Hey, guys. This one's nice and emotional for ya. Good and messy. Which, I gather, is how people like their fanfic. So enjoy.

Chapter Twenty-six: Taking the Fall

I hadn't thought to leave room for dessert, and Maria and Franny had made this really rich cake. I felt bad turning it down, so I said maybe if I waited a while, I'd have room later.

"If you can't eat it, you can take some with you," Ma said. "Papa, you want a taste?"

"Oh, just a little," the grandfather said, smiling.

The kids all got served next, bottomless pits that they were, and being the ones who would need baths before bed. They would be attending Sunday morning mass the next day. I offered to read to the little ones when they got done with their baths, to give my stomach a little time to process everything I'd put in it. I also hoped Fraser would get a chance to talk to Franny if I wasn't around.

I was almost to the end of The Bike Lesson when I heard someone in the hall. It was Franny this time. She shook her head to tell me to keep reading, so I went on and finished the book, turning to the last illustration of the bike outside the bears' tree house.

"Okay, time to go to sleep," I said. "Mommy will come tuck you in soon."

"Good night, Uncle Ray," said the middle girl, Viola.

"Good night, sweetie." I leaned over and kissed her forehead. "Good night, you," I said, reaching over to pet the little one, Camilla. She made this really tight little smile without showing any teeth. She didn't talk to me much yet, but she seemed to like me.

I turned out their light and was about to shut the door when I heard Camilla whine and Viola called, "The nightlight isn't on!"

I turned back around and found the outlet with the nightlight in it. "Here you go," I said, switching it on. We said good night again and then I closed the door.

"You're really good with them," Franny said.

I didn't know what to say, so I just smiled and shrugged.

"Listen, can I talk to you?"

"Sure," I said, suddenly feeling a little nervous.

She took me down the hall to her room, the one place in the house I'd scarcely seen the inside of. She put on the light and closed the door most of the way behind us. "I just don't wanna be overheard," she said. "So, don't get any ideas."

I abruptly stopped having ideas.

"Anyway... you know that self-defense class at the academy?"

"Yeah."

"I, uh... I actually started taking it already. Like a month ago, while you were away."

"Really? Why didn't you say something?"

"Mm..." she bit her lip for a second. "Well, because it's not going so great," she admitted. "I'm okay with most of it, I guess, but having someone actually attack me and remembering everything I'm supposed to do... well, I get confused. I'm not exactly the best student in the class, and then when something happened for real, I just forgot everything. And he was so much stronger than me. I just felt helpless." She sniffed and cleared her throat. I could tell it wasn't easy for her to admit all this, and I knew she'd never be admitting it to me if it weren't one hundred percent true. She was really trusting me here.

"Well... just because you haven't got it all down yet doesn't mean you won't," I said. "It's just taking you longer than it takes some people."

"Too long." She sighed and took a minute to get herself together. "I was wondering if... if maybe you could help me out a little. Without telling anyone."

"Like lessons?"

She was keeping her eyes off me. I could practically taste how much she hated asking me. "Yeah. See, I can't ask Ray because he'd just make fun of me. And..."

"And... Fraser?" I asked.

"I'd just make a fool of myself."

I decided not to comment on that. "Well, yeah. We can work something out."

"You won't get frustrated with me? I really suck."

"I won't get frustrated, and I won't make fun of you. I really want you to be good at this, you know? I want you to be safe."

"And you won't try any funny stuff?"

"If I did, it would be stupid of me to be teaching you how to incapacitate me."

"Good point."

"But I wouldn't do that," I added. "You want my help, you got it. No strings."

She sighed again, and this time it sounded like relief. "Thanks."

"Is a hug okay?"

She nodded and let me hug her.

Our tender moment was interrupted by a barrage of loud Italian coming from somewhere up the hall.

"What the hell?" Franny muttered, letting go of me and going to peek out her door. She frowned. "God, I wish I were fluent... Ma's yelling at Papa for something. She should break into English soon, though." She opened the door wider and crept along the hall.

I followed her. Sure enough, soon we heard Ma starting to speak English. Ray, Fraser and Dief came up the stairs and paused at the other end of the hall. Then we all got closer and closer to Ray's room.

"You know what the doctor said!" Ma was yelling at her father. "And you bring this here, with the children in the house!"

"Ma, what's going on?" Franny asked, looking ready to retreat any moment.

