The Family Way- Chapter Four
***
"We found traces of the explosive semtex by the front door." The Chief Fire Marshal explained to Angel and Anthony- back from New York on the first available plane.
"Someone did a very good job of destroying that house and everything in it." He continued. Angel's heart sank. Any chance it was an accident was thrown out of the window.
"Are there any leads?" Anthony asked calmly.
"All we, and the police department have been able to ascertain so far was that the job was done by someone who knew what they were doing. And they wanted to do it right."
"Thank you, officer."
"You're welcome sir." The fire marshal was then shown out by Spike.
"You can stay on the compound, Angel. It's safest. Someone was out to get you. Or get to us through you. I won't let them." Anthony smiled with only a hint of humour.
"Any ideas?"
"The Romanos come straight to mind. But this isn't their style." Anthony mused. "Far too messy for Vito's tastes."
"Is there anyone else?"
"Not that I know of. I worked a long time to make sure we didn't have enemies. One way or another." Angel looked at Anthony with curiosity. Never had Anthony ever expressed any regrets for his actions before. Not to Angel, anyway.
"I'll open up Roberto's old house for you." Anthony told him, the moment over.
"Giles doesn't use it anymore?"
"He's never here enough. He stays in the main house when he visits. Like for Buffy's birthday."
"Oh. Well, I need to see if there's anything to salvage. Though I doubt it." Angel told him, moving to the door.
"Angel?" Anthony said. Angel held his breath and turned round. This was it.
"I don't doubt your feelings for Buffy and I don't doubt that the night of her birthday was conducted with all propriety. In fact, I'm glad you ended up on the floor of her room than in a small pile of ash. But I don't want you sleeping over in my daughter's room again." Anthony paused to glare meaningfully. "Understand?"
"Of course. It won't happen again." Angel nodded and left, thankful that Anthony didn't really think anything had happened.
***
Anthony turned once again to the picture of his wife on the desk. He forced the rage he felt inside him to dissolve to nothingness. He knew exactly why Angel had been in Buffy's room, and he didn't need to have been in the house to know. Nobody had said anything to him, he didn't think that anyone else suspected Buffy and Angel. But he knew.
He had seen something different in Buffy's eyes when he returned home from New York. He knew it, because thirty years ago he had been the same. He remembered, looking into her eyes, although only a photo version, how much he had loved Daniella then, as he did now.
Yes, he had been hit by The Thunderbolt. The same Thunderbolt he knew had hit Angel. Anthony too, had been older than Daniella, although not by the same margin. Anthony too, had risked the wrath of his betrothed's father. He remembered how, the morning after, he had made up an excuse to go into the city of Palermo so he didn't have to face Alessandro Vitelli.
He had been sure that the truth of the night before was writ large on his face. He was sure that somehow, he would give the game away. Perhaps if he and Daniella hadn't married three days later, he would have done. Now he wondered if the long-dead Alessandro had ever suspected him. No, no. If he had, Anthony would have been chased out of town straight away.
Although he felt paternal anger now, he realised that Angel loved Buffy as much as he loved Daniella. He would allow Angel the belief that his secret was safe, for now. It was only fair.
***
"I think your father knows." Angel told Buffy later.
"Knows what?"
"That we... You know."
"Oh." Buffy blushed a very deep shade of crimson. "And he didn't kill you?"
"No. It was weird. He made some comment about me never sleeping in your room again and left it at that."
"Maybe he doesn't know."
"Buffy, I saw the look he gave me." Angel smiled at her. "I think he knows. But we can't do it again. Not for awhile."
"Damn." She said with a giggle. Then she turned to him. "Of course, we could always get married." Angel looked at her in surprise. She laughed.
"Why do boys always run a mile at the M word?"
"No, it isn't that."
"What is it then?"
"Well, that ring."
"What ring?"
"The one on your hand right now?" She looked down at the Claddagh on her finger.
"Do you know the story?"
"Sort of. Irish, right?"
"Yeah. The story goes that a Galway man, Richard Joyce was captured, taken into slavery and sold to a Moorish goldsmith. He became a master craftsman while in captivity. William of Orange then got the slaves back and Joyce returned to Galway to the woman he loved."
"She waited for him?" Buffy asked.
"Yes. And he gave her the first Claddagh ring as a sign of love and devotion." Angel paused. Dare he tell her the rest.
"The Claddagh ring became a wedding ring. If you wear it on the left hand with the heart pointing towards you, it means you're bound in love with the other person forever."
"Oh." Buffy looked down in silence at her left hand, and the heart, which pointed directly at her. She then looked at Angel's hand. The same.
"We're married?" She asked, her eyes growing wide.
"No." Angel laughed. "Not really. Maybe if we were Irish and a hundred years older."
"But it would be one Hell of an excuse for my dad, huh?" She said with a wicked grin.
"Nowadays, Claddagh rings are used as friendship rings." He paused again. "Or betrothal rings." He looked directly into Buffy's hazel eyes.
"Betrothal rings, huh?" She said, not breaking their gaze. "Is this a proposal? Because it's not bad."
"Good." He kissed her. "Marry me Buffy."
"When all this is over, I will. Not before." She said. He nodded, understanding. They couldn't get married until the situation was resolved.
"Well, that's one of the best incentives I've had for getting my job done in a long time." He laughed.
***
Angel, Buffy, Xander and Danny spent the best part of the day sifting through the ruins of Angel's house in search of anything worth saving. Unfortunately, the bomb had done its job thoroughly. Anything not vaporised by the bomb had been ruined by the fire fighter's hoses.
"Just as well you didn't have too much stuff, huh Angel?" Buffy said as she picked up the copy of Vogue she'd left there. Gisele's face on the cover was completely burned away and it was a testament to the binding of the magazine that it hadn't fallen apart under the stress of fire and water.
"Yeah. I'm glad I left all my stuff in Ohio." He said, keeping up the charade.
It was true that Buffy and Danny knew about his real life, but Xander didn't, and who knew if there were bugs in the house that hadn't been destroyed? He'd been careful since moving into the house about only contacting his family from call boxes on the UCLA campus during the day, or arranging meetings with them on campus under the pretense that they were simply Buffy's classmates. He missed them all, truth be told. But he had a job to do, and he needed them to be safe.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Buffy's voice called to him in his reverie.
"Not worth a penny." He said. She grinned. He sighed. "There's nothing here." "Afraid not, pal." Xander said, patting him on the back. "And I hate to say it, if you'd been here that night, you'd be in the same state as, well, anything in here."
"I know. I know." Angel said solemnly. He refused to look at Buffy. How could he? Here he was, assigned to protect her and instead he nearly gets killed himself. Still, he was no closer to finding the killer. He could only hope that whoever had done this had been sloppy and left him some clues.
***
"Anthony called?" Angel arrived at the main house the next morning. Spike nodded. Angel went straight into Anthony's office.
"Angel, you're here." Anthony observed. "I spoke to Vito Romano. They didn't do it."
"You know this how? He just said so?"
"Yes." Anthony said coolly. "Vito is a man of his word when it comes to such things. When they tried to kidnap Buffy..." He paused only briefly to grimace, "He owned up immediately. I told you that the bombing wasn't his style."
"So that leaves us with... Nothing." Angel sighed. Anthony leaned back in his chair.
"Be patient, Angel. Act in haste, repent at leisure." He said, leaning even further back.
"Sure. And thanks for letting me stay on the compound. I appreciate it."
