Bella stood up and pulled her daughter into her arms and held her tightly.  Aurora returned the embrace.  For a long moment, they stood there, holding one another.  Bella whispered into her hair near her ear, "Aurora Byrne, you're going to be a great mother."

She pulled back, putting her palms on either side of her face, and looked Aurora in her tear-filled eyes and then Aurora watched the blood drain from her mother's face as she reached out and took hold of the pearl-handled m1911 from her daughter's shoulder holster just under her jacket and pushed Aurora to the ground with a strength that only a mother could muster when the lives of her children were in danger.

Aurora gasped.

In a smooth motion the patio table went down as a shield and she was dropping behind it.  Will fell in close with them, huddling tight against his sister's side.

"Order 15?!?"  Aurora called out to her mother after having popped to take a shot, realizing to her horror, it was their own men.  Whatever this was, the first wave, it was their own people!

Bella gritted her teeth, trying to hide the wound in her leg from the children, realizing how bad the situation really was. 

"No."  She looked to the left side of the patio.  Men were coming around from the front of the house.  

"Well..."  Aurora popped up to shoot again, the gunfire ricocheting off the metal table.

"Did you..."  Her lip quivered.  "Did you clean it ... or shoot it?  Or anything?"

Billy shook his head, "No."

Bella looked at her kids and grabbed Will's head and kissed his brow and lowered her gun to just once put her hand on her daughter's womb.  Aurora looked at the offending hand with horror.

"Mom!?!" 

"Order Zero." she said in the same way someone said, 'I love you.'

"We're not leaving you!"  Will protested.

Her hand, trembling, reached for the gun.  Her breath quickened and the sound of her heart beginning to race filled her ears, but Aurora couldn't hear it.  She could only hear the ghosts of that terrible day.

Aurora stiffened her lip, seeming to have understood her mother's need.  The need to protect her children.  And now, Aurora had to protect her own. 

"I love you."  Aurora said flatly.

"RORA NO!"

"I love you, too."  Bella said.  "I'll cover you.  GO!!!"

"Mama." she sobbed pulling the gun to her heart, tears that had been in her eyes for joy now rolled out of them in agony.  

Aurora grabbed Will's arm violently and pulled him along with her for all she was worth  

"RORA!"  Will cried out.  "RORA NO, PLEASE MOM!!!!"

Behind her, she could hear gunfire but she didn't dare look back.

"She took it from me."  She said, finally speaking to Billy.  "Before we abandoned her."

She winced in pain.  She put a hand to her head, only then realizing then what was happening. 

"You should get a doctor now..."  she said laying back, the gun sliding down to her stomach as she fell back onto her pillow.

Billy jumped up out of his seat and reached for Aurora at first, then he turned and flung the door open.

"Doctor! I need a doctor!"

He rushed out of the room then and flew down the hall in the direction he had come toward the nurses station. His head stayed on a swivel as he ran through the hall.

"DAD!"

He could hear his own heart pounding in his ears as he yelled. He could feel his eyes burning as the world started to blur.

"You old fucking son of a bitch, where did you go?! HELP DAMMIT!"

Eyes all around the room started to stare at him, and none of them mattered. He was looking for a cold blue steely gaze, that was the only one he needed right now.

Gavin was at peace. Aurora was okay. The baby was okay. Billy was alive. Everything was fine. Every was...

He dropped off to sleep leaning back in the chair with his arms folded. He'd napped a lot, recently. The nightmares, as their name suggested, came at night. But this time, he heard a voice crying in panic and fear. Will? No, it-

His eyes snapped open, and he was in motion before his eyes could register anything as he moved towards Aurora's room. He ran, gripping the doorframe as he practically swung around the corner. His ears registed Billy saying 'old fucking son of a bitch', and somewhere in the back of his mind he registered annoyance if the situation wasn't something so serious. His eyes, however, registered the gun... it must have come from Bella... and he glared at Billy. 

He stuck his head back in the hall, barking orders.

"Doctor! NOW!"

One of them appeared almost immediately. Walking in, he swept past Billy and picked up the gun, shaking his head. He didn't point the gun at Billy- rather he held it up in front of him for a moment as he started speaking, enunciating every syllable. Halfway through, he slipped the gun in his pocket as the doctors swarmed around Aurora.

"She is in a delicate condition. This happened earlier, and she was fine.  If you have any more surprises for her, let's wait until the morning. For now, just be happy together. In fact, tell me while she's out... any other bombshells for her that I should be aware of?"

Billy slumped his shoulders.

