Mavis had the children today.  Dad, she assumed, was with Emily and the girls, and Billy_Mastrosimone was probably somewhere in the city looking into his businesses.  She knew that he wanted to see what could be salvaged of his own holdings from his time beneath Rebecca Ferrari.  

So it was that Aurora pushed herself out of the apartment they’d taken to living in while their house was being built, and began her own efforts to contribute to her family.  She might not be the CEO or a Don, but she wasn’t useless and she’d prove it. She had more talents than simply smashing skulls… though she did admit it was what she excelled at.  But, if Billy wanted less knee breaking and debt collections, she’d find a way to stay useful in something other than incubating & bringing up their offspring.

Mom’s Duesenberg SJ wasn’t a subtle car.  For a moment Aurora considered stealing something capable of blending in just a bit more, but no.  She wanted to feel her mother’s presence right now. She needed it on this journey.  

The car cruised down the highway towards the rocky shoreline of the Detroit River and there she saw it for only the second time in her life - the Lighthouse.  The brilliant white building set against a sapphire blue water and robin’s egg blue sky.  

The Ivory Tower.

She could only imagine how Isabella, younger than she was now, felt the first time she pulled up the long dusty drive to reach it.  Knowing it was hers. A symbol of her power both in Detroit and in the Cosa Nostra. It didn’t matter that Sal had given it to her, Isabella would rise as her father did, and one day prove herself worthy of his name... even if, at that point in her life, she had real doubts.

Exiting the car, Aurora found herself impacted with a cool stiff wind from off the River and Lake Huron beyond.  It wasn’t salty like the sea air in Philly, but refreshing. She felt cleaner when she breathed deep, not marked by it.

Neil’s door shutting broke her train of thought.  

“So, this is it?”  She looked at Neil.

The mute man nodded.

“Must feel like coming full circle to you.”

Neil pulled out his notepad and wrote:  ‘Feels like coming home.’

Aurora sighed as she wondered if she’d ever get to experience that feeling again before she was Neil’s age or dead.  Without another word, she began walking to the Tower and pulled out the keys from her pocket. Sticking them into the lock she turned it and pushed the door open.

Aurora pulled the journal out of her pocket and flipped through her mother’s handwriting.  “Just off the main drag, up a small drive a quarter-mile long, behind a guarded gate sits the Detroit River Lighthouse which, among Cosa Nostra is known affectionately as The Ivory Tower. Beside the Tower is a large red farmhouse where many of the crew live in residence. However, the real underworld operations go on inside the Tower itself.”

Aurora looked around at the dust-covered objects, undisturbed since her mother’s departure years ago.  She wandered in and out of the beams of light drifting in lazily through the windows.

“The practical use for a lighthouse as a crew headquarters is, of course, simple:  it's a GREAT place to pull in booze & other black market goods from Canada. Consequently, the largest source of Tower income in Detroit is from that Black Market.  Tower Guardians (the affectionate name for all Made Men in the Tower operations) are now responsible for maintaining the lion's share of the Luciano Crime Empire's black market dealings.”

Aurora made a ‘hmph.’  Noise as she wandered aimlessly and continued reading. 

“When one enters, they find the round foyer is as warm and welcoming a place as you've ever been.  It has large windows looking out to the river and the many trees in the surrounding area.”

Aurora looked out at the apple trees growing near the water’s edge.

During the winter months a large fireplace heats this foyer and in the summertime the crew could open the windows to get breezes off the water that fed Lake Huron - one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world, now filled with melted glacier water.  No one could hope for a better cooling system.”

Aurora chuckled.  She looked at Neil who nodded and smiled in agreement.

“The room is decorated in nautical items and things that made one feel a part of the natural environment for which Michigan was renown ... even so close to metro areas of Detroit.  A small staff of servants runs the functional lighthouse & sees to the needs of the crew (cooking meals, cleaning etc) so for many of the previous street rats, this is a HUGE step up, being welcomed to live at the headquarters itself.”

Aurora looked to Neil.  “This must have been amazing in it's day?”

Neil nodded emphatically.

“Most areas of the Tower were open to all members... only one door (the door to a basement under the Tower itself) was for Made Men and above.”   She looked to Neil. “Show me.”

Neil walked Aurora to the door and opened it.  

“It leads down to the lower levels of the Tower.  What was down there? Who could say - except for those souls who have signed their lives and souls away to the Tower & … me.”

She looked nervously at Neil as the dark stairwell disappeared into a black abyss before her… with no power, she could not see down in the depths of this place her mother had once called home.

“Maybe we should look at the rest of the place first?

Aurora wandered back, still reading,  “You find yourself walking into the Tower Foyer and can make yourself a drink from the bar, play a game of pool or darts, or maybe sit in the large bay windows and watch the river or weather while you read a book from the library of novels collected on the bookcases lining the walls.  This is the place where Guardians & their guests can relax ... take a load off and chat or... if you're here for business, there's the narrow stairwell that leads up.”

She looked up the narrow staircase.  “Two additional floors are above the foyer before you reach the actual light and widow's walk.”

She began up the stairs.

“The first of the two contains three bedrooms... these belong to me and my men.  Above that... is my office. Bodyguards are stationed there whenever I’m in residence.  Anyone wanting to see me is patted down. No one goes in with their gun on them... no one but Godfather Salvatore or Godmother Marie at least.”

She closed the book as she reached her mother’s office and pushed open the door.  Of course, as it had been on the last visit, it was still empty. Aurora wandered about imagining what it was like back in it’s day.

“She must have felt scared.”

Neil wrote the word, ‘Excited.’

“Really?”  Aurora asked, shocked by her bodyguard’s reply.  Neil began writing quickly in response.

‘Engaged to Elias.  Trying to get pregnn baby already.  Future ahead of her bright. She wasn’t doubtful of her ability.  That came later.’

“Why?”  Aurora asked him.

Neil shrugged, ‘Not everyone handles losing everything as good as you.  Your dad and Bowden saved her.’

“I know… but… it’s hard to imagine her being so changed by losing Elias.”

‘She loved him.’  Neil said furrowing his brow.

Aurora walked over to the door going onto the widows walk and stepped outside.  She let the wind fly past her and whip her hair about. She closed her eyes and raised her chin to face into the sun.

"We need to find them."  she finally said turning back to Neil walking off the widow's walk.

Neil's facial expression asked the question, 'Who?'

Aurora replied, "Calico.  Our people.  See who survived.  See if we got friends willing to come out of hiding to join us again.  Bring them to the table for Xanxus and Insta.  It's what mom would do.  Show the powers that be that Billy has assets more than just tribute.  Show them he inspires respect and loyalty and he'll serve them well.  It's to there benefit to keep him and all of us around.  We may have lost Vegas but we didn't lose everything.  Some things..."  

She looked around at the Tower she was standing in.

"Well, some things can't be killed easily they just ... change."

Neil smiled at Aurora as she made her way down the stairs.