"No problem. You're family." Anthony smiled.
Angel was suddenly chilled through to the bone. He left the room, still shaken by Anthony's smile. It had been devoid of threat, yet had been incredibly menacing. Did Anthony suspect anything of him? Or perhaps it was just a warning that, although Angel was his right hand man, he was still the boss.
***
"Angel, are you getting any closer to finding any, oh say, evidence?" His boss at the FBI, a middle aged man by the name of Hudson, asked him rather testily.
However, Angel was not in the best of moods. He had been summonsed to the FBI headquarters in Los Angeles by a phone call from a young lady. If Anthony had his phone tapped, he wouldn't suspect Angel of being a Fed, but he would suspect him of cheating on Buffy. He wasn't sure which would be received worse.
Added to this that a half hour journey had been made into an hour and a half by the ridiculous measures he'd taken to ensure he wasn't being followed into the HQ, he was not a happy bunny.
"No sir. I've explained to you time and again, they won't just hand over evidence of a century of crime just because I asked nicely."
"What about the explosion?"
"We have no idea?"
"You have no idea or the Crocettis have no idea?" Hudson asked. Angel kicked himself. That was a slip up he could ill-afford.
"I mean that I'm working with them to discover who did it. I believe that whoever did it may be involved in the murders of Daniella and Santino Crocetti. The case I was assigned to, I believe." Angel said, a hint of sarcasm audible. Hudson sighed. It was true: Angel was assigned to discover who killed the two Crocettis, not deliver Anthony Crocetti to the FBI. Unless of course, it was Anthony who killed them.
"Well then, have you found anything about the possible murderer?"
"Well, sir. Nothing concrete. The Crocettis are even more close-mouthed about Daniella's death than business. But I'm trying. First I have to win their trust."
"Well, you seem to have done that." Hudson threw down a copy of an unidentified newspaper. The headline of the small piece said "CROCETTI NAMES SUCCESSOR". Angel picked it up. It was a simple business piece from the Wall Street Journal. According to the piece, Anthony had named Angel Martino his successor to the business interests of Cesca Olive Oil and Holdings.
"Care to explain?" Hudson asked calmly.
"I have no idea what this article is about." Angel told him.
"Really? Care to explain what you've been doing for months on this case?"
"I knew that Anthony wanted to groom me as his successor. But..."
"You knew?"
"Yes sir. It was my entry into the family."
"I thought the girl was your entry."
"No sir." Angel felt anger rise up as his superior brought Buffy into it. "She was merely my entry onto the compound. I couldn't find anything out just as her boyfriend. I had to actively join the family. As, sir, you know. I believe you've been receiving my salary and anything I receive from the family." Hudson nodded. Angel continued.
"You know that we've been following the family for decades. I'm the closest we've ever got to them. I hope that we'll have an ending to this case very soon." Angel stood up.
"I really do need to go."
"Family business?" Hudson asked.
"Yes sir. It is Anthony Crocetti's birthday next week. It's a very big deal. Members of the family and syndicate will be arriving from all over the country. I'm hoping that I'll find some kind of leads as to the killer of Daniella and Santino. Or at least a drunk partygoer with a loosened tongue. Good night, sir." Angel walked out of the room.
***
"Daddy!" Buffy exclaimed. "Will you please calm down."
"I will not calm down." He said sternly. "I will not have you running off to Las Vegas on a whim either."
"Daddy..." She whined. "I only want to take Angel away from this bomb business. I think it's really taken its toll." She said. "And he needs to learn the casino business if he's to be a part of the family." She attempted to keep the bitterness and anger out of her voice for the last part.
"No. You have studying to do. Remember Buffy, how you're a student at UCLA?"
"It would only be two days. We would go out and then return with uncle Giles in time for your birthday. We would stay at our hotel and everything. I'll even take Spike for protection."
"No. Out of the question." Anthony said. He was prepared to accept that his daughter was no longer a virgin. He was not about to let her swan off to Vegas with her boyfriend.
"Daddy..."
"No." He sighed. "You can go the day before in order to get Roberto." He said, relenting a little. "I'll book your flights now."
"Thank you daddy." She skipped around his desk and planted a kiss on his cheek. Then, she skipped out of the room.
***
The day before Anthony's birthday, Angel and Buffy boarded the plane to Las Vegas. Angel was distinctly uncomfortable about it, knowing that Anthony knew about Buffy and himself. Anthony had purposely booked two separate rooms, and Angel didn't intend to let him down.
He also knew that everyone in the hotel-casino worked for Anthony, and he had no intention of letting any kind of gossip get back to Anthony. So, perhaps predictably, after informing Buffy of the situation, she was now not talking to him.
"Buffy... Come on... Please understand my position."
"You're my fiance."
"Yes, that's right. I'm not your husband yet. You know your father better than I do. He's a Catholic and he's your father."
"I bet your dad didn't mind."
"Actually, I can still remember the day he found out that Drusilla had sex with her boyfriend at the time."
"Was he mad?"
"Put it this way, we never saw that boyfriend again. I don't think I ever saw him as mad as he was that day. Fathers don't like to know that their little girls are all grown up. And Catholic ones like ours are even worse. Think about it, what father would like to know his little girl isn't just grown up but committing a sin?"
"I guess."
"Which is why we are going to behave with complete propriety." He said. "Because I imagine your uncle would feel much the same as your father."
"I guess." Buffy sighed. "Tell me about your parents, Angel."
"What?" Angel was confused. Buffy had asked all about his sisters and about Gunn, but never about them.
"Tell me about them?"
"Joe and Louise? Well, they were more in love than I've seen anyone. I could never understand the other kids at school when their parents got divorced, because all I saw were two people who loved each other. What I told your father that night about my parents is more or less true. My father died five years ago." He paused.
"It shattered my mother. She didn't know what to do. Although we lived in Los Angeles, she was from New York, so she moved back to her old neighbourhood. I went with her until she was settled. That's when I lived in New York. It was there I began working for the FBI."
"But you came back here."
"Right. I got tired of Manhattan. I came back here and immediately got assigned to the organised crime unit."
"What happened then?"
"My mother died last year. We all went to visit her for Christmas and her birthday. She died sitting in her chair watching Bob Hope on the television."
"I'm sorry."
"It's OK. I think we were all waiting for it. Once my father died, we knew her heart was broken. I like to think she waited until she made sure Faith got into college." He laughed slightly.
"I would've liked to have met her. And your father." Buffy said. He smiled.
"Oh, they would've loved you. They were on at me from my twentieth birthday to find a good Catholic girl to settle down with."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. I think they would've preferred an Irish girl, but hey, nobody's perfect." He joked. She pouted.
"Except you." He added.
"So, who runs the jewellery business now?"
"Oh, that was always my uncle's concern. Uncle Ciarain loves his work. My father always wanted to come out to Los Angeles. He did so when he was a young man. But Uncle Ciarain loves Boston. He's so Irish-American it's not funny. He even has the red hair and everything. He looks like Conan O'Brien's much older brother. It's good for business. People love to buy authentic celtic jewellery from a man who looks the part." He went to speak again, but the announcement that the plane was beginning it's descent interrupted him.
"Well, I guess we must nearly be there." He said with a little half-smile. Buffy smiled, feeling as if she understood the oftentimes enigmatic Angel a little better.
***
"Buffy!" Roberto 'Giles' Crocetti embraced his niece warmly as she stepped from the taxi.