"Look at your grandchildren," Ma continued to speak to her father, and gestured at the rest of us, even seeming to include Fraser. "What example are you setting them?" She shook something in his face.

"I'm sorry, Marta," Papa said meekly. "You're right. I didn't mean any harm."

"Are those... cigarettes?" Ray asked, looking horrified.

I thought he was just over-acting at first, because hey, he had been sneaking cigarettes for the last... well, since he got back from Vegas, and here he was acting shocked. I didn't quite put two and two together.

"You see," Ma said. "We're all ashamed of you."

"I'll throw them away," said Papa.

"I'll throw them away," she snapped. "Somewhere you won't find them."

"W-where did you find them?" Ray asked.

"In his bathrobe," she answered, coming toward us.

As she got closer, I could see that the pack looked unfamiliar. It was no brand I'd ever seen before, except... Then, it finally clicked.

"Uh, Ma," Ray started.

"It's my fault," I jumped in before he could finish his sentence.

"You?" Ma looked at me like she couldn't imagine any way in hell that I could be responsible for this.

"Yeah... I had these foreign cigarettes some stoolie gave me and I don't smoke... I thought since we were celebrating tonight, why not let the old man have a treat? It was stupid. I didn't think about his health... he seemed to be doing really good."

"Ray..." she still looked like she couldn't believe it.

I took the pack from her limp hand. "I'll get rid of them," I said. I looked past her into the room. "Sorry, Papa," I said. "I didn't mean to get you in trouble."

"Oh, it's all right, my boy," he said. Poor old guy. I couldn't tell if he'd been covering for whoever they belonged to in the first place, or if he really thought I'd given them to him and he'd forgotten.

"Um..." I could barely glance up at Ma. "Sorry, Ma. It won't happen again, I promise."

I guess she was too surprised to say anything, and I decided to make my exit. I went back down to the dining room where Ray and Fraser had abandoned their half-eaten cake.

Dief came up behind me and nudged my hand. I petted his head. "It's okay, boy."

Ray, Fraser and Franny joined me a minute later. I couldn't look at anyone. Fraser and Franny thought I was enabling the old man and Ray knew I'd lied.

"So..." Franny said finally.

"Kowalski, could I have a word?" Ray interrupted her.

"Oh, don't be dramatic," she said. "You can chew him out in front of Fraser and me. Or were you planning to beat him up?"

"I am not going to beat him up! I just want a word with him in private, that's all." He clamped a hand down on my shoulder and pushed me toward the front door.

"It's fine," I said, going along willingly.

Once he shut the door, he said, "You really don't wait to plan stuff out, do you?"

"I kinda go with my gut."

"Uh-huh... and was your gut doing that for me, or for Ma?"

I shrugged. "Both, I guess."

"What a mess," he sighed. "You better hope Ma doesn't realize you had no way of knowing Papa was gonna be here tonight. I'm gonna tell him the truth. It'll make him feel better, and that way he'll sleep good and probably forget the whole thing by morning."

"You don't think he'll rat you out?"

"Nah."

"How'd he find them, anyway?"

"They were in my sock drawer. He usually sleeps in my room when he comes to visit. I guess he wanted some extra socks or something. Who knows? Probably didn't think anything about slipping them in his bathrobe pocket for later. Probably thought they were his to begin with. He's harmless, but kinda senile, you know?"

"Mm." I got the cigarettes out of my pocket and gave them to Ray. "Better hide 'em better next time."

"Yeah. God, I gotta move outta here." He hid the pack in his shirt sleeve. "Any more vacancies in your building?"

I couldn't wrap my head around the idea of the three of us living so close together, but I just said, "I dunno. I can see."

After a few seconds, he shook his head and huffed. "You come into my home, impersonate me, become part of the family, save my sister from being kidnapped... and now you're taking the fall for my screw-ups. Lemme tell you, even Paulie wouldn't have done that. You're officially my brother now. Someone's got a beef with you, they got a beef with me. They throw mud at you, they're throwing mud at me." He pointed at me and jerked his thumb back at himself.

Other than Fraser, I hadn't had anyone really put themselves in my corner like that for a really long time. My chest felt kind of tight. Over all, it was a good feeling, but I couldn't think of anything to say.

"Come here," he said, pulling me into a hug.

Once I got over being startled, I smiled and hugged him back. "Always wanted a brother," I said.

"Better late than never." He thumped me on the back and I knew that was the signal—the hug had to end there or it would get too mushy.

I moved away. "So, how we gonna play this when we go back in?"

