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Mary was very happy for Mandy, don’t get her wrong but having a big wedding when none of your family is present seemed kind of sad.
“You do have brothers though, right?” Mary couldn’t help but ask when they were making the list for the invitations.
“I do yeah but the one I was closest to is in prison and the other two must be as well by now.” Mandy didn’t seem affected at all by her brothers’ inability to come to her WEDDING or the fact that they were supposedly in prison. See, technically Mary knew that Mandy’s childhood and teenage years were vastly different than hers. After all, they’d been best friends for four years now. So yes, she was aware that her friend's past was messed up but it's not like Mandy ever went into detail about it. She couldn't help but insist.
"There is no one from Chicago you want to invite?" Mandy seemed to consider something then said in a small voice like it was more for her than for Mary to hear.
"I guess if there was someone I'd like to be here, it would be my high school best friend"
"What? I can't believe you had another best friend who isn't me" Mary joked. She was still surprised though, Mandy never mentioned any friends from back then. But she was not going to get distracted from her goal.
“Great so invit her then”
“Him and I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him in years. I don’t really know what he is doing now. For all I know, he could have moved and his family could have sold his house. So how would I even find him? Plus, maybe he is in a good place and I wouldn’t want to disturb it. It’s not like we have a lot of good memories from back in the day. I mean his brother is my ex and my brother is his so you know..” Okay, she was rambling now. Mary stopped her.
“Hey, you don’t need to figure it out now but think about it maybe”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea” Mandy mumbled.
“What’s his name, anyhow?” Mary was trying to be subtle, if Mandy didn’t want to do it herself she would have to find him and how could she do that if she didn’t even know his name.
“It’s Ian Gallagher” Great, she gave it right away. Mary jotted it down quickly. She hoped Mandy came around because it was a pretty common name. He would be hard to track down if her friend didn’t help her at all.
“Anyway, do you think I should invite Claire from work, she is kind of a bitch but I think she’ll be offended if she is not invited and then she’ll be even more of a bitch to me at the office?” The topic was closed then. Fine, Mary would go along with it for now but it definitely wasn’t the end of this.
“Shouldn’t you invite people you want to be there?” And the list was getting longer without any more mentions of Ian Gallagher or any other potential family member.
_________________
Months passed and every attempt Mary made to get Mandy to talk about Ian Gallagher or her brothers were quickly shot down. With a month left before the big day, she knew she had to do something. So Mandy didn’t want to try to invite her brothers or her old best friend. Mary was still kind of jealous to know someone had come before her. Anyway, not getting sidetracked there, Mandy had still said that she’d like her brother and old best friend to be there. He is not in the picture anymore, they haven’t talked in years, don’t be jealous. But what if she finds him and then Mandy forgets about her when they are reunited. Okay stop, this is not the point at all and Mandy would never do that. Probably. Well, she needed to track him down first for that to ever happen anyway. She needed a plan. What was she going to do? Go to Chicago and ask around if anyone knew someone called Ian Gallagher?
That is actually exactly what she did. Fuck her life and her detective skills. In her defense, she did know that Mandy used to live in the South Side and even more precisely in Back of the Yards so that was definitely better than to comb all of Chicago. Still this seemed like a pretty impossible task. Well now that she was here, she was still going to try. She talked her plan over with Ethan, Mandy's fiancé and he agreed that it was the best course of action so if it all goes to shit…Well, Mandy's fault for surrounding herself with idiots.
Maybe she should enter a bar or something then because accosting random strangers in the street seemed a bit much even for her. She wasn’t that desperate yet. That’s that then, she was going to start by a bar. What kind of bar though? Surely, the modern, new bar across from her would be too recent for South Siders who remembered Mandy to frequent. An old seedy bar then, great. Walking around a bit more, she came across an establishment called the Alibi Room. You didn’t make it seedier than that, a drunk was yelling in front of the door and the windows looked like they hadn’t been cleaned since they were installed. Perfect. Entering, she noticed that it was almost empty, three people were sitting at a table discussing among themselves, two men were at the bar nursing a beer each and talking to the young bartender. Only six person to interrogate. Better than zero anyway. Clenching her purse, she made her way to the bar.
“Hey, what can I get for you?” The young bartender asked. He was eyeing her curiously, clearly thinking that she was lost or something. She couldn’t really blame him seeing his other clients. Did at least one of them take a shower in the last week? And now the two men had turned on their barstools and were giving her a once over. Ugh.