"Uncle Giles! It's good to see you. Why don't you come home more often?" She pouted.
"I'm busy with my work here. A hotel manager's work is never done." He said in a joking tone. "Good to see you again, Angel." He said, shaking the younger man's hand.
He led them inside the hotel and showed them to their rooms. They were separated by another room. Angel observed that the room in-between was, in fact occupied. Angel also observed other things that evening. Throughout dinner with Giles, he had a distinctly uneasy feeling. Giles seemed to be his usual polite, charming self, but Angel had a feeling he couldn't shake. Were they being watched?
He was just glad that the next morning they would be back in the relative safety of the compound in Los Angeles. It was Anthony's birthday: cause for celebration, he was sure.
***
"Buffy! You're back!" Danny was standing on a stepladder in the hall of the main house, attempting to put up decorations for his father's birthday.
"What are you doing?" She asked suspiciously.
"Putting up decorations?" Danny said, confused by her line of questioning.
"Yes. I can see that. Why?"
"Because it's our father's birthday party tonight?" He said, still bemused.
"Yes, I also know that. What I don't know is why you're putting up decorations for someone you've told me over and over you can't stand." She said. Danny got off the ladder and looked at Buffy.
"I can't hate him forever. And frankly," He lowered his voice "Since Angel's been here and hasn't found anything, I've been doubting myself."
"Aha!" She crowed triumphantly. "I told you! How did you think it could be him?"
"Because of what Mama said." He said darkly. Then, as if he changed his mind back again, he left the decorations hanging when he walked away.
"Is everything OK?" Angel asked, coming in and finding Buffy holding half- attached decorations.
"I... I think so." She said. She went up the ladder and continued where Danny had left off.
***
Anthony managed to keep Angel busy for the rest of the day with various things. Then, two hours before the surprise party was to begin, Anthony turned to Angel.
"How are the preparations for my surprise party coming?"
"What?"
"Oh come on Angel. I haven't reached this high up in life by not paying attention. Don't worry, I'll act surprised."
"Well, it's coming along great. Buffy and Danny were decorating earlier."
"Danny..." Anthony sighed. "Do you suppose that boy will ever believe that I didn't kill his mother?"
"I..."
"It's OK. I'm just musing. I always wondered why he stayed here, you know. He does hate me. He only stayed for Buffy, I think. He does hate me."
"I'm sure he doesn't."
"No, he does. I know him. I remember the day she died, that look on his face. Whatever it was she said to him, it made Danny think I killed her. As if I could bring myself to even raise my voice to her." Anthony slumped into his chair. Angel went and poured him a glass of Marsala.
"Thank you. I'm losing my touch. Ten years, Hell even five years ago this was nothing. I'm becoming sloppy. Do you know what happens to men like me when that happens? We get killed. Because so many people have been watching me and waiting for the day that I don't pay attention." He sighed. Then he looked directly into Angel's eyes.
"I don't care what you think of me but I know you love my daughter. Whatever happens, and I mean, whatever happens you must look after Buffy. She should never have been born into this." He looked so pleadingly at Angel, so vulnerably in fact, that Angel could only nod in shock.
Anthony had just told him, however indirectly, that he knew he would be killed soon. More shocking too, that he didn't really mind.
"Why do you think...?" Angel trailed off.
"Because they killed Daniella, they killed my boy. I don't know who it is, but I just wish they would show themselves. Just as long as they don't go after Buffy or Danny or Alessandro. I don't think I could stand to lose another child. We all have weaknesses, Angel. Mine are my children. Daniella's children."
In that second, Angel realised that no matter what Anthony was guilty of, he was not guilty of killing his wife or his son. Which meant that somebody else was.
***
The party began at 7:30, and every nerve in Angel's body was on the alert for anyone suspicious. However, it being that sort of party, most of the people were of the suspicious sort. He watched as several incredibly important men, all wanted by the Feds, snuck into the party and paid their respects to Don Antonio.
Anthony seemed composed now in comparison to his earlier admissions. Angel smiled as he saw Giles come in and nod a greeting to him.
"Uncle Giles!" He heard Buffy squeal happily. Although Giles had arrived in LA with them earlier, he had been absent from the Compound for most of the day.
"Buffy, where is your father?" He asked.
"Welcoming guests and presents." She told him. "Lots of people came."
"Well, he's a very important man." Giles reminded her. Then, he turned to Angel.
"How are you, Angel?"
"Fine, sir."
"I read that piece in the LA Times." Giles said conversationally.
"Oh, there's nothing to that. I don't know where they get their information from."
Angel smiled, unnerved for reasons indescribable. He looked around the large room, wondering what was doing it.
"He's in his office?" Giles asked, his attention back on Buffy.
"Yeah."
"Uncle Giles, good to see you!" Danny came over and shook his uncle's hand warmly.
"Danielo, how are you?"
"I'm fine. How is Las Vegas?"
"Oh, the same as always, gamblers, cheaters, the worst elements of society all done up in neon." Giles said in a droll tone that he could only have picked up from his years in England. He saw someone come out of Anthony's office.
"I must speak with Antonio." He said and rushed into his brother's office.
"Is there something wrong?" Danny asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know, he just seems... Off."
"I don't know what you mean." Buffy said defensively. "But you think everyone is off. Including Daddy." She said, annoyance clear in her voice.
Angel opened his mouth to speak when suddenly a shot rang out, silencing the party. Buffy and Angel shared shocked looks.
"Daddy!" She screamed, running to the office door.
"Buffy, wait!" Angel said, running after her. Danny was in hot pursuit, while most of the guests made hasty exits, not wanting to be caught up in anything.
***
Buffy threw the door open and what she saw broke her heart. Her father was slumped back in his fine leather chair, while Roberto, her beloved Uncle Giles stood by the window, a smoking gun in his right hand.
"What? Daddy!" She said, screaming. Giles held the gun up again, this time pointing towards the young blonde.
"Don't even think about it!" Angel said, his own gun aimed directly at Giles' head. Giles laughed maniacally.
"Like I care!" He shouted. "You should kill me! It would be better than being passed over every time! I was tossed away to Las Vegas! God Almighty, Antonio picked a stranger over his own brother! I SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE BOSS!" He shouted, waving the gun around.
"What?" Buffy asked, completely confused as to why her uncle would shoot her father.
She dared not move over to her father, knowing if she did, Giles would shoot.
"I should have been all-powerful! Instead I was passed over time and time again! First Father chose Anthony instead of me, then Anthony chose Santino, that evil little bastard!" He shook violently.
Buffy sighed, realising in that moment who had killed her brother. Which meant...
"You killed my mother?" She asked in a heartbreakingly sad voice.
"That bitch? She should've kept her nose out of my affairs!"
"She knew. She knew how much you hated my father. How much you hated us." Danny said. "It was you she was talking about." He realised.
XXXXXXXXXX
The Crocetti Family Compound, Los Angeles, 1982.
Danny wandered into his mother's room, his tiny sister Buffy in his arms. He was terrified that he was going to drop the infant, but she was crying so much and Mommy hadn't come to quiet her yet.
Daddy wasn't home, Sonny was at school and Xander was somewhere in the garden. So Danny had scooped his sister into his arms, holding her the way Mommy had shown him. But he'd only ever held her and found carrying her a little more difficult.
"Mommy?" He called, wondering where she was. Mommy never just let Buffy cry.
