Once Ciaran had gotten wind that he had to have his belly cut open to have his appendix taken out, he had absolutely freaked out to the max. Probably the worst that Gee and Euan had seen him, and it was likely just precipitate from the fact he was already anxious being back in hospital as it was. They only managed to calm him down with a shot of ( Read more... )

Stuart stepped into the Fitzpatrick residence behind Ciaran ruffling the boy's head when he received a happy thanks in that sweet Irish accent Ciaran had that sounded so much like Euan's. He watched as the boy disappeared inside the house and called out for his Dad. Gee stood by the door, watching Ciaran go with a fond smile on her face, and Stuart ( Read more... )

Euan had always prided himself on his strength to cope with harsh situations, and being in court really wasn't a foreign scenario. But once the case was all over, and the verdict was signed, sealed and delivered, the first thing he did was exit the court house and throw up in the nearest gutter. He hadn't even realised how completely emotionally ( Read more... )

Stuart's mobile phone was sitting on a small stone wall about ten paces away from him. He had turned the volume down, but now and again, he could still hear the soft buzz of it vibrating against the old stone. The Tyne River curled around the banks and a little further away was the oldest bridge in Scotland. His face was schooled into a serious ( Read more... )

The hotel lobby was just too much for Euan to deal with. Seriously, one more screaming woman with her tits nearly hanging out trying to accost Neil Morgan, and the middle-aged chicks in ill-fitting jeans trying to catch Ethan's eye was just too much to swallow. Plus, the crowds were starting to freak Ciaran out and when Euan felt his son's nails ( Read more... )

In hindsight, Euan didn't know what the fuck was going on anymore. He really didn't. Everyone who was supposed to be here in Gretna Green was here now, and Gee's parents were the only ones poignantly absent as they waited. Tom and Stuart had arrived a little while before looking freshly fucked and Larson arrived looking awkward and uncomfortable, ( Read more... )

Euan was doing it again. He knew he was. He was doing the Dad thing again, but trying not to let on that he was doing it. They were just passing Penrith, and not far from the England-Scotland border, and he was looking in the rearview mirror with monotonous regularity to make sure his sleeping son was okay. It seemed irrelevant to his Dad mojo that ( Read more... )

Ciaran was standing on top of the new chest of drawers that had appeared in his room yesterday when he was at the doctors with his Dad getting a check up. Each drawer was a different colour, and he loved them, even if there was nothing in them yet. Which made it easier for him to push them over to the wall he was painting on so he could stand on ( Read more... )

Stuart pulled two bottles of beer from the cooler bag on the windowsill, twisting the tops off both of them and brought them back to where Gee was sitting on a bean bag in the middle of a pile of boxes in the large, empty living room. He handed one of the beers to her, and then sat down on one of the boxes, taking a large mouthful from the bottle ( Read more... )

It felt oddly familiar, yet oddly strange, for Euan to find himself alone in the apartment. It wasn't like Ciaran was a huge talker, but in his absence, the place seemed a whole lot more quiet. After Euan filling her in as well as he could and faxing her copies of Ciaran's records, Sophie had suggested she spend some time with Ciaran to get to know ( Read more... )