Aidan swung in fiery bursts at the heavy bag in front of him. Solid jabs, light and heavy hooks, low shots... He planted and leaned in to the motions, his bare knuckles bleeding and raw from the amount of time he'd spent training already. His body glistened in the lights of the gym hall as his grunts echoed throughout the empty room. He was alone... The way he liked it... He'd closed the gym already and finally had time to himself to work through his old routines.

Speed. I can still go faster... He thought to himself. He could feel the burn of his muscles as he pushed through the pain barrier that so many threw in the towel for. No, Aidan had beaten that feeling time and time again. There was no reason to stop now... Letting the day's aggression go he growled, leading in to a roar of defiance at the onset of pain. After all, what is pain but weakness leaving the body?

"R_aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAA^{AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!}" He got louder with his flurry of furious blows, stepping into the bag and pushing it further away with each fiery stroke until he finally stopped. With his final, followed through jab, Aidan had knocked the chains loose and caused the bag to fall. He panted loudly, staring down at the bag and grunting as he fought for his breath.

Clapping from the other side of the room startled him and he spun to stare into the dark corner of the gym. The shadow of a man's silhouette seemed to dance, manipulated by the low light in the building. It didn't help that the lights flickered as the buildings cooling system kicked on.

"Who ta fock is t'ere?" Aidan called out. "Ah may be sweat'y an' tired, but Ah'll still kick yer arse." It was stated matter-of-factly. There wasn't much Aidan actually feared, and a fight with a real opponent would probably do him some good. He began to strut himself toward where the voice had come from.

"Mr. O'Connor! I-It's me! Greg! Grag Cassok!" He stepped forward into the light, his hands held up with his palms open. "I didn't mean to startle you, I just thought I'd take my chance to watch a real pro. You're kind of an inspiration." He smiled, dropping his hands slowly.

"Mr. Cassok... Misssterrr... OI! Tá, yer teh new lad, hmm? Jus' started a few weeks back, hi?"

He chuckled as he continued toward Greg, snagging a towel off one of the wooden chairs as he passed it.

"Yeh go' a real mean left hook on yeh. Nae evereh deh we see a ciotóg in teh ring."

Greg's brow perked high, "A... A what?"

Aidan chuckled and smacked his left hand. "Ciotóg, yer fockin' left 'anded" He stuck his own hand out after drying his hands and wiping the blood from his knuckles.

"So w'a kin Ah do fer yeh, Mistah Cassok?"

Greg shook Aidan's hand before he looked around, immediately acting a bit nervous and shady, "Well, you remember when you said we could come to you about anything? Well..."

Aidan's brow lifted and he began to wring his hands through the towel expectantly. "Aye. Ah remember et plent'y. W'a yeh needin', lad?"

"Fuck it, better if I just come out and say it right? I'm in a real bind with some bad people, Mr. O'Connor. They said they'd hurt my wife and kid if I didn't square up with them. I'm between jobs, and I made a stupid bet on what should have been a sure fight... But... I didn't know they had fixed the fight! I didn't know... I-I didn't..." He fell to his knees and started crying. Aidan's lips pursed and pulled to one side, his brows furrowing.

"'Ow much?" He was short, and to the point. Aidan didn't like people threatening Greg's wife, but the kid was absolutely unnecessary.

"OI!" he yelled, making Greg clam up and look at him. "'Ow much, an' ta who?" He asked again, crouching to look the man in the face.

Greg swallowed hard. He'd not realized just how intimidating Aidan was, simply in stature. Not to mention when his fists were bloody and his naked torso pulsed from the day's workout.

"Umm... About three grand?" Greg winced as he said it...

"T'ree fockin' grand! Greg, yeh do'nae have t'at kinna money! Are yeh fockin' thick, boyo?!" he smacked his head as he asked, adding emphasis to what -should- have been a rhetorical question. But of course, Greg Cassok had to make sure and try to explain himself.

"Well, I mean, we've been struggling, really badly... And, and I though maybe if I win then, well, then I can pay off the guys I borrowed money from an..."

Aidan cut him off, " 'Tain't teh bookie t'at be after yeh?"

Greg shook his head. "No sir. I was on my way to place payment on my loan. Thought if I won, then I could pay it all off."

Aidan grumbled and gripped Greg's collar. "Do yeh need t'ree grand right now? Cuz t'at's a lo' a money. Ah kin get it... But yeh would pret'y much be in teh same boat yer in now... Jus' wit' a dif'ernt loan agreement."

Greg nodded, "I know, but I figure, it's easier to pay back a friend, right?"

Aidan sucked his teeth before dropping his grip on Greg. "Fock et... Yer gonna owe me. Yer gonna work fer me. Yer payments'll be a hun'ed a week."

