A/N: I thought 'Cardinal Sin' was going to be a 2-parter, but this is one long weekend. ;) Well, what are we to do, we need to see Tony and Angela through it. Some of the dialogue in the following has been lifted directly from the original episode, so credit for those lines goes to Gene Braunstein and Bob Perlow who wrote it.

Ch 3 – Cardinal Sin (2)

"Batman!" Mike and Davey shouted in unison as Tony and Angela approached the bar, and she made a mental note to ask Tony about his nickname later.

"Guys!" Tony shouted back. "You look great!"

"No, you look great!" The taller of the two men, who had a doughy face and a receding hairline, punched Tony's shoulder.

"We all look great!" the other one, smartly dressed and fit-looking, chimed in.

"And we're all still full of it!" Tony laughed and clapped his hands in excitement.

The men took turns hugging and slapping each other on the back, and Angela decided to hang back a little until Tony was ready to introduce her. There it was again, her old awkwardness. She just didn't know how to insert herself naturally into social situations.

However, before any introductions could take place, a booming voice came from behind her. "Hey, hey, hey! Mike, Davey, Tony!"

Angela flinched and turned around to see another man, also balding, coming towards them with open arms, laughing aggressively.

"Burl!" Tony, Mike and Davey roared.

Burl gave them a hand signal, and they knew exactly what to do. Tony and the men assumed some kind of formation, bending forward in a circle and sticking their heads together, leaving just enough room for Burl to join them in a group … headbutt?

Angela watched in fascination and took another step back, wanting to give them the space that their reunion seemed to require. When they had finished knocking their heads together, the shorter of the two balding men, who was either Mike or Davey, noticed her.

"Hey, Tony, did you bring your wife?"

"Holy matrimony, Batman!" Burl hit Tony in the shoulder, and Angela thought that she saw him wince.

She knew that his bad shoulder sometimes gave him trouble if he lifted something the wrong way, overdid it playing basketball, or when the weather was about to change. Being the invincible Tony Micelli, he tried not to let on whenever he was in pain, but she could always tell.

"Ah," Tony chuckled nervously and extended his hand towards Angela, drawing her closer to them. "No, actually, this is Angela. Angela Bower. My- uh, we're … my date," he finally managed. "Angela, meet Mike, Davey, and Burl. We were on the team together from '74 to '78. Well, '77 in Burl's case – traitor." Tony pointed out each of the men when he said their names.

Angela gave them a small wave. "Hello. It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Davey – the well-dressed one – smiled at her kindly. So far, he seemed to be the most mild-mannered of the group.

"Yeah! Nice indeed." Burl threw Tony a look as if to say, 'Good going!', and Angela decided that she didn't like Burl very much.

"Hey, honey, meet Tony's date!" Mike waved over a petite brunette. "Guys, you remember Pam?"

The men confirmed that they did, and Pam joined them by the bar. "Good to see you all again! And nice to meet you …"

"Angela", Angela supplied. "It's nice to meet you, too."

"How long have you two been dating?" Pam asked.

That was a very good question. Angela waited for a fraction of a second, preferring to give Tony the opportunity to take the reins before she attempted an answer herself.

He threw her a quick look before saying, "Oh, for a while. I guess it depends on your definition of 'dating'."

Pam didn't seem satisfied with this answer, and it did sound a little vague. Unable to hold back any longer, Angela jumped in. "What Tony means is that we've known each other for a while, but we've only recently started going out."

"Oh! So, how'd you meet?"

"At work!" Tony said.

If she hadn't known how stressful this friendly interrogation likely was for Tony, Angela would have laughed. So much for their plan not to hit everybody over the head with their story.

"How nice! And what do you do?"

"I'm in advertising." It was a reflex, and Angela realized too late that this was not going to get them anywhere in terms of explaining how they had met, but instead added another layer of confusion.

"Tony! You're in the ad game?" Mike nodded appreciatively in Tony's direction.

"Uh, not exactly. I guess you could say I'm involved in it somehow. Kind of behind the scenes. But the truth is-"

Tony didn't get further than that because a pair of manicured hands appeared out of nowhere and covered both of his eyes from behind. The men erupted in hooting and clapping.

