Breaths And Memories
YHWH was an awesome episode in so many ways...but one. I can't help thinking and feeling that after four seasons with great writing and incredible acting Elias(Enrico Colantoni) deserved better. Yeah it's sappy, sorry.
...inhale...
The pain was sudden and the bullet was unexpected. The loss of blood weakened him and he could tell he was going into shock. Through the front windshield of the car he was sitting in, he could see the slumped body of Dominic on the ground and John's Detective friend taking cover behind a car, both sights filled him with satisfaction...one more than the other. The pain subsided to a dull ache, his vision blurred and he began to remember.
...exhale...
He came in from playing at a friend's house, wanting a drink of water and saw his mother on the kitchen floor. His heart dropped to the pit of his stomach. "Mama?" he called, he was scared and confused and he couldn't take his eyes off the bloody knife.
...inhale...
Bruce was smart, he liked numbers and if he sometimes bragged about how smart he was well, Carl didn't mind. Anthony was smart because he know how to survive. He was smaller than the other boys but that never stopped him from fighting and he knew how to fight to win. He had fought to protect his mom. Carl admired that and he thought that Anthony was the bravest of them all. Carl knew that he was smart too but in a different way, the group home was teaching him how to think, how to plan, how to fool people. He found that pretending to be harmless and letting others underestimate him was a power all unto itself.
...exhale...
Gloria loved him. He would never forget his mother but Gloria was kind and understanding and he knew she loved him as if he were her own. He missed Anthony and Bruce, but before he'd left the group home the three of them had made a pact that they would meet up again when they got older. They were the only real friends he had and he wasn't going to lose them. He wanted to know who he was and Gloria tried to help him, to protect him but Carl knew he had a father, knew that he was somebody. His father didn't know about him yet, but once he did Carl would show him how smart and tough he was, then he would be proud to call him his son.
...inhale...
He was going to show them all, outsmart them all. He was going to take over the city, do away with the decaying and corrupt way of doing business and set his own plans into motion. He was going to take an antiquated system and burn it to the ground and then rebuild. He was going to be head of the Five Families and they would have to acknowledge, respect him, bastard though he was. He was alone and he was strong he told himself, looking down at the still bloody palms of his hands, the wounds would leave scars and suddenly, he thought of Anthony.
...exhale...
He had never liked killing. He always felt that intelligent people should be able to discuss the problem, see all sides of a situtation and then come to an agreement. Unfortunately some people preferred to be the problem rather than the solution. He and Anthony would sit down together and plan, track the money, adjust priorities, find all the exit points and make the decisions. Anthony was more than his Lieutenant, he was the friend who always had his back, who looked out for him even to the point of doing what Carl so badly wanted to do himself but couldn't while he was in prison. He'd never regretted that order. Anthony understood in so many ways without saying a word and he became his brother as well as his friend.
...inhale...
Change was inevitable, even his plans had to be changed at times, obstacles would arise and adjustments would have to be made. The goal remained the same, though now he had John, Detective Carter and Harold to plan around. The first time he crossed paths with John, he had been impressed with the man's talents and grateful to him for saving his life, but he didn't expect to see him again. Fate had other ideas and John or all three would somehow conspire to come into his sphere of operations at the most inopportune times, well except for Detective Carter the night of his prison transfer. He still thought about her at times.
...exhale...
Then there was Dominic.
...inhale...
He had given it up, all of it. The plans, the power, everything just to make sure Dominic would answer for Anthony. Elias forced his eyes to open, to focus on the form lying in the street, making sure that Dominic had indeed, answered. Far off in the distance he heard sirens, police and probably a ambulance but he couldn't bring himself to care. There was no other plan, no other exit, no more games to play. He remembered telling Carter once that she was all alone and no one was coming to save her. It really was a funny old world.
...exhale...
The car door opened and Elias's unseeing eyes turned toward the sound. He saw a blurred outline of a man standing there his hand stretched out to him. He blinked, inhaled slowly and the pain lessened and his vision sharpened. "Ready to go Boss?" Anthony asked, affection in his eyes and a smile in his voice. He smiled back, took his friend's hand and allowed Anthony to show him another way out.
... ...
End