"I've heard of The Cotton Club... it sounds like the bee's knees and I had no idea that it was in your hands.  Had I known..."  She smiled and stood up.  "Well, I'll walk you to the door."  She offered him her hand.  She smiles as he takes it and together they walk hand in hand to her door.  

"You know where I am again - I trust you'll call upon me?"  She stopped at the door as she grabbed the handle and for a moment she looked set to kiss him properly, instead she gave him the warm embrace of a friend met again after a long separation.

"It's been good to see you again Tony.  I can't possibly tell you just how good."

Tony was happy to see her and relieved that she didn't kiss him as he was still grieving Lucia's passing and the pain of lost opportunities.  He was also a bit confused at why she waited to let him know Frankie was in America.  As he was about to depart he stopped and looking at her.

Wait a minute lady spill the dam beans slick, what's the job?

He stood looking at her face to face and she knew he wasn't going to leave unless she told him.  He has always been a bulldog with a bone once he has questions he doesn't stop nagging until he gets his answer.  Sometimes she loved it sometimes she wanted to punch him in the mouth but he'd just smile the stone faced prick.  

Well give it up lady you've been changing that topic since I got here. 

Tony knew it was personal because Frankie was crafty that way, she hated revealing hurts as she felt it was a sign of weakness but in Tony mind not asking for help was the sign of weakness.  Tony knew her well and knows that you can't push her to much because she enjoyed releasing her anger and she loved jumping on Tony only because he could take it and roll with it and it lead to something intimate when it came to them two. 

Frankie I ain't going until I know so tell me or give me a pillow and a blanket because I'll campout here on your floor. 

His look was the same you couldn't tell if he was joking or serious but the low tune in his voice meant he was very serious.  That was a Dicaprio trait they lower there voice speaking softly to the woman that they love letting them know they are serious with their statements whatever that statement was about. 

Frankie stepped nearer to him, so near she could feel the warmth of his body on this cold winter day.  She loved how he looked into her eyes and spoke with conviction.  He was unyielding - if only he'd been so in trying to get in contact with her - would they be married now.  How would her life have been different? 

Why was he so insistent on this point?  What did it matter what a dead woman wanted of her?  This fairy tale a ghost thought she might make real in her memory... it wasn't about him at all.  And yet, he was utterly dedicated to fulfilling her last requests.  He would stubbornly stay her, risk offending her, to force her to speak on the matter.

Realization slowly dawned as she went from thinking that Tony was simply a very dedicated soldier to his departed Don, to seeing something more in his eyes.  Something far more complex than the simple tale she'd believed when they sat down together in the bar.  All the tiny hesitations, the relieved look on his face when she refrained from kissing him here at the door... 

Frank had married and in most usual situations childhood friends - little boys who were thick as thieves - drifted apart to make room for man and wife and yet... Tony had stayed with Frank, loyal to him all this time.  Had the closeness of Sicilian families blinded her to the truth?  Tony had not stayed with Frank because of his loyalty to Frank, but instead to his wife?

Her mouth fell open slightly.  Her head tilted to the side as she considered him and the pain in his eyes in a whole new way.  She found herself taking a half step back from him.  She realized her appearance must have let him know that she'd put it together so she quickly attempted to compose herself and to hide the hurt - for what need was there to be jealous of a dead woman?  Frankie wet her lips and looked away from him.  "Of course you'd want to know her plans... I... well there are several letters and I'm to open and read them only one when I have completed each mission in the order of succession."

Tony reached a hand out to her but she turned away and made for her purse, a perfect excuse to not accept any pity or reassurances that he might be giving falsely.  She could not blame him for loving another woman - even if that woman belonged to Frank.  After all, they had parted ways what felt lifetimes ago and it was not fair to expect him to lock his heart away for good.

She opened her purse and pulled out the first letter and offered it to him.  "You can read it... or I can tell you what it says.  Your choice."  she shook her head.  "I can only imagine how seeing her words to me might ..."  She searched for the right thing to say, "Bring you some comfort."

Tony didn't want to hurt her but he saw that he did and he did what his father taught him to do to speak from the heart a woman that knows you knows your heart. 

