I'm not trying to preach in this chapter...I promise!

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. – Jane Howard

Chapter Twelve - You Can Always Go Home Again

Catalano's Italian Bakery - Brooklyn, NY

As Katie pushed open the front doors of her family's bakery, the delicious scent of Italian breads and pastries combined with freshly brewed espresso filled her senses and brought back sweet memories of her childhood. As the children of two working parents, Katie and her brothers practically grew up between this bakery and the firehouse. It was here where they were put to work behind the counter as soon as they were able to see over it and taught about the value of loyalty and passion in your chosen career. The same array of characters still frequented this place...the faces and personalities that had shaped her view of the world. Hard working men and women who believed in the values of hard work, the church, their families, and the perfect tomato sauce. This neighborhood never seemed to changed and Katie loved the comfort and stability she found here.

"Ah, mi bella bambina!" Her grandfather called out his greeting from behind the counter. "Come here and give your Papa Sal a hug."

Salvatore Catalano was in his mid-eighties, but as spry as a teen-ager. His mother, Angelina, had opened Catalano's Italian Bakery when she arrived in America as a means to support her young family. Like Katie, he had grown up in this bakery and took it over from his mother when she passed away. He dedicated his life to baking his mother's original recipes with loving care and passed those secrets on to his daughter, Sophia...Katie's mother. After suffering a heart attack a few years ago, he turned the day to day operations of Catalano's over to Sophia, but continued to work behind the counter of this place he loved every day. In a world full of mega-stores and fast food restaurants, mom and pop establishments like Catalano's close every day. But through the loyalty of it's customers, the quality of it's service, and the simple deliciousness of it's baked goods, Catalano's was still going strong seventy years after opening it's doors.

Sliding into her grandfather's bear hug, Katie teasingly whispered, "Did you save me one of your famous cannolli's?"

"I made one special just for my girl." He said, opening up the refrigerated display case and handing Katie one of her favorite desserts in the whole world. "Espresso?" He asked, and turned around to fix her a cup without waiting for her answer.

Katie took a bite of her cannolli and closed her eyes in delight. Heaven. "Is mom here?" Katie asked, standing at the counter and stirring her espresso.

"She and your dad should be here soon. They went to mass over at St. Mary's."

"You and grandma didn't go?" Katie asked, surprised.

"We attended the sunrise service." He said proudly, taking a tray of pastries out of the oven and setting them on a cooling rack. "I was a little surprised actually that your mother said they were going. Except for midnight mass on Christmas Eve, your father hasn't been to church in years."

"He's been pretty mad at God lately." Katie said quietly, taking a sip of her espresso. "I know how he feels."

"Yeah." Sal said simply, filling up a pastry bag with ricotta filling for the pastries. "Maybe now it's time for both of you to realize that it's no good to be mad at God. What's happened to this family was not of God. It was the evil that dwells in the hearts of men that attacked both you and those buildings. It was not of God."

"How do you do that, papa?" Katie asked, smiling at him. "How do you keep your faith after everything that's happened?"

"That is the very essence of faith, bambina. Believing in God when everything in this world tells you that he doesn't exist. It's easy to believe in His will when life is good...it's when things are hard that faith is truly tested."

"Well," she mumbled, "then I have failed miserably."

"You woke up this morning, didn't you?" Katie nodded and he continued. "You got out of bed and are facing another day, right? That's faith, whether you want to call it that or not." Sal came around the counter and kissed her forehead. "Some people can't do that, especially after having been what you've been through. Some people don't get out of bed ever again."

Katie smiled at him and fought back the tears that were welling up behind her eyes. God, she loved this old man. "Since you are doling out words of wisdom this morning, I need to run something by you. But you have to promise to keep it a secret."

"Promise."

Katie took a deep breath and said, "Frank Runyeon's wife came to Avalon last night. And after she admitted that the bastard had raped her too, she told us that she clocked him over the head with his favorite nine iron and killed him."

If he was surprised by the news, Sal Catalano hid it well. "What did you do?"

"I put her up in one of the shelter rooms." She answered. "She needed my help."

"The help she needs, bambina, may not be something you can provide." He said quietly.

Their conversation was briefly interrupted by the front doors of the bakery opening again. Tom, Sophia, and Bobby McNamara, dressed in their Sunday best, came through the doors laughing and talking.

"Well don't you all look like a Hallmark card." Katie remarked, smiling at them.

"I was thinking a Norman Rockwell painting." Bobby quipped, pulling his tie from his neck "And where were you this morning?"

"Sleeping in."

"She had a very eventful evening." Sal said, going back to decorating his pastries.

"Papa!" Katie cried in mock outrage. "What happened to keeping it a secret?"

