Marie sat in the hallway outside of Lucky's office.  They had put him on the couch there while they waited on the doctor to arrive.  When the doctor arrived he kicked out everyone but a couple of men to help him.  Marie's face was buried in her hands.  He had had so many bullet wounds and had lost a lot of blood by the time he had been brought back to the HQ.  As she sat waiting for the doctor to come out from the office, all she could think about was the night that Luca's body had been brought back to her from Detroit.  She re-lived every moment of that fateful night, unable to keep the memories at bay and feared that she would be forced to go through it again with Lucky.

After what seemed like hours, the doctor finally came out.  He walked over to Marie, who stood up.  "I was able to remove 7 bullets from him.  He truly was Lucky.  Most of them hit non-vital areas.  He did take one to the shoulder which hit a major artery, but I was able to sew it up.  He would have bled out if Rand had not found him so quickly and was able to apply pressure to the wound."  

With tear-stained eyes, Marie asked him.  "Doc will he be okay?"

"He will be weak for several days because of the loss of blood, but he should be fine assuming that an infection doesn't set in."

Marie was relieved and she asked, "Can I see him?  Is he awake?"

The doctor nodded.  "He was awake and was asking about your well being."

Marie thanked the doctor and went into the office to see Lucky.

Lucky forced himself, painfully, to sit up some as Marie walked in. 

"Good you are safe. Did any of them follow you back?" he asks. 

Lucky was unclear what happened. He remembered shooting it out and being hit a couple of times but after that, it was all a blur. 

"Did the guys you send back for me get the rest of them?"

He was alive.  A part of her had not believed it until she actually saw him with her eyes.  "We were not followed and when Rand got back to you, you had already taken them all down.  Our contacts have told us that it was a hit paid for by the Pisa family."  She pulled up a chair to sit down with him.  "You were foolish for trying to take them all down by yourself."

Lucky couldn't believe what she was saying.

"There is no way I got them all," he told her shocked

"There was too many. I wasn't trying to take them all myself. I was only trying to hold them off so you could get away." he tells her firmly

"I never planned on being here or anywhere again." 

Lucky looked at the situation and knew there was only one way any of them make it out alive and that was if one of them stays and buys time for the others to get away. So he made the only choice he saw and that was for him to cover the others. The guards that where left had one job and that is to protect Marie and he figured she would need them after he went down to get her to the HQ. 

"How did I survive?" he asked no one in particular. 

“I never planned on being here or anywhere again."

Marie closed her eyes and grimaced. There would be a next time. She knew it. Either a time when she would have to send Lucky into harms way like she had ordered Luca to do, or him defending her from another attack upon her person. She now ran an entire district. She knew that alone would make her a target, never mind this whole blood feud between her family and the Pisa family.

“How did I survive?" he asked no one in particular.

"I made Rand go back for you. He was able to put pressure on your shoulder wound enough that you did not bleed out until the doctor was about to sew you back up." Marie's voice was hollow as she spoke. After a moments pause she quietly said to her men that were attending Lucky, "Give us the room."

They complied after a brief hesitation. Once they had left she Marie looked at Lucky and spoke, "I can't do it again." Her eyes watered up and her voice cracked a bit "I just can't." She swiped at the tears and added. "I can't go through what I did with Luca ever again."

Lucky looked at Marie with a puzzled look in his eyes. He could not process what she was saying it was hitting him like a jumbled mess. 

"What??" he says weakly as his eyes start fade out

Lucky's eyes closed as his body finally gave into the pain and loss of blood. Everything that had happened and still was happening had taken its toll and try as he might he could not fight it anymore. 

Marie became concerned when Lucky lost consciousness until she saw that his chest was rising and falling with his breath.  She reached out to take hold of his hand and though she knew that he could not hear her, she spoke her heart to him.  They were words she knew she needed to speak for herself.  "If I had not pushed you way all those weeks ago, things might have been different for a time.  We might have fallen in love and became more intimate with each other." 

