English and then French came over the speakers at the airport, directing people here and there.  Unlike most travelers here, she knew where she was going.  This wasn't the first time she'd flown into Montreal.  It was, however, the first time she'd done so with three bodyguards on high alert shadowing her.  If she was honest, it was the first time she ever felt like her mother.  Really and truly.  The heals of her boots clacking authoritatively with every stride forward, the men around her watching for even the slightest hint of danger leaving her to think.

She drew a breath.  It was late.  The flight from Vegas had been a long one and hers was the last plane into the city for the day.  She'd barely made it under the wire.  The sight of one of Aunt Tara's men waiting at the exit made her smile.  

"Joey."  She said with a smile.  "It's good to see you."  

"You as well, Miss Byrne.  Your Aunt regrets she couldn't be here to greet you.  She just flew out actually, word is that Interpol got wind of where she was and they'd put in a call to North American authorities."

"Same song, different week, eh?"  She said walking towards the car.

"Indeed.  She was relieved to hear you were coming.  She left me here to see that you got to the cabin safely but it seems you've picked up detail of your own since we last saw one another."

"I've grown out of ditching them.  Seems now I collect them."  She stopped at the car door as Charlie and Oscar put her things into the trunk.  Neil stood close by watching over her person, his bruises and cuts nearly gone now.  "How are they?"

Joey shrugged.  "I'll leave that for you to decide.  Your Aunt didn't think she needed to drag them with her, I think we can take that as a good sign."

Aurora nodded.

"Still," Joey added.  "She wanted me to tell you 'Glad there's more of your mom in you than you think.'  To be frank, Miss Byrne, I think she thought you'd be away a lot longer."

"I nearly was, luckily someone helped extract my head from my ass."  She cast her eyes around the parking lot.  "You leaving now too?"

"Afraid so, Miss.  I'll meet up with them a few flights from now.  Ideally, lose that shadow at your four o'clock."

Aurora noted the man in the suit trying hard not to stand out but at this hour it was impossible.

"Tell her that ... I handled all the arrangements for everyone.  Not just mom.  He's resting now where she expects to find him.  And please... tell her how sorry I am."

Joey nodded.  "She's a tough lady.  She and your dad drank a bit together.  Had some talks about them both.  I'll let him get into that with you if he wants.  Suffice to say the Godmother is a tough dame.  She'll be alright.  For now focus on Will and your Dad and ..."  He eyed her belly pointedly.

"Will's big mouth."  Aurora said with a smile, not angry this time.  "Tell her I would have told her... I just wanted mom to know first."

"She gets it."  He said with a smile.  "But um... don't be shocked if she's sending folks to look in on you from time to time.  You've got the future of her family in that belly of yours.  If you need anything... call."

Aurora nodded and kissed Joey's cheeks.  "Keep her safe."

"We will."

With that Aurora slid into the back seat of the car and relaxed as the car began it's drive out of the city and towards one of the Byrne family refuges known simply as 'The Cabin' or 'Montreal' ... a peaceful place where Aurora had spent weeks in the summers, fishing with her parents and having campfires.  It was a place of happy memories.  A place of peace.  Not as rustic as Iceland, but more isolated than Hollowood and most importantly - out of the United States.

It was nearly 1am when her car finally pulled into the drive.  Aurora didn't know what to expect inside.  Maybe everyone would be sleeping.  If so she'd just slip in and settle in and go to bed.  If someone was up though... well, she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

Gavin's eyes snapped open as he heard the car pull up outside. He placed his glass of whiskey, which had been resting on his thigh, onto the table next to him before picking up his M1911. The door started to open without a sound- even a whisper.

Either a professional assassin or- Gavin tilted his gun up quickly.

"Aurora."

He hated how tired he sounded, but he wasn't in the business of lying.

"Will's asleep. Are you hungry?"

Gavin blinked. He'd grown a beard in the weeks that Aurora had been away, although it was still just starting to come in. He hadn't had a beard like that since Jamaica. As another memory of Bella crashed over him like a wave, he sighed and leaned back into his chair with a wounded but authentic smirk.