"Danny?" Her weak voice called to him. He turned around the corner of her large armoire and saw Mommy lying on the floor, lots of red sticky stuff on the carpet. He recognised it as the same stuff that came out of his knee when he fell from Sonny's bike one time.
"Mommy? Did you fall off Sonny's bike?"
"No, Danny." She said with great difficulty. It was clear even to this young boy that his mother was in great pain.
"Mommy? What's the matter?"
"I've been hurt. Listen to me, baby... I know you think you know him, that you all love him, but he's a bad man." She paused to breathe. "He's a very bad man. You must never let him hurt you. Or Buffy. You must protect Buffy." Her pain overwhelmed her and she was making little sense.
"Who is he?" Danny asked, confused.
"You love him, Danny, but you mustn't. I love you baby." She said, managing a smile for Danielo.
"Mommy? Buffy's crying."
"She is? Oh... Don't cry, Buffy. Mommy loves you." Daniella managed, before the pain finally took over, and her eyes closed for the final time.
Danny, realising something very bad had happened, sat down beside her, Buffy squirming a little. This was how Anthony found them just twenty minutes later.
XXXXXXXXXX
"It wasn't him at all!" Danny's voice rose. "It was you!" His eyes flashed with fury as he realised that twenty years of pain and hate had been directed towards the wrong person.
"Angel's house?" Buffy accused. "That was you?"
"Yes." Roberto actually smiled. Buffy snarled at him and went to lunge at him.
"Buffy!" Angel cried out.
***
A shot rang out again and was almost immediately replaced by eerie silence. Angel forced himself to open his eyes. Had Roberto shot Buffy? He looked, but Buffy still stood, angry.
Roberto was now collapsed on the floor, a bloody smear on the cabinet behind him, roughly the same height as his head had been. Angel looked around to see a shattered looking Danny holding up what he recognised as Anthony's gun. It had been sitting on the desk until several moments ago.
"Buffy?" A weak voice called. She ran over to her father, who had come to weak consciousness.
"Daddy? Are you hurt? Angel, call an ambulance!" She said.
"No point, bella." Anthony said.
"No! Daddy!" She screamed.
"It's OK bella. I'll be fine. There will be friends waiting for me in Hell."
"You're not going to Hell, daddy. Don't say that."
"Pray for my soul, Buffy." He said.
"Dad?" Another voice joined in. Danny was at his father's side, truly, for the first time in twenty years.
"Danielo?"
"I'm sorry Dad. I'm sorry." He said, fighting back tears.
"I know Danny."
"I didn't really hate you. I didn't."
"I know Danny. You're everything I hoped you would become." Anthony smiled weakly, so similar to the smile on Daniella's lips before she died.
"Dad! No!" Danny said forcefully. "How are we going to live on without you?"
"Angel will look after you. He's a good guy. For a Fed." Anthony said.
"You knew?" Buffy asked.
"I did."
"Why didn't you do anything?"
"I wanted to find out who killed my wife. Who killed my son."
"I didn't help much." Angel said.
"Oh you did. You put my family back together. And you love my daughter." He smiled. "You're a good man, Angel Martin. You should've known I'd have bought jewellery from your family once or twice." Even now, he was able to smile wryly.
"You did?"
"I bought a Claddagh. For Daniella. A long time ago. It was all so long ago." He said. He was clearly much weaker now, his life-force almost visibly draining from him.
"Daddy," Buffy whimpered, unable to let her father go.
"I love you Buffy."
"I love you Daddy." She said it with great difficulty, her lip trembled so much.
"Dad..." Danny repeated.
"It's all right, Danielo, I know." Anthony said. "I know." Then, the fallen don closed his eyes for the final time.
***
Buffy collapsed onto the floor, grasping her father's hand, sobbing uncontrollably. For his part, Danny sank onto the floor, leaning against his father's desk. For a moment he was still, unmoving. Then it became too much and the pain of twenty years washed over him. His body shook twice before he allowed himself to cry.
Spike and Xander had been outside smoking sneakily when they noticed most of their father's guests leaving hurriedly.
"What the Hell?" Spike ground his cigarette into the ground with his bootheel before fighting against the tide of people leaving the house. The sound of sirens was heard in the distance. Xander began to panic. He knew of the numerous threats against his family. They ran through the house and arrived outside Anthony's office as Anthony took his last breath.
***
"What happened?" Spike asked, taking control of the situation. He noticed the two dead bodies and his well-trained mafia brain began working.
"We need to get them out of here."
"No. It's OK. The police are on their way." Angel told him.
"The police?" Spike said, clearly panicked by the concept.
"It's all right, Spike." Danny piped up from his prone position on the floor. Spike was shocked.
"What happened to dad?" Xander visibly choked up.
"It was uncle Giles. It was him. It was him." Buffy repeated like a mantra. Xander's face crumpled up in shock and sadness. Then, as he realised that his father was dead, truly gone, he too dissolved into tears.
***
The bodies were taken away, whilst the FBI began searching through the house.
"Good job, Martin." His FBI boss Hudson barked at him.
"I quit." Angel said. Hudson turned around in surprise.
"What?"
"I quit." Angel smiled politely and then headed back over to where Buffy was sat by her mother's rose garden.
"What will happen to us?"
"You haven't done anything wrong. Nor has Danny or Xander. You'll all be fine. Even Spike." Angel laughed harshly, not really feeling terribly comic.
"I don't want to stay here. Not anymore. It was only home when Daddy was here."
"Whatever you want."
"I'd like to live in Ireland." She mused.
"Ireland huh? I could live with that."
"What about your job?"
"Oh, I just quit."
"You what?"
"Yeah. I thought I might go into the jewellery business."
"Oh."
"And there was this other thing. See, I promised this girl I'd marry her."
"That's true." Buffy managed a smile.
"If you want, we can leave. We'll leave it all behind."
"I think I'd like that." She said.
***
The funeral was performed with all the pomp and splendour such a powerful man demanded. The Romanos came along, suddenly very friendly with the Crocettis now that Angel had dismantled the business side of the family. The Crocetti cosa nostra was no more.
Anthony Crocetti was buried with his wife Daniella Vitelli Crocetti, beside his son Santino. Anthony's parents lay nearby. Roberto Crocetti was not buried with his family.
After the Crocettis refused to collect the body for burial, a friend in Las Vegas arranged for the body to be cremated, and his ashes scattered across the Nevada desert, where so many other bodies were rumoured to be buried.
***
Angel and Buffy Martin married two months after Anthony's death. They married in Los Angeles, with Danny, Xander, Spike, Faith, Dru and Gunn all present. Then, the family scattered.
The Martins remained in Los Angeles, Danny went to New York to run the newly-legitimate Cesca Olive Oil, including a new product, an olive based margarine bearing his mother's name.
Xander moved to New Orleans permanently, became an artist full time and married a plain talking jazz baby called Anya. Spike remained working for the family, but in a legitimate manner- he became Danny's man on the West Coast.
Then he shocked the Hell out of everyone by marrying Dru Martin. It turned out that he hadn't been idle all those hours waiting for Buffy at UCLA.
***
Angel and Buffy did indeed move to Ireland, Galway City to be exact. He handled his family's jewellery business from there, and he and Buffy became two of the town's most beloved citizens through their charity work (one of the ways they attempted to dispose of the Crocetti millions).
Their sons Anthony and Joseph were born before then being followed by a daughter Daniella. And on the whole, they lived happily ever after. Finally, after generations of violence and pain, peace came to the Crocetti Family.
