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The Gallagher House.
After 10:00 PM.
Lip, fresh from messing around with Karen, and Ian, fresh from messing around with Mickey, bumped into each other at the intersection. Chatting casually, they walked into the house together.
Frank was already passed out on the couch, hugging an empty booze bottle, snoring like a chainsaw.
Debbie, sporting several fresh bruises on her face, sat curled up on the armchair. She looked desolate, motionless, as if she were the last person left on Earth.
The TV was on. Liam was standing in his playpen, watching it with great interest.
Hearing the door open, Debbie turned her head to look at Ian and Lip.
The boys immediately spotted the bruises on her face. Their expressions changed instantly. They rushed over.
"Debbie, what happened?"
"Who hit you?"
Ian and Lip asked, frantic with worry.
Debbie couldn't hold it in anymore. Tears streamed down her face as she sobbed out her story.
It didn't take long.
Lip and Ian got the gist of it. However, because Debbie actually told the truth and admitted to destroying Carl's stuff, the brothers exchanged a glance, suddenly unsure of where to stand.
Debbie was in the wrong first...
And Carl didn't just walk up and hit her; he only swung after she kept lying to his face...
Of course, hitting a girl was wrong.
After thinking for a few seconds, Lip spoke up. He comforted Debbie for a bit, then made a promise. "Don't worry. I'll handle Carl."
"We're going to find him right now!" Ian added, backing him up.
Debbie nodded, cursing through her tears, "Carl is such a jerk..."
A few minutes flew by.
Having temporarily calmed Debbie down, Lip and Ian left the house and speed-walked straight toward 2114 North Wallace.
---
2114 North Wallace.
Having a room entirely to himself for the first time in his life, Carl had just finished a shower. He was rolling around on his bed, happy as a clam, not even remotely sleepy.
In the other room, Peg was already fast asleep.
Thump, thump, thump.
A knock at the door.
Carl heard it and checked the time on his phone. He was puzzled—who would be knocking this late? He hesitated, too lazy to go downstairs, and decided to ignore it.
But the knocking didn't stop.
Annoyed, Carl finally rolled out of bed and stomped downstairs to answer it.
Opening the door and seeing Lip and Ian, Carl's expression remained flat. "What?"
Lip and Ian both loved Carl; he was their brother, after all.
"Carl, aren't you going to invite us in?" Ian smiled.
Carl nodded, turned around, and walked back into the living room, plopping himself onto the sofa.
Peg had only bought the essentials, so the living room looked pretty empty.
Lip and Ian looked around as they walked in, then sat down next to Carl. They started with some small talk, asking how he was doing, before getting to the main point.
Naturally, Lip did the talking.
"Carl, how could you hit Debbie? Even if she broke your stuff, we're family," Lip said, playing the "Family" card he cherished so much. His lips kept moving, lecturing on and on.
When Lip finally took a breath, Ian chimed in with a few words of support.
Carl looked cold. "I gave her a chance. She wouldn't apologize, and she wouldn't pay me back. I had to hit her!"
"Carl, we're family..." Lip repeated, circling back to the same argument.
Carl listened, getting increasingly irritated. "She broke my shit on purpose. She deserved a beating."
Lip had a headache.
Ian was a bit more neutral. Looking at the facts, he didn't think Carl was entirely in the wrong... besides, siblings fighting was pretty normal.
And so it went.
After about twenty minutes of back-and-forth.
Carl kicked Lip and Ian out.
Outside the house.
Lip pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and took a harsh drag. He didn't waste time on pleasantries. He looked straight at Ian. "I'm planning to send Peg back to prison. As long as Peg is here, Carl probably won't come back home."
Ian's brow twitched. He was silent for a moment. "How?"
"Haven't decided yet. For now, I'm thinking of creating an opportunity for the cops to search her and find her gun... or maybe planting some drugs in her bag," Lip said with full confidence. "Once the cops find that on her, she goes straight back to the joint."
"When that happens, there's no way Carl can live here alone..."
Lip paused, then grinned a scumbag grin. "I hope she kept the receipts for all that furniture and appliances. Once she's back in prison, we can return all of it. We could get a few thousand bucks out of it."
Ian had almost zero emotional attachment to Peg. Hearing this, he gave a gay little smile. "Good idea."
---
Dexter's House.
Receiving the intel from Xiao Wu, Dexter chuckled silently when he learned Lip and Ian had gone to see Carl.
Carl had taken a crucial step.
Would he move back to the Gallagher house?
Probably eventually. After all, Carl was only ten. If Peg went down, he couldn't live alone.
But hopefully, it would be later rather than sooner. Hopefully, he could hold out until the end of summer...
Come to think of it, Comrade Carl really was pitiful.
In the original show, after struggling through everything, he ultimately ended up living in the basement just to have a room of his own.
Luckily, Carl wasn't exactly a genius, and his emotional range was limited. Otherwise, living like that... God knows how twisted he would have turned out.
Dexter was lost in thought until he accidentally noticed Bianca staring at her phone, acting strange.
"What's wrong?" Dexter asked.
Hearing his voice, Bianca flinched slightly. She hurriedly stuffed her phone into her pocket and gave Dexter an unnatural smile. "Nothing."
"Ms. Greene, you really can't lie," Dexter laughed.
"Hehe," Bianca played dumb, then immediately stood up. "I'm going to take a shower."
Dropping that line, she bolted into the bathroom. Once inside, she let out a sigh of relief and pulled out her phone.
On the screen was a text message from her dad.
[Bianca, what is going on with you? You're dating someone, why is it such a mystery? Your mother and I are coming to see you tomorrow! We want to see what you're up to.]
Staring helplessly at the text for a long moment, Bianca took a deep breath and replied:
[Don't. I have days off coming up soon, I'll come back to see you then. If you come now, I won't have time anyway.]
[You always have time in the evening. We'll have dinner together tomorrow. Bring your boyfriend.] Her dad replied instantly.
Bianca: "..."
[No time. Really no time. I have to work overtime. Another day. I'm going to sleep. Bye.] Bianca replied in a panic.
After hitting send, she immediately turned off her phone. Out of sight, out of mind.
Then, Bianca let out a long exhale. Feeling a bit guilty, she cracked the door open slightly to peek at Dexter.
Naturally.
Their eyes met.
Dexter flashed a brilliant grin and teased, "I thought you were taking a shower? Are you washing up inside your phone?"
"I'm washing now..." Bianca was mortified. She slammed the door shut again.
Dexter watched, amused. He was genuinely curious, though.
Who was texting her to make her act like that?