"How is... everything. The world. But most importantly, how are you?"

He reached for his glass of whisky, finished it, and rose to wrap his arms gently around his daughter.

"Glad you're safe. Been thinking about you."

She melted into his embrace, her eyes lingering on the empty whiskey glass.  She tried not to think of her mistakes at Hollowood, and about how much she wanted just a small sip to help her calm her nerves and relax, but it wouldn't stop there and she knew it.  It was a dark hole she could fall into and the cost of it, the risks, they were too high.  

"I should have called tonight like we planned,"  She spoke into his shoulder as he held her, not yet letting him go, holding him longer than she normally would.  She hated seeing him looking so weary, so ... broken, but strangely in his arms she could still feel his strength and in that there was a comfort.  The wolf was old, and wounded perhaps, but he was still here.  

"I got caught in a scuffle, helped a guy, had a ... date."  She clearly was struggling for the right word, not quite comfortable with telling her father she didn't call him because she was half-naked with a stranger on a roadside. 

"It's a bit of a story but suffice to say it was no good excuse for letting you worry.  I should have called." 

When he finally seemed ready to let her go from the embrace, she stepped back to let him see her.  The weariness around her eyes wasn't as pronounced as it had been in the days immediately following Bella's death but she supposed Gavin's eagle eye would note it.  He'd likely notice her posture too, which upon thinking of it she immediately stood up straighter.  And then there was the fact that she was wearing something o his, the jacket that hid the shoulder holster on her was the one he'd picked up the night of his first official date with Bella, a lifetime ago.  Aurora didn't know the story, but it was clear she'd been to Port Huron if she was wearing it.

"I'm sorry I disappeared on you.  I'm ... not good."  She looked him up and down, realizing he wasn't either.  "And I didn't want to rush back to you and Will to put more on you which, in retrospect, was a pretty shitty thing.  Making you worry about me, and the baby, when you're grieving ... I shouldn't have done that, I should have done what needed doing and come straight here - not got caught up in new shit."

Her amber eyes were sad and maybe a little worried.  "And maybe I didn't know how to deal with you like this either."  She lowered her voice.  "I know how I feel after losing Billy, about not being there for him when he... but... you and mom..."  Her bottom lip quivered a little as she struggled with emotions she still hadn't yet embraced.

She shook her head trying to push them down.

"I can't stop thinking that ..."  the words stuck in her throat.  She blinked, her eyes looking to the whiskey glass again, this time she knew he noticed.  She let out a frustrated noise and pushed herself back in the chair.

She wet her lips and tried to let the conversation die before it began.

"How's Will?"

Gavin rolled his eyes so hard at the word "date" that his daughter could sense it even though she couldn't see his face. Still, he wasn't one to judge. 

"Nice jacket. It suits you."

He sighed as he returned to his chair, and gestured to the chair across from him.

"And you don't need to call every night, Aurora. When you were back in Philly... yea, I needed to hear from you regularly there. But..."

Gavin sighed, with a half smile.

"... as strange as it is to me sometimes, you're not my little girl anymore. You don't have a curfew. No matter what sort of 'date' you're on. I'll make you a deal: if you know things are more dangerous than usual, call and let me know. We'll check in every 4-6 hours and if I don't hear from you I'll send in someone to check on you and provide support, rescue, whatever. But while you should obviously feel free to call ten times a day if you want to, it's no longer something you should feel like you need to do."

Gavin leaned back, sliding his glass away from him as his eyes focused on his daughter. The blue eyes seemed lighter than they were a moment again, and Aurora wasn't sure whether it was the angle of the fire or her own presence.

"Aurora, every moment I spend with you is precious to me. And I'm glad you're here. But I want you to process however you could. If you need to take some time for yourself... then do what you need to do. If you need to be here, then obviously I want you here. And if you're not sure, well I'd want you here until you're sure about something else."

The corner of his mouth turned up.

"And what do you mean deal with me like this. If you weren't pregnant, I'd kick your ass right now for suggesting that I'm not 100%."

The corner turned up slightly more- then he saw her lip quiver and it dropped from his face. He leaned forward and took her hand, looking steadily into her eyes.