THE END
***
"We found traces of the explosive semtex by the front door." The Chief Fire Marshal explained to Angel and Anthony- back from New York on the first available plane.
"Someone did a very good job of destroying that house and everything in it." He continued. Angel's heart sank. Any chance it was an accident was thrown out of the window.
"Are there any leads?" Anthony asked calmly.
"All we, and the police department have been able to ascertain so far was that the job was done by someone who knew what they were doing. And they wanted to do it right."
"Thank you, officer."
"You're welcome sir." The fire marshal was then shown out by Spike.
"You can stay on the compound, Angel. It's safest. Someone was out to get you. Or get to us through you. I won't let them." Anthony smiled with only a hint of humour.
"Any ideas?"
"The Romanos come straight to mind. But this isn't their style." Anthony mused. "Far too messy for Vito's tastes."
"Is there anyone else?"
"Not that I know of. I worked a long time to make sure we didn't have enemies. One way or another." Angel looked at Anthony with curiosity. Never had Anthony ever expressed any regrets for his actions before. Not to Angel, anyway.
"I'll open up Roberto's old house for you." Anthony told him, the moment over.
"Giles doesn't use it anymore?"
"He's never here enough. He stays in the main house when he visits. Like for Buffy's birthday."
"Oh. Well, I need to see if there's anything to salvage. Though I doubt it." Angel told him, moving to the door.
"Angel?" Anthony said. Angel held his breath and turned round. This was it.
"I don't doubt your feelings for Buffy and I don't doubt that the night of her birthday was conducted with all propriety. In fact, I'm glad you ended up on the floor of her room than in a small pile of ash. But I don't want you sleeping over in my daughter's room again." Anthony paused to glare meaningfully. "Understand?"
"Of course. It won't happen again." Angel nodded and left, thankful that Anthony didn't really think anything had happened.
***
Anthony turned once again to the picture of his wife on the desk. He forced the rage he felt inside him to dissolve to nothingness. He knew exactly why Angel had been in Buffy's room, and he didn't need to have been in the house to know. Nobody had said anything to him, he didn't think that anyone else suspected Buffy and Angel. But he knew.
He had seen something different in Buffy's eyes when he returned home from New York. He knew it, because thirty years ago he had been the same. He remembered, looking into her eyes, although only a photo version, how much he had loved Daniella then, as he did now.
Yes, he had been hit by The Thunderbolt. The same Thunderbolt he knew had hit Angel. Anthony too, had been older than Daniella, although not by the same margin. Anthony too, had risked the wrath of his betrothed's father. He remembered how, the morning after, he had made up an excuse to go into the city of Palermo so he didn't have to face Alessandro Vitelli.
He had been sure that the truth of the night before was writ large on his face. He was sure that somehow, he would give the game away. Perhaps if he and Daniella hadn't married three days later, he would have done. Now he wondered if the long-dead Alessandro had ever suspected him. No, no. If he had, Anthony would have been chased out of town straight away.
Although he felt paternal anger now, he realised that Angel loved Buffy as much as he loved Daniella. He would allow Angel the belief that his secret was safe, for now. It was only fair.
***
"I think your father knows." Angel told Buffy later.
"Knows what?"
"That we... You know."
"Oh." Buffy blushed a very deep shade of crimson. "And he didn't kill you?"
"No. It was weird. He made some comment about me never sleeping in your room again and left it at that."
"Maybe he doesn't know."
"Buffy, I saw the look he gave me." Angel smiled at her. "I think he knows. But we can't do it again. Not for awhile."
"Damn." She said with a giggle. Then she turned to him. "Of course, we could always get married." Angel looked at her in surprise. She laughed.
"Why do boys always run a mile at the M word?"
"No, it isn't that."
"What is it then?"
"Well, that ring."
"What ring?"
"The one on your hand right now?" She looked down at the Claddagh on her finger.
"Do you know the story?"
"Sort of. Irish, right?"
"Yeah. The story goes that a Galway man, Richard Joyce was captured, taken into slavery and sold to a Moorish goldsmith. He became a master craftsman while in captivity. William of Orange then got the slaves back and Joyce returned to Galway to the woman he loved."
"She waited for him?" Buffy asked.
"Yes. And he gave her the first Claddagh ring as a sign of love and devotion." Angel paused. Dare he tell her the rest.
"The Claddagh ring became a wedding ring. If you wear it on the left hand with the heart pointing towards you, it means you're bound in love with the other person forever."
"Oh." Buffy looked down in silence at her left hand, and the heart, which pointed directly at her. She then looked at Angel's hand. The same.
"We're married?" She asked, her eyes growing wide.
"No." Angel laughed. "Not really. Maybe if we were Irish and a hundred years older."
"But it would be one Hell of an excuse for my dad, huh?" She said with a wicked grin.
"Nowadays, Claddagh rings are used as friendship rings." He paused again. "Or betrothal rings." He looked directly into Buffy's hazel eyes.
"Betrothal rings, huh?" She said, not breaking their gaze. "Is this a proposal? Because it's not bad."
"Good." He kissed her. "Marry me Buffy."
"When all this is over, I will. Not before." She said. He nodded, understanding. They couldn't get married until the situation was resolved.
"Well, that's one of the best incentives I've had for getting my job done in a long time." He laughed.
***
Angel, Buffy, Xander and Danny spent the best part of the day sifting through the ruins of Angel's house in search of anything worth saving. Unfortunately, the bomb had done its job thoroughly. Anything not vaporised by the bomb had been ruined by the fire fighter's hoses.
"Just as well you didn't have too much stuff, huh Angel?" Buffy said as she picked up the copy of Vogue she'd left there. Gisele's face on the cover was completely burned away and it was a testament to the binding of the magazine that it hadn't fallen apart under the stress of fire and water.
"Yeah. I'm glad I left all my stuff in Ohio." He said, keeping up the charade.
It was true that Buffy and Danny knew about his real life, but Xander didn't, and who knew if there were bugs in the house that hadn't been destroyed? He'd been careful since moving into the house about only contacting his family from call boxes on the UCLA campus during the day, or arranging meetings with them on campus under the pretense that they were simply Buffy's classmates. He missed them all, truth be told. But he had a job to do, and he needed them to be safe.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Buffy's voice called to him in his reverie.
"Not worth a penny." He said. She grinned. He sighed. "There's nothing here." "Afraid not, pal." Xander said, patting him on the back. "And I hate to say it, if you'd been here that night, you'd be in the same state as, well, anything in here."
"I know. I know." Angel said solemnly. He refused to look at Buffy. How could he? Here he was, assigned to protect her and instead he nearly gets killed himself. Still, he was no closer to finding the killer. He could only hope that whoever had done this had been sloppy and left him some clues.
***
"Anthony called?" Angel arrived at the main house the next morning. Spike nodded. Angel went straight into Anthony's office.
"Angel, you're here." Anthony observed. "I spoke to Vito Romano. They didn't do it."
"You know this how? He just said so?"
"Yes." Anthony said coolly. "Vito is a man of his word when it comes to such things. When they tried to kidnap Buffy..." He paused only briefly to grimace, "He owned up immediately. I told you that the bombing wasn't his style."
"So that leaves us with... Nothing." Angel sighed. Anthony leaned back in his chair.
"Be patient, Angel. Act in haste, repent at leisure." He said, leaning even further back.
"Sure. And thanks for letting me stay on the compound. I appreciate it."