Frankie, Lucia was important to me just as important as you are to me.  Frank was more like a brother to me and I failed him in many ways.  Yes this is important and its going to be hard for me to move on but I need your help.  Its clear to me now that Lucia knew that and that's why she didn't tell me that you were here.   I assumed that Frank told her that I wanted several times to go home, back to Sicily to find you. 

Frank told me he would help me find you and bring you here and every job I did was rewarded with that empty promise.  Lucy found you and brought you here.  I have mixed emotions; pain that she hide you from me.  Pain that Frank didn't keep his word, sadness that I failed Frank, sadness that Lucy is gone, joy to see you are alive, happiness that I'm here, now with you. 

I don't know what to tell you, but I'm no fool; I need you and I need this to atone for my sins.  You know me and yet I have changed and only you can recognize that in me. 

Tony wanted to reach for her.  He wanted to get out of there.  He wanted to hold her yet he knew he wasn't ready.  He hated himself and this twisted pit that he fell into.  He didn't know how to get out of that pit but he knew that he needed to be there with Frankie not to protect her but so she could recue him from himself and his guilt to help him out of that pit. 

He walked over to her couch and removed his jacket and looked at her.  His ice blues eyes looked deeply into hers as he spoke softly. 

I would prefer to hear it in your voice, I need something in my life that is real.

She never heard pain in Tony's voice before.  Like Frank and Lucy they grow up together but they were separated at a late age and she has never seen him in any state other that bold and confident.  She remember when his father passed away he was trying to comfort her and his mother.  Tony was a rock, it was Frankie that gave him the nick name that he is called in Sicily.  Tony the Mountain.  

Tony sat down looking up at her his eyes penetrating her heart and soul and her eyes reading his very soul and mind like when they were kids when ever they were alone, whenever they needed or looked at each other.  Tony needed her more than ever at this moment and she knew it. It frighten then both her because she has never been needed like this.   She was saving the mountain for the first time in his life.  For him it was her giving him sanity and love, real love not sexual, not a trade this for that but pure agape love.       

Frankie sighed.  She knew that this side of the woman he loved might not please him to hear... and less so in her voice; but she could not refuse him, not looking as he did.

She unfolded the letter and she began to read aloud:

"Frankie,  Welcome to the United States.  The home of the free and land of the brave.  You are about to begin your adventure in becoming a true part of this thing of ours.  As such, I offer you one final time to walk away and go home.  One last chance to exit this life and return to a place where you will have a family and a possibility for simple joys – instead of a list of liabilities which will be used against you at every turn.  I make this offer out of respect for your elderly Grandfather the honorable Don Messina."  

"If you have romanticized this life, allow me to pull back the curtain a little and enlighten you... no one here is good.  No one is a hero and no amount of money or ‘success’ as we define it will ever fill the void within you.  No amount of blood will put out the fire in your heart once you begin down this path.  You will suffer and those around you will too.  If you take this step, there is no turning back – not ever.  Blood in.  Blood out."

She shifted uncomfortably, "Your Grandfather is a prick... not only did he steal from you the love of your life, but he fails to see you for all that you are.  You are talented.  You are tough.  But he is right to shield you from the truth of what a monster he truly is and his world of equally heartless monsters.  No one wishes their children into a life such as this – not even monsters like me; but for some of us it is the only true inheritance we have left.  And there was never a point like you face now ... where there was a way out, an option to take a better way.  If you should have any hesitation, if you wish to rethink your stance, burn these letters and walk away now.  If you continue reading beyond this point I shall assume you have chosen your fate.  May God have mercy upon your soul, Francesca."

Frankie looked up to measure Tony's reactions so far.  When he said nothing but seemed deep in his own thoughts, keeping his own council, she decided to continue.

"I have chosen you as my first heir apparent because of Frank’s words about you, and about how badly you wished to prove yourself and become Made.  What follows are a series of letters.  Each are number consecutively.  You shall only open the next letter once the task in the current letter is completed.  If you should choose to disobey my request, the reward listed below will be lost to you.  If you should try to cheat me out of these – my final requests – then another will begin my quest and none of what I have laid before you will come to pass and another shall reap the rewards I had put aside for you.  What do I offer you?"

