[Who] Murphy & Connor [What] Murphy smacks some sense (literally) into his younger brother. [Where] Connor's place [When] Thursday Evening [Rating] S for Swears. It's the Moran's after all.
He'd been distracted, as of late. Not that anyone could blame him, what with a baby on the way and such. A lot of things had passed him by, but when Quinn brought this little bit of information to light, well, Murphy couldn't ignore it. Now, he clutched the small stack of letters in his hand as he pounded on his brother's door. He'd suspected this for a while, but actually seeing it in writing made all the difference.
"Open the feckin' door, you ass." He yelled, pounding on the door harder. Maybe the urgency of the situation had made the eldest Moran a little impatient. Oh well. It couldn't be helped.
Connor was in the kitchen making sure that Scop got his dinner when he heard his brother banging on the door. While that wasn't that uncommon, though, more uncommon that he was really ready to admit at the moment, something in his tone of voice made Connor rush over too the door and fling it open. "Fuck you alright? What happened?" he said in all seriousness. He examined his brother's face for all of two seconds before deciding that nothing life shattering had happened and let him in and shut the door behind him, then plopping himself down on his couch.
"So, what do I owe this visit? Need me to fix the crib?" he said with half a smirk on his face.
Murphy rolled his eyes a little has he stepped over the threshold and into Connors place. "Nothin' happened. Least not nothin' I didn't already have a feelin' about." The last half was muttered under his breath.
He watched his little brother flop down on the couch, and he rolled his eyes again. Could Connor really be that oblivious to what was going on with the person he called his his friend? As Murphy made his way over to one of Connor's armchairs, he smacked his brother on the back of the head.
"Fuckin' A, what was that for?" Connor rubbed his head in the place he'd been smacked. Usually, this wouldn't have bothered him. He and Murph had been smacking each other by way of greeting since childhood. But...this seemed off. Something clearly Connor wasn't getting, and he had a feeling that this conversation wasn't going to go as well as he'd hoped it would when he realized that his brother had come to visit.
Murphy flopped himself down in the chair, and propped his feet up on the coffee table in typical Moran fashion. "For bein' a feckin' idiot, that's what." He shook his head at his brother. "Quinn came ta see me last night. Gave me these." He tossed the small stack of letters into Connor's lap. "Do with 'em has you wish."
Connor was still looking confused as he kicked up his own feet on the coffee table in perfect unison with his brother, not even thinking about it. "You're goin' ta have to be a little more specific here." he said before he caught the letters. A rare worried look passed over his face as he stared at them for a moment as the pieces slowly started to click together. Quinn, plus Cam's upset mood, plus Murphy, probably equaled him either a. really fucking up, or b. he'd missed something entirely. And for once, he wasn't sure he wanted either of those options. His mind raced for a possible c. option, but that wasn't happening. There probably wasn't a chance in hell that this was some practical joke.
He played with the letters, lightly tapping them against one of his palms. "You read them?" he asked, more, his way of asking for guidance than anything. After all, Murphy was the one person on this Earth Connor would follow blindly without any question. Period. Even if he did feel sometimes that he was still on the "stay up all night and drink and get into the gee" train and Murph had somehow switched onto the "being a mostly responsible adult" train at the last station. Sure there were times where he felt like he was being left behind and this weird void was there, but nothing that he couldn't at least try and ignore and make the best of. So, that's probably why he was looking at his brother right now for...something.
Murphy shook his head. "Didn't need ta. Quinn filled me in on the details anyway. Figured I'd let you have the honors." Murph hadn't needed to read them to know what they said. The way Cam was acting had been proof enough. Quinn had just confirmed the long running suspicion that Cam was in love with his idiot of a brother.
"Oh, great. Thanks." he said sighing a bit. He had a gut feeling that he wasn't going to like what was in those letters. And suddenly he really had no idea if he should open them or not. He flung them onto the coffee table for a minute while he thought about this. Like really thought about this. But in order to do that, he'd need beer. The ancient art of drinking until things made sense was alive and well in this Moran, as he got up and headed over to the kitchen. Sometimes it only took a beer or two, or it might take a whole bottle of Jamie, usually it fell somewhere in between. And the jury was still out on how long this might take. He grabbed two, pulled off the tops and handed one over before sitting back down and kicking his feet up.
"On one hand. I shouldn't. Because, just by that comment, and the fact that Rivers got involved, tells me that whatever's in there isn't going to be good and might ruin something that's pretty important to me." Which I probably did anyway after the whole mutual nakedness part.. "Fuck man. I knew it. I knew that as soon as I woke up that morning that she'd go all girl on me. I mean, why do women have to always mess things up with feelings and shit." he was clearly deflecting a bit, which he figured Murphy could see though, but still. It wasn't like he didn't care about her, because he did. But what he think was happening? Connor wasn't sure he was capable of that, as he'd expressed that many times over the years.