She kissed his hand and try to blink back the tears.  "I can not deny now that we would still have eventually arrived at this point."  She laid her forehead against his hand.  "When I lost Luca, it nearly destroyed me.  I can't endure that again."  Marie cried softly.  "The last thing I want to do is to hurt you, but I can not let myself be put in that situation again.  I will not allow it."  Marie kissed his hand again and looked at him.  "I hope some day you will understand and find it in your heart to forgive me. "  

She stood up and leaned over him to kiss him on the forehead.  Looking down at him she knew she would always care for him even if she could not allow herself to fall in love with him.   She laid his hand down and stood with a final look before she turned and walked out  the door sending the men back in to attend him in his recovery.  

Lucky awoke and looked around Marie was no longer standing there. He looked over at the men standing around him and only recognized Rand. 

"Rand where the boss she was right here?" he asked. 

"That was three days ago. You were asleep for Three days."

"She wanted me to tell her you when you awoke." He says before turning and rushing out the door. 

Lucky nods to the man as he sits up with one of the other men's help and then gets to his feet. He refuses to let the boss have to speak to him laying down again. 

Marie was sitting at her desk going over the books and planning the crew's next steps in setting up their rackets in southside when she received word that Lucky had woke up.  She thank the man and took a moment to prepare herself.  What was coming would not be easy and she had not been looking forward to it.  Ripping the band-aid off quickly was always the best way.  Drawing a deep breath in she let it out slowly and the rose to go to Lucky's office.  

Knocking on his door she waited until she was told it was okay to enter and then she walked in.  She smiled at Lucky.  It was good to see him standing again.  "You are looking much better than you were.  How are you feeling?"

Lucky looks over at Marie as she enters and has to smile at her question. 

"well I feel like a piece of swiss cheese." he says with a smile

"but I am up and moving again. Hows things around here? any more attacks?" he asks her

Lucky walks over to his desk and sits on the edge of it. 

"No, things have been quiet the last few days thankfully."  

She caught Rand's eye and motioned with her head to clear the room.  She waited for them to leave and then she looked back at Lucky.  "We need to talk."  She went to sit on the edge of the desk with him.

She wanted to reach out to take his hand, but she refrained from doing that.  "How much do you remember after the shooting?"

When she said "we need to talk" his heart sank those words never meant anything good. Lucky slumps a little on the desk and looks over at Marie. 

"After the shooting... Not much of anything at all. I remember waking up here at one point and you were here but then just waking up today." he tells her

She sighed a bit.  "You were pretty bad when they brought you in.  I did not even know if you were alive or dead.  When I found out that you were alive I was so relieved.  Then the doctor came and we found out how bad off you still were..." She shook her head.  "I sat out in the hallway and all I could think about was that night when they brought Luca's body back to me from Detroit.  It brought up all those memories and feelings again and I knew...."  

She paused and looked at him.  He deserved that respect.  "I knew I could never go through that again."  

Just rip the band aide off she told herself.  It was the least painful way and that was what she wanted.  To cause him the least amount of pain in this whole situation.  

"I also knew that this would happen again.  There would come a time I would have to order you on to the front lines; or someone else would come seeking to put a bullet in me and you would be driven to sacrifice yourself to stop that.  You and I know this to be true.  It is the nature of the life we lead.  I can not and will not allow myself to be put back into the position of going through what I went through with Luca."

Lucky knew what she was saying and it was true. But she wasn't just saying it and he needed to hear it from her. His heart sank but he refused to show weakness not to her, not over this. 

Lucky stood up ignoring the pain and looked Marie in the eye. 

"Stop dancing around it and giving me a reason why you're doing something before you have done it. What is it exactly you are telling me? Be straight with it, you owe me that much." he says to her calmly

Marie nodded and stood up as well.  She steeled herself.  She would not cry.  "Lucky I cannot continue to see you romantically.  I am sorry.  The last thing I want to do is to hurt you.  I know this is not what you want, but I can't give you what you want."

Lucky nods to Marie he knew this is where it was going but he was not going to let her get away without saying it. He needed to hear it he needed to know exactly what she wanted. 

"I understand Don Lucania, " he said firmly

Lucky then turned and headed out of the office and out of the HQ. 

Marie physically recoiled as if he had drove a knife through her heart with his formal use of her title, but she did not call out to him as he walked away.  To do so would only cause him more hurt. Instead she waited until he had left the office before breaking down and crying.  Next to saying goodbye to Luca, it had been the hardest thing she had ever done.