She spoke the next part with nervousness and caution, "First, if you were wise enough to not let him walk away again, I send to you one of the dearest things in my life – Anthony whom you call Tony.  He is a rock upon which I have leaned in hard days.  A brutal enforcer when necessary.  A protector second to none and he will love you for all the days of your life should you ask and allow it in return.  He will serve you on this journey well – if you are not fool enough to let him walk away.  If he has left, you before you read this... call him.  Call out to him now.  This second.  Take him in your arms and make amends the past that your family stole from you for the road head is bloody and lonely... a terrible place for a woman to find herself without one person upon whom she can lean utterly."

Again she looked to Tony before continuing, "Second, I offer to you a vast fortune has been hidden away.  Separate from my funds and my daughter’s inheritance.  Hidden safely so that only the heir apparent to my legacy can and will find it.  Again, if you race ahead, if you do not do things in the order I have asked or EXACTLY AS I ASK then you will miss your opportunity for these riches untold to come into your care."

She could see confusion upon Tony's face as she continued, "If you should not believe this money exists I shall tell you where upon I came into this previously unknown wealth... Gregory Whitehill was planning to rogue against Tyler Durden for the seat of Godfather and had been collecting tribute from all the capos who would back him.  This tribute had been piling up since I was a little girl.  In fact, my very life proves that Whitehill was preparing to turn on Durden’s organization.  I was to be killed as a girl and Whitehill never finished the task.  I realized this and went looking for where he’d prepared his exit plan – a way to escape Durden’s hold; and found instead his plans to betray and murder his Godfather.  A wealth so vast as to rival all the wealth that Frank and I collected in a lifetime.  Blood money that I intend to fund you – and my great project, my final work.  But let us not get ahead of ourselves, money is not enough to motivate you... a mafia princess who has never known want save for one thing: Family."

"Finally, at the end of this string of missions, you will find your Father.  He is very much alive right now and I have secured his location - somewhere he will be safe until such time as you find him or betray me.  When you finish my requests, you will be taken to him.  But, deviate from what I ask of you and his very life hangs in the balance.  Tell anyone who was not sworn to me in life – by blood – what I ask of you... he dies."

Frankie clearly felt fear, it could be heard in her voice.  She had no doubt a mafia Don might well have people loyal enough to her still that her father could be killed on her orders - even from beyond the grave.  "You could run to your grandfather with these letters... it is in your thoughts now; but you will not.  The reason you will not is because of the debt to Frank that your Grandfather has paid.  You are not here for a short time to do a favor to me.  If you have read this far, and rush home with these letters and claims of what I have said here, you will trigger a set of events that go like this... your grandfather will listen to you and then he will never look at you again.  You will be dead to him.  He will disown you, as he disowned his son – his flesh and blood.  Why?  Because you insist upon becoming Mafioso against all warnings from your family and even from me and now, having chosen this life – you would, at the very first opportunity, betray a Don that your Grandfather has sent you to serve.  If you are to walk this path you must learn Omerta.  You must learn that you will be called on to do things that you find reprehensible and you will do them because you have pledged to do so and for not better reason than that."

Frankie hated that Tony was likely seeing a side of his Don that he might not have thought much about before - a ruthless woman with absolutely nothing left to lose and so no qualms about manipulating the life of a girl she'd never known, "I warned you – we are a ruthless lot.  I am no exception.  You will come to appreciate who I am over time... you may grow to like me through these letters; but at the end you will discover that I am no different than any other of my kind.  My hands are red with blood.  My heart black with selfish ends.  I have no pity for you Francesca.  You’re a big girl... you chose your path.  At the open of this letter I gave you a chance to turn away from this life and if you have read this far you have crossed the final line and now, belong to me.  Your Grandfather’s debt to Frank is far deeper than anyone but me and your father understand.  Should you complete all the tasks in these letters... your father will explain why.  Now that we have clearly established the rules... let us begin."