"It might mean some time on the road, away from Billy.  I know he's got a ton to do with the businesses here and the house... I hate to leave the kids but I don't see any way to avoid it."  Her voice echoed as she passed by the second floor and it's bedrooms and returned to the ground floor.  Neil put a hand on her arm.

Aurora stopped and watched him as he wrote, 'You should talk to him first.'

She nodded.  "Of course, he's the boss,"  Aurora said flatly.

'Is he?'  Neil arched an eyebrow.

Aurora stared hard at him before saying, "Not you too?"

Neil drew a breath and wrote, 'You're more like her every day since she died.'

Aurora shook her head, "Billy is CEO of Calico.  He's the leader.  I'm a hitman.  He's the husband.  I'm the wife.  It's that simple.  Nothing simpler.  We follow Billy's lead.  Nothing happens in this operation without his say so... even the crazy shit I think up."

Neil nodded seeming to accept her words as truly how she felt.

She sighed and said more gently, "Thank you though."

Neil arched an eyebrow.

"For saying it like it was a good thing that I'm like her.  A lot of folks make me think they see it as a bad thing that I remind them of her."

Neil flipped the page in his notebook and wrote, 'He doesn't mean it like that.'

"I know."  She whispered.  "Sometimes.  Sometimes I wonder, though.  I mean... you can love a person and still think they're a monster.  I know, I've felt that way a few times before."

Aurora paused at the door down to the sublevels but then, thought better of it and kept walking outside, locking the lighthouse and then walking a few steps back to look at it.  "It's a hell of an icon.  A real resource.  We could start black market trading here as mom did ... real easy."

Neil nodded.

"I'll bring it up with Billy.  Let's um... go to the next place on the list."  With that Aurora began walking back towards the car.

"Miss Byrne!"  Marian threw her arms wide and embraced Aurora.

"Mrs. Mastrosimone these days."  Aurora chuckled and kissed the woman's cheeks then turned back to motion to Neil.  "You remember Neil of course?"

The old woman nodded and emotion filled her eyes.  "Oh dear, yes."  She went to Neil and put a hand on either cheek and pulled his face down to her so she could kiss his brow.  Neil smiled warmly.

Aurora passed through the entryway, going past the coat room into the wide open space of The Blackhawk.  The high ceiling, the empty stage and vast dance floor left her feeling small.  The lighting was chandeliers, the tables all white linens.  The floor shone, reflecting back the light at her eyes as if the area under her feet was illuminated.  Isabella's daughter felt as if she'd entered the grand ballroom of a castle.  It was a magical thing this place, it inspired awe in her since the first time her parents took her as a child and in the near silence, while Marian prattled on to Neil, Aurora found herself lost in those memories.

The booth just over there, always reserved for her family - a throne kept empty until the royal family was in residence.  She could see her seven-year-old self bouncing on the seat eager for dinner, her father and mother laughing together over some joke she did not remember now.  The dance floor onto which her father lead and truly danced with her for the first time.  She was not on his hip or standing on his feet as a small child might, but as a man would one day dance with her.  With gentle patience, grace and love, the Wolf of Race Street had guided her steps here as he did all through her life and in that moment she first truly felt grown up.  The bar at which she and Billy sat, the place where he'd scared off other would-be suitors from 'his girl.'  

She closed her eyes and smiled.

"Are you needing lunch?"  The manager came up beside her.

"No, Marian."  She shook her head.  "I just came by to look through the office and the books.  As it happens I'm going to be living in Detroit now and ..."

Marian beamed.  "I always hoped this day would come.  Yes, of course, this way.  How's your father and brother?"  She motioned for Aurora to follow her towards the door marked with a simple plaque that read simply: 'Office.'

"William is a student at Harvard now.  He hopes to attend a law school one day and go into politics."

Marian laughed.  "God in Heaven help us all... I'd vote for the boy though."

"You and everyone else."  She admitted with a smile, not bitter about her brother now, but instead, proud and hopeful for the sort of future he might have.  It was a long way from where they'd started out in life, her jealous of his mere existence.  It was unfortunate that so much sorrow had to come to pass before she began to know his true worth in her life and how far she'd go to ensure he was safe and happy. 

In the end, her mother had passed on more to her than money & Aunt Tara's had taught her so much more than an appreciation of hard work.  In those final moments, both women had given Will into her care in a whole new way.  Isabella with her mother's love and Tara by how much she loved her own brother.  Because of what both women had taught her in their final moments Rora could never see William the same way again.

"Dad," She began as she entered her mother's office.  "He's okay.  Been a rough go of things recently.  He, um, he lost his twin sister Tara."

"Oh dear..." The white-haired woman exclaimed, a hand to her mouth.  "I'm so sorry."

Aurora shook her head, "Don't be.  Tara died as she lived."  She forced a smile.  "On her own terms, with purpose, fearless, and with a great love for her family.  She would have had it no other way."

"Well, would you like some tea then?"

Aurora paused and looked at the old woman considering.

"Your mother always had tea when she looked over the business, I just assumed maybe you liked..."

Aurora nodded.  "I do.  Please, a nice spice tea if you have it... black tea leaves, maybe added a cube of sugar and a shot of milk?"

The older woman smiled at Aurora taking her tea as her mother did.  "Of course.  Right away."  With that, the manager backed out and left Aurora to settle into her mother's seat.  The desk was tidy, a sign that the manager was here more often than her mother whose desktop was always disorganized.  

Lifting out the ledgers she turned on the lamp and began to look over the numbers, keeping a notepad and pen at hand to jot down her thoughts.  She would not write much, however, as her mother's first business was one of her best.  Every detail was meticulously attended to even now.

Two cups of tea and a half-page of notes later, Aurora closed the book. and pulled open the desk drawer to return the ledger.  Before she did, however, she found a business card sticking up from the place where the bottom of the draw met with the side.  Pulling it out and reading it, Aurora's brow furrowed.  Was this a contact for broadcasting the radio show which happened here each week?  Or something else?  What other reason would her mother have the business card for a program director at a radio station?  Aurora put the business card into her pocket.  It was something to look into.  She'd add it to the list.

Picking up her empty cup she walked out to the bar and gave it to Marian.  "You run a tight ship,"  she said with a smile to the elderly woman.  "Have you grown tired of it yet?  Looking to retire anytime soon?  I mean no disrespect, you've served my family well Marian and I know my mother would expect me to take care of you in the same way you've taken care of my mom's most special business."

Marian shook her head.  "I'll be here until they come to carry me out on a slab my dear, provided you think I'm capable."

"The numbers speak for themselves.  I'd be a fool to send you away, Marian... so long as you're here, I'm not sure there's much need for me."

The old woman softened, "I promise, Miss, there is always going to be a need for you - just as there was your mother.  She was the heart of everything we do here, just as you will be, I'm sure."

Aurora smiled.  "Thank you.  I certainly hope I prove worthy of your praise.  I'll come by again soon.  Neil?"

The bodyguard wiped the last bits of chocolate cake from his lips, stood up and tipped his hat to Marian as he followed his boss out to the car.

