Joey gaped open-mouthed at the woman who was in the car that had just done a slow roll past him.

"LaFiamma, you all right? You look like you’ve seen a ghost, man?" His partner Levon Lundy asked, touching the Italian’s shoulder. "Joe?"

"She…no way…couldn’t be her," Joey gasped, taking breaths in short gulps as if he’d been punched in the stomach.

"All the women you’ve had, you remember everyone, do you?" The Texan asked chuckling.

"She was special, Levon – very special." LaFiamma said finally getting his voice back.

"Then how do you know it wasn’t her." Lundy quizzed looking into his partner’s face.

"Cause she died in my arms, that’s why." Joey groused glancing at the Texan.

"Well, maybe she lived and they didn’t tell you," Levon offered seeing that his partner was visibly shaken.

"No way. The way she died…no way, partner. No way!"

"Damn LaFiamma, I’ve never seen you so shook up. Can’t you tell me what this is about?" [When will the man learn to trust me?]

"If I tell you then you’ll be involved, and I don’t want you hurt Levon."

"How many times do I have to tell you we’re partners, LaFiamma – partners! I protect your back, you protect mine!" Levon howled to his partner’s back as Joe left the Jimmy and made a beeline for the stairs leading up to Reisner’s lobby.

 -=-=-=-=-=-

 As they entered the squad room, Sergeant Carol "Legs" O’Brien pointed to Joey to pick up the phone. "Line 2. Says she’s an old friend."

"LaFiamma."

Levon and Carol watched LaFiamma’s face turn pale. "WHO—THE—HELL—IS—THIS?" He shouted into the phone, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the receiver.

"You are not Maria! Maria’s dead!" The Italian shouted into the phone before slamming it down onto its cradle. Ignoring the stares of those around him, LaFiamma walked out into the hall and pounded his fist against the wall.

"Joe, easy partner. We’ll get to the bottom of this, just take it easy." Levon said quietly, lightly touching Joe’s arm.

"Joey," Legs said softly from behind Levon, "a guy on the phone says he’s your uncle from Chicago. You want me to tell him you’ll call back?"

"No." Joey replied turning, he walked back to his desk, hoping Uncle Mikey would be able to shed some light on what was going on.

Nerves raw Joe picked up the phone, and sunk into his desk chair as his Uncle Mikey began to talk.

[V.O.] "Joey. That man in Sicily that Maria was promised to for marriage before she was born showed up last week. He lost a couple of wives and discovered the document that her family had signed pledging Maria to him. The Russo’s never told him about you and Maria getting married because they’d heard he’d married someone else. He just found out how she died. Doesn’t believe it was a drive-by shooting that killed her. Joey, this man is like your great-grandfather – old time Mafia. Shoots first, ask questions later. Thinks you are responsible for changing her into an American woman… doesn’t understand that Maria was born in America, raised in America. …Joey be careful. This Georgio is bad news."

Joe hung up the phone and sat quietly at his desk for several minutes before he looked up into his partner’s concerned face. "Looks like my past is closing in fast. This time there ain’t nothing you or anyone else can do about it. Uncle Mikey wants you to call him if this vendetta is successful."

Without waiting for a reaction from his partner, LaFiamma whirled in his chair, rose and headed for the hall.

"Vendetta! What the hell you talkin’ about?" The blond detective growled, pushing his chair back, he quickly followed his partner into the hall.

Turning to face the blond, Joey raised his hand for silence and nodded toward the bathroom.

Entering the bathroom, LaFiamma hushed his partner to silence until he looked into every stall to make sure they were totally alone.

LaFiamma looked into the concerned eyes opposite him. "A girl I grew up with…" Joey began slowly, "was pledged to some guy in Sicily the day she was born. Her family owed this guy some debts… and in her parent’s era that is how you paid it off – give an unborn daughter to him as a wife. Well, the old man Maria was promised to just buried his second wife and decided to come to America and claim her."

"Claim her? What does he think she is, a piece of meat?" Levon growled, aghast that such a practice still continued in the world.