"You will go and be doing petty crimes and giving tribute to a Don in the Bronx by the name of Dovahkiin.  She is an old friend of mine and knows to expect you.  Serve her well and loyally.  Work harder for her than any one else.  Take nothing for yourself.  Live poor.  Tribute more than is asked.  Work longer than is expected.  Bleed for her if need be.  In time you will be Made.  The day that happens, open letter #2.  Only once you are made.  Do not make the mistake of trying to know what is in letter #2 before that day – or your will read your father’s obituary in the New York Times the following Sunday."

"Serve me well and you will be mentored in this thing of ours and rewarded richly.  Fail me, and you face this thing of ours alone.  I am dead with nothing left to lose.  Test the resolve of those paid well by me at your own peril.  Your True Don, Lucia DiCaprio."  

Frankie refolded the letter and waited to see Tony's reaction.

Tony could tell that Frankie was hesitant about reading the letters.  It started off just as Lucia was sweet and kind.  Then it turned into the true mobster she really was cold and calculating.  Tony sat nervously hoping that what he ask doesn't come to bite him in the rears as she reads on.  He listened as she got to the part where Frankie should call out to him to reconnect with him.   He could tell by the way she looked up at him that she wanted to but not ready at this time.

He was happy to hear what Lucia thought about his abilities.   Then the knife came out threats and he realized that working with people of honor was different then being threaten by them.  He became bitter that Lucia would break something further when she didn't truly understand how much Frankie loved her grandfather.  He wished Lucia had confided in Tony on how to get Frankie to do the jobs needed without her threats.  Frankie loves rewards but rewards and threats didn't appeal.  Frankie was a woman that could be calm and handle business with easy or blow your head off should you irritate her.      

Tony was hurt by the words that Lucy wrote and now he was looking at a woman that wanted this life and given instructions on how to become a Mafioso.  She would become what Tony was and didn't know that he was a true monster.  He knew then that he was going to cover has rear even if she didn't want him back.  He would not lose her friendship even if he did lose her love for a second time.  She ended reading the letters and Tony stood up looking down into Frankie's eyes.

You know I'm not leaving your side, there is no way in hell that I will leave you alone, I know you, and you want to do this alone for the credit.  It was that way when we were in Sicily that got us separated.   No, no, no, no its not happing that way again.  I will not be manipulated nor will I let you divert my attentions elsewhere. 

Frankie knew that Tony was in his defensive mode over her and she knows that when he's in that state she can't shake him but at least he will let her do the planning and killing while he watches her back.  She always felt safe as she killed when he was their just like in the bar when he walked in.  He is a machine when it comes to killing.  He raised his voice for the first time.  Tony sat next to her and immediately apologized.

I lost you first, I lost Frank, I lost Lucia.  I will not lose you again.  I'm sorry Frankie, I truly am but no I am in this with you every step of the way.  You can hate me, you can choose another to love and marry but I will not lose you a second time.  Walking this world without you was death for me so help me live.  Please understand and agree that we do this together. 

Tony's voice was not speaking from fear but from the pit of his stomach a place where he would die before violating his words.  She looked at him and he could tell she was excited at his words and yet angry that he was demanding.  She heard his apology but didn't respond yet she would think on it and Tony could read her eyes and body langue.   He knew she was going to think on it and she was no dummy.  She and Lucia where truly smarted then him and Frank but they had their ways.  

Lucia was a true gangster and she has pulled my strings and I didn't even see her doing it.  Again my fathers words ring in my ears.  Love you wife, settle difference quickly and listen to her always.   Your not my wife by law but you are by my heart Francesca so don't destroy me by doing this alone.  I will buy a blanket and pillow in the morning or you can stay at my place going forward.   Yup not leaving you for a second.

Tony took his gun and placed it on her coffee table then he took his jacket which was already laying on the couch and pulled it on him like a blanket letting her know he was staying there no matter what.  Frankie rolled her eyes shaking her head as she stood up she went into her bed room then a few seconds later she called his name and forcefully throw a pillow at him.   It caught it and was somewhat relieved that she didn't throw a knife at him.  He could hear her slamming dresser draws as she closed them and mumbling cuss words in Sicilian.   Just like the old days Tony said to himself what a hot potato she is.  He recalls her first kill, a Mafioso that owed her grandfather money that was also an informant for a rival family.

