Chapter Text
“Ayooo” announced Dee, as the entered Paddy’s Pub. She received barely more than a glance from her twin brother Dennis, and even less from Frank, Charlie or Mac. “Hey, there’s some junkie out in the alley, passed out, a real mess” she chuckled cruelly. “Should we go and check on him?” asked Charlie, showing a modicum of concern, though not enough to move and take action. “Ehh” shrugged Dennis, “if he’s still there in an hour might wanna go check he’s not dead, business already sucks as it is, if the cops end up here with a dead body that’s not gonna be good”. “Yeah, and I vote Charlie goes, potential dead bodies? Sounds like Charlie work to me” said Dee, walking behind the bar to grab a beer. “Just try not to look.. I dunno, rapey? If she’s not dead, she’ll see you leaning over her and she might throat punch ya, ha!” Said Dee, laughing again at the situation.
“She?” Dennis exclaimed, as all four men’s attention was piqued. “You didn’t mention she was a she, we need to go check she’s okay!”. Dennis, Mac and Charlie started to make their way to the back alley, casting filthy looks back at Dee. “Why do you care? You didn’t give a shit when you thought it was a… oh god dammit” said Dee, her arms falling to her sides in resignation. Only Frank remained in the bar with her, and he paid her no mind as he ate nuts straight from the bar top.
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Mac carried the woman into the bar. She was barely conscious and the gang quickly realised she didn’t look like the usual junkies of Philly. Charlie and Dennis ran ahead to line up bar stools, which Mac laid her on carefully. Once she was inside, and safe; they all stood back, unsure of their next moves.
“So… Dennis what do we do?” Asked Mac, looking at him expectantly. “Wh.. why are you asking me?” Asked Dennis, angrily. “I don’t know, I figure you have the most experience with unconscious chicks out of us all” he shrugged. Dennis went to argue back, but stopped as he heard a small voice coming from the battered woman. “What the fuck, where am I?”.
Her voice made them all startle, and they looked down at her as if she was an active bomb. She was of a medium build, with a bob of auburn hair and fair skin. She wore slim fitting jeans and an oversized dark blue sweater, with black sneakers - all of which were clean and largely un-damaged; another indicator that being passed out in a back alley behind a bar was not something usual for her. As she regained her composure slowly, she moved her head to one side and revealed a series of dark marks and bruises on her neck, which were clearly made by hands. Her porcelain face was marked with a series of cuts, bruises and grazes, including a large gash above her left eye, which started bleeding heavily as her heart rate increased.
“Who are you?” she asked, as no one had answered her question. As she asked this, the attempted to sit upright, but the exertion quickly caused her to black out again, for a brief moment. Mac caught her quickly, before she could do herself any more harm. When she realised he had his arms wrapped tightly around her, she tried to move away, as if his touch burned her skin. “Get off me, creep!” She shouted, pulling away from him. “It’s fine, I’m gay and Catholic, I’m very uninterested in you” said Mac, as he carried on supporting her fragile body. Against her better judgement, she decided to take him at his word, and stopped trying to fight his help.
“Are you okay? You’re in a pretty bad way?” Asked Charlie, concerned but keeping his distance from her as if she was infectious. “I.. Mike. Did Mike send you to find me?” She asked, trying again to run away from the five strangers she found surrounding her. “What? No, who’s Mike? We own this bar, we found you in the back alley” said Mac. He felt her begin to sit upright on her own and moved to give her some space, but staying close just in case.
“I found you, me, I’m the good samaritan” said Dee, puffing out her chest in a weak attempt at asserting dominance. “Yeah, and you were gonna leave her to die” retorted Dennis, with venom in his tone. “Yeah, well you only gave a shit when you realised she wasn’t a dude” said Dee, taking a swig at her beer.
“Look, I don’t care. Thanks for taking me in, and I assume seeing as none of you have done anything to me, you really don’t know Mike” said the woman, who seemed to suddenly regard the blood dripping down her face, dabbing at it with her hand. “Can I get some water, and a rag or something? I’ll get out of your hair soon enough” she said, wiping the blood from her hand on her jeans.
Quickly, Dennis placed a clean dishcloth in her hand, and a glass of water on the bar next to her and she thanked him with a small smile. “You gonna tell us what happened?” Asked Mac, standing to face her now, next to Dee and Charlie. Frank still sat at the bar, but had turned himself to observe what was happening. Dennis had made his way behind the bar as soon as she’d regained consciousness, and remained there. Once she’d wiped her bloody face, she folded the cloth and pressed it against the wound. She took a long drink of water, downing almost half a glass in one. When she put it down, she noticed a short of whiskey was now next to her. She looked at Dennis who nodded, a small smile gracing his mouth.
She picked up the whiskey, downed it and put the glass down, which was immediately re-filled by Dennis. “I uh.. look, no cops - okay?” She started. The gang nodded eagerly, keen to get to the bottom of her story. “Okay, uh.. where to start. I’m Eva, by the way. And I’m not a junkie or anything. Mike, my ex-boyfriend. He did… this” said Eva, indicating her injuries. Her audience were in stunned silence, so she continued. “He’s uh.. well, he’s a piece of shit, but a powerful piece of shit. Abusive piece of shit too, so you know.. the worst kind” she said, tears beginning to form as she struggled to stop the sob that threatened to leave her mouth.
