Greg climbed out of the taxi at about 6pm a few days later and headed up towards the house; "daddy's home!" he yelled as he opened the front door and walked into chaos; the house was cluttered and a mess as Tyson just about barrelled through him in excitement.

"We're going to South Dakota!" he shouted, as Greg rolled his eyes and tried to prevent himself from sighing in frustration that yet once again South Dakota was being brought up when he'd convinced himself that Tyson had finally forgotten about his strange fascination about South Dakota.

"No, we're not. And that's the end of it," Greg shook his head, closing and locking the door behind him, "are you here by yourself?"

"My friend is going to go to Mount Rushmore! She was saying at school!" Tyson argued, stomping his foot.

"Good for her. You're not leaving Michigan, let alone going to South Dakota. Sorry Tyson, but that's the end of it, we've been over this. Where is everybody?" Greg frowned, looking around.

"Papa is trying to give Charlie a bath," Tyson answered.

"Great, that doesn't answer my question," Greg mumbled, before seeing Charlie bounding down the stairs, completely naked and dry, and start to sprint towards the lounge room, who Greg grabbed and scooped up; with a soaking wet Shady running downstairs following her that Greg grabbed by the collar with his other hand before the overexuberant, massive juvenile dog smashed into Tyson, as James appeared at the top of the stairs, looking dishevelled. "This gives me more questions than it answers!" Greg called upstairs to James.

"I was trying to give Charlie a bath, but she wasn't having it," he muttered, walking downstairs.

"So, you decided to bath the dog instead?" Greg frowned, looking over to Shady shaking water all over the place and all over Greg, that the kids screamed and laughed; "welcome home, Greg," he sighed to himself, letting go of the collar and walking upstairs, "now I smell like wet dog. I'll give Charlie a bath, and you sort out… everything else. Told you that you couldn't handle the kids without me, James,"

"Shady jumped in the bath and got covered in water, but I refilled the bath," James added uselessly.

"No need to explain yourself, James," Greg sighed, walking into the bathroom, clicking the door closed behind him.

The following afternoon at work; James had one final initial appointment before finishing up for the day; walking into his office, he saw a woman a bit older than himself with blonde hair in one seat, and her accompanying support person who he immediately recognised but kept a neutral, professional expression; "Natasha Johnson?" he asked, walking in and sitting down; "I'm Dr. Jim Gallagher," he reached out and shook her hand, she pointed out that she'd brought her sister along for moral support, which James simply nodded and added that it was a good idea and practise to do so; before pulling up her results and analysing them.

Following the appointment, the sister stopped back once Natasha had left the room, "James?" she had asked quietly, "it's me, it's Lisa… my sister, she lives in Toledo and was referred here for treatment; she asked me to come with her. She mentioned that her oncologist's name that she'd been referred to was a Jim Gallagher, I really had no idea that it was going to be you,"

"Well, it's me," James flashed a professional smile, "you don't need to worry about anything, no matter how things may have ended between our friendship, I'm not about to treat a patient any differently just because you're related. I'm not unprofessional like that. I'm sorry about your sister's diagnosis, Lisa, we'll do everything we can," he continued, as he made a point to pull out his work bag and begin packing it.

"You got married?" Lisa asked, and when James raised his eyebrows in suspicion, Lisa went on, "the name change," she added, "James, or Jim, Gallagher?"

"It's just Jim at work," James responded distractedly, "but yeah, got married a little while ago now. Fourth time's the charm I reckon,"

"So you and Greg?..." Lisa continued, and James sighed, as he slipped his laptop in the bag.

"Are still very much together," James answered, "he's my husband now. We took the same last name as the kids we adopted. You've met them. You called us the 'Shameless' family, remember? To Cameron? Well, she told us that you did. Anyway Lisa, I really need to go, I'm tired and I have a husband, kids, and dog to get home to and take care of. I'm sure you can acknowledge that it's rather busy," James continued with a coolness in his voice, "however, maybe not," as he stood up and headed towards the office door, going to switch off the light, "and if Greg has anything to do with it; we're not going to be getting an awful lot of sleep tonight; being happily married newlyweds and all," as he held the door open for Lisa, before locking it behind them and immediately headed towards the staff elevators.