Frankie was fourteen an long legged skinny kid with anger issues.  She made the plan on how she would do it and she wanted to do it alone.  She told Tony hoping he would be excited and if he was then her Grandfather would be two.  These two men in her life meant a lot to her.  Tony listened and agreed it was a good plan however he was coming also she rejected that completely but he promised he would watch and not interfere.  That night she when to the mans house and set fire to his barn.  He ran out but so did three other men.    They didn't notice her standing in the dark as they gathered buckets of water and ran around tossing it at the fire. 

She walked to the water pump and stabbing the first man in the chest several times.  He fell but know one noticed until the next guy cam to the well.  She throw her knife at him and it was true it hit his heart and he took two more steps before he fell.   She took her pistol that Tony gave her as her target came back she fired but missed he ran back into the house she gave chase.  Tony was watching the house and was the forth man return also so he pursued the forth man.  Frankie fired again and again missing twice more.  Her target fired back and the forth man climbed back out a window as Tony got to the house.  He was amazed at how they were focused on each other that no one saw him.

Frankie was now in the farm house and her target was out of bullets she fired at him hitting him in the shoulder he fell back into a wooden chair breaking it.  She fired a fifth shoot hitting him again this time in the stomach but not killing him.  She fired a sixth time as she was standing over him it struck him in the head but only after she told him who she was and why she was sent to kill him.  The forth man stood behind her leveling his gun then a loud boom echoed and Frankie spent around as she was trying to reload her pistol.  She saw the forth man fall to the ground fast and hard as she stuffed two bullets into her gun to fire quickly at the approaching image.  Tony yelled out her name and she release a deep breath when she realized it was Tony. 

They ran to each other happy then she pushed him off of her and started cussing because he was there and interfered with her kill.  She mumbled words all the way home it was a hours walk and she was still cussing and fussing at Tony the next morning as they walked to school.     Frankie had her ways and Tony loved them.  Laying on her couch he smiled knowing she hasn't changed that much and she would be fussing at him in the morning. 

Tony woke in the middle of the night, feeling eyes upon him.  He grabbed for his gun only to realize he was about to pull it on Frankie.  "Do you remember when I came to you about my mother?" Her voice was hoarse, as if she'd been crying.  Tony sat up instantly, his bare chest seeming white in the pale moon light coming in through the windows.

"It was like what... two miles between your family's home and mine back then ... before I moved to my Grandfather's compound to live?"  She picked up her beer and took a swig.  It was then Tony became aware of the smell and the small collection of bottles near Frankie.  She'd been drinking for a while now, perhaps she hadn't slept.

"Climbing up to your window and you letting me in to talk.  I didn't ... I couldn't think of anyone I wanted to tell more than you.  The doctors had said it was thing called Cancer, and I had never heard of anyone having such a disease it seemed made up.  They said she'd be leaving us soon, but she didn't seem sick at all - do you remember how she danced at Louise and Guido's wedding?  She was strong.  She was quick... utterly unstoppable.  I remember thinking they were lying, the doctors, but it was wishful thinking.  She was gone in the spring of that year and no matter how much I want to forget the pain I still feel it as keen as I did that morning."

Frankie took another big drink.  "That's how it goes... when you love someone.  You wake up one day and head downstairs, get your breakfast and sit at the table - still thinking they're alive.  And for a moment nothing has changed, even though the whole world has - you just don't know it until you go and find them laying there on the floor.  But as hard as that was... it fucking impossible to deal with the weeks, months and years that followed.  Facing the days without her."

She slams her beer down and leans forward, "I hated you.  I hated that you left without me even though there were other choices, but even when someone you really love abandons you - you don't stop loving them no matter how much you want to!  And I did.  I wanted to stop feeling anything for you!  I never wanted to think about you ever again but that isn't the way things work so,"  She reached in her pocket and opened a switch blade knife and opened it threateningly for a moment, before flipping it to grip the blade and offers the hilt to Tony.  "I ask you to take my blood and my oath.  I won't leave, betray or forsake you Anthony DiCaprio; for so long as I live, we're in this together.  No matter who you pledge your loyalty or heart to - no matter where you go again with or without me... we're family now and always.  And don't think that I'm ever letting you disappear so easily from from my life again."