Neil put his hand on Aurora's shoulder, giving a nod across the street as they were making their way towards the Dusenberg.  Aurora let out a frustrated sigh as Robert Smith pushed himself off the black government issued car he was driving.  Just behind him was a man closer to her own age, perhaps a little older.  Smith, in all the years he'd been tailing her, had never had a partner before and so Aurora found herself paying the young man particular attention.

He was a spook, for sure, he had the suit and the shined shoes... he was packing a gun which meant he'd been properly trained.  He was carrying his papers, even if he was on the other end of Bob's leash.  

"Mrs. Mastrosimone.  Congratulations.  I was really sorry I didn't get an invitation to the wedding."

"You knew where I was."  Aurora said flatly.  "I bet you were sleeping in the damn hospital waiting room."

He chuckled, "Actually, believe it or not, I do occasionally get some time off and I was enjoying some time somewhere warm and sunny at the time you tied the knot."

"That must have annoyed your boss a bit, seeing how there was a skirmish going on at that time."  She nodded to the younger FBN agent.  "Who's your shadow?"

The kid sniffled and stiffened beside him.  

"Elijah here is training with me.  He's based out of our Detroit field office, not sure if he'll be around with me for the long haul or not yet."  Bob replied, watching her closely.

"Surely I don't warrant two agents.  That's a lot of taxpayer dollars paying you two boys to get real damn bored."

Bob shrugged.  "Ours not wonder.  So, you and the husband settling here in your mom's old turf then?"

"His old home."  She corrected.  "I'd think you could let my mother's ghost rest in peace now seeing how you never did make anything stick to her.  She was a sweet old woman who just took care of her family the best way she knew how."

"A sweet old woman whose body is still missing and whose home we pulled several hundred rounds of ammunition out of the walls of in Philadelphia."  The young kid snapped.  

"Hmm.  Someone's doing his homework.  Eli here is gunning for your job, Bob.  You should watch out." She chuckled but her eyes cast daggers at the younger agent. 

"Your mom might be dead but your Dad might still go away for a long fucking time..."  Elijah hissed.

Aurora tilted her head at the young Agent.

Bob put a hand on the kid's arm, he knew instantly the boy had stepped in it with her.  Neil loomed behind her.

"Bob, you and me, we've had what I call a working relationship.  I understand you need to be around my family... asking questions... bringing up painful things that I don't like to talk about, but it's what we both have to put up with in this life."

Bob nodded, "We do."

"Well, you might train your pup a little better.  Yapping like that at strangers isn't a real good way to make friends and if he's gonna be any good at his job he definitely doesn't want to lose any potential friends."

"I'll talk to him."  Bob shot the kid a glare before looking back to Aurora.  "You caught wind we closed the Russo case?"

"I'm glad, his mother can finally hope to find some peace."

Bob shook his head.  "You want to talk to me about what you were doing in Russia."

"Visiting family."  She said with a smirk.

Bob scoffed.  "Well, if you change your mind you should know it would be doing a real service to your country and you could stand to have some people in Washington grateful to you... I mean, should young pups yapping turn out to ever be something more than just noise.  Your dad is a tough guy but I know for a fact that he'd rather spend his final years with his grandchildren than looking at bars.  Just... give it thought.  We're not asking for anything against your family... just, some details which would be considered civic-minded and patriotic."

"I'll think about it."  She said softly, but clearly, her mind was already made up.  She would sooner help the feds than she'd eat glass.

Bob pushed Elijah back towards the car's passenger seat.  Bob walked around to the driver's side and Aurora watched as the car drove off - the kid still glaring at her as if he wished to kill her.

"That kid's pretty tightly wound."  She said to Neil.

Neil nodded.

"He won't last long in his line of work."  she shook her head.  "I wonder what's got his panties in a knot."  

Aurora began to walk back to the Dusenberg, while Neil, on the other hand, stared at the car and memorized the license plate number before getting inside to continue on their way.

Aurora exited the Dusenburg and looked up at the home which she and everyone else who knew of its existence (a far larger number than she supposed her mother ever wanted knowing about it) as 'The Port Huron House' and took a deep breath.  Every time she'd come here before it was to seek refuge, the purpose for which it had been designed.  A place for her mother's secrets, her memories, her love and her pain.  

Before now, she would never have dreamed of coming to this place with these intentions.  The thought would have been abhorrent, but some part of her imagined her mother beckoning her inside this time - offering to share with her some secret bits of knowledge which Aurora had dismissed as being 'unimportant' all her life.  She was finally ready to learn at her mother's feet, as she had done her whole life with her father... the question was, did this place hold enough of her mother for her to still do that?

"I'm gonna be a while."  She said to Neil. 

He nodded and stuck his hands in his pockets and leaned against the car.  Aurora produced a key and left him standing there outside in the light of the late afternoon, the sound of the St. Claire River caressing the shore a distant song that ended when the door closed - plunging her into silence.  Aurora wandered through the room looking at the variety of strange things her mother had collected over the years, eventually stopping at the record player.

A record sat there, she moved the arm down upon it and instantly a familiar tune filled the air.  It was her parent's wedding song.  She smiled at it.  Her mother used to sing it to her and Will as kids and when she'd sing it to her father, he'd roll his eyes as if it annoyed him how often she did this... but he'd always smile.  Mom was sentimental.  It was hard for some people to understand how much, but it was also a reason to love her all the more.  As her eyes passed over the items in the room, the photos of she and Will and her father, she imagined her mother saying the lyrics of the song again... only, in that moment Aurora began to really understand the lyrics and emotion within her chest began to rise.

'And if I ever lost you, how much would I cry? How deep is the ocean? How high is the sky?'

Aurora stiffled a sob she did not expect to catch her so utterly off guard.  Her mother always knew.  The woman KNEW how much the loss of any of them would destroy her... but not once had she considered it.  Despite how much Death had been her constant companion throughout her young life - so many more funerals than childhood parties - she'd never allowed it to be intimate until she'd lost Billy.  Even the loss of Grandpa Jack and Uncle William during the fall of the pier had not impacted her as his 'death' had and for as horrible as his was... the loss of her mother made all other pains infinitesimal.  

The record came to it's end, spinning, the crackling sound of the speaker the only sound as she wiped the tears from her eyes.  She knew then this wasn't going to just be about the acquisition of information ... if she wanted her mother's secrets, she'd have to endure the pain to find them.  Her mother's wisdom would come with a price.  Aurora drew a breath and with her exhale she spoke aloud.  Unafraid in this tomb of her mother's memories of people hearing how she really did talk to the dead or death himself.

"Alright mom... I'm listening."  She said looking about the room.  "Shall we begin?"

Aurora changed the record to the next one in the pile that was sitting there beside the record player and she turned the volume up, tossing her leather jacket on the chair before ascending the stairs and going up to the spare room where the secret panel awaited her.  Beneath dozens of sketches of her father, framed hanging on the walls, she worked to pick the lock until at last she heard a satisfying click and the file cabinet came open.

