"Is what she's saying true bastard?" Niall growled in Joseph's face as he delivered swift punches to his face. Though all three men were equal in size, Joseph and Blaise weren't able to fend off the raging Niall as his death hold on Joseph tightened. He wrapped his digits around the column of his neck, praying that he could crush his trachea.

      "Niall! You can't kill him!" Niamh yelled to her brother who happened to have lost all sense.  He was a man who fell victim to the single mother life when he shouldn't have. Seeing his pale face turn to a deep red egged him on to keep pressing the life out of him. Maybe if he went far enough, he would be rewarded with some compensation for the hell he went through his entire life. His mind flashed back to the plethora of times of the strange gazes Joseph would give Niall as a boy. The yearning he had to express how much he had meant to him living in a house where no one else acknowledged his existence but to condemn his family.

      Niall never admitted to feeling like a part of him was missing. He never wanted to depend on another man for anything after he figured out what role Joseph had really played in their running away. It had taken decades for them to return to town because of the fear he helped instill in them all.

     All of the hotels that wouldn't service them. The hospitals. Going from shelter to shelter was hell because as soon as they entered one, they were asked to leave. The Family's influence was enough for an organization to remove those they intended to help.

     Niall hadn't wanted to believe his mother when she would curse Joseph and The Family. He tried convincing her that Joseph was in it for us. He thought that all of the close encounters and hiding from his figure were only keeping them from the help he came to offer.

      One night out of their flight they had been chased down by a car driven by him. He never exited the car, but the men who did came bared with weapons like Washington in the Whiskey Rebellion. All of those men were meant for fragile people. Lorraine had slipped them off to a church, thinking that the holy grounds would keep even the devils after them out.

      It had worked.

      Niall gave in to the fatigue riding through his body as he was racked with emotions. His hits became softer, missing more and more of his targets. Blaise was finally able to pull him off of Joseph and slam him to the ground.

      " Who the hell are you!?" Lorraine beat on Blaise's chest seeing him throw her son. The sounds of coughing from Joseph mixed with Niall's sobs as he crossed his arms over his face and let his tears run. Niamh's brain was racing, feeling past capacity.

     She never said me. Her mother only mentioned Joseph fathering Niall, but not her. The taste of bile scratched her throat as she gazed on to her brother. She wanted to caress him, hug him, stop him from crying. Then her eyes fell upon her mother. She watched her lie on the floor next to Niall's trembling body.

      "Mom.." She whispered coming to her knees beside them. She reached out her hand to cup Lorraine's head, only to be swatted away. She attempted again, but this time Lorraine turned on her eyes blazing.

     "Don't touch me." Niamh's breath caught in her throat at the acrid rejection, everything inside her melting away. Her body swayed as she blinked rapidly trying to come to an understanding of what was happening.

       "Lorraine don't do this..." Joseph could instantly recognize her change in attitude. When she let go of somebody, she did it hard. The disbelief crossing Niamh's face told him that it in fact was happening.  Niamh ‘s hands shook as she braced them on her knees, willing her body to rise. Niall's hand went to grasp her ankle.

     " Wait Nia." He begged. He couldn't get his mother off of him, she was holding him down by her weight. She tore his hand from her leg, nearly making her topple. A hiccup escaped Niamh at the hurt of her action. Her breathing came faster, catching in her throat. Panic set into her as she stumbled around looking for something that was unclear to her. Joseph wiped his blood stained nose on his shirt sleeve as he stood up going for her, wanting to keep her from running off.

      "Dad, no." Blaise tried to stop his father from rising, concerned about his injuries.

         "Go with her."

         " You're hurt..."

        "Go with her!" He urged Blaise. His son stood there contemplating who to care for at the moment. Niamh and Joseph had his heart torn in who to console. He stood there opening his mouth and shutting it after not knowing what to say. By this time Niamh had already bolted out of the door and headed to her car.

     He took a look at his father and the Deges still on the ground. He shook his head at the madness, deciding that he  would question his father at a later, better, time. He jolted out of the house, seeing her go through the door leading to the stairs. Following her down, he screamed her name asking for her to stop.

     "Niamh slow down please!" She missed a step and tripped down a couple of stairs when she looked up surprised at hearing him. She got back up to her feet and skipped the steps down two at a time. Blaise leaped down the stairs to get to her faster. He reached her at the bottom flight, getting the door slammed in his face as she ran off to her car.

     Blaise assaulted the green button to allow his exit.

     "Wait!"

      Niamh fumbled with her car alarm, accidently hitting the panic button. She shrieked at the sudden loud sound and held her hands over her ears. Everything was becoming overwhelming and she had no idea how to function. The sound of Blaise's feet hitting the ground brought her back to her current situation. She took a deep breath and swiftly turn the alarm off and opened her door.

