A Different Kind Of Dysfunction - A Shameless Fanfiction (Book One)

Adeline knocked on the Gallagher back door just after midnight.

It was the kind of knock that said she wasn’t coming for small talk.

Lip answered in a hoodie and boxers, half-awake, cigarette tucked behind his ear.

“You look like hell,” he said.

Adeline stepped inside. “I don’t want to scream into a pillow alone.”

He gestured to the couch. “Screaming into mine’s an upgrade.”

She dropped into it without a word, pulling her knees up. He sat across from her and lit the cigarette.

No questions.

No pressure.

That’s why she came.

---

They didn’t speak for a while.

Lip passed her the smoke. She took it. Blew out slowly.

“She was tearing through the kitchen again tonight,” Adeline said.

“Sylvia?”

“Yeah.”

“Looking for what?”

“Pills. Money. Anything to sell.”

Lip didn’t flinch.

“She find anything?”

Adeline’s jaw tensed. “She tried. I stopped her.”

“Good.”

“I told her if she touched the kids again, I’d call CPS myself.”

“That’s the move.”

“I thought it’d feel like winning.”

“It never does.”

Adeline stared at the ceiling.

“I’m so fucking tired, Lip.”

“I know.”

---

The smoke drifted between them.

“You ever feel like you’re the one holding the whole building up?” she asked.

Lip nodded. “And every time the roof caves in, they blame the foundation.”

“Exactly.”

She rubbed her eyes. “I want to quit. But I can’t. And that makes me hate everyone just a little bit.”

Lip smirked. “That’s normal. You just can’t let it turn you into her.”

Adeline exhaled hard. “Yeah.”

---

They sat like that for a while.

Then Adeline looked at him.

Serious now.

“No jokes for this one,” she said. “I need to ask you something.”

Lip raised an eyebrow. “Shoot.”

“It’s about Sophie.”

Lip’s expression didn’t change — but something in his posture did. More alert. More careful.

Adeline leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees.

“I know you’re not a saint. I don’t need you to be. But if you’re gonna keep spending time with her — and I know you are — I need you to hear me.”

Lip didn’t interrupt.

“She’s already broken enough,” Adeline said. “Not in a cliché way. Not in a ‘poor girl with trauma’ way. I mean actually broken. Like, ripped-apart-younger-than-she-ever-should-have-been broken.”

Lip swallowed.

“She’s never asked for anything,” Adeline went on. “Not even when she needed it. And she trusts you. Which is rare for her.”

“I know,” Lip said quietly.

“So don’t fuck her up worse.”

“I’m not trying to.”

Adeline nodded slowly.

“I don’t care if it turns into something or not,” she said. “But I care that she doesn’t wake up one day and realize she was just another distraction to someone who never really looked at her.”

Lip didn’t blink.

“She’s not,” he said.

Adeline watched him carefully.

“Good,” she said finally. “Because I don’t have the energy to pick up more pieces.”

---

They fell quiet again.

Not heavy. Just aware.

“I didn’t come here just to say that,” she admitted.

“I figured.”

“I just needed air.”

Lip tapped ash into a mug. “You don’t breathe much, do you?”

“Not lately.”

“Same.”

She looked at him. “How do you handle it?”

“I drink. Screw up. Burn a few bridges. Start again.”

She laughed once. “Honest.”

“Always.”

He leaned back, studying her.

“You’re not wrong to be protective,” he said. “And Sophie’s... not like most people. But neither are you.”

Adeline gave him a look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” Lip said, “that it takes one broken person to see another. You’re not just holding her together. You’re holding yourself.”

She didn’t argue.

Because he wasn’t wrong.

---

Eventually, she stood.

“I should get back.”

“You need anything?”

“No.”

She walked to the door.

Stopped.

Looked back at him.

“If you ever hurt her—”

“I won’t.”

They stared at each other a moment longer.

Then she nodded once.

“Goodnight, Gallagher.”

“Night, Whitman.”

---

Back outside, under the empty sky, Adeline didn’t feel peace.

But she felt relief.

Because Sophie had someone — and maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t drop her.

And that?

That was enough for now.

[Word count: ~693 words]