Aurora walked into Calico Development Corporation holding her daughter's hand.  They passed through the first floor and the lobby which was there, greeting the administrative staff, taking the elevator to the fifth floor where the office of CEO/Don Billy-Mastrosimone was located.

Brigitte Mastrosimone was dressed in an adorable sundress, her short blonde curls flouncing freely with every excitable step the five-year-old took.  Under her arm, she carried a pad of paper, a classroom worksheet, and a small box of crayons.  Her mother, on the other hand, was dressed in jeans, a tank top, and a leather jacket which hid her M1911s from sight.  

"Mrs. Mastrosimone."  Rebecca, Billy's secretary looked up from her paperwork, surprised to see the boss' wife and daughter here so early.

"Is he with someone, Rebecca?"

"No."  She said hitting an intercom button, "Sir your wife and daughter are here."  She then motioned Aurora toward the door and Aurora walked through it without hesitation.

"Monsieur Billy!"  Brigitte squealed and ran to Billy, expecting to be picked up the moment she reached him.

Aurora pulled the door closed behind her.

"Sorry to bother you, but something's come up."

"I get to spend the day with you!"  The little girl smiled.

Billy immediately jumped from his chair the second the intercom voice had told him about his wife and daughter. He recognized Rebecca's voice obviously, but the robotic tone always distorted it just enough that it was easier to think about as 'the intercom voice'.

Upon picking his daughter up, he looked to his wife.

"Well, I am certain Maman has a good reason for us to spend the day together. I don't know if it will be a good enough reason though, so let's listen to what she has to say shall we?"

He placed his daughter on one hip as she dropped her things onto his desk and the two of them looked toward Aurora. One hoping for some kind of an explanation, and the other obeying her father's wishes as she always did.

"Everything alright?"

"Well, I ... put off calling her teacher until this morning.  I honestly figured it was something simple, you know, maybe she wanted cookies for a bake sale or something?  Help with a class fundraiser... I didn't realize it was urgent." 

Aurora sighed.

"Brigitte was selected as one of five children who will be reading and displaying their work at a class assembly ... tonight." 

She allowed Billy his moment of praising his daughter for having been selected before she went on to explain, "The problem is that she hasn't done her work yet.  You see, the program is about careers.  There will be local policemen, firemen, doctors, and politicians there to talk with the children and their parents about all the exciting futures the children will have ... and Brigitte and the four other children are going to talk about the day they spent with their parents at their jobs."

She paused letting it sink in.

"So.  She has to spend the day with you today... so she can be ready to talk about what she learned tonight." 

Billy went slack-jawed and looked around the room, specifically at one set of papers he was going to have to put away.

"Uh, what about you? You're a mom, that's a full time job, why not you? I'm sort of um, I mean, I could probably pass this stuff off to Addie, but well, it's. You know how things are."

He could feel Brigitte squirming, so he slowly lowered her to the ground, kissing her along the way. He made his way across the room to his wife as he shook his head.

"No, it's fine, forget I said anything. I'll figure it out."

he kissed her then and looked to the pad and the crayons now strewn across his desk.

"Alright kiddo, you and me today. Do you know what it is that Monsieur Billy does?"

Aurora breathed a sigh of relief.  She didn't want to tell Billy that her day didn't just involve picking up groceries and a few loads of laundry but also busting Pistashio Joe's face for failing to pay up on his rather extensive gambling tab and while Agent Robert Smith of the FBN might find that highly enlightening at the assembly tonight, something told her that the school officials might not find it so entertaining.

"Mama says you build things and you make people happy."

She kissed her husband.  

"Oh... one more thing, were you serious about being okay with me hiring an extra set of hands to help around the house and with the kids?  I mean I know we briefly mentioned it when things were so insane and when we started discussing getting back to work ... but I didn't want to start putting out feelers until I double checked with you."

Billy shook his head.

"Can we discuss that later? I know we really need to sit down and actually discuss it, but I want to be involved in that if you don't mind."

He smiled and watched as Aurora nodded and went about her business for the day. He followed her out for a second, turning to Rebecca.

"Becks, nobody in or out for the rest of the day unless it's something not too important, or unless it's Addie. Brigitte is spending the day, so I need to keep things on the up and up if you catch my drift."

Rebecca for her part nodded and made a note before smiling. That was her code for Billy to leave her alone then. He had picked up on that at least, and so into his office he went.

"Alright Brigitte, your mom is right, I build things. Do you want to see one of the things I am building right now?"

He swept a number of papers from his desk into the drawer and left the blueprints for the parking garage on his desk.

"What do you think this is going to be for hm?"

"A fancy house?"  she said looking at the blueprints and pulling them closer to her with her chubby little fingers.  "A place people work?  Did you draw this?"  

She looked up to Billy with a wide smile, "I can help!  Mama says I am a good drawer.  You wanna see?"  

