Niamh felt her key become one with the lock of her door.Closing her eyes for a moment, she prayed for peace once she stepped past the threshold. The door had barely been opened an inch before she felt the urgent jerk by her mother. She stood there swallowed in one of Niamh's large sweatshirts, pulling her daughter into her bosom tightly, keeping her from moving.

     "Mom, I can't breathe." Niamh stuttered from the chokehold she had.

     Without letting her go, Lorraine took her keys from the door and slammed it shut, dragging Niamh's body over to the couch to sit. She cradled the grown woman like an infant looking down at her face as she stroked the flushed cheeks.

      "I have and will live my whole life in honor of you Nia baby. I will defend you at all costs my child,even if it seems harsh. That means keeping things away from you, shielding you. There are somethings that I just couldn't fathom to bother you with at this point in your life. I know you are excited out your ass to work for Mr. Kincaid now. It's my job to warn you of danger that I see that may be invisible to you. I am in complete mama bear mode; I will murder anyone who shouldn't be near you."

     "I know that Mama."Niamh relaxed in her arms.

      "Do you?"

       "Yes. I would never put myself into a situation I couldn't get out of, at least not on purpose. I've been able to live the way I have because of that."

     " Whatever mindset you've had has got to go. Like I said before, I should have been dragging you into the house by your hair when I knew you were being grown.This Blaise kid is no one that you need to get wrapped up in." Lorraine could feel the energy flowing between her daughter and Joseph's son. It was the same thing that had them running for their lives all of those years ago.

    She couldn't allow Niamh to fall for any of the bullshit he may throw her way. If he was anything like his father, she knew Niamh would be drawn to the majestic nature of Blaise.

     "There you go sounding just like your son." Pushing her mother's arms from her, Niamh sat up and moved to another cushion on the couch." I'm not wreckless mom. I can't help but feel like you think I lay on my back with my legs up. I had sex with Blaise, okay?" Niamh thought that was what she had wanted her to say. Just to get it over with.

     " Don't talk to her like that Nia..." She heard Niall before she saw him. Realizing that her voice had raised while she was speaking, she reigned herself in not wanting to go too far.

     " You've been waiting for me to say that haven't you? Let's just say it how it is. "

    "Don't bring that shit in here! We weren't trying to fix things like this.I'm sorry for how I acted. I don't know what else to tell you."

    " That's all that I wanted. I'm not as heartless as I seem, some shit actually gets to me."

     "I'm not apologizing for anything.I hope that somehow I struck something within you. I never thought to teach you who to stay away from, I thought there was no possible way for them to touch anyone of us again. I see that I was wrong...." Lorraine stood up and walked to the kitchen shaking her head.

      " Joseph? Nothing could be that serious in the world for you to hold a grugde against the man mom. Let that go, or it will kill you." Niamh sighed.

     " You don't know anything about why I feel the way I do about him. Granted he wasn't as vile as the others--"

     "Then why don't you just tell me!"

      "Drop it Niamh!" Niall hollered coming to his sister and jerking her up by the elbow." Fuck. He helped put us out on our asses with nothing. You don't remember it Nia, but you just have to trust what we say. That dickwad Blaise will just fuck you around."

    " I'm not marrying him! Stopping pairing me with him." Her eyes looked deadly into Niall's. The hold on her arm was actually becoming uncomfortable. Violently ripping it from him, her heart fell as the peace she had hoped to make was long gone. The blaring sound of her alarm warning her an hour before work went off, halting any words she had planned to say. Pulling it out of her pocket, she killed the screaming. Shaking her had Niamh licked her lips and ran a hand across the back of her hot neck.The drive to work alone took at the most thirty five minutes, and she knew just how slow she could be when getting ready.

    Swinging her arms in front of her, she clapped her hands as she started towards her room.

     "I can smell him on you." Her mother's voice spoke weakly as she watched on as Niamh faltered a step and whipped her head around to her. This time, her words hadn't come out in an accusing tone, but a knowing one. A sad one.

    A helpless one.

     " You think this is nothing Niamh, but you'll see." Pools of water settled along her bottom eye lids when she turned away to disappear into the kitchen.

     Niamh was speechless having absolutely nothing to say to her words.Her chest felt constricted as she avoided crying in anger because of the obvious thoughts they have harbored for years on her relationship with a man. Niamh thought herself bulletproof to people's judgements of her.

