Aurora lay on the edge of a massive kingsize bed.  A handsome man curled up just under her chin, a half-naked woman sprawled across most of the available space spread eagle with evidence of last nights debauchery still staining her lips, and the love of her life on the opposite side of the bed slept just on that edge.

She opened her eyes to find Billy staring at her.  He looked like he hadn't slept despite them having gotten somewhere safe.  The kids, fortunately, had not had the same issue.  Brigitte had ate her weight in chocolate and ice cream, and Gavin was far off his normal routine.  Mavis would not be please but what could be done for it?  None of them had wanted Vegas to end the way it had... 

Aurora reached over top of the kids and took Billy's hand near the top of the bed, a bed that had been her parents' bed in a secret house nearly no one living knew existed.  She tried not to think about that part.  Instead, she kept looking into Billy's eyes, silently projecting her love for him and absolute relief that they'd once again dodge the boney hand of the reaper.

She whispered so not to wake Brigitte and Gavin, "We could move into your apartment building.  It's big enough."

Billy nodded and returned the whisper.

"Only to keep this place secret and safe though. Soon as we can, I'm building that damned house I planned on building."

He pulled his wife's hand down then and shimmied his way closer to his family engulfing them all in a massive hug.

"I may still be CEO, but maybe it's time to give up this Don crap for a while. What do you think? Just business, normal business. No shakedowns, no roughing guys up for owing me money. We get a good lawyer, we hire a few people and open up a collections department. Everything by the books."

He looked into his wife's eyes then, pleading for an answer to his question. He knew what he wanted her to say, but he also knew what she might. Either way, it was in her hands now the future of their family would be determined in this bed, in this moment as Billy was keenly sure it had been at least once before.

For a long moment, the four of them lay together, wrapped up together as one unit, not separate people.  She could remember mornings like this with Gavin and Bella - but by the time William came along, she had begun to view those moments differently.  She'd wanted her place back, touching both of her parents, surrounded by them... not sharing them with William.  The tiny boy had been everything her mother had ever wanted and he would always be Gavin's son.  Aurora hated that she would never be what he was, at least... back then.  Now, she found herself wishing she could go back to those mornings.  Wishing she would make herself linger a bit longer rather than darting off to play and to flee Will's presence.  Wishing she could have even one more minute with Isabella, Gavin, and Will as a family.

Billy was asking for a logical thing here.  Get out.  Try to make a life, a legit real one for themselves... use all the money and influence they had to just be happy for however long they had.  A part of her was absolutely certain that was the right call.  Fuck the Cosa Nostra.  How many times did someone have to point a gun at people she loved before it was enough?  But... what would that life even look like?  This was all she knew.  It was who she was - Billy had been right about one thing, it was in her blood.  She could no more stop being a gangster than she could stop being Aurora Byrne.

She closed her eyes and didn't speak.  Instead, she lay there thinking a long, long while.  She did it for Billy... for the kids, but mostly she did it for the little girl who didn't realize what she had and didn't linger just a bit longer in a bed where all the world was right and good.  When she opened her eyes, Billy was still looking at her, expectantly.  Loving, but expectant.  She let her fingers tangle in his hair, brushing through it absently. 

She looked down at her son who was drooling on himself, all pudgy rolls and cuteness.  He was a big baby.  He'd be a big boy... and a massive man, like his father she presumed. If she told Billy they were still in... he might become an enforcer too.  He'd live a hard life doing things that made him question his goodness and die horribly.  It was an ugly thought but Aurora knew she had to face the truth.  Her choices would have consequences... she'd not live to see those consequences, God Willing, but they were none-the-less real.

Looking to the blonde mop of hair snoring beside her father, the man who couldn't help but look down on her as if she were made by God himself just for him to love and dote upon, she imagined Brigitte might continue in her training.  A thief perhaps.  Agile.  Dangerous.  Maybe a hitman.  She might do time.  She might be good enough that she didn't.  But like her brother, her odds of dying old in a bed were slim. 

Aurora drew a breath.  Parents made sacrifices for their children.  Good parents did anyway.  Her father and mother both had.  Shouldn't she be willing to try and hang it all up too?  Give up on the only thing she knew she was good at, the only thing she'd ever worked to really be, for them?  