"The Russo’s never told him about me and Maria getting married. Or anything about her death. They were afraid of repercussions to family members still in Sicily. Now he’s out to get me – cause he figures if I hadn’t married her, she’d still be alive."

"You? Married?" Levon croaked in disbelief.

"Look, Levon…."

"Okay, okay…you said she was a very special lady."

"Maria was special. Very special. Conceived in Italy but born and raised in America. We grew up together. Went to school together. Went to church together. Everyone just figured we’d get married. Everyone except her parents that is. We both had already enrolled in the University of Illinois in Chicago. And… it just seemed natural to tie the knot and apply for married student housing. We both had scholarships – it seemed the thing to do. We were old enough…didn’t need a parents signature. Aunt Teresa and Maria’s oldest sister Danielle planned the wedding – big Catholic Church – two hour Mass with communion. Thought I fall asleep on my knees that long. We were married for three hours and then she died in my…"

"Joe, you don’t have to tell me the rest," Levon said quietly wishing he hadn’t made that crude remark about his partner sleeping with lots of women.

"Yeah…I do, Levon…I really do," Joey continued, waving someone out of the room whom can come in to use the john.

"We got married…she was beautiful…beautiful. Long black hair cascading down her should…" Joey swallowed tears forming in his eyes. "We had a reception line inside the church, then went outside on the steps to set up for pictures. From there we were going to a reception. It took the photographer a while to get everyone set…we heard this pop just as the photographer said ‘freeze.’ I heard a moan and looked to my left to see one of my ushers face down on the steps. Then all hell broke loose. A car opened fire just raking the place with bullets. The photographer was killed. Maria was killed…lost my best man, lost an uncle…an eight-year-old flower girl. I grabbed for Maria but it was too late. Soon as I saw where she was hit I knew it was too late. Least she didn’t suffer. I was hit when I grabbed for her, probably would have been killed too if I hadn’t a’moved when I did."

Joey paused not knowing if he could continued, but knowing that he had to. "I remember screaming at the top of my lungs. Screaming her name over and over again. I wouldn’t let go of her. Wouldn’t let the medics take her. It took three uncles to pry my hands off her. I woke up in the hospital three days later. The day she was to be buried. They wouldn’t let me go to the funeral. I called some cousins asking them to break me out…they all refused. It seems I took more than one bullet – but I didn’t feel any of them. Never felt any of them hitting. All I dreamt about for months was the lady I loved dead in my arms with a bullet through her heart. And if she were alive today she’d tell this Georgio to take a hike. And from what Uncle Mikey just told me, this guy wouldn’t take that too kindly – and definitely not from a woman."

"All the times you’ve been telling me you know how I feel about Caroline …and I been biting your head off, telling you that you don’t … I apologize for that Joe. I reckon you do."

"I reckon the reason I date so many women…is I’m trying to find one to match her. And I never will. I was told to get my life together and go on living. But like you –when you grow up with someone that is so much a part of your life … it’s just hard. Real hard."

Back at their desks, LaFiamma watched Lieutenant Beaumont in an animated conversation on the telephone. He didn’t know why, but he had the sneaking suspicion it was about him. When she finished the call, and came and stood next to his desk, he knew he was right.

"Joey, I’ve just been talking to your old Lieutenant in Chicago. At his suggestion, I’m putting you into protective custody as of right now."

"No way Lieutenant!" Joey barked, springing to his feet.

Joanne Beaumont looked at her sergeant; the last thing she wanted was to lose half of her best detective team. "I’ll make it an order if I have to Sergeant."

"Joanne, you don’t know this guy…he isn’t like your ordinary mobster."

"That’s it, LaFiamma! You are to go nowhere without Lundy," Joanne Beaumont answered angrily, reaching out to touch his shoulder.

"NO!" The Italian shouted, slamming his desk drawer closed, he was out the door before anyone could stop him.

"Well, don’t just stand there Levon, get after him." Beaumont barked sharply.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Levon paced in front of his partner’s empty desk. "It’s been four hours since he barged out of here. That sports car of his stands out like a sore thumb, how come nobody’s spotted it yet?"

