You were curled up on yourself in your new bedroom at the Kavanaghs. You were just one more kid they saved. First it was the Lynch siblings, then it was you after Edel found you snooping through a bin by the manor, looking for food.

The woman is an angel, that’s very clear. She doesn’t care who you are, what you look like or where you came from. If you need help, a shoulder to cry on, she doesn’t hesitate.

And you are thankful. So thankful. You just don’t know how to show it.

You’ve been through a lot of trauma, you were scared, bruised, hungry, skinny and, as of right now, too scared to even move much. So all you did was sit in silence in your room and warily take the food her or her husband, John, brought you.

They were trying to make you feel safe here, get you to open up. Everyone in this house is trying to make you feel safe. You’re grateful for that too.

Theres a lot of people in this house though. There Joey, the oldest of the Lynch siblings, Aoife and their son, AJ, he’s just a baby, and they currently live in the big shed in the garden, there’s Shannon, Tadgh, Ollie and Sean, the other Lynch siblings, Johnny, Edel and John’s son, and occasionally, Gerard, Johnnys best friend.

Sometimes the noise in the house makes you scared, overwhelmed. Noise usually meant bad things where you came from. You were still getting used to happy noise. The happy noise of Sean and Ollie giggling about some game, the happy noise of Shannon, Tadgh and Gerard laughing when Shannon beat Johnny at GTA and he got all grumpy.

Just… the happy noise.

Because this time, you’re safe.