Her free hand rested on Gavin's tiny, slowly rising and falling, chest.  She could feel his itty-bitty heart beating so strong beneath his breast.  Peaceful.  Unaware of the world-altering decisions being made around him even right now.  He was perfect.  He was hers.  Her family.  Her blood.  He was the first blood family she really felt a part of in her whole life.  

If the gunman in Vegas had been a better shot ...

Tears flowed out of Aurora's eyes as she imagined burying her baby boy.

"Everything that matters, is right here." She whispered, "I don't think we can ever hope to be out for good... but maybe, for a while."

She squeezed his hand.

"You say when, if, we back in.  Until then, I'm Mrs. Mastrosimone... wife.  Mom."  She smiled through her tears.  "I just can't lose you.  Any of you."

Billy nodded. It was not going to be her then, not yet at least.

"We're not out Aurora. I just needed to know who was going to be in front this time, you or me. Every time it's been me, things well... they haven't gone so well. So I needed to know if it had pushed you to taking over yet. That's all."

He kissed his wife, then each of his children in turn.

"I don't think you understand yourself, or me, or these two if you think we could ever actually get out. Hell, Will says he's out, but we both know he's not. He's just coming at them from a new angle. That doesn't mean he's out. You don't get out cause this life drags you back in whether you like it or not. For as much as Will says he's out, do you really think that someone won't try to assassinate him? Do you really think that if I said I was hanging up my guns people would stop coming after me for money, and my businesses? For you and yours? For your family name?"

He shook his head and smiled.

"Nah, I was born for this shithole, but at least I know how I smell and I got used to it early on."

He let go of them all then and slid off the bed.

"Come on. Time for breakfast. I think there might be some chocolate left, I can make chocolate pancakes."

Aurora sat up in the bed and she furrowed her brow.  "Are you telling me you don't want it?"  She said softly but with a tone of seriousness.  "Being able to do it... being willing to bear a burden Billy, it's not the same as wanting it.  I wasn't ready to listen before Russia... but I'm listening now."

She put her feet on the floor and tilted her head to the side ever so slightly, "What do you want?  I'm asking you as a man.  Not as a father or husband... what do YOU, Billy Mastrosimone, want?"

Billy paused and looked down at the kids that were both still sleeping.

"I want them to not get shot at anymore. I want to fuck up some folks so they know that I'm not one to be trifled with. I want to use all of the money and power that I have to turn the world on it's goddamned head and make people apologize to me for making me move again. Though I won't complain about coming home to Detroit."

He put on a pair of slippers then and shuffled his way over to Aurora.

"But I don't want to get in your way. So if you wanted it, I was going to step aside, that's all."

He embraced his wife and as he held her to his chest he could feel her tension ease and her arms come up to make the attempt to wrap around his barreled frame. It was funny to him. She never could completely wrap herself around him unless it was at his neck or his waist. Not with her arms at least.

"One of these days the world will look into the eyes of Godfather Mastrosimone and it will know that I am a hardened man because it put me there by burning me alive every chance it got. And through it all, somehow, I know I will still be me. My mercy knows no bounds, so long as you don't try and hurt my family. If you do though? A lion can stalk it's prey all it wants, but the lion will always give a quick death, because the lion wants a meal. A bull does not feast on the dead, but relishes in the kill."

Aurora looked up to Billy with her head resting on his chest.  She beamed.  This was what she wanted to hear.  To hear that he wanted this, that his heart was still in it, that the world and the recent events hadn't broken his spirit. 

She could help him nurse his wounds, kiss his wounded ego and pride, she'd hunt his enemies as he noted... but if he didn't have it in him nothing she could provide would matter.  While the title Godfather scared her to her very core, that he still wanted his dream, it eased her mind.  A man without a vision for the future, a man like Billy especially, was a truly horrible thing. 

IF the world ever broke him utterly, Aurora feared what would become of them; what she'd become in rising up to carrying the family forward... and him without the drive that made him the man he was.  A bull with no reason to charge, well, he was little better than the rest of the cattle.  Could Billy even live like that?  Could she live with him?  She pushed the thought aside.  Billy would wasn't broken.  He wouldn't BE broken.  He was as strong as her father and more so... and Gavin, despite all the world had thrown at him, had never broke.  Her Billy would not break either.  She was a fool to fear it.

She stood on her tip toes and kissed him.

"You're right.  On all of what you said but that part about being hardened... you won't ever be that hard so long as I'm here."  As her lips brushed his again she smirked into the kiss.  "Well... maybe parts of you."

She laughed and then pulled out of his arms, hearing Gavin babbling.  "LOOK who's awake!"  She said brightly scrubbing the last of the sleep and tears from her eyes.

"Little Mr. Mastrosimone..."  She covered her son in kisses,  "I bet you'd like some breakfast!"

Brigitte began to stir muddling half-asleep, "Je ne veux aucun médicament, maman. Je veux jouer."

Aurora looked at her daughter oddly, "Sweetie..."  

Brigitte yawned and stretched, looking up at Billy seeming to realize then what was really happening around her.  

"Papa?  Where are we?"

Billy beamed at the question.

"My darling Brigitte, if you look out the window you can see we are floating."

Billy knew full well that the house did not float, but he also knew that the view from the master bedroom window made it appear as if they did. It looked out over the water and, at least at Brigitte's height, you could not see the ground.

"We are in a castle my little one. A gift from your grandmother, and most importantly a place you can never tell a soul about. If people know where castles are, they tend to storm them."

He smiled down to her then.

"Je t'aime Brigitte, mon petit ange."

The tired little girl stared out the window, "Nonna Bella?"  She asked making use of the Italian word she remembered from her mother's lesson.  Aurora smiled brightly from her place on the bed changing Gavin's diaper as Billy showed Brigitte the view.

When Billy spoke French however, the view was forgotten and her tiny arms wrapped around Billy's leg mercilessly, "Papa tu t'es rappelé comment dire les mots! Je suis très heureux. Je t'aime pour toujours!"

Aurora chuckled.  "Slow down, Papa has to try to remember what all those words mean.  He's still learning.  Like you when we first met."

Brigitte looked sheepish.  "I'm sorry Papa.  Is Aunt Addie or Grampa Gavin awake yet?"

Aurora drew a deep breath, she wondered if father slept.  The events of the previous day combined with the contents of this house wasn't going to make it easy but their options had been limited.  She knew she'd have to get Gavin back into the city soon.  As much as he loved the woods outside, she was sure the house had to be a tough place to visit.  "Let's make breakfast for them... let them sleep if they are.  No need to wake them yet.  It was a long day yesterday for everyone."

Aurora picked up the baby and kissed him again, inhaling the scent of him, and found herself feeling what she supposed Gavin might feel here... a longing for the woman who had left so much behind, the woman who would never meet her grandson that she would have doted on so much.

"Gavin and I will supervise and you can help Papa... alright?"

"YES!"  Brigitte bounced happily, the horrors of the day before already being forgotten - just as she herself had probably done dozens of times.  Children, it occurred to Aurora, were more resilient than adults.  "What are we making, Papa?"

Addie stirred as the sun filtered in through the windows and fell upon the soft features of face.  Charlie look down at her beautiful face and smiled.  Softly he caressed his hair until her eyes fluttered open. 

"Good morning," he told her softly.

It took a moment for Addie to get her bearings.  Her surroundings were unfamiliar and her brain was fuzzy from a lack of real sleep.  Slowly the memories of the day before began to draw to mind once more.  The night before Addie was going to stay up with the others to guard the household, but the chaos of the day filled with fighting had finally caught up with her and she had fallen asleep on the small couch with her head in Charlie's lap.  He had stayed with her all night.

Addie smiled as she looked up at him.  "Good morning.  What time is it?"  

He traced the side of her face softly with the back of his fingers, "A little past seven."

Addie moved to sit up and she stretched her aching muscles.  "I need to get started making breakfast for everyone before the kid gets up."  As her arms fell back to her sides she looked at him with concern.  "Did you get any sleep at all last night?"

He shook his head slightly, "No but I will be alright.  Oscar is catching a few hours now and I will sleep when he and the rest of the house gets up."  

Addie nodded and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek.  She was about to pull back and stand up when Charlie reached out to take a hold of her and pull her back to him.  Addie smiled as he pressed his lips against her for a long kiss.  "Mmmm," Addie moaned softly in delight before they parted slowly once more.  "Now that is a good morning," Addie grinned and stood up.  She let her hand drag up his arm as she walked past him and towards the kitchen.

