Back in Italy

Author's Warning: This is a prequel that takes place 6 years before 'Back in Business.' Takes place some weeks before "Paper Plane Down," the very first CGI animated episode of Fireman Sam. MAJOR SPOILER FOR 'BACK IN BUSINESS' HERE. Also, even though Penny is shown as a full-time firefighter in Series 5, she is still in the process of moving her stuff to Pontypandy at this point.

Disclaimer: Bella, Fireman Sam and all related characters are owned by S4C, Prism Entertainment, Hit Entertainment and have I missed anyone? Ella is my OC. And so are Pia and Benita, who are Bella's mother and sister respectively.

PS. I'm sorry if much of the dialogue and letter-writing seem forced in places.

Six years ago...

It was just another day in Pontypandy. The emergency services were called out again and a rescue was successfully carried out. Norman Price got into trouble for yet another one of his pranks and was punished. Other than that, the day was just fine and dandy.

Until two important letters came to one of its residents. Signora Bella Lasagna had just finished sweeping the area outside her beloved Cafe, when the postman came and delivered two letters to her. After giving the tired postman a tub of refreshing homemade mango sorbet and waving goodbye to him, she took one look at the letters, looked around to see if anyone was looking and dashed off.

This was because one of her letters had important information for her, which she had been waiting on for two weeks. She quickly dashed off to her room, opened her letter and read it.

"Dear Mrs Lasagna..."

Bella scoffed. Everyone knew that she was actually a 'Miss.' Or as she puts it, a 'Signorina.' She continued reading.

"Dear Mrs Lasagna,

I am writing to you to confirm that I have indeed found the whereabouts of your younger sister, Benita. She is currently married to a Neapolitan postman named Marco di Luca and together they have two adult children. Signora di Luca runs a successful bakery in Tonypridd, which is just 4 miles away from Newtown. In this letter, I have enclosed the address to their current residence in Tonypridd as well as the address of the Luca Bakery. I hope that you find this information to your satisfaction.

Kind regards,

Mack Compton (Private Detective)."

Bella sighed. She had finally found her sister after years of not talking to each other and no communication. The events of the day that led to this happening were still raw in her mind...

-Flashback-

"No, no, no! And for the thousandth time, NO!" 25-year-old Bella Lasagna was shouting. "I am NOT getting married to that man! I do not love him, Mamma!"

"Isabella, this is for your own good! Times are hard!" Pia Lasagna hissed at her eldest daughter. "We need the money, this war hasn't been good for all of us! Our rations are almost finished and Signore Prominetti is the only one who can help us!"

"I know he can help us Mamma," Bella pleaded, "But do I HAVE to marry him, just so he can help us?"

"Well, he IS rich," 23-year-old Benita admitted, "And rather good-looking, come to think of it..."

"He's also very old and has a daughter the same age as me!" Bella interrupted her. "I went to school with her! Honestly, WHY do you even think this will solve anything? There's more to life than just getting married you know!"

"Oh no, don't you start with that again!" Pia exclaimed angrily, "My nonna arranged my marriage to your father and see where I am now! Your father didn't die serving our country so that his daughter could disobey her elders!"

"Mamma has had a happy marriage, haven't you Mamma?" Benita asked. Pia smiled proudly as she nodded.

"But WE are the only children you have and your nonna knew it!" Bella pointed out, "We are not boys!"

That really set Pia off. She slapped Bella in the face immediately.

"No, you're both my daughters. And YOU will soon be giving ME grandsons!"

"Bella, you're so weird," Benita sulked, "Why am I not married yet?"

"Soon, cara mia, soon," Pia replied.

"Are you really not going to take my side, Benita?" Bella demanded, "I actually want to make my own money and if I get married, I won't be able to do that! And don't get me started on children! I love children, but I just don't see myself as a mother."

"I don't know why you just don't do as Mamma says. Marriage is romantic," Benita replied nonchalantly.

"But what if he turns out to be a bad man, like Emmalina's husband?"