"Aurora, I was with your mother for almost twenty five years. I've known you your entire life. I know when one of my women is trying not to unleash a flood of words at me. Now, you're much better at holding off on these things than your mother... she'd already be a tenth of the way into a dramatic monologue..."

A pained smile flashed across his face.

"... well, I learned a long time ago that if you've got something on your mind, it's better to share it with people you love. Spill it."

She drew a breath and exhaled slowly.

She drew another and exhaled it slowly before sitting forward, hands gripping one another in front of her, leaning on her knees.  Eyes downcast she began in a soft voice, barely above a whisper.

"Alucard showed up in Detroit two days after she died.  Told me what sort of hell it was that she made her stand in, that he couldn't get to her before it was over - so he waited.  When they left, he took her and hid her away somewhere safe."

She let the words hang in the air a bit before adding, "I thanked him for us, told him I'd need to go back, to bury her the way she would like... all proper with the Priests saying their prayers for her and putting her in the ground that they'd prayed over.  He promised to go back with me and I stitched up his bullet wounds and... made an idiot of myself."

She sighed.

"But he... we both... I don't think I've ever felt so empty and alone and I assumed he did too."  Her voice was a pained and hoarse whisper.  "I was wrong.  I wanted a dead man... Alucard wants me."  

Her stare is vacant.

"I can't ... shift gears like that, I'm not ready."  She nodded.  "So... that's that.  Alucard and I are just friends and I went looking for Billy.  His things really but, I suppose I was chasing his ghost.  What I found was that he had a will."  She looked up to her dad to see if he knew.  Not seeing any recognition she continued.

"Mom.  She must have thought she was protecting me by hiding his letters because they were in her office at Hollowpoint."  She drew a breath.  "She was right to hide them, I think, the same way she hid saving Billy's bodyguards Charlie and Oscar... but ... anyway, we had to leave Detroit pretty fast.  The whole damn country erupted into wars.   Detroit was cleansed to a man.  Alucard and I got out just in time.  We went back to Philly.  To mom."

"Mom's underboss closed down Race Street.  I've heard rumors that he knew about the takedown or instigated it, but such things are as dangerous to think about as to speak.  I know mom liked Patangeli... but fuck, she liked Louis Mezzo and look what she did." 

She shrugged torn between her increasing anger and sorrow.

"Needless to say... no one was going to welcome us, so Alucard and I came in as quiet as we could.  Kept Charlie and Oscar with us for extra eyes and Alucard took me to where she was hiding."

She dared to look at his blue eyes again, for just a moment, and then she continued.

"I took care of her, just the way she showed me with Salvatore.  I said the prayers.  I washed her, dressed her, and fixed her hair and such just the way she likes." 

She drew a shuddering breath, her eyes glistening.  "They took her rings..."

She sobbed and covered her mouth to stop it from going further.

"But... I'll get them back."  She trembled with rage, the words a whispered snarl.  "I'll find them, Dad.  I promise will."

Aurora, if she looked up, would have seen Gavin's Adam's apple twitch and his teeth clench as Aurora talked about Bella's body being moved- like it was an object. He pushed those thoughts out of his mind- for now.

"Well, you can't worry about what Wild Card wants right now. Be a good friend to him- but you need to take care of yourself."

Gavin frowned, unable to decide whether he was impressed or annoyed that Aurora had apparently thrown herself at Alucard and he'd turned her down. Impressed, in the end. Gavin listened to the wars of the country, Detroit, Philadelphia, and dimissed it immediately. His country- his world- was down to a handful of people.

"I wish I had been there to help you with your mother."

He closed his eyes for a moment, waging a war within himself.

On the one hand, Bella's rings were symbols. Symbols of her power, wealth, experience- and mostly of her love for Gavin. 

On the other hand, fuck the rings. Gavin had no intention of losing his daughter over a piece of jewelry.

"No. You won't. We will. But later-  in a month or two- when the heat has died down. If you got hurt chasing after a couple rocks, your mother would never forgive me. They're just things... but I know they're important things. We'll get them together."