"I didn't even know that was gonna be a bombshell! I thought she just lost it and she would be happy to have it back."

Billy made his way into the corner of the room and relinquished the two knives he had. Lowering his voice, he explained.

"This one I picked up off the guys that kidnapped her. I know it's hers and she really likes it. This other oen is the one she carved my headstone with. I took that too, so I have that in my bag in the car if you want to take that away too."

He scratched his head trying to think.

"Um, Integra is alive, and she's pregnant. I brought my cousin with me to the States, and my Nonna died. I don't know if she is really going to care about any of that stuff, but there you have it."

Then Billy lowered his gaze at Gavin.

"There's one other thing I want you to know. My name is Benedict, my real name. I don't like it, but if you're gonna be a grandpa I feel like you should know everything there is to know about me. Sorry I don't have any cigars on me for us to celebrate with, but I think we can put that to the side for now huh? We can get her through this and then maybe I'll just, I don't know take a vow of silence for a while."

"This is the gun that Bella was shooting when she died. The knives... I know the first one, definitely. You can leave them at her place."

Is everyone fucking pregnant in this city? Gavin sighed and rested a hand on Billy's shoulder.

"Look... there's obviously a shitload going on right now, Eggs Benedict... Get all the secrets out now while she's still in the hospital; it's safer. Make sure there's nothing that you're holding back that could shock her. You're going to be a husband, and you're going to be a father: that means taking care of your family. You're going to be good at that, I think, or you'd never have stuck around with her. But until the sun comes up tomorrow, just be happy. If it's anything like last time, the docs will have her up and back in normal in like... an hour, tops. Happy stuff tonight. ask about Brigitte. Anymore bombshells, that's for tomorrow morning. And everything that could shock her comes out now, while she's still in the hospital."

Gavin nodded at Billy and moved toward Aurora's bedside, raising her hand and kissing it. He looked down at the chair for a moment... but that chair was Billy's now. With a sigh, he stalked out of the room. But he'd wait outside the hall- just in case.

Billy looked around the room and felt terrible being the biggest guy in the room. He was standing, watching as the doctor and the nurses swarmed around the room and around Aurora. He stayed in the corner doing his absolute best to stay out of the way. It was not easy being the size that he was, and when one of the nurses noticed him, she shook her head and pointed to the door. Billy obeyed and waited in the hallway until the doctor came to get him.

"Son. You seem to care a lot about this young woman, so I need to tell you one thing. Visiting hours are over, you can come back tomorrow."

Billy shook his head.

"All due respect doc, but that's my family in there. It's no visit if it's where I'm meant to be."

The doctor was clearly having none of it. He sighed and pinned his clip board to his side.

"Sir, you need to listen to me. I will have security escort you out of the building if you don't..."

Billy cut the man off by sneering and standing up to his full height before the doctor.

"Finish that sentence, or threaten me again. Go ahead."

The doctor made an attempt to look around Billy toward the nurse station. Billy puffed out his chest so that he took up the man's entire field of vision.

"Now, you can explain what's wrong, or you can get out of my way."

The doctor sighed and shook his head.

"Induce too much stress and you can quite literally kill your wife Mr Byrne. It's that plain."

Billy had a feeling that the doctor was dumbing it down for him. He always was the big dumb one.

"Mastrosimone, and fine, no more stress. She ok to go, or sleeping, or what?"

The doctor scoffed.

"Oh, didn't take your name then? Well, be that as it may, she's not going anywhere tonight, we're going to keep an eye on her until tomorrow at the least. I don't know when she will wake up sir, so I hope you are comfortable sleeping in a chair."

He stomped off down the hallway then and Billy stared at the man's back. The only doctors Billy ever really liked so far in his life were the lady ones. They were nice at least.

He stepped inside then and almost pulled the chair right up next to the bed. Then he thought about what the doctor had said. He slipped off his shoes. He undid his tie next, and slipped off his jacket, and shoulder holster before arranging them on the back of the chair so that the holster couldn't be seen, but was within reach of the bed. The he turned and slowly, gently, picked up Aurora careful not to wake her, or to pull out the tube attached to her. He slipped himself onto the bed and lay her down next to him. It was a tight squeeze, but as soon as he settled her into the crook of his shoulder it felt perfect. It was never going to matter how big or small a space was, if they could lay like that, it would be perfect.

"If you wake up. You wake me up so we can talk."

With that, he closed his eyes and stroked her hair, letting himself lay there in the darkness just holding her.