One by one she pulled out the manila folders and put them down on the bed.  Financial statements for businesses, records of purchases and sales of property across the United States, her mother's hand-written notes and the hand-written notes of other women she'd never met before... Santino's Aunt Frankie and the woman he later learned had been his mother ... Lucy.  There was even a few items in Marie and Salvatore's hands.  She marveled at it all.  Her mother's attention to detail, her fear of losing the past and what mattered most, having proven the biggest boon she ever could have hoped for now as she and her family returned to this place hoping to build a life.

Aurora chuckled as she picked up a discolored and stained business card with the name of a Jamaican resort on it.  Was this the one her parents stayed at when they visited there?  Yes, it had to be.  But it wasn't the address on the deed that arrived the day they'd fled Vegas.  "What did you buy?"  She muttered to her mother.  "What the hell is in Jamaica?"

She sighed putting the card back.  She couldn't hand the package to her father without knowing.  Her mother meant well, but clearly her mother hadn't expected to be dead when it arrived.  Dad had gone through enough pain and shocks, this one thing she could keep from him.  This one, if it was a pain, she'd save him from and if she found it was a balm instead of a bane... then she'd give it to him.  Her father had been looking older than she'd known him to be his whole life since losing Tara.  His recovery from the gunshot seemed to be going on endlessly compared to the way he'd bounced back before and it terrified her.

Looking up to her father's face in her mother's art all about the walls, she wondered why her mother filled this room with art of her father.  It was, aside from the panel hiding The Ivory Tower, not really an important room at all.  A guest room.  Likely unused.  The color scheme of the bedspread and drapes was distinctly masculine - the furniture more utilitarian.  She had taken it to be that this would discourage people from choosing to stay in this room and thusly maybe protect her secrets more; but no.  Aurora settled on the bed.  That couldn't be the case.  Not with such art upon the walls.

Her mother was a rare talent.  She could have been a professional artist in the way that she herself might have been a dancer if the life had not been part of her very bones.  Where her mother's drawings of others were always recognizable, she had a special talent for capturing her father's likeness.  It was the eyes.  Such attention to them was paid that they felt real, alive even as if he might blink at any moment.  She loved him so much she never seemed to grow tired of drawing him. 

There were more pictures of Gavin than any other person she drew.  She imagined how much pleasure her mother must have gotten drawing him like this - or how much she feared forgetting him if he left her first.  Which, if she was honest, was probably what they all figured would happen.  That he'd be the one to die first.  His life was harder.  He drove himself to such ends... and yet, he'd outlived everyone.

She stared at a portrait of her father laughing.

"I'm trying, Mom."  She whispered back to her mother's imagined voice expressing how much she wanted Gavin to be happy again.  

She put down the folder she was holding and went back to the cabinet.  She picked up one whose outside read: Detroit Riverwalk Project.

"There you are."  She opened it and found on the top a letter in her mother's hand.

Jewel,

Here we are at the end.  Thank you for everything you've done.  You're the last to leave and so it seemed fitting I'd give to you a note expressing my gratitue as well as this bonus.  I hope you don't find the amount insulting.  We swore oaths to each other, until death, and here I am breaking it and you have done nothing but be encouraging.  You and the whole crew really.  I can't express what that means to me, nor how much I feel you remain family to me.

I want you to have these.  I know your new crew leader might not be interested in the project, I think I'm the only one on Dad's payroll who gave a damn for it, but Jack Mezzo is onto something in Philly.  Race Street Pier is the future of thise thing of ours and if we don't create something to be competative Detroit will be watching with envy as Mezzo's coffers fill to the brim and we have little to show for it.  

Listen to me saying 'we' as if I mean to be here still.  Again, I am sorry, but after I lost Elias... after nearly losing Gavin to Garrett, I can't toss those dice again.  My luck has never been that good.  We may not get much time together before the reaper catches up, but I'm going to savor every second.  I will live each year as if it is the last one we get, and this horrible old world will remember us.  There won't be a gangster or moll who doesn't long to share a love as legendary as Gavin and Bella Byrne.  

Aurora settled on the bed and kept reading.

It will be nice to not be a Don.  Just a woman running off hand in hand with Gavin to whatever adventure he invents today.  I can't wait to get there - even if I will miss you, an the Tower, until my final days.  

I used to think I wanted nothing more in this world than being a Godmother like my father.  I see now that I only ever wanted power so I could make sure that he knew I was his daughter.  So that he would be proud of me.  So that he would love me.  I also see now that my father can not give me what I want... but he has, in his own way, given to me a greater gift: he gave me what I needed.  Gavin.

Aurora sighed.  Her mother had the same fears she did?  All her life she'd assumed feeling as though you weren't part of a family was unique to an adopted child.  She presumed that her mother always knew who she was and that legacy informed her drive to be so influential and powerful.  And now... to find her mother struggled to make herself into something she hoped her father would be proud of.

Her mouth fell open and she felt the tears rise in her eyes. 

"Why didn't you tell me?"  She whispered.

Take these plans.  Build a future for Detroit, and yourself.  Mark the world in a different way and let them know you were here.  You existed.  Your story mattered.  I'm rooting for you.

All my love,

-Bella

The last part felt like it was written to her, though she knew it was not.  She read it no less than three times through before the tears she had in her eyes made it hard to see.  She sniffled and began to flip through the concept art from architects, quotes from contractors, information on people who might bring things to the table that Rora was sure wasn't quite legal.  It was everything she needed and more.  Things she hadn't thought of were painstakingly detailed here... a few letters from Aunt Tara were tucked in... information about Race Street that was clearly sent to entice Bella to come to Philly and open a business had notes in the margins.

Aurora laughed as she read Tara's words and her mother's snarky comments.  She liked Tara, it was clear, but she saw her as a rival.  She knew her.  "You really could be a smart-ass shit." 

She said to her mom and laughed again and then said more seriously as she put Tara's letter back, "Maybe we are more alike ... than I wanted to see.  I'm sorry, Mom."

She sighed and smiled, pulling out a photo of some of her Mom and a Catholic Priest, two beautiful women - one in a corset, and a man of Asian descent... they were posing outside the lighthouse.  She'd clearly meant this Jewel to have the photo.  Aurora looked at the back, there were no names.  Ghosts.  More people who were forgotten and so gone.  Maybe she'd find who they were in all this stuff.  Maybe.

Another photo then, a strip of them from a photo booth, her mom and a man who she supposed might be Elias based on her mother's age.  So much business mixed up with her love of her family.  Blood and business.  No lines.  Her mother in this folder felt a world away from the mother she became.

Aurora returned to the file cabinet to make sure she didn't miss anything and there, in the bottom, she found an oddity.  She picked up the record and pulled it out of its sleeve.  The label, not RCA or some other company known for making music, was short and simple.

FOR GAVIN.

"What the hell..."

