Chapter Text
Three towns and a bar fight later, Cassidy is sleeping off being brained with a whiskey bottle and Tulip and Jesse visit the biggest library she’s ever been in.
“Place this big ought to have a big history section. You think they’ve got books on Irish history too?”
“I don’t know, probably mostly books about Custer and the Indians, the Louisiana Purchase and the like.” Jesse says while scratching at the bandage on his arm. Tulip swats at his hand and makes up her mind.
“I’m gonna check anyway.” Jesse nods and turns towards the computers. “I’m gonna be over here.” Tulip has a feeling he’s probably gonna find a place to curl up and take a nap, she should have left him at the motel with Cass.
There must be a million books. Tulip isn’t sure which way she should go and keeps looking at the labels on the shelves hoping to find something to direct her. Not finding it she takes the next best option, not her favorite but it’ll do. She steps in front of the next glasses wearing, book carrying person coming here way. A young woman that almost if Tulip squints reminds her of Emily.
“Where’s the history section?” Tulip asks abruptly.
“That... that way.” The young woman points. “All the way back on the right in the 900s.”
“hum thanks.” Tulip nods curtly and makes a beeline for the back. Once there she finds there’s still like a million book to look at. She starts to wonder if this was a stupid idea.
She walks down the aisle and reads the small labels on the shelves. Ancient History, African history, Egyptian history, Asian history, Western History, American History, British History, Holy Shit Irish History. She can’t believe they actually have a section. There are two long shelves dedicated to the history of Ireland and Tulip scans them to see if there’s anything she might want to read.
She finds one on the history of the IRA which she knows got its start with Easter Rising after all the reading she’d done on wiki. There’s also a book just on the Easter Rising, it’s small and she thinks she might be able to pocket it when she leaves. She grabs them and sits down on the floor to take a look.
She flips through the IRA book first, it’s really only the first part of the book that interests her, it doesn’t have really anything she hasn’t read before and she flips to the index to see if she missed anything then tosses the it aside and starts to look at the little book when something on the bottom shelf catches her eye.
It's a big book, an oversized one so it’s been put on the bottom shelf. The spine is kelly green and glossy and it looks new. She picks it up and in gold letters over a black and white photo of what she recognizes as the General Post Office it says 1916: The Hundred Year Anniversary. It's a new book.
Tulip opens the big book. It’s filled with pictures she’s never seen online. They must have collected all kinds of new stuff for the book. She flips through the pages. The pictures are mostly printed big and clear. She sees men with cocked hats and some with odd facial hair. Rebels lined up outside the Post Office with makeshift uniforms and Howths, like the one Cass said he had.
She examines every face in the pictures. She’s never asked him exactly where he was during the whole thing so it’s possible he could be in any of these pictures. She looks closely.
She sees pictures of the British troops lined up hundreds strong and sees the gunships on the river and wonders what the heck Cass and the other Rebels thought they were going to accomplish.
Towards the back of the book there is a section of photos submitted by relatives of those who fought in the Rising.
These pictures aren’t as big and clear but they're interesting. There are some portraits of men and boys and even some women. Then there are group shots. The pictures have names under them and a little cross by them if they died during the Rising.
Tulip searches each face, not sure if the Cass from a hundred years ago will look like her Cass. She scans each name hoping a Cassidy will jump out.
Her eyes can’t help but jump ahead of her place in her excitement, as they jump from the left page to the right, her heart jumps and she does a double take.
“Holy Flippin’ Hell!” She exclaims in shock. She rips the page from the book, leaving it and the rest on the floor. She grinned like the cat who caught the canary as she practically skips out of the aisle.
Tulip had been smiling too much and not saying why since she came and woke him up from his nap at the library and told him they needed to get back to the motel now.
He’d thought maybe something was wrong with how insistent she was, but she kept telling him everything was fine.
Now as they roll up on their room she seems nearly giddy and bounds from the car towards Cass who is sitting under the roof’s overhang in the shade smoking.
“How’s it than Love?” He greets her looking over his sunglasses at Tulip as she walks towards him all smiles.
“Oh fine, just fine how are you Pro-n-sias?” Tulip smiles delighted with herself when Cass who had been leaning his chair back and taking a drag losses his balance in shock and falls back, chair slipping out from under him. He lands in a heap on the ground, long legs and arms sticking out in all direction.
“Cass” Jesse says as he comes around the car in a voice that seems to ask if Cass is alright and what the hell just happened all at once.
Tulip helps Cass up and even straightens his sunglasses. He holds a hand to his head and raises an eyebrow at her. “Where did You find that name?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know. Prone-sias.” She smiles coyly.
“What name? What’s going on?” Jesse asks lost.
“Yer not even pronouncing it right.” Cassidy scrunches his nose up in disgust. Which Tulip finds immensely cute.
“Good enough to get you going, Proi-niss.”
“Uuuuggh.” Cass rolls his eyes behind the sunglasses.
