It had been a bit since Sal had been to Philly to visit Bella or the kids. Seattle was growing and things were going well which took a lot of his time. Aurora knew who he was and loved spending time with him as did he with her, but he liked to space out his visits. 

Sal hopped on a plane and flew out. He had arranged to meet Bella at a restaurant for dinner before seeing Aurora. Things had changed in Seattle and while he knew Bella had to have heard he wanted to make sure she had time to "talk", as well as the Luciano's do, before being in front of the kids. 

The flight was not a long one but did give Sal a chance to think. He wondered how she was going to take the news of him not just having his own family again, but running a city again.

The plane landed and he headed to the restaurant. He had booked the entire place for this meeting, he wondered if witnesses might have been a better idea, but he liked having the privacy. 

He got the restaurant a little early and took a table in the back sitting where he could see all the entrances, a key to staying alive, and ordered a drink and lit a cigar while he waited for his oldest daughter to arrive. 

Bella had gotten invited by her father to dinner and so, after she'd concluded her work for Louis on this particular day, she had her bodyguards take her round to the restaurant in question rather than going directly home.  She knew if she went in to see the kids and Gavin she wouldn't want to go back out again and so this was simpler.

Fixing her hair in the car, spending a few moments examining the hints of crows feet at the corners of her eyes, she wondered silently why the old man had decided they needed a private dinner.  It wasn't her birthday, that wasn't for another month.  It wasn't the anniversary of anything important (good or bad) so why not just come by Hollowood Estate?  

Bella considered it might be about business.  Perhaps his Don wanted to cement some business relationship with Louis and using the Luciano family ties was a solid path to doing that?  She didn't know much about Vicky, but anyone who could go off to start a crew in a city without any support had her respect.  Situations like Seattle's had, in the past, proven dangerous even in the best of times... a veritable wild west of sorts... the sort of place where 'organized' was carefully applied to the phrase 'organized crime.'

Neil opened her car door and Bella went inside dressed in a simple skirt, cream-colored shirt with tiny pearl buttons, and matching jacket.  She greeted the minimal staff on hand to provide them with dinner and tableside service and allowed them to escort her to her father, seated in the empty restaurant like a god-king on a throne.  Even after all these years, Bella realized she could still be awed by her father's presence.  Looking at him now, seated there waiting for her, she found herself suppressing the urge to go and kiss his ring - reminding herself her father neither held such a position nor did she owe him such allegiance anymore.

But habits die hard and the old man did cut an impressive figure as he rose to kiss her cheeks and she kissed his greeting him in Italian, "Good evening, Father."

Bella sat in the seat offered to her and ordered a glass of wine.

"You're looking good."  She began with the sort of small talk she supposed other normal families did very well but she and Sal had never really ever mastered.

"I hear this place as some incredible steak."

Sal greeted his daughter and then attempted to small talk and was failing miserably. 

Sal put his cigar down after they ordered and addressed his daughter. It was apparent to him she had not heard. He wondered if she was too far away from the street... 

"I have some news from Seattle that I want to discuss with you. I would have thought you had heard already?" he said looking at her with a slightly disappointed look on his face. 

"Things of this caliber don't usually get passed you?"

Bella narrowed her eyes and then looked towards her guys who immediately looked... uncomfortable?  There WAS something she'd not been told.  Worst of all her father not only knew what she didn't but he now knew her people hadn't passed it along for some reason making her look like she didn't have control of her own fucking affairs.  

She sighed deciding she'd deal with correcting the matter later.

"It seems I was shielded from some detail or other..." She said with a touch of annoyance in her tone, looking back to her dad.  "Perhaps you'd do me the favor of filling me in before I fall even further behind than I apparently am... for their sakes it had better not be something that my Godfather would have wanted me on top of sooner."

Sal had a feeling that some of her "guys" might not be seen again after she was told. 

"Well, Vicky has had to step down and leave the country. A bit of.... an issue came up and now she is wanted," he tells her

"Before she left she put me in charge," he told her before sipping his drink. 