Picking up the record she went to go downstairs to the record player only to realize then... this room had one.  It was the only accessory that wasn't really fitting with the rest of the decor and it was centrally located on the top of the dresser.  It was then she realized... the room was to get her father's attention.  He'd sleep here, not in their bed.  His face covered the walls as if she was trying to call to him from beyond the grave and when he eventually found the panel... maybe he would have found the record too?  But why hide it?  He might never have found it.  She hadn't been sure he knew about the Tower information and now... now she was pretty sure he didn't.

Careful not to scratch the record she put it onto the player and put the needle down.  It was silent for a while and then her mother's voice rang out so loud she almost jumped out of her skin.

"MOOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and the impossibly joyful laughter of Isabella Byrne filled the air once more.

Aurora broke into a sob that was also a laugh.  She shook with pain and happiness as her mother continued on.  Aurora stumbled back and settled into the chair near the door, staring at the record as if it were her mother.

Her mother began to talk to her father, impossibly addressing him as if she were dead.  Her voice was younger though... so young.  She prattled on about soup and alcohol and ice cream!  Aurora kept chuckling, trying to do so quietly so she didn't interrupt her mother's bullying of her father into going to eat and drink something.

"Insufferable dumb ass?"  she chuckled again.

She softened at 'my beloved wolf' ... and wondered what her mother might say at that age, thinking of death and her father losing her even before their story had really begun.

"The wedding...?"  she breathed realizing what point in their life it was.  Before her even!

Happy?  Her mother was promising happiness in the record but she couldn't imagine that ... nothing about this would make her father laugh, would it?  Then she heard her mother talking about her father being sexy and wondered if maybe she should be listening to this record or if it would scar her for life.

But her mother was right about his weapons... God he paid them a lot of mind.

"Patches... Raini?"  It was a terrible nickname for a person her mother loved like a sister.  "Didn't want kids..." She chuckled.  Her dad didn't want kids and her mother was pushing her father to possibly adopt Ciri? 

Aurora put her elbow on her knee and covered her mouth as Bella predicted that Gavin's adopted daughter would likely be an impossible badass and an enforcer.  And her mother thought of herself as a former enforcer?  Her mother enforce?  Enforce what exactly?  She giggled madly.

Her mother dispensing parenting wisdom was something she wished for more of but instead, she launched into talking about Uncle Will... her smile faded.  Will didn't outlive Dad, how would he take hearing this advice?  'Go seek out someone who is dead.'

She sighed.

Hearing her name made her perk up and she shook her head as her mom wrongly predicted that she, Marie, and Sal would all be fine.  Her mother's love for her sister though... hearing that... and then her rambling on about how much she loved Gavin.  Talking about the ice cream shop, it touched her heart.  Her dad would like to hear that part.  

She found herself nodding with her mother.  Gavin shouldn't have to know what it was like to have such. 

"I'm sorry that I hurt you,"  Bella sobbed.  "I'm ... very sorry..."

"It's not your fault mom." She said.  

"...that whatever happened, happened and my luck finally ran out.  Gavin, you are the great love of my life.  You made all this worth doing, you made living worth doing."

Aurora held her heart and as her mother said the best and worst things she could say to her father right now.  That he made her life good and that she stayed in the mob, because of him."

She shook her head more uncertain now than before if she could EVER let him hear this.  Bella went on to tell him to mourn and then to tell him that she didn't think there was anything after life.  That she, ironically, shared her father's fears that there was nothing after this.  It was a horrifying thought.

"It's not over.  It's still going somehow."

She wet her lips, "It is mom... it ... journal?"  Aurora's mouth fell open as her mother began to confess her past with Santino DiCaprio.  That she had abandoned the boy to go marry Gavin.  Her mother had abandoned a child who she'd been caring for... granted she knew how Santino's story ended but... how could she?  How did he get back to Sicily?  Did he have Lucy's journal still?  Rather... did Rita?

Aurora sat shell shocked as her mother talked about Lucy and Elias and her fear that she would disappear after her father's death.  That everyone she carried in her heart was lost too.  Her eyes went back to the file in the cabinet with the photos of the people she didn't know.

"Treat it like it matters..." her mother's words made her shiver.  How could she think Gavin would ever not?  Did she really know so little of him then?

The record ended on an almost insignificant note... commenting on the whiskey, asking her father to pour another glass as if she expected he'd listen to it again and again until the whiskey was gone. 

My god... he would!

She'd know if he had found the record by the half-drunk bottle of whiskey still being there or not.  She'd just had to go see if it and the soup were still there and she'd know! 

Aurora stood up from her chair, never realizing that she wasn't the only one to hear the voice of the dead today.

Gavin had been prowling through the house reliving old memories when he heard a familiar engine run up to the house. For a moment, his heart leaped in his chest; he'd heard Bella pull up in that car dozens of... then his heart landed. Moving to the window, he saw Aurora exit the car. Gavin, settling into a comfortable chair in another room, flipped through the old photo album he'd taken as he heard his daughter rustling through Bella's things. He'd give her some time, then they'd chat.

He nearly jumped out of the chair, however, when he heard Bella's voice shouting "MOOSE!"

Standing, he moved toward his daughter and silently rested against the doorway to listen.

It hurt. That was his initial reaction. Hearing her voice was like a lash. But as she continued speaking, he smiled against his will. It was her laugh that changed it for him. 

Whiskey and vanilla ice cream.

"End of our story". His lip twitched for a moment, wishing not for the first or last time that he'd died with Bella. But... if she'd left him a record, then she must have known there was a chance she'd outlive him.

"In twenty four hours I am flying home, and I'm going to put the final touches on our wedding."

Gavin's poker face cracked with surprise. When he'd heard her voice, he'd assumed that it was something she'd made recently. But this wasn't Bella Byrne's final words... they were Isabella Luciano's, before she'd married him.

It hurt. But it hurt less, knowing that it was from the past. Bella could have died before they even married, and-

He smiled, genuinely, as he listened to her picturing him.

Maybe he would regrow the beard.

"I know you don't want kids."

Gavin's eyes flicked to the back of Aurora's head as he heard Bella ask "What sort of woman would you raise?"

"She'd probably be a real badass."

"Look out for William." Well, that comment aged well.

But now, there was no Will Bowden to help him. 

"My dad, and Marie, and Aurora. They're going to be fine." 

Good call, Hot Rod. He couldn't help but chuckle silently to himself.

Sal was gone. Marie was gone. Ellie was gone.

But the rambling about Gavin and the ice cream shop... that was nice. 

"You deserve to die first"- his blood chilled. "I'm sorry that I hurt you."

"You made living worth doing."

He set his teeth and listened to the rest of the record, trying not to think.

"As long as you're still out there, it's not over."

No, Bella, it wasn't over. 

Santino DiCaprio. Another lost name. Maybe he'd try to get that journal back...

"Don't bury or burn what we were. If it mattered, it still matters... you're a good man... the record's almost over... it's good whiskey... pour me another cup, okay?

It was quiet for a long time when the record ended.

"It's nice," said Gavin from behind his daughter as she stood up, "to hear her voice again."

He raised an eyebrow and smiled sadly.

"So. Whiskey or ice cream?"

