Archive of Our Own

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Honouring her father was all that Vittoria Belmonte ever tried to do. It was all that her older brother, Matteo, had done with his life. Marietta, her mother, had done the best a woman could do raising two rambunctious little Italian babies with only stories to tell of their father. She’d done a damn good job of it, both of her children raised into the sort of people that were known to give a stranger in need the shirt off their back.

Every muscle, every fibre of Vittoria’s body ached as she pulled up to the home that she had just moved into at the beginning of the month. She had been saving up for nearly a year after her promotion to lieutenant, wanting nothing more than to move out of the shithole of an apartment that she had reluctantly dubbed home when she had moved in after two years of more overtime that she cared to ever count.

She sat outside for what felt like hours, her head resting back against the seat as she tried to muster up the strength to go inside. In reality, she spent maybe ten minutes outside before realizing that if she didn’t get her ass in gear soon, she was going to fall the hell asleep and she was sure that her back wouldn’t take kindly to a nap upright in her old beaten down, is-it-orange-or-is-it-just-another-spot-of-rust chevy truck. The door screeched in resistance as she opened it. She made a mental note that on her next day off to oil the door as she slammed it shut, locking the truck before she headed inside.

Vittoria dropped her bag by the door, her lips parting in a yawn as she kicked the door shut behind her. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes with one hand, she locked the door with the other. She groaned as she knelt down, taking her boots off. She stood back up and kicked them off, leaving them haphazardly by the door as she made her way further into the home. She paused by the kitchen, trying to decide whether she wanted to toss a haphazard meal together before the fatigue won out and she made her way back toward her bedroom. It was moments like this where she wished she still lived at home. An Italian woman never let her children go hungry.

Eyes slipping shut, Vittoria was fast asleep before her head had even hit the pillow. It had been so long since Vittoria had last seen a ghost and never before had they visited in her dreams that at first, she thought nothing of it. “Come on, Dad. Do it!” coaxed a brunette little girl.
The man who was clearly the father to the two children sitting on either side of him. “Alright, alright!”
“Once upon a time, in the middle of the night. Two dead men, they got up to fight. Back to back, they faced each other. They drew their swords and they shot each other,” the man said, letting out another laugh.
“Stupid-” the little boy began, clearly over this thing that went on between his sister and his father.
“What do you mean stupid? It’s not stupid. It’s nonsense,” the man said, giving a lighthearted huff. “Nonsense is different from stupid.
“Yeah, then it’s stupid nonsense.”
“Stop that. Hey Lis, do the second verse. Show ‘im how it’s done,” the man instructed.
The little girl was happy to oblige, a grin splitting her cheeks as she leaned closer to her father. “One was blind and the other couldn’t see. The blind man went to see fair play and the dumb man went to shout “hooray!”

The man’s face was oddly familiar and even in her sleep, Vittoria recognized that but she wasn’t able to think too much about it. By the time that she was waking up nearly ten hours later, Vittora had long forgotten the dream that had been strange in its own right. Pushing the cover from her legs, Vittoria grumbled as she rose to her feet and trudged toward the bathroom. Not that she was well rested, Vittoria was looking forward to washing the smoke and the grime from her skin.
Savouring her shower, Vittoria remained until the water grew cold and even then, she had to coax herself out of the shower. The promise of a warm breakfast willed her feet into action. Padding into her bedroom again, Vittoria pulled on a sports bra and a pair of basketball shorts. Scratching at her side, Vittoria grumbled under her breathe as she headed down into the kitchen. It was moments like this where she wished she had one of those single cup coffee makers that you just popped a coffee pod into and it made your cuppa in a minute. Instead of the ten minutes it took before her coffee pot was ready, after measuring the grounds and all.

Vittoria propped her phone up and began to play good ol’ Frank Sinatra, her hips swaying to the music as she began to cook herself a simple breakfast of eggs and toast. She was so absorbed in what she was doing that she didn’t notice the man standing on the opposite side of the street, a ball cap pulled down low over his features as he watched Vittoria through the front window.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Vittoria had no problem in working for days on end. She was one of the lucky few that never truly worked a day in her life because she adored what she did. She loved fighting fires, she loved saving people, she loved being there right beside her brothers and sisters in uniform. They helped people on some of their worst days, were there in their worst moments. It never felt good - when they weren’t successful in putting out the flames quick enough to save photos, belongings, and in the worst cases - peoples’ lives. The best part of it all though.. It was that it made her feel closer to her father.

Her days off always had the same routine. The first day was relaxation and recuperation from likely working several twelve hour days in a row. Even if she was lucky and only worked nine hour days, by the end of her stretch, it never failed that Vittoria was completely exhausted. Down to her very core. The second day and the subsequent days off were generally where she started to let loose a bit more and have some fun. She’d start the day off by going to the boxing gym that she’d been a member of for so damn long that the owner considered her a daughter. She called him uncle affectionately, while he eyed her warily. It all depended on how tightly wound her shoulders were, how long Vittoria spent.

Today, Vittoria spent nearly an hour and a half working her way through various workouts. By the end of the first hour, Vittoria stood by the ring, just waiting for someone to step up, ready to spar. She rarely let loose, rarely let her fist hit full forced but it was days like this, when Juan stepped forward with a knowing smirk on his features that she’d breathe a sigh of relief.
“Hola, chica,” he greeted, raising an eyebrow as he sat on the ropes, lifting one to let Vittoria climb into the ring. “Been a long week?”