"It's your old bunkmate!" Burl spluttered, and his tone made Angela's stomach churn.

She whipped around and saw a tall, curvy redhead in a tight red dress pressing her body against Tony's back. He brought his hands up to his face and touched the woman's hands.

"Stevie G.?" Tony asked, sounding in equal measure desperate and hopeful.

"No," the woman scolded him playfully.

Underneath her hands, Tony raised his eyebrows. Her voice seemed to have triggered a memory.

"Betty."

In a sultry voice, Betty purred, "Hi, Batman. I knew if I came to enough of these things, you'd show up sooner or later."

Tony peeled Betty's hands off his eyes and turned around to face her, putting a small distance between them in the process.

"Yeah, well, I'm here," he said, his voice cracking. Angela had a hard time determining whether he was embarrassed, flattered, or afraid.

"You look great," Betty said and let her eyes rove over his body.

Angela had to admit that Betty herself was pretty, too. In a Las Vegas showgirl kind of way, but pretty nonetheless, with her hourglass figure, pale, elegant features, and a head full of tumbling red curls.

"You, uh, you look great, too." Tony swallowed, and Angela saw his Adam's apple bob up and down with the force of it. "So, you're still following the Cards, huh?"

"From town to town," Betty drawled. "Each time they score, I'm there."

"We remember!" the other three men laughed. Angela caught Pam's eye, and they exchanged an exasperated look.

Meanwhile, Tony cleared his throat and took a large step away from Betty, bumping into Angela on his retreat. Having made contact, he was quick to put his arm around her shoulders.

"Betty, I want you to meet someone. Someone special. This is Angela. Angela Bower. Angela, this is Betty Randall."

"Pleased to meet you, Angela Bower." Betty appraised her with slanted green eyes.

"And you," Angela said politely.

"Angela and I are here together," Tony explained further. "From New York. Well, from Connecticut, actually."

"Oh." Betty was visibly taken aback by this information. "I didn't think you'd want to settle down again. In the country no less."

"Well, uh, things change," Tony chuckled nervously and rubbed Angela's upper arm.

She felt her face contort into a pained smile. This was not what she had expected, and the reunion hadn't even officially begun. Who were these people? Had Tony played baseball with a bunch of Neanderthals and spent his spare time bedding groupies? What about Marie?

Of course, Angela wasn't naïve. She had never assumed that Tony had lived like a monk, although he liked to say that he would have made a great one. The way she understood it, he had … enjoyed what life had to offer, both before he had married Marie and after she had died.

She knew the stories. Or rather the fragments that Tony told around the house, where one of the kids could walk in at any time. His anecdotes were populated by many colorful characters, and by a surprising number of twins. Twins from Brooklyn and from Budapest, and from a couple of other places around the country and around the world. Angela had even met some of them. And yet, a part of her had always assumed that these were just tall tales. Embellished for the benefit of Tony's gullible suburban audience and for his buddies from the old neighborhood, many of whom seemed to be living vicariously through the retellings of his conquests.

But faced with the living embodiment of Tony's past in Major League Baseball, Angela felt decidedly uneasy. She needed some space to make sense of her jumbled thoughts.

"Tony," she said carefully. "How about I let all of you catch up. I have to make a quick phone call anyway. Mother will want to know that we arrived safe and sound."

"What? Are you sure?"

"Absolutely." She gave his hand a reassuring pat and wound herself out of his embrace. "I'll come and find you when I'm done."

Tony turned away from the group and said under his breath, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Promise. I'll see you in a bit." She squeezed his hand and waved at the others. "Have fun!"

Then she walked away in the direction of the elevators.

ooooooooo

The phone call to Fairfield took less than two minutes. Nothing out of the ordinary was going on back home. Her mother was playing music at top volume, Sam had finals to study for, and it was feeding day for Jonathan's snake.

Nobody in the family, not even Mona, who usually had a sixth sense about such matters, seemed to suspect that something very much out of the ordinary was going in St. Louis, and that it had been going on for weeks before that, bubbling under the surface of their everyday lives.