She turned to find her father there and while it startled her she was glad the decision was out of her hands.  Had he heard it all?  She supposed he had.  She found herself smiling at his question.  

"Why choose.  Seems like she's got a good plan.  Let's do both."  She stood up and followed Gavin down the stairs to where her mother said they'd find the Whiskey, tucked away not with the other liquor but hidden in a kitchen cabinet.  How had she overlooked its presence before?  

She opened the freezer.  The ice cream there was pretty old, probably from her mother's last visit.  Like the peanuts on Will's grave she supposed her mother had kept putting it into the fridge on the off chance someone would be here... or maybe she hadn't forgotten the album and had meant for dad to find it? 

Aurora began scooping ice cream while her father poured the whiskey.  "She got longer than even she thought she would... fuck, she got a whole lot more life and family than she ever even asked for." 

She said looking at the bowls as she filled them.  "Imagine how shocked the woman who made that record would have been to see us now... you, two - no... knowing her she'd say she had five kids.  She'd count Anton and I know she was happy about Katherine and Billy.  And then grandkids?  I bet the woman who made that record would have told someone they were a liar if they told her all of this was ahead for her... and us."

She passed the ice cream to her father who still hadn't said much.  She was used to this.  Normally her mother or will would be breaking the silences, but with them not here to do it - Rora felt it fell to her.  She racked her brain for what should be said but nothing felt like it needed to be said at all.  She knew what her Dad was feeling and he knew what she was feeling and yet... her mother would say he needed to talk and maybe she was right.

She headed into the den with it and her whiskey & ice cream knowing that he'd follow.  

"Do you remember,"  She said settling into one of the comfortable chairs.  "That weekend we went to... where was it... Douglasville for that fishing trip on the Schuylkill River?" 

She shook her head, "I don't think I'll ever forget my tough ass mother, the mobster that she was, freaking out over putting worms on hooks.  She literally was squealing and that thing she did with her face..."  She laughed.  "I think you baited every hook for her the whole damn weekend and I asked her why she couldn't do it..."  Aurora's laugh faded into a peaceful smile, "Because they didn't do nothin' to me.  That's what she said.  The damn worms didn't do nothin' to her."

Aurora took a sip of her whiskey.

"She sounded so young on that record..."  Aurora took a bite of her ice cream.  "It's weird to think about her being the same age I am now when she left to marry you and now here I am returning to her home at the same point my life with my new family."

She looked at Gavin, considered him for a long moment in silence.  A thousand things rattled around in her head.  Things she wanted to tell him, things she knew had to come out eventually, but instead wanting to focus on him.

"So you didn't want kids in the beginning either?"  she said with a smirk, she clearly wasn't hurt by the idea.  Obviously, though he'd changed his view on the matter utterly if that had been his point of view.  "Was she just assuming?  Or had you even talked about it?"

Gavin poured whiskey for himself, skipping the ice cream. 

"I never wanted kids. I was adamant about that fact when I first met your mother. She'd gotten shot in the gut a year or so before I met her, and the doctor told her she'd never have kids. Turned out he was wrong, obviously, but she believed it at the time, and it did take a more intense procedure to patch up that whole... system. Anyway, that was sort of perfect: she saw that as a failure on her part, but for me it was a bonus. I never wanted kids. I've told you about my father, and you know how I got my scars. At the time, I was Jack Mezzo's enforcer: drinking, screwing, killing, wash, rinse, repeat the next day. I never really expected to live longer than a few weeks at any point, and what sort of father could I be, between what had formed me and what I was doing for work?"

He winked at Aurora_Mastrosimone.

"Even back then, though, your mother was right. I did raise a badass..."

He adjusted in his chair, drinking and trying to remember all the other things she'd mentioned.

"Strange, how much changed for her, like you said. She was worried about dying any minute as well, and she got a quarter century more. You know that's not really... normal, in this business. If you and Billy ever want to get out, I hope you know I'd support you. 100%.  You'll make your own calls, and I want what you want- but you know what I mean. I mean, I stepped back to raise you two. But I get it. It pulls you in."

Gavin finished his drink; he was drinking faster than he used to.

"Shit, I thought I was supposed to be retired now, and look at me..."

"Billy and I have talked a lot about that lately."  She admitted. 

"The kids,"  she said smiling down into her whiskey.  "Possibly more of them... make the old way of living harder if we want to do right by them.  And, after everything that I've seen and we've been through, we'd be stupid not to consider walking away." 

She shrugged. 

"Besides, between what mom left me, what Billy's built, and what Sal & Marie left behind that hasn't gone to shit well ... I've got a few businesses pulling in legit cash.  Enough to be comfortable even if we had a small baseball team of children running around."

She actually chuckled.

"This isn't what I planned on my life looking like... but, honestly, I'm glad I didn't get the life I was planning for."  Her brow furrowed.  "I wouldn't have been happy.  I think sometimes we fall into roles and we stick to them cause they're familiar and comfortable."

She stopped herself from going on into a bit of a ramble about that.

"Anyway... I'm here because of that actually.  I saw something in those files the other day I wanted to revisit.  Those papers up there are mom's notes from when she was a Don, the first time.  That last file I was digging through was about a project she had in the works before you proposed marriage."

Aurora looked up to her Dad's eyes and she smirked.

"She was going to give Jack Mezzo a run for his money on his 'little pier project' with a rival project here in Detroit.  You should read some of the notes she made on Aunt Tara's letters.  She easily could have become Aunt Tara's biggest rival instead of her biggest fan.  You knocking boots with mom saved Grandpa Jack & her a whole ton of headaches."  

Aurora laughed into her whiskey as she drank again.

"She wanted to revitalize the riverfront.  In a lot of ways you could argue it was mom's love letter to Race Street Pier... but her own notes betray her.  She wanted to be making that kind of bank, wanted that quality of people doing business in Detroit, and she obviously felt a little jealous of Grandpa Jack and Aunt Tara's success.  She got pretty far into the planning phases before it all just stopped.  Obviously, she just walked away in the middle of it and didn't look back."

Aurora put down her empty bowl and turned to face her father more directly.

"I know Will is the brighter of the two of us, and I always figured him for being the one who'd follow in Aunt Tara's footsteps, but Aunt Tara said some things to me that made me really think about where my head has been.  I figured when we got back she'd come home to Vegas with us and I'd make up for lost time... start really paying attention to what she had to teach me.  I'd changed everything with my choice to marry Billy and have children, it was time to stop acting like nothing had changed at all when everything had."

Her smile was sad, her eyes unfocused and not really looking at Gavin... as if looking through him.

"And then... she was gone.  Like mom.  Too soon and just as I was realizing how fucking much I really needed them both.  Maybe how much like them I really am.  You combine that with everything I learned from Anton and ... here I am.  In Detroit, digging through mom's treasures trying to find this other part of myself I tried to pretend didn't exist for a long time and for really no good reason."  

Her brow furrowed and she shook her head.  She winced and scoffed.  Did that sound as stupid to her father as it did to her when she heard her own words?