      Blaise ran into the driver's side pounding on the window as the engine cranked. Seeing her throw the gear in to reverse, he realized she wasn't going to stop for anything.He ran around the back of the car cutting to the passenger door. Niamh began moving before looking to see where he was and tapped him hard enough to bruise his hip. The passenger door flew open with Blaise sliding in.

       "Get out Blaise. You have to get out."

      "What do you think you're going to do?" He panted.

    She looked to him with tear filled eyes. She had no idea what she was going to do. A part of her felt that running into the biggest tree she could find at an insane speed would wrap her car around the trunk and leave her to float off and meet a new life somewhere else in the world.

      She also wanted to gorge herself on crying, but couldn't let that happen. Since she had no answer for him, she bit her lips and pulled out of the garage hitting fifty miles per hour by the time she made her turn out.

     "Niamh slow down; you shouldn't be driving in your state." Blaise pulled the seatbelt across his body watching the speedometer edge to seventy.

     "It's only thirty five through here Niamh. Stop." He tried keeping his voice leveled because the distant look in her eyes frightened him.

     "Shit!" He braced himself for the impact he expected as she approached a stopped city bus. He threw out his arm across her trying in any effort to protect her from flying through the windshield because she was not strapped in.

       She swerved off into a deserted parking lot coming to a harsh stop, tires screeching on the tar. Her chest clashed with the steering wheel, drawing a moan of pain from her. The adrenaline in both of them filled the car through their labored breathing. Blaise opened the eyes he had closed to see her clutching her chest with both hands as she laid her forehead on the top of the steering wheel.

         "What did you hit? Does anything feel broken?" He asked pulling her back to see the red coat now on her skin. He pressed his fingers around her chest, checking her collar bones, anything he thought that could be hurt.

      "I'm sorry." She said in a high voice. Niamh turned to him and grabbed the roaming hand on her chest, gripping it tightly against her stomach.

     "I'm so sorry."

     Blaise unhooked his seatbelt and reached over to pull Niamh into his lap. She came willingly, climbing over the armrest to slip into his hold. Her cool breath fanned against the side of his face as he held her dearly to him.

      "Today hasn't gone as planned." He said lightly. He watched outside of the windows seeing people passing by and nosily looking into the car. He diverted his attention from them and looked back into Niamh's brown orbs.

      "I'm not wanted. Do you know how devastating that is to a person who has been loved and doted on most of her life by her mother?" Her words were so quiet that they barely carried through the car.

     "That's not the case Niamh. She was going through deep emotions-"

      "You didn't feel it." Her lids went back causing her eyes to bulge as she stared into his.

       " I haven't felt a mother's love since I was five. Hell, nothing from a mother. I don't understand a mother's love, but I can see that she loves you no matter what. I don't think she meant anything by what she did in there."

      "I've never known what a father was. I just wanted to be there for my brother and she wouldn't let me. This must have been why she loathed the thought of me being around you two. She didn't want this to come to light. I didn't know Blaise....I didn't know she would feel this deeply about it. It's unfair Blaise."

     "What is?"

     "That Niall is now going to have Joseph. I can see that Joseph will not settle for being pushed aside now. Niall his hardheaded, he'll try to deflect everything Joseph will do for him now, but I know at some point he'll get through to him. Niall will have a dad, but not me." Niamh felt a pang of jealousy rise within her. She knew that her brother had nothing to do with how things were turning out; he had no say in it.

      "I hate them." Niamh declared.

       " Once you say them, they are here to stay." He warned.

      "You're right. I hate her." She sat up in his lap with a deadlock gaze on her knees." She's never done this before. I've never had a reason to not like my mother, but now..."

      "You don't hate her Niamh."

       "I'm the closest to hate that I will ever get. Blaise, it's like something has been awakened in her. Anger for me. Something about me is turning her into someone else.Why now?"

      "Your mother has a story to tell you-that she owes you--  one that will get everything across. I don't know or understand what my dad has done to them past...denying Niall," He said the last words with a tight throat at the thought of his father not being the man he thought he was,"but I promise you, things will come out when they should. Like how things are going now."

       A moment of silence passed as Niamh wanted to ignore his words.

      "I'm fucking my brother's brother." She said darkly.

      "Do you think you're the only one disturbed? I've fucked my brother's sister."

      " Fuck, we slipped by not having a parent in common." Niamh sighed as laughter built up in her chest.

      " I don't think it would be socially acceptable to love your sister intimately." Blaise joined into the laughter forgetting to keep his words in his head. Niamh stopped abruptly and scrunched her eyebrows at his remarck. Blaise's face began tingling realizing his folly.

     "What I meant-"  Loud tapping on the windshield startled them both as Blythe pounded on the glass.