SAINTS&SINNERS 2/?
the black donnellys/boondock saints crossover
PART ONE
"kevin, what's the matter?" tommy says, and fingers are prodding at his torn skin again, looking for any unseen damage. "no," kevin says. "not me. them. they're uh...jesus christ. i think those're the saints."
"what the fuck are you talking about?" jimmy says, moving forward to inspect kevin's head. "you musta been hit pretty hard, kevin."
kevin smacks jimmy and tells him to shut up, his head is just fine-well, mentally, anyway-so just shut the fuck up and listen. jimmy relents, looking to tommy for help. both brothers grin and wait for kevin to explain. "well?" tommy says. "okay, they're saints, yeah, they saved your sorry ass."
"uh huh," kevin says. "and shot everybody in this alley. don't you watch the news?"
tommy and jimmy shrug. "s'not really important," jimmy says, and tommy nods in agreement. and okay, kevin agrees, he only watches it when he's up early enough to catch it because his ma watches the local news religiously, taking in every bit of information and storing it away 'for later', as she puts it. kevin had seen a few pieces on these so-called saints of south boston, a couple of vigilante brothers running around shooting bad guys...and placing pennies on their eyes for safe passage into the afterlife, kevin thinks, eyes again straying to the pennies.
"uhm," kevin says instead, because he's not entirely sure if these two guys want him to go blabbing about who they really are, so he just says, "yeah. that's it. they did save me, so maybe you could be a bit nicer."
"alright," jimmy says, and he turns to the two guys. "thanks for saving kevin's ass....for once me and tommy here didn't have to. well, mostly," he adds, remembering how he had exited the bar's back exit after hearing gunshots and seeing kevin being held by some crazy bastard, these other two guys holding guns on the two of them. he'd only tackled them because he'd had no idea what else to do. he didn't know at first that the two guys with the guns wouldn't just shoot kevin so he'd gotten his brother out of the line of gunfire and out of the arms of the guy holding him at the same time. "i'm jimmy," jimmy said, holding out his hand. the darker haired man stared at it, then took it in his own hand and shook it twice before letting go. "and that's tommy and kevin, my brothers. two of em, anyway. seanie's still at home recovering."
"i'm murphy," the darker haired man replied. "this is my brother, connor." jimmy nodded at connor. "and this is my bar," he continued after a pause. "you're welcome to come in for a drink. on the house, of course."
murphy grinned widely and he took a step forward. connor grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back. "we gotta go, murphy. it's bad enough this happened."
"aw, c'mon, con," murphy whined, pouting. "it's free beer, ya moron. you're gonna walk away from free beer?"
"jimmy, we gotta get kevin to the hospital," tommy spoke up. kevin had sat down on the ground, slumped against the wall, eyes slowly closing every few seconds. he tried to get himself to stay awake, but the more he tried to reopen his eyes after shutting them, the more unconsciousness pulled at him.
"we could drive you," connor offered, and murphy glared at him. connor smacked him. "jesus, murphy, the kid needs a hospital more than you need beer."
"yeah, i know," murphy admitted. he stepped forward and grabbed one of kevin's arms; connor moved forward and grabbed the other. together, they dragged the younger man up and held him between their two bodies. "our car's just down the block a bit. we got out to go find smokes and instead found your brother. lucky for him."
it's in the waiting room of the hospital that tommy remembers the execution-style killing of the man who had been using kevin as a shield when him and jimmy had gone into the alley, and he turns to face connor and murphy. kevin had been admitted thirty minutes after arriving, and they planned on leaving once the stitches were in. connor and murphy had offered to stay and wait, and then drive them back to the bar afterward. “hey,” tommy says, to get their attention. they were sitting a few seats away, side by side, and were currently whispering with each other. murphy looked up first, then connor. “why'd you only kill the one guy like that?” tommy asks when their attention is on him.
“what?” connor says, then: “i'm not sure we should be discussin this here.”
tommy moves closer, into the seat next to connor's, and lowers his voice. “you shot the first four guys quickly, didn't you? as you went down the alley. but then the last guy, you didn't just kill him-you executed him. i wanna know why.”
connor shrugged, then turned to look at murphy. they began speaking in another language and tommy groaned. “oh, c'mon, kevin's my brother, alright? there had to be a reason you killed that last guy like that.”