     Tightening her lips she released a deep breath slamming the door behind her.

oooooooooooooo

    Joseph walked down the hallway of his company, admiring everything he had created. No one could take that away from him. All of this had been born from his own mind.

    The Family would say different.

    To them, Joseph and his talent were just another part of their power. The owned him, and he couldn't deny it.

    That didn't mean that he couldn't ignore their claim on his life.

     They manipulated him much to his dislike to set their plans up. It was a disgusting job, making him antsy. He hadn't expected to be thrown into a tank full of sharks by Daniel, and he knew better than to voice that he wanted an out to it all. Joseph made sure to never keep himself in one area of the building for too long. He never wanted to be found by any of the tentacles of The Family in a place that was supposed to be his own personal sanctuary. He rarely answered the phone in his office, prefferring to have any messages he recieved relayed to him face to face from his secratary.

    Of course there were some numbers that would mean death to ignore. reluctantly he would pick up the phone, but only then.

     "Good evening Mr. Kincaid." Two passing ladies greeted him. He was able to smile at their words, knowing that they weren't said because they were programmed to be. Daniel had always made sure that anyone that entered the company was first screened and chosen by himself. Joseph had thought nothing more than him trying to help him out, letting him put his focus on other things. 

     He realized long ago how wrong he had been. It had been impossible to get to know any of his employees. They avoided him like the plague always being the subservient people someone had told them to be.

    He hated that kind of atmosphere and had taken it upon himself to hire people on his own volition. He had successfully brought in dozens of people without a peep from Daniel. He didn't know whether that was because he planned to lay off of the Apex, or if his time had become completely dedicated to the fast pace that The Family's plans had taken up lately.

     Whatever it was, he was overjoyed to have control of something once again. His change in loyalty had not gone unnoticed by the higher ranking members. Joseph preffered to keep his status low within the group. He knew he had been looked over by the head six to complete their table long ago. Blaise was their new focus, and he feared that more than anything.

    Blaise had never been exposed to what went on behind closed doors, but now there was no way to sheild his son from them. If they wanted to, they could have him disappear and Blaise would never have room to wonder where his father went. Just as he did with his mother. It would be a prevalent thought for sometime, but soon the memory of him could--would-- vanish.

    He couldn't keep his mother's memory alive strong enough for Blaise, at least not the good. He rarely heard his son utter any words of her since he was five. He never wanted Blaise to lose sight of him because of these people. Joseph couldn't imagine what it would be like to have no one on the outside to touch.

     Walking past a sitting room, the sight of a figure caught his eye. Niamh. Backing up, he watched her as she sat quietly eating her lunch alone. Since she came back Monday, her demeanor had been very subdued. The little conversation she held with him had no substance. He wanted to ask if everything was okay at home, but knew that it would be overstepping boundaries.

     Joseph hoped desparately that somehow he could bring her and Blaise together in some way. She was the only person untouched by The Family who he trusted to be with Blaise.

     Knocking lightly on the door, he leaned in as he startled her.

     " Joseph." She said, wiping her face and turning to him. Her eyes held a sad gaze that he couldn't ignore.

     " I hope your first full week just interning has made you look so run down already." Coming to the table, he pulled out a chair and sat down crossing his legs.

     "Hush, I don't look that bad. Just a little roughed up." She joked lightly.

     "All week? You can't let things get to you for that long, it just may kill you."

     Niamh's eyes rose to the familiar words that she had said to her mother earlier this week. She tilted her head, trying to make up her mind to say the words she was dying for an answer to from Joseph.

     Closing her food container she cleared her throat finally finding the moxy to ask Joseph of his relationship with her mother.

     " I've pretty much picked up on the fact that you and my mother know each other. She hasn't been the same since she met you, my brother either. What is it about you that they can't stop thinking of you Joseph? I've seen the picture of Niall in your office. Can you explain it?"

    Joseph couldn't lie that he was prepared for what she had said. Lorraine really hasn't told her of him.By the hard look on her face, maybe she had been opened up to only the negative things, which he didn't blame Lorraine.

    He knew he couldn't find his way through this with charming words to her. She was not simple and deserved more than evading the conversation.

     "We were friends when we were younger."

     "Something like that?" She said.

     Jospeh shrugged his shoulders and nodded yes. Friends. Each others halfs. They had been a lot to each other.

     " Something like that." He agreed.

     "School?"