Following her sobering encounter with Tony's teammates and especially with Betty, Angela was glad that she didn't have to field nosy questions and double entendre over the phone. As far as her mother and the kids were concerned, she was here as Tony's best friend, that was all.

With a sigh, she looked at her wristwatch. Still more than an hour until the lunchtime reception. She didn't feel like going back upstairs yet. The phones were in a nook off the check-in area on the ground floor, not far from the main entrance. Maybe some fresh air would help clear her head.

Angela didn't have a coat but figured she would be fine for a couple of minutes. Stepping out from under the awning above the entrance, she sought out a section of pavement that was cast in sunlight. It really was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid-50s. She turned her face to the sun, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, momentarily allowing the early morning departure and her nerves to catch up with her.

But almost immediately, a woman's voice interrupted her reverie. "Angela?"

She opened her eyes again and saw Mike's wife, standing on the sidewalk, smoking a cigarette.

"Oh, hi. Pam, right?"

"Yeah." The other woman smiled. "Are you alright?"

Angela nodded. "I just needed some air."

Pam got out a pack of cigarettes and offered it to her.

"Thank you, I don't smoke."

"Smart," Pam winked and put the cigarettes back in her purse. "I guess you haven't been to one of these reunions before?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"A little." Pam looked at her sympathetically. "These guys can be a lot. Not to mention the … Annies."

Angela had never heard that term before, but she could tell from Pam's eye-roll that she was referring to Betty and her ilk.

"Did I hear that right and you and Mike were already together when they were all on the team?"

"Yup." Pam took a drag on her cigarette. "Got married in '75. Mike retired in '83. I've been along for most of the ride."

"How was it?"

"Well, for half the year it's like being married to a traveling salesman. During offseason, it's like having a third child."

They both had to laugh at that.

"You have two kids?"

"A boy and a girl, eleven and eight. Zachary and Ashley. You?"

"I have a son, Jonathan. He's eleven, too. And a- well, Tony has a daughter. Samantha. But you probably knew that."

Pam gave her a little half-smile. "Yeah, I remember. Poor thing. How old is she now?"

"Sam's sixteen. She's a real sweetheart."

"Then you know all about Tony's wife?"

Angela nodded. "Most of it."

"When Marie died, everybody thought it was going to kill him." Pam shook her head sadly.

Angela never pried where Marie was concerned, figuring that it was wise to let Tony decide what he wanted to tell her, and when. She had a general idea of what had happened, and how he had coped, but of course that was very different from actually having known him back then, and from having witnessed their ordeal first-hand.

"Did you know her well?"

Pam shook her head. "Not really. She was in New York most of the time, near family. But she and Samantha came to some of the home games, and whenever I talked to her, she was very sweet. Knew how to handle him, too."

"He loved her a lot, didn't he?"

Pam nodded thoughtfully. "Tony is a good man. And they had one of the better marriages in professional baseball, that's for sure. Mind you, mine isn't half bad, either." She said that last part with an ambiguous smile. "But some of the other guys ... well, you've met Burl. And Betty."

"I can imagine." It was immensely satisfying to learn that her instincts about both of them hadn't been off.

Pam finished her cigarette and stubbed it out in a standing ashtray. "Mind if I smoke another one? It's so nice out today, and we'll be stuck indoors all afternoon."

"No, of course not." Angela liked Pam and was happy to continue talking to her. She also wanted to give Tony time alone with his teammates – and with Betty, if necessary – so he could get some things out of the way without having to worry about her. Maybe by the time she got back, he would have found his bearings and things would feel less awkward.

Pam lit up another cigarette and grinned at Angela through the smoke. "So, we never finished this upstairs. How did you two meet?"

Angela felt herself blush and looked down at her pumps for a second.

"Come on, it can't be that bad!"

"Well, like Tony said: at work."

"So you're both in advertising?"

"Ah, no. I am. I have my own agency. But Tony, well, actually – he's been my housekeeper for the past four years. My live-in housekeeper." It was probably best to get it all out there in one go.

Pam just looked at her, and then she blinked a couple of times, as if trying to decide whether or not Angela was kidding. "Really?"