“I’ll get a beer. Thanks” Giving her a quick nod, he turned to fetch a glass.
“So, how did you end up here? Don’t really seem like the usual patron.” He asked, pouring her beer. She took a big gulp as soon as he placed the glass in front of her. She saw him quirk his lip at the gesture.
“I’m looking for someone actually.”
“Yeah? Gonna tell us who?” One of the men, the bigger one asked.
“Shut up Tommy, she is talking to me. Nobody wants to ask you anything. Sorry for those two idiots, you can ignore them. I’m Carl by the way. So who is it you’re looking for? I know my fair share of people around here.” The young bartender, Carl interjected. She was glad for it. She largely preferred having a conversation with him than this Tommy guy.
“I’m Mary.” She smiled, turning on the charm. If this guy actually knew this Ian, she had to make sure that he would tell her about his whereabouts.
“I’m looking for someone called Ian Gallagher. Do you happen to know him, by chance?” Instantly Carl’s smile turned into a frown.
“What do you need Ian for?” The friendly tone was gone, yes but this guy definitely knew the man she was looking for. If he knew Ian then he might know Mandy. She was not sure if she should bring her up or not but she hadn’t thought of any other excuses as to why she was looking for him. Wow, a truly great thought out plan she had made.
“I wanted to talk to him about Mandy.” Carl's eyes widened comically.
“Mandy Milkovich?” That was going way better than she anticipated. She entered a random bar and asked the first person she encountered and this person knew both Ian and Mandy. Either she was in luck or she actually had good detective skills. First one probably.
“Yes”
“What happened to her? She dead or something?” Carl asked, looking a bit worried but not as much as you would think when asking about someone’s potential death.
“Uh no” She answered, a bit confused. Is it really the first thing you think to ask about a person you haven’t seen in years? Maybe.
“What then? She got arrested?” The Tommy guy asked, seemingly finding this really entertaining.
“No, it’s not that either.” Before she had the time to elaborate the second guy beside Tommy had started talking.
“Maybe she had a kid and told everyone Ian was the father and this girl is CPS trying to pawn the kid off on Ian.”
“Ok, let the girl speak maybe before we invent an entire life for Mandy” Carl interjected. Mary was looking at them gobsmacked. That’s all the possibility they could think of for why she would contact Ian about Mandy. Life must be really fucked up around here, or just Mandy’s old life. The three of them were looking at her now, waiting for her to explain herself.
“She is actually getting married and I thought it would be cool to surprise her by inviting her old best friend since she doesn’t really talk to anyone from her family anymore.”
“Oh, yeah that’s nice.” Carl finally blurted out after a few moments of silence.
“So do you think you could give me Ian’s contact information?” She asked sweetly. Doing a total 180 from the moment she first mentioned Ian’s name, Carl started to ramble excitingly.
“Oh my god, I can’t believe Mandy is getting married. Ian’s gonna be so excited. He totally wanted to invite her to his wedding but her old phone number didn’t work anymore and nobody knew where she was. I’m not sure whose absence he was more sad about, Mandy or Fiona. That doesn’t matter now anyway. Fuck, little Mandy is getting married.” Mary didn’t know who Fiona was but this monologue seemed in favor of her plan succeeding so she listened, her lips turning up and her eyes crinkling as the young bartender talked about little Mandy even though it was clear he was actually younger than her.
“Bet she’s still hot” Tommy muttered. Way to break her good mood. Disgusting old pervert.
“Shut up Tommy. The last time you saw her she was still a teenager, old fuck.” Carl retorted. Mary couldn’t have done better.
“So about Ian…” She started, wanting the subject to return to the initial reason for her presence in this fine establishment.
“Oh yeah, sorry I’ll call him right now, tell him to come down here.” Carl answered quickly, grabbing his phone and dialing the number immediately. They all waited in silence until someone picked on the other end. She listened intently to the one half of the conversation she could hear.
“Yo Ian”
“...”
“No, I have a reason for calling, I’m not just bored.”
“...”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“...”
“Shut up and listen, some girl is here looking for you.”
“...”
“She’s here about Mandy actually.”
The voice on the other end of the phone clearly got louder but she still couldn’t make out what Ian was saying no matter how much she tried.
