This is one of this seminal chapters for this story. I saw an image in it, and thought, "huh, that doesn't fit in the Season 8 story I am writing." It was then that I realized I was writing two Season 8 stories. And here I was thinking I'd write 10,000 words and be done. The Muse laughed. This has been complete and sitting in my inbox waiting to be posted, it's a relief to finally post it.

"Angela!" Tony called upstairs, "we're ready to head out."

There they were, the words Angela had been dreading all morning. She could no longer hide in her room while the rest of the family finished packing the car for Tony's departure. Taking many deep breaths and splashing cold water on her face to get rid of the tear stains she opened her bedroom door, plastered a smile on her face and gripped the railing on her way downstairs. Reaching the bottom of the stairs she saw Tony standing at the door. She noticed the rest of the family had made itself scarce.

Angela clasped her hands together tightly, hoping that if she grasped firmly enough she would find some strength. She looked at Tony, her false smile having disappeared before she even made it to the landing, and forced herself to speak, "Tony, there are times when the words 'thank you' aren't enough." Her voice was raw and breaking, she cleared her throat and tried not to yell at herself for showing such weakness. "I can't thank you enough for all you've done for us," feeling a little overwhelmed she decided on a change of subject, "I hope you find happiness in your new endeavor, you deserve it. I know you'll be successful in your work." Yes, that was good, it sounded downright businesslike.

"Angela, I'm the one who should be thanking you. You were the one who took a chance on a guy from Brooklyn. You gave Samantha the life I dreamed of for her."

Angela turned away, "all I did was hire a housekeeper."

"You did a lot more than that Angela and you know it."

"Tony, you shared your precious gift of a daughter with me and my life has been so much better for it."

Tony reciprocated the sentiment, "and you shared your precious son with me, 'thank you' isn't strong enough for that either."

She turned her head slightly to look back over her shoulder and managed a small smile, "I guess that makes us even then."

They were quiet for a couple of moments and Angela turned back away from him.

Angela finally spoke, "well, you have a long journey ahead of you...," and she trailed off.

"Yeah," he answered just as half-heartedly.

"You'll call when you stop for the night...and when you get there, yes?" She turned around, a hopeful look in her eyes.

"Yes, of course."

"Good," she nodded. She felt better, they would always have each other as friends, even though the starved dreams of her heart would never come to fruition. There was another pause in the conversation. Angela thought she was pulling herself together enough to get through this, but then Tony did something that shattered her. He pulled his house key out of his pocket and held it out to her.

It wasn't easy for him to say the words, "guess I won't be needing this anymore."

"Oh Tony, no, it's your key. You'll be home for Christmas, you will need it." This she couldn't bear; the sight of that key being handed back to her. The key represented so much; trust, friendship, home, she couldn't stand the thought of taking it back. Taking the key back would cut them apart from each other, she wanted to cling to the idea that Tony was only going away temporarily, that he would keep the key on his key chain and think of her whenever he saw it.

"Please, keep it," she pleaded.

Tony saw the pain in Angela's eyes and decided that if he could give Angela some peace by keeping the key, it would be simple enough to do so. He put the key back in his pocket.

Which left them at another impasse.

Moments passed in which Angela desperately wished for anyone to come in and tell Tony it was time to go; but she knew no matter how hard she wished, no one was going to come in and save her from the inevitable. She managed a, "I..uh...well," then was inspired, "drive safely," and she held out her hand to shake his.

Tony shook his head in disbelief, "Angela, c'mon, you think that's going to suffice?"

"Well, I..."

He didn't let her finish as he pulled her close and hugged her tightly. It had been so long since she had been in his arms that she let herself indulge in the bliss. She put her arms around him and closed her eyes tightly. Every voice in her head was screaming, "don't let go! Don't ever let go!" Tony just held her, recapturing the tiniest bit of the closeness they once shared and wondering where it all went wrong. Try as he might, and he had on many occasions, he could never get Angela to even acknowledge anything had changed between them let alone discuss it.

Angela forced herself to pull away; she had to, one second longer in his arms and she would be reduced to a sobbing mess and she was too perilously close to that already. She swallowed her tears and managed to look at him long enough to say, "bye."

"Bye, Angela," he answered.

