Her week's vacation was almost over and all Felicia could think about was her father needing her. Sure, she was still a little angry with him for the funeral incident, but her mother had always taught her "to apologize is to forgive, to forgive is to let go, and to let go is to forget." She even remembered the circumstance of which her mother told her that for the first time.

"Mama, Pepe tore her head off," a 4-year-old Felicia cried to her mother, thrusting her decapitated Raggedy Anne doll in her face. Her mom took the doll from her and nodded.

"I'll fix her, honey," she replied, running a hand over her daughter's head.

"Punish Pepe, mama. Make him clean the toilet after papa come out, si?" Her mother laughed whole-heartedly, looking down at Felicia with warm brown eyes.

"Don't you think that's a little rough?" Felicia's little face turned to a pucker as she thought about it. She finally shook her head and looked up at her mother with matching warm, brown eyes.

"No, he hurt dolly," she yelled back, her eyes brimming with the tears of a first lost love. Her mother sighed and scooped her daughter up into her arms.

"Ah, mi amor. Your dolly can be fixed, but if you say mean things to or about your brother, maybe they won't be so easy to fix." She looked into her daughter's eyes, a tiny mirror of herself, searching for a sign of understanding. Felicia shook her head and poked her lip out into a pout. "You forgive your brother, okay?" Felicia turned her head away and crossed her arms. "...Okay?"

"Okay, I forgive him. But I WON'T forget it." Her mother hugged her close.

"Mi niña, you need to understand. If you forgive him, you must forget. Something my mother always taught me: to apologize is to forgive, to forgive is to let go, and to let go is to forget. My mother was right, and you should forgive your brother." Little Felicia frowned, but finally nodded and hugged her mother before limping her body to slip to the floor.

"Okay, mama. I forgive him, AND forget." Her mother smiled and turned to find her sewing chest so she could mend the doll while Felicia ran into the other room. She didn't want to witness her dolly being fixed, so she went to play with her forgiven brother.

Felicia remembered her mother fondly. Her mother wasn't from Little Havana, or even Vice City itself. In fact, she was from Louisiana. She remembered her mother could cook a mean jambalaya, but at the same time cook the most delicious Mexican food she'd ever tasted. Food had always been a large part of her life, as one could see by her father.

Remembering her mother, however, did not make her decision any easier. She loved her father, no doubt, but she also loved learning and being in college. It would probably help dad more if I stayed in college. No, she thought, he wouldn't see it that way. She just didn't know what to do, so she decided to go to the one person who knew her better than she knew herself -- her brother.

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"Pepe, I don't know what to do." Her brother nodded. Felicia could see in his face he was thinking; contemplating her situation.

"So," he began. "You think about this, right?" Felicia nodded in reply. "So you want me to make your decision." She just stared at him for a moment, taken aback by this. She hadn't realized it, but that is what she wanted him to do. However, considering her unrelenting Cuban pride, she'd never admit she was letting any other human being make a decision for her.

"No, it's not that. I just, you know... I like to hear what you think. It almost always helps." Pepe smiled, knowing it was her way of agreeing with him.

"In that case, I think pop is right. You should stay." Felicia looked at her brother almost angrily. Why did he have to agree with her father? Why couldn't he have done the right thing and tell her what she wanted to hear? No, in fact, she didn't know what she wanted to hear. No matter what he would've said it wouldn't have been what she wanted to hear... he was right.

Pepe, on the other hand, almost felt guilty for suggesting she stay. He knew it was partially selfish -- he didn't want to lose his sister for another 3 and a half years. On the other hand, he knew their father wouldn't be able to deal with their mother's death on his own.

As each contemplated Felicia's situation, the phone rang. Pepe stood to answer it.

"Yeah," he answered. "Okay, we'll be right there." He turned to Felicia. "Come on, hermana, we got to get to the hospital. Pop has an accident."

Shortly after they'd arrived at the hospital, Felicia stood in the doorway of the examining room watching the doctor weave the stitches through the back of her father's skull. As her father sat motionless during the stitching, probably not feeling a thing, she allowed her eyes to dart to the receptionist's desk where her brother took care of the paperwork.

"Felicia..." her father called, jerking Felicia back into reality, " Felicia, you shoulda seen it, man. You... you would be proud of your papa. I really got him..."

"Dad," she cut him off, "you were drunk and picked a fight with a man at the cafe and he cracked a beer bottle over your head."

"Man? MAN?! He no man. He fight like a pussy." The doctor laughed behind him as the exasperated man flung his limbs in correspondence with his words.

"You picked a fight with him," she replied flatly before shooting the doctor a dirty look. Her father was about to reply but the doctor's voice cut him off.