“No, Mandy’s okay, her friend will tell you when you get here.”
“...”
“Ok, yeah.” And Carl clicked off his phone.
“Ian’ll be here in ten.” He told them.
“Ok, great.” Wow everything was going so smoothly it was making her head dizzy.
“So wait, how do you know him anyway?” Mary remembered to ask.
“He’s my brother.” Carl chuckled.
“No shit?! That’s really my luck then.” She couldn’t believe it. Wait, now that they were talking about brothers maybe she should mention Mandy’s to Carl. He could potentially know if they were still around or not. Couldn’t hurt to try. Her stream of good luck might not end here.
“Talking about brothers, do you know if any of them are still around ?” The three men looked at each other and started to snigger. They definitely knew something then.
“You should wait for Ian, he is still in contact with them.” Carl answered finally. Fine she would wait then.
“I used to have such a crush on Mandy back in the day.” Carl continued wistfully.
“You knew her well then?” She couldn’t help herself. If Carl wanted to talk about Mandy as a teenager she definitely wasn’t going to stop him.
“Kind of, she was always hanging with Ian and then she started dating Lip so she was always around.” Lip? What kind of name is that? Oh that must have been the brother Mandy mentioned. Didn’t she also say that Ian dated one of her brothers? Before she could ask anything more, the door opened with a bang and a surly black haired man entered followed by a tall muscular redhead.
“Yo Carl, a beer.” The black haired guy called out before taking a stool and plopping himself on it. He nodded at the two patrons to her left.
“Dumbfucks.” The redhead was now standing beside him and rolled his eyes at him before addressing Carl and the two men.
“Hey Carl.” He called in a soft voice then turning “Tommy, Kermit”.
“Hey Ian.” The man Mary assumed was Kermit answered. So the redhead was Ian then. He was fucking hot. She was still looking him up and down when she heard Carl introduce her.
“Ian, this is Mary, Mandy’s friend.” He said pointing at her. Ian and his companion turned to her abruptly, eyes hard.
“So Mandy’s friend, why are you here?” Ian asked her, coldly. Why did everyone seem to think of the worst automatically around here?
“I wanted to invite you to Mandy’s wedding.” She answered defensively. She just wanted to do a nice thing for her best friend, she didn’t deserve to get attacked by a bunch of strangers. Ian and the man he came in with had the same reaction as Carl, Tommy and Kermit. Mouths opened, eyes wide they turned to look at each other. They seemed to have a silent conversation before their gaze fell back on her.
“Mandy’s getting fucking married?!” The black haired guy all but yelled.
“Yes, she is.” Mary responded calmly. Ian seemed to come back from his surprise at that.
“So why are you here and not her?” He asked, he looked a bit affronted that Mandy didn’t come hand him the invitation personally. Mary decided she was going to try to explain the situation in one go.
“When we made the list of people to invite she mentioned you but said she wouldn’t even know how to contact you or if you would even want to hear from her. So, as her best friend and made of honor, I decided to track you down to surprise her. Everybody should have family at their wedding.” She ended, the last part of her tirade spoken softly, her eyes fixated on her hands resting on her thighs. For all the bravado she had shown since entering the South Side, she was feeling rather shy now. She really wanted this Ian guy to come to the wedding.
“Can’t believe she even thought I wouldn’t want to hear from her. She is the one who disappeared. For all I knew she could have been dead.” Mary raised her head to watch Ian. She couldn’t believe her eyes. This giant muscular guy was giving her, or maybe Mandy even if she wasn’t even present, the chin. That made his friend laugh.
“No need to give us the chin, man. Not our fault Mandy stopped talking to you.” He mocked.
“Shut up Mickey. She stopped talking to you too.” Ian responded, still sulking. The black haired guy, Mickey, shrugged and went back to his beer. Mary didn’t really know what to say. She couldn’t tell if Ian was really pissed off or just a bit annoyed. Mickey turned to her.
“Give him a minute, he’ll be finished with his tantrum by then.”
“Mick, you’re a fucking asshole.” Ian elbowed his friend, but it only made him laugh.
“Love you too, husband.” Mickey replied before taking another gulp of his beer. Right, Carl did say earlier that Ian was married. So that Mickey guy was his husband. Interesting. Come to think of it, he seemed to know Mandy as well. Weird since Carl had said that Ian wasn’t able to track Mandy down for his wedding. Whatever she just needed Ian to agree to come and maybe ask him about Mandy’s brothers.
