The Greatest Secret

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own iCarly

A/N: The chapters with the band during the Battle of the Bands will be different in a way. The story of the chapter will go, but the song that the band would play/sing later that day will be in the chapter, for instance this song is a very romantic Italian song, from Jonah to Valerie. The song is "Tu Per Me" by Angel Camassa and La Voce Del Nord. I'm serious, look it up on youtube!

Chapter 192 (Heritage)

The next day, January 10th found Jonah and Beck resting in an RV. Jonah watched his new friend with curiosity and tapped his foot gently on the ground. "So you're Italian too, huh?" Beck nodded his answer and strummed on the chords of his guitar. Jonah was surprised, but had to admit, he thought he saw a little bit of Italian in Beck when he arrived. "My wife's Italian, I realized she was full Italian just this Christmas, she discovered it too. We thought Viola wasn't Italian, but her mom stated that she really was. Now not only has Valerie's paternal grandfather been a part of the Italian Mafia, we also discovered that her mother's dad, now deceased, was also somehow involved. In a rival family!" Beck laughed briskly and looked over as Jonah strummed on his guitar. He wanted to sing an Italian love song to Valerie through the band and learned the lyrics as he learned the language. It was difficult, but he did it. The song was Tu Per Me and the band was going to let him sing while they played. Freddie would help with backup, but not much, as he didn't know the language.

"So this will be another night of one of you singing and the others not?"

"Pretty much, they never learned the language. I had to learn the language! We had an Italian wedding. Her family sticks true to their Italian heritage." He had to say, he would have loved to be Italian like she was, and it felt sad now that she had the name Brown instead of her typical Italian name. "You know, her family goes by the English equivalent of their last name."

"Why?"

"It's so hard to say. Try saying it, Guglielmo. I couldn't even pronounce it right until I practiced it for a long ass time!" He laughed. Beck attempted to say the name, but failed miserably. "See, I told you it was hard. Even for you, and you say you're Italian!" Beck coughed and grabbed some water from the wooden stool. He brought it to his lips and sighed as he tried to say the name again, managing to say it correctly this time around.

"I am. My parents are both Italian, which makes me full Italian…I get the skin from the sun…" Jonah chuckled and folded his arms over. "You know, if you wanted to pay homage to her heritage, you could always change your last name to fit its Italian equivalent. The name is Bruno, but for the color, you have Marrone or Castagno. Marrone being a type of chestnut and Castagno referring to the brown of chestnuts." Jonah raised his eyebrow and rubbed the back of his neck, thinking curiously on the subject.

"Bruno? Seriously?"

"Jonah Bruno, Valerie Bruno, Aaron Bruno…" Jonah made a sour look and Beck laughed once more. "Castagno and Marrone do sound better, don't they? Jonah Castagno, Valerie Castagno, Aaron Castagno…or Jonah Marrone." He tilted his head and pressed his lips together, he wondered if he ought to consider changing his name. He never did much research into his family's genealogy actually, and Castagno really sounded nice for his name. A little too nice, so much so that it was suspicious. Michael Castagno, Denise Castagno, his parents could have been Castagnos!

"Castagno does have a nice ring, actually."

"Anyway, let's get back to you guys discovering Valerie's full Italian. Her parents were children of the Mafia, on rival families?"

"Yes. Apparently her mother's family changed their last names in order to avoid conflict. Therefore Vincent and Viola are both full Italian. It surely explains my wife's crushing death grip when she was giving birth to Aaron." Beck laughed again and Jonah's eyes narrowed.

"Nice. You know, you think you could be Italian? I mean, you do have the accent for it."

"I've never noticed."

"Well it's more evident when you speak the language. For instance, sing that song you want to sing her. I'll sing the lyrics back to you in English if you'd like."

"Okay…" Jonah set his guitar down next to him and slowly stood up as Beck placed his glass on the stool and started up the record player. He then returned to his guitar and began playing, Jonah prepared himself. Io per te faro le cose, che nessuno ha fatto mai! E per te darò la vita, se tu un giorno lo vorrai."

Beck closed his eyes and bopped his head gently as he sang out the English lyrics for Jonah. Jonah did note a rich accent coming from his own voice, but wasn't too sure. He'd have to wait until the playback. He continued his song, keeping on par with Beck's playing. He would take pride in this and hoped that Valerie would come to love it.

"Io per te andrò lassù, ed accenderò una stella. E con lei poi verrò giù, per stupirti se sarai sveglia." Beck sang out the English lyrics again and Jonah felt his heart rising, this truly was the perfect song for Valerie, and completely romantic. He'd sang of going up to retrieve a star for his love. "E abbracciami…e comincia a sorridere, accanto a me, non puoi più piangere. E stringimi, ti serverà a vivere e a crescere insieme a me." In English, it was to hold her close, and for her to hold him and grow with him.

"You're doing great Jonah, keep going." Beck wasn't sure how this would go at the performance, but he did have a good feeling. The song itself was romantic, whether you knew what someone was saying or not. It was interesting to think, Jonah and Valerie being Italian, Sam and Freddie being Hindu, however Italian and Hindu mixed was story enough, but it was great nonetheless.

"Io con te sarò per sempre giovane, e con te vivrò un tempo utile, poi con te volerò sopra la nuvole, con te mai freddo io avrò." To live together, forever young and to fly above the clouds, singing that with Valerie, he would never be cold. He took a deep breath as Beck continued to strum the guitar. "Tu per me, sit u per me, solo tu per me." What he was saying was she was for him, only her, for him.