She grabbed her pad of paper and put aside the worksheet which Billy could now see plainly:

MY DAY AT WORK

Name:  вяιgιттє мαѕтяσѕιмσиє____________________________________________________________

Name of Place I Visited:  ________________________________________________________________

Who Did I Go With:_____________________________________________________________________

Job Responsibilities (What I did all Day) _____________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________
 

THINGS I DID                                                              YES                 NO

Had a Lunch Break?                                                                   ______              ______

Was I given a job to do?                                                             ______              ______

Did I work with others?                                                              ______              ______

Did I work by myself?                                                                ______              ______

Would I like to do this when I grow up?                                       ______              ______

 

DRAWING OF ME AT WORK WITH MY PARENT

 

 

Brigitte reached for her crayons and then pulled out a blue one and began drawing on her pad a square like the one on the blueprint.  "What should I build?"

Billy smiled.

"Well, this, that Pa... Monsieur Billy drew is a place to keep a lot of cars. What do you think people need? That's what I draw, and then build. So tell me..."

He lifted his daughter onto his lap and gave over the entire desk space to her.

"...what do you think people need?"

He glanced over to the worksheet that she had brought with her to see what kinds of things she needed to accomplish. Then he scoffed at the worksheet. It was a nice attempt, but it was not going to teach her a damned thing about anything. A lunch break? Really? That's what mattered in school these days? Billy shook his head and turned his attention back to Brigitte.

"Well? Got any ideas?"

Brigitte smiled at Billy, "I'll draw a home for all the kids who don't have homes like you made for the kids on the train.  Mine will have lots of bedrooms, a big kitchen, a bathroom with a toilet that works all the time, and a roof that doesn't dip down and sometimes drips water."

She smiled as she began drawing beds inside the square.

The intercom buzzed then, startling Brigitte who giggled when she heard Rebecca's voice.  "Mr. Mastrosimone, I'm sorry to bother you, but Addie is out right now and I'm not sure you're gonna want these fellas to wait when you hear what they're telling me."

In the background, Billy could hear two male voices in what sounded like a hushed, but heated argument involving whose fault it was... 

Brigitte looked at her Dad, "Are we going to do business now?!?"

Billy sighed, hard.

"Yes, it looks like we will. Rebecca, send them in please."

Billy looked to Brigitte and lowered his voice.

"Now, if I ask you a question, I want you to be honest ok? And if I don't ask you a question, you need to stay quiet, alright?"

He waited to watch as her little ringlet curls bounced and then he looked to the door as it opened. He did not remove his daughter from his lap.

"Good day to your gentlemen, have you met my pride and joy Brigitte? We were just having a discussion, you know how a father would with his daughter, and you two decided to interrupt us. So, care to tell us what was so important?"

Brothers Leo and Ed Malnetti entered the office.  Both gangsters pulled off their peaky caps at the sight of the young girl.  Ed had a nasty bruise on his cheek and a gash on his eyebrow that appeared fresh - though not particularly grievous.  Leo looked fine, though both could stand for a shower and some fresh clothing.

"Miss Mastrosimone."  they both intoned, not quite in unison, giving the little girl a polite nod.

Ed looked to Leo and the older brother sighed before speaking, "So sorry to interrupt your time with family, Boss, but we thought you'd want to know right away there was a bit of an accident that happened this morning.  You see, Ed here was driving one of our trucks down to the construction site and he dodged to miss a dog and went into the other lane."

Ed looked down.

Brigitte gasped and covered her mouth clearly worried about the dog.

"I hit another car."  Ed admitted.

"The driver was Alan Novak."  Leo admitted and he braced himself for Billy's reaction.  Novak was one of the names on everyone's lips in the HQ of late.  He was one of several inspectors for the Nevada gaming commission and so his like or dislike of Billy's operation (and those in it) could have a direct impact on the crew's future plans in a very big way.

Billy tensed the second the name was out of the other man's mouth.

"Did you say 'was'? As in past tense? As in, you hit him with a very big truck and now is no more?"

Billy looked down to his daughter and nodded.

"Also did you hurt the dog?"

He rubbed Briggitte's back to calm her then as he watched the two men.

"No!"  Both men said in unison and with a bit more force than they probably meant to.

"The dog is fine," Leo offered, "The little scamp ran off into the city.  He's probably off finding a nice lady dog girlfriend, getting married, and having puppies or something nice."

The older brother clearly was more worried about upsetting the kid than Billy.

"Novak went to the hospital,"  Ed added in.  "... but I don't think it's too serious.  If it wasn't for our logo on the truck I wouldn't have even worried he knew me from Job but... you know, it did.  And um... Novak's car is trash."  

Leo looked with sympathy at his brother who, in fairness appeared as if he wanted to melt into the floorboards.  

"My brother is normally a real good driver, Boss," Leo tried to defend his younger brother.  "Ed's just got a big heart for animals and, I know he feels really bad about this."