"No problem. You're family." Anthony smiled.
Angel was suddenly chilled through to the bone. He left the room, still shaken by Anthony's smile. It had been devoid of threat, yet had been incredibly menacing. Did Anthony suspect anything of him? Or perhaps it was just a warning that, although Angel was his right hand man, he was still the boss.
***
"Angel, are you getting any closer to finding any, oh say, evidence?" His boss at the FBI, a middle aged man by the name of Hudson, asked him rather testily.
However, Angel was not in the best of moods. He had been summonsed to the FBI headquarters in Los Angeles by a phone call from a young lady. If Anthony had his phone tapped, he wouldn't suspect Angel of being a Fed, but he would suspect him of cheating on Buffy. He wasn't sure which would be received worse.
Added to this that a half hour journey had been made into an hour and a half by the ridiculous measures he'd taken to ensure he wasn't being followed into the HQ, he was not a happy bunny.
"No sir. I've explained to you time and again, they won't just hand over evidence of a century of crime just because I asked nicely."
"What about the explosion?"
"We have no idea?"
"You have no idea or the Crocettis have no idea?" Hudson asked. Angel kicked himself. That was a slip up he could ill-afford.
"I mean that I'm working with them to discover who did it. I believe that whoever did it may be involved in the murders of Daniella and Santino Crocetti. The case I was assigned to, I believe." Angel said, a hint of sarcasm audible. Hudson sighed. It was true: Angel was assigned to discover who killed the two Crocettis, not deliver Anthony Crocetti to the FBI. Unless of course, it was Anthony who killed them.
"Well then, have you found anything about the possible murderer?"
"Well, sir. Nothing concrete. The Crocettis are even more close-mouthed about Daniella's death than business. But I'm trying. First I have to win their trust."
"Well, you seem to have done that." Hudson threw down a copy of an unidentified newspaper. The headline of the small piece said "CROCETTI NAMES SUCCESSOR". Angel picked it up. It was a simple business piece from the Wall Street Journal. According to the piece, Anthony had named Angel Martino his successor to the business interests of Cesca Olive Oil and Holdings.
"Care to explain?" Hudson asked calmly.
"I have no idea what this article is about." Angel told him.
"Really? Care to explain what you've been doing for months on this case?"
"I knew that Anthony wanted to groom me as his successor. But..."
"You knew?"
"Yes sir. It was my entry into the family."
"I thought the girl was your entry."
"No sir." Angel felt anger rise up as his superior brought Buffy into it. "She was merely my entry onto the compound. I couldn't find anything out just as her boyfriend. I had to actively join the family. As, sir, you know. I believe you've been receiving my salary and anything I receive from the family." Hudson nodded. Angel continued.
"You know that we've been following the family for decades. I'm the closest we've ever got to them. I hope that we'll have an ending to this case very soon." Angel stood up.
"I really do need to go."
"Family business?" Hudson asked.
"Yes sir. It is Anthony Crocetti's birthday next week. It's a very big deal. Members of the family and syndicate will be arriving from all over the country. I'm hoping that I'll find some kind of leads as to the killer of Daniella and Santino. Or at least a drunk partygoer with a loosened tongue. Good night, sir." Angel walked out of the room.
***
"Daddy!" Buffy exclaimed. "Will you please calm down."
"I will not calm down." He said sternly. "I will not have you running off to Las Vegas on a whim either."
"Daddy..." She whined. "I only want to take Angel away from this bomb business. I think it's really taken its toll." She said. "And he needs to learn the casino business if he's to be a part of the family." She attempted to keep the bitterness and anger out of her voice for the last part.
"No. You have studying to do. Remember Buffy, how you're a student at UCLA?"
"It would only be two days. We would go out and then return with uncle Giles in time for your birthday. We would stay at our hotel and everything. I'll even take Spike for protection."
"No. Out of the question." Anthony said. He was prepared to accept that his daughter was no longer a virgin. He was not about to let her swan off to Vegas with her boyfriend.
"Daddy..."
"No." He sighed. "You can go the day before in order to get Roberto." He said, relenting a little. "I'll book your flights now."
"Thank you daddy." She skipped around his desk and planted a kiss on his cheek. Then, she skipped out of the room.
***
The day before Anthony's birthday, Angel and Buffy boarded the plane to Las Vegas. Angel was distinctly uncomfortable about it, knowing that Anthony knew about Buffy and himself. Anthony had purposely booked two separate rooms, and Angel didn't intend to let him down.
He also knew that everyone in the hotel-casino worked for Anthony, and he had no intention of letting any kind of gossip get back to Anthony. So, perhaps predictably, after informing Buffy of the situation, she was now not talking to him.
"Buffy... Come on... Please understand my position."
"You're my fiance."
"Yes, that's right. I'm not your husband yet. You know your father better than I do. He's a Catholic and he's your father."
"I bet your dad didn't mind."
"Actually, I can still remember the day he found out that Drusilla had sex with her boyfriend at the time."
"Was he mad?"
"Put it this way, we never saw that boyfriend again. I don't think I ever saw him as mad as he was that day. Fathers don't like to know that their little girls are all grown up. And Catholic ones like ours are even worse. Think about it, what father would like to know his little girl isn't just grown up but committing a sin?"
"I guess."
"Which is why we are going to behave with complete propriety." He said. "Because I imagine your uncle would feel much the same as your father."
"I guess." Buffy sighed. "Tell me about your parents, Angel."
"What?" Angel was confused. Buffy had asked all about his sisters and about Gunn, but never about them.
"Tell me about them?"
"Joe and Louise? Well, they were more in love than I've seen anyone. I could never understand the other kids at school when their parents got divorced, because all I saw were two people who loved each other. What I told your father that night about my parents is more or less true. My father died five years ago." He paused.
"It shattered my mother. She didn't know what to do. Although we lived in Los Angeles, she was from New York, so she moved back to her old neighbourhood. I went with her until she was settled. That's when I lived in New York. It was there I began working for the FBI."
"But you came back here."
"Right. I got tired of Manhattan. I came back here and immediately got assigned to the organised crime unit."
"What happened then?"
"My mother died last year. We all went to visit her for Christmas and her birthday. She died sitting in her chair watching Bob Hope on the television."
"I'm sorry."
"It's OK. I think we were all waiting for it. Once my father died, we knew her heart was broken. I like to think she waited until she made sure Faith got into college." He laughed slightly.
"I would've liked to have met her. And your father." Buffy said. He smiled.
"Oh, they would've loved you. They were on at me from my twentieth birthday to find a good Catholic girl to settle down with."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. I think they would've preferred an Irish girl, but hey, nobody's perfect." He joked. She pouted.
"Except you." He added.
"So, who runs the jewellery business now?"
"Oh, that was always my uncle's concern. Uncle Ciarain loves his work. My father always wanted to come out to Los Angeles. He did so when he was a young man. But Uncle Ciarain loves Boston. He's so Irish-American it's not funny. He even has the red hair and everything. He looks like Conan O'Brien's much older brother. It's good for business. People love to buy authentic celtic jewellery from a man who looks the part." He went to speak again, but the announcement that the plane was beginning it's descent interrupted him.
"Well, I guess we must nearly be there." He said with a little half-smile. Buffy smiled, feeling as if she understood the oftentimes enigmatic Angel a little better.
***
"Buffy!" Roberto 'Giles' Crocetti embraced his niece warmly as she stepped from the taxi.
