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#Post#: 3111--------------------------------------------------
Never Tear Us Apart
DIR By: Maggie Flannery
Date: October 9, 2015, 11:14 pm
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Life for Colleen Murphy and Terry Noonan has taken a turn that
neither of them ever expected. Jackie Flannery, the guiding
light to their collective friendship was truly gone and they
were left adrift in a city that no longer felt like home. Cast
out from the close knit Flannery clan they'd both been accepted
into so long ago they have no one to lean on but each other.
Perhaps starting over together somewhere else wouldn't be such a
bad idea after all. The only question was where?
HTML https://open.spotify.com/user/highlandfling22/playlist/21TlJfcTharJF0CgnNdzIk
{ I'm so sorry it sucks }
Tagline : They thought the life as they knew it was over but it
was only beginning.
A/N: Please know that I make no money from this writing. I
honestly never thought I'd ship Colleen with anyone but Jackie
but it seems she's taken a shine to Sean Penn for some reason.
So, a second ship was born.
I don't think I ever can believe my friend is gone
Keep saying it's all right, I'm gonna bring you back
But I know I'm wrong.
There's nothing I can say
There's nothing left to do
It's just that lately I've been so damn lonely when
I think of you.
Do You Believe In Shame? - Duran Duran
Jackie Flannery was everywhere and nowhere all at once. The
streets of New York were rife with his very being it seemed and
yet he was nowhere to be found unless you were to visit his
headstone at Saint John’s Cemetery over on Metropolitan Avenue.
Shot down by his own flesh and blood down at pier 84. He died an
Irishman and was interned to the Flannery family plot on his
second favorite holiday, St. Patrick’s Day. His best friend,
Terry Noonan and his girlfriend Colleen O’Brien were still
trying to come out of their collective shell shocked stupor. A
quietness had settled over the apartment Jackie and Colleen had
shared for nearly four years as they tried to figure out why
Jackie had been taken from them so very soon and neither could
come up with a valid answer and just sat there staring off into
space and trying not to cry in front of one another. The only
sound in the room was the ticking of the wall clock in the tiny
kitchenette. Terry had taken it like a gut punch and his mind
was still reeling but he knew Colleen was no longer herself. He
had to stay strong for her, he owed her that much. But no matter
what he tried to lift her spirits she’d succumb to the deep pit
of despair that had threatened to take hold of Terry had he not
remembered the pact that he’d made with Jackie all those year
ago when the three of them were still known around the
neighborhood as the Three Musketeers.
“You gotta promise me somethin’, Terry.”
Jackie had started the statement when the two of them had been
out on the roof of the old apartment building down on St. Mark’s
one night. Smoking the cigarettes their mothers still had no
idea they’d gotten ahold of. Even though they were of age their
mother’s would have their heads.
“I don’t gotta promise you nothin’, Jackie.”
Terry had said as he exhaled a plume of smoke toward the night
sky before looking at his friend, still thinking he must be
joking.
“No, I mean it Noonan. It’s about Colleen.”
Jackie sighed as he flicked his ash into an empty beer bottle
before fixing his eyes on his best friend since kindergarten.
Terry’s gut clenched and from the tone Jackie had taken he knew
this really was serious business. It had taken Jackie nearly a
year to get up the stones to actually ask Colleen, a girl they’d
both known their entire lives and grown up with, to go steady
with him. He’d nearly fainted when she agreed, given him a
proper kiss and then went back to reading whatever book she had
with her at the time. Terry had laughed his ass off when he
noticed that Jackie had turned a rather bright shade of scarlet.
“Well, you gonna tell me or what, Flannery?”
“ ‘M thinkin’, Ter. This is important stuff, y’know? Alright…if
anything were to ever happen to me you gotta promise me that
you’ll look out for her. I mean, I’m not going anywhere for a
real long time but if something goes wrong, just be there for
her. You ain’t seen her upset and let me tell you it’s not
pretty. She goes in on herself and…well…I know you could bring
her around if I’m not here to.”
