We've come to the end, my friends. I'd actually believed it would never happen. Thanks for the comments & encouragement – they meant a lot.

16...

"…I was alone and it hurt more than anything I'd ever felt before."

"Oh, Tony…" Angela's voice reached out to him in the silence of the attic.

Startled out of his reverie, Tony looked up at her in surprise. He'd almost forgotten she was there, except for the feel of her hand wrapped around his. He gave a lop-sided grin and looked away, not wanting to see the tears in her eyes.

She didn't say anything more, only tightened her grasp on his hand.

After a few moments, he cleared his throat and began speaking again. "Those first couple months, they were rough. I was still trying to work at the plant and take care of Samantha and keep up the apartment. It seemed like I was always playing catch-up. I tried so hard to do everything the way Marie had done it, you know? You may think that I'm a pro at the housekeeping stuff now, but back then… I mean, I knew how to cook and clean; my Pop and I had been on our own long enough that it was something I knew how to do, but I'd gotten so used to Marie taking care of everything, especially the stuff with Sam. I didn't really have time for all the girly stuff. I think that's why Sam became such a tomboy, because it was easier and it was something I understood. Sports were easy; dresses and dolls weren't. Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that Sam and me were struggling. And then I lost my job."

"The plant fired you?"

"Yeah, well, they tried to make it work at first, but you can only miss one too many shifts or show up late so many times before it starts becoming a problem."

"It still doesn't seem fair, I mean, after all you'd been through."

"It's business Angela. Not too many bosses are as understanding as you."

She smiled at that. "They just didn't know what they had."

"Well, maybe it was for the best. Workin' the swing shift was killin' me. One week I'd be working all night and then the next I'd only have mornings or evenings. Sam needed something more stable."

"So, what did you do?"

"Joe Rossini, Mrs. R's husband, he offered me a couple of days a week in the fish shop and I started making pizza deliveries again. It wasn't perfect, but it was a little more flexible. I was mostly around when Sam got up or came home from school. Luckily, I had Mrs. Rossini and my Dad. They looked out for Sam when I wasn't there."

"What about Marie's parents?"

"Marie's mom, she was never very healthy, and after…. She passed away a couple months after Marie. Nick, he didn't take it so well. That's when he really started getting in deep with the gambling and the fencing used parts." He sighed and ran his hands through his hair, feeling even more tired than before.

Angela studied him for a moment before gently asking, "Tony, what made you decide to move here?

With a confused look, he replied, "You know why. I wanted a better life for Sam."

She shook her head, "No. I mean, I know that was part of the reason, but why then? Why three years after Marie died? It couldn't have just been about Sam. You love Brooklyn. Your whole life was there."

"It wasn't something I rushed into, I'd been thinking about it for a while."

"And?"

"And what, Angela? Marie was gone. My family was gone. All I had left was a crummy one-bedroom apartment and too many memories."

"You had your friends though."

"But…"

She looked at him.

"I wasn't happy. Everywhere I looked were memories of the people I'd lost an' it seemed like everything I was tryin' to hang onto was slippin' through my fingers, including Sam."

"You had a lot to deal with. It's only natural that you'd feel that way."

"But it wasn't natural to me. I was used to bein' the best and then I wasn't. I'd already lost the two most important things to me: Marie and baseball. Then I got fired and I couldn't afford to keep our apartment. I had friends yeah, but I didn't have the time to spend with them when I was tryin' to take care of Sam, an' as it was I barely got to see her. Relationships, hah!" Tony looked down, trying to edit out the worst so that she wouldn't think less of him. "Any relationship's I had were of the one-night stand type. And then my father died, just like that." He snapped his fingers in demonstration. "One day he was there, driving his route, giving me a hard time about my life, and the next day he wasn't. I dunno, I guess I just…"

She nodded in understanding, "You needed a fresh start."

"I did." Tony smiled back at her a little wistfully. "The day I got sent out here to make that delivery of fish… I took one look at all the space and greenness and… It gave me hope."

"Hope?" she questioned.

"Yeah, hope. For the first time in a long time it felt like I had choices."

"And so you came."

"I came and I found it."

She skirted a little closer to him and looked into his eyes. "What did you find?"

"The thing I didn't know I was looking for. A brand new life, a new family, you."

"And look at what we have." She leaned in and kissed him.

It hit him then, the thing that had been missing, and the thing that was holding him back. It wasn't that he wanted the life he'd had with Marie back or that he didn't love the life he'd made. It was just that he felt guilty for moving on. Deep inside, he knew he wasn't the same guy who longed for a chance to play ball and felt it was his wife's job to take care of him. He'd grown, he'd changed, and he didn't necessarily want to be who he used to be. Yet, he still wanted to be able to fit in with the crowd in Brooklyn, hang out at Marty's and spend a night carousing with the guys. Of course, there was a fat chance of fitting in if he used words like 'carousing'; the guys would laugh him out of the bar. It was clear that it all came down to a choice. He could move forward or hold onto the past: Brooklyn Tony or Connecticut Tony.

Though it was likely that he'd never fit into either world perfectly, one look into Angela's eyes told him that the choice had been made long ago. Long before their first kiss or first hug. Maybe it'd been made the day they'd first laid eyes on each other. Maybe even before that.

It just took him a while to see it.

Studying the face of the woman he'd tried so hard not to love, he realized that for once in his life he felt completely at peace. This was it. This was where he was meant to end up. Elbowing her lightly in the ribs, he grinned, "Come on, let's go find something to eat."

Laughing in response, she took his hand and led him down the stairs.