Dante's Opera

Chapter One

Story continued from "Lulu Let's Them Have It!"

"When did you get so smart?" Dante smiled. "Maybe you should be a psychologist and give us all therapy."

Lulu laughed then and said, "Hmmm, if I think about it, I'd be rich with all the sessions you'd have to take alone."

"Alone?" Dante's smile widened, his eyebrows raised. "Well, what kind of therapy would that entail?"

"Well, a little of this," Lulu leaned in to Dante and gave him two slow kisses, "and a little of this," she said again before she kissed him again. This time, Dante reached his hand behind her head and kept her lips there. He pulled her deeper into the kiss as his tongue parted their lips. As was their experience, no sooner had they started to get more passionate with their kiss than his door opened again and his mom came in.

Lulu whispered into Dante's mouth, "We have got to start locking doors and turning off cell phones."

Dante laughed, as Olivia offered her apology. Neither Dante nor Lulu took their eyes off each other during the interruption.

"No, Ma," he said, "Come in. We have a lot to talk about."

His eyes still on Lulu, Dante said, "Come back later?"

"Mmm, hmm," Lulu responded and kissed him again. Then she got up from his bedside, grabbed her purse and left Dante and Olivia to talk.

As the door closed, Olivia spoke up and cautioned Dante, "Are you sure you two should be so, uh, close so soon?"

"Close? We were just kissing, Ma," Dante countered, "And I almost died so if I want to kiss Lulu or she wants to kiss me, well, we have the right."

"Okay, okay, I get it. You know I like her. She's good for you and she's crazy about you. She's like a younger, blonder version of me. I have no aversion to you dating Lulu," Olivia defended, "But you need to rest and not be getting frisky. Hey, you may be mad at me right now, and I know that you and Lulu are hot for each other but you need to cool it until you're healed…or at least out of the hospital." Though Dante tried to interrupt his mom's little speech, she hadn't allowed it until she was done saying what she wanted to say.

"Now, how are you feeling?" she asked him.

"I'm okay," Dante responded, "Better but still in pain in the chest area where my father, who I didn't know about, shot me. Oh, and I think it's because my mother lied to me and never told me until it was too late that he was my father. That's how I'm feeling."

"Okay, I get that you're angry and I can deal with that. But I am your mother and I love you and I get to worry about you and ask you how you're feeling. And I deserve a straight answer, Dante," Olivia asserted her position at the head of their family.

"Well, I think you'll forgive me if I'm a little pissed at you for letting my father almost kill me," Dante responded, still heated. "You know what? I just want to know one thing: why? Why did you not tell me about Sonny?"

"How was I supposed to tell you? By the way, Sonny's your father so the last year and a half of your life that you spent undercover has been worthless? Would you have stopped your investigation? Would you be any less angry with me then than now? I don't think so, not on either account. That's not who you are, Dante," she answered.

"Everything I am is a lie now, Ma," Dante said.

"No. Just because Sonny is your father doesn't change the man you are, the man you've become. Sonny has nothing to do with who you are besides genetics and blood. You are his opposite," Olivia pointed out. "You uphold the law and Sonny is a criminal. And you know that I had very good reasons why I didn't tell you that Sonny was your father. Just as much as you hate that he's your father, I hate the man he is and didn't want you any part of his life. Because I kept you away from him, you are your own man and you're such a good man, baby. I'm so proud of the man that you are, the job you've done and even the woman you've fallen in love with."

"Nice try, Ma," Dante interjected. "Let's leave Lulu and my job out of this for now. I just found out that you've known who my father was my entire life. I just found out that the man I thought was my father isn't. Oh, yeah, I never told you that I did my own research and figured out who might be my father but it didn't seem right that I approach him. Well, now I know why it didn't feel right because it wasn't. I've always had good instincts, Ma. It's why I'm a good cop. Maybe even my easy connection with Sonny was partly due to the fact that I had a genetic connection to him. I don't know. All I know is that my father pulled the trigger on an unarmed cop. Yeah, it just happened to be me but regardless of that, he still pulled the trigger and didn't flinch once. That's who I know as my father."

