connor drape an arm across my shoulders.

"You did?"

He nodded but it was Murphy who spoke. "We told the agent in charge, Smecker, 'bout the fight at the bar and 'bout being attacked. The men who did it won't be bothering us agin."

I raised my eyebrows. "And how would you know? Are you psychic?"

Connor shook his head. "Their dead. The agent told us, but didn't tell us how."

Again with the silent twin conversations. They were keeping things from me, but maybe they had a good reason to. "Okay. So you're not in trouble or anything?"

"Self-defense. Hospital bill's gone ta be a pain in the ass, though."

I pulled Connor close and reached a hand out to Murphy. "I'm just glad you're both okay. I couldn't deal with it if I lost you guys too."

I was surrounded by my men, and I felt okay for the first time in a week. I was loved. I was safe. I just wanted to go home. It was early enough to get home before dinnertime. One of them ordered a pizza while I grabbed a blanket from the bed. I climbed onto the couch between them, plopped my feet into Connor's lap and my head into Murphy's. We pulled the blanket over all of us and I napped until the food arrived.

After eating food prepared by well-meaning friends for days, I just needed something hot and really bad for me. The pizzeria down the street made the best pies in town by far. Connor ended up with a box to mouth sting of cheese which I strummed like a guitar. It felt good to laugh. I would miss my Gram, but she would be so angry with me if I stopped living and loving. I made her a promise and I was going to keep it.

"I need you both to make me a promise." I had their attention. "I need you guys to be honest with me. I need you to promise that you won't lie to me anymore." I held up my hand when they started to protest. "I don't care about the past, but going forward… we are a team. We are a family, and I need to know that I don't have to worry about you keeping things from me."

They glanced at each other before nodding. "Okay, lass," Connor said. "We'll do our best, but ye need to promise us that if we tell ye that something's not safe fer ye, that ye'll drop it. Deal?"

I agreed. I had to trust them. They hadn't really given me any reason not to.

I fell asleep that night, cuddling only Murphy. Connor had lost the coin toss to see who got to shower first. His loss meant that he was awake when the nightmare brought screams out of my mouth.

"Don't cry lass. Please don't cry," he murmured, but I couldn't help it.

All my life I had been plagued with nightmares. Gram was convinced it had to do with my mother's death, but it was more than that the therapists said. Lord knew I had seen plenty of them. There was something in my brain, an extra chemical or something, that made it hard to achieve a deep enough sleep to avoid the nightmare. He rubbed my back until I settled back down, bitching that his brother could sleep through rock concert.

Once his snores joined Murphy's, I climbed over him and headed into the kitchen. I dumped a bunch of ice into a rock's glass and poured Crème de Menthe over the top. It was my Gram's solution to a sleepless night, once I was in high school. Not enough to make me drunk, but enough to take the edge off. The smell of the alcohol made me feel heartsick. I made myself a bed on the couch where I could look out the window and see the moon. I sipped my drink until I felt fuzzy, then closed my eyes and waited for morning.

The boys wanted me to take a few more days off from work, but I needed to get back into the routine of life. I walked with Connor to work, not saying much. I was just content to hold his hand. Aileen tried to fuss over me until I firmly put my foot down. At lunchtime, I ran out to pick us up some Chinese food and, on a whim, bought a newspaper as well. I wanted to see what I had missed while I was gone.

"Did you see this?" I asked Aileen, pointed at an article on page two. It was written well, but nobody had bothered to proofread it for punctuation or spelling. "Looks like the Russian Mob just lost some of their big players."

"No complaints there," Aileen replied. "This town has too many guns as it is. The Italians are bad. The Russians were worse."

I read the article as she waited on a customer. The number of bodies was shocking. Whoever did this had my full appreciation. Nobody wanted to talk about the crime in Boston, but having two mobs fighting over turf meant a lot of hurt innocents. I remembered Doc mentioning that the Russians were moving in on the area around the bar. Maybe this would mean he wouldn't have to close.

The day dragged on. We didn't have many customers and you can only dust so many times before a person went crazy.

"Why don't you head home, honey? I'll close up shop. We're slow enough."

I wasn't going to argue with the woman. I grabbed my things and made my way home. On the counter, I found a note that said the boys were going to be out late since they were hanging out with Rocco. I didn't really mind. Okay, the truth was that I missed them when I was alone, but I had a stack of reviews to plow through and I could do it faster if I was by myself. I made a sandwich and got to work.