“Pron-ias? Is that... is that your name?” Jesse attempts to say what is apparently Cass’s real name.
“It’s pronounced Pron-cias.” Cass rubs his temple and picks up the chair that’s still lying on the ground.
“What kind of name is Pron-chase?” Jesse asks and Cass groans again.
“You should know Padre, it’s a good saint name.” Cass leans against the building, puts the sunglasses away and puts what’s left of his cigarette behind his ear.
“Can’t say I’ve ever heard of a Saint Pron-Chase.” Jesse looks skeptical.
“Proinsias.” Cass corrects again. “Well sure you have he’s a popular bloke he’s the fella always shown with all the birds and animals all around ‘im.”
“birds and animals?” Tulip raises her eyebrow now.
Jesse thinks for a minute, Catholic saints aren’t his specialty. “You mean Saint Francis?”
“Yeah that’s it, that’s him.” Cass agrees, his memory jogged.
“Your name is Francis?” Tulip giggles.
“Hey now, I didn’t die fighting the British so you could go anglicizing a perfectly good Irish name.” Cass crosses his arms over his chest, Jesse and Tulip can see he’s starting to get defensive.
“Sooo Pron-cias then.” Jesse makes an effort to get it right.
“It’s Cassidy.” He says pointedly.
“Yeah we know Cass,” Tulip nods.
Cass gives her a small smile. “Where in the world did you even find that name though?”
Tulip smiles done picking on him, almost. “It's funny that you got such a crazy name everyone else in this picture's Thomas and Billy and James and Liam and Robert...” She gets the torn page out of her pocket and unfolds it.
She smooths it out and steps in between Jesse and Cass holding it up so they can both see.
Cass's expression goes from confusion to wide eyed shock. “but...” He leans in over her shoulder to get a better look, he can't believe his eyes.
“There was a book at the library, a new one, for the Anniversary of all your Easter Rising stuff with lots of never before published pictures ones from family and stuff.” Tulip explains.
Cass seems to be amazed by what he's seeing, Jesse looks on trying to catch up.
Tulip points to a picture of a group of young men, for Jesse's benefit.
Some of the men are standing and some sitting on an outside set of stairs, one man leaned against the railing in the back is a thin young man with, dark hair and his brimmed hat pushed back on his head. He wears a dark colored vest over a light colored button up shirt with the tall collar buttoned all the way up. He isn’t looking at the camera like most of the men are. He's looking off to the left with mischievous eyes. His mouth is turned up just enough to be called a smile. It is a smile Jesse knows.
He marvels at the familiar man in the hundred year old photo. “Wow.”
“I know right, I couldn’t believe it when I saw found it.” Tulip smiles.
Cassidy is looking hard at the picture, and trying not to get emotional over the fact that there were faces looking back at him that he thought he’d never see again. “Hum.” He clears his throat and wipes his sleeve under his nose.
Jesse reads the caption under the picture, there he finds along with Proinsias Cassidy, Billy Cassidy. Thomas Cassidy, Liam Cassidy, Jesse smiles, then he looks up at Cass to ask which one Billy is and he sees Cass struggling.
“Hey…” He moves and puts his arm around Cass’s shoulder. “You ok?”
“It’s just odd is all.” Cass takes in a shaky breath. “Looks like ghosts ta me.”
Tulip bites her lip “I guess it must be kind of weird for you. But Cass did you read the caption. Them little crosses by the names, like the one by yours, they mean ‘died during the Easter Rising.’ There isn’t one by Billy’s name. Cass, Billy lived.”
Cass moved in closer, till all three of them were tightly huddled together so he can get a better look.
He sees what she's talking about and lets out a sigh of relief, “Tis grand, that.” He says softly.
“Which one is he in the picture Cass?” Jesse dying of curiosity finally asks.
“Oh, he’s the wanker who thinks he can impress all the girls with him having his tie all done up and straight and his hair parted neat.” He points to one of the young men standing on the steps.
“Did you just call your brother a wanker?” Tulip asks surprised.
“In a brotherly way.” Cass explains with a smirk. Tulip shrugs.
“Why aren’t you looking at the camera? What were you looking at?” Jesse asks.
“I don’t rightly remember, I got distracted I guess.”
“You? Nooo.” Tulip quips.
“They told us to hold still for the picture. I tried, I really did, but you know…still it’s not bad, is it. I wasn’t sure what it would look like at the time. It was a big deal I’d never had my picture taken.”
“You’d never had your picture taken.”
“No, it wasn’t often a plasterer’s sons got asked to stand for a picture. It was something that was pretty exclusive in those days.”
“Who are the others in the picture?” Tulip asks.
“Some cousins, some neighbors.” Cass smiles fondly. “We were working on the new policeman's barracks in 1915 when they took that. Me and all the lads.”
It's an interesting feeling having the ghosts of his past swirling all around him. When he had the flashback after finding the Howth he felt them but suddenly seeing the picture and their faces it all comes back to him so clear.
