And We All Fall Down (Tagged)

[Deleted]

|| TAG: Isla Hudson,|| WORDS: 0 ||
|| NOTES: ... ||

“Yeah no greater teacher than life itself I guess.” Fin said knowing that if he knew half of what he knew now, maybe things would be different in life. “Exactly and if you’ve tried then that’s all you can do. It’s up to the person if they accept it or not. Seems like you’re a good friend to have, I cannot imagine many of mine helping out.” Fin added figuring since most of his so called friends were more criminal than friends, he figured they would throw whoever under the bus to save their own skins rather than stick with a person.

“It’s what family is for right? I’ve a brother who had his chances and he never often saw the help that was there. You talk to him and it is all I did life on my own.” Fin said chuckling; sure Logan was hardly that bad but in Fin’s eyes as the eldest. It had to be said to at least ten people a year that he was, simply for older brother bragging rights. “Yeah siblings are designed for that, it’s a right of way and a life lesson too so if siblings stopped doing that then life would be no fun.” He added.

“So it seems like you’ve a pretty good family with you so far, even if your brother is easy to wind up at times.” Fin added smiling; he had pulled away from his own family a little. Mainly because of his job and it hardly went to finding friends. The sort of work he did, not legal and painful at times, it was better his family had no idea. He never really said much to Amanda about it either simply because telling a cop of all the laws you broke that day. One word. Jail.

Red☠Frost

[Isla Hudson]

“Exactly and if you’ve tried then that’s all you can do. It’s up to the person if they accept it or not. Seems like you’re a good friend to have, I cannot imagine many of mine helping out.”

Wow, that was pretty sad, and Isla couldn't imagine not having friends who would stand up in a moment of need.

“It’s what family is for right? I’ve a brother who had his chances and he never often saw the help that was there. You talk to him and it is all I did life on my own.”

"Brothers can be pretty pig-headed, I think, just to make us nuts!" She laughed...she had plenty of experience with a brother who was just going to do what he was going to do, regardless of how much sense it made!

“Yeah siblings are designed for that, it’s a right of way and a life lesson too so if siblings stopped doing that then life would be no fun.” He added.

Laughing, she had to agree. "So true, especially when you're the only good sibling! I know I never caused my brother or sister any trouble!" Fortunately, they weren't here to give their side of that!

“So it seems like you’ve a pretty good family with you so far, even if your brother is easy to wind up at times.”

"Yeah, yeah, they're pretty good." As much as she joked about it, she and her siblings had pulled together when it counted and worked as a team. "I wish Dad was still around, I know how hard it was on Steven to step into that role...he still treats us like kids sometimes. And once Mom faded away..." She shook her head and sighed. "I mean, I'd love to have had a 'normal' life growing up, with parents and everything, but then I think that me and Steven and Emily wouldn't be so close, so I guess it's a trade-off. And then I see so many fractured families at work, and I know that I don't have it hard at all."

Sometimes it felt selfish to want her Dad back and her Mom functional, but she realized that was just Human nature, and she'd just move on.

@fin

[Deleted]

|| TAG: Isla Hudson,|| WORDS: 0 ||
|| NOTES: ... ||

Fin’s idea of friends were the sort of people no one would ever want to meet, the people that appeared on the worst days to make a bad day... well worse. The general idea was to stay out of the way of the cops, fire department and try to not make a splash where needed. Helping people out, there was a line to be drawn and Fin sure he had crossed it a few times but then he used to make his living from helping people. It was tough at times to walk away but now he had crossed to the dark side, he found the line a little more flexible.

Laughing lightly, Fin agreed entirely with Isla on the brother’s things. “Sure they do and yeah it drives us nuts but... yeah we have brother’s why?” He asked grinning though Logan was a pretty good one by brother’s standards. He could have had much worse by those stakes and really at least if he was really in need of medical attention, as a vet he could at least turn up there and hope his brother would see the irony of it all. Yeah he was much safer at the hospital he told himself.

“Sure we are the good siblings; we would never be here if we weren’t.” He joked grinning; oh the good siblings were there really any that were totally innocent. Sure Logan might appear that way but Fin knew a thing or two about what he had done in his day. Braking his mothers favourite vase when he was told not to play football inside, the fact he had stuck toast in the cd player to see what noise it made. Oh there were a hundred and one things he knew of that he had swept under the carpet or just out right blamed on Logan.

“It’s always tough to step into a parent role; I used to do it for my brother for a while. My parents worked two jobs each to put him through college and school.” Fin explained, “He was the smart one of the two... obviously.” He joked, “So I got to do all the ‘hey kid here’s dinner’ or ‘get your homework done’. It was fun to start with then just annoying but we grew up and aren’t too damaged for it. Like you say there is always someone else worse off than the rest of us.” Fin still had both parents and a brother though how much they wanted him around.