She let out a ragged breath.  "Do you accept this gift?  Do you accept la mia promessa di famiglia to you?"  She held out the knife to Tony, gripping the blade firmly so that if he took it, it would cut her palm causing her to bleed.

Tony locked his eyes on her and his ears just as he did with Lucia.  Like he used to do with Frankie before his early departure.   He heard every word but it wasn't the words it was her tone and body langue.  It was what she was offering the same offer she wanted to give to her grandfather and la famiglia.  Tony knew then that she loved him and he had to accept the offer.  He inhaled as he reached into his pocket and pull out the switch blade that she bought him back in Sicily.   The blades matched they had two notches that Frankie carved in them each notch represented him and her. 

Tony opened his on knife and turned the handed towards her.  Never breaking eye contact with her as he know then that Lucia was right he would be a fool to let her go a second time.  No man gets to get a second chance for love like this.  He inhaled deeply as his eyes expressed his love for her.  The same way that they did when he asked her to become his wife.  The same way they did when she went on her first kill and he came running in after her.

I will accept your gift to me if you will accept my offering to you.  Francesca will you accept la mia promessa di famiglia to you?

He held out the knife to Francesca, gripping the blade firmly so that if she took it, it would cut his palm causing him to bleed.

Francesca vi offro anche il mio cuore e l'anima e il mio amore. 

I will always be here for you in whatever manner you will allow me to have with you. 

Tony pulls the handle cutting Frankie's hand as he waits for her to do the same. 

Frankie was so caught off guard by his words that she did not realize Tony was grabbing the hilt of her blade and pulling until the pain registered and so she quickly took his knife and did the same.  She winced but clamped her jaw shut to avoid crying out or cursing.  The thin blade stung far more than she'd expected.  Who knew your hand was so damn sensitive?!?

She was breathing hard.  Her heart racing as they brought their bloody palms together in a handshake but they kept there for some time, Tony stroking the back of her hand with his thumb, as if to comfort her hand which now throbbed with pain in time with his own.  God but she was glad she was sufficiently drunk right now.

"Do you have plans for Christmas?"  She asked him.

"Now I do."  He whispered.

She nodded and found herself leaning towards him until their lips met.  Fire raced through her body, a nervous energy she hadn't had since their first true kiss - not that stolen thing of their distant past, but the first one they had both meant with all their hearts and the yearning of youthful bodies.  The kiss was soft at first but the passion between them quickened as their lips and tongues remembered a dance they use to dance often - a thing both hand stored away in the dark recesses of their hearts, but their muscle memory had not forgotten.

Before he could get up to circumvent the coffee table between them, Frankie broke the kiss first.  "I should sleep.  We have a very big day tomorrow.  A lot to do.  And Christmas... I'll have to figure out what we're going to do about that since neither of us are fit to cook a proper Christmas feast.  So I need sleep."

She looked at her bloody hand and then his.  "There are towels in the kitchenette.  Will you be okay to treat yourself?  Cause if so I'm going to my room and going to tend to my own."  She picked up her knife from the table and waited for his response.

He was more concerned with her hand then his own.  When her lips touched his, his stomach quivered he just as excited when she kissed him the first time his good hand hugged her as his heart started racing.  He realized he missed that feeling with Frankie each kiss was like the first.

He was lost in thought an as she pulled back he came back to reality.  He had to think what were her last words, Christmas.

I can arrange a table for two at the cotton club and have anything you want made then a little dancing and wine.  We can come back here or my place and light a fire in the fireplace and sit and talk. 

She was walking away as he went to the kitchenette.   He ran warm water to wash his hand then placed some olive oil on the cut to help seal the wound then wrapped the hand with a towel.  He looked at her bedroom door it was closed so he went back to the couch and laid back down with the pillow and his jacket.  He thought about Frankie in her youth and how they enjoyed riding horses shooting and pulling jobs.  She was the prettiest tomboy he ever saw. 

He closed his eyes and slept.