"Carrado, get in here!"

"Yes, my spicy little meatball?" Uncle Cappy said as he entered with a wink. Aunt Virginia waved at him in annoyance.

"Don't you come in here calling me those pet names of yours. You think I was born in the back of a streetcar named Dopey? I know what you're up to and it's not going to work. The only way you're going to see my wooden spoon in the kitchen is when I throw it at you!" She added with her hands for emphasis.

"Ah but sweetheart I'm starving here. Can't you just make me some raviolis? Huh? Just a little bit? I'll even eat them cold."

"Not until you knock some sense into your nephew and he brings my Allison back!"

"Ah honey I tried talking to that boy. He don't listen to me. He's decided that Allison doesn't love him. He's thicker than your pesto sauce, mama."

"And who sent him to the hospital to make a Stunod outta himself huh?"

"I thought he could talk her out of leaving. How was I supposed to know he was gonna be a bacigalupe? He's from your side of the family you know?" Uncle Cappy bit his lip hard but he already knew he was in trouble.

"Carrado Giuseppe Caponera, you better get over here and tell me you didn't mean that, otherwise no cooking and no spumoni either!"

Uncle Cappy's eyes went almost as big as his stomach. Spumoni was their nickname for making love. They'd used it around the boys when they were young to disguise their plans.

"All right all right sweetheart, I'm wrong, Greg probably got that hard head from me. Please don't take away the Spumoni. Even though I can't have my dinner, I still want my dessert."

"I thought so. Now when Allison comes home then I will cook enough to raise our Italian ancestors from their graves. But for now you can use the grill."

He threw his hands into the air and headed down the hall.

"Where you going?" She asked turning in her chair.

"Out to the shed. I wanna finish those two spice racks so I can stain them and hang them up by Saturday."

"That's why I called you in here before all that other nonsense. Bobby Morgan says there's going to be a big storm coming in on Saturday." Bobby was the trusted weatherman of 18 years.

"Well we better call Father Auggie then and have him throw in some extra prayers till the party's over."

"Add that to your list. You need to call Greg and have him get an earlier flight for Bob. It's a three-hour drive from LaGuardia. I don't want them driving in the bad weather."

"I gotta hammer the spice racks. Can't you call him?"

She gave him that glare that said he'd be sleeping in the shed if he continued to argue. The truth be told their marriage was always solid as a rock because she insisted he become more than he thought he could be. Her mother had always done it all as did her grandmother. Her father and grandfather were good men but of no use if the women got sick. Aunt Virginia feared for her boys and demanded a lot from them. But the kitchen was and always would be hers. Uncle Cappy also had the Italian passion to cook, so after the boys were out of the house, he opened the restaurant. He and Joey did all the cooking there and had no interest at home. She was rather happy with that arrangement.

"All right all right I'll call them. And to think I could've married Sophia Loren." He teased.

"Oh no you couldn't. One week without my manicotti and what would you eat? Her legs are so skinny you couldn't even make a meal out of them."

"You got me there baby. I love you my angela bella." (beautiful angel in Italian) He leaned down and kissed her lips like he'd done everyday since he'd won her back."

"I love you too you big stuffed meatball. Now one last thing," she said as she rubbed the soft mustache that grew down to the curves of his chin, "after you finish in the shed, call Father Auggie and Greg, and pick up Joey, then sit down at the table and eat your supper."

"What are you telling me?" He said with his face still close to hers.

"I might've had a forgiving moment while you were down helping Bruce. You might want to check the oven."

He nearly leapt like a gazelle into the kitchen. Aunt Virginia waited patiently and she was rewarded.

"Praise Jesus! Papa's happy to see you!" He shouted with joy looking into the glass dish filled with baked ziti. "I'm coming home after I drop Joey off at the Elk's Lodge and we're gonna have us some Spumoni. Then I'll be so hungry for ziti I'll eat this entire thing!"

She laughed as she always had when he got excited over her cooking. Then she thought for a quick second. "Hey, you better not tell Greg!"

"I wouldn't do that!"

"Yes you would!"

"No I wouldn't. I'd have to share!"

"You crazy man! Get out of here, CSI comes on in ten minutes."