"Really." Some serious heat was rising to Angela's cheeks now, but at the same time it felt so freeing to be telling another person about them.

"Now that's something you don't hear every day," Pam said, nonplussed.

Angela exhaled. "Believe me, I know. It's a little unusual. Tony was living in Brooklyn at the time, and he wanted to get Samantha out of the City. And, well, after my divorce I needed someone to take care of the house, and of Jonathan, and one day my mother met Tony in the lobby of her old apartment building, and … well, here we are."

Pam was still staring at her, ash accumulating at the tip of her cigarette. "So for all these years, you've been-"

"Oh, no!" Angela interjected. "No, no. We became very good friends, and only recently we've started … re-evaluating our relationship." She found herself using Tony's exact words, as they really described it best. "The kids are older now, and Tony went back to school in the fall, so we felt like maybe it was time for us to ..." Angela resorted to a convoluted hand gesture instead of finishing her sentence.

"Wow." Pam breathed out a large cloud of smoke. "But hey, it's the 80s, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," Angela laughed, relieved that Pam didn't seem to be judging her. If anything, she looked impressed.

"Tony deserves it," Pam said simply, blinking into the sunlight. "Marie dying, and then a career-ending injury, all within a year – I always wondered what became of him. It's good to see that he's got better luck now. I hope things work out for you two." She gave Angela a sincere smile.

"Thank you. I hope so, too."

After a long drag to finish her cigarette, Pam said, "I'm starting to freeze out here. Should we get back inside? I can introduce you to some of the other ladies. They're not all Bettys in there."

"That's a relief." Angela was grateful for Pam's offer to take her under her wings. "And yes, I'd like that."

While they were talking to some of the other wives and girlfriends, Angela began to feel more relaxed. Many of the women knew each other from way back when or from previous get-togethers, and they made her feel welcome in their midst.

When the official part of the weekend was about to begin, Angela went looking for Tony and found him still near the bar, talking animatedly to a group of men. Betty was nowhere to be seen. So he seemed to have found a way to resolve things with her, Angela noted, not without relief. Maybe she had overreacted a bit. Much like Tony when he had gotten jealous over Jack.

"Hey, Angela!" A smile broke across Tony's face when he saw her coming up to them. "There you are. I was going to send a search party. Everything okay at home?"

She acknowledged the other men with a brief nod and a smile. "Yeah, everybody is fine. Sam says to hit one into the bleachers for her tomorrow."

"Did you hear that?" Tony said to the group. "That's my girl!"

"We'll see about the bleachers, Batman." The man standing closest to Tony elbowed him in the ribs, to which the others responded with uproarious laughter. Tony elbowed him back good-naturedly before stepping forward and taking Angela's hand.

"Come on, let's go find a good spot. Nowhere near these guys!" he shouted back at the group.

As she walked alongside him towards the hotel ballroom, hands clasped, shoulder against shoulder, Angela could hardly believe that she had let those other guys and Betty spook her.

She had nothing to worry about.

ooooooooo

The guests gathered in the hotel's large ballroom, and Angela was surprised to see how many former players, their wives or girlfriends, and in some cases even whole families were in attendance. The Cardinals' President and a representative of Redbird Nation, the official Cardinals fan club, delivered short welcome addresses, and the whole room cheered.

It made sense, of course, that there were so many people and that everybody was so enthusiastic: The Cardinals were more than a hundred years old and one of the most successful baseball franchises in the nation. Angela had just never thought about what that truly meant in terms of numbers and achievements, and she had underestimated the sense of pride and tradition that went along with all of it.

After the welcome, there was a buffet lunch in the restaurant, and then they were asked to find their seats in a huge conference room that had been set up like an auditorium with rows of chairs and a stage. Over the course of the next hour and a half, More speeches were given, awards were presented, and Old Timers from various generations came onto the stage for brief interviews.

In the seat next to Angela, Tony applauded and whistled through his teeth, and she got the impression that he knew most of these men, either personally or because they were 'living legends', or both – like this one gentleman, Lou Block (or was it Brock?), who got the longest standing ovations of all.

The final item on the official agenda was a prep meeting for those players who would be in tomorrow's charity game. Angela decided to make use of the resulting lull by heading back to their suite for a change of clothes.