Terry had been momentarily shocked at what Jackie had asked of
him but had agreed without so much as a second thought. That’s
what friends did for one another and he’d taken it to heart.
Now, ten years later he was trying to make good on that promise.
He had gone directly to their apartment after he’d heard what
had happened - in reality he’d seen and heard the shot but he
didn’t dare tell Colleen that, it would push her over the edge
and she wasn’t likely to ever recover from that. He had taken it
upon himself to be the one to tell her as gently as he could,
even if his mind was still reeling. He had stumbled away from
the docks that night and then broken out into a full sprint to
their apartment. He had seen her crumple to the floor in a heap
and he heard her sobs and screams as they echoed down the narrow
hallway. He never once left her side, they had both said their
goodbyes to their Jackie two weeks ago and he was still staying
with her. Making sure she ate, trying to get to say anything -
something to let him know that she could still function. They
had been out together sporadically but it seemed everywhere they
went Jackie was there. All the old haunts were truly haunted
with his presence. Colleen hadn’t spoken a word since it had
happened and she barely slept at night unless Terry was beside
her and more than once he’d woken up to find her sobbing in her
sleep. Her once shining green eyes had lost their spark and
glossy hair had gone lank and her porcelain skin had taken a
grey undertone, the dark circles under eyes didn’t help things
much. The crying had stopped for a bit and now she just stared,
lost, looking like the world was going to swallow her up whole.
Kathleen, Jackie’s sister and their mother had been over earlier
that week to box up what little was left of the dearly departed
and had left only a few things for Colleen to remember her
fiancé by, his leather jacket, wallet, and his St. Christopher’s
medal, plus any scrap books Colleen had put together over the
years. Kathleen had at first offered comfort to the grieving
pair but as the second week turned into a third she quietly put
her foot down and told them that they were not the only ones to
have lost Jackie and for the sake of the rest of Flannery clan
it was best that neither of them stopped by Mrs. Flannery’s
place until things went back to normal. Oh, and by the way since
Terry practically lived here now she found no reason to have his
things around her apartment anymore, she dropped them off that
very afternoon and didn’t even bat and eye before walking out
just as quietly as she had come in.
So, there they sat the once happy space now looking practically
bare with the exception of four suitcases and one white trash
bag that held Terry’s things from Kathy’s place and a box of
Jackie’s clothes that Mrs. Flannery had conveniently left behind
to be donated to the Salvation Army. Terry thought she’d left it
out of spite and from the way he’d seen Colleen glare daggers at
her would be mother-in-law he knew she was thinking the same
thing.
Terry had tried to take Kathy aside and talk to her one on one
but neither she nor her mother would have it, both claiming that
they had sorting to do since neither Colleen or he had even
attempted. He’d never heard either of them speak in such cold
tones before but he supposed that there was a first time for
everything. Especially after a death.
“I never thought I’d ever say this but I cannot stand that vile
woman. I’d also like nothing more than to give Kathleen a good
sound pop in the chops.”
Colleen croaked out as she looked at him from her spot on the
worn out sofa. He looked at her and thought he’d finally lost
touch with reality. Had she actually spoken?
“What? You think I was never going to talk again? You know me
better than that, Noonan.”
In awe of the woman in front of him he watched as she got up
from her cocoon of blankets and started sifting through the
contents of his suitcases. Part of him wanted to get up and hug
her and welcome her back to the land of the living and the other
just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. Just cry for
everything he’d lost and what never would be. He had always
thought he’d marry Kathy but she had mad it abundantly clear
that she no longer wanted him. He’d always thought he would have
Jackie as a brother-in-law but that was never to be. The
suitcases and garbage bag were proof enough of that.
“What the hell is wrong with her? She actually packed dirty
clothes she couldn’t even wash the damn things for you?”