Sal looked at her, genuinely confused. "From your parents? I didn't think you meant to keep it a secret from them."

"Keep what a secret?" Sophia asked, coming over to Katie and kissing her hello. She eyed the remnants of Katie's cannolli and asked, "For breakfast?"

"I'm washing it down with coffee." Katie said, raising her cup as Sophia shook her head.

"The child is thirty years old, Sophia. She can choose her own breakfast." Tom said, grabbing a cannolli of his own and taking a big bite while winking at his daughter.

"How was mass, dad?" Katie asked, a teasing tone to her voice.

Tom smiled and said, "Long. But I figured that since I haven't spoken to God in such a long time that I better show my face again so he remembers who I am. You know, just in case."

"Just in case of what?" Bobby asked, pouring himself a cup of espresso. "Have you committed any major sins that you need to atone for lately?"

Bobby was teasing, of course, but the tone of the room changed dramatically. Sophia looked from her husband to her son and then turned and walked into the kitchen without saying another word. The F.B.I. and their questions had them all on edge lately.

"Tell them." Sal said quietly.

"Tell us what?" Tom wanted to know, looking at the door his wife had just disappeared through.

"Theresa Runyeon came to Avalon last night. And told us that she killed her husband."

The silence in the room was all consuming. Finally, Tom asked, "Why did she come to you?"

"Because he raped her, too."

Tom McNamara closed his eyes and steadied himself on the counter. "His own wife?"

Katie nodded her head and asked quietly, "What should I do?"

"What you do best." Bobby said. "Help her survive this."

"I don't know how. I mean, with the rape, my team is already on it. But she confessed to a murder. A murder that any one of us in this room was capable of committing."

"But none of us did." Tom said quietly. "When we had to choose between right and wrong, we chose to stay on the right side of the law."

"He raped her." Katie said.

"And for that he deserves to rot in Hell." Sal said, as Sophia came back into the main room from the kitchen. "But it was not her place to send him there."

"I wanted him dead. And now he is." Katie said quietly, looking down at her espresso. She could feel her father come and stand behind her, placing his large hands on her shoulders.

"I know, baby. I wanted him dead, too. Because what he did to you, and now to her, was unforgivable." He said quietly, gently squeezing her shoulders. "But that didn't give us the right to be his judge, jury, and executioner. We can't tell you what to do, Katy-did. This one has been handed to you. All we can tell you is that whatever you decide to do, we'll stand by you."

"Like always." She said with a smile. "If I turn her in, I know that Danny will..."

"Danny?" Bobby asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Agent Taylor." Katie corrected herself. "He and his team..."

"Wait, wait, wait. Danny?" Bobby said again. "You are on a first name basis with the F.B.I. agent?"

Katie recognized the smirk on her brother's face and looked around at her family for help. But she could tell by the looks on their faces that she wasn't going to get any.

"A million men in Manhattan and you get involved with the feds?" Sal asked, teasingly. "You couldn't find a nice bank teller or something?"

Katie just shook her head and took another sip of her espresso, which was getting cold. Tom snickered, leaned down and kissed her cheek, saying "I don't know about you, Bob, but I've got to get out of this monkey suit and into some real clothes."

"Sounds good to me." Bobby said, following his father to the door. He turned back to look at Katie and it seemed he wanted to say something. Instead he just smiled at her and winked. "Are you coming over to the ball field to watch the game? Dad and Mikey are gonna kick butt on the diamond today."

Katie smiled at him, knowing there was nothing else that needed to be said. "Save me a seat." She said. "I'll be there in a little while."

Tommy and Bobby headed out the door and Sal took a tray of pastries back into the kitchen. Sitting alone with her mother, Katie asked quietly, "Did you think he did it?"

Sophie laughed a bitter little laugh as she tied an apron around her waist and began arranging the pastries in the display case. "Which one? In the past twenty four hours, I have imagined that the man I married and three of the children I gave birth to were capable of murder. I also entertained the possibility that your father would go all the way to jail for one of the boys if he thought they had killed him." Turning back to Katie she said, "I don't ever want to spend another day like that."

"You don't really think they were capable of it, do you?"

Sophia turned around and faced her daughter. She walked over and took Katie's face in her hand and said, "I have loved your father since I was fourteen years old. And in all those years, I have only seen him cry twice. The night he found out that Danny and Charlie would never come home again and the night you were attacked. There are no words to describe what that did to him. Not only did I think he was capable of it, I was scared to death that he had done it."

"Would you turn her in?" Katie asked.

"No." Sophia said, shaking her head. "But that is not my decision to make. Just do what your heart tells you. It hasn't led you astray yet." She bent down and kissed Katie's nose. "Speaking of hearts, are you going to tell me about this Danny person?"