"What a wonderful, kind, thorough doctor," Natasha smiled, watching the kindly middle-aged man disappear into a staff elevator that closed behind him.

"I know him actually," Lisa added.

"You do? How?" Natasha asked.

"He used to work for me," she added, "we had a falling out, but he is a brilliant doctor; he was the head of Oncology at my hospital for a very long time. You are in good hands,"

"Whoa, James! Wait up!" Phil spotted James storming across the staff parking lot, as he was walking across to leave too; "what on Earth has happened? You seemed fine at rounds this afternoon," as he ran over towards James who looked as though he were ready to physically murder someone.

"Nothing," James snapped, approaching the truck, unlocking it, nearly tearing the back door off the truck and throwing his bag inside; before he sighed and hung his head; "Lisa's back. Again. I don't know why she can't just leave Greg and I alone! We don't want her sniffing around after us, I don't understand what's so hard about that for her to comprehend! Greg and I are married. He has absolutely zero interest in her; but she won't get her stupid, slutty assets out of his face!"

"Where did you see Lisa?" Phil frowned.

"She came in as an emotional support for some relative," James snapped, "seriously, I don't know why they came here of all places. It's not like this is the only place around, or even as if I'm the only oncologist here,"

"Are you going to talk to Greg about it?" Phil asked, and James just shook his head.

"Greg's straight out of hospital for a suicide attempt; I'm not going to put more stress on him than what is strictly necessary. I'm just doing whatever I need to do to in order to keep him happy and in a positive frame of mind at the moment," James opened the driver's side door and climbed in.

"I understand that, but you've also got to look after yourself too, James, you can't let yourself spiral because you're spreading yourself too thin. You know that if you ever… need a break, then Ryan and I, or Andre and Jay too I'm sure, are more than happy to help either one of you out so the other can get some rest. If you need to relax or have some time alone, then we're happy to keep Greg company, keep him distracted, and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid. And we're also here for you too anytime you need it as well, you know?" Phil continued.

James smiled, "I know, and I appreciate it a lot, thank you. We'll see you guys the night after tomorrow? Shot euchre is still on? We just can't let it slip to Lisa that it's happening,"

"Absolutely, night James,"

"Night, Phil," as James turned on the car, shut his door and reversed out before joining the stream of other commuters heading home after another long day at work.

"Tyson! I swear to God if you mention Mount Rushmore one more time…" James walked in the door, "great, you're back, he's your son now for a little while; I don't exist for a bit, okay?" Greg muttered, walking around the corner and opening the door, "I don't even remember who initially mentioned to him that I have relatives in South Dakota, but I want to fucking throttle them. Get him to shut up about fucking South Dakota, please!" Greg turned around and stormed downstairs to the basement.

"What's his problem?" Tyson frowned, "why is he always so angry?"

"It's complicated, Tyson, just quit pestering him about South Dakota, got it? You're not going there. You have no ties to there, and no reason to go. There's nothing there. It's a boring state with nothing there. It's just freezing cold and snowy. We'll take you somewhere actually interesting someday," James muttered, "do you want to help me cook dinner?" to which Tyson just shook his head, "okay fine, but leave your father alone. He's not well, Tyson, he doesn't need the extra stress, alright?"

"Daddy," Tyson brought up at dinnertime, to which Greg just raised his eyebrows in question at him, "why won't you take me to see Mount Rushmore? We're learning about it in school. You went there, why can't I?"

"What are you talking about, Ty?" Greg asked, continuing to eat.

"Here, I found this old picture. I looked at some old photo albums that belong to granddad," Tyson pulled out an old photograph, "this says 'Greg' on the back, that's your name, isn't it?"