"Thank god there aren't any girls here Jonah, they might swoon over you." Jonah laughed heartily and continued onwards.

"E abbaracciami…e comincia a sorriedere, accanto a me, non puoi più piangere. E stringimi, ti servirà a vivere, e a crescere insieme a me." The song seemed to slow just a bit as Jonah sang the final lyrics of the song, Valerie was the only thing on his mind. He smiled and folded his arms over as Beck set the guitar to the side and handed him the tape recorder.

"Here man, this is yours. You did a fantastic job, play it back and let's hear it." Jonah nodded and hit the play button. When the song came over, he had to check again just to make sure it was him, his Italian accent was coming out thick as ever! Beck nodded and clicked his tongue. "Uh huh, I knew I heard it in your voice when you talked, just singing, it comes out a lot more." It didn't make sense at all to him, but he never actually thought to ask his parents about their heritage.

"That's news to me, honestly."

"Why? Where did you think you were from? Ever look into your background any?"

"Nope, never." He wanted to get to the bottom of this, and stat. After all, if he was Italian, then why hadn't he ever figured that out? "I guess I never paid any attention, I never noticed an accent from mom and dad either."

"So then, get to the bottom of it if you want. You could be full or half Italian and not even know it." Jonah laughed and took his seat again, his hand played with the cell phone in his pocket. He was seriously debating calling up his father. Beck smirked and tilted his head to the side. "Come on man, you know you want to. Curiosity, sometimes you should let it get the better of you." Beck laughed and Jonah rolled his eyes, smiling quietly.

"Fine, I'll call dad."

"Good! This should be entertaining!"

"Yeah, yeah…" He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed his father's number. Michael answered the phone within three rings. "Hey dad, how's Aaron?"

"Aaron's great, Olivia and Denise have been spoiling them to tears though."

"Careful there, I don't want Valerie coming home to find her son's been spoiled to death." The two men laughed and Beck's eyebrows rose to the humor. After a minute, Jonah clicked the phone onto speaker and set it down in his lap. "Anyway, I'm wondering something here. Listen to this…"

"Okay." Jonah played the recording back and Michael gasped softly. "Who is the love song for, son? Valerie, I presume?"

"Oh yes, how did you know it was a love song."

"It sounded so beautiful, just like an Italian love song should be. You have a very nice singing voice."

"Yeah…" He was just going to come out with it now, he didn't care for anything but knowing his heritage. "Hey Dad, am I in any way Italian? I think it would be nice to know, and why do I not know?" He heard his father sigh, a certain heaviness detected. His eyebrow arched up and he waited for his father's response.

"Actually son, you are Italian. Full blooded Italian." His jaw dropped and Beck moved his eyes over, his lips were twitching into a triumphant smirk. "We're of the Castagno family, son. Your grandfather, my dad, was an immigrant from Italy in the 1960s. Ryan Castagno and his wife, Bella Acardi. Your mother's family was the same, Bruno Cattaneo and Norma Cavallo. Both came over to Italy around 1965, so your mom and I were just babies."

"Why didn't I know this!"

"Well truth is, we didn't know till we were older either. Our parents, in an attempt to gain American citizenship quicker, had their last names changed. So my dad changed our family name to Brown, your mother to Bryant. Your mom and I had known each other since we were children, as our parents knew each other in Italy."

"I can't believe…I didn't know this…"

"Well, I guess you have to keep up with tradition, huh? Marrying someone Italian seems fitting." He could feel his father's teasing smirk coming from the phone. This wasn't earth shattering news at all, he actually found it to be very nice to know, all things considered.

"Yeah, I'm glad I know this now, I mean, it makes me want to look more into the family's ancestry!"

"Well I'd love to go through all that with you sometime, son. Maybe when you get home, we'll go through the family history. You know, the Castagno family were mostly farmers. That explains the hard working blood that we have."

"Yeah it does, actually. Anyway, uh…I'd like to talk more, but I have to practice, but…we are definitely going over all this when I get home. Just so you know, all right?"

"I got it, Jonah. I'd be happy to."

"Thanks." He hung up the phone and stared at Beck, he was so shocked that words were not coming out of his mouth. Beck grinned and leaned back, folding his arms across his chest.

"So what did I tell you? You are definitely Italian. Castagno fits perfectly too!" Beck laughed and Jonah did a double take. What could he tell Valerie? She'd probably be just as excited to hear it, though chances were, she already knew about it.

"Well if I'm Italian, I'll state it proudly. I'm happy to be whatever I am, you know. So it turns out, I am indeed Italian, my son's Italian, and now Valerie's grandpa will probably want to teach me to shoot a gun…" Beck laughed again and pat Jonah on the shoulder.

"Okay man, the Italian Mafia isn't that scary."

"Oh what do you know! You haven't been a part of it."

"Neither have you man."

"Touché…"

"I hope you guys are ready for tonight, you're going up against a band from Texas. They're all country and southern."

"That's fine. We're doing heritage songs. I'm doing that Italian song, then we're going to do a Hindu song, and then we're finishing off with Celtic Thunder's Heartland."

"Ooh that is a good song!"

"Yep, hopefully tonight, we'll rock the house."

"I believe you will man, I believe you will." With a grin, the two friends shook hands, wishing each other luck in tonight's competition. They knew without a doubt that the other team would make it, they were of full confidence, considering they wanted to face off in the finals.

Hm, so, Jonah's discovering a little about his heritage, but perhaps there's something more. Something his father isn't telling him. I guess we'll have to see.