      "Yes, Lorraine was a couple of years behind me." He said with a faint smile remember their days in high school.

     Niamh nodded her head and sat back in her seat crossing her arms. She raised an eyebrow having come up with a suggestion." You two were an item?" She asked slowly.

     Joseph's face reddened at the rhetorical question." We were, well. Your mother and I had..." He stumbled over his words. His phone went off saving him from the difficult question.

     The screen read Blaise and Joseph stood to excuse himself." I'm sorry Niamh sweetheart. It's my son. I'll see you around later." With that, he swiftly walked out of the room saying hello to the person on the other end.

      She was left alone with her thoughts.They knew each other from high school, and they both act like heart broken people when I bring the other up around either one of them.

    Joseph seemed to take a liking to both her and her brother. Niall. Mom had him when she was twenty, that's not that far from high school age.They would have still been in contact, right?

    She didn't get a chance to linger on the thought for long as Blythe called through on her cell phone.

     "Hello?" She answered after digging it from her pants pocket.

     " Hello dahling. Are you being a hermit once again this week?" In the background, Niamh could hear the rush of traffic around Blythe as she took her usual lunch stroll.

     " I'm such a slob when I eat. You know I have to unbutton my pants to eat and I can't do that in public." She heard Blythe's healthy laugh.

    "I just don't see how you haven't found a work buddy there after a whole week. Stop being so bougie."

     "I am not bougie Blythe. I just haven't had the time to be all up in someone's face yet."

    "Don't have the time? More like haven't put forth the effort to. Girl, you're going to die with only your mama, your brother, and me at your funeral."

    Niamh rolled her eyes at her friend's words. Niamh wasn't that against other people. She had acquaintances, but no friends on the level that Blythe is on.

    "You are so over the top. Tyrell would be there."

    "Yeah to hop in for one more freak before you got too smelly."

     " What about Nelly? We're cool aren't we?"

     " She'd come to make sure you were cool after stealing Bailey from her. Trust me Nia. I know what I'm talking about. You used to be a stone cold bitch man. I'm glad you kept your witch ways away from the guys I dated."

     Niamh cringed at her bringing up her sticky past. Yes, she had seen no limits to anyone she had wanted. She had slowed down some since then. She knew no amount of apologizing could truly clear the air with the girls she had stepped over when she was younger. Somehow, someway, she had been blessed enough to have met people who were bigger than her and able to to accept her apologies and give her a small dose of friendship. She really had no idea why. If it were her, she would have wiped her hands of a person like her long ago.

   "And then let's not forget Tasha!"

   "Okay, okay I'm feeling woozy now you can stop. I'll pay my dues when I die." She said cryptically.

    " Oh shut it Nancy! I don't want to hear that shit. You know I'm just playing with you." Niamh couldn't take anything said to her lightly lately.

    "Yeah." Cleaning up her area, Niamh stood against the table getting ready to go back to her work.

    " Are you still having dinner with me tonight?" Blythe asked.

    " I haven't been looking forward to anything else all day." She said with a smile. 

     " Good, I'll have your plate warmed sugar. Don't leave me waiting around."

     " You just make sure it's how I like girl." They gave their partings on the phone and Niamh headed towards the door turning out the lights behind her.

ooooooooooooooooo

     Walking up the stairs to Blythe's apartment, Niamh could smell something burnt in the air. She heard a firealarm beeping from one of the places as she walked down the hallway.

     Seeing it was Blythe's door wide open, she sped up her steps panicking to what she would find on the inside.

     "Blythe? What's going on?" Through the door, she saw a pan go flying into the trashcan and a coughing Blythe.

      "The chicken and rice are inedible." She said with a sheepish smile.

      Letting out a loud breath, Niamh leaned up against the door exhausted.

      "Bring your ass. You will feed me one way or another tonight." They both laughed and coughed from the smoke in the house. 

     " Okay, let me go change so I don't smell like smoke." Racing to her bedroom Blythe quickly got ready. Niamh went ahead and tied the trashbag with the ruined food to take it down. In two minutes, Blythe walked past her to the door.

    " I'm feeling like the most expensive thing in town tonight." Niamh said aloud tapping her chin in thought.

    " Well as long as it takes more than thirty minutes for our food to come out and it ends up free, you can have whatever you want." Blythe said under her breath locking her door.

    Niamh hit her in the butt with the hot trash, making her jump.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo