Sitting at her desk on the 3rd floor of her new warehouse, Addie held a large envelope in her lap.  Atop the envelope rested her hands and in one she held two halves of a broken wooden spoon and in the other a dead olive branch.  Her eyes stared blankly at a bottle that sat on top of her desk.  The bottle held several pills and they called to Addie.  They sung to her a song of sweet release.  A chance to escape.  An opportunity to bring the pain to an end.  An offering of salvation from it all.

The rest of the desktop's contents -- a telephone, some ledger books, floor plans, along with some pencils --  laid strung across the floor as if sweep off their perch by a mighty force.  

Silently Rand watched his charge.  She had been like this for what had seemed an eternity.  If the woman actually made an attempt at the pills he would intervene, but otherwise he thought it best to leave her to her memories and thoughts.  They had gotten a message to Charlie that he needed to come quickly.  They had not told him why, just that there was a situation and Addie needed him.  Rand knew that none of her protection detail would be able to get through to her in her current state of mind, but if anyone could reach her it would be Charlie.  He had witness how her face always lite up when she saw him, and he had a way of soothing her when her temper flared.

Quietly he said a prayer and asked God to sped Charlie on his way.  He would know what to do.

Like a bat out of hell. That was the saying at least, it did not compare to the way Charlie drove through the streets of Philadelphia that morning. Weaving and darting through traffic and slamming on the brakes more than once as either a dumpster truck or some old lady tried to get in his path and there was no way around them. Rarely was Charlie this frantic, rarely was Charlie anything but level-headed. But when the only thing he knew was 'Come quick, she needs you.' Well, level-headed went out the window pretty goddamned quick.

He screeched to a halt outside of the warehouse he was told to go to and made his way inside with a cursory nod to the men out front. They seemed to have their guard up, but their weapons weren't drawn. Not expecting anything imminent then, so what?!

He rushed up the three flights of stairs and into the office that Addie held as her own, panting and straining.

"Are you ok?!"

He could do nothing else but reach out to her in that moment.

Charlie Bryant. Fiance. It was like ticking off a register. He lived with her in an apartment in what was called Bella Vista. She worked for a man with an odd name, but where Jethro did not know. Now Jethro knew. He drove casually past the place making sure to keep one eye on it. Two guards stations outside the front door, but no snipers on the roof. Possible escape route through the alleyway. He would need to come back after dark and check those routes, block them off somehow. Lucky for Jethro there were a couple of other tall brick buildings in this part of town. That meant two things, one, he could hide. Two, the gunshots would echo and it would make it impossible to find him.

Now he would just have to wait patiently and stake out his charge.

Addie's blank eyes slowly turned from the bottle to look at Charlie.  They were red and puffy and obviously the result of Addie crying.  After seeing Charlie, but not really seeing him it seemed; her eyes drifted down to her lap.  In a voice empty of all emotions she simply said.

"He's dead."

Charlie dropped to his knees then. An overwhelming sense of panic set in like he had never felt before. Nobody knew where Billy was, he couldn't be dead. He just couldn't be, there was no way. He shook his head to remove the thought, but for once it refused to go. Like an old wound you picked at too hard, it was going to continue to bleed into everything he thought. The sight of his smile. The sound of his laugh. He was one of the best men Charlie knew, better by far than most and he never let life get him down. Billy was always the man who would dive into the muck to pull everyone else out. He felt something hot on his face then and reached up.

When had he started crying?

He wiped his face and then made his way to Addie and pulled her in to him.

"I'm so sorry Addie. We'll find them, whoever they are we will. You have help, you have lots and lots of help now."

He had no idea what else to say just then. What else could he say after all?

Her own tears started anew and they blurred her sight as they ran down her face and fell to land on her hands. 

"I called the grocer.  I prayed that this was just a threat.  I prayed that I could get a message to Gio in time." 

Addie's crying became sobs as she turned to look at Charlie. The flood gates were flung open and nothing was head back.  Through her wailing she tried to tell him what had happened, but it was hard to understand her words.

"... found him yesterday... olive grove... beaten... oh Gio...."

Her whole body shook and she threw her arms around Charlie.

A wave of relief and a sigh, followed immediately by soul wrenching guilt. Charlie was thankful to whatever insane powers that be for Billy not being the dead man, but he felt horrible that he felt that way knowing it was his fiance's brother who was.

"There there hun. It's alright, you cry."

He stood and held onto Addie and rubbed her back. He looked in the direction of Rand and shifted his eyes quickly to the bottle so the other man would know what he was asking. Rand shook his head and Charlie sighed relief again.

"Addie, hey, listen."

He knew it was going to be a struggle to get through her grief right now.

"I'll get the guys to send someone out there, someone needs to watch over him when he is buried, and he has a wife. We gotta try and get her right? I would want Gio to come looking for you if something happened to me."

He nodded and pulled her in again. he knew he wouldn't have to arrange all that much, there were contacts out there that would help, but clearly something else was going on.

Just then something clicked in Charlie's head. 'Why Gio?' hadn't crossed his mind till just now. Addie said he was beaten. To death? That couldn't be. Not unless someone was...

Someone was after Addie.

His eyes darted to the window, and he flung himself toward it, shuttering the blinds, then he moved toward the office door and shut that closed too, also covering the blinds.

"Addie, hun, I need you to think right now. Who have you made enemies of. Gio was a good man, he was mild mannered, he was not hurting anyone out there. The bullshit with the Conti's, that's not on you, this wasn't them, they know how to get back at Billy and Aurora without going after you. Aurora has a VERY visible brother after all."

He fled his way onto his knees next to Addie again. He reached out and took hold of both her hands and looked into her eyes.

"No, this is about someone else, this is about you. So please, focus. I know it's hard, I know it is. But I need you now, or I might lose you for good."

Two birds, one stone.

Next stop, the Municipal building in the Downtown area of Philadelphia. It was a very nice day after all, and Jethro had a councilman to track down today as well. He flipped on the radio and began humming to Fats Waller. He liked the new song...

"Savin' my love for you, for you, for you."

The shock of seeing Charlie throwing doors and blinds closed was enough to pull her out of the stupor she had fallen in too.  In her state of mourning the death of her twin brother, it had not even occurred to her that she might be in danger.  She wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at Rand who had picked up his clue from Charlie.  He had pulled his gun from his holster and was moving to take up a new position in front of the door to the stairwell door.

As Charlie came back to her side and took hold of her hands, she looked at him. 

"I.. I don't know of anyone.... I don't think I have an enemies.   Billy's and Aurora's enemies are the only enemies I know about.  I mean there have been some jilted one-night marks, but nothing that would rise to this level.  There is Octave, but we killed him and everyone that would have known what happened.  Also Jermaine Gentry, but he is at the bottom of Lake Michigan.  I put him there myself."

Charlie nodded as her thought.

"So nobody? We are going to need to tell Billy and Aurora what happened, but I still think that someone might be coming after you. Do you have somewhere you can go to ground? Or do you have a different plan? I really am at a loss here. I haven't been your bodyguard for a while so I can't really judge whether or not you haven't thought about folks."

He turned to Rand.

"Have you noticed anything?"

Rand shook his head, "No.  Things have been really quiet since we came to Philly."  He pointed to the package and contents that now lay at Addie's feet, "That is the first thing of note that has happened and even it came to us indirectly.  A local courier was hired by a local hotel to deliver the package.  The courier was told to deliver that to Miss Addie Moretti and that she could be found working for a man with a nearly un-pronounceable name.  The courier suspected that the man with the un-pronounceable name might be Don Pyornkrachzark so he asked a friend he had that was an associate of the Don if he had ever heard of an Addie Moretti.  He of course had, and he send word to us that someone was trying to make a delivery.  Arrangements were made to receive the delivery here."

The bulky man paused a moment and looked back towards Addie who was now standing up and pacing.  "Once she received the package, she called home.  When I heard that her brother had been killed, I sent a man to the hotel to see what we could be found out there.  He has not came back yet."

Looking back at Charlie, "I have started work on a new backup location here in Philly to go to ground in, but it has not been completed.  I recommend going to the boat and taking an impromptu sailing trip.  We can take a detail along for added security.  Out on the open water we can be mobile and see danger approaching at least.  It would be better than anywhere here in the city where the attacker could hide on any roof top."

Addie stopped pacing and looked to her fiance, "Charlie we can't send word to Billy.  If this man is working for the same people that killed Gavin, this might be a ploy to try and get us to do just that."  She crossed the floor back to him and laid a hand on his arm.  "Maybe they have not been able to find them and they are getting desperate.  They attack one of us in a hope that we will send a message to Billy and they can follow the message straight to where they are hiding.  It is what I would do in their place."

Charlie nodded slowly.

"Alright, but we can put his obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer. I know he gets newspapers up there, so we run the obituary for a full month in the paper to make sure he sees it."

He stood up and looked to the front door.

"Rand, you're right, the boat sounds like a good idea until we know where we can go next. In the mean time, do you have the manpower to sweep the local rooftops and buildings? We're in a warehouse district right now, there's a lot of them, could take hours."

Rand chuckled with mirth, "Manpower is something that we actually have in abundance even if some of them are still green behind the ears."  He nodded his head towards the outside and added, "We can at least cover the buildings with roofs that have a line of sight to the alley way out back.  I will put men up on those roofs and once we know it is clear I will have the car pull into the alley and we can take her out the back way.  I think the faster we do it the better.  Whoever it is, obviously did not know about this warehouse before the arrangement was made for the courier to come here.  The longer we take in getting her out of here the more likely he will have time to set something up."

Rand moved to pick the phone up off the ground and set it back onto the desk.  He looked to Charlie as if awaiting his approval of the plan.  Rand was good at his job, but the young man recognized the value of wisdom.  If there was a flaw he was not thinking about, he knew Charlie would bring it to his attention.  

Addie let the men converse as she began to pack up some things she would want to take with her.  She placed her full faith and confidence in them to keep her safe.  She needed to focused on her own duties.  As a button man in Bella Vista she had responsibilities that she could not just abandon.  Some how she needed to make her operations light and mobile for the time being.

Charlie nodded.

"Have your man pull the car right up to the door, you and I go out and flank, Addie ducks into the car, and then you and I follow. She is top priority, I'm sure they don't really care about you or me."

He looked to Addie then.

"Another day in the life huh? I didn't know it was Tuesday."

He quirked the corner of his mouth upward and then pulled his pistol out to check it, making sure it was loaded and the safety was off before moving to the door.

"On you Rand, you're in charge of security after all. I'm just the hus... well, not yet, but you get the point."

Addie tried to give Charlie a smile, but it barely registered on her facial features.  She had too much on her mind.

She tried to stay focus on what she was doing, but her mind would not stop remembering memories of Gio and her together.  So much of their time together had been spent in the olive groves of the farm that they grew up on.  Every time one of those  memories would drift to the fore, her mind would jump to imagines of Gio hanging limply from one of the trees.  His face and body covered in bruises. 

Her contact in her home village had said that he had gone missing several days before.  The thought of her brother being tortured to death slowly over days brought a renewing of the tears.  She swiped at her eyes angrily to brush the tears away.

She told herself, "Focus.  There will be time to mourn later.  There will be time for revenge later.  Now you must survive long enough to do both."

After she had gathered everything she would need, she slung the bag over her shoulder and looked to Rand.  The roofs had been searched and clear, guards had been place to make sure they remain cleared.  The car had been pulled into the alley right next to the door and men were stationed at both ends to ensure the route would be kept open and clear.  Rand declared it was time and Addie nodded.  

Rand went first down the stairs, followed by Addie, with Charlie bringing up the rear.  There would be only a few seconds when she would be exposed and that would be when she walked from the door into the car.  Rand had instructed her that once inside she was to kept her head down until he told her it was clear.  Charlie would be following her into the back of the Sedan and Rand would jump into the passenger side front seat.  Mat of course would be driving.

In addition to the car that they would be in, there would also be a string of identical looking sedans that would form a caravan.  Some of the other cars would containing 'body doubles' -- women who had a similar size and appearance.  That way it would be more difficult to identify exactly which car, Addie was actually in while they made their way to their destination.

Rand halted at the alley door.  He turned his head back and asked, "Ready?"

Addie nodded, "Let's do this."

Charlie followed Addie down the stairs and out the door. Into the car they went and nothing. No shots, no gunfire. For once it seemed as if they got out safe.

Ten minutes later, still nothing. Some of the body double cars had peeled off to go in different directions by then, maybe one of them had gotten stuck in something that was meant for Addie. That happened all the time.

But no, half an hour later they were standing on the dock and a man came up to Charlie.

"Sir, there's a phone call for you in the booth."

Charlie followed and watched as Addie stuck close to him.

"It's a man by the name of Levey Posner sir. I didn't have time to ask what he wanted."

Charlie sighed, and turned to look at Addie. She just nodded at him. She knew who Levey was now, she knew they couldn't just deny a phone call from him like they could a short while ago. So Charlie took a deep breath and then picked up the phone.

"Mr. Posner, good to hear from you. What can I do for you today?"

"Charlie, one second."

Then a brief pause where Charlie thought he could hear him talking to someone else put a chill up Charlie's spine. Had the man he hired to find out who sold Addie drugs just give it away? Was he behind the package?

"Mister Bryant? I have an odd question for you considering your last name. You wouldn't happen to know anyone in Sicily I could talk to would you?"

Charlie sighed heavily as the man who he once hired to do a nasty job for him asked him a question that cut far too deep for the moment.

"No, not anymore. Not unless I want to put them at grave risk. I'm sorry Lee, I can't help you with that." 

He almost hung up the phone and instead turned back to Addie.

"You don't know anyone else in Sicily do you? Someone we can maybe contact so we can make sure arrangements are made out there? I'll do all the talking, you just tell me if there's anything specif..."

Then it hit him.

"Nevermind, he had a wife. I'll call her."

He turned back to the phone again.

"Yeah, I might know someone, why?"

"Just ask them if they know anyone by the name of Fazzone would ya?" 

Levey was clearly busy and didn't want to be on the phone longer than necessary.

"I'll do that Lee. And I expect to see you in Philadelphia soon."

With that Charlie hung up the phone and turned back to Addie.

"We need to get on the water now. I don't know if that man is responsible for any of this, but he knows about what happened in Sicily. Why else would he have asked just now?"

He turned to Rand.

"Get Gio's wife on the phone, get her the hell out of Sicily now!"

Then he made his way to the boat, clutching Addie's hand closer and harder than ever he thought possible.

Addie came to a halt suddenly and turned back.  "Rand contact William.  Let him know that he may also be in danger.  You can tell him about Gio, the package and that it might be related to his father's death; but nothing else.  The man would put us all in jail if he could."

Rand nodded, "I will.  See you at the rendezvous point."

Addie nodded and continued on to the boat with Charlie.  The crew had already stocked the boat and Addie's men were now bringing aboard a virtual armory.  They had finalized the plans in the car on their way to the dock.  Rand was going to stay behind and take care of some things that could not be handled out on the ocean.  He was also going to work on preparing a more long term solution to go to ground.  They would meet at a port further up the coast in two days and re-evaluation things based on any information that Rand was able to gather during that time.  Perin and two other men would accompany Charlie and Addie on the boat.

Addie sighed as she stepped off the ramp and down onto the boat.  Immediately she felt the boat shift under her feet and her hand went to her stomach.  This was going to be two long days.

Well on the bright side you will finally have a moment to talk with Charlie, she thought to herself.

