Chapter 5
Svetlana Gallagher (formerly Milkovich) didn’t usually concern herself with matters that really weren’t her concern. She worked for a better life for herself and her son. Nothing more and nothing less. Until recently that is. Running to Ian Gallagher had been something she never would have imagined herself doing. She took care of her own but she had been desperate. A desperate act which has been the reason for her new found friendship with the redhead. The friendship that somehow found her feeling guilty about keeping something of this magnitude from him. She didn’t tell him her plan and she sure as hell didn’t tell him when she got the call that Mickey actually got another court date.
Maybe she should have told him but all she kept thinking was back to the first time. Even in the state, Ian had been in. When Mickey had been sent away she could still see the pained look on his face. She had watched it all and now she couldn’t do it again. She couldn’t sit there and break his heart by giving him hope and it being taken away again, so in the. King weeks to Mickey’s hearing she kept her mouth shut. She walked on eggshells and prayed that Jan didn’t know her well enough to know something was up.
When Mickey calls with the date, she thinks of an excuse for her to disappear for a whole day. She finally lands on a decision the night before. Telling Ian that she had a date the next day and asked if he could keep an eye on Yevgeny. He nods smiling at her, somehow showing happiness for her even though he is miserable without his angry lover.
—
Svetlana sits in that room as she watches Sami being brought out, tapping her foot against the hard floor, staring daggers at the reason that Mickey is in this mess, to begin with. If this bitch fucks this up for them she is liable to get herself locked up by flying over the stand and strangling her, herself. She wants to do it anyway. Even though the woman recounts how she lied and it was all a mistake. That Mickey hadn’t tried to kill her, how she had fallen asleep in that crate, high off her ass and she didn’t like the Gallagher’s, hated them all. She said that Mickey was the logical choice because he has been so distraught over Ian being locked up. She said that she didn’t know how that crate got locked but it couldn’t have been o. Purpose she just wanted someone to pay for her being in that situation.
There it was, the lie above all lies. She waited impatiently as she judges face contemplated the information he was being given. Asking questions about why she was coming forward now. She sighed as it looked like this couldn’t possibly go their way. she held her head down. She just needed Mickey to go free and if that couldn’t happen she didn’t know how they were going to make it the next set of years until he was free. The last option was finding a way to break him out and getting him and Ian across the border. That was a shoty plan. Ian leaving his family was a long shot and not a risk she could really see herself taking without running with them. If she stayed she got sent away.
She is in just as much shock as anyone, maybe not more than Mickey when he is released. Or told he will be released within the next 24 hours. She rushes as close to Mickey as she can get before he is taken back to prison to begin his processing.
“Does he know?” He asks her, still obviously in shock that he gets to come home tomorrow.
“No. Didn’t want to break his heart if they said no.” She says and he nods at her. She tells him to call her and she will give him the address. He can surprise his son. And she winks as if to say. And your man. He just nods.
—
He doesn’t say anything else as he is being brought back into what has been his home or his hell more than once in his life. As a teenager, it didn’t bother him, not really. It was an escape from home but now…spending this time in here solidified the fact that Mickey Milkovich didn’t want to be a career criminal like he had been raised to be. He wanted things. He thinks he never thought he would let himself want. He wanted his son, he wanted Ian. He wanted their life together. Even if it meant hiding it for a while again. So that Svet could stay. Even if it meant stolen kisses and hidden moments until they could be together again and free. He didn’t care about any of it as long as he could have Ian again.
He didn’t even care about all the bullshit they had to wade through. Not anymore. All the times that Svetlana has told him that Ian cries at night, took away so much of the anger and just brought pain.
So he kept quiet as he was processed. He waited patiently on the outside while he was climbing the walls on the inside. He didn’t need any action of his to be any reason for them to keep him in here. He just wanted to go home.
There was only one problem during his release. He would still be on probation. Which meant he needed an address to give them before they would let him go.
“My ex-wife set something up for me. So I could be close to my son. She didn’t give me the address. Is there any way I could call her and get it?” R asked and the guard shook his head but seemed to contemplate.
“Do you know her current address. Maybe you’ll be staying with her?” The guard asked. He didn’t know it, but even if he did he couldn’t use it because it would look fishy to immigration.
“Nah man. She moved in with her new husband. Don’t want to interfere. Without the call, I really don’t have one to give you. Don’t want anything to be off.” He Said. The guard nodded and told him to hold on. Like he had a choice. What seemed like forever later but was really probably just a few minutes the man came back out.
“Alright. We got you settled. We put in your ex-wife’s address on file. You’ll need to go in Monday and tell your parole officer there’s an address change. Tell him there was a mix-up and we got it wrong. Shouldn’t be an issue.” Mickey nodded at the man. It another word was spoken until he was walking out the gate. A free man.