Sal was unsure how this news was going to go over with Bella. And he knew she would not be happy that her people didn't inform her.  Sal picks up his cigar and relights it. Taking a couple of puffs while he watched Bella process what he had just told her. 

Bella stared at Salvatore before barking, "FUORI!"

Her men, not needing to be told twice, moved for the door without hesitation.  Only after the door shut audibly and she'd glared daggers at the waiter to chase him off, did she finally return her attention to her father.

"You'll find someone else to do this."  She said flatly.  "It's not too late.  You stepped up when your crew needed you... but now you need to find someone else to relieve you of the duty."

Sal watched as the Luciano temper flared and all the men ran out. When she turned to him and told him to step down he looked at her puzzled and his anger flared. 

"Why the hell would I do that? I went to Seattle to help build that city." 

"I did not ask for this. Hell I did not want it. But I was asked and accepted it. Why the hell would I walk away from it?"

Bella's mouth opened in shock, her eyes were wide and then narrowed again as her brow furrowed, "I can't believe I need to explain this to you!"  She threw up her hands almost as if she were giving up before she even began, but a heartbeat later she began her explanation.

"How about the fact that wounds have only begun to heal?!?"

She shook her head as if trying to clear it of the shock that was threatening to overwhelm her. 

"How about the fact that people, people who your decisions hurt, are still alive and they're going to target you and your crew ... FUCK maybe your damn city!  You KNOW how these things work!  No one is going to casually forget that Salvatore Luciano is the sort of man who had it in him to turn his gun on his own fucking wife and shoot up a city that authorized him!  HOW THE HELL do you think anyone could possibly trust you after something like that?  And without allies in a world so full of fucking enemies where do you suppose that will leave you and your crew?!?"

She shakes her head.  

"I can't believe anyone would be SUICIDAL enough to even join your crew let alone hand for you!" 

She was exasperated, but she tried to pull herself together, her words spoken in anger and fear.

"You were just a name before... some guy she didn't know in a photo but you're here now!  You're IN her life!" 

She snarled protectively, clearly speaking of Aurora, and pointed a finger at Sal, "When they kill you I'm going to be the one there trying to explain it to her!  NO!  It's enough you stole her mother from her... I won't let you fucking commit suicide like this!  You don't get to go out like this!  You don't get to fucking paint a target on yourself and eagerly await justice!  You should have to LIVE WITH what you did to Marie and ALL OF US not rush your way out the fucking door to hell by taking on a seat that you KNOW will get you a bullet inside a month!"

"You are a SHIT father... but..."  She screamed slamming her fist on the table, "I WILL NOT LET YOU MAKE ME AN ORPHAN TWICE!"

Sal watched Bella get angry and as she did so did he. 

"I have no problem getting people to join me. I did what I did for my city and people see that fact," he said sternly. 

"I know how this life works, how the politics work and that is why I am doing this. This is the life I chose as well as you."

"One day no matter what choice I make here I will die. We all will. As far as Aurora goes, she will see me do what it is I do the same way you did. I am a Mafioso always have been always will be."

Sal puffed on his cigar. 

  "I am a shit father... really. I brought you in and raised you up within this life. I gave you your own family."

"I am not a normal father and thank fucking god I am not one of those broke ass fuckers who can't put food on the table."

"I have always been there for you. Until it was a thought I was dead." 

"You were there for me?"  Bella laughed so hard she almost cried. 

"I waited my WHOLE LIFE for you to show up.  To just be a fucking PLACEHOLDER in the most important FUCKING title you were EVER given!  Christ help me, I'M STILL THAT LITTLE GIRL WAITING FOR YOU AT THE WINDOW WITH MY BAG IN HAND READY TO RUN OFF ON SOME ADVENTURE WITH YOU!"