Hourly the nurses came to check her blood pressure and Billy woke every time the dim lamp clicked on.  Aurora, however, did not.  She didn't stir at all.  They'd put medication in her IV of some kind, the nurses said it would help her sleep.  And sleep she did.  A few times Billy stirred to find her whimpering in her sleep and only after a bit of time stroking her hair and holding her to him did she finally fall back into the abyssal depths.

As the first rays of sun came into the room and slipped across their bodies, her voice woke Billy, "Am I dreaming?"  She whispered.

"If I am, I don't want to wake up this time.  Can this just be real for a little while longer?"  She wasn't joking, her voice was weary and sad, as if she'd done this a thousand times and only to have him slip away back into the ephemera.  

"What part of this do you think is a dream? I am here with you, your dad is out in the hallway. Neither of us slept well at all, and I don't think the hospital is going to have very good breakfast food. All of that is real. You're the dream Roar, and before I wake up for real, I gotta ask you something. You dad said something to me last night, and so, I just gotta ask you."

He took a breath, a shallow one so as not to stir her too much. He reached with his free hand to lift her chin and he kissed her. Holding his head against hers so that the only thing either of them could see in the entire world were each other's eyes. He asked quietly then, for only her to hear.

"Will you marry me?"

She kept her eyes closed, savoring the feel of him.  

"I must have walked five... maybe ten miles."  She spoke softly, it was not a yes, and so Billy might feel some sense of dread and yet her tone was gentle as if she were caressing him verbally - comforting and reassuring him to wait and hear her out.

"There was this long road and fields on either side of me.  My feet hurt.  I was covered in blood and exhausted.  The sky seemed so big and dark I thought I'd be pulled away from the earth and swallowed up."  she closed her eyes. 

"I wanted to be.  I wanted to die."

She wet her lips.

"And there was this huge peel of thunder and then... you were there with me.  As sure as you are now, you just walked up beside me with a 'Hey Kiddo' and we talked, while I walked.  I just, trusted you would take me where I needed to go, even though I knew any moment my cousins might realize what I'd done and come to find me."

She opened her eyes.

"What can't God do, Roar?"  She repeated his words to him.  "Make one oath of love into another?  Give a baby a name?  Make a shamed woman, an honored widow?  You don't have to do this alone, Roar.  I'm still with you..."  

She swallowed the lump in her throat and snuggled close to him.

"It started pouring rain and you pointed out a church, the lights were still on at this unGodly hour and I stumbled my way there to find a priest, Nicola, up late... he said God woke him and told him to turn on the lights."  she chortled.  "He helped me get cleaned up.  He gave me food and water and a place to sleep - but I did not rest."

She sighed.

"I begged him.  I offered him every penny I had from every legacy I had left to me for just one lie.  His name on a bit of paper.  To tell the world we'd married in secret that night when we walked off from drinking with your cousins.  I swore to him no one would know.  No one knew for sure what I did with you that night, it might have been that we said vows before him in secret... he just had to lie and I'd build him a church that would make other priests green with envy.  Not for me, but for our baby, I needed your name."

She held tight to him.

"He refused me.  I must have found the only incorruptible priest in Sicily... I hated him in that moment but he didn't take it personally.  He urged me instead to talk to God.  I told him I didn't believe in God... especially now, but I lied.  Billy I did talk to God and I've been talking to him and you every single day since you left me."

She looked up to him.

"There were moments where I lost more than you... I lost sight of who I was and I scrambled to take hold of anything that would get me through.  And every time I started to find security again and think the storm was over, there was another to sweep me out to sea again.  And I just ..."

She sighed.

"I sought comforts where I could but nothing gave me peace."  she whispered "...and one night I found myself in your bed in Detroit as low as I'd ever been.  I was sure the only way forward was to rip you out of my life and turn away from everything that made me think of you... but Billy, the whole damn world makes me think of you.  I couldn't dance, I could eat breakfast, I could play games without feeling a sense of betraying you.  I kissed men, but none of them made me feel anything but a yearning for you.  I ... I ..."

The admission was hard on her.  He began to shush her, petting her hair.

"No ... please... I'm okay.  I really am.  If I have a hard time breathing, if my head hurts, I'll tell you... but I'm okay.  So long as you are here at my side, as long as you don't disappear."

"I'm not going anywhere."  Billy's voice rumbled in his chest so she could feel it through her whole body.

She drew a breath.