"Bella, please don't make life complicated," Benita shrugged. "We NEED the money."

That was the end of the conversation. But, for strong-minded and stubborn Bella Lasagna, this was the beginning of a long journey that would lead to a great future.

That night, as her mother and sister slept, Bella packed her clothes and what little money she had and sneaked off to the Roman harbour in search of a ferry that she had heard was going to leave tonight, taking many Italians to a country she had never heard of before: Wales.

-End Flashback-

"Oh, sorella, look at-a where we are now..." Bella said to herself, "We are-a happy in our own way. I got-a what I wanted, you got-a what you-wanted. And we no talk to each other!"

She sighed again as she took the other letter and looked at it. An Italian stamp? Who could be sending her letters from Italy? The only family she had there was...

Her heart skipped a beat as she read the letter. It was in Italian:

"{My daughter,

Not a day has gone by when I remember you and, sometimes I regret that it was my fault that you ran away. Yet my stubbornness was what held me back from looking for you, because I was afraid that you would not want to talk to me. We were lucky that day when Signore Prominetti did give us enough money for rations two days after you had gone. And I was lucky to survive the bomb to our town, two days after I sent Benita on a ferry to Wales, just like the one you took. Yes, I know now that you went to Wales and became to apprentice of Signore Ridoli, just before he died and gave you his Cafe.

I am truly lucky that my lovely children were able to find happiness in their own ways. Yet I feel sad that they let their disagreements tear them apart.

If there is only one wish I have in the world before I die, it is to see my beloved daughters together again. I have been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and I have no longer than 4 weeks to live. I want to see you again, my little Bella, to have you by my side one last time and to apologise if I hurt you back then.

All my love,

Your Mamma.}"

Bella was stunned for a few minutes. Then she crumpled up the letter, threw it to the floor and started to cry.

A few days later, a letter written in Italian was delivered in Tonypridd by Marco di Luca...

"{Mia sorella,

I am so glad to have found you at last. Sometimes, I think of you and wonder where you are and how happy you are. But as happy as I am to see you, I am the bringer of bad news. Our Mamma has written to me saying that she is very sick and has only four weeks to live. Would it be possible for us to put aside our differences to take care of our mamma before she passes on? Please? And would it be possible for us to meet again and put the past behind us?

Love,

Your elder sister, Isabella}"

Benita di Luca, nee Lasagna, said nothing for a while after reading the letter.

"Wow, I never knew you had a sister, mamma!" her daughter said, "We HAVE to meet her at once!"

"Agreed," Benita's son chimed in, "Maybe if you go to Italy, mamma, we can come too! We can get a few days' leave from work, you and Auntie Bella might need help looking after nonna!" Neither of her children bothered to speak to Benita in Italian for she actually understood English quite well.

"{...No.}"

"No?"

"{We are NOT going to Italy, children.}"

"But nonna is your mamma and she needs you!" her daughter exclaimed.

"{Huh!}" Benita stood up and huffed angrily, "{If mamma really wanted me to see her, she wouldn't have written to HER first! IT should have been ME! ME! Me, the daughter who did as she was told! Not that hussy who would rather run around and break with tradition to do things her own way!}"

"I don't know, mamma, she sounds like a good person to me," her daughter replied, "She must have become happy doing things her own way, just like you went your way. And I would love to meet her."

"{...Then go. And see if I care!}"

"Mamma?! What's with you?" Her son asked incredulously, "Sorella was only saying what she thought was right!"

"Oh, yes, she is JUST as right as that woman who calls herself my sister!" Benita suddenly lost her temper and switched to English, "I'M the one who took mamma's side when she argued with Bella and yet Bella's the one who gets a letter from mamma! Bella never visited after she ran away, I visit mamma loads of times and yet mamma writes to her first!"

"Mamma," Benita's daughter pleaded, but her mother interrupted, getting angrier.

"Don't 'mamma' me, child! You're just as ungrateful as your aunt! You never listen to your mamma and you're always going off on your own and getting into dangerous situations just so you can avoid me whenever I tell you about this lovely boy I want to match you with!"