"It's what I'm here for, brother." He shook his head a little when Connor just flung the letters on the table. This wasn't going to go over well. He took the beer from Connor, buy didn't drink. At least not right away.
"Look. I'm only here because you're me brother, and I figured you might take this a little better comin' from me." now he took a long drink from the bottle. "And I'm not goin' ta go tryin' to tell yeh what to do, but I will say this: Cam didn't just go Spain to see her Uncle, and if I were you, I'd use this little time you have before she comes back to figure out what the fuck is going on. I'm really tired of seein' you two dance around each other."
Connor rubbed his face after a good long drink from the bottle, looking at Murphy like for some reason he had all the answers, even though Connor knew better than that. "Right. Because this is all about how you're feelin'." he said then paused suddenly remembering that his brother was here to help. "Sorry. Didn't mean that." He said honestly. And, he even used the 'sorry' word to show it. "Murph, I don't love remember? I don't do relationships. Not because I don't want to, but because come the three month mark, it all goes banjaxed and everyone leaves miserable like." he tried to explain.
"And the chance of losin' one of me best friends?" he said drinking again in frustration.
Murphy didn't say anything when his brother semi-snapped at him. He'd kind of expected it, since this entire conversation was one he was pretty sure his brother didn't want to be having. "Did yah ever stop to think about the reason it all falls to shite? Take a look back at the girls you've "dated", Connor." He waited a few minutes to see if his point might strike his brother before he spoke. "These girls... they're nice girls. Nice girls don't know how to handle guys like us."
Murphy sighed. He seemed to be doing a lot of that today. "And you think she's not worried about that too? I think she's scared shitless of losing you."
Connor did as he was told and sat and thought about it as he worked on his beer. Oh. That point. Damnit. Murphy did have a point. Sometimes he hated it when that happened. Mostly hated it when that happened. He was about to point out that the woman he married was a "nice" girl, but he felt it was a moot point since she wasn't that "kind of nice girl" or something. Connor forgot how Murph had explained it once. But either way he was right. "And when was the last time I even tried to get into a relationship, yeah? I mean, that whole stalker thing...." he trailed off. Had even scared him away from one night stands for a while. Granted, that seemed to have correct itself since then. But still.
"So why can't she just man up and talk to me about this? I mean, I her probalby running into Nicola yesterday wasn't good, but I was in the shower, and I didn't even know it happened until she got all upset, and she kept saying everything was okay!" he said in his defense. "Women are inherently insane, I think. I don't know how you do it." he said his turn to sigh.
"I don't know, Connor. You tell me. That thing with whats-her-face happens, man. Some chicks are just crazy. She was one of them." Murphy shrugged as he downed some more of his beer. "There aren't a lot of women in the world who can put up with men like us for the long haul, Con. There's a reason why we've always said you should just go ahead and marry Cam." He pointed the neck of his bottle at Connor. "Do you get it now?"
Murph scratched at his temple a little. "I don't have all the answers, man. I wish I did sometimes, but ... Maybe she's just freaked out about this whole thing, you know? I mean, I was scared shitless when I realized I was in love with Dom."
"I think she was the President of the Crazy Club." he said under his breath. Again, he was listening because most of this was making sense to him, and seeping into his thick skull, the look on his face said that he was at least taking this into consideration, which if anything was a step in the right direction. He might not make a decision for a few days, or whatever, but at least he was starting the process. Sometimes Connor's brain worked like a well oiled machine, it had its process, it had it's way of doing things, other times, it was like running through the jungle, whacking your way through the dense forest. Right now? It was somewhere in between those two things. When he asked if he got it now he nodded. "And it was more than because she's me with tits and an actual ass." he said half present, half lost in his own head.
"Maybe. I dunna know, man. I think you might have a point though, I'd better at least start thinkin' about all of this. Get some sort of game plan goin'." he looked at his brother and smirked, even laughed a bit. Oh, he remembered that. He couldn't even tease him about that when it happened. Well, he tried, but Murph had broken Connor's jaw with a punch. That's how he knew it was serious, and he rubbed his jaw as a reflex. "Yeah, I remember."
"It's finally sinkin' in, eh?" Murph gave a little laugh and polished off the beer. He sat the empty bottle down on the coffee table, and rested his elbows on his knees. "You should figure out where you stand in all of this. I, however, need ta get home. I'm supposed to pick up Oreo's and more peanut butter on me way back to the house."
Murphy stood up from the chair, stretching his arms out over his head. His back cracked a couple of times before he lowered his arms, and cracked his neck. "Everthin'll sort itself out, my dear brother. It always does." He patted Connor on the shoulder as he walked by.
"Somethin' like that." he said in response looking up at his brother, and then smirking. "Yeah, sure just drop a bomb like that one me and return to your wholesome family life." he teased a real smile crossing his face. He didn't mean it but it was one of his favorite things to joke about, as of late.
"Aye, it will, one way or another." he said patting Murph's hand and then standing up to let his brother out of the place.