The pain in her chest threatened to overwhelm her utterly.  She wanted to throw things, to hit people and make them bleed so they could feel some small bit of the pain she felt knowing her father's mind would not, could not, be changed.  "...and the truly tragic part is that every now and again you give me some GLIMMER of hope you know how.  That you WANT to be the good man you COULD BE!"

She was trying and failing to control her emotions.

"You're a mobster?  BELIEVE ME, I KNOW!  I know you are!  But you could have been a mobster without putting yourself in the GOD DAMNED crosshairs again!  This is your PRIDE!  THIS IS MADNESS!"

She tried to catch her breath.

"I can't expect you to get that.  Once again Salvatore Luciano is on a quest for more power, more money, more respect and FUCK EVERYONE else in his path, whether they are his family or not!" 

She shook her head.

"My... God!  You knew I'd be angry... scared for you even.  You were hoping that someone else had told me because you KNOW this is is a fool's errand!  You know DAMN WELL where this ends... and you want it." 

She shook her head again not wanting to believe it but having no choice. 

"You DO fucking want it and I'll never believe otherwise because I don't think you'll ever forgive yourself for Marie.  I think you're just honorable enough, just BULL-HEADED enough, too put yourself in the riskiest positions possible - all in the hopes that you get what's coming to you!"

She was so scared?  Angry?  Heartbroken?  That she trembled and felt dizzy, as though she might actually faint.

"GAH!"

She put her face into her hands, trying to steady her world as it spun out of control.

"You've been a Godfather.  You know the aggravation, the stress, the danger and the tough calls you might have to make ... you've done all of this and you did it with mountains of support last time under the best of circumstances.  This is nothing like that, Dad.  Nothing."

Her voice grew calmer, quieter... sadder.

"You have no need for mountains of money, you have nothing to prove ... you're an old man, you should be easing off this life, not poking your enemies in the eyes with sticks and seeing if they remember why they want you dead.  Why isn't serving someone else enough?  Why isn't a life as a soldato enough for you?"

This wasn't a war she could win.  She could threaten Sal's life and he'd still put up his back and refuse to budge.  He'd made his decision and the embarrassment of admitting he was wrong would be a worse fate than death.

No.  The mighty Dragon of Race Street would not win this battle and so, Salvatore's daughter, Isabella sobbed so quietly that it could barely made out under the shield of her hands,  "Why aren't we enough..."

She picked her napkin and dabbed her eyes trying to will away the weakness in herself.  Trying to make herself not care... but she did.  She hated that she did, but there it was.  For all his flaws, in spite of his absolute failure to know his own worth to her, he was still her Daddy.  She was still his little girl... and she couldn't unwrite that story with an ocean of tears.

When she finally let her father see her face again, her tears hidden on the napkin and in her eyes, unshed.  She stared at him, staring at her smoking his cigar.  She found herself feeling weak and unworthy of him all because she'd cried in front of him.  Once again, even in a moment like this, he was still her Godfather and she was still the Underboss who would never prove as great or terrible as her old man.  The mighty dragon with the thick terrible hide ... and soft underbelly.  A vast vulnerability that she never could completely crush, a softness she had a name for that was always a part of who she'd been, her mother.

It was with this realization she realized Salvatore wasn't judging her.  He knew who his daughter was from the moment he'd met her.  His blood and fire, wrapped in all the things her mother had raised her to be.  In fact, her constant decisions to try and be like her father had only made her more miserable and she supposed her father knew that... though she could scarcely fathom what he thought of it.

No, strangely enough, Bella began to believe that he was a man who'd come here with the very same agenda she had... maybe they always had when they met one another?  She was always looking to be the sort of person he needed... and on some level, her father was always hoping she'd look at him and see the sort of person she needed. 

The problem was, neither of them could ever hope to be.  She was never going to be a hard-boiled killer with a ruthless need for power... and he was never going to put her first.  If they were ever going to have a relationship, a good one that didn't involve screaming and guns every time they sat down for a heart to heart... she HAD to accept this.  She had to change and, the reality was, she was the only one of the two of them who could.