"Of course you did… Yep, Greg is my real name," Greg held out a hand and took the photo, staring at a photograph of himself with his father and uncle at Mount Rushmore when he was probably about Tyson's age, "that is me. And that is exactly the reason I will never let you go there, Tyson," Greg continued cryptically.

"That old guy looks kind of like you," Tyson pointed out John, and Greg felt a shiver go down his spine, although he couldn't deny somewhat of an objective physical appearance resemblance; "so we could do the same thing, take the same photo. It'd look the same. Wouldn't that be so cool? Then have the photos side by side? Who is that guy?"

"It would not be 'so cool', Tyson. And we will do no such thing. As for the second question, that's my father," Greg tossed the photo aside to the edge of the table, "remind me to burn that photo after dinner is done, James. I'm sick to just look at it,"

"So, he's my grandpa?" Tyson continued, and Greg winced and shook his head.

"No, he isn't Tyson. And I'm getting really sick of this weird obsession. You need to find a normal thing to be obsessed with. When I was your age, I was interested in comic books and Batman; why can't you have some interest like that?" Greg sighed, shaking his head, "I'm probably the least judgmental person on the planet, Ty, but a six year old being obsessed with a single US state, to this degree… it's weird, son,"

"But daddy," he pouted, "you act like everything is so dangerous and scary. It's not. I'm a tough boy,"

"No, you're not. Because you have us as parents, you don't need to grow up tough. But I did, and I won't risk having that happen to you, which is why I protect you as much as you hate me for it sometimes. Look Tyson, you're a kid now, but someday far in the future; you're going to do naughty stuff and maybe get yourself into trouble. All kids do, we both did; Papa and I… and you will too someday. But I want you to be able to know that we're going to do everything we can to protect you and keep you safe. So, if you ever get into trouble, you will know that you have somewhere safe to come, where you're protected; I want to keep you safe and away from bad people. One day, you'll be out there in the world, but the thing that you don't understand, Tyson, is that there are bad people out there, you know? And I'm trying to protect you from some of those bad people. Blood family are not always good family, but us Gallaghers stick together, alright? Papa, Charlie, me, and Granddad when he's better and home; we're all the family you'll ever need, you understand what I'm saying?" Greg sighed, and James grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

"Bad people like what? What can be so bad about these people?" Tyson's voice softened, hearing his father's voice falter.

"I can't even tell you, Tyson. You would be too scared to even go out the front door if I told you. And these bad people exist everywhere; but South Dakota… I grew up there, Tyson, and I have a lot of very bad, scary memories from there. It was where I learned about how bad some people can be. And I won't allow my own son to suffer like I did, and I don't want to make myself feel more upset than I already am about that whole situation, okay? To you, it's just a place, to me it's a lot more than that; and not something I ever want to revisit; especially now I'm your and Charlie's dad. You got me, Ty?" Greg added.

Later that night as James and Greg were watching getting ready for bed, James shaking his head while he rambled on; referring back to Greg talking the entire way through a movie James had been desperately waiting to watch earlier in the evening; which Greg had managed to poke every imaginable hole throughout the entire storyline; "it was a stupid, useless movie anyway, you were lucky that you had me to point out all the inaccuracies of it," Greg shrugged.

"I'd really been looking forward to it," James mumbled, "just let me enjoy one nice thing in a while without you having to point out how stupid you think it is. Next time you're watching one of your soaps or telenovelas; I'll keep what you just said in mind and I'm going to be doing the same thing to you as revenge," James laughed.

"You're a dick, you know that, James?" Greg laughed as he undid his jeans, James stopped and stared at Greg, bewildered for a moment, "and you know the saying, you are what you eat,"

"Well, maybe I'm hungry right now… husband," James smirked back, slinking in close to Greg, who smirked right back as he passionately reciprocated James' kiss.