Once in the kitchen, Addie moved with the sill and efficiency of a woman who knew her way around a kitchen and was use to feeding a large number of people.  Back on the farm she often would fix lunch for not just her brother, but all the farm hands.  She had years of experience and it was not long until she had the house smelling of bacon, scramble eggs, fresh biscuits, and gravy.   

Billy smiled as he picked up his daughter.

"Papa est désolé."

He struggled and then shook his head, taking on French was hard. He was real proud of hos far he got, but he knew he was not far enough.

"I don't know as many words in French as you know in English. It makes me sad. Cause I want to talk to you however you want to talk. I'm just not as smart as you are sweetheart. You're always going to be smarter than your Papa."

He made his way into the hall and down the stairs then, pausing at the bottom of the stairs and touching a particular spot on the wall. Billy Mastrosimone had few regrets in life. Not giving his children enough grandparents, that was one of them. He sniffled then, not knowing that the feelings of this nature would bubble up on him as they had. He felt Brigitte wrap her arms around his neck and he took in a deep breath. She could not know, and yet, she knew something was wrong and that's all that mattered.

"As for breakfast..." He pushed down the emotions and powered through them with his voice. "...if you left any chocolate, then we are making chocolate pancakes. But if you ate it all, then regular ones will have to do. Eggs too I suppose, since grandpa loves to call me that huh? What do you think?"

Aurora wondered where the photo on the wall had gone to.  There was one there, she was sure of it.  The photos were laid out just so... had her mother removed some items before she died?  Billy's hand lingered on the spot as if he knew what it was.  Had HE taken it?  He did have a key, he told her this.  And yet... why?  Was it to do with his father?

As Brigitte hugged him, Aurora smiled warmly  Billy was emotional about his daughter and she hated him talking down about himself and his intellect but she had begun to learn to pick her battles.  If her Bull wanted to see himself as slow, well, she wasn't going to rag on him about it this morning.  The sun was none the less brilliant for not knowing how much it illuminated all the world.

"Why does Grampa Gavin call you Eggs?"  Brigitte asked.  

Gavin began blowing bubbles with his spit.  Aurora could remember Will doing much the same when he was tiny.  One of the many reasons she'd begun calling him a disgusting little scab ... and yet, the way Gavin did it was perfection.  She chuckled. 

As she came off the stairs and into the dining room she spoke, "We should call Uncle Will today and let him know we're all okay.  If he heard about the problems on the news and tried to call and didn't find us home he might be worried."  

It was finally morning. Emily opened her eyes and sighed. The sun was up and streaming through the window of the guest bedroom. Her first thought was of her girls; hoping they had rested well and weren't too shaken up by the horror of the night before. They shouldn't have had to be rushed out in the dead of night like that, but at least they were all safe. Before agreeing to stay in Port Huron with Billy and the family, she'd insisted on getting the girls settled. Fortunately, she had been able to find a charming bed and breakfast only two miles from the house, and Emily had given the owners a generous offer to keep the girls and hang their "no vacancy" sign. 

Not unlike the past several nights, Emily hadn't slept well. She couldn't stop thinking about the loss of livlihood in Vegas. Everything had just started to settle so nicely. In the panic and hustle of the night before, she'd only seen Gavin for a moment and not since landing in Detroit. And then, there were the lingering nightmares. 

Staring into the mirror, Emily did get best to freshen up before going downstairs. She'd only had time to throw together a single suitcase. Wearing a comfortable pair of wide legged charcoal trousers and a cream colored blouse, she brushed her hair and slipped a cardigan over her shoulders. Carefully, she flexed the fingers of the arm still held in place by the sling. Soon, she would see how she did without it. 

Quietly, she made her way down the stairs, following the sound of voices toward the kitchen. There, she found the Mastrosimone family milling about. With a gentle, sheepish smile, she waved her good hand. 

"Good morning, everyone. Is there anything I can do to help?" 

Gavin stood outside, leaning against a tree near the entrance. He'd been outside all night, just in case. With the day dawning, soon he'd head back inside and crawl into a bed somewhere. But for now? He watched. 