After a long while of thinking, him smoking in silence, Bella swallowed the lump in her throat and found her voice again.

"Congratulations."  She whispered staring at the table-top between them.

Sal sat sternly smoking his cigar listening to his daughter rage, letting her get it out of her system. He loved his daughter and he knew she was a mix of him and her mother and he loved her for it. He did not want her to be him. She was right he was cold and totally devoted to the Mafioso life.

"You are right this will make us a target. I came here to talk with about that threat. I wasn't hoping someone told you I expected it. You may be making your way away from this life but you have to maintain your awareness and information is pure gold." he said caringly. 

"You are wrong by saying I wanted this. It is not about money or power. The city is young, and you are right the circumstances are not great. That is why I have to do this so that I can give these guys a chance." Sal put out the cigar and took a drink. 

"You are right I WILL NEVER FORGIVE MYSELF for killing Marie. She was my best friend and I killed her, no matter what I have to live with that and when I am dead and gone it is what I will be remembered for... Nothing else. So this isn't a redemption run, there is no redemption for me. This is only about taking and building Seattle."

Sal took a long drink from his whiskey. 

He was right.  It was time to talk about the cold realities.

"I've had to make arrangements for Aurora and Will's future."  She could barely make herself think about a day when she wouldn't be there for her children.  

"Gavin's out..."  Her voice cracked.  "... but I'm not.  I'm far, far, far from out.  The best I can do is shield him and the kids and pretend... but I'm so far in that I fear I may drown."

She shook her head sadly,  "Very soon I could be out of my depth.  That's why I'm angry at you for this... well, part of it.  I was hoping I had you to lean on, to help with the kids in some capacity.  I mean, I know what you're not... but, they love you none the less.  If I find myself ... in too deep, they are going to need more people who love them to help see them through my secrecy and absence from their lives.  People who aren't in things so deeply that they can't think and act like normal people."

She let her chin fall.

"The apple and the tree... Christ, what a pair we make!" 

She sighed.

"If I go before you... I hope you'll trust that I've made the right choices for the kids and not pursue them?  I'm sending them away from this life & our enemies ... somewhere safe.  I suspect that will mean you won't hear from Aurora until she's an adult.  Do you support me in that?"

"The decisions you made for the kids is yours to make I won't fight you on that," he said finishing his drink. 

"So instead of getting out, you are going deeper into the life. Why the change? If you can talk about it." he asked knowing she more than likely can't answer. 

"This life is in our blood for better or worse. I do hope the kids chose not to follow."

"Lean on your husband. He may be out but he knows the life. Make sure he knows enough to of what's going to keep them safe." he says to her. 

Sal sat concerned for his daughter. She had been trying to move to legit business for her and her family and now she was going deeper back into the life. She wasn't like him, She could live without the life... Maybe not completely legal she did have his temper but legal enough to stay safe. 

"Things have changed."  She said quietly.  "Ironically, it's like you said... I don't have a choice.  There is no one else."  

She took the bottle on the table and poured herself a glass.

"As for Gavin and I..."  She slammed a sizable amount of whiskey and refilled.  "He has no idea.  He thinks I'm clocking in 9-5... I think he thinks I'm having an affair."

She made a sound that was half-laugh/half-scoff.

"He's gone every weekend.  Gambling.  I'm gone all week... sometimes the weekend too.  Money to hide.  Bodies to dispose of.  You know how it goes..."  She sighed.

"I'm trying to hold it together but ... it's not easy.  I need to protect them.  I need to provide for them.  Walking away... it's impossible and I haven't had the heart to tell Gavin that.  The best I can hope for is that we send the kids to school and they go legit on their own.  Though... between you and me, I think it's a lost cause where Aurora is concerned.  She's just... taken with every bit of the life.  She breathes it in a way that I couldn't imagine any child ever doing.  I look in her eyes and I see the sort of woman I could never be growing in the child before me."

Sal pulled out cigar and clipped the end with his gold cutter and lit it taking a couple of puffs as he sat back in his chair. 