"Oh yeah I forgot, I get ziti you get Grissom and Brass."

"That's right! I love my show."

"Will you wait up for me?" He asked tenderly.

"Don't I always?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Uncle Cappy lingered in the hallway for a moment looking at the woman that he'd loved for so long and nearly lost twice. If she had gone he would've given God his right to live, turned in the keys and walked her home.

He grabbed his faded white, pinstriped Yankees hat from the coat hanger. He prized the hat as much he prized Italian food. One night at the restaurant, Joe Torre, who was the manager of the Yankees, stopped in with his wife Ali for supper. Uncle Cappy was so happy to meet him that he gave them dinner on the house, the best wine he had, and closed down an hour early so Joe and Ali could share a romantic anniversary dinner. Before they left, Ali took a picture of Joe and Uncle Cappy in front of the dessert display. A month later, a large package arrived at the restaurant. Inside Uncle Cappy found the 8x10 picture of he and Joe in a frame. It was autographed "To the Sinatra of Spaghetti, my favorite paisan Carrado Caponera. All our Love, Joe and Ali Torre." Along with the photo was an autographed Don Mattingly jersey, an honorary batting coaches pass that got him into the dugout whenever he wanted, and the baseball cap that he never went anywhere without. Uncle Cappy had been a fan of the Bronx Bombers all his life but meeting Joe Torre had sealed the deal. He'd been to many games throughout the years and he and Joe talked a few times a month. He'd kept the picture hanging on the wall over the table they'd sat at. A month before the fire, the picture mysteriously fell off the wall and the glass shattered. Uncle Cappy took it home until he could buy a new frame. When Joey had reminded him of this in the days following the fire, Uncle Cappy gave that million-dollar smile and said, "God must be a Yankees fan."

Uncle Cappy patted the dogs as he went to the shed. He truly was a lucky man.

"Beat you again!" Braeden giggled as he crossed the finish line in Candyland.

"Maybe you did but I got to eat all the gumdrops!" House teased.

"Nah-uh I steal all your candy."

"Then what do I get?"

"Nothing cause I win again!" He shouted victoriously.

House ruffled the boy's hair as his cell phone rang.

"Go put on your TJ's and pick out a movie. I'll be right there. And don't brush Sully's teeth either. He doesn't like your toothpaste!"

House grabbed the phone as Braeden made like Superman and flew over to the DVD stack.

"Hello Mistress." He said trying to sound like Bela Lugosi.

"How's parenthood?" Cuddy asked.

"Cake. We eat sweets all day. Get tattoos by night. Nothing but the player's life for us two homeboys. Tomorrow we're buying bling and inviting some ladies over to pimp our pancakes."

"Weren't you the one who threw up on Wilson when he took you to that tattoo place in Vegas? You know the one where you were supposed to be in a surgeon's conference and you went moonlighting instead?"

"I puked on Wilson because I was hung over and he made me share chili cheese fries with a cross-dresser from Minnesota named Bucky Billy."

Cuddy laughed. It was great to see that House hadn't lost his sense of humor when he'd leveled off into Margaretville. "Listen I need to tell you something. I spoke to Rick Travers this afternoon. You know he was the lead on Stephen's case. Anyway, they had him in county lockup under solitary and when they went to check on him this morning, they found him dead. He tore the lining from the mattress and hung himself."

House looked over at Braeden who was watching television.

"Couldn't stand the thought of being Jethro's girlfriend huh? What does that mean to me?"

"Well to be honest Stephen's attorney was going to fight your custody rights saying that he was coerced into signing them. But with Stephen dead, his attorney dropped the custody battle also. It looks like you have full custody, unless another relative contests your rights."

"Any skeletons or black widows I should be watching for?"

"Not that I can tell. Braeden has an aunt that lives in Sarasota but she and her sister were estranged since college according to Rick."

"Fine. I'll see you on Saturday. Bring your thong and your game. Oh yeah and see if Playschool still makes those brownie ovens. Brae-man and I gotta sell some special brownies to pay the chicks to pimp our pancakes."

"I'm glad to see you've set Braeden on the road to street crime in Atlantic City. Goodnight House."

"Cuddy?"

"Yes?"