He sighed after a long pause.

"Unless you think that it would help you feel better?"

“I don’t know.”  She admitted about the rings before continuing with her story.

“I made all the arrangements.  She’s been laid to rest in an unmarked grave, for now.  A few months from now a stone will be delivered.  I didn’t want to risk her enemies disturbing her rest so… it’s got to be that way for now.”  She said it as much for herself as him.

“The place is pretty.  Under a willow.  Near a river.  I thought you’d both like that.”  She shifted in her seat.  This was the worst thing she ever thought she’d have to tell him.  And she hated ever second of the conversation.

“After that we went back to Hollowpoint.  I wanted to get a few things, namely the things Billy left me.  The letters though, they were written in his hand and … I didn’t want to leave them so I went back.  The cops had been there.  Hauled off the bodies.  The place was just as you’d expect though. It didn’t feel like home anymore and… I found Uncle Will.”

She paused knowing he’d likely feel as bad about that as she did.

“I think he had his wits about him when he went down… looked like he took a few with him.  Seems the cops didn’t find the door to the basement or maybe they just didn’t care to look too close at the whole shit show.”

She shook her head, knowing damn well the cops were already in the pocket of the next Godfather long before they arrived.  They had no interest in solving the mystery of what happened at Hollowpoint.

“Neil was there too.”  She said glancing towards the window.  “He’s outside.  Him, Charlie, and Oscar all work for me now.  The lot of them wouldn’t have taken no for an answer… especially now that they know about the baby.”

The barest hint of a smile tugged on the corner of her lips.

“We were going to leave town in the morning.  Before we could really get around a small time gang hit showed up – I guess they were either there to look for something to make a buck off of or maybe they were there because of us… but we got pinned down.  It looked pretty bad until Don Video and Don Beko showed up.  Apparently mom had some holdings in Vegas and they wanted to pop by Hollowpoint get the deeds before Philly’s Dons did.  Well, long story short they and their guys pulled our bacon out of the fire and smuggled us out of the city on a private flight to Vegas.”

She shook her head.

“I was pissed.  Maybe I should have taken more time to think about it but Beko offered me and Alucard protection, said we could make a fresh start out in Vegas where the Byrne family was still respected … and it wasn’t too far from LA where I hear Katherine Pryde is… so, I agreed.  I sent Neil to tell Katherine where she could find me and that we needed to talk.  I figured you’d like that?”  She arched an eyebrow hoping her father agreed that her half-sister should be told he was alive.

“And I’ve been in Vegas ever since.  Odd jobs mostly.  Nothing dangerous.  The sort of stuff Mom had me doing.  Mostly I’m bored, and angry, and sad and lonely and listening to the endless list of names of people I know who are all turning up dead.”

She sighed.  That was it.  It brought her dad up to speed.

“And I just… keep going through the motions.  I want to tell you I know what the future looks like, or how I’ll be a year from now but I have a hard time getting out of bed some days.  I just, can’t imagine giving up.  You… Will… I know how it would affect you if I just disappeared but some days I wish I could.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks.

“I think about how hateful I was to mom sometimes and  I loathe myself.  I think about how I shouldn’t have said a word when you wanted to go to her… because, I would have given anything to have been with Billy and I can’t bear the thought that you wake up feeling like I do.”

She doubled over then.

“And I can’t sleep… I can’t close my eyes without hearing Will and the gunfire and… I should have stayed.  I keep thinking that maybe if we’d stayed together maybe we all could have gotten out.”  She shakes her head ‘no’ realizing on some level this painful musing just isn’t true and yet the painful thoughts of what if couldn’t be stopped.

“How can it all end this way?”  she asked him.  “How do we … I just…”  She looked up at the ceiling.

“I’m so… tired.”  She admitted.  “I could sleep a week but I’m scared to dream.  I’m scared of seeing him.. her… Giovanni… Tegs… Rebecca… Uncle Will...” The names came across her lips one after another, so many that she hadn’t even bothered to take count.  Dozens of dead in less than a month, almost every person she knew … gone as if the hand of God had come crashing down on the earth to smite them into dust.  The world had shattered and Aurora scarsely knew how to fathom it all.