"One night, on a beach in LA, I began to see the pieces coming together.  The truth of what was killing me.  It wasn't the baby, or the loss of you, or my mom, or all my friends, or my home, or my crew... or any of the things I was trying too hard to cope with and fix.  It was my fear.  it was the way I had forgotten who I was, and the struggle I was having trying to forge a whole new identity and life, instead of mourning through it all and holding fast to the woman I always knew myself to be."

She exhaled heavily.

"And it was freeing, you know?  To realize I had that power all along... I could hurt, and that was okay.  I would heal.  My heart would scar and you'd be with me always.  And our baby, you'd be with them always.  Pain isn't a reminder of the hurt... it's also a reminder of the joy.  I didn't want to let you go.  I didn't want to rush into a marriage with another man to avoid the shit people would say... and that was okay too.  Just like in Sicily, Nonna was wrong.  I didn't have to be someone else.  I wasn't wrong.  WE weren't wrong."

She smiled up at him.

"I'll never regret a moment spent loving you.  And when I accepted that... the clouds parted and the world was right again.  I might not have married you, but I knew who I was in my heart, who I had been to you and who I would tell our child that we both were to each other."

She nodded, her smile getting bigger.

"The rest of the world doesn't know it yet, Billy Mastrosimone, but I became your wife that day in Chicago when you made me see the whole world a new way.  So yes, Billy, if after all this... you still want me... if you'll have me, I will gladly marry you before our God and I pray to Him in thanks every single day... because, you being here, is the answer to all my prayers but you being here to find me so sure of who I am, and who I want to be in spite of all that's happened ... Billy, that is a miracle."

He stared at her and so she repeated it one more time.

"Yes. Billy.  I said, yes."

Billy nodded once and dropped his head back onto the pillow.

"Good."

He sighed heavily as a tear rolled down the side of his face nestling in his ear.

"Cause I thought I really fucked up."

He squeezed her slightly then before laying there in the quiet morning for a few moments as he mulled over what she had said.

"It makes me sad that you kissed other men. I won't lie to you about that, but I don't think my sadness compares to yours so I don't really have any right to complain. If I didn't tell you though, it wouldn't feel right."

He kissed the top of her head.

"All I want right now is for you to get better so we can go home. That's all that matters now. You dad has your stuff, and Integra and Addie are coming to Vegas by car, so there's nothing in the world to worry about. You just relax and I will hold you and we will be happy again, together."

He nodded.

"Maybe we can even visit the orphans today if the doctors let you out of the cage. I wouldn't if I was them. Letting a lioness loose in the city? Bad idea."

He smiled and winked at her.

"So, Mrs. Byrne, or Mrs. Mastrosimone? I don't want you to feel like you gave up a legacy, especially the one your parent's built."

"Oh... Mastrosimone.  Definitely.  I don't lose being a Byrne by marrying you."  She kissed his cheek.  "You gain us.  All of us.  Dad, Will, Aunt Tara... as part of the Mastrosimone Family.  And we gain you."

She drew another deep breath, "My mother told me, after I found out that she was pregnant... 'Love doesn't divide, Aurora, it multiplies and when someone new adds to the family, no one loses.  We all gain something.'  God knows we need a reason to celebrate these days and between you, our little walnut, and Brigitte... well, maybe we can begin to heal up some proper scars over our hearts."

She forced a smile.

Billy furrowed his brow.

"Please tell me that's not what you decided to call him."

Then he looked down at her.

"Um. About Brigitte. When you were at my apartment, did you happen to go through my things at all? Specifically the nightstand on your side of the bed. I had some papers in there."

He let the question hang there with every bit of hope that was on his mind also in his tone of voice.

"No, I didn't go through your things... I just took out a shirt, slept in it.  And I slept in your bed ... oh and I wrote a strange goodbye letter to you I should really go back and destroy that."  she shakes her head.  "I did pull it out of the draw you mentioned but no... I didn't go through it.  What does that have to do with Brigitte?"

She sat up.

"Were you..."  she smiled.  "Were you planning on adopting her?" 

Aurora laughed.

"Billy... I knew you were thinking it too."  she said with no small amount of joy in her voice.  "Last week, when I came back from LA, I hired a lawyer and started the process to adopt her.  If we get married, we can add your name to the paperwork.  I'm sure the lawyer can make it happen - surely it's a small amendment."

Her amber eyes sparkled, "She called me Mama yesterday.  Oh Billy, you should SEE how delighted she is with the idea of having a real family again!  We went looking for houses together, she loves ice cream and she's smart... so damn smart, fast and tough!  I can't wait for her to see you.  She's gonna be so happy!"