"You by chance fire Cameron yet? Never mind she'd find some other way to bounce back using Chase as her pogostick. Bye." He hung up and on the other end of the line Cuddy was smiling.

House hung up his phone and walked over to the back of the couch. In one swoop he grabbed Braeden up off the sofa and under his arm.

"No! Uncle, I want to watch Sully and Mike!" He protested.

"That's what pause is for Popcorn. Now go put your TJ's on and we'll brush our teeth. And do you know why we brush our teeth?"

"Cause scary monsters don't have black!" He shouted.

House let the boy scurry in to get his pajamas on, or as Braeden called them, his TJ's. He laughed at the reference to black teeth. They'd watched Monster's Inc three times that week. Braeden was convinced that scary monster's didn't have black instead of plaque.

The boy came out with his Scooby-Doo pajamas on. He pulled House by the hand to the bathroom where they brushed their teeth and gargled with pink mouthwash; another one of Braeden's choices. House put Braeden's new Batman sleeping bag on the sofa and helped to wrap him in it. Then he put the pillow on his lap so Braeden could lie down and watch Monster's Inc. Before Sully got to brush his teeth, he was quietly snoring on House's lap. He picked him up and carried him to his own room and set him on the floor. It was no use putting him in the spare bedroom; he wanted to be with House. The last addition was to put Braeden's puppy Sully next to him. One night when House was too tired to remember the pup, he'd awoken to find Sully in the hallway crying hysterically for his little master. House had always believed that sentiment was for suckers and right about now as he slid beneath his covers, he felt like a giant Tootsie Pop.

By Thursday night Cameron had made up her mind that she couldn't go back to Margaretville. She'd even come so far as to putting pros and cons up on House's dry-erase boards. Even though the pros won out, Cameron talked herself out of each of them. She put in a movie and fell asleep on the couch but she was soon tossing and turning. Feeling that the couch wasn't comfortable she retreated to her bed. When more tossing and turning ensued she got out of bed and ran for a while on the treadmill. Surely this time she would be able to fall asleep. Again she fell asleep and woke up, the clock had moved exactly fifty-eight minutes. It was no use; she couldn't sleep and needed something else to do. She powered on her laptop and searched a response to the email she'd sent Wednesday night. The response was waiting for her and she felt somewhat relieved. She showered, dressed, programmed the directions into her navigator on her phone, and headed out. It was barely 7:00am. The drive took nearly an hour but finding the destination was fairly easy. She counted of the numbers as she walked and finally found what she'd been seeking.

Serafina Dakota House

"From Our Heart to God's Hands

Till We Hold Her In Our Arms Again."

The sentiment on the headstone nearly brought Cameron to tears. She could tell that the grave was visited often as it was well tended. At her feet were blue carnations and to that Cameron added some red ones.

"You got here sooner than I expected." The voice said behind her.

"Hi Johnny." She said turning around. "How did you know when I'd get here?"

"Wilson gave me your address. I've been staying at the Motel 6 across the street from your house since you sent me that email asking for directions. I followed you until I was sure I knew you were coming here and then I took the back way so as not to scare you." He said with pride.

"Oh you didn't want to scare me this time? Scaring me to death on House's boat was my initiation?"

"You could say that."

"I figured you weren't too far off. Blue carnations are the sign of Johnny Dakota after all. You said so in your video that you made for House."

"You sure you should be a doctor? You'd be a great detective."

Cameron smiled and turned back to the grave as he stepped beside her.

"It couldn't have been easy losing your sister and your niece all at once."

"I lost my best friend too. Greg came home a changed guy. You know when we were kids and his parents dropped him out at Aunt Virginia's like a sack of potatoes, we were inseparable. We laughed all the time, sometimes about nothing at all. He didn't even mind my sister tagging along. Our plans were all about the open seas. We were going to be captains of our own ship and become professional fishermen. When he came back he looked at our dreams and he said if people wanted fish they could catch them on their own. He got on this one-track mind to become a doctor and he never varied from it. He grew up fast and there wasn't room for good ole' Johnny Dakota."

"And he didn't know that you knew about Serafina?"