Colleen tutted as she grabbed a laundry basket from the cubby
space in the kitchen and started loading up his clothes. Terry
knew from the look of determination painted across Colleen’s
face that she was ever so slowly coming back. None the less he
stumbled to his feet from his spot in the ancient recliner and
offered her help. Truth be told he was a little uncomfortable
having her handle his clothes, he felt like she was almost
cheating on Jackie if she handled his t-shirts and boxers. He
watched her stand stalk still for a moment and then look deep
into his eyes.
“They think they’re the only ones that got to call him theirs.
He was ours too and they’ve forgotten that.”
Terry watched as Col’s eyes welled up with tears again and she
dropped the basket with a soft thud before wrapping her arms
around him and sobbing into his shirt.
“It hurts, everything just hurts. Every night I see his face in
my dreams and then I wake up and he’s not here. I swear I can
hear him, Terry. I could have sworn I smelled his cologne and
heard him singing that damn Stones song.”
Her words cut Terry to the core and soon enough it was all they
could do to clutch each other for dear life, both terrified that
the other would vanish into thin air. It was Col that broke the
embrace as she wiped her eyes with the heel of her palm and gave
him a small watery smile.
“So…give me something to do. Just don’t let me think for a
while. Sort through your piles and let me know what you need
washed first and I’ll take them down to the laundry room then
come back up and start dinner, ok?”
“You don’t have to Colleen…”
“Shut up Noonan, you’ve got nowhere else to go and I’m all alone
here so why don’t we make the best of it? Besides, I know for a
fact that you can’t cook and you’d end up living off of take
crappy take out from China Palace. So settle in for a long stay,
roomie.”
She said as she hefted the clothes basket onto her hip and
grabbed a box of detergent and the bottle of fabric softener and
went downstairs.
He could have sworn that he heard a familiar laugh throughout
the room as if Jackie were there.
“You need her as much as she needs you, Ter.”
The voice in his head whispered and he was damned if it didn’t
sound like his best friend.
Three Months Later ( June )
Things had settled a bit, Terry had moved into the guest room at
the end of the hall and Colleen had switched jobs, working now
as a secretary to one of the City’s better known day trader’s to
work on Wall Street. Terry had settled back into the swing of
things at the precinct and had been put on desk duty over in
Cold Cases. It was mostly paperwork but it was better than going
back to walking a beat. It still struck him as odd that they had
taken him back into the fold even after what he’d done to Frank
Flannery. Not that Frank’s family knew but Colleen and his chief
did and they had sworn to him that they wouldn’t tell a soul. It
had been a smudge on his otherwise sterling reputation but it
was long buried under a mountain of paperwork and labeled as a
move in “self defense.”
Neither of them had any sort of contact with the Flannery clan,
they had run into Kathy at the corner grocery store and she had
looked at them like they were something disgusting on the bottom
of her shoe, they now split their shopping between Zabar’s and
Fairway down in Red Hook. Colleen also had a rather nasty run in
one Sunday with Mrs. Flannery during morning mass and was
actually asked to leave half way through the service. Terry
watched at Colleen calmly walked out of St. Michael’s never
saying a single word to the older woman, just dropped a twenty
dollar bill into the collection plate, lit a candle for Jackie,
made the side of the cross and walked out. He followed her and
watched as she went over to the old bat’s car and let out the
air on all four of her tires and continued on with her day. He
never let on that he had heard her crying later on that night
and asking God why Jackie’s family now hated her and he was more
than shocked when he had heard her mention him in her anguished
tearful prayers begging God to watch over him because she wasn’t
sure what she would do if something happened to him too. Jackie
had told him long ago that Colleen prayed but he had never
mentioned her ever keeping Terry on her list of people. Her
parents, yes, her best friend Lottie yes, Jackie he knew about
but never ever him. That night he did something he hadn’t in a
very very long time, Terry Noonan dropped to his knees by his
bed and prayed. He was returning the favor to the woman that
made sure he was fed, his clothes washed and ironed, the woman
that made the world make sense after Jackie died. He prayed for
Colleen. Somehow his prayers were heard because that was the
first night Colleen hadn’t cried herself to sleep and woke up
the following morning looking better rested than she had in
months.
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