The higher you climbed, the wider the danger became.
Luke understood that now.
Understanding the Situation
Power didn't arrive with sirens or announcements.
It arrived with attention.
Since the property acquisitions, things had subtly shifted:
Strangers asking casual questions about the Gallagher house
Realtors "accidentally" knocking on the wrong door
Old South Side faces suddenly remembering Luke's name
Luke sat alone one night, the city lights of Chicago glowing faintly beyond the window, the System's silent calculations running in the background.
He mapped it out clearly:
The family was no longer invisible
Money attracted predators, both legal and illegal
Stability made them targets—envy always followed success
This wasn't paranoia.
This was pattern recognition.
The conclusion was simple and heavy:
If something went wrong, it wouldn't hit Luke first.
It would hit the family.
Becoming the Shield
Luke didn't announce his decision.
He just adjusted everything.
Legal structures reorganized under family trusts
Emergency funds quietly placed under Fiona's control
Security measures disguised as "home renovations"
Neighbors subtly vetted, favors exchanged, loyalties earned
He positioned himself where danger would naturally flow.
Between threats and the people he loved.
Between chaos and the fragile peace they'd earned.
Fiona noticed first.
"You're acting like a wall," she said one morning, watching him double-check locks that never failed.
Luke smiled faintly. "Walls don't get thanked. They just stand."
She didn't argue.
Because deep down, she knew—
someone had to.
Frank's Accident
It happened on a day that felt painfully ordinary.
Frank was drunk—but not unusually so.
Crossing the street near a liquor store he swore he'd never visit again, he laughed at something only he found funny.
Then—
A screech of tires.
A blur of headlights.
A body hitting asphalt.
Luke felt it before the call came.
A sharp pressure in his chest.
The kind the System never warned about.
Hospital Lights
Frank survived.
Barely.
Broken ribs.
A fractured leg.
Internal bleeding stopped just in time.
Luke stood outside the ICU room, arms crossed, eyes unreadable.
Doctors talked about luck.
Luke knew better.
Luck had always chased Frank—
just never in the right direction.
Fiona sat beside Luke, exhausted, shaking.
"He's still our dad," she whispered.
Luke nodded.
"I know."
Inside the room, Frank slept—frail, small, stripped of his usual venom.
For the first time, Luke didn't see a parasite.
He saw a weak link.
And weak links were dangerous—not because they were evil, but because they broke under pressure.
The Unspoken Shift
That night, Luke made another quiet decision.
Frank Gallagher was no longer just a burden.
He was a liability—and a responsibility.
Not because Frank deserved protection.
But because the family didn't deserve collateral damage.
Luke looked out at the city, eyes calm, mind sharp.
This is the situation, he thought.
And this is where I stand.
Between chaos and family.
Between the past and the future.
Between a broken man and the world that would gladly finish him off.
The shield was up.
And Luke wasn't planning to lower it—
no matter the cost.