"After you were shot..."

Her voice was softer when she opened her eyes, she looked at something on the floor as she spoke.

"I told Anton he wasn't just a weapon.  I told him what you taught me about choosing who we want to be.  I said it as much for myself as him.  I think I wanted ... needed someone to remind me of that, but sometimes you're the only one around to remind yourself so... you do."  She shrugged.

"I told him about your past, a little.  That he wasn't so different as you.  That no matter what he or you wanted the past to have been, that he had the power to choose his future.  And the truth is, so do I.  And I have.  It just took me a little while to admit it to myself and to know what that would actually look like - that I didn't have to stop being me, to be a wife and mom."

She met her father's blue gaze then.

"I'm going to do it.  I'm going to take mom's notes... and I'm going to..."  She smiled the words felt odd in her mouth.  "The Detroit Riverwalk Project - it's a now officially on the books with Calico Development Company."

Her smile got brighter.

"Dad, it's going to be amazing.  I mean, it's going to be a HUGE cash sink and I can't even imagine the number of man-hours that will have to go into it... but, I think we can do this.  I don't want to look backward.  I miss Philly and the life we had, but Detroit is as much home for us as any place really.  Billy was a Don here.  Mom lived here in her youth too.  And she's left so much of herself in this place.  It obviously still meant something to her.  And now we have a chance to build something here, something that's ours.  Something that mom wanted to see... but that would be my vision.  Mine.  Can you imagine?"

She had an expression on her face that Gavin rarely ever saw in the course of her young life, an uncertainty, a yearning for affirmation.  "I'm not Aunt Tara or Grandpa Jack but maybe with these letters from Tara about Race Street, your input, and mom's notes... and all Billy's knowledge plus... you know, things I've learned at school and from listening to Mom and Tara.  I don't know... I just... maybe it could be a thing?  I already know a few guys who'd love to invest and put their businesses there.  Mom pushing me to be a runner for her back in Trust Company gave me a whole slew of connections to people and bloodlines who might work with us."

"If Tara and Bella had wound up as rivals, rather than partners... well, it's certainly interesting to consider that, huh? Thank the gods I always manage to save the day by... knocking boots, as you said."

He smirked, taking another sample of his whiskey.

"Will is more intellectual than you, but don't say he's brighter."

Gavin sighed.

"I couldn't read until I became your father. Meanwhile, Tara was talking to someone in Latin. For a long time, I just assumed I was... worse. Will's smart, but he can't analyze a room for threats like you. And that's it own kind of intelligence. He could tell you Hannibal's best war strategies, but he doesn't know where to punch someone in the side to drop them."

He raised an imperious index finger toward his daughter, and it wobbled slightly. He was, it appeared, more intoxicated than he seemed at first glance.

"What did you want Tara to teach you? I know everything that Tara and your mom did. I'm the common denominator between their success."

Gavin burst out in a laugh, obviously kidding.

"I do have something for you, though. From Tara's plane. Remind me, next time I'm back in the city. I stashed it for you."

He sighed, listening to her talk about Anton. That was a whole other can of worms. Can of wolves. Whatever. He didn't say anything, letting her speak about her future, her excitement. When she was done, he stood and rested a hand on her shoulder. 

"I'm proud of you, Rora. You always seem to compare yourself to your mother. To Tara. To Jack Mezzo. Yet you forget that when your mother was your age, she was stepping down from running a crew- a crew that she saw as a failure on her part."

He sighed, squeezing her shoulder.

"Don't compare your work in progress to the finished stories of others. I am proud of you, and I know you can do this. I'll be with you every step of the way."

Gavin smirked.

"Perhaps I'll even open up a business for you, huh?"

Aurora beamed.  "Absolutely.  I'd love to see you open a business.  You get first dibs on location.  And yes, I'll try not to compare myself to others... but I think we both know that's like asking the sun not to shine.  It's in my nature to want to be better than I am... can't imagine who the fuck I learned it from."

She arched an eyebrow coyly at her father who was constantly pushing her to be better, and more importantly pushing himself.  "How about, when you want to go back, you ride with me.  I'll drive.  Just give me an hour or two to go through that stuff upstairs a bit more and pull out what I need before packing the rest up?"

She paused, she hadn't considered how he was feeling so much after hearing the record, but she should have.

"Unless you'd like to be alone right now? I can always come back in a bit... go for a walk or something?"

Gavin nodded.

"Why don't we both take a walk? I'll wait for you here. When you're done going through everything upstairs, just find me and let me know. We can talk a little more about anything else you find."

And maybe a couple other things, too.

Aurora stood up and kissed her father's cheek, carried the bowl and glass to the kitchen and rinsed them out before walking back up the stairs to finish digging an eventually putting away what she wasn't going to take with her.  It hadn't been quite an hour when she felt that she was finally done and ready to go. 

She found herself pausing at the record player.  She wanted to play it again, to hear her mother's laugh one more, but she couldn't.  Instead, she picked it up carefully and put it back into its protective sleeve.  Then, she tucked it away into it's hiding place once more.  She locked the cabinet again, and closed the panel in the wall not knowing when or if she'd open it again.  It belonged to Gavin.  She was lucky enough to have stumbled upon it first.

Carrying the folder in front of her chest down the stairs, careful not to let anything spill out, she paused only a moment to smile at her dad before saying, "I'm gonna go put this in the car.  We can go for that walk now... if you're still up for it?"

Aurora took the folder to the car and put it inside.  The sound of a loon out on the water somewhere seemed to echo through the woods, as well as a few songbirds native to the area.  It had been a nice day.  It wasn't Hollopoint but she could see why her mom built a home here and that it was a natural precursor to their home in Philly.

It only then occurred to her... 

Mom had built this home, most likely, for her and Elias.  This place was, from nearly it's beginning, a tomb for all the dreams of Isabella's past.  An afterlife of happier times... ghosts and shades of what was and what might have been - just as it as it is to us now.  

The house looked different then, in the fading afternoon light.  The long shadows of the swamp no longer felt protective but felt ... appropriate.  As if they were long boney fingers, holding tight to things that should not leave this place.  She and her father were intruders here.  Living things in a land of the dead.  The scent in the very air... swamps were a place of decay.  Her mother might not have built this home with that in mind, but it became appropriate after years and years of losses.

Aurora looked at her dad and tried to shake off the morbid thoughts.  "Shall we walk the road, the beach... or do you dare risk the giant mosquitos and forge a way through that thick?  I don't know that it's very conducive to conversating but that's never stopped us before."

"The beach."

Aurora nodded, looking at her father's troubled expression.  She didn't expect less, all things considered.  He'd been here or coming to be here, alone.  Likely he'd been drinking all day which explained why the whiskey had got to him so fast.. it wasn't that the alcohol got to him fast ... it was that he'd been drinking longer than her.

The two walked together in silence down a path marked by large stones, through tall grasses that brushed her hips as she passed until she came out onto golden sand as far as the eye could see disrupted only by boulders so large that only the powerful glacier that made these waters could possibly have left them here.