That remained to be seen but Isla was right, he was lucky in a sense because he had a family. Regardless of everything he had that and it meant something to him. Even if he was closed off from the idea of needing anyone, Fin was that guy who would step up for them any time he needed to.

Red☠Frost

[Isla Hudson]

"Well, I can at least assure you from the other side, that even if he doesn't realize it now, one day it will dawn in him what you did for him,,,and appreciate it."

And you could only hope it wasn't too late when you realized what you hadn't seen when you were younger, so caught up in your own life and troubles, and pushed aside other things. There was so much that could easily be overlooked.

"There's so much," she mused quietly, more to herself, "things happen in the blink of an eye, the whole world changes, and then it can be too late..." Laughing, she focused back on Fin. "I need to go home and give Steven a hug, but then he'll just be suspicious that I've been up to something."

Her expression turned a bit mischievous. "And maybe I should just let him wonder!"

@fin

[Deleted]

|| TAG: Isla Hudson,|| WORDS: 0 ||
|| NOTES: ... ||

Fin laughed as he shrugged; yeah he somehow doubted that would be the case. Logan was a lot of things but when it came to actually talking and working things out, it was an O’Connor family trait that it never really happened. Fin hoped he had the chance to pay back what had been done for him but in the long run he had no idea, citizen of the year was not who he was.

His work was now a little broader when it came to what he had originally trained in but he hardly minded that. It fit his character a little better than trying to do the right thing all day long. It was a specifically grey area though he did enjoy the lean over to the outright illegal.

Fin sat there and smiled listening to Isla talk about things happening and the whole world changing. He knew that one; his world had been changed in the matter of one helicopter flight. A flight that changed his life, career and outlook on everything. Had he been late that day, been assigned elsewhere or even if there had been a mechanical issues he would never have been where he was now.

“Oh sure let him wonder, I mean yeah the minute they do anything out of the ordinary there is something wrong.” Fin said with a smirk, “It’s like a guy that takes flowers home for his other half, it’s never that they just had the idea to do it. It’s the thing of what did they do or what are they covering for or apologising for in the first place.” He always found that funny until he had another half to worry about. “I say let him wonder because it’s always good to have a little mystery in life.” Fin added.

Red☠Frost

[Isla Hudson]

"Oh, I like the way you think!" Isla laughed. "And it might work, too, if Steven didn't know I was too afraid of getting into trouble to step too far out of line."

Not that she ever much tried, she liked to please people, and the few times she had pushed the limits she'd felt terrible and had immediately confessed...and Steven knew how to play the 'guilt card' by pushing the, 'I'm so disappointed in you, I thought better of you'. That would have Isla melting into tears!

Sighing, she shook her head. "I don't know that I'll ever be brave enough for real mystery. Adventure for sure, but that's different...visiting the Pyramids isn't the same as dating a mummy!"

Although it could be argued that picking up someone in a dark parking lot who had obviously been in a fight could be a good deal of mystery mixed with the adventure...Steven was never going to find out about that!

At that, she laughed. "Anyway, I'll take what you said and remember it...if my mummy ever brings me flowers 'just because', I'll believe him! And a tip for you...sometimes girls just cry for no reason."

Sure, she had plenty of reasons sometimes, but now and again she just felt like crying, the joy of hormones!

@fin,

[Deleted]

|| TAG: Isla Hudson,|| WORDS: 0 ||
|| NOTES: ... ||

“Trust me, go with a life crisis and they will never know what hit them. That way no one can really say how far out of the usual lines you can go.” Fin suggested, not that he overly wanted to cause someone an issue that he had never met. Pain and suffering was a thing he enjoyed likely more than most but it ever hurt to keep people on their toes. It kept things fresh, rather than relying on the fact that it was out of character.

Fin could barely hide the laugh as dating was brought up. “You’ve never dated a mummy, well you’re missing out.” He teased, “Real mystery is a good thing, not everything in the world is meant to be understood. A little mystery here and there makes life interesting or it would be boring doing the same thing each and every day.” Fin explained smiling, he was still talking to the woman who had taken him into the hospital from a parking lot and then agreed to go to breakfast with him. If that was a mystery he would hate to think what she thought a real mystery was.

“See that is the thing I don’t understand. Why cry for no reason? To make us guys terrified and then when we do say something, like what did I do wrong.” Fin began, “You turn it on us as if it wasn’t anything we did then it slowly becomes and us issue. Like we magically know what upset you.” So Fin had experience with just crying, and just yelling followed by a it’s just all your fault side of women that he never understood. “I think women need to write a guide to life, at least then guys would get what was going on.” Fin suggested grinning.