Dinner would be served, and she wanted to look her best for the occasion – especially if that Betty woman showed up again. She hadn't seen her all afternoon, but she had heard talk of an open bar later on, so it seemed likely that Betty would make another appearance. She decided on her green and white paisley dress, the one with the open back. Tony had commented on it when she had worn it before, so she knew that he liked it.

It felt almost silly to be dressing up for the same man who saw her in her bathrobe every morning back home, but then again, this was what this weekend was about: Breaking out of their routines, spending time together as Tony and Angela. Not as friends, not as boss and employee, but as – and it felt so strange to even be thinking this: as man and woman.

Not that she necessarily expected that they would be going there this weekend. Still, the whole point of her coming along on this trip was for them to make some kind of progress. So far, she felt that they were doing alright. They had managed to inform several people of their relationship status, if one could call it that, and it had gone over reasonably well.

Angela was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, manipulating her hair into an upsweep, when she heard the door.

"Ang? Are you in here? It's me."

"I'll be out in a minute!" She did her best to articulate clearly around the three bobby pins that she was currently holding between her teeth.

"What did you say?" At the edge of her field of vision, Angela saw Tony walk towards the open bathroom door. Then he stopped and leaned against the door frame, watching her.

"Never mind," she mumbled and placed the next bobby pin where she needed it to hold down a stubborn strand of hair.

"You want me to help you with that?"

Careful not to undo any of her work, she shook her head no. "I'm almost done."

"Did I ever tell you I like your hair like this? It's a good look on you. Very classic. Shows off your neck." There was a softness to his voice that usually came through after about two beers, or a glass of wine.

"Tony," she said, struggling not to drop the last remaining pin as a flattered grin tugged at the corners of her mouth.

"What? It's true. It looks … sexy."

Angela felt herself beginning to blush at how forward he was. After a quick look at him out of the corner of her eye, she placed the final pin. Then she gave herself a once-over in the mirror before turning to face Tony.

"Voilà."

"Like I said, beautiful. The dress, too."

"Thank you. I remembered that you like it."

Their eyes met, and even though they were standing at least five feet apart, the air between them crackled with tension.

"You think I need to change, too?" Tony cocked his head and lifted an eyebrow.

Angela made a show of looking him up and down. "Only if you feel like it. I mean, you could. You did bring a shirt and tie." Feeling bold, she walked towards him, hooked two fingers into the collar of his sweater, where a tie would be, and pulled.

But Tony was quick to take hold of her wrist, and so it was Angela who ended up taking another large step in his direction while he remained anchored to the door frame.

"I did. So maybe I should. Change, that is," he mused. Their faces were mere inches apart now, and Angela was reminded of the fact that they were all alone in the suite, free to do as they pleased.

"Yeah, maybe you should. I wouldn't mind if you did," she said.

"I guess then I will. In a minute."

"Well-" Angela wanted to say more, but he silenced her with a brush of his lips against hers.

"If that's alright with you?"

She just nodded, and Tony's hands found her hips, pulling her body flush against his while he stroked her bottom lip with his tongue. Angela enjoyed making him work for it a little bit before opening her mouth to him.

Their tongues celebrated a leisurely reacquaintance, and immediately something felt different. This kiss was calmer somehow, more intimate than any they had shared before. It seemed to her that it carried some kind of promise. Maybe it was because they were so far away from home and from everything that made their situation complicated.

Something deep inside Angela gave way, and she sighed into his open mouth. Tony responded by digging his fingers into her hips, and she brought her hands up to cup his cheeks, feeling the beginnings of a five o'clock shadow on him. Their breathing grew labored as they continued like this for a while, kissing deeply and so slowly that it was beginning to border on agony.

Eventually, Tony pulled away.

"Okay," he said and looked at her with an enigmatic smile. "I think we have a dinner to go to. And I need to change." Then he turned on his heels and went to get his shirt and tie from the closet in the sitting room.

Angela stood in the doorway, slightly befuddled. Her gaze fell onto the open door to one of the bedrooms, and she realized that they had still not discussed sleeping arrangements.