"No and I kept it that way. I knew he'd be distant from the rest of the town but not from me. After all, Margerite was my sister. I thought he and I could get through it together and that he'd tell me the entire story that I already knew but he was too angry for that. He had this chip on his shoulder and I wasn't sure who put it there. He went off to medical school and Uncle Cappy and Bruce financed my first fishing boat as a graduation present. Greg and I didn't talk for two years. Then one day out of the blue he shows up at the dock and he's loaded up on whiskey. It was Serafina's second birthday and he was determined to make a fool out of himself."

"He's pretty good at that." Cameron added.

"He starts shooting off his mouth about how I never called him and how dare I become the captain of a ship without him."

"Sounds about right for House. What did you say?"

"Not a word Allison. I jumped off my boat to the dock and I hit him hard enough to knock the whiskey out of him. And because I didn't want him shooting off his mouth in front of Aunt Virginia, I threw him on the boat and I drug him out into the middle of the lake. When I finally got him sobered up we made an agreement that we'd stay friends and stop being hardheaded. But he never lost that hard edge that he came home with."

"I always wondered where the edge came from in the first place." Cameron said.

"You thought it was about his leg huh? So does everyone outside our little town, the truth is all that did was piss and vinegar to an already bitter situation. Oh, but now there's you. And now there's Braeden. I still see the edge but the guard rails are down."

"I didn't do anything Johnny. He's just had time to be home."

"He's been home many times in the past. He brings the baggage and he takes the baggage. This time he brought you and I finally see that kid he used to be. And there's something else I want to tell you because you won't believe it from anyone else. He wasn't in love with my sister. If you could've seen them firsthand you would agree with me. Margerite was as persistent as she was beautiful and if she wanted that baby, he wasn't going to deny her but he fought himself about it."

"How do you know?"

"Mary Geneva, who passed away a few years back, used to pay me to run errands for her. She sent me down with some zucchini bread for Father Auggie and Father Delano. I came in through the back and Father Auggie wasn't in his office and Father Delano's car was gone. So quietly I walked behind the alter so I didn't disturb Father Auggie if he was praying. I hear Greg's voice and I peak out. He was explaining the situation to Father Auggie and God bless him, Father Auggie tried desperately to talk him out of it, but Cowboy wasn't going to change his mind. I heard almost everything and I'll tell you Allison, Greg did what he did for me. He knew my sister was going to die already and he wanted me to have a piece of her so I wouldn't be miserable."

"If you knew about it why didn't you stop him?" Cameron said shooting him a look.

"I told you, Cowboy and I think alike. I didn't want to lose Margerite but if I were going to then I would have a baby to hold onto. I was a selfish teenager Allison. I'm not saying my ideas were right but my heart was trying to be in the right place."

"That's not an easy call to make is it?"

"No it wasn't. And I now know the reason Greg separated himself from me. In his mind he'd failed me. He was unable to save either one of them and he couldn't face me."

"But it wasn't his fault."

"Allison, does the man look like he listens to anyone?"

"No I guess not." She smiled in response.

"Want to hear my last bit of evidence in your favor, Miss Cameron?"

"Please."

"He's got Braeden and he's doing great with him but a bit of that edge has come back. Like any good friend would do I took him out drinking last week. He was plastered to ninth degree. You know what he tells me?"

"What?"

"He wishes Margerite and Serafina were still alive. I figure he's playing on old memories and then he looks me dead in the eyes, without slurring he says he wanted them alive so they would be proud of him for marrying someone so wonderful as his Al."

Cameron's eyes went wide. Johnny knew he sealed the deal by revealing the testimony of a drunk man. But he didn't let Cameron say anything.

"Now, I'm hungry so I am going back to my motel room, grab my travel bag and hit that Burger King for breakfast. I will then fill up my truck at the gas station and I am heading home for tomorrow's celebration. If you're coming then you will get back in your car after you pay your respects to my niece, you will drive home, and you will be packed and waiting outside your house when I pull in your driveway with your sausage croissant."

"No dice Dakota. I only eat ham on my croissants. Throw in a large coffee and you got yourself a sidekick." Cameron assured him.

"Man if I would've known that being a first class jerk got me the ladies, I would've started that a long time ago. I guess the Gatlin Boys were right, the lady does take the Cowboy everytime."