Sophia raised a hand to cover her mouth as she gasped at the offer.  Dropping her hand enough to speak she exclaimed as she trembled slightly, "You would really do that? I mean, I was so afraid that you would be concerned that it would upset her.  I was not even sure if she knew.  If you had told her who her mother had been."

Bella looked at Gavin, drew a steadying breath.

"We don't believe in lying when it comes to these things."

She looked back to Sophia and as she did she withdrew her hand from Gavin's.  

"I bled for Aurora before she could draw breath in this life... shot by Marie's enemies while dressed as her.  A plan cooked up to ensure Marie and Aurora survived a war.  I nearly died and I would do it all again - which is why I came today."

She exhaled.

"You see... I could never forgive the family of a monster who took her from me.  So, it was reasonable to me that this dinner might not go so well.  I know that my father's blood runs in these veins and as a mother, it seems more than reasonable to me that you should want me to spill it in a vendetta."

She shook her head, "But if I had refused to come and see you when you called ... if Gavin and I were to deny Aurora access to this part of who she is... it would be worse than lying to her.  Until now I didn't know if you wanted to see her.  I feared that the loss of your daughter might make it too hard.  Now that I know the desire is there... to keep you apart would be cruelty that I can't justify.  Both to your family and to her."

Bella looked at the floor averting her eyes from the Dona,  "What was taken from you can not be replaced.  An ocean of my family's blood would not be enough to dry the tears of a mother who has lived to bury her child, but honor demands I do something and if you will let me ... this is how I propose we progress."

"Allow us to bring her home.  Marie should rest with her family in the land that she was born - not a world away surrounded by strangers.  With your blessing... I will make all the necessary arrangements with both the governments of our countries and the church.  I and my husband will personally accompany her to your home... and we will bring your granddaughter with us so we can mourn together in the ways of your family."

Bella knelt down in front of Sophia and took her hand and kissed the back of it, "Command me to bring Marie back to you.  And command me to serve in the place of the mother which my father stole from your granddaughter.  I beg you... let me spend my life trying to make up for father did to Aurora - you may have lost a daughter due his actions; but she lost everyone and the weight of that crime has never been lost on me nor forgotten."

A tear leaked out of the corner of Bella's brown eyes, "Charge me with the duty of seeing to Aurora upbringing... and I'll make sure she stays in touch with letters, photos, phone calls and visits as often as we can do so safely.  That way, you'll always be a part of her life and know that Gavin and I have done right by her and your family.  I can not ask your forgiveness... but I beg that you command these things of me."

The respect this American gave her, the acknowledgement of the sins of her father, and the unwavering love she showed for Aurora strengthened Sophia.  She sat up straighter and blinked back the remaining tears.  In a stronger and steady voice she simply stated.  "I command you so."  She leaned over and kissed the woman on the top of her head. 

"It takes a strong woman to do what you just did.  The strength of your character and the selfless love you obviously have for Aurora... these things will be well for my granddaughter to see modeled before her as she grows up into a young woman.  Add to that the knowledge she will gain of this family and this country's heritage will forge her into steel as it did her mother."

Sophia stood and guided Isabella to hers, as well.  "Come let us partake in a meal.   I fear my husband will not be joining us after all.  He has never liked Americans and the only one he ever did robbed him of his only daughter so I fear he went off hunting this afternoon with Carlos so as not to be here."  Sophia smiled a bit.  "He is a good man, really.  However, he took Marie's death even harder than I did.  It is the regret you see, but this news I believe will be a salve on his heart.  You will see.  Come."

The dinner of roasted lamb and rosemary potatoes was simple, yet tasty and satisfying.  The red wine was from some of the finest stock in Italy.  The atmosphere was light and cheerful as all shared stories of Marie and Aurora.  To soon, however, it was time for Gavin, Isabella, and Stella to be leaving.  This time Sophia wished both Gavin and Isabella a farewell with a fond kiss on each cheek.  She thanked Stella for coming to visit and invited her to return some time if she ever so desired.

As the trio walked back to their car they could see a small camp fire on top of the next hill not far from the home.  Several men, with rifles leaning against logs that had been dragged up next to the fire, sat around it.  It seemed that they were laughing and having a good time, but one man sat looking towards the house.  As the three got into the car he turned his head and took a drink from the cup that was in his hand before joining the men in their conversations. 

Quite purposefully, Stella had remained mostly silent the entire time. This was a trip for watching and listening, as well as supporting her friends. The reputation of Sophia Conti was well-known throughout the region, if not beyond. The Contis did not like to be trifled with; but had a special affinity for trifling with others.  It was this little fact that had Stella ill at ease as they left. She noticed the small, glowing camp fire first, and very inconspicuously nudged Gavin and shifted her eyes in that direction. Surely, Paul had seen it as well, and Stella was confident that he was at least checking things out.