"I don't know what you want me to do or say, Dante. I just know that I don't apologize for keeping him from you. He's not an influence that I wanted in my kid's life. Period. You can hate me for it, that's fine. But I'd choose to do it all over again in a heartbeat," she said. "Now, I know you need your rest and we aren't going to solve this all right now…and you don't need to be getting so worked up. I'm going to go and you need to sleep. I love you, baby. That has never changed or will ever change, no matter how angry we are at each other or whether we agree or not."

"I love you, Ma. I just don't really like you very much right now," Dante responded.

"I'll take that. I don't like it but I'll take it. Now, I'm going and you're going to rest," Olivia said and then left his bedside and closed the door behind her.

Dante laid his head on his pillow, closed his eyes and let out a loud sigh. His head was swimming and he just didn't know what to think or how to react. He was a good cop and he loved his job. However, the father he'd never known was the biggest mob boss on the eastern seaboard. The man he hated his entire life, the man who had shot Mr. Poletti, the man who would stare directly at an unarmed man and shoot him with no remorse was his flesh and blood. He even resembled him in features, in personality and charm. Dante had respected Sonny in a lot of ways, despite his assignment and personal vendetta. He'd seen a side of Sonny that he hadn't expected. Dante found himself struggling to continue his work with concern for both Sonny's kids and Sonny himself.

But how do I ever forget the coldness in his eyes as he pulled the trigger? Dante asked himself. It was a sick joke that life pulled on him – and on Sonny. That man's blood ran throughout his own. Dante had to deal with the fact that his own father shot him, as Sonny dealt with the fact that he had shot his own son point blank. But take that all away, Dante said softly out loud, and nothing would be different. He still would've shot me.

Then Dante realized his true dilemma: it wasn't just that Sonny was his father and now Michael, Morgan and Kristina his siblings, but the fact that until Dante, Sonny never had a chance to change, to grow from all the anger. Having gotten so close and knowing bits and pieces of Sonny's childhood, knowing that Sonny loved his kids more than his own life, and now knowing that his mom had lied to him all these years about his father, Dante realized that maybe Sonny wouldn't have chosen this life if he'd have known that Dante was his. Would Sonny have chosen Dante, and by extension, Olivia, over Scully's business? Would he have gone another direction if he knew he had a child to care for? Was it Dante that Sonny needed? Was it Dante's responsibility now to help his father see the error of his ways, to help him turn away from his criminal life? Was it even possible for Sonny to do that at this point? Did Dante even have a chance to help his father find his way out of such a dangerous life? Or was it pointless and they were doomed to be on opposite sides of the law?

Then he realized the most critical of decisions made about their relationship was his mom's: Was Olivia's decision the cause of Sonny's dangerous life? If his mother had told Sonny, would he have taken a different path in life? Was his mom truly at fault for both Dante's life and Sonny's life? These thoughts made Dante feel nauseous. The separation he felt from his mom was growing with each minute. The strong bond and relationship they'd always enjoyed was going up in smoke all around him. He loved her truly but one decision of hers could've caused all this pain and anger. One mistake had changed everything about her in his eyes. Not only had his paternity been a catalyst for his inner turmoil, but his connection to his mom was in jeopardy. The one person in his life until now that he could solely and completely trust had created the biggest lie in his life.

In that same moment, Dante's thoughts turned to Lulu. His mom had been right about her: she was a younger, blonder version of Olivia but with one difference. Lulu wouldn't lie to him. In fact, she'd been so honest with him throughout his assignment. Even when she disagreed with him, she still kept his secret and even supported him. Regardless of what happened in the future, he knew without a doubt that she was the only person that he could trust right now. He only had one resting place and it was in her. If there was anything that he could say that he knew for sure, it was that. She was his solid ground right now and he felt so fortunate that he had her to lean on.