“aye,” connor says. “there was. we're just not sure it's our place to say.”
"yeah, alright," tommy said, even though he felt like hitting the guy. he moved back to his original seat when the two brothers began speaking again, this time in russian, it sounded like. tommy stared at them suspiciously, wondering who the hell they were. "saints", kevin had said. and then "don't you watch the news?" maybe he'd meant more than just them being saviours...
jimmy came back with a tray of coffee, and wasn't not the cheap hospital kind, either. he passed two off on connor and murphy along with packets of sugar and creamer and then slumped into the seat next to tommy. he poured at least six packages of sugar into his coffee and stirred in half as much cream. tommy watched in disgust as he sipped at his own coffee, one sugar, no cream. "doesn't that make you sick?" tommy asked.
"you know it doesn't. it's good tommy, you should try it. i don't get how yours is any better. you're pretty close to drinking it black."
"i think i should go call ma. she'll be worrying. she may not always expect me and you home by dinner but kevin always shows up on time."
jimmy nodded. "i know. she's gonna be bad, tommy. first sean, now kevin..."
tommy sighed and took a large gulp of coffee, hot liquid scalding his tongue and his throat; he winced at the harsh contact. "something else happened," tommy whispered. "to kevin. i don't know what. those two know but they won't tell me anything. it's why they killed that last guy the way they did."
"yeah," jimmy said. "that was odd, wasn't it? who kills guys like that unless you're in the mob?" jimmy chuckled at that, but stopped when he caught tommy's cold glare. "hey, relax, i doubt they are. why would anyone in the mob care about saving kevin?"
"just talk to them, okay? i'm gonna go call ma."
jimmy was talking with the two brothers when tommy returned, but he doubted he'd learned anything useful. his brother was in the seat next to murphy, laughing at something one of them had said. "hey, tommy!" he called out, grinning wide and waving.
"don't yell in here," tommy reprimanded, and jimmy shrugged. "sorry. hey, how's ma?"
"she's upset. but she seemed relieved when i told her kevin'd be home tonight. it's not as bad as sean, she knows that, but it's still bad enough."
tommy caught connor and murphy watching them and he quickly changed the subject. "so jimmy, what's up?"
jimmy shrugged. "they won't, tommy. they said it's up to kevin to tell us, okay?"
"why? if something happened to either one of you, the other would want to know, wouldn't he?"
both connor and murphy nodded, but then murphy said: "but i'd be the one tellin con, and vice versa."
"how can you be so sure?" tommy asked, glaring at the two brothers. "what if one of you died?"
"woah, hey," jimmy said, grabbing tommy by the arm and pulling him back. "kevin ain't dead, and as soon as he gets out we can ask him what happened."
tommy sighed angrily but relented. "sorry," he muttered, pulling away from jimmy and leaving the waiting room. he headed back to the bank of phones, and stood there, staring at the long row of communication devices--great invention, he thought, and it was, considering that before phones there really wasn't any way to connect with anybody unless you went to their house or mailed them a letter. he tried to think of the last time he even mailed a letter and realized he never has, unless it was for school applications or bills. those didn't seem to count, though: real letters were more personal, had more thought put into the words contained within the sealed envelope. he curled his left had into a fist and punched the nearest phone, satisfied at the sound of skin encased bone hitting plastic encased metal. it didn't hurt, not really, and he punched it three more times before jimmy showed up, pulling back his arm and enveloping him from behind. "jesus, jimmy, what the hell did we do so wrong?" he whispered angrily. "first sean, now kevin...why do we keep getting each other hurt?"
when they finally headed back into the waiting room they were surprised yet relieved to find a nurse waiting for them. "mr. donnelly?" she asked, and both brothers nodded. "i'm jimmy, and this is my brother tommy. kevin's our brother."
the nurse nodded in aknowledgement. "tommy donnelly is listed as next of kin," she said. "you can come with me and sign his release forms." at tommy's confused look, she added, "he is old enough to do it himself, but with his concussion we need to ensure he's being released into the care of another person."
"oh, right," tommy said, because that should have been obvious. he followed the nurse out of the waiting room leaving jimmy behind with the two brothers once again. jimmy looks a little bit angry, probably because he's the oldest yet once again tommy was the one in charge of anything. tommy knew it was better off that way-jimmy was too unstable to be in charge of most of the things that got passed off on tommy-but it still bugged tommy because all that really meant for him was that he'd be stuck picking up after his brothers for a long time. too long, probably.
it didn't take long to sign the release form, only a couple of minutes-tommy had to fill in contact information about himself before they'd allow him to sign kevin out so he quickly scrawled his address and number on the form and signed his name at the bottom, most ofit barely legible but good enough for the nurse at the desk and kevin's doctor-but it took longer for the doctor to get kevin from his room. tommy was surprised when he saw kevin because he looked paler, the bruises on his face more prominent. sean's beaten form flashed into his mind and he pushed it aside. kevin was fine, he wasn't as badly hurt as sean, he could leave the hospital now instead of getting stuck in some lousy hospital room where the doctors cared more about saving space than the patients.
"hey kevin, how're you feeling?"
kevin nodded in response. "good," he replied. "i have eight stitches in my head."
the doctor smiled at tommy and explained kevin's injuries: "eight stitches, correct. the gash was deep but we were able to staunch the blood flow quickly and disinfect the wound before stitching it up. that was the worst injury, and the only one other than the bruising on his face. luckily, no facial bones were broken. our main concern is the concussion: we had to give him some sedatives to numb the pain from stitching up his head and he's still a bit groggy from that. you must keep him awake for at least the next twenty-four hours, although forty-eight would be better. but if he starts to feel any pain you can give him these-" the doctor handed tommy a small bottle of pills- "but only after twenty-four hours because they'll knock him out. if he still feels dizzy or sluggish after a week, or if the pain worsens, bring him back in for tests. otherwise, your brother was quite lucky. if you have any questions feel free to contact the hospital and ask for me; i'm dr. martin."
"thank you," tommy replied, gripping the bottle of painkillers tightly in his hand. yeah, he thought, kevin's lucky alright, for the first time in his life. he could have died in that alley. almost had, actually, but then those two guys had shown up...jesus, who the hell were they?
"is jimmy here?" kevin asked, snapping tommy out of his thoughts of the two brothers. he looked at kevin and nodded. "yeah, he's in the waiting room."
PART ONE
"kevin, what's the matter?" tommy says, and fingers are prodding at his torn skin again, looking for any unseen damage. "no," kevin says. "not me. them. they're uh...jesus christ. i think those're the saints."
"what the fuck are you talking about?" jimmy says, moving forward to inspect kevin's head. "you musta been hit pretty hard, kevin."
kevin smacks jimmy and tells him to shut up, his head is just fine-well, mentally, anyway-so just shut the fuck up and listen. jimmy relents, looking to tommy for help. both brothers grin and wait for kevin to explain. "well?" tommy says. "okay, they're saints, yeah, they saved your sorry ass."
"uh huh," kevin says. "and shot everybody in this alley. don't you watch the news?"
tommy and jimmy shrug. "s'not really important," jimmy says, and tommy nods in agreement. and okay, kevin agrees, he only watches it when he's up early enough to catch it because his ma watches the local news religiously, taking in every bit of information and storing it away 'for later', as she puts it. kevin had seen a few pieces on these so-called saints of south boston, a couple of vigilante brothers running around shooting bad guys...and placing pennies on their eyes for safe passage into the afterlife, kevin thinks, eyes again straying to the pennies.
"uhm," kevin says instead, because he's not entirely sure if these two guys want him to go blabbing about who they really are, so he just says, "yeah. that's it. they did save me, so maybe you could be a bit nicer."
"alright," jimmy says, and he turns to the two guys. "thanks for saving kevin's ass....for once me and tommy here didn't have to. well, mostly," he adds, remembering how he had exited the bar's back exit after hearing gunshots and seeing kevin being held by some crazy bastard, these other two guys holding guns on the two of them. he'd only tackled them because he'd had no idea what else to do. he didn't know at first that the two guys with the guns wouldn't just shoot kevin so he'd gotten his brother out of the line of gunfire and out of the arms of the guy holding him at the same time. "i'm jimmy," jimmy said, holding out his hand. the darker haired man stared at it, then took it in his own hand and shook it twice before letting go. "and that's tommy and kevin, my brothers. two of em, anyway. seanie's still at home recovering."
"i'm murphy," the darker haired man replied. "this is my brother, connor." jimmy nodded at connor. "and this is my bar," he continued after a pause. "you're welcome to come in for a drink. on the house, of course."
murphy grinned widely and he took a step forward. connor grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back. "we gotta go, murphy. it's bad enough this happened."
"aw, c'mon, con," murphy whined, pouting. "it's free beer, ya moron. you're gonna walk away from free beer?"
"jimmy, we gotta get kevin to the hospital," tommy spoke up. kevin had sat down on the ground, slumped against the wall, eyes slowly closing every few seconds. he tried to get himself to stay awake, but the more he tried to reopen his eyes after shutting them, the more unconsciousness pulled at him.
"we could drive you," connor offered, and murphy glared at him. connor smacked him. "jesus, murphy, the kid needs a hospital more than you need beer."
"yeah, i know," murphy admitted. he stepped forward and grabbed one of kevin's arms; connor moved forward and grabbed the other. together, they dragged the younger man up and held him between their two bodies. "our car's just down the block a bit. we got out to go find smokes and instead found your brother. lucky for him."
it's in the waiting room of the hospital that tommy remembers the execution-style killing of the man who had been using kevin as a shield when him and jimmy had gone into the alley, and he turns to face connor and murphy. kevin had been admitted thirty minutes after arriving, and they planned on leaving once the stitches were in. connor and murphy had offered to stay and wait, and then drive them back to the bar afterward. “hey,” tommy says, to get their attention. they were sitting a few seats away, side by side, and were currently whispering with each other. murphy looked up first, then connor. “why'd you only kill the one guy like that?” tommy asks when their attention is on him.
“what?” connor says, then: “i'm not sure we should be discussin this here.”
tommy moves closer, into the seat next to connor's, and lowers his voice. “you shot the first four guys quickly, didn't you? as you went down the alley. but then the last guy, you didn't just kill him-you executed him. i wanna know why.”
connor shrugged, then turned to look at murphy. they began speaking in another language and tommy groaned. “oh, c'mon, kevin's my brother, alright? there had to be a reason you killed that last guy like that.”
“aye,” connor says. “there was. we're just not sure it's our place to say.”
"yeah, alright," tommy said, even though he felt like hitting the guy. he moved back to his original seat when the two brothers began speaking again, this time in russian, it sounded like. tommy stared at them suspiciously, wondering who the hell they were. "saints", kevin had said. and then "don't you watch the news?" maybe he'd meant more than just them being saviours...
jimmy came back with a tray of coffee, and wasn't not the cheap hospital kind, either. he passed two off on connor and murphy along with packets of sugar and creamer and then slumped into the seat next to tommy. he poured at least six packages of sugar into his coffee and stirred in half as much cream. tommy watched in disgust as he sipped at his own coffee, one sugar, no cream. "doesn't that make you sick?" tommy asked.
"you know it doesn't. it's good tommy, you should try it. i don't get how yours is any better. you're pretty close to drinking it black."
"i think i should go call ma. she'll be worrying. she may not always expect me and you home by dinner but kevin always shows up on time."
jimmy nodded. "i know. she's gonna be bad, tommy. first sean, now kevin..."
tommy sighed and took a large gulp of coffee, hot liquid scalding his tongue and his throat; he winced at the harsh contact. "something else happened," tommy whispered. "to kevin. i don't know what. those two know but they won't tell me anything. it's why they killed that last guy the way they did."
"yeah," jimmy said. "that was odd, wasn't it? who kills guys like that unless you're in the mob?" jimmy chuckled at that, but stopped when he caught tommy's cold glare. "hey, relax, i doubt they are. why would anyone in the mob care about saving kevin?"
"just talk to them, okay? i'm gonna go call ma."
jimmy was talking with the two brothers when tommy returned, but he doubted he'd learned anything useful. his brother was in the seat next to murphy, laughing at something one of them had said. "hey, tommy!" he called out, grinning wide and waving.
"don't yell in here," tommy reprimanded, and jimmy shrugged. "sorry. hey, how's ma?"
"she's upset. but she seemed relieved when i told her kevin'd be home tonight. it's not as bad as sean, she knows that, but it's still bad enough."
tommy caught connor and murphy watching them and he quickly changed the subject. "so jimmy, what's up?"
jimmy shrugged. "they won't, tommy. they said it's up to kevin to tell us, okay?"
