"Marco, no!" Gina stood up in alarm, ignoring the other patrons who stared at her and Marco now. "You can't!"

"I gotta do it, Gina."

"But-- but you're all I have left!" Gina bit her lower lip nervously and her body began to shake. "Michaelli, Angelo, Vino-- they're all dead now. You're the last one left! I can't lose you!"

Marco turned towards her and sighed. "You've got all this," he said, with an open hand, indicating all of Gina's Place. "You've got your singing. You've got this," he added, picking up the framed photograph again. "And it'll only be until it all blows over."

"You just said it wouldn't blow over," she quipped. "None of it will; you're right. But you can't desert me--"

"Gina, just listen!"

"You wanna leave the lady alone, pig?" Lombardo stalked up to the table, already rolling up his sleeves.

"Stay out of this, Lombardo," Marco said, "If you know what's good for you. This doesn't concern you."

"Oh yeah? I think it does, and I'll be damned if I let your pig hands harm--" WHAM!

Marco pulled his punch at the last moment before hitting the nose, but Lombardo stood frozen until his eyes rolled up into his head and he fell backwards and landed with a crash. The scrape of chair legs on the wooden floor was loud. Behind them, the dozen or so other Air Pirates had already stood, uncertain as to whether they really wanted to fight Marco or not. He did, after all, just floored their boss with a single punch.

"I warned you," Marco said, spitting on Lombardo, then turned back to Gina. "This isn't something I can exactly argue about, Gina. I gotta get going."

Gina clenched her teeth and opened and closed her hands into tight fists. "Marco... If you really need to do this, then leave now," she said levelly, but in a strained voice. "But only-- only! -- if you promise to telegraph me from where ever the hell you wind up. I'll follow you, Marco, so help me God, so promise me this!"

Marco took her hands into his, and pulled her near, then gave a light kiss on her forehead. "I can't promise you that, Gina," he whispered. "I'm an outlaw on the run, or so the government says. And what the government says goes. That's no life for you. I can't do that to you; I care about you too much." He winced as a tear welled up in Gina's eyes and then rolled down her cheek. "You've got too much going for you here."

He let go of her hands and picked up his drink, raising it slightly towards her. "To Gina's Place," he said in hushed tones. "Where people forget their ties to the past and the present." Then he swigged the glass and returned it to the table.

Gina did not watch him as he went past her silently, sullenly. Nor did she care when she heard his plane's engines roar into life, and, as he pulled away and into the Mediterranean night, fade away to nothing. She stood in place, ignoring the sympathetic stares and glances, and fought the tears that wanted to stream down her face.


FIN