He's still keeping one bullet in his pocket, he digs it out and rolls it in his fingers.
“We didn't have enough bullets.” He says quietly, remembering.
“What's that?” Tulip asks.
“For the rising. They got the guns in but not enough bullets.” Tulip realizes what he's talking about and looks at Jesse. Understanding passes between them.
“That meant we'd build the barricades but we could only defend them for so long, you had be discerning with the shots you took or there'd be no bullets left. Unless ye could take 'em off the dead.
We only had a handful left between Billy and I in the wee dark hours of Saturday before the sun came up. There had been heavy fighting in the area the day before and into the night.
We heard the British were through volleying with us Volunteers and they were rushing barricades.
We were exhausted and with so little ammunition Billy and I decided to fall back and take positions with a bit more cover. We could fire just as well from a window.
As we hurried along the dark street an older lady sympathetic to the cause opened her door to us.
And didn't I think it was a bit of luck...she ran the inn on Church Street, whiskey on the bar and all.
Inside we found people, neighbors, huddled together around the wood stove trying sleep despite their fear. The woman, old Mrs. Bailey I think her name was, gave us bread and beer but before we could fill our bellies. A stern knock sounded at the door.
She told us to hide, to put the guns out of sight and huddle with the woman and children but word had traveled from North King Street. We knew there was no surrendering, no denying our involvement the British soldiers were executing any man or boy they came across.
The only option we had was to run.
As we made to bolt for the back door the soldiers were pushing the door open and flying past the old woman and upsetting all the little ones who set about crying, wailing like banshees.
Bit of foreshadowing for ya, if'in ya hear a banshee wailing it's a death omen ya know.
There was suddenly lightning shooting through my leg. I'd never been shot before and it was a terrifying pain. I scrambled for the back door that Billy had already gone through and got the one shot in my chamber off before falling out the back door after him.
Billy took my arm over his shoulder and dragged me through the alley. I knew any second the soldiers would come tearing out the back after us but they never did. I don't know what ole Mrs. B did but we got away.
We just kept going. They probably could have followed the trail of blood I was leaving. I begged Billy to stop. He said, I can almost hear 'em now. “You'll be in a bad way soon if we stop.”
I was already in a bad way. For sure I don't know but I don't think I would have made it to Sunday even if the vamp didn't make me it's dinner. Bullet must ta hit an artery or something as much blood as there was.
I told Billy to leave me. To get away, that I was only slowing him down. He wouldn't do it. He joked that Ma would kill him if he did and that's true she was a tough woman you never wanted to be on her bad side.
Billy dragged me bleeden' and stumblen' all the way to the river. I don't know how no one spotted us. It wasn't the best place to be there were gun boats on the Liffy, there were soldiers all around. It all felt hopeless.
I leaned against the railing swaying and shivering, my sight getting dark around the edges. I started to tell Billy once more to go and leave me when my bleeding leg was jerked out from under me. It was so sudden and quick I barely had time to cry out in pain before cold water rushed over my head and into my lungs.” Cassidy shivers.
“The next morning I crawled out of the Liffy and the sunlight burned my skin and I hid under the bridge until dark. Then, scared and confused I ran and made my way to the America.”
Cass held the bullet in his hand up and looked at it. “I don't think I've ever really talked about that day.”
Jesse looks at him affectionately “It feels weird to say, because of what you went through, but I'm glad you wound up here, with us.”
“Yeah Cass.” Tulip grins.
“Yeah me too.” Cass admits. “It's good to know that Billy lived. Really good. T'anks.”
“Happy to help... Proincias.” kisses him on the cheek and throws her arms around him before he can react.
“SO about those names, How come they're all Liam and Thomas and Billy and you wound up Proinsias?” Jesse asks honestly.
“Look I don’t want to talk about it, I got enough of it before I died.” Cass starts to squirm.
“Billy’s such a normal name, what were your other sibling’s names?” Tulip picks at him and Jesse continues.
“Was it a family name or something?”
Cass decides he’s done with the questions, he's revealed enough for the day, he snatches the picture out of Tulip's hands and retreats back to the room.
“Were you named after old Uncle Proinsias, or something?” Tulip calls after him.
He walks into the room muttering something about his mother and the church while folding the page with his picture back up and putting it in his pocket.
“Darn, I should have gotten a picture of that picture before he took it now we’ll likely never see it again.” Jesse laments.
“I’ve got it covered.” Tulip pulls two Xeroxed copies of the picture out of her pocket and gives one to Jesse.
“You are amazing you know that?” He smiles at her and his copy of the picture.
“Oh I know.” Tulip happily puts her copy of Proinsias back in her pocket. She silently thanks whatever brought Proinias Cassidy into her life, fate, God, or some gnarly old vamp then takes Jesse's hand and leads him inside so they can see what they can do to make up for all their teasing.