They stood there looking at each other, wondering if they dare try a goodbye kiss; but Angela turned away before the thought permeated her mind. "You'd best be going," she strangled out, they were the most difficult words she had ever spoken.

His only answer was to step toward her and kiss her cheek. She turned farther away from him. He took that as his cue to leave; even though Angela had only turned away to try and hold together what was left of her composure.

Tony left; he walked out the front door just as though he was going out to run errands. He closed the door behind him and leaned against it, sighing heavily.

Angela touched her cheek where Tony had kissed her, she stepped to the door and leaned on it, facing the living room. She scrunched her face, trying to hold back the tears, but knew she was fighting a losing battle.

There they both stood, back to back, separated by only the slim width of the door, the same door that had once opened, beginning their lives together. Now the hard wood created a final barrier between them, the door was closed; their lives together finished. Neither knew the other was so near, yet so very distant at the same time.

Tony mulled over the past few minutes, wondering if he could find any shred of evidence that Angela wanted him to stay, he could find none. Slowly, he pulled himself away from the door, his journey led elsewhere and leaning here trying to make peace with the past wasn't going to get him on the road.

In the driveway, Sam waited for her father, she was worried about him. Truth to tell, she was concerned about both of them. Her heart ached at the broken friendship distance between them, and now there would be geographical distance as well. How would they handle being so far apart from each other? How would her dad cope with being so far apart from all the people he loved? She likened her current state of mind to that of a parent sending a child to college. Would he be able to make new friends so far from home? Would he be successful in this new venture? Would he know how very much she'd miss him?

Sam saw her dad walking toward the driveway, his whole manner of being was not his usual self, he looked defeated and sad. She wanted to run to him and hug him, but knew that now was not the place or time for that.

Finally, Tony reached the car; Hank, Sam, Mona, Jonathan and Mrs. Rossini were all there waiting for him. He looked around the group, hoping his eyes were not betraying his tormented state of mind.

"Dad?" Sam called gently.

Tony looked at her, "you and Hank start the car, I'll be there in a couple of minutes."

"Sure, Dad," Sam answered, not wanting to upset him further. She took Hank's hand and they walked to the car, leaving Tony to say goodbye to Mona, Jonathan, and Mrs. Rossini.

"Tony, you don't have to go, you know," Mrs. Rossini offered.

Tony shrugged, "What do I have to stay here for?"

"Plenty," she answered, "Jonathan, Samantha," and then she dared to speak the name that could send Tony into a tailspin, "Angela…"

"Angela doesn't need me, Mrs. Rossini, she's made that quite clear. Jonathan is a senior, if he needs anything he can call and Sam is married," spelling everything out publicly that he had only shared with Dr. Bellows. This brought up his feeling of being unnecessary the past few months as well. It was an overly harsh assessment, but he wasn't in a mood to be easy on himself.

"C'mon, Tony," Mona put her hand on his shoulder to try and shake him out of this.

"I failed her, Mona."

"No, Tony…"

He shook his head, he wouldn't listen to anything Mona had to say on the subject. He knew there was something he'd missed, some way that his relationship with Angela had changed for the worse; but it was too late now to try and fix it, she'd obviously moved on and it was time for him to move on as well. He put an arm around Mona and the other around Mrs. Rossini and pulled them close, he kissed each one on the forehead and let them go. Then he looked at Jonathan and said, "take care of your mother for me, I wasn't much good at it."

"How can you say that, Tony? You always took great care of her, and I won't have you leaving here without thanking you for always watching out for her, well, both of us, really," Jonathan said.

"Thanks, Jonathan," he hugged Jonathan quickly, then even more quickly turned and headed to the car. He sat in the back seat, being in no shape to drive. Hank pulled the car out of the driveway and after almost eight years together, the Bower/Micelli household was split asunder.

"This feels so wrong," Mrs. Rossini shook her head as she watched them pull away.

For once in her life Mona agreed with her, not that she would ever admit it. Instead, she put her arm around her grandson and said, 'C'mon kiddo, let's go scrape your mother off the floor."

He nodded in agreement, but was polite enough to say goodbye to Mrs. Rossini. She nodded goodbye to both of them and watched as they went into the house through the kitchen, then she sighed and started up her own car for the disconsolate trip back to Brooklyn.

