Chapter 23

Lug Nut
The next day
It is late afternoon before I get to Ailee’s place. I know Merigold and the girls have been there for a few hours helping take care of her but it doesn’t stop me from worrying. I cleared the whole night just for Ailee. Whatever she feels up to doing we are going to do it. We could just lay around and watch movies for all I care. As long as I get to hold her in my arms.
When I get there I’m surprised to see Viper,Brick, Axel, Rowdy, Thor and Tank there. How did they get Finn to let them in? “ Brothers?” Viper stands up from the couch and says “ We should have done this already but after what you said yesterday we finally got our heads out of our asses and decided to stop putting it off.” “ Have you seen Ailee yet?” I ask. “ No, Callen said she needed a few minutes and would come get us.” Tank says. Just then Callen opens Ailee’s bedroom door and motions for us to come in.

We walk in and stand side by side. Ailee is propped up on some pillows with the girls all around her. She looks up with exhausted eyes , covers her mouth and her shoulders start to shake. Merigold asks “ Ailee are you ok?” Ailee looks at us again then starts cracking up in a way I have never seen before. She is holding her ribs and she has tears running down her face. The old ladies look as confused as I feel. Ailee is gasping for air, waves in our direction and manages to say “ They look like they're ready for a Magic Mike stripper audition.” Lilly, who had just taken a drink, sprays water everywhere and starts to choke.
Speed, Trina, Gretchen and Merigold lose their shit bending over laughing so hard they have tears in their eyes. I can see when it dawns on Ailee what she said because the look on her face is one of mortification. I go to sit beside her and pull her to me. “ Hey, honey. How are you feeling today?” Ailee sighs and leans into me. Just that short laughing fit has left her drained. “ Had a rough go for a bit. Callen gave me a smoothie with some of the stuff you gave me and it is helping. The girls have been keeping me company. They even did my nails.” Ailee lifted her hand to show me her bright red nails.
I take her hand and kiss it. I’m so grateful to the old ladies for giving Ailee a sense of normal right now. Even if it is something as simple as doing her nails for her. “ I like the red honey. Fiery like you.” I say. She looks up at me and smiles “ Enough about me. I have unexpected guests I have been neglecting.”Ailee looks over at my brothers and gives them a smile despite how bad she must be feeling. “ Not that it isn’t good to see you cousin. But I am curious as to why you gentlemen have paid me a visit. It must be important if Finn lets you in.”
Ailee tenses and tries to sit up “ Has something happened to Ace?” It is interesting that her concern goes to Ace even after everything that happened with them and there being no relationship between them right now. I know Ace hasn’t reached out and Ailee believes he should make the first move if he wants to be in her life. I think there is a part of her that longs for her father.
Viper steps forward “ No Ailee. Ace is the same stubborn ass as always.” Aille relaxes against me again. “ We,” Viper says motioning to Brick, Axel, Rowdy, Thor and Tank “ Came by to check on you. And to apologize. Truthfully, we should have come over way before now.” “ I don’t understand. You have nothing to apologize for for” Tank steps forward this time “ Yeah, we do. We didn’t properly welcome you to the family like we should have. And we didn’t step in when the skanks were causing you trouble. We should have.”
Rowdy steps up next “ There are a lot of things we should have done differently. The skanks being one of them. But the other is how things went down with you. I’m not talking for everyone else but for me. Instead of seeing you as family like I should have all I saw was.” Ailee didn’t let him finish “ You saw the O’ Sullivan in me. Not me as a person.” Rowdy looked embarrassed but he owned it. “ Yea that’s what I did. And it was wrong of me to do. You didn’t come in judging us but we judged you. And for that I’m sorry. We should have looked at you as a member of the family. Not an outsider.” Thor steps up next “ And it shouldn’t have taken our ol’e ladies to point it out for us to see we did wrong. We should have known.” Ailee smiles “ Are you coming forward in hopes of getting out of the doghouse sooner? Because that is not for me to decide.” “ No, we need to do that on our own. We are coming to see you because we should have done it already. It is what we do for family.” Axel says.

