Jaci had spent all day overseeing the makeover being done to her Dance Hall. She wanted things to be just right, perfect. After all, people didn't have a birthday every day, only once a year. She definitely wanted this birthday to be special for her friend JohnTree. She walked around the spacious room one more time looking things over to make sure everything was in place and everyone.

Red ribbons and streamers adorned the wall, tables, and chairs in honor of their old crew. Midnight blue balloons were spread out over the entire room in honor of the birthday guest. The tables were set with the finest china and candles casting a lovely glow around the room. A Billiards’s table and a poker table had been brought in and placed off to the right, because even though Jaci wanted this to be a fancy occasion, she also realized men needed more than fine china and decorations to have a good time. The bartender was in place, as were the servers. The band was set up on stage tuning their instruments, and the lovely lady dancers stood near the stage adjusting their colorful costumes. In the center of the room, stood a large cake like structure mostly white, but with ribbons of red and blue. The beautiful woman who would be jumping out of the cake, was waiting in the back room til closer to time.

Jaci placed the gift she had brought for John on the gift table near the door, and then smoothed a wrinkle from the front of her midnight blue dress with her hand.

The invitations and announcements had been sent and now everything was in place for the guest to arrive....

When Jaci heard John calling, she hurried over to him with a smile on her face.  "It's almost your birthday, Love....Happy Birthday!"

She gave him a lingering hug and a kiss on the cheek.  "It is so good to see you."

She took him by the arm, leading him around showing him all of the pretty decorations and delicious food, and of course the choices of entertainment.  She then escorted him up to the front and introduced him to some of the many lovely dancers, giving the other lady time to get herself in to the cake.

YourNextWife walks in to the room and looks around in awe of the beauty of the decorations in the room. She walks up to Jaci and says "This party is beautiful! Thank you for inviting me. Where should I put my gift?" Jaci points out the table near the door and YourNextWife smiles and thanks her then proceeds to walk over to the table and set her gift on the table. She looks around the room and notices that she is one of the first to arrive. She tends to arrive early wherever she goes, but as she always says, the early bird gets the worm. She walks over to the bartender and orders herself a whiskey on the rocks. 

YourNextWife walks over to the billiards table and starts racking up all the balls and gets everything in place. She chalks up her pool stick and looks around to see if anyone is around to challenge her but when she doesn't see anyone around she decides to practice by trying to shoot the balls in order from one to fifteen. She steadies herself and aims for a clean break and finally she makes the shot. She watches the balls scatter around the table beautifully. She watches and the one, two and three ball all sink into pockets in order. She smiles to herself unable to believe the luck she just had. She takes a celebratory drink of her whiskey before she continues sinking ball after ball into pockets. She even manages to bounce a ball over another ball to sink it in the pocket. Once she sinks number fifteen she racks them up again but decides to wait for someone to actually play against since she had obviously not lost any skill in the few years since she has played pool. She downs her whiskey and makes her way back to the bar to order another drink. As she walks back she sees JohnTree walk in so she decides to greet the man of the night and bring him a drink.

YourNextWife orders two whiskeys on the rocks and walks up to JohnTree and smiles and shakes his hand, "Happy birthday JohnTree, I hope you have a wonderful night! I can see that Jaci has done well preparing the Dance Hall just for you. I brought you a drink, it's just whiskey on the rocks, if you don't like it then more for me." She laughs and hands him the glass and holds her glass out to John and says "Cheers."

Deception found Jaci's new dance hall in New York where he was told the party was being held for JohnTree's Birthday. Deception walked into the dance club, which by now was brimming with people. Everyone wanted to be there to help celebrate something, which was a nice change from the events of the past few days.

Deception searched through the club, recognizing faces and names of people he'd heard a lot about but still had not yet met officially. Finally Deception found Jaci and JohnTree and gave birth of his old crew mates a big hug when he saw them.

"Good to see you both. I'm happy I was able to stop in and help John celebrate his Birthday. If at any time you need me to tickle the ivories or tell some jokes I'm here." 

Jaci and John both smiled at Deception's comment and the three began to chat for a few to catch up. In the process Deception was introduced to YourNextWife who also happened to be at Jaci's to help celebrate John's birthday. The party was beginning to swell with people at this point and all four mobsters were happy to be able to briefly let their hair down to relax. More importantly, they were happy they were helping celebrate a life that was still shining instead of one that was ended too soon.

Headhunter arrives fashionably late for the party, sneaking through the doorway. He slides through the crowd to find John

"Hey John, sorry I have to make this short my sons birthday is today too. I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday. It sucks we lost so many recently, I am sure they all wish they could be here"

Pours a drink for the fallen

Headhunter begins to leave as quietly as he came when he runs into Deception and Jaci talking by the door

"Hey guys sorry I gotta get out of here so soon, we need to make sure we all keep in touch. If you guys need anything let me know. It was nice seeing you guys"

Headhunter exits as quietly as he entered