"Uncle Giles! It's good to see you. Why don't you come home more often?" She pouted.
"I'm busy with my work here. A hotel manager's work is never done." He said in a joking tone. "Good to see you again, Angel." He said, shaking the younger man's hand.
He led them inside the hotel and showed them to their rooms. They were separated by another room. Angel observed that the room in-between was, in fact occupied. Angel also observed other things that evening. Throughout dinner with Giles, he had a distinctly uneasy feeling. Giles seemed to be his usual polite, charming self, but Angel had a feeling he couldn't shake. Were they being watched?
He was just glad that the next morning they would be back in the relative safety of the compound in Los Angeles. It was Anthony's birthday: cause for celebration, he was sure.
***
"Buffy! You're back!" Danny was standing on a stepladder in the hall of the main house, attempting to put up decorations for his father's birthday.
"What are you doing?" She asked suspiciously.
"Putting up decorations?" Danny said, confused by her line of questioning.
"Yes. I can see that. Why?"
"Because it's our father's birthday party tonight?" He said, still bemused.
"Yes, I also know that. What I don't know is why you're putting up decorations for someone you've told me over and over you can't stand." She said. Danny got off the ladder and looked at Buffy.
"I can't hate him forever. And frankly," He lowered his voice "Since Angel's been here and hasn't found anything, I've been doubting myself."
"Aha!" She crowed triumphantly. "I told you! How did you think it could be him?"
"Because of what Mama said." He said darkly. Then, as if he changed his mind back again, he left the decorations hanging when he walked away.
"Is everything OK?" Angel asked, coming in and finding Buffy holding half- attached decorations.
"I... I think so." She said. She went up the ladder and continued where Danny had left off.
***
Anthony managed to keep Angel busy for the rest of the day with various things. Then, two hours before the surprise party was to begin, Anthony turned to Angel.
"How are the preparations for my surprise party coming?"
"What?"
"Oh come on Angel. I haven't reached this high up in life by not paying attention. Don't worry, I'll act surprised."
"Well, it's coming along great. Buffy and Danny were decorating earlier."
"Danny..." Anthony sighed. "Do you suppose that boy will ever believe that I didn't kill his mother?"
"I..."
"It's OK. I'm just musing. I always wondered why he stayed here, you know. He does hate me. He only stayed for Buffy, I think. He does hate me."
"I'm sure he doesn't."
"No, he does. I know him. I remember the day she died, that look on his face. Whatever it was she said to him, it made Danny think I killed her. As if I could bring myself to even raise my voice to her." Anthony slumped into his chair. Angel went and poured him a glass of Marsala.
"Thank you. I'm losing my touch. Ten years, Hell even five years ago this was nothing. I'm becoming sloppy. Do you know what happens to men like me when that happens? We get killed. Because so many people have been watching me and waiting for the day that I don't pay attention." He sighed. Then he looked directly into Angel's eyes.
"I don't care what you think of me but I know you love my daughter. Whatever happens, and I mean, whatever happens you must look after Buffy. She should never have been born into this." He looked so pleadingly at Angel, so vulnerably in fact, that Angel could only nod in shock.
Anthony had just told him, however indirectly, that he knew he would be killed soon. More shocking too, that he didn't really mind.
"Why do you think...?" Angel trailed off.
"Because they killed Daniella, they killed my boy. I don't know who it is, but I just wish they would show themselves. Just as long as they don't go after Buffy or Danny or Alessandro. I don't think I could stand to lose another child. We all have weaknesses, Angel. Mine are my children. Daniella's children."
In that second, Angel realised that no matter what Anthony was guilty of, he was not guilty of killing his wife or his son. Which meant that somebody else was.
***
The party began at 7:30, and every nerve in Angel's body was on the alert for anyone suspicious. However, it being that sort of party, most of the people were of the suspicious sort. He watched as several incredibly important men, all wanted by the Feds, snuck into the party and paid their respects to Don Antonio.
Anthony seemed composed now in comparison to his earlier admissions. Angel smiled as he saw Giles come in and nod a greeting to him.
"Uncle Giles!" He heard Buffy squeal happily. Although Giles had arrived in LA with them earlier, he had been absent from the Compound for most of the day.
"Buffy, where is your father?" He asked.
"Welcoming guests and presents." She told him. "Lots of people came."
"Well, he's a very important man." Giles reminded her. Then, he turned to Angel.
"How are you, Angel?"
"Fine, sir."
"I read that piece in the LA Times." Giles said conversationally.
"Oh, there's nothing to that. I don't know where they get their information from."
Angel smiled, unnerved for reasons indescribable. He looked around the large room, wondering what was doing it.
"He's in his office?" Giles asked, his attention back on Buffy.
"Yeah."
"Uncle Giles, good to see you!" Danny came over and shook his uncle's hand warmly.
"Danielo, how are you?"
"I'm fine. How is Las Vegas?"
"Oh, the same as always, gamblers, cheaters, the worst elements of society all done up in neon." Giles said in a droll tone that he could only have picked up from his years in England. He saw someone come out of Anthony's office.
"I must speak with Antonio." He said and rushed into his brother's office.
"Is there something wrong?" Danny asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know, he just seems... Off."
"I don't know what you mean." Buffy said defensively. "But you think everyone is off. Including Daddy." She said, annoyance clear in her voice.
Angel opened his mouth to speak when suddenly a shot rang out, silencing the party. Buffy and Angel shared shocked looks.
"Daddy!" She screamed, running to the office door.
"Buffy, wait!" Angel said, running after her. Danny was in hot pursuit, while most of the guests made hasty exits, not wanting to be caught up in anything.
***
Buffy threw the door open and what she saw broke her heart. Her father was slumped back in his fine leather chair, while Roberto, her beloved Uncle Giles stood by the window, a smoking gun in his right hand.
"What? Daddy!" She said, screaming. Giles held the gun up again, this time pointing towards the young blonde.
"Don't even think about it!" Angel said, his own gun aimed directly at Giles' head. Giles laughed maniacally.
"Like I care!" He shouted. "You should kill me! It would be better than being passed over every time! I was tossed away to Las Vegas! God Almighty, Antonio picked a stranger over his own brother! I SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE BOSS!" He shouted, waving the gun around.
"What?" Buffy asked, completely confused as to why her uncle would shoot her father.
She dared not move over to her father, knowing if she did, Giles would shoot.
"I should have been all-powerful! Instead I was passed over time and time again! First Father chose Anthony instead of me, then Anthony chose Santino, that evil little bastard!" He shook violently.
Buffy sighed, realising in that moment who had killed her brother. Which meant...
"You killed my mother?" She asked in a heartbreakingly sad voice.
"That bitch? She should've kept her nose out of my affairs!"
"She knew. She knew how much you hated my father. How much you hated us." Danny said. "It was you she was talking about." He realised.
XXXXXXXXXX
The Crocetti Family Compound, Los Angeles, 1982.
Danny wandered into his mother's room, his tiny sister Buffy in his arms. He was terrified that he was going to drop the infant, but she was crying so much and Mommy hadn't come to quiet her yet.
Daddy wasn't home, Sonny was at school and Xander was somewhere in the garden. So Danny had scooped his sister into his arms, holding her the way Mommy had shown him. But he'd only ever held her and found carrying her a little more difficult.
"Mommy?" He called, wondering where she was. Mommy never just let Buffy cry.