—
Svet gets dinner ready after talking to Mickey and apologizing for not being there to pick him up. She felt bad for nobody being there for him and she knew when Ian found out he wouldn’t be happy about it. Mickey told her to shut up at least one hundred times. She gave him the address and got everything ready. Including moving most of the important things out of Ian’s room. Still leaving traces of her in case someone showed up. She also twirled the keys around her fingers looking at them. The keys to Mickey’s new apartment. When he told her he needed a physical address to give them by Monday she told him not to worry that she had it handled:
And she did. She had thought of everything. Talked to the Landlord and sweet talked the old man who had a slight crush on her, she convinced him to rent her a second apartment and not to mention it to her husband yet. That was key. Ian wasn’t supposed to know anything until he walked into this apartment tonight and laid eyes on Mickey himself. Although she imagined that might be impossible because her son was going to be screaming and bouncing around the house like a madman. He asked about Mickey all the time and this Morison visits just weren’t cutting it. Thankfully they wouldn’t have to anymore: as long as mickey kept himself out of trouble this time.
—
After Mickey eats and takes a shower, Svet shoes him to the room that he will be sharing with Ian tonight. She hands him the keys to the other apartment and tells him it will be his until this immigration shot is sorted and then they will sort it all out. He is almost asleep when he hears the door open.
Yev is in his room playing and has been told to let Mickey surprise Ian. Mickey is slowly inching toward the door just wanting to get a look at him but what he sees breaks his heart. Ian sinks down onto the couch, he is holding his head in his hands.
“I can’t do this anymore. I miss him. I just want to hold him. Fuck Sami and her bullshit. I’ll kill her myself.” Ian says. Mickey doesn’t have to see his face to know he’s crying. He tiptoes out of the room and Svet looks up at him. She seems to have an idea, which where she is concerned that’s a horrible idea.
“What about going to the clubs and finding a distraction for a night?” She suggests and Mickey swears he almost throttled her right there. Glaring at her she holds up a finger for him to wait like she already knows what’s coming. And maybe she does.
"No. Not the same. It's not him. I tried that before, dating other people and I just lay there and think how different it could feel if he would just wrap his arms around me and kiss me again. It's going to be hard, but I can wait until it's really him.” Ian says putting his head in his hands. Mickey slowly walks behind Ian. He places his hands on his shoulders rubbing lightly and places a kiss on the aide of his neck. Ian jumps up and whirls around coming face to face with none other than Mickey Milkovich himself.
”mick?” he asks shocked and unable to move. Before Mickey can speak to assure him that it’s really him. Yev jumps out from his bedroom.
“Surprise!” He yells. “Daddy’s home!!” Svetlana runs to her son, catching him before he attacks Mickey again. Mickey laughs at his son's ridiculous excitement.
“Come to get ready for bed. Give them a minute” she says and Mickey shakes his head.
“I want to tuck him in,” he says lightly and his sons' smile could do him in right there.
“I’ll call for you when he’s ready.” She said taking Yevgeny with her leaving Mickey and Ian alone in the living room.
Words aren’t even spoken, within seconds Ian and Mickey are in each other's arms. Kissing Luke no time had passed like this is nothing. Except it is. Being back together finally is everything.
——
Time passed like it was nothing after that night. No more waiting and hoping. Mickey had his apartment, which was down the hall from theirs. Ian spent as much time as he could in that place.
Svetlana and Ian stayed married and to the outside works looked like a happily married couple until almost a year had gone by and INS signed the paperwork and the visits were no longer a thing they had to deal with. Svetlana decided waiting five years wasn’t an option for her and went through the proper channels to become a citizen that didn’t rely on her marriage.
The day that they filed for divorce was about six months after Svet was officially legal. And they all celebrated. Ian’s stuff was moved into Mickey’s the next morning.
They lived happily and in love for six months before the divorce was final and everything was settled.
One day while they were lounging around their apartment. Based and full of the afterglow that came with finally having everything they both wanted Mickey looked at Ian and smiled brightly.
“I want to make a deal.”
“Oh yeah?” Ian chucked.
“Next time either of us decides to get fucking married it’s to each other and not to our ex-wife.” Ian paused as Mickey spoke clearly in shock but just nodded before laughing.
“How’s tomorrow?” He asked.
“I’m free tomorrow.” Was the answer Ian received before crashing his lips on Mickey’s.
The next morning. They found themselves at the courthouse. This time for a reason to celebrate. When the Gallagher’s heard about the wedding it was Lip that spoke first.
“Now this marriage actually makes sense” and they all laughed before heading to the Gallagher house for one huge ass party.
Everything was how it was meant to be once again.