Nevertheless, when all three were in the car and it had rolled a good hundred feet away, Stella piped up first.

"I don't like it. Something is stirring and I don't trust Sophia Conti as far as I can throw her."

Stella rubbed her sore legs gently.

"Besides, Tina says she cheats at Canasta." 

Gavin had felt the gun of Salvatore Luciano getting heavier throughout the evening... now, his shoulder seemed crooked from the psychological weight. Giant questions bounded through his head, but Stella drew him back to reality.

"You might be right. I get a good feeling about the woman. My gut says we can trust her, though I've been wrong before... well, once or twice."

He faked a smirk as best he could.

"Let's... let's get out of here for now. I think Bella made a damn good impression with Sophia. We'll trust that she's able to calm down any more... direct responses."

Still, Gavin kept his eye on the window as the car approached the road.

"Bella rolled over, her back safely towards her husband who was softly snoring.  The sounds of the Sicily countryside at night easing her towards dreams.  

Bella entered the loft with arms of paperwork.  Death certificates, deeds to businesses and grave plots, so much that had to be done in the wake of this latest war - she knew countless members of Race Street were gone now but this was the way of it.  The world moved on and she had to get the paperwork done.

Bella put the pile onto her desk and noted her wedding ring getting a little loose.  Age had made her skin slack and whereas she'd always feared turning into a fat hen, in truth she was a delicate fragile woman in her later years.  She smiled as she noted the postcard from Tara and William on their trip to India.  She picked up the brightly colored thing and ran a finger across it lovingly.  She felt sad.  She missed Will so much.  She didn't want to read it.  She put the card back down.  It could wait.

"Gavin?"  She called out across the apartment.

No answer.

"Gavin?"  She began to smile as she walked out of her office towards her bedroom.  "I saw your car parked out front, no point in trying to ambush me, Old Wolf... I know all your tricks too well now."  She chuckled and began taking off her earrings expecting her husband to be waiting inside to make love to her.  Instead, she finally noticed the blood splatter trailing from the elevator to her room.

"Gavin..."  She muttered in her sleep.  She rolled her head from one side to the other.  Gavin, stirred at the sound of his name but only found Bella sleeping beside him, safe and as beautiful as ever.

"GAVIN!"  She screamed upon seeing him kneeling on the floor, his back towards her.  Instantly she was rushing towards him, eager to find his wounds and try to save his life.  But it wasn't Gavin's blood.

Bella whimpered and tossed her head back and forth more animatedly on her pillow as she slept.  As Gavin pulled himself up to look at her, brushing wisps of hair off her face, but she did not wake.

A beautiful black-haired woman in the prime of her life lay lifeless in his arms.  Bullets riddled her body.  She still wore her shoulder holster but the match to Gavin's was gone.  Bella fell to her knees before her husband, gripping to the body of their little girl.  The sound that came across her lips wasn't crying or a scream ... it was a roar of agony as if her own heart had been pierced by the bullets that took their little girl from them.

"I wasn't fast enough..."  Gavin tried to explain.  "She was already gone."

Gavin curled around his wife.  Normally touching her ended the nightmares she used to have in the earliest years of their relationship... back when she still dreamed of Elias' death and after Will had been taken from them.  Perhaps it would help this time?

She pulled the girl away from Gavin and clutched her to her breasts as she had when the girl was a baby.  Gavin and she could have no children of their own and back then she had imagined that it was as close as she would ever come to the simple joy that every mother on the planet knew... the closeness of nursing the true-born flesh of their own wombs.

But now, she was gone.  She'd never again watch her daughter dance, or lose to her in cards, never again feel her even as an adult slip into bed beside her to recieve a much needed hug when the world outside became too cruel.  She'd never again watch Gavin and Aurora playing pool or shooting darts together.  She'd never have grandchildren.  Their family began now began and ended here, in this room.

A tear leaked from the corner of her eye, her brow furrowed, her heart was racing.  Gavin hadn't seen her have a nightmare this bad in years.   

"Bella... you have to let her go." 

She'd been hold the cold dead body of her little girl for hours.  Crying and crying but unlike the day that she brought Gavin back from death's boney hand, she could not save the one person in the world who mattered most of all to her.

The men had come to take her.  To put her in the ground.  To seal her away in darkness and cold... panick gripped her as she looked down at Aurora's body decaying, worms eating at her flesh.  She tried to brush them away but she couldn't make it stop.  Frantic she looked up to Gavin, confused as to why he wanted to let the men take her and he didn't help her to stop the worms from eating Aurora.

"No...No..."

Her words weren't for the worms, they were for the hands pulling the corpse from her and Gavin who's arms now held her tight.  He tried to comfort her.  Telling her everything was okay but it wasn't!  It wasn't okay!  Nothing was EVER going to be okay again!