Billy nodded and let a tear escape him.

"I hope so. I really do. But I abandoned her just as much as everyone else, and children? Well, children in my experience are not as quick to forgive."

He knew she would not forgive him if she thought he had left her on purpose. He would never be able to make that up to her. She would bever trust him not to do it again one day. Her own parents had already done it once, there was no way he could claim that he never would again, and have her believe him.

"I don't know what I will do if she doesn't forgive me Roar. Just like I didn't know what I would do if you didn't. I was never honestly scared about you though. I knew you would understand. Brigitte though? That would shatter me."

He hugged his Roar then.

"Do you really think she will be happy?"

She nodded.

"She knows you didn't abandon her - your name is on the door of the place that has kept her safe.  The place where she's found love and safety and I know she misses you because she talks about you incessantly."

Aurora kissed Billy again.

"Get my father will you?  I want to tell him I said yes and I want to tell him we're getting married before the end of the month... small ceremony, just family.  Will and Tara will need to come to town."

"Then, I want out of this prison and into a nice fresh set of clothing and ... if you're willing, after a brief visit with the kids, I intend to lock ourselves away from the world for no less than twelve hours so we can reacquaint ourselves properly.  A minute less and I'll never forgive you.  Also, you're making me pancakes.  I'm craving them horribly and I can't go a minute longer without them.  The craving is THAT BAD.  How's that sound for a plan?"

Billy's stomach growled at the mention of food.

"I think that speaks for itself."

He smiled and kissed her again before sliding out of the bed and making his way to the hallway to look for Gavin. After finding the man, he tapped him gently on the shoulder.

"Hey. Wake up grandpa. Roar wants to see you. Don't worry, everything is fine, she has good news and then hopefully we can get a doctor to look her over. She's getting antsy and wants to get out of here."

Gavin cracked an eye open and glanced at his son in law. Well, at least there hadn't been more incidents.

"'morning, Eggs."

With a crack of his neck, he popped up and headed off to find Aurora, smiling at her as he entered the room and trying desperately to ignore how much she looked like Bella when she'd gone to the doctor during her pregnancy with Will.

"'morning, Squirt. What's up?"

Aurora smiled and held out her hands towards her father.  Noticing Billy did not enter she beckoned him, "Billy?"  

When he looked in the room she waved him into the room.

"Dad... Billy and I want you to be the first to know,"  she gave a smile to her dad.  "Billy's asked me to marry him.  I've said yes."

She smiled so big that the corners of her mouth were nearly pulled up to her amber eyes.

"Now, we don't want to make a big deal about this... my health being as it is and all.  But maybe we limit just our family and the closest of our friends.  That should make the guest list smaller than a dozen people and considering there are people who might still want to hurt us... I think we should consider having it somewhere most folks wouldn't expect?  Possibly not even in a church though I know that's really important to Bill or - at least I think it will be."

She shook her head, "But maybe we could do it somewhere special to us - to our family ... somewhere Aunt Tara agrees to, cause I want her to be there and I know it's hard for her to be anywhere for very long and I want her to be there.  No, I NEED her to be."

She looked to Billy and to Gavin, hoping the two of them would have some ideas on how they could make it happen so that her Aunt could be there and they could all be safe.

"Regardless, I'd like us to be married before the baby comes, ideally before Brigitte comes to be with us so that she can be adopted by you too, Billy."  She exhaled a breath she didn't realize she'd been keeping inside.  "There's... just so much to do."

Billy shrugged.

"I don't know much about your family or their hideaways. I do know that we don't need a church. I was always taught that God is everywhere. All-seeing and all-knowing. There's nowhere we could get married that He won't know."

He squeezed Aurora's hand then and looked to Gavin.

"I know you can get in touch with your sister, and if Aurora wants her to be there, you just tell me where to go."

Gavin glanced at Billy with an arched eyebrow.

"Well. It's about time."

Still, he couldn't keep the grin from his face. Aurora was happy, so he was happy. 

"Tara will go wherever you want her to go. She just won't be able to stay more than a day, as you know. Take it slow, and it'll all happen fine. As for where you want to go... that's a decision for the two of you. Just don't limit yourself. You don't have to pick a place that's already special- wherever you pick, you're going to make it special. So don't overthink things."

He looked at Aurora with a smirk. How often had he said those words to the female members of his family? At the speed of thought, his smile faltered somewhat before it steadied. 

Planning her daughter's wedding, even a small one... Bella would have loved this. 

"Aurora, how are you feeling? Anything close to another episode?"