"Uh... I gave you an extra scolding with a heart-to-heart, you're very sorry, you gave the cigarettes to me to take care of because you trust me... you respect me..."

"Don't lay it on too thick," I laughed.

"...and you learned your lesson and we're pals now."

"Good enough. Let's go."

Franny studied me real good when we came back in, and I wondered if she was looking for swelling and bruises. "You want some cake?" she asked me.

"I don't think I could," I said. The pizza was sitting heavy in my stomach after the weird emotional crap.

"I'll wrap some up for you." She left the room.

"So," Fraser began as Franny had before, nervously touching his eyebrow. He does that a lot when he's thinking hard or feeling awkward. I don't think he knows he does it.

"It's done," Ray said. "Forget it." He slapped me on the back. "No sense beating a dead horse."

"There's no sense beating any horse."

"It's an expression."

"We're cool, Fraser," I told him, which seemed to relieve his nervousness a little more.

"You guys go home, rest up, and I'll see you on Monday." Ray looked at me. "Just don't be too surprised if you don't get to stick around. I'm writing up my report tomorrow for Welsh to go over. I'm not gonna offer you up for the slaughter, but I am gonna tell the truth."

I nodded. "Fair enough."

Franny brought me a plate with plastic wrap covering a thick slice of cake. She obviously wasn't mad at me.

I smiled at her. "Thanks. I'll see you soon."

"Okay." She walked us to the door. "Ma will be okay," she said as we went out. "Nobody ended up smoking the things, so I'm sure she'll decide there was no harm done and you'll be back on her good side before you know it."

"I hope so," I said. "I feel terrible."

"Well... you should. But it'll be okay."

Back in the GTO, I felt the familiar wolf tongue by my ear. "All right, Dief," I said, pushing him away.

Fraser didn't say anything, and that was worse than a lecture. Halfway home, I couldn't stand it anymore.

"I know, it was a stupid thing to do," I said.

"I'm not judging you, Ray."

"No, but you're sitting there wondering how I could do something so stupid..."

"That would be judging you."

"I guess." I sighed. "Trust me, I feel just awful about the whole thing, but like Ray said, it's done."

"I was actually wondering about those cigarettes. Your 'stoolie' might be the person Ray Vecchio has been meeting. It would account for the unusual odor."

"Uh..." I tried to decide if that was safe to let him believe. It didn't seem safe because the stoolie was made up. If Fraser asked me to introduce them, I'd have nothing for him.

"May I see the cigarettes?"

"Oh, I... I gave them to Ray to get rid of," I said, thanking my lucky stars that I'd given them back before Fraser had a chance to smell them. "You know... he's the head of the family and all. So, he sees it as his responsibility."

"Was he angry?"

"No. Well, maybe a little. But it turned out fine. He even said I was his brother. And he meant it." I felt that tight feeling in my chest again.

"That was very supportive of him," Fraser said, sounding cheerful.

"Yeah. He's pretty cool once you get to know him."

"As I've been trying to tell you."

"I admit it, you were right. Happy?"

"I am."

I smiled a little. I didn't like lying to Fraser, but I'd told him enough of the truth to make it convincing, and I told myself it was a white lie for everyone's good. Still, I hoped I wouldn't have to cover for Ray much longer.

"Did you get a chance to talk to Franny?"

I felt the atmosphere shift before he answered, "Yes, I did."

"And did she understand?"

"I think so."

I remembered what she'd said about asking him for help with self-defense: "I'd just make a fool of myself." Maybe she wanted to avoid him for a while because she knew her fantasy wasn't ever going to come true. "Okay. Thanks for doing that, buddy."

He nodded.

Time to move on from that subject. "Hey, Ray was asking if there are any apartments available at Miz Tate's... I dunno how I feel about living in the same building with him, brother or no brother, but I guess we should ask."

"If neither of us sees her before Monday, I'll ask her then," he offered.

"Okay. You wanna work on your table some more tonight?"

"No; I'll let it dry for now. Perhaps we'll have some time to work on it tomorrow."

"Yeah. We can talk about the Hall murder while we're at it. If you want."

"The cutthroat victim?"

"Yeah. If you're right about it being a pro job—well, an experienced killer—that narrows down the possibilities a little."

There ya go. Nice and awkward. But don't worry, there are lots more angsty situations in my life to exploit for entertainment purposes... give me a break and leave a comment, okay? ~Ray K.