Jack Donovan.

It’s nearly six in the morning. The pub’s been closed for hours and Jack can’t understand why she’s here. 

There’s blood everywhere: it’s staining his shirt, his hands, the sink … there’s no way he can explain it away. He’s lost a lot of blood and everything feels cloudy. He knows he needs to move, to speak, to say something, anything, to get her to leave. 

“I’m okay.” He says, finally. He remembers, suddenly, that she lives upstairs with her brother. He’d forgotten that when he’d selected the bar as the closest place he could go to pull a bullet out of his shoulder. 

But she’s not stupid. So she doesn’t go away. Instead, she’s fumbling with her phone, “I’m calling an ambulance.” 

He knows he has to stop her. “Don’t – “ He wipes his hands quickly on a towel before moving to stop her. He doesn’t mean to, but he grabs her arm a bit too violently before she can dial the number. He catches her expression and he can see she’s scared. He quickly releases her arm. “I’m sorry,” He says, hastily, as he realizes he may have hurt her. 

He exhales, takes a step back, runs a hand through his hair as he thinks. “It’s just – I’m okay,” He says, “Look, I was just – my brothers and I – we got drunk and we were stupid and I got hurt, but I know what I’m doing. I don’t need any help.” 

She shakes her head. She doesn’t believe a word. “Don’t lie to me, Jack. You don’t drink.” She said, crossing her arms. “What’s going on?” She lowers her voice, “Are you in trouble?” 

He’s searching for an answer for her, but he finds he can’t think of one fast enough. He’s always been good at thinking on his feet: it’s one of the things that’s kept him alive. But he knows she’ll see through all of them. He feels tired and he isn’t sure he wants to lie to her, either. 

The girl started a little when a hand wrapped tightly around her upper arm. She had expected some jostling, yes. It was rush hour and she had been left only a tiny spot, clinging to one of the poles near the doors. People would be moving in and out without much care for who they stepped on.

But it was the voice in her ear that surprised Sophie.

How had they gotten here so fast? Sophie had assumed she’d be followed, of course. There was the rumblings of war going on. A daughter or one of the biggest mob bosses in the country suddenly disappearing wasn’t something that went unnoticed. But seriously? Two hours later? Sophie had been hoping for a half day’s head start at the least!

Making a mental note to throttle whoever had blown her cover when she got back home, Sophie began to try and formulate an escape plan.

"Let go of my arm, Donovan." She muttered back at him, purposefully staring the other way. "I’m not going home. I’m not done here yet."

Her eyes roved over the map of the Red Line. Only a few more stops. She could get off, duck through a couple of alleyways, lose him and find another line. Easy enough.

She just needed to get to the mansion and Moretti. Didn’t matter who dragged her back to Boston after Sonny’s blood was soaking into her fingernails.

"You try and drag me out of here, I’ll scream." Sophie continued in a  very low voice, trying not to attract much attention… yet. "I’m not afraid of you. You don’t threaten me. But I will scream bloody murder until they take you away and lock you up for long enough for my business to be over without any interference." The girl finally turned to look at Jack, her blue eyes cold and deadly serious.

"Don’t test me, Jack.

Jack had expected her to put up a fight: nothing was ever easy with Sophie. He hoped she'd give him a chance; that she'd listen to reason. But he wouldn't count on that, that'd be too easy. 

But she would make good on her threats, too. Whatever consequences would come from her father for getting Jack Donovan thrown in a New York prison meant nothing to her, Jack knew that. Hopefully, she'd be more willing to listen to what would happen if she went through with her attempted assassination plot. 

Still, Jack withdrew his grip on her arm. For the moment, anyway, Sophie wasn't going anywhere. There was no where to go. 

It wasn't that Jack didn't understand her: he was out for blood, too. Mrs. Connoghan was the closest thing he had ever had to a mother and she had died for nothing: and her death would not go unanswered.

NONONONONONOOOOOOOOOOOONONONONOPENOPENOPEE

BC IT WAS BEING TOGETHER THAT GOT THEM THRU OK THEY ACT AS A TEAM NO MATTER WHAT AND THAT ALL STARTED WITH JACK. Like, he could’ve just gone his own way with Sean and never thought twice about Aaron - but he did. He made the choice Sean didn’t and he went back for his siblings and he got them out and he made a better life for them EVEN THOUGH HE WAS JUST A KID HIMSELF. He found a way. Aaron will never forget that, not ever. Hmmmm, I can def see it going either way, too????? Where they have a [ townhouses ] next to each other. HAHAHAH or like in Help! where those houses are all [ conjoined ] when you go inside. Jk, jk Srsly, I have no clue. You?

AND JACK WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING OKAY. HE NEVER ONCE REGRETTED NOT GOING WITH SEAN. HIS BROS ARE LITERALLY EVERYTHING TO HIM THIS ISN'T EVEN REMOTELY OKAY!!!!

Sophie Connoghan was out for blood.

It might look otherwise as she sat calmly drinking a latte outside some tres chic cafe in the Upper East Side, but Sophie had no intention of leaving this city without getting what she was due.

And that was Sonny Moretti’s head on a fucking platter.

The young woman was taken away from her bloody musings by the sound of bagpipes coming from her phone. Setting her cup down, the girl pressed the cell phone to her ear, greeting abrupt and decidedly prickly.

"Talk to me."

"Our source is saying that your man will be heading to the Moretti Mansion in a few hours for a meeting with an associate." The voice on the other end was distorted, mechanical. These quick-shot hackers for hire never really wanted their voices out there, and to be honest, Sophie preferred their anonymity anyway. Meant they were easier to trust.