"NO!"  She cried out sobbing as she woke, held tight in Gavin's arms almost as she had been in her sleep.  For a moment she continues to fight him until the surroundings brought back reality.  They were in Sicily.  They weren't old.  Aurora wasn't dead.

She buried her head into his scarred chest and cried unabashedly.  She wailed as if her daughter was gone, letting out the pain of the thought that had never once caught up with her in this way.  But with Aurora's beautiful face attached to it - the horror was beyond measure.  It was more than she could bear.  This nightmare was Sophia's reality and the truth was... it could well be her own one day.

Bella shuddered and in time found her voice, "There was a war."  She breathed through sobs.  Gavin's chest was wet with her tears, but she clung to him none the less and he to her.

"I thought you were shot... but it wasn't your blood.  You were carrying her."  She shuddered and sobbed again before barely getting out.  "Aurora."

For a time she was held, and Bella worked to calm herself.  Wanting ... no needing... to talk.

Gavin tended to be a light sleeper, and he had done everything he could to ease the nightmare of his wife... but this was a bad one. The worst in years. He listened as Bella described Aurora's "death".

"It's something I've thought of too. I walked by her room the other day and she had hitlisted one of her teddy bears. It was kind of hilarious... and also fucking terrifying. Sometimes I forget how close she is to... all of this."

She got a faraway look in her eyes, that look she got when she was reflecting upon the past.  A searching gaze that seemed to scan through her own mind, as if she was watching a motion picture of moments she once lived through.  She narrowed her eyes and the lines in her forehead deepened.

"I wanted out, but I didn't go."  She whispered.

"I was ... twenty-one?  I was barely a woman and already a hand to a Godfather."  She sighed at the ignorance of it all.  "I wanted to run somewhere, and keep running forever if it was needed.  I didn't want to die.  I didn't want to lose Elias.  I loved him.  I think I knew it in my bones that I was going to bury him one day.  Somehow I just knew and that fear whispering dark thoughts gripped my heart so tight I couldn't breathe... but I didn't listen."

She shook her head.

"I thought I'd come to this great epiphany based on some nugget of wisdom my father threw at me in a fight trying to keep me under his foot.  I just... buckled and fell into place like good Soldato even though I knew the price.  I just... did I was supposed to and I think that's why I broke like I did. when I lost him." 

Bella wet her lips.

"I feel like I'm back there, Gavin.  So sure of what the future might look like, certain that if I make the wrong choice ..."

She looked to Gavin's eyes, hoping he understood.  Seeing her own feelings reflected back at her, she found the courage to give her thoughts voice. 

"I don't want to be like Marie's mom."

Another tear slipped down her cheek.  

"But I don't know what to do.  We can't leave.  We can't leave Race Street or Tara.  People would come for us, the Cosa Nostra doesn't let people truly retire.  We can't just ... quit."  She said clearly distraught.  "But if we keep on like this... we know how this ends.  One of us buries the other, or we bury Aurora, or maybe she buries us both."

It was clear Bella was overwhelmed with her sadness and fears, not thinking at her best, consumed by her volatile emotions.

Gavin pulled his wife to him; for a while, he was very quiet. With her head resting on his chest, Bella listened to his slow breathing. She had nearly fallen back asleep, wondering if Gavin had done so as well, when he finally spoke.

"We can't get out. But... we can pull back a bit. I'll talk to Tara when we get back to Philly. We can't know what's going to happen to us. I know you said 'we know how this ends'... but we don't. Shit, we're not even supposed to have lived as long as we have. Why not keep beating the odds? They'll catch up to us, eventually... but don't assume the worst."

His fingers moved through her hair.

"Aurora and whoever else shows up will bury us. Either sooner or later. That's the way this works, if things happen in the right order. In the meantime... we'll pull back. And we'll do everything we can to set things up for her- or for them."

Bella nodded.  

"Okay."  She said softly.  "I take some fingers out of some of the pies their in.  Move our interests to ... stable things.  More legit.  Not out... but back."

She exhaled a breath that sounded as if she was blowing all the worry out of her lungs.  For a while, she's quiet, not as long as Gavin, but for Bella it was a good amount of time when she had something on her mind.

"We have had a good run."  She admitted.  "We've beat the odds, so far." 

Then looked up to him and asked, "No regrets?"

"In my life? Plenty. But I like what we've done so far, and I'm... happy. I never really thought that would happen."

He smirked.

"Get some sleep. Tomorrow, we'll head back home."

The Clown and his friend GavinAndTaraByrne,feels alot of respect for true feelings and honesty. they sat and had a small chat in the park for a bit. Clown is due for a flight and shakes GavinAndTaraByrne hand and thanks him for his kind words.