“So you’ll come?” She asked. Turning on the puppy eyes.
“Of course, I’ll come.” He huffed. Great. This plan of hers was turning out real good.
“Mandy will be so glad.” She decided buttering Ian up might make her chances of knowing about the brothers even greater.
“You sure you want Ian to come to the wedding? If Ian wasn’t gay, she would have definitely married him. There is still a chance they’ll run away together before the wedding.” Mickey told her, smirking.
“Obviously me and Mandy would already be married if I was into chicks. You wouldn’t hold a candle to her, baby.” Ian answered his husband, laughing. He still threw an arm over Mickey’s shoulder affectionately. Ian’s coming was secured then. Time to ask about the brothers.
“Carl told me you’re still in contact with Mandy’s brothers. Do you think any of them could come to the wedding?” Mickey’s eyebrows shot up at the question and he turned his gaze to Ian who was already looking at him. Fuck, she remembered Mandy mentionning that Ian had dated her brother now. If Mickey was jealous and he seemed like the kind, she was about to witness a blow out. She waited but Ian and Mickey were now smirking at each other. The other three men that were listening to the conversation had started laughing. She had forgotten they were even there.
“Well, Mickey?” Ian asked.
“What?” His husband answered, clearly finding this ordeal amusing.
“Would you be able to go to your sister’s wedding?” And oh ok, definitely not jealous then.
“Mmh, I think I could probably make it, yeah.” They both turned to look at her, bearly containing their laughter.
“How was I to know Mickey was her brother?” Mary cried.
“You couldn’t have known but it was still funny.” Ian answered, still chuckling.
“Colin is in prison though so sorry but he won’t be able to make it. We could definitely bring Iggy though.” He continued.
Mary was positively beaming, she succeeded in finding Ian, convincing him to come and he would even bring two of Mandy’s brothers. They continued talking for a while and it was as clear as water to Mary that Ian and Mickey loved the shit out of Mandy. It made her really happy to see that even if she had a shit start at life, Mandy had still had people in her corner back then and they still loved her to death after she had gone silent one them for years. She also learned a ton of embarrassing stories so that was definitely a plus.
Just as she was getting up to leave, an idea struck her.
“How would you guys feel about walking Mandy down the aisle?” Ian smiled widened impossibly and even Mickey seemed pleased she had asked.
“We would love to.” Ian cried while Mickey gave a quiet “Yeah”.
“See you at the wedding then” She gave both of them a hug, waved at Carl, raised both middle fingers at Tommy and Kermit, turned around and walked out of the Alibi. This wedding was going to be the bomb and she was the bestest of friends.
____________________
It was the big day. Mary had already met with Ian and Mickey and the few people they had brought with them : Iggy, Ian’s sister Debbie, her kid Franny and her girlfriend Sandy who was also coincidently Mandy’s cousin (what the fuck was up with Gallaghers and Milkoviches dating each other?). She had introduced the couple to Mandy’s sooned to be husband and thank god he wasn’t wearing his tuxedo yet because he might have had to get married in jeans with the little intimidation speech Ian and Mickey had given him. Greatly entertaining for a bystander, absolutely terrifying if you were on the receiving end. At least, Ethan hadn’t pussied out and was still planning to wait for Mandy at the end of the aisle. In five minutes, she would finally be able to reveal her big surprise. Mary was trembling with excitement.
She had fetched Mandy telling her she had an early wedding present and was guiding her towards the room where Ian and Mickey were waiting for them. She almost fell, stepping on her dress in her hast. They stopped in front of the door and Mandy was looking at her quizzically. She was behaving like a child on Christmas morning but she couldn’t have cared less. She was so sure that Mandy was going to love her surprise. She just hoped Mandy didn’t cry and ruin her makeup.
Opening the door, she stepped in first and then cleared the entrance so that Mandy could enter. As the door slowly closed behind her, Mandy looked up and saw the two men. Ian was leaning on the wall opposite to them while Mickey was standing armed crossed next to him, both were looking at Mandy, smiling. Mandy's eyes kept looking back and forth between the two men, she seemed stuck in place. Ian tilted his head at her and exhaled a soft “Hey, Mands”. In a second, Mandy was throwing herself at him. Ian caught her and swirled her around before depositing her on the floor. He gave her a sweet kiss on the head before loosening his grip on her enough to be able to look her in the eyes.