"All done, Mr. Robina." Her father attempted to stand from the table but fell over immediately, still nowhere near being sober. Felicia stepped forward to help him up but her brother rushed in from behind and hurried to aid the doctor in helping him up.

"I don't need no help," her father yelled, still allowing Pepe and the doctor to help him stand. "I ain't no baby boy, I don't need no help."

To no surprise, Felicia and Pepe's grandfather came rushing in. He'd just arrived at the hospital after being called from his weekly chess meeting with Santiago Romana, and old friend of the family. Felicia assumed he heard her father's drunken banter from the front doors of the hospital and ran toward the sound.

As soon as Felicia's grandfather spied his son he ran to his side.

"My son, are you okay?" he spoke with a thick accent.

"He's fine, Mr. uh..."

"Robina. He is my son." The doctor nodded.

"... Mr. Robina. He'll just need some strong coffee and a lot of rest to let that wound heal." Her grandfather nodded and attempted to aid his plastered, teeter-tottering son out of the room and to the cab waiting outside.

----------

Before she knew it they were back at the cafe. It was located only a stone's throw from the hospital, which was highly convenient in this particular situation.

As Pepe and her grandfather got her father situated upstairs, Felicia contented herself with a Screwdriver and a little small talk between herself and the bartender on duty that night until they returned. It wasn't long before Pepe walked in the front door of the café, seating himself next to her at the bar and ordering himself a drink. There they sat in silence for a while -- with the exception of a few cars going by and some clutter off in the distance somewhere -- sipping their drinks and watching the bartender wipea nonexistant mess from the counter.

"What you think now, hermana?" Pepe finally spoke, shattering the virtually still silence.

"About?"

"You know... what pop said." Felicia sighed and placed her head in her hands, rubbing her temples with her thumbs.

"I think..." she paused. "Maybe he's right."

"Felicia... you know pop, he only gonna get worse... getting drunk all the time. You remember how he was when mom and him -- they had that big fight, si?" Felicia nodded silently.

"Yeah..." she whispered from behind her hands. She remembered it, how bad he got with it and all the trouble he'd gotten into with it. That was her father's get away: alcohol. It always had been for as long as she could remember, and now that he was older it didn't seem to have gotten any better. She had no way of knowing how long he'd been drinking this time, but it was at least two weeks before he got into a fight last time he'd gone on a binge.

"You need to stay, hermana. He need you right now; we all do." Felicia sighed again and shifted in her seat. The thought unnerved her, but she had to stay. She couldn't leave her father alone to get drunk and do God knows what; but most of all she couldn't leave her family alone to deal with that.

"I know." She rose from her stool and downed the last of her screwdriver. "I'll call the school tomorrow and tell them I won't be coming back," she stated flatly, her voice raspy as she forced the words from her mouth.

Before Pepe could turn around and flash her the sympathetic eyes he felt fit for the situation, she had snaked her way out the door and out of sight. He had to admit part of himself was smiling inside, although a much bigger part of himself felt guilty for selfishly suggesting his sister simply stay when it could quite possibly have been the biggest decision of her life. He soon shook these thoughts from his mind. Felicia needed to stay regardless, and that's the end of it.

After his final decision, Pepe himself stood and downed his own drink before heading back upstairs to his father and grandfather's apartment to make sure everything was okay.

----------

The next day Felicia found herself standing in front of the family café, where she'd made her near impossible decision the night before. She had gotten up early that morning and called LCU and informed them she wouldn't be returning and to send her any paperwork that needed taken care of.

She could see the round silhouette of her father moving about inside the building, probably throwing around orders to the bartender and God knows who else might be in there.

After standing in the sidewalk for what seemed like forever, Felicia finally decided she'd never work up the nerve to go in there on free will, so she forced herself to cross the street and enter the café. As soon as she arrived inside she cleared her throat, demanding anyone -- or possibly everyone's attention. Immediately her father turned and looked at her, his hands still raised in mid-command. After a brief pause she forced her heart back down to her chest long enough to state her reasoning.

"I've decided to stay," shebegan coolly, though her heart was racing nearly as fast as it was sinking. She cleared her throat and continued. "Does your job offer still stand?" Her father, taken aback by her sudden decision, stared at her in a mixture of shock and awe before shaking his head and lurching himself forward to stand in front of her.

"My daughter..." He took her in his arms and hugged her, Felicia grimacing as the stench of whiskey and an unfamiliar scent found its way up her nasal cavity. She reluctantly hugged him back before pulling away slightly to end the hug. Her father immediately ran behind the counter and handed her an apron. "This what needs done..."

A/N: This one is pretty long, too. I considered cutting this one in half but a big problem I have with my other story is that it's 9 chapters into it and Tommy still isn't actually in the story. I don't want it to be that way with this story, so expect to see Tommy within the next chapter... hopefully. ::crosses fingers::