Red☠Frost

[Isla Hudson]

"Oh, but that's the whole point," Isla commented with a grin, "you're nor supposed to understand -- kind of like cats, the more you pet and pamper them, the closer they get to scratching your eyes out!"

It had been a bit of an informal study she'd been doing over the years and she'd come to the conclusion that men were dogs, constantly needing direction and reassurance, and women were cats, overly affectionate and independently aloof at the same time!

"Problem is, millennia ago a man reacted to a woman crying, comforting her, catering to her, giving her gifts, and ever since then we've had your number!" She laughed. "And I'll let you in on a secret....you're not supposed to know why we're crying or mad...I mean, you are, except that there is no reason, there's nothing to know!"

In all honesty, she knew what it was like when hormones were raging, and there was nothing you could do about it, and you could only understand it if you lived it, so understanding it was a lost cause for men! Still, a kind word and simple daisy can go a long way."

@fin

[Deleted]

|| TAG: Isla Hudson,|| WORDS: 0 ||
|| NOTES: ... ||

“See now that is just a whole other kind of confusing. Women, cats... the lot of it. Why is it that we try to do the right thing, end up making it all worse and then we’re all just arguing all the time?” Fin added though the idea of being petted like a cat he found amusing. Maybe he needed to try that one with Amanda even though he was sure she could scratch his eyes out for it.

Fin and women needed work, he was barely the wonderful romantic more like a my way or no way kind of guy. Then as he listened to Isla he laughed as he nodded, there was nothing worse than seeing a woman crying. Any decent guy would do anything to fix whatever it was but she was right, maybe men had to be kept in the dark about it or they would never fall for it again.

“Now that is just human cruelty.” Fin added with a smirk, “I have no idea what it is women want or expect these days, if any guy did they might be able to navigate the world a little easier. Rather than being the general cause of tears all day long.” Sure a date gone bad or expectations gone wrong there were a million reasons for women to cry he just usually picked the wrong one. “I’ll try to remember that one, with guys it’s a lot easier. Food works wonders.” He added grinning.

Red☠Frost

[Isla Hudson]

"Ah, right, food..." Isla laughed. "And the nice thing it , most guys aren't really too finicky, they just like to know it was made for them. I know most of the time all I had to do was toss some tater tots and corn dogs in the toaster over and Steven would forget anything else!"

Well, mostly, her big brother was so concerned about making his sisters happy that just a sweet doe-eyed look could get them pretty far, unless he thought that their safety was at stake, and then nothing would sway him.

"But he taught me young not to resort to the 'all-time favorite' as a peace offering, he said that that was as good as an admission of guilt!" Shaking her head, she rolled her eyes. "As if we could be guilty of anything!"

It was an interesting conversation, something she didn't think about often and she was enjoying the exchange of viewpoints.

"But then, isn't the whole point of arguing the making up?" A bright tint came to her cheeks as she shrugged. "Um...not that I can really speak from experience or anything on that..."

@fin,

[Deleted]

|| TAG: Isla Hudson,|| WORDS: 0 ||
|| NOTES: ... ||

“See got it in one, so remind me again why aren’t you married?” Fin asked glancing down at her hand seeing no sign of anything that could mean marriage. He could always be wrong because plenty of people went without the ring but it was a safe guess he though. “So really you don’t need to be taught any of it, you’ve had all the practice you need. Food just works on guys, it is the easiest way and besides we won’t argue if we’re eating too.”

Fin usually tied to do that with his brother, find food or just a cute little puppy that needed saved and his attention was diverted from any crisis or argument. Normally, then again they were brothers so arguing was a way to work everything out between them on a good day. The idea still worked however he was sure of that much.

“Oh sure, never guilty at all and yeah never do the go to peace offering.” Fin said with a grin, “If I get a roast dinner then I know something’s up with my family. It’s like a ‘let’s just butter you up a minute’ before we break the bad news. Fin could imagine what people could be guilty of and it was hardly just the sin of eating a bacon roll when you were on a diet or breaking that favourite vase of the other half and blaming the dog.

Seeing the tint come to her cheeks Fin smiled, “Really, so are you sure you’ve had no experience of that?” Fin asked grinning at her. “But sure the making up part is great so long as you’re not stuck in the arguing part for a long time.” Fin added having been stuck there while once or twice.

Red☠Frost

[Isla Hudson]

"Well, I did have some fights with my ex, but there was never any good making up, just me giving in to get him to stop. I think that was part of the problem, though -- he wanted me to move to more...intimate activities, but...yeah, I wasn't going to go there, I'm not only sort of a prude, you know, wait until marriage sort of thing, but my brother would kill me!"

She had been glad, though, for that standard her brother had instilled in them, when everything had blown up. It had made it so much easier to walk away.

"Besides," she batted her eyes at him, "I'm always sweet and perfect...and right, so there's no argument."

She laughed. "But then, there are those things I do now and again that Steven will never know about. I hate keeping things from him, but sometimes he gets so...brotherly, then we fight, I bat my eyes at him and tell him not to worry, he raised me right, all is good."

It was true, though, Steven and their mother had taught them good values, and used just enough fear of punishment to keep them on the right path.

@fin,

[Deleted]

|| TAG: Isla Hudson,|| WORDS: 0 ||
|| NOTES: ... ||

Ah the Ex, well that likely explained a lot he figured. “If a guy is worth anything he wouldn’t ever pressure you into doing anything that you didn’t want to. You do know you can do what you want to, your brother can only say so much and besides meet the right guy and your brother might never have to know.” Fin added, he guessed that Isla thought a lot of him but then if Fin’s brother told him what he could do, there would be another war in Chicago. “But if I had a sister... yeah I think if a guy looked at her sideways we would have an issue.”

It was true he guessed, if anyone looked at Amanda in a way that he saw as anything but friendly. Fin did debate if he needed to go do some harm, it was a rule of his. Protect what he cared about because only he would do that. “Well if there’s no argument then that is a good thing, but what brother never knows can also work. Live a little, it could be fun.” Fin said grinning, so encouraging someone to walk on the wild side was usually not his thing but then Isla seemed like she needed to find some fun. More so than picking a guy off a car park floor and treating him without hospital permission.

“See exactly right, if he never knows... it can’t hurt and as a guy. If my girlfriend does that I hate it when I want to be mad at her. I mean like seriously is there a code for this stuff or just hard wired to be...yeah it’s all okay now. I can’t even remember why we were fighting.” Fin had never paid much attention to women beyond getting what he wanted. Until Amanda came into his life and then things were... well things became a lot more complicated when he realised he never wanted her to leave his life.

Fear was always a good tool to use, punishment even better and Fin was a huge fan of both. It worked to get him what he wanted and usually that was money given his line of work. Funny how the two could be mutually exclusive to family as well.

Red☠Frost

[Isla Hudson]

"Oh, don't you worry," Isla commented with a cheeky grin, "we'll remember for you...and bring it up ten years later in explicit detail, and tell you very specifically why you were wrong...and still are!"

She laughed, although honestly, she knew both men and women who would do that...some could never forget, even though things were settled and done, and others would immediately move on and never look back. She had learned to do that latter, not that it wasn't fun now and again to dredge up incidents from childhood just to torment her brother!

"Well, Steven thinks the parkour is exciting enough...and the zip-lining...he..." Well, she had promised not to rat him out on the screaming-like-a-girl thing, so she adjusted the comment a bit. "It just amazes me that someone who makes a living going into burning buildings and over-turned cars can be so...unthrilled with that!"

She shrugged, then added, "But really, I appreciate everything he's done for me, all the sacrifices he made for us and all the stuff he put up with. Heck, he almost went to jail over the 'Jerk-Face' thing. And see...you did your good deed by helping me to really see that."

Her grin widened. "Of course, I already let him have the Mustang, and that should be payment enough, right?"

@fin

[Deleted]

|| TAG: Isla Hudson,|| WORDS: 0 ||
|| NOTES: ... ||

“So there’s no expiry dates on that stuff then, you remember forever?” Fin said with a grin, honestly he was unsure if that was a good thing or not but then Fin enjoyed the game of who said what when. Annoying people he seemed to think was his skill in life, being that guy who made everyone else hate him within a few seconds and annoy his family to boot. It was a marketable skill in his line of work too, no point in playing nice with people all the time.

“Oh you have a story there huh, zip lining?” Fin asked guessing that her brother might not be a fan of it for sister. Fin would likely be the guy to shove his brother off the platform if they did anything of the sort but then the O’Connors were hardly the male bonding type. They got along to get along and that was about it. “Well I guess if you do that for a living everything else is just a little... well borning maybe? Maybe a bigger zip line?” Fin suggested.

“Well just so you know, I’m not the good deed kind of guy but I guess if you’ve realised something then. I think I’ve done my good deed for life.” Fin added, not really sure how he felt about being added onto a good deed list of life. “Yeah I really think it’s you that needs the medical attention for doing that, you let... and I mean let him take the mustang. You could be certifiable.” Fin added with a smirk. To him it was an insane thing to do, no way he would share that with his brother, sure make him pay and beg for it yes but not share without some serious grovelling.

Red☠Frost