"why? if something happened to either one of you, the other would want to know, wouldn't he?"
both connor and murphy nodded, but then murphy said: "but i'd be the one tellin con, and vice versa."
"how can you be so sure?" tommy asked, glaring at the two brothers. "what if one of you died?"
"woah, hey," jimmy said, grabbing tommy by the arm and pulling him back. "kevin ain't dead, and as soon as he gets out we can ask him what happened."
tommy sighed angrily but relented. "sorry," he muttered, pulling away from jimmy and leaving the waiting room. he headed back to the bank of phones, and stood there, staring at the long row of communication devices--great invention, he thought, and it was, considering that before phones there really wasn't any way to connect with anybody unless you went to their house or mailed them a letter. he tried to think of the last time he even mailed a letter and realized he never has, unless it was for school applications or bills. those didn't seem to count, though: real letters were more personal, had more thought put into the words contained within the sealed envelope. he curled his left had into a fist and punched the nearest phone, satisfied at the sound of skin encased bone hitting plastic encased metal. it didn't hurt, not really, and he punched it three more times before jimmy showed up, pulling back his arm and enveloping him from behind. "jesus, jimmy, what the hell did we do so wrong?" he whispered angrily. "first sean, now kevin...why do we keep getting each other hurt?"
when they finally headed back into the waiting room they were surprised yet relieved to find a nurse waiting for them. "mr. donnelly?" she asked, and both brothers nodded. "i'm jimmy, and this is my brother tommy. kevin's our brother."
the nurse nodded in aknowledgement. "tommy donnelly is listed as next of kin," she said. "you can come with me and sign his release forms." at tommy's confused look, she added, "he is old enough to do it himself, but with his concussion we need to ensure he's being released into the care of another person."
"oh, right," tommy said, because that should have been obvious. he followed the nurse out of the waiting room leaving jimmy behind with the two brothers once again. jimmy looks a little bit angry, probably because he's the oldest yet once again tommy was the one in charge of anything. tommy knew it was better off that way-jimmy was too unstable to be in charge of most of the things that got passed off on tommy-but it still bugged tommy because all that really meant for him was that he'd be stuck picking up after his brothers for a long time. too long, probably.
it didn't take long to sign the release form, only a couple of minutes-tommy had to fill in contact information about himself before they'd allow him to sign kevin out so he quickly scrawled his address and number on the form and signed his name at the bottom, most ofit barely legible but good enough for the nurse at the desk and kevin's doctor-but it took longer for the doctor to get kevin from his room. tommy was surprised when he saw kevin because he looked paler, the bruises on his face more prominent. sean's beaten form flashed into his mind and he pushed it aside. kevin was fine, he wasn't as badly hurt as sean, he could leave the hospital now instead of getting stuck in some lousy hospital room where the doctors cared more about saving space than the patients.
"hey kevin, how're you feeling?"
kevin nodded in response. "good," he replied. "i have eight stitches in my head."
the doctor smiled at tommy and explained kevin's injuries: "eight stitches, correct. the gash was deep but we were able to staunch the blood flow quickly and disinfect the wound before stitching it up. that was the worst injury, and the only one other than the bruising on his face. luckily, no facial bones were broken. our main concern is the concussion: we had to give him some sedatives to numb the pain from stitching up his head and he's still a bit groggy from that. you must keep him awake for at least the next twenty-four hours, although forty-eight would be better. but if he starts to feel any pain you can give him these-" the doctor handed tommy a small bottle of pills- "but only after twenty-four hours because they'll knock him out. if he still feels dizzy or sluggish after a week, or if the pain worsens, bring him back in for tests. otherwise, your brother was quite lucky. if you have any questions feel free to contact the hospital and ask for me; i'm dr. martin."
"thank you," tommy replied, gripping the bottle of painkillers tightly in his hand. yeah, he thought, kevin's lucky alright, for the first time in his life. he could have died in that alley. almost had, actually, but then those two guys had shown up...jesus, who the hell were they?
"is jimmy here?" kevin asked, snapping tommy out of his thoughts of the two brothers. he looked at kevin and nodded. "yeah, he's in the waiting room."