Greg nodded. "Are you going to just take the payments?"

"Nae, lad, yer still gonna bring me t'at yerself. Ah'm gonna make yeh be responsible fa yeh debt. But onleh you. Nae yer family an' yer lit'le girl. T'ey ain' nae part o' t'is, an' t'ey ain' need ta be, hi? Unnahstand?"

Greg nodded and jumped up, shaking Aidan's hand and thanking him profusely.

"Okay t'en. Meet me back 'ere tahmorrow an' we will go an' pay yer debt in full. Now crack on, yeh idjit."

He ushered Greg quickly out the door and packed his things, locking the gym back up.

"Mot'er focker bet'er nae fock me... Ah'll ruin 'is career..." Aidan mumbled as he stuffed a cigarette in his mouth and lit it, beginning the long trek across town to his flat.

A shrill whistle pierced the quickly falling dusk as Aidan rounded the front corner of the building. In the fading light of evening, Fiona's form could just be made out, silhouetted against the growing dark. "Heya, Red," she called down just as the cigarette sparked, illuminating his ginger features in it's dull red glow. "What's wit' all tha commotion? 'ard day, hi?" 

She waved him up with a barely discernable smile,  "Why doncha come up fer a wee spot 'fore yeh 'ead home? I sure could use tha company..." her voice trailed off with a bright upward lilt as her silhouette danced away from the window. Any innocent bystander would likely balk at such a forward invitation at this hour; assuming her intentions to be indecent or otherwise immoral. But knowing eachother as they did, she trusted Aidan would have no such misgivings and understand the nebulous sapor masked in her words. 

I was a lil bit sullen, thinking of my old crew, and how much I loved them... strange even more so as I look up at this guy and girl talking.. she is talking about company something or other, I am not really um what  do you call it.. listening in, with an empty glass at the door for full sound effects.. whatever that is called. I blink for a second, am I seeing Sully and Matty, or somethng or someone else? Bt it cannot be of course they died, I am pretty sure of that. I almost ran into these two, cause I was not watching where I was going.. thinking back .. was in the past, I guess.

"Um, excuse moi (with the French background, I tend to come out with that first, practically my first words growing up).. I mean, Excuse me, I was not watching where I was going. I did not mean to interrupt what was going on here either, my apologies for that too. ( a bit, I mean a lot of embarassment, I am probably red as a tomato in my face) "

Aidan spun around as Fiona cat called him... That was a backward turn of events, no? He smiled up at the beautiful brunette, puffing a plume of smoke into the air as he called back.

"Aye lass, rough day yeh could seh. Go' a Jackie friend needs a lesson in moneh management. Thick bastard do'nae know when ta stop tryin' a play 'is 'ands..."

Aidan went to flick the ash from his cigarette and caught glimpse of the young woman about to run into him. Instead, he lifted his cigarette high above her head so he wouldn't burn her and caught her as she apologized.

"Oi, lass, yeh okeh t'ere? Yeh look a wee bit knackered, hi?" Aidan gave MJ a pat on the shoulder as he looked at her, calling up to Fiona.

"Lookie t'ere... Ah caught me a mott Ah did!" He chuckled and looked up at Fiona with a wink before looking back to MJ.

"Yeh know et's dangerous round 'ere, lass... Yeh could get kicked an' booted by some a t'em Delaware boyos if'n yeh ain' careful. Tá?" The look on his face would certainly tell MJ he wasn't threatening her himself, but was merely warning of a plight that was on Philadelphia. There had been numerous accounts of bombs at businesses and poisonings in public water supply. So far there had only been a few deaths, but, the count would only go higher until someone did something about Tyler Durden and his posse of nitwit gangsters.

He looked up at Fiona again, "T'ink yeh can bring teh lass a glass a wat'a?"

Aidan took MJ's hand and led her to the bench sitting out front of the gym. "Yeh sit righ' t'ere, hi? Fiona will bring yeh a nice glass, an' yeh kin be safe fer ta moment."

He nodded and looked up, noticing Fiona had already vanished from the balcony above.

Smiling a lil as to cover up my embarassment, I look up to this ..um Scottish, Irish, something like that. made me wonder if he owned a kilt and a set of bagpipes..( actually I am not sure which one has that, so of course I will keep that to myself) I follow him as he leads me to this bench.I can defend myself, but I was liking his demeaner too, is that wierd?

"Duley Noted. Thank you for telling me that, and for seeing me before I collided into you guys"

....I felt the bench almost clumsyly as I was sitting down, as if the bench was not real, but made out of a cloud, and I woud be falling on the ground furthering the embarassment. He was speaking about the other person, the girl he was with, whom I did not think I knew either. Something about water...