It had been agreed that Addie would go below deck until the boat got out of gun range.  So she left Charlie's side and went to the cabin.  Feeling somewhat quezy to her stomach she laid down on the bed to rest.  She could hear Charlie giving more instructions on deck and she felt the boat move as it shoved away from the dock.  Addie remembered how rough the Atlantic waters had been compared to that of Lake Michigan and she moaned softly.  It was going to be a long two days. 

As Charlie finished he looked out over the ocean and took a deep breath. This was going to be a long couple of days.

He made his way down into the cabin and saw Addie laying on the bed. He moved to the bed and took his shoes off, slipping onto it next to her.

"Well, at least we know there's no way they can get to either of us here right?"

He stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head as he closed his eyes.

"I'm sure Rand will dig up something in a couple of days, and in the mean time it's smart for you to get out of the city. I worry about Will to be perfectly honest, but you were right to inform him. If they are after Billy And Aurora and you're just a means to get to them, well Will is next on that list."

"Will can take care of himself if he chooses to take the warning."  Addie had no real love for anyone in the Byrne family.  She had tolerated them for Billy's sake, but she always blamed them for putting her own family in danger.  In fact if the people who had Gavin killed were the same ones that had killed Gio than it was the Byrne family who was to blame again. 

Addie closed her eyes and pull Charlie closer to her as the tears for her brother threatened to fall again.  She hated feeling this way.  She felt weak and she hated herself for wallowing in it.  It was foolish and served no purpose. 

Kissing Charlie's chest she pulled back enough to look up at him.  "As for me getting out of the city I had too.  I can't just think about myself any longer."  She smiled at Charlie for a moment.

"Charlie, I have something that I need to tell you."

He looked at her quizzically and she rolled onto her back.  Taking his hand into her own she brought it up to her lips to kiss gently.  Then she laid it gently on her stomach and left her hand on top of it lightly.

"It is too early to be certain, but I have missed my monthly cycle and for several weeks I have been dealing with what I can only describe as morning sickness."  She paused and grinned at the love of her life.  She thought he would be happy with this knowledge, but given the current situation he may not.  Still he needed to know.  "Charlie, I think I may be pregnant."  She squeezed his hand gently.

Charlie instinctively squeezed where she had placed his hand. He wanted to scream. He wanted to jump out of the bed and run around yelling like a madman. He was not going to be a good father. Billy was a great father. Charlie was going to mess that up badly. And yet... he pulled Addie in closer. All he wanted to do in that moment was to pull her in as close as he ever had, and closer even than that if he could. He thought about it for a moment too, and instead he settled for kissing her. A deep, long, meaningful kiss.

"Well, you don't taste like you've been sick, so that's a good thing. If this is real though, you should eat more, and this is the only time I'll say this..."

He took a deep breath and made sure to look her in the eyes.

"No more pills."

Addie paused a moment and then nodded before dropping her gaze from his.  Her voice was soft, "To be honest, it was actually the thought of you and junior here that stopped me."  She nodded her head more determinedly and looked back up into his eyes.

"With you on my side I can do anything.  I know this.  You are my love and my life."  She reached to pull his mouth to hers and kissed him with such tenderness and care.  When their lips parted, Addie allowed her fingertips to trail down his jawline and she smiled.

"You know I think we are probably far enough away from the shore now that we can go top side.  Some sun and maybe a bit to eat would be good for me.  What do you say?"

Charlie nodded.

"But you're not getting out of this bed until you promise me one thing..."

He stood up himself and pointed down to her belly.

"No matter what, we are not naming him Junior."

He smiled and lifted her off the bed by her hands, and walked her up to the deck. There was still a tiny bit of frantic activity, but generally that was the case for the first hour or so of any voyage. After that, things tended to calm down.

"Captain, anyone for some lunch? I'm sure the whole crew is a bit on edge what with the short notice and all. Maybe we could take the time to explain?"

He looked to Addie and nodded.

"You should do the talking, but I think it would be good for them to know what they've gotten into."