He desperately wanted to see her then. He wanted to talk to her and get her opinions…even to just see her face and feel her hands in his. He was telling the truth when he told her that he'd never felt this way about a girl before. But she was more than just a girl to him. She was a truly amazing woman of strength, incredible support and moral stance. She was beautiful, funny, smart and fiery….and she had chosen to be with him. He'd pursued her so relentlessly but he had no bearing on her decision to be with him. He was not going to break through her walls unless she decided to let him. His eyes started to tear when he realized the gift that she had given him: that she was choosing to be with him over anyone and anything else, including her family. In a life spent without a father, with a chip on his shoulder since Mr. Poletti's death, and a mother that couldn't know everything about a boy growing up in a single parent home – no matter how amazing she'd been – there was never anyone that wasn't related to him that chose to love him unconditionally until Lulu. No other woman he'd ever dated or since Mr. Poletti had ever truly chosen him over anyone else. His heart was full just thinking about Lulu's fierce protection of him and her gentleness with him. It overwhelmed him so that he hadn't noticed tears were streaming easily down his face.

A few moments later, the door to his room slowly opened and he saw who he knew would forever be the love of his life gently enter into his room. Quickly, he wiped the tears away before she had a chance to notice. It wasn't fast enough.

"Hey," Lulu spoke softly and with a soft smile as she slowly entered his room, "are you awa---Dante, are you okay?" Lulu hadn't gotten her first sentence out before she noticed Dante's tear-stained face.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he lied.

Lulu was at her chair beside him by the time he answered. "No, you're not. What happened with Olivia? Did she upset you?" She was clearly concerned.

"Nothing gets past you, does it?" he said then continued, "No, actually it doesn't have anything to do with her. It has everything to do with you."

"Oh, did I do something wrong?" she was holding his hand and let go, thinking she'd done something to cause what she thought was grief.

But Dante grabbed her hand again and reassured her, "No. You didn't do anything wrong. It's not like that." He rubbed her hand with his and pulled her a little closer, her rolling chair obeying his command. "You are so beautiful and so amazing. I'm so lucky to have you by my side and that you've chosen to be with me." He was looking directly into her eyes, he wasn't even blinking. "I don't know if I would ever be able to get through all of this without you. But it's even more than that. I don't want to live without you. I don't want to know what my life would be like without you in it. With all the craziness around me, you are the one solid, stable thing in my life. And I guess when I realized that, and because of all the medication, it made me tear up. That's all." He smiled at her the smile that had always made her melt.

"That's all, huh? The medication and you finally realizing that I'm never allowing you to push me away ever again is what makes you cry? Good to know you finally listened to me and it brought you to tears. I guess I have more power over you than I thought," she joked back, with a smile that illuminated her face.

"Yeah, but remember that I'm on meds, too, so I may not have cried if I weren't so drugged," he pointed out, joking about his manliness.

"Oh, okay, well I guess I'll let you win this argument since you're so weak and drugged right now," she joked back.

He laughed a little then said, staring again into her eyes, "Seriously, I do love you, Lulu Spencer, for everything you are. I wouldn't change anything about you."

"I'm so in love with you, Dante Falconeri," Lulu said back, her left hand on his right cheek. He pulled her closer and they kissed gently but with emotion that overwhelmed them both. She pulled away after a short while and said, "You need to rest now."

"I know, but will you lay here with me?" Dante asked her breathlessly. Their foreheads were resting against each other, their eyes closed.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Lulu responded as she pulled her face away from his enough to look into his eyes.

"I just want to fall asleep with you in my arms," Dante said truthfully. "I just want to wake up knowing you're here."

She looked at him lovingly and just said, "Okay." She removed her shoes as he moved a little to his left, gingerly. Then she climbed on the bed on his right side and kissed him square on the forehead before she snuggled against him. She laid her right hand between his chest and abdomen as he hugged her to him with both arms. They closed their eyes and rested silently until both fell asleep. He would think no other thoughts until morning, when he would be forced to make a decision about his father.

Chapter 2 of 10: Dante & Sonny, take 2