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I.
Brendan shuts the door, Paddy is still talking but he's stopped listening. He needs to focus on getting the children to bed and then he can talk to Tess. Can process.
She's as shocked by the news as he was. “Tommy's back in Pittsburgh with the old man,” he tells her. And the ache in his chest distracts him from her incredulous response. Tommy is back. The ache is full of hope now. Tommy will come and see him and they'll talk. Put some old ghosts to rest.
But Tommy is training with Pop. Wrestling? Brendan followed high school wrestling, and even kept his eye out for promising college players, for years after Tommy left. He couldn't believe Tommy would have given up, and couldn't believe his talent wouldn't have elevated him to some level wherever he was. But Brendan never found a thing. Pop was probably looking, too, and they'd have known that. Tommy must have given up. But then, what was he doing now?
II.
The answer comes a few days later. He's in Frank's gym, when there's a kind of uproar in one corner. He's close to the end of his workout so he finishes the last couple of reps before curiosity gets the better of him.
Marco is grinning. “Looks like Mad Dog Grimes ain't so unbeatable!” he says, and shows Brendan the fight going down on YouTube. As Brendan watches, he feels his heart rise into his throat. He knows that fighter. Of course he does. It's Tommy.
III.
A few days later, when he hears the news that Tommy Riordan has a place at Sparta, he is not surprised.
IV.
Brendan is never quite sure when the idea of competing in Sparta comes to him. He's been training hard, pushing himself, and it's paying off in easy fight wins but the money coming in isn't enough. The prize is one factor.
But really, the idea comes from the dreams he's been having. He's watched the YouTube video of Tommy about a million times, and it's wrapped itself around memories of sparring with Tommy as kids and he dreams of fighting him.
He tells Frank and Tess the reason he wants in is the money, but really he just wants to see Tommy, and he knows he'll be there.
V.
Paddy and Tommy don't talk much at home, so the TV is often on, tuned into ESPN. Tommy doesn't seem to care much who he's going to be fighting in Sparta but Paddy has been watching all the news he can about the upcoming tournament. He doesn't feel like he's helping much with that side of training. He used to watch videos of wrestling matches with Tommy, picking out his opponents' weaknesses ahead of time. He's tried to get into similar discussions, but Tommy just shrugs and says nothing.
So he knows, of course, that Marco Santos has had to drop out due to injury. He knows the organisers are struggling to fill that last spot.
Tommy and Paddy are eating dinner, with ESPN on as always, so they don't have to talk, when the news breaks.
“And the Sparta organisers have just announced the final competitor, who will be a last minute replacement for Marco Santos, is ex-UFC fighter turned Philadelphia physics teacher Brendan Conlan! Now this is a surprise. Conlan retired from fighting...”
Paddy is shocked by the news himself, watching the TV with his fork halfway to his mouth, so he completely misses Tommy's reaction, until the front door bangs behind him, meal left unfinished on the table.
Paddy tries to call Brendan but half the time the phone is engaged and the other half he won't pick up.
Tommy doesn't return for hours.
VI.
Their eyes meet through the window, and Brendan is hit with just how old Tommy looks. How he's still the same but so grown up. The pain in his eyes is unmistakeable. Like the last time Brendan saw him, looking broken and betrayed. He looks just the same, but moreso.
Tommy leaves, but Brendan can't follow. He hasn't told Frank and he can't do it now. They have to go to the press conference. Maybe he'll find Tommy afterwards, and they can go for a drink and catch up.
VII.
Brendan is alone in his room when the news breaks. Tommy Riordan is a war hero, and nobody knew. Pride swells in his chest. Of course Tommy is a hero. Brendan thinks about Paddy saying “He don't talk much” and wonders if even Paddy didn't know.
Brendan picks up the phone and calls.
VIII.
Brendan doesn't sleep much. He never thought Tommy wouldn't forgive him. He thought the fact that things had worked out with Tess would count for something. He has forgiven Tommy for never reaching out to him but Tommy has never forgiven him for not being there. Brendan knows what happened to Mom but he didn't suffer through it with her. He wasn't there to support Tommy like he should have been. And maybe he knows why Tommy can't forgive him for that.
Frank thinks he's fretting about the Koba fight. Brendan hasn't got the energy to expend on worrying about that, and maybe that's one reason the fight goes so well.
IX.
Paddy sleeps. When he wakes, he clings to the faint memory of being cradled in his youngest son's arms, of the comfort and joy in that moment, before the shame of his failure and his hangover kick in.
Tommy has left some water and Tylenol, in a gesture that Paddy dare not read too much into, but it's still late by the time he's got himself together, and it's not until he's out of the shower and getting dressed that he sees the clock and realises that he's missed Tommy's fight. He turns of the TV, hoping to catch the end of it, and catches a reply. It is short and brutal, and Tommy is the winner. Of course. Tommy always wins.
Paddy is tired, his body still recovering from the night before, so he doesn't try to make it to the stadium for Brendan's fight. Brendan against Koba. Tommy could win it, he thinks, but Brendan won't. He's outweighed and outclassed.
And that seems to be true, except Brendan has two things Paddy always overlooks. Patience and tenacity. He never gives in, always holds on, and, as was so often the case, finds his opportunity and grabs it.
When he wins, Paddy is buoyed by his elation and pride in his son. He feels the last of his hangover
slipping away. His boys are both in the final, he realises, and he wants to be there to see it.
X.
When the second lot of news breaks, Brendan is riding a high. He's in the final, and it hasn't registered yet that it's Tommy he's going to be fighting. He hurts all over but he's euphoric, and Tess is here to support him and he could win this thing for her! They miss the announcement on CNN, miss the flurry of activity that leads to armed guards at Tommy's dressing room door, in their own flurry of interviews and medical checks, and the beginning of preparations for the next fight.
It's only when they stop to relax and ice the worst of Brendan's injuries, that Frank flips on the TV, expecting the news to be full of Brendan's victory.
Instead, the story is Tommy Conlan. Not a hero, but a disgraced Marine gone AWOL, and the unlikely meeting of two brothers in the cage. There is rampant speculation. Nobody knew, and nobody is available to ask. The story broke during Brendan's post-match interview, too late to ask him, and Paddy Conlan is nowhere to be found.
CNN have apparently found Tommy's high school wrestling record, and subsequent disappearance off the face of the planet and are speculating wildly about it; about Paddy Conlan's “controversial” training methods and putting two and two together in ways Brendan suddenly doesn't want to think about. He shuts off the TV abruptly.
Frank is astounded. He didn't even know Brendan had a brother, so there's a lot of explaining to do on that front. Tess handles most of it – she knows that part of the story, even if she doesn't understand it – and Brendan's not really in shape to open those floodgates.
Tommy has lost everything, Brendan understands. He lost Pop and Brendan and his wrestling career at fourteen. He lost his mother, his only support, at seventeen and now he's not only lost his unit in the worst possible circumstances, but his actions mean that he's probably also lost any chance of going back to the Corp. Tommy has nothing left to lose.
Brendan looks up at Tess as Frank removes his ice packs.
“What are you going to do?” she asks. He'd expected her to be angry. Her and Frank. Thought they'd be mad that he held this back, hid it from them. He's not even completely sure why he did.
He has everything, he realises. A wife he loves, a family he loves, a job he loves. Hell, even a trainer he loves. Tommy has nothing. Well, nothing but an old man who cannot make amends for his mistakes, and a brother who never stopped loving him.
“I'm going to fight him,” he says.