"Real bad," Ed added.  "I know I messed up.  I'll pay for his car to get fixed up, ya know?  I... I didn't mean no harm to no one, Don Mastrosimone, it was an accident."

Billy lifted Brigitte up onto the desk.

"Alright kiddo, this is business now. The truck needs to be repaired, but that's what insurance is for, so we don't need to worry about that. Same goes for mister Novak's car. He will get a new one and my insurance rates will go up. The real question is, what do we do with these two guys? I mean, they made a mistake right? But are they real sorry about it? Do we need to make sure they are sorry, or do you believe em? You're the boss right now kiddo, whatever you decide goes."

Billy stood behind his daughter, towering over her he crossed his arms in front of himself and stared down the two men in his office.

Brigitte furrowed her brow and narrowed her eyes.

"I think this guy,"  She pointed at Leo "... really likes this guy," she pointed to Ed.

"He must like him a whole lot to say all those nice things to you, even though friend messed up and didn't mean it, you could be real mad at him.  He didn't even need to come talk to you and if you were mean, he coulda got in trouble too!  Just like that time Tony had to stand on the wall with Dan and Scott at recess even though he didn't throw nothin' - the teacher just thought he did cause he was with them, but Tony said he ain't no stoolie and so he just did his time." 

Brigitte giggled. 

"Mama says we need to take care of folks we love and so he should get a sticker for being a real loyal fella."  She smiled brightly and then looked to Ed who tried to give Brigitte a friendly smile.

"I like that you didn't want to hurt the dog.  If he's a daddy then his puppies don't have to live on a train now cause you saved him.  He should learn to look both ways though and cross the street with a bigger person."  She nodded to herself, she knew this was how you crossed the street - always with someone's help. 

"But you broke Papa's truck and that's not so good even if we can get it fixed.  I broke a toy and got in trouble once.  I was sorry but I didn't get to play with the fancy dolls no more for a while."

She bit her little lip, "Maybe he should have to go find the dog and his family and give them a home.  And also maybe wash all your other trucks before he can drive them again to show he knows how to take care of our things before he's allowed to use them again?  And after he has the doggy then maybe I can see him too?"

Billy stared at the men, right up until he heard Brigitte talk about the truck. And then it was just a humming noise in his ears for a moment.

"You guys heard her right? Wash the trucks, adopt the dog. Simple, now out."

He picked up Brigitte and turned her around kissing her all over her face then.

"I love you so much my baby girl. Do you know that you have just made my day?"

He couldn't stop smiling at her. He didn't know how long he waited, but he knew she really, truly accepted him today. Today he would never forget. She called him papa.

Brigitte giggled and squealed madly as he covered her in kisses.  

"I like your job.  This is fun.  What do we do now?"  she said putting her arms around her papa's thick neck, danging from him like he was some manner of a jungle gym.

"Can I decide more things?  Can I use the stamper?  Maybe I can call someone on the telephone?"  She began to squirm realizing she couldn't hold on forever, her upper body strength leaving something to be desired still.

Billy let her down gently and then tapped on her artwork she had begun.

"No, you were already in the middle of a project. You finish it up, and then we can take it down to the boys in engineering and get them to make a mock up of it, so it looks like Papa's."

He smiled again as he felt a tear forming. He turned so he could shake his head and made his way to the door, he stopped then and turned back to the desk.

"Actually, come over here."

He opened the door and then leaned down to whisper into his daughter's ear.

"You have to ask Miss Rebecca if she can send an engineer up to prepare a mock-up of a project you are working on."

He scooted her toward his secretary before he stood up and winked at his long-time bodyguard.

"Miss Rebecca?"  Brigitte called out.  

Rebecca put on her best business face.

"Yes, Miss Mastrosimone?"  She said sitting up a bit straighter now.

"I need you to get someone from down the stairs to come up to the office."

"Anyone in particular?" Rebecca asked.

She tried to sound very important as she explained, "The man who drives the train needs mock my drawing for a project we're working on."

Rebecca smiled, "I'll get an engineer up here right away, Miss Mastrosimone." 

Brigitte bounced and smiled at her Papa.  "He's coming!  We can have coffee now if you want.  I know business people all drink coffee."

Billy nodded.

"Did you say thank you to Rebecca?"

He waited for his daughter to turn and thank the woman before looking back to him.

"Would you like some coffee Miss Mastrosimone? This is your meeting after all is it not? And will you be taking your meeting in the office, or in the conference room?"

Billy gestured toward the large room, surrounded on all sides by floor to ceiling glass windows, dominated by a large oak table. He watched as his daughter's eyes lit up and he reached out to stop her from running. She had a habit of running directly at things she got excited about, much like a moth to a flame.

"First get your drawing, then we will get coffee and only after that will we settle into the conference room."

He nodded and she returned the determined nod before heading back into his office to retrieve the aforementioned drawing.