"Wha-"

"You are almost 25! You should be married by now! But no! You'd rather let me rot before I have grandchildren!"

"That does it!" Benita's daughter had enough. "Why must you make EVERY single argument about you?! Why..."

Marco, who was tending to the garden, heard his wife and daughter's raised voices and sighed. Not a day went by when they had this kind of argument.

A few minutes later, the front door banged open and Marco looked up to see his daughter, her face red with anger, stomping out with her brother close behind.

"Everything alright, bambini?" he asked. His daughter didn't answer him back. His son just shook his head.

A few more days later...

There was a going-away party at Bella's Cafe and all of Pontypandy, even Station Officer Steele was present.

"So you really have to go, eh Bella?" Fireman Sam asked Bella.

"Si, Sam. My mamma, she needs-a me. I don't-a think I can run a Cafe knowing-a that she is-a too sick in Italia to do so," Bella dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief.

It was one of the saddest days Pontypandy had ever known. The entire community had got together to say goodbye to one of its most beloved residents.

"Oh, Bella, are you sure you must go?" Dilys Price asked, but with a hint of glee in her voice, for Bella's departure meant that Trevor Evans was hers to chase.

"I would-a love to stay, but now that mamma needs-a me, I have-a to go," replied Bella sadly and they hugged.

The party was soon over and Trevor Evans' bus drove up to the stop. Sam and Elvis helped Trevor put Bella's luggage into the bus, while Bella said her final goodbyes to Pontypandy. She hugged and kissed the children, even Norman, who freaked her out when his pet frog somehow ended up in the pocket of her coat. But Bella didn't mind.

As Bella got into the bus with Rosa at her heels, a tear rolled down Elvis' cheek, "I really wish she didn't have to go."

"Now, now, Fireman Cridlington," an equally sad Station Officer Steele replied, "Stiff upper lip. I'm sure she'll come back and visit one day."

"You're right, sir," Elvis sniffed, "At least we've got Penny moving to Pontypandy now to be a full-time worker here. Where is she anyway?"

"Firefighter Morris took the night off to pack up the rest of her belongings from Newtown. Also said something about a friend's lost address, I believe."

Trevor sighed as he fired up the bus engine, "This is the worst ride I've ever had to make, Bella. I'm going to miss you."

"Me too, Trevori, I miss you the most-a," Bella sniffed.

She kissed him on the cheek when he dropped her off at Cardiff Airport. She waved at him as he drove away and didn't stop waving until he had disappeared from view.

Over three weeks later, in Rome...

Bella had just put her ailing mamma to bed after feeding her dinner, when the phone rang.

"Ciao, Trattoria di Napoli!"

A young woman's voice sobbed down the line, "Ciao? A-auntie Bella?"

Auntie Bella?!

Bella was unsettled. Who could be calling her aunt? Unless...

"{Who is this?}" she said in Italian.

"{Auntie Bella, I...*sniff* I am your niece, Isabella...I just landed at the airport in Fiumicino}"

Only one woman in the world would name her daughter after her own sister...

Minutes later, Bella had taken a cab and arrived at the airport.

She looked through the sea of faces for a young woman with brown hair and her sister's hazel-green eyes.

Eventually, someone tapped her shoulder gently and she turned around. She gasped.

The young woman bore a striking resemblance to her nonna, Bella's and Benita's mamma. Except for the eyes, which were inherited from Benita, who inherited them in turn from her own father.

"I...I'm Ella...I'm..."

"My little niece!" Bella tearfully exclaimed, "You look so beautiful!"

Ella smiled at her long-lost aunt. But her bottom lip was trembling.

"But, cara mia, where is your mamma?" Bella asked.

In response, Ella burst into tears.

Bella realised that Benita had not come after all and she too started to cry as she hugged her newfound niece.

Two weeks later, Pia "Nonna" Lasagna died peacefully with her daughter, granddaughter and Rosa by her side.

Well. That turned out better than it looked in my head. I think. Hope you liked it!