Disclaimer: The usual things apply.

4...

What is it about homecomings that make everything seem just about perfect? It doesn't matter if you've been away for a day or a year, but returning to the place and the people you love is an experience like none other. The people and the place had changed over the years, but to Tony it still felt just as good. From his parents, to Marie and Sam, to Angela, he'd always come home to love. Unfolding a yellowed 'Welcome Home' banner, he smiled to himself, realizing how incredibly lucky he was.

"Tony!" Marie's voice reached across the crowded train platform as I searched the mass of people for a familiar face. Catching sight of her, my heart did a little dance and I rushed over to her, completely forgetting my bags and crowd milling between us. We looked at each other for maybe half a second before I grabbed her and twirled her up into the air. It might have seemed like something out of a movie, but at that moment it was all I wanted to do. Well, that and kiss her, which is what I did next after letting her feet touch the ground. Years later, she'd tease me and tell me that she still felt like she was walking on air around me. I know I felt the same.

In the total time we'd been 'dating' we probably hadn't spent more than a day in the same room together. So it's strange that we never felt awkward around each other. Maybe it was all the letters and phone calls or maybe it was something bigger and deeper between us, but from my first day back I felt totally at ease with her. So it didn't seem odd that she was there to greet me at the train and not my dad. Even her furtive glances at her watch didn't clue me in until she stopped in front of my apartment door and whispered "Sorry."

The explosive "Surprise!" that waited behind the door made me stagger backwards and glare at her accusingly, "You." I didn't get a chance to finish.

She giggled and grabbed my hand and led me inside. "Here he is – our own MVP – Tony Micelli!" Then my Dad and Mrs. Rossini and just about everybody I knew from the neighborhood pulled me in to congratulate the local boy made good. The team I'd been playing for, as crappy as it was, had named me MVP and asked me to come back for a second year. More importantly, I'd heard some rumblings that a farm team or the triple A's was looking at me. But I hadn't told anybody except my Dad... and Marie. She'd schemed and planned the whole thing. Glancing across the room at her, I couldn't help but smile. No doubt about it, she was something.

I saw her every day for the next six months, which pretty much made up for spending most of my time wrist deep in fish. Just being able to see her smile made the rest of the day disappear. I would've done anything to make her happy. I even put up with the guys calling me Bubbles on account of all the baths I took, because I couldn't stand the thought of taking her out smelling like I'd been swimming in the Hudson River. She didn't care though. That's what got me. I could smell like fish, spend a wild night on the town with the guys, or take her out bowling on a date and it didn't matter to her because I was 'her' Tony. Well, maybe it helped that I was a ball player and wouldn't be wrapping fish for the rest of my life, but who could blame her? I didn't want that for the rest of my life either.

Not that it was all a bed of roses. She worked a lot, at a job that was supposed to be part time. I couldn't exactly fault her for it though, because I was working just as much. What was she supposed to do with her day? Wait around for me to come by? I look back now and shake my head at how little I knew. Still, it bothered me then, and caused us a couple of fights until she assured me that it was only something she was interested in doing until she got married. Okay, I thought, I could live with that.

Her dad hated me. Nick thought my plans for the future were pipe dreams and didn't want his little girl tied up with someone who wasn't going anywhere except in a fish truck. What got me was how poorly he did for Marie and her mother. Somehow driving a fish truck seemed a whole lot better than running two-bit scams and playing the ponies. I hated to see the sadness in Marie's eyes every time it caught up with him. I wanted to protect her from it, wanted to protect her from him in much the same way as he wanted to protect her from me. She loved him to death though, so what could I do except smile at his insults? The fighter in me hated it, but love does funny things to you. And I was definitely falling in love, head over heels and the whole bit.

Almost without knowing it, the time flew by and suddenly instead of months to spend with Marie, I had only days. The thought took me by surprise and left me feeling lost. How could I go away and leave again when things were so good between us? I wanted to play ball, no question, but somehow the distance seemed even greater than it did the year before. And I had a sneaking doubt that if I left her behind that I'd lose her forever, and forever seemed an awfully long time without her. I had a week before I had to leave, one week left to find a solution to the doubts filling my head. I could quit ball. No, I couldn't quit ball; I loved it too much. Besides, it was the only thing I ever did well. I wasn't cut out to go to college (even if I could've afforded it) and the only other things I knew how to do were gut fish and deliver pizzas. Not exactly something to make a career out of. I thought that maybe Marie could just come and live with me, but crossed that idea off immediately. She wasn't the sort of girl you could just shack up with. I just didn't know what to do.

Then late one night as I walked her up to her apartment, it came to me in a flash. I grabbed her hands and pulled her towards me. "I've got it!"

She looked worried. "You've got what Tony? You've been actin' so strange."

Impatiently, I interrupted her, "Yeah, I know and I'm sorry for that. But. Marry me?"

"What? Tony what're you talkin' about? Marry you? Where's this comin' from?"

Looking into her eyes I could see that I'd managed to completely confuse her, so I started from the beginning. "Marie, listen. For the past day, week, or whatever, I've been tryin' to figure out how to play ball and still be near you. The team's not gonna trade me. Not yet anyway. And I don't wanna quit 'cause things are really startin' to roll for me. But I don't wanna leave you either. I. I love you Marie, and I want you in my life. For keeps, for ever. So, what do you say? Will you marry me?"

A smile had been spreading slowly across her face as I talked and when I finally finished, she jumped into my arms and yelled up at her window, "Hey Ma, hey Pa! I'm marrying Tony!"

Hardly believing, I asked, "Yes?"

She looked down into my eyes and very seriously answered, "Yeah." Her hand grazed my cheek and she leaned in and kissed me softly. She pulled back with her arms still wrapped around me and studied my face. "I love you Tony Micelli. Lots." Then she kissed me again before her parents came racing out the door, ready to talk us out of our insanity.