Aurora and Billy and the kids entered the kitchen and Aurora's mouth went agape a moment.  "Lord, that smells amazing Addie!"  She walked over to the gravy and put her finger in to taste it.  

"Mmmmmmm!"  She exclaimed.  "Holy crap!  Billy taste this gravy!"  

"Good morning, everyone. Is there anything I can do to help?" 

"Good Morning, Emily."  Aurora said giving Lil' Gav a gentle bounce, stepping aside to let Billy taste the gravy.  Noticing her father was distinctly NOT with Emily as she entered she found herself letting her eyes drift about for signs of him.  His shoes weren't by the door.  Maybe he put them in a room where he slept?  Or maybe...

"Did Dad stay outside all night?"  Her question was as much to Charlie and Addie as it was to Emily and Billy.  It wouldn't have been the first time.  Gavin was a woodsman long before he'd been an enforcer for Jack Mezzo.  Still, she worried for him - not because of the chill night air or animals... but because of what he was avoiding by coming in.  Again she felt a pang of guilt for suggesting the Port Huron house.  It had been one hell of a way to tell her father she knew about it.  Not ideal at all.  She wished she could have taken it back but where else would they have gone?

Shrugging, Emily shook her head a little. 

"I haven't seen him since I landed with the girls. He met us at the airport to make sure we made it in, and then he was gone again."

Her eyes shifted to the floor briefly, then out a nearby window. She'd have to get to the B&B soon to check on the girls, but she couldn't make herself go until she knew he was alright. There was just too much uncertainty. 

Waiting to see if anyone else had any news, Emily shuffled herself toward a corner, out of the way. 

Aurora passed Lil' Gav into Billy's hands then and with the purpose of a woman possessed she snagged a plate and began piling bacon onto it, and eggs, and then toast.  She walked it over to Emily and smiled at her - but her eyes were asking a favor. 

"Make you a deal..."  Offering her the plate.  "Why don't you... walk this breakfast out to my dad.  I suspect he's probably been on guard all night.  Probably out front somewhere, he'll see you and come out from whatever spot he's hiding."

She wasn't going to say 'he's been avoiding facing my mother's memory all night' but her Dad would get the message she understood, and that it was okay and she'd get him out of here soon, once Emily made her delivery. 

"If you keep him company while he eats, share some with him if you like; I'll get showered and get you and him into town to check on those girls he was so keen to keep safe.  I'm sure they got to be wondering about you too and if I know my Dad, he's probably itching to make sure they made it through the night safe."

She shook her head. 

"Just let him know I'll be out to take you both to town in about twenty minutes or so, maybe thirty.  I need to feed Gav first and then he can get a good day's rest.  I... WE, Billy and I, will make sure we're not being hunted in the city.  We'll reach out to the families, make sure we've got protection.  But, he needs to eat and maybe a friendly face wouldn't hurt after a long night too?"

Her smile brushed the corners of her amber eyes, "If he wants seconds though, he'll need to come in and get it.  I promise we'll have seats for you both if he wants them or if you get tired of his surly morning personality.  No telling how unsocial he might feel after a long night with only the raccoons and possum to keep him company."

"I'd be happy to. And thank you...for letting me stay here. That's very kind of you."

Emily gave Aurora a knowing nod. She could tell her concern for her father. Taking the plate and carefully balancing it with the cup of coffee, she followed the hallway to the door and pushed it open. The air was noticeably cooler, with a breeze coming off the lake. 

It didn't take long before she spotted him coming up the gentle slope. She met him, a wider smile growing on her face. 

"There you are. I brought you some breakfast. I think Aurora is worried about you."

Gavin shrugged, accepting the coffee with a grin and leaving the plate for now.

"She's a good daughter. And thank you for breakfast. How are you holding up?"

He glanced at her as he sipped the coffee, scrutinizing her face. Emily, he knew, had been through a lot in the last couple weeks: even before the flight from Vegas, she'd been attacked in her home.

"I'm alright. Worried about the girls."

She sat the plate on a rock and looked back at Gavin, shading her eyes from the sun. 

"And you. I was up most of the night. I thought I might hear you come in."

In the quiet moments before he answered, she leaned up, standing on her tip toes, and kissed him softly. 

"Now what about you?"