“I finally had enough of being controlled and being beaten black and blue, so my friend was helping me escape. I got on a Greyhound to Philly where.. wait, am I still in Philly?” She asked, suddenly aware that she had no idea how much time had passed since everything that had happened. “Yeah you’re in Philly, where did you come from?” Asked Dee, no longer finding the situation amusing. “New York, Hoboken. I’d been living there for a couple of years” she said, taking a deep sigh of relief that she was still where was last, and not in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere.
“So yeah, got on a Greyhound to Philly where my friend was supposed to meet me with a bag of my stuff and the keys to an apartment. I was gonna start anew. Only, Mike had got to her first, and instead of her meeting me, it was him and a couple of his cronies. He was so.. angry” said Eva, as her words were stopped by a shuddering cry as she remembered everything.
“Ah man, I’m sorry. You don’t have to tell us everything” said Charlie. Eva half expected him to hug her, something about him reminding her of a small child. Instead, he still kept his distance, but gave her a concerned look. She sniffed and shook her head, “No, no it’s fine it’s the least I can do after you guys took me in. Turns out, he was sick of having such a disobedient woman - his words. But he loved me too much to let anyone else have me, so he wanted to make sure no one would. They shoved me into a van and took me to a back alley behind a shit hole bar..”. She was interrupted by a short, sharp laugh from Frank. “Well, you got that right. And welcome to said shit hole!”.
“Sorry I didn’t mean..” Eva started. “Don’t be sorry, it is a shit hole, continue” said Dee, thoroughly enjoying the tale she was being told. “They took me.. here I guess. He threw me out of the van, and wrapped his hands round my neck while one of the guys.. he filmed him. The sick fuck wanted to film himself killing me, can you believe it?”.
“What scared him off, what stopped him?” asked Mac. “Nothing, I guess. He’s a cruel, sick man but he’s also dumb as a bag of rocks. My guess is when I passed out, he didn’t think to check he’d actually finished the job. Lucky, lucky me”. Eva finished her story, and picked up the new glass of whiskey Dennis had poured and this time sipped at it. He remained silent throughout, but kept his gaze on her intently.
“Well, why the hell haven’t you gone to the cops?! You need to get this fucker behind bars!” Shouted Mac. Eva simply shook her head. “Remember how I said he was powerful? Yeah he’s untouchable. His father’s the chief of the NYPD”. An uncomfortable silence fell across the bar as they processed everything Eva had said.
“Yeah, that sucks but you’re kinda.. bleeding all over our bar so if you could just ship yourself back to Hoboken or wherever, we can get Charlie to clean that right up” said Dee. “Are you serious Dee? She can’t go back to New York she’ll get actually killed this time, stupid fuckin’ bird” snapped Mac. “He’s right, I can’t go back to New York. I’ll just.. can one of you call me a cab? I need to get this sorted at the hospital then I’ll just check into a motel. No one took my wallet so I can just hole up for a couple days and figure it all out”.
“You’re not getting a cab, I’ll drive you” said Dennis. Eva was surprised as he’s not made a sound, assuming her presence was nothing but an inconvenience for the man. “It’s fine, I don’t wanna make a mess of your car” Eva argued, standing to her feet for the first time since being strangled into a blackout. She managed to take a few steps before swaying and falling, once again being caught in the strong arms of Mac. “No cab’s gonna take you like this, come on, I’ll make sure you get there okay” said Dennis, taking her other arm from Mac, both of them helping her walk to the front door. “Thanks, and thanks guys for helping me. I’ll see you around” said Eva, giving a weak wave to Dee, Frank and Charlie, before reaching for Mac’s hand and giving it a squeeze. He reluctantly let Dennis take her and watched them leave.
“You guys, that was like - real dark” said Charlie, who was already mopping the blood from the floor left by their unexpected guest. “You’re tellin’ me. I’ve banged whores with back stories less sad than that” said Frank, who’d returned to his peanuts. “Yeah well that Mike guy better not come back to Philly any time soon, or I’m gonna kick his ass” said Mac, marching his way across the floor of the bar, performing questionable karate kicks. “Why the hell are you so bothered, it’s not like you want to sleep with her?” said Dee.
“Seriously Dee, a man can stand up for what’s right without an alterior motive. I am upholding my catholic values of right and wrong. Plus, I’m a gay man who doesn’t have a female best friend so, I thought maybe she could be mine” said Mac. “Hey, wait a minute, wait a minute, why aren’t I your female best friend? You’ve known me for years but some dumb broad gets beat up behind the bar and suddenly she’s a better friend than me?” screeched Dee, outraged. “Dee, Charlie’s mop is a better friend than you” retorted Mac. “Yeah well, whatever loser. Dennis has clearly decided he’s gonna sleep with her, I mean he’s even risking getting blood all over his car so he’s not gonna let you keep her around to be your little friend” Dee teased.
“That’s where you’re wrong Dee” said Mac, raising an eyebrow. “No, I’m not wrong - when have you ever known Dennis to let one of his conquests stick around once he’s finished with them? I mean most of them don’t wanna come back but…” started Dee, before she was interrupted by Mac. “No, not about that. I mean about Dennis risking getting blood in his car. There’s no chance of that. He took your car”.
Dee ran to outside and to her dismay, she saw an empty space where her car was parked and remembered leaving her keys behind the bar. “Ohh, you son of a bitch!”.