"Danny?" Her weak voice called to him. He turned around the corner of her large armoire and saw Mommy lying on the floor, lots of red sticky stuff on the carpet. He recognised it as the same stuff that came out of his knee when he fell from Sonny's bike one time.
"Mommy? Did you fall off Sonny's bike?"
"No, Danny." She said with great difficulty. It was clear even to this young boy that his mother was in great pain.
"Mommy? What's the matter?"
"I've been hurt. Listen to me, baby... I know you think you know him, that you all love him, but he's a bad man." She paused to breathe. "He's a very bad man. You must never let him hurt you. Or Buffy. You must protect Buffy." Her pain overwhelmed her and she was making little sense.
"Who is he?" Danny asked, confused.
"You love him, Danny, but you mustn't. I love you baby." She said, managing a smile for Danielo.
"Mommy? Buffy's crying."
"She is? Oh... Don't cry, Buffy. Mommy loves you." Daniella managed, before the pain finally took over, and her eyes closed for the final time.
Danny, realising something very bad had happened, sat down beside her, Buffy squirming a little. This was how Anthony found them just twenty minutes later.
XXXXXXXXXX
"It wasn't him at all!" Danny's voice rose. "It was you!" His eyes flashed with fury as he realised that twenty years of pain and hate had been directed towards the wrong person.
"Angel's house?" Buffy accused. "That was you?"
"Yes." Roberto actually smiled. Buffy snarled at him and went to lunge at him.
"Buffy!" Angel cried out.
***
A shot rang out again and was almost immediately replaced by eerie silence. Angel forced himself to open his eyes. Had Roberto shot Buffy? He looked, but Buffy still stood, angry.
Roberto was now collapsed on the floor, a bloody smear on the cabinet behind him, roughly the same height as his head had been. Angel looked around to see a shattered looking Danny holding up what he recognised as Anthony's gun. It had been sitting on the desk until several moments ago.
"Buffy?" A weak voice called. She ran over to her father, who had come to weak consciousness.
"Daddy? Are you hurt? Angel, call an ambulance!" She said.
"No point, bella." Anthony said.
"No! Daddy!" She screamed.
"It's OK bella. I'll be fine. There will be friends waiting for me in Hell."
"You're not going to Hell, daddy. Don't say that."
"Pray for my soul, Buffy." He said.
"Dad?" Another voice joined in. Danny was at his father's side, truly, for the first time in twenty years.
"Danielo?"
"I'm sorry Dad. I'm sorry." He said, fighting back tears.
"I know Danny."
"I didn't really hate you. I didn't."
"I know Danny. You're everything I hoped you would become." Anthony smiled weakly, so similar to the smile on Daniella's lips before she died.
"Dad! No!" Danny said forcefully. "How are we going to live on without you?"
"Angel will look after you. He's a good guy. For a Fed." Anthony said.
"You knew?" Buffy asked.
"I did."
"Why didn't you do anything?"
"I wanted to find out who killed my wife. Who killed my son."
"I didn't help much." Angel said.
"Oh you did. You put my family back together. And you love my daughter." He smiled. "You're a good man, Angel Martin. You should've known I'd have bought jewellery from your family once or twice." Even now, he was able to smile wryly.
"You did?"
"I bought a Claddagh. For Daniella. A long time ago. It was all so long ago." He said. He was clearly much weaker now, his life-force almost visibly draining from him.
"Daddy," Buffy whimpered, unable to let her father go.
"I love you Buffy."
"I love you Daddy." She said it with great difficulty, her lip trembled so much.
"Dad..." Danny repeated.
"It's all right, Danielo, I know." Anthony said. "I know." Then, the fallen don closed his eyes for the final time.
***
Buffy collapsed onto the floor, grasping her father's hand, sobbing uncontrollably. For his part, Danny sank onto the floor, leaning against his father's desk. For a moment he was still, unmoving. Then it became too much and the pain of twenty years washed over him. His body shook twice before he allowed himself to cry.
Spike and Xander had been outside smoking sneakily when they noticed most of their father's guests leaving hurriedly.
"What the Hell?" Spike ground his cigarette into the ground with his bootheel before fighting against the tide of people leaving the house. The sound of sirens was heard in the distance. Xander began to panic. He knew of the numerous threats against his family. They ran through the house and arrived outside Anthony's office as Anthony took his last breath.
***
"What happened?" Spike asked, taking control of the situation. He noticed the two dead bodies and his well-trained mafia brain began working.
"We need to get them out of here."
"No. It's OK. The police are on their way." Angel told him.
"The police?" Spike said, clearly panicked by the concept.
"It's all right, Spike." Danny piped up from his prone position on the floor. Spike was shocked.
"What happened to dad?" Xander visibly choked up.
"It was uncle Giles. It was him. It was him." Buffy repeated like a mantra. Xander's face crumpled up in shock and sadness. Then, as he realised that his father was dead, truly gone, he too dissolved into tears.
***
The bodies were taken away, whilst the FBI began searching through the house.
"Good job, Martin." His FBI boss Hudson barked at him.
"I quit." Angel said. Hudson turned around in surprise.
"What?"
"I quit." Angel smiled politely and then headed back over to where Buffy was sat by her mother's rose garden.
"What will happen to us?"
"You haven't done anything wrong. Nor has Danny or Xander. You'll all be fine. Even Spike." Angel laughed harshly, not really feeling terribly comic.
"I don't want to stay here. Not anymore. It was only home when Daddy was here."
"Whatever you want."
"I'd like to live in Ireland." She mused.
"Ireland huh? I could live with that."
"What about your job?"
"Oh, I just quit."
"You what?"
"Yeah. I thought I might go into the jewellery business."
"Oh."
"And there was this other thing. See, I promised this girl I'd marry her."
"That's true." Buffy managed a smile.
"If you want, we can leave. We'll leave it all behind."
"I think I'd like that." She said.
***
The funeral was performed with all the pomp and splendour such a powerful man demanded. The Romanos came along, suddenly very friendly with the Crocettis now that Angel had dismantled the business side of the family. The Crocetti cosa nostra was no more.
Anthony Crocetti was buried with his wife Daniella Vitelli Crocetti, beside his son Santino. Anthony's parents lay nearby. Roberto Crocetti was not buried with his family.
After the Crocettis refused to collect the body for burial, a friend in Las Vegas arranged for the body to be cremated, and his ashes scattered across the Nevada desert, where so many other bodies were rumoured to be buried.
***
Angel and Buffy Martin married two months after Anthony's death. They married in Los Angeles, with Danny, Xander, Spike, Faith, Dru and Gunn all present. Then, the family scattered.
The Martins remained in Los Angeles, Danny went to New York to run the newly-legitimate Cesca Olive Oil, including a new product, an olive based margarine bearing his mother's name.
Xander moved to New Orleans permanently, became an artist full time and married a plain talking jazz baby called Anya. Spike remained working for the family, but in a legitimate manner- he became Danny's man on the West Coast.
Then he shocked the Hell out of everyone by marrying Dru Martin. It turned out that he hadn't been idle all those hours waiting for Buffy at UCLA.
***
Angel and Buffy did indeed move to Ireland, Galway City to be exact. He handled his family's jewellery business from there, and he and Buffy became two of the town's most beloved citizens through their charity work (one of the ways they attempted to dispose of the Crocetti millions).
Their sons Anthony and Joseph were born before then being followed by a daughter Daniella. And on the whole, they lived happily ever after. Finally, after generations of violence and pain, peace came to the Crocetti Family.
THE END