“Billy’s death gutted me… but … Dad… I… everyone!”  She held her head between her hands.  “How are you still here?”  She asked him, scared of his reply.  “How can you bear it all?  All these years – so many…?”

A willow. He'd find it- sooner than Aurora would think. And- Gavin's train of thought was derailed as he heard about Will. Of course he took a few with him...

He sighed, without really recognizing that he was doing so. It was one of the only things those who suffered through grief had in common: waves of emotion, accompanied by sighing.

"I need to talk to Katherine. Sooner, rather than later. Not now. But... I owe her something. Not everything, like it is with you and Will, but something."

Gavin blinked, looking at the bottle and then looking away from it. Aurora had seen a lot of death... but Gavin had been walking with death his whole life. 

"Going through the motions is better than stopping altogether. Eventually, you'll only partially have to go through the motions. And then, one day... you'll feel normal again. Of course, then you'll feel guilty as shit for feeling normal, but you eventually..."

He shrugged, listening but leaning forward. His eyes gleamed with life and focus.

"You're carrying too much weight right now, Aurora. Your mother did the same thing. And about you and your mother..."

A ghost of a smirk twitched on Gavin's mouth.

"Well, you were both very talented at getting under each other's skin. But you were never hateful to her, any more than she was to you. Let that go- now. That's an order from the head of your family. Shit, if Bella could hear that, she'd wallop you... very carefully making sure to avoid your stomach... and you know it. It's natural when someone dies to feel the guilt, wishing you had done things differently. I've felt that a lot- I'm feeling that a lot. But it's not healthy. Let that go."

He leaned forward and rested his hand on Aurora's knee.

"If you don't want to get out of bed, stay in bed. But never two days in a row. Don't let it become a habit."

Gavin blinked. She'd thrown a lot at him, and he scrambled to remember and respond to it.

"You and Will did the right thing, stopping me. Dying is easy- living is harder. I don't regret my choice, and I've made my peace with it. Unfortunately, I've had a lot of practice in my life making my peace with shitty situations. This is the worst one, but..."

He shook his head.

"If we'd all stayed, all of us would be dead right now. All five of us. So don't ask 'How can it all end this way?' Nothing ended. Well, Race Street- but fuck it. It had a good run. Nothing ended for us. I miss your mother every day, but her story isn't over either. As long as you..."

He paused indicating her stomach as well.

"... Will, me... 4 out of the 5 of us made it out. Shit, you can even count Tara. And at the rate Will was chasing skirts, we're going to have another handful of Byrnes by the end of the year..."

"No, the Byrnes aren't done, Aurora. As long as any one of us lives, nothing is ending. You're tired. I know. So am I. Every night I fall asleep, and half of me hopes that I dream, just so I can see us all together again. The other half dreads those dreams, because I know I need to wake up."

"How are you still here?”  She asked him, scared of his reply.  “How can you bear it all?  All these years – so many…?”

Gavin opened his mouth to answer her and promptly closed it. He sat there thoughtfully for a long time. So long that Aurora thought he might have fallen asleep.

"I came close to killing myself when I was fourteen. My father had been especially brutal. Kicked the shit out of me. Usually, that was enough to slow him down, but that night he went after my mother. He even knocked Tara down, and he almost never went for her. And I... couldn't stop it. What was the point of my life, if I couldn't protect the people I loved? I didn't do it... because I had a responsibility to my mother and my sister."

"And even back then, as a mostly feral teenager... more a weapon, than a person... I had hope. I thought that someday, maybe I'd be free of my father. Build a life for myself. Be free."

He sighed.

"You bear it because it's your duty- you live for more than just yourself. And you bear it because regardless of what the past looks like, the future is unwritten. That fourteen year old would spend two more years in hell before he got out. He'd spent another decade killing and fucking and drinking and killing. And then one day he figured it was hot and he wanted an ice cream."

Gavin shook his head, still not believing it had all been real.