The soft moment was cut short by Mickey.
“You don’t even give a hug to your long lost brother, bitch.” Mandy untangled herself from Ian to whack Mickey on the head but she still ended up giving him a hug as well.
After all the embraces had been given, Mandy finally spoke, eyes shiny.
“What the fuck are you guys doing here?”
“Your friend over there tracked us down, and it’s not like Terry was gonna walk you down the aisle.” Mickey answered, pointing at Mary. Mandy turned around to look at her and soon enough Mandy was enveloping her in a hug as well.
“Thanks.” Mandy murmured into her ear before releasing her. She looked back at Ian and Mickey.
“You guys clean up well, stolen tuxedos or not.” She said smiling.
“We had to rent those, fuck you very much. We’re upstanding citizens now.” Ian smirked.
“How are you guys even here? Mickey is supposed to be in prison and I thought you had a new boyfriend Ian.” Mandy asked, looking bewildered.
“A lot of stuff happened since the last time we saw you, Mands. Long story short, we’re back together and have been married for two years.” Ian smiled softly, eyes on Mickey. Mandy’s gaze settled on their hands where two matching rings were resting. She looked back up to them.
“Yeah, you’re not the first to get hitched." Mickey smirked. "Iggy and Colin are still single though, so you're not the last at least."
Mary continued watching the heartwarming reunion for a while before coming to her senses and announcing that they should really get going if Mandy wanted to make it to her own wedding.
___________________
The wedding was beautiful. She got to watch her best friend walked down the aisle by two people who loved unconditionally and that was all thanks to her. The couple hadn’t written their own vows, thank fuck for that, but the I do’s they exchanged brought her to tears. Everything during the day had gone smoothly, she hadn’t had any crisis to handle. They had made some small changes to the original plan so that Mandy could have a first dance with Ian. Mary was beaming all day. When came the evening and the slow dances started she found herself sitting in a chair resting her feet after having danced for hours when Mandy took the seat next to her. They hadn’t had a full conversation since before the wedding started.
“Hey.” Mandy whispered.
“Hey.” She responded quietly.
“Thanks for today.” Mandy wasn’t looking at her but her eyes seemed fixated on something. Mary turned her head to look in the same direction. There they were. Ian and Mickey, turning slowly in a tight embrace.
“No worries. I took a little adventure to Chicago, it was fun.” She was sincere. Even if her plan to find Ian Gallgher clearly sucked, she was glad she went through with it. The ease with which she found him was clearly a sign that the universe wanted him and Mandy to reunite. And the worry that plagued her at first that Mandy would abandon her for Ian was all but gone now. Seeing them reunite and knowing she did that for her best friend was one, if not the best, feeling she had ever experienced.
“It’s weird seeing them like this.” Mandy continued. Mary assumed that she was talking about her brother and best friend slow dancing. Mary studied them a bit more. They looked peaceful. Looking in each other's eyes with small smiles blessing both their lips. They appeared completely in sync. It was truly a beautiful sight. Mary just hummed in response.
“Everything used to be so awful all the time when we were teens. Especially for those two. You should have seen them back then. Polar opposite to what we have in front of us right now.” She didn’t elaborate any further but Mary understood that even if she was unable to voice it, Mandy was glad for them. If the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes were any indication.
They continued watching them in silence until the couple turned to them and they each took one by the hand leading them on the dance floor. Mary felt Ian snake an arm around her waist and started swaying her gently while smiling softly at her. Man, she really needed to get a boyfriend. They talked a bit while dancing and when the song came to an end, Ethan came to fetch Mandy from Mickey’s arms. Mary was left standing between Ian and Mickey. They watched Mandy and yeah she was definitely in love as well, she looked at her husband the exact way they had just observed Mickey looking at Ian a few moments ago. Same baby blue eyes looking up at their husband like they hold the universe in their pupils. Like brother, like sister, it seemed.
“Wow.” She heard Ian mutter.
“Yeah.” Mickey agreed. And that was it, the day was finally coming to an end and the surplus of emotions got its hold on Mary. Tears started falling off her face like she intended on flooding the entire venue. Ian started petting her hair gently while Mickey placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. And she continued to sob and get comforted by two men she barely knew but felt like family all the same, watching her best friend dreamily dancing away in the night.