"Take it easy, Levon." Annie Hartung said gently. "You said he was quite upset. Maybe he just went somewhere to cool off."

"Just my point, Annie. Whoever this is drove by here just as we were driving in. That means they were probably waiting for him when he left. If we can’t find him…and Chicken can’t find him…let’s just hope this Georgio guy hasn’t found him." Lundy remarked remorsefully, realizing he’d never really told the man that he liked having him as a partner.

"Lundy!" Joe-Bill McCandless called sharply. "Phone...can’t tell from the noise in the background but I think its LaFiamma."

"Lundy. LaFiamma, where the hell are you?" Levon shouted into the phone finding it hard to hear the man because of all the noise in the background.

"Pump…dock…cars…" Joey mumbled the world getting fuzzy from the hit he’d taken.

"LA FIAMMA? LA FIAMMA? Joe pick up the phone?" Levon yelled staring at the phone in his hand wondering why his partner didn’t answer.

"Levon, we got a tracer on the call," Joe-Bill said… "that sound…sounds like that dredging they’re doing along the channel…you know that 100 year old pump they still use down by the docks."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Cops rolled to the two-block area and began checking from the perimeter towards the middle. It was Lundy who spotted the Cobra first. He peeled out of the Jimmy barely putting it into park. Sliding to a stop, he found his partner nowhere in sight. What worried him most, was the patch of red –blood—smeared across the hood of the car.

"LEE-VON! Over here!" Sergeant Joe-Bill McCandless shouted, seeing LaFiamma on his knees at the edge of the channel.

"LaFiamma, Joe? You okay man? Where you hurt?" Levon bubbled, checking his partner over to see where he was wounded.

"I’m okay, Levon. I am. Just a little fuzzy from the spin." Joey said trying to reassure himself as well as his partner that he was okay. The Cobra had done a complete three-sixty as he skidded to a stop.

"Sorry I ran out on you – won’t happen again." LaFiamma said sheepishly, allowing his partner to help him to his feet.

"Where’s Georgio? Did he get away?" Levon asked, looking at the nasty bruise forming on the Italian’s cheekbone.

"Down there," LaFiamma answered pointing to an upside down car in a drainage ditch. "That would have been me, if it hadn’t been for those damn pigeons I hit. Spun the car around so fast – made me dizzy. Their blood better not ruin my car!"

"Car’s can be replaced, LaFiamma – you can’t be." Levon shot back, wondering when his partner was going to stop worrying about his damn little kiddie car.

"This car can’t be replaced, Lundy. It’s one of a kind." Joe answered giving the Texan a frown.

"Can I ask you one question about Maria?" Lundy questioned as they walked back to where Joe’s car was parked.

"You can ask," Joey replied brushing the blond’s hand away from his sore cheek.

"They ever catch the shooters? The drive-by?"

"Yeah… yeah they did," Joey said reaching down behind his roll bar for a bottle of water and a towel to wipe the pigeon blood off the hood of his car.

"Weeell...!" Levon asked anxiously.

"Oh – sorry." LaFiamma grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, Chicago has a great mounted patrol – that's cops on horse back Lundy."

"I know what mounted patrol is – get on with it. Who were the shooters?"

"There was a park across from the church, and some big company was having an employees picnic. That park is always patrolled on horseback; anyway one of the mounted officers gave a description of the car. They were captured about two blocks away. The driver of the car was Maria’s father. He’d refused to come to the wedding, and just her mother gave her away. One of her five brothers, the only one not at the wedding was the shooter. Her father swore up and down that he didn’t know what his son was going to do, but the gun used was registered to him. I think her dad got out a couple years ago. Her brother got a life sentence."

"If this happens again --- a shooter comes after you. You going to promise me you won’t take off again."

"I’m not sure I can promise that Levon, but I’ll try to be more level headed next time, but you know me, I’m…."

"…. you’re Italian, right?"

"Hey… you’re finally getting it?"