Aurora paused and took off her shoes and socks.  She smiled at her dad and wondered if he might do the same.  Stuffing her socks into her shoes, she tied the laces together and slung them over her shoulder and luxuriated in the feel of the warm sand between her toes. 

"Much better."  she said of the feeling with a bright smile and then, she began to walk. The sound of the waves on the shore, the birds, the wind through the trees... this place away from the swamp was a bright spot of light in the darkness, much like her mother herself had been. 

"I keep thinking it would be nice to do a bonfire out there."  She pointed out on the beach a bit near to the water.  "Plenty far enough from the treeline.  Brigitte would love it.  We could bring hot dogs out and roast them and just ... spend the evening out here together looking up at what stars we can make out.  I could teach her about how to find her way based on stars, just as you did for me.  I think she'd like that."

Aurora inhaled the wind off the water and felt for a moment as if the strong breeze whipping her hair about might eventually pick her up and carry her off to another place.  Maybe, in some ways, it already had.  Of course, her father's silence was a constant reminder that all wasn't right with the world.  Something was coming.  Her father had this way of working a thing out and spitting it all at once.  Once he'd made his mind up on a matter... that was it.  She'd hear his thoughts and that was that.  It was what she loved best about him, you always knew what to expect and what you'd get.  

Of course, there'd never been a time like this before, with so much sadness from losses nor uncertainties from lack of direction.  At times she felt adrift in the world and were it not for Billy, her father, and the kids... well, she didn't know what would become of her.  She reached over and took Gavin's hand, lacing her fingers into his just as she did as a little girl when they'd walk.  

"You've become more like her too, you know?"  She glanced at him with a smirk that was all too similar to her father's.  "I can tell when you got a whole speech just building up inside of you just dying to get out.  Oh... you won't go on and on for hours, but I think it's there."

She gave his hand a squeeze. 

"If you want, we can be quiet a little longer and pretend there isn't anything to be said.  Just... enjoy you and me for a bit longer? It's a beautiful day, the sun will set in a bit and I think I saw some fireflies already in the grass.  Remember how I used to try and catch them?  I wanted to have a whole room full of them, and you told me how sad that would be for the fireflies.  I'll have to remember that if Brigitte or Gav ever decide they want to keep some wild animals or another..."

She nodded to herself and went silent again, choosing to listen to the sound of their feet in the sand, the waves, and the birds. 

"Point is... there's no rush.  We have all the time in the world."

Gavin followed his daughter in removing his shoes, and soon the laces over his shoulder mirrored hers.

"The bonfire seems like a good idea, and yea, I'm sure Brigitte would love it. Were you planning on trying to live here? Make this place your home?"

"Point is... there's no rush.  We have all the time in the world."

Gavin sighed, resisting a glance back toward the house.

"If only that were true."

They walked for a while, and he frowned slightly when Rora took his hand. Hopefully he hadn't worried her too much.

"Look, I'm not dying or anything. I just feel worn out. Worn down. I've been losing friends for thirty years straight, and I don't make new ones nearly as quickly. There's just... I'm the last one left, Rora. I've buried every one of my old friends. I lost your mother. I lost Tara. We've been getting chased across the country, bouncing from place to place to survive. Emily's going to Seattle. And that's another thing- I'm not supposed to be drinking anymore, according to Emily. She ran a bunch of tests on me, and apparently my liver's not doing so hot. It's not going to kill me, as long as I just stop drinking."

He crossed his arms, standing straight as he looked out over the water.

"So I'm done. That one in there, after hearing your mother's voice... I think that's my last drink."

Gavin sighed.

"I dunno, kid. I might need to drop off the map a bit. Get my bearings. Maybe pull Volkov out of the fire that we at least had a small hand in starting. I wrote him a letter- not sure if you heard, but apparently the Bratva hitlisted him, and he's been dodging them fine, but... he's alone out there."

As her hand fell away from her father's and his crossed his arms, pulling into himself, and he began to look out over the water towards the horizon and speak of falling off the map for a while ... her mind came back to one of the many things she'd not told him.  

She knew him better than all of us.

Aurora turned to face the water and stood a mirror image of her father.

"Mom knew this day would come."  She whispered into the wind, choosing not to look at him as she spoke.  "Not the drinking thing or Anton but I suppose if we're being honest, do you think much would have shocked her at this point?"  

She shook her head.  

"No.  I mean that she knew you'd both need or want to fall off the map some day.  I didn't tell you yet because I haven't seen it with my own eyes.  Felt like I should, all things considered.  I mean, it's probably what it seems... I can't imagine it being anything else, but... I love you and I didn't want to hurt you so..."

She stared off into the water for a moment before beginning the story.  The day we ran from Vegas... one of the people who used to live in the Italian Market came to my office with a legal document sized manilla envelope.  He explained that mom used his business as a drop point for things.  He said he never nosed through them, but this was the last thing to come and he didn't know what to do with it until my guys picked him up and brought him to Vegas."

She drew a breath.

"Mom bought property in Jamaica."  She said softly.  "About two months before... well, everything happened.  Billy has this stupid theory on why, I won't speculate because I don't agree with him, but suffice to say we think it was her retirement plan.  There's more though... she also bought a boat.  The deed calls the vessel the Jolly Roger.  I have it all at the apartment, if you want it, it's yours.  The note inside the envelope tells her that all the things she'd asked for were situated as per her instructions.  I gather that means you might have clothes, food, and needed items there..."

She glanced to Gavin.  "Might be a good way to hide Volkov for a while so you two can get to know each other.  Let things cool down a bit.  Would be hard to find a boat on the ocean, if you can manage to avoid crashing it?" A smirk tugged at the corner of her lip but her eyes were sad.  She couldn't hide it.  She wanted to, but she knew she was failing.  It was hard enough to say the words in such a way to sound as if she was okay with all this.

"Maybe by the time you come back, Billy will have built us a proper house like he wants.  I'll have the Riverwalk Project going and you can open a bar... um... well maybe something else and making friends.  Maybe I'll finally ... have things stable for you and the kids."  She looked at the ground. 

Aurora never did so well with failure and until this moment Vegas never felt so much like a failure before.  She'd failed to make a home.  Failed to keep Billy as a Don.  Failed to keep them all safe.  Failed all the people she'd brought out from Philly.  He was right.  They weren't living... they were still running.  How long would this go on?  Would Detroit really be their home or had she been lying to herself about that too?

"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."

Aurora's nostril's flared as she looked back out on the water again.

"It's not the first time you've gone away.  When I was little I'd get scared sometimes that you might not come home.  Not because I figured you'd died... it's just a fear that kids get, ya know?  I mean, I suppose when I was older, and knew what you were doing, I feared death - but before that, when I little, Mom always used to tell me... 'He'll come home.  Our wolf always comes home.'"

Only he doesn't feel like he has a home anymore...

"I'll make us a home."  She whispered, far more confident sounding than she felt. "And when you come back... there will be something real waiting for you, with us.  I promise."