"I got lucky. But even if I'd never met your mother, amidst all the pain I found my moments of joy, laughter, pleasure, friendship... you bear it because what else can you do? The future is unwritten. And duty. Those things aren't much. But they always got me through the dark places until I felt normal again- or as close to it as I could.

He reached out and patted Aurora's knee.

"Do you trust me? You are going to be okay. Not perfect. Maybe not even good for a long while. But okay. Guaranteed. And in the grand scheme of things, that's still pretty damn good." 

Where the heart of the Byrne family felt as though it had been dead and buried, Aurora could see the wisened mind of her Father guiding it for some time yet to come.  

"I was a fool to fear I'd find you here waiting to die."  She scrubbed her tears.  "You're stronger than any ten men.  The most amazing person I know."

She gave him a smile, the first to really touch her eyes in a while.  She found it incredible that a short talk with her father had done more for her heart than anything else she'd tried to find some peace with since her mother's passing.

"I should have come sooner."  She admitted quietly.  "I judged you for having Aunt Tara make that cabin and what was the first thing I did after losing mom ... I just ... fly the coup."

She shook her head.

"Being alone wasn't making things better.  It allowed me to tell myself some stupid shit and make a few mistakes which, thankfully, I don't see having any far-reaching repercussions... aside from maybe having to chase off an overly amorous Italian."

The thought of Silvio made her actually chuckle!

"That felt good."  She admitted and so she ran with it.  "His is Silvio Violante and I met him handcuffed to a fire escape, apparantly having cheated some gangsters at cards."

She smirked.

"A lover... definitely not a fighter.  I told him I owe him a real date the next time we see each other... assuming some jealous boyfriend or husband doesn't run him out of town or kill him before we meet up next, I might actually take the time to get to know him."

She shrugged.

"Vegas isn't so bad though.  I kinda like the place though... do you KNOW what business mom owned in Las Vegas?"  She arched an eyebrow.

Gavin smiled at the compliments- but moreso at the fact that his daughter seemed to genuinely smile.

"You should have come sooner. But I understand the lure of amorous Italians."

He stood, picking up his glass and depositing it for the sink.

"Iceland- the cabin. I was never going to be there for weeks, Aurora. If I found you dead in Sicily, I would stay there for a few days. Drink. Process. And then I'd force myself back into the world, since Bella and Will would need me."

Gavin stretched, blinking.

"If this guy really cheated at cards, lose him fast. But I got accused of cheating myself plenty of times. People hate a winner."

He grimaced, then decided to bear through it. Sometimes stories were the best way to navigate grief.

"Back when I was first chasing your mother, competing with Uncle Will for her affections... well, we had a poker game. Will had said something about Kings- I forget the exact dialogue, but either your mother or Will compared him to a king. I made a comment that it was better to be an Ace than a King. Half an hour later, Will and I went all in against each other. He had pocket kings... and I had pocket aces. Couldn't have planned it better than a movie script. To anyone watching, I would have had to have cheated."

Gavin grinned- a real, genuine one at the memory- although it started to fade quickly.

"That was one of the first times I wondered if the universe had grander plans for your mother and I..."

He moved to Aurora and rested a hand on her shoulder.

"Go have fun with your Italian. Have fun in Vegas. Find whatever you can to slowly begin to enjoy life again. Will and I will be doing the same... although we might be moving soon. He's not exactly an outdoorsman."

With a final pat of her shoulder, Gavin walked towards his bedroom.

"And of course I knew what business your mother owned in Vegas. I used to work there on the weekends."

He took a few steps, long enough to imagine Aurora blinking confusedly, before he paused at his doorway.

"Kidding. Kidding. Goodnight."

Gavin chuckled to himself as he closed the door, but as he moved to unbutton his shirt he looked at the empty bed and froze. The joy that had leaped in his heart at seeing his daughter was still there, but the signs of mirth bled away from his face and left him staring at a bed he'd shared with Bella many times. He and Will had been here for weeks, but it was still untouched from the last time Bella had quickly made it. Blinking, he sighed and gently climbed to lie on top of the comforter, unwilling to disturb the sheets the way he'd promised himself he would that morning.