"Do you have an address?" She asked, pulling her newspaper closer and jotting the cross-streets down along the edges. "Good. You’ll see your money transferred by the end of the hour."

"Oh, it’s already here. Transferred it out a few minutes ago. Byrnes is a rather easy password to decrypt, Miss Connoghan. I’d suggest strengthening your security on something as important as a bank account."

Before Sophie could make an angry retort, the line went dead. “Fucking prick.” She muttered, shoving her cell phone deep into the pocket of her high-waisted shorts. At least Sophie had her heading, and soon enough she’d have Moretti too.

So what if her father wanted peace? Peace never solved anything. Blood for blood was the way they had lived for years, and settling things nicely wouldn’t bring her mother back. No. They needed to suffer like she had suffered, to feel the grief in every fiber of their being, how it rotted you from the inside out until nothing else mattered.

With hollowed eyes, Sophie finished her coffee in one deft gulp, tossed some cash on the table and headed towards the subway, the hand in her purse curling protectively around a handgun filled with bullets that had Sonny Moretti’s name written all over them.

"To New York?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow, but he already knew the answer. Where else would she go? 

Nicole nodded sharply and into another second, Jack was grabbing his keys from his pocket. 

She estimated they were about forty minutes behind her, but finding her once she was in New York, was a different story. Of course, she would target the Morettis (most likely Sonny Moretti) but where was he? Luckily, Rory Moran had a few ideas and when they arrived in the city, he and Nicole split up. 

Jack first found her when she was seated at a cafe. He knew that she hadn't thrown her bodyguard for a cup of coffee -- that was waiting for someone or something: some piece of information she needed to find the Morettis. 

Jack thought about trying to take her alone, but he wasn't sure she wouldn't make a scene. The three of them had to leave this goddamn city before anyone knew they had been there at all. 

He called Nicole and told her where he had found her. 

She received a phone call and, a moment later, was up again. Jack trailed her, keeping a half a block between them, until she went down to the subway. 

BUT OKAY JACK WILL BE SO CONFUSED. Although I feel like he'll see Declan over Saoirse's shoulder trying to communicate with his hands for Jack to just play along haha. And Jack will be like "wtf do I say, I know nothing about groceries??" 

BUT SERIOUSLY THE DONOVAN BROS GET ME OKAY LIKE THE FACT THAT THEY BANDED TOGETHER AND TURNED OUT OKAY (well relatively speaking haha) AFTER HAVING PARENTS WORTHY OF BR BA IS JUST AKJDLFKAJSDLFKJASDLKFJ. And like they are there for each other in everything and nothing comes before their brothers and just aljdflaksjflkajfalsjflaksjfalskdjf ugh no. 

;DDDDDDD

But in all seriousness, I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said. I could totally see where Jack tried even harder than Aaron does to be the ~big brother that Sophie lost when Sean left. And for a while that was probably okay, but I could still see resentment of Jack stemming from that too.

Very similar to like a ~step parent situation: “YOU’RE NOT MY REAL BROTHER. STOP TRYING TO ACT LIKE MY BROTHER. GO AWAY. I HATE YOU” type thing. When it’s all just Sophie being devastated by her brother’s disappearance and not being able to handle those emotions very well. (In general, Sophie isn’t too awesome at handling emotions that aren’t WOO PARTY TIIIMMMEE. Haha.)

And it’s interesting that Jack doesn’t really want to be in charge, but feels like he has to, when Sophie wants so badly to be in charge, but isn’t allowed. Because, tbqh, I bet if Sophie was put up front with Jack as her Number 2, they’d RULE THE WHOLE WORLD. Because I feel like they are similar, that they could function as brother and sister/boss and right-hand/etc. if people would stop leaving Sophie in the dark and give her a goddamned chance.

But at the same time, because she’s been pushed out so often and Jack has been ushered into her spot, she’ll never believe a word he says, anymore. He’s part of the system to her. She figures he’s just spouting the party line that her father tells him to. So even if he was trying to help, even if he pulled her aside and was like: “look. you’re hurting yourself more than you’re helping yourself. take a breather, be patient.” Sophie would basically be like: “FUCK OFF. I HATE YOU. STOP TRYING TO GET ME OUT OF THE RACE. YOU ARE A GAME I WILL WIN EVERY TIME. LET GO OF ME YOU ASSHOLE.”

Also, I have the really funny headcanon of Jack literally having to throw Sophie over his shoulder or something to stop her from going after Sonny. Like basically he probably will ~just spot her and like, scramble after Sophie, grab her as she thrashing around like: “HE’S RIGHT FUCKING THERE. I HAVE TO DO THIS, HE MURDERED MY MOTHER, YOU BASTARD.”

…Basically, like you said, their interactions will go so well. XDDD

EDIT:

OMG AND JACK WILL JUST BE YOUR ACTUAL BROTHER TOLD ME OKAY (although he won't actually say but that shhhh). He'll basically be whatever and doesn't care if she hates him, as long as he can get her to do x and be safe. B/c if anything should happen to Sophie, Jack would actually die (especially if he promised Adam and aldkjfalkfjalsjdfasdf -- although that would solve a lot of Sophie's problems tbh haha) 

LIKE IN AN A/U WHERE THEY COULD ACTUALLY GET ALONG !!! ugh so close and so far haha, b/c that will probs never happen unless Connoghan gets on board with the idea (and lbr he's probs gonna die wayyy before he'd ever do that, haha) 

He DEF HAD TO PUT HER OVER HIS SHOULDER AND CARRY HER OFF THO. And I feel like this kind of situation has happened before and he just ignores her kicking & screaming, haha