I’m watching Viper the whole time my brothers are talking and notice he hasn’t taken his eyes off of Ailee. He is looking in her eyes, taking in the paleness of her skin, and the exhaustion in her movements. Not in a creepy way or even a possessive way but a concerned, protective big brother way. That's when it hits me. He has seen all of this before. He went through this before when his dad battled and lost with cancer. Seeing it again with Ailee, another family member can’t be easy for him. I wonder if that is why it took him so long to come check on her. Maybe he couldn’t face it again. I’ll have to tell him later that he doesn’t have to be here if it is too much to handle.
Axel continues “ So this is us getting our head out of our ass with a no so gentle nudge from our wonderful wife.” Both Merigold and Lilly chime in “ Hey, we did no such thing.” Merigold says. Lilly laughs “ We shoved.” That earns a light giggle from Ailee. Axel rolls his eyes but continues “ We are sorry. And we hope you accept our apology.” Viper says “ We would like to see if we could wipe the slate clean and start over. We want you to be part of this family. On your terms of course. We want to show you we will have your back no matter what. As Ailee the person. Not Ailee O’Sullivan. The ice queen of the Irish mafia.”
Ailee doesn’t say anything for a long time. She just looks from one brother to another for a minute. I don’t know what she is looking for but when she finds it she asks if I could help her up. When I get her to her feet she is unsteady. I wrap my arm around her waist to hold her steady and whisper “ You don’t have to do this.” Ailee holds my gaze “ Aye I do.” Knowing there is no sense in arguing with her I just go with it. The sooner she says what she has to say the sooner I get her back to bed.
I help her walk up to Viper, the brothers standing close so she doesn’t have to go too far. Ailee wraps her arm around Viper’s waist. I let go of her when I know Viper has her. “ I’m not ready to deal with Ace yet.” Viper nods. “ But life is all about second chances and moving on. So consider the past forgotten. It is good to meet you cousin.” Viper holds Ailee close to him and hugs as tight as he can without hurting her and buries his head into her shoulder. “ It is good to meet you cousin.” He says with a strained voice.
Axel hugs her next and tells her welcome to the family. Then she moves to Rowdy and gets a hug. But when she gets to Tank it is like the last of her energy reserves drains right out of her. When Tank pulls away I reach and grab Ailee before her legs give out. I pick her up and hold her to my chest “ Alright, I think that is enough excitement for you for one day. Time for you to get some rest.”
I lay Ailee back in the bed and cover her up. Ailee's already closing her eyes before her head hits the pillow . I look at the old ladies first and see them drying their eyes after watching Ailee and the guys. I look at my brother and hope they understand “ Brothers I think we need to cut this visit short. Maybe come back when Ailee is feeling a little better.” Ailee tries to protest saying it is rude to ask them to leave when they just got here. Viper steps in “ Don’t worry Ailee. We will see you again soon.”

Ailee mumbles “ Ok. Lug will you lay with me for a bit?” I stroke her hair and kiss her forehead “ I’ll be right back. I’m going to walk the guys out.” Once I close the bedroom door I turn to the old ladies “ Thanks for keeping Ailee company for me.” Speed hugs me “ You don’t have to thank us. We like spending time with her.” The rest of the old ladies nod in agreement. I turn to my brothers to say thank you to them but before I can say anything Rowdy asks “ Is Ailee always this bad?”
Callen comes around the corner and answers for me. “ Usually it is worse. I think the meds Lug Nut helped us get are helping this time. But I think the visits from the lasses here and now Lug Nut are the big difference. It gives Ailee something to look forward to. She has always had me, her grandda and Finn by her side. Her family. And while we would do anything for her it isn’t the same as having friends by her side. We can't make her laugh at silly things like the little lads and lasses do.We can't play guitar like Mrs. Lilly does. Or tell her stories about driving on a race track. Or show her drawings of some new art work. Or gossip over a tv show we don’t understand. All these little things make Ailee’s day so much better. ”