"I dont know if there is a way to get her away from the life. She was born to two godfathers. But I wish we could get her out of it."

"Why would he thinks your having an affair? He doesnt know your still in the life?"

"He knows I'm still in, I'm just supposed to be pulling back.  Less crazy shit.  More legit.  Unfortunately... that's not really how things have gone.  Oh, some of things have gone well.  A lot of our money is clean these days.  On the business end of things I'm probably more clean than most politicians.  A decent lawyer would get me off any charges some shithead might throw our way.  Honestly, I might have made a real go of it, if things weren't moving the way they appear to be... between Tambini and that asshat Durden, the recent rogues, and a few other nuggets I can't get into yet... I'm still waist deep in blood.  I've killed more men in the last six months than I did in my entire time in Detroit."

"As for the affair thing... that's... that's a longer story.  More complicated.  One that will now have to end in a man pushing up daisies cause he can't take my good advice to back off nor listen to me when I tell him that I'm a married woman.  I've had to dance really carefully on this edge in dealing with him because he's still useful to Louis and..." 

She pushed aside a stray hair, "... but, if I'm I'm honest, he and I were pretty good friends.  I took a lot of comfort in that friendship. Maybe too much."

Bella spun the drink in her glass.

"By the time I wised up, there was a rift between Gavin and I that is a mile wide.  I love him so damn much it hurts ... I feel like ..."  She swallowed, "Like his absence from my life is killing me.  I'm just... dying more slowly than if I took a bullet." 

She took another drink.

"So... I booked us a vacation.  I need to figure shit out one way or another.  I could never divorce him... but if he's made up his mind about me, if he's lost faith in us, then maybe we can make arrangements to make things a little more civil between us.  I don't want the kids to eventually notice we've been taking turns sleeping on the couch."

Sal looks at his daughter struggling with things. 

"Well If I happen to get the mans name, let's just say he won't be a problem anymore. Not something you have to do." sal told her. 

Sal had no problem dealing with bodies. Fuck knows he's dropped enough of them. But he didn't want Bella to have kill a friend. 

"Vacation sounds like a good idea. And tell him what you can of what's really going on. He knows the life he got out but there is no way he could expect both of you to be able to get out. Most don't get out in this life."

"I know I am not the best one for relationship advice. But if he knows whats going on he can put the shit that's not true out of his mind. He wasn't always a civilian."

"No.  I need to deal with Robert." She said, clearly a bit tipsy and not thinking of the lack of wisdom in sharing her 'would-be-lovers' name with her father.

"It's my mess... even if I didn't do it, I'm not innocent.  Sometimes the sin is in the thought... not the deed.  If that makes sense?"  She looked up to her dad wondering if he would think less of her because she'd gotten so lonely that she was tempted.

"I mean... I wouldn't.  I couldn't."  She reasserted.  "But I don't deny it felt good to be wanted like that ... especially with ... well, everything."

She finished off her glass.

"I won't tell Aurora tonight.  She'll take it better than I did, but I figure by the time I get home I'll be another few glasses in and not fit for the discussion.  Especially with her increased level of sass towards me of late."  Clearly another sore subject in Bella's home life, by her tone.

Sal sat back and noted the man's name. While he knew she wanted to handle it, there was no way he was going to let a man walk the earth causing a problem for his daughter. 

"Not telling Aurora what?" he asked confused. 

"You rising up to be a Don again."  Bella shook her head.  "I can't avoid telling her that.  Not with as much as that kid keeps stuffing her staff into lockers and trunks and running off to get into trouble.  A kick in the ass doesn't phase her...  if she gets it in her head something needs doing, I end up having to let someone go and I don't mean with retirement options."

She shakes her head.

"I've heard whispers among the low guys in my operation that getting assigned to Aurora's detail is a sure way to know I'm pissed at you, and it's a death sentence."  She scoffed picking up the whiskey pouring a glass.  "The kid is too smart and too dangerous for someone so damn young.  I worry about her all the time."