Angela heard Tony's car leaving, she was still slumped against the front door, unsure of where to go or what to do now. She glanced around the living room, it was so overly quiet; so desolate; she clutched her arms tightly in another effort to ward off the tears, but there was no fighting the inevitable. Her chin quivered and she gave in, hoping that by crying, she would feel a little better. The tears ran down her cheeks so quickly she barely had time to brush them away, she clung to the door, hoping to gain some strength from it. The living room was almost mocking her in its serenity, it didn't know the whole world had just been turned upside down. The pillows on the couch kept their Tony arranged precision places, how could they know Tony would never organize them again?

Angela was starting to feel suffocated by the room, everywhere she looked she was reminded of Tony. How was she ever going to get past his leaving? Worse, how was her heart ever going to forget him? She could feel the pain of her heart splintering and tried a couple of deep breaths to will herself back together; to try and force the tears to stop. Crying hadn't made her feel better at all, in fact now she felt shattered and empty.

The door from the kitchen to the living room swung open. Mona and Jonathan entered the room, Mona saw Angela's disheveled state immediately and hurried across the room to drag her away from the door. She motioned to Jonathan to sit on the couch, then she sat down next to him and pulled Angela down over her lap. Angela burst into uncontrollable tears, Mona said nothing, just stroked her hair. Seeing a need, Jonathan ran to get a box of tissues, for which his mother was very grateful. Jonathan silently wondered how many boxes she would go through and hoped his Mother's portfolio included stock in Kleenex.

Angela continued to cry unabated, Mona and Jonathan looked at each other trying to think of anything they could say, but there was nothing that could be said.

Eventually Angela calmed down, she felt raw and lonely. The shred of rational thought she had left told her she shouldn't feel lonely because the two people on the planet who loved her the most were right there with her. Then she remembered that Tony didn't love her the way she loved him and that set her off again, the tissue she'd been clinging to came in very handy.

Jonathan looked at his mother with compassion.

Mona tried to comfort her daughter, but there is no way to comfort the inconsolable.

"Jonathan," Mona spoke very softly, "would you please get your mother a glass of water, she's dehydrated."

"Not thirsty," Angela choked out.

Mona looked at her grandson, overriding Angela's ridiculous protest. He went to the kitchen to get the water.

When he returned, Mona pulled her daughter up and sat her next to her, "drink," she ordered her as she pushed the water glass into her hands.

Angela realized that fighting her mother would be pointless, so she drank.

"Angela, after you finish that I want you to go upstairs and get some rest."

"I'm not tired and it's the middle of the morning," Angela protested.

"You're exhausted," her mother argued, "did you sleep at all last night?"

Angela's attempt at a lie was betrayed by a yawn, so she avoided the question and drank more water.

Mona stood up and following her lead, Jonathan stood up as well. As soon as Angela moved the glass away from her mouth, her mother grabbed it and gave it to Jonathan. Then she grasped her daughter's hands and tried to haul her off of the couch.

Angela protested, vehemently, 'Mother, please stop! I am not a child, I can handle this on my own. In fact, I am feeling much better now, I am going to my office to do some paperwork."

"The hell you are, you aren't touching a bit of work today; you're emotionally and physically exhausted," Mona answered. To bring her point home, she motioned to Jonathan to put down the water glass and pull his mother off the couch, which he did promptly. Angela's protests of being quite capable of handling the day might have been more convincing had she been a little more steady on her feet. As it was Jonathan had to keep his arm around her all the way upstairs. Mona followed them up all the while wondering how she was going to get Angela through this.

Jonathan sat his mother on her bed, she completed the task by falling back onto her pillows. Mona picked up Angela's feet and slipped off her shoes, then placed her legs on the bed and pulled a quilt over Angela.

Angela fell asleep within seconds. Mona sent Jonathan to get a pitcher of water and more tissues, then she sat down on the bed next to Angela and pushed the hair off of her face. It had been a long morning, and it was going to be an even longer night. Mona knew her daughter was strong, but she pitied her at this time. Life without Tony was going to be a big adjustment for all of them, she wasn't sure if Angela would be able to accomplish the adjustment.

On the road to Iowa, the atmosphere in the car was tense and quiet. There was no music, no laughter, no license plate game. They were halfway through Pennsylvania before anyone said anything and that was only to discuss lunch options.