Vittoria let out a dry laugh as she shook her head. “You have no idea, Juan,” she sighed, adjusting the wrap on her left wrist so that it felt a bit more secure. “Been waiting to see your handsome face,” she teased, winking as they moved toward the center of the ring.

The pair dissolved into the language they both knew so well - jabs and angry kicks, full of unsaid emotions that neither could really express. Juan’s home life was terrible, Vittoria’s work took a lot out of her emotionally. These mock fights said so much more than their words ever would. Vittoria didn’t care to talk about the calls that went wrong. Juan didn’t care to talk about his father gambling away the rest of the family’s money while his ailing mother tried to do the best she could, to care for them.

Leaving everything on the mat, Vittoria’s chest heaved with the effort of each breathe she took a short, ten minutes later. She clapped Juan on the back, giving the man an appreciative nod of her head before she left the gym. Her shoulders felt a bit lighter than they had when she entered the building.

“Cya later, Tori!” David called from his place, perched at the front desk. Vittoria turned, giving a tired smile and a half-hearted wave before heading over to her beloved chevy. A brief stop at the grocery store on the way home, Vittoria whipped up a mean protein shake. It would have likely been better to cook a pair of eggs and some peppers… but she was in the middle of deep frying zeppoli for the guys over at the station. She’d stop by her mom’s and with the mountain of dough she was staring down, she’d be able to stop at her brother’s station. Certainly not on purpose… but her mother had always taught her to be kind and that food was the way to anyone’s heart.

Vittoria left the zeppoli to cool, making her way into the master ensuite to freshen up. Pulling her hair back into a messy bun, Vittoria was quick to step into the shower and wash up. She breathed a tired sigh, letting the water beat against her back for a few moments before she reluctantly lathered up a washcloth. As much as she wanted to be lazy, she couldn’t be. Leaving herself with nothing but her thoughts never did any good for anyone. She knew that. And so off she went with three prepared plates of zeppoli and dip.

Her mother’s was the first stop that she made and like every other time, Marietta’s hug offered her more comfort than she could ever hope for.

“Welcome home, piccola,” she greeted, the smile that she wore stretched across her features. “I missed you.” Even if it had only been a few days since they last saw each other, Vittoria and her mother had always been close.

“Come. Tell me what’s troubling you,” Marietta urged, taking the plate of zeppoli from Vittoria while leading her into the kitchen. Marietta had one of those fancy keurigs that Vittoria was secretly pining over. In just a few minutes, Marietta was serving two cups of coffee at the nook in the kitchen.

Vittoria smile, her fingers wrapping around the mug as she considered her thoughts. She didn’t like to indulge others in what she went through. Marietta would never truly understand what it was like - she wasn’t a first responder. But if there was one thing that Marietta did understand, it was what her daughter needed. Vittoria dragged in a deep breathe, shifting in her seat.

“I don’t know, Ma. Just had a rough call…” Vittoria sipped at her coffee, letting the heat distract her from the swell of emotion in her chest. “There was a bad car accident. Kid didn’t make it…” Vittoria trailed off. She didn’t want to detail that the boy’s mother had been on the sidelines, desperate to get to her little boy while Vittoria and a few of her men worked to put out the car fire. She could steal hear that woman’s cries if she closed her eyes. A desperate, animalistic howl as she crumbled to her knees. Not a single person that witnessed the events could blame the woman. Could anyone?

“Well,” Marietta started, a thoughtful look adorning her features. “Let me tell you something that your father once said to me. I’ll never forget..”

Vittoria’s brows furrowed at the mention of her father and on instinct alone, she sat up a bit straighter.

“Each day is a new one. There were days that he couldn’t save everyone and that tore him apart,” Marietta began, her voice dipping a bit at the memory. It still pained her, to speak of her husband as if he was anything other than the perfect man she knew him to be. “Then one day, we were laying in bed, Tor. And he just.. He rolled over and this look of just…” Marietta paused, her face scrunching as she searched for the words. “Like he finally understood a problem he’d been trying to solve for hours… days, months, years even. Each day is a new one. You cannot take the mistakes, the failures of yesterday into tomorrow because they become the mistakes of today. You aren’t able to focus on your patients if you’re thinking about the what ifs, the whys of yesterday. Remember them, learn from them, but accept them as what they are.”

Vittoria mulled over her mother’s words, a wave of relief washing over her. “Thanks, Ma,” she spoke softly, though she hoped her gratitude showed.“You know I’m always here for you, baby,” Marietta said, reaching out to set a hand over Vittora’s. Sharing a smile, the rest of the visit becoming far more lighthearted as the pair told stories and adapted into their typical chat. As much as she wanted to linger, Vittoria had to leave to stop by the fire halls. She left her mother with a promise to return on her next day off for some quality time together.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Not knowing how to stay away from her firehall, the crew wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Vittoria walking through the doors. But what caused them to lurch to their feet was the sight of the plate that she carried. A knowing smirk had settled on her features as she reached the counter in the kitchen area of the hall, already beginning to undo the saran wrap covering the plate.
“Jesus, Bell. If you’d just stay here, we could have this shit all the time!” Eddie shouted, shoving a plain zeppoli in his mouth almost before he had even finished speaking.
Vittoria rolled her eyes, a smile hinting at the edges of her lips as she watched the plate empty in what was little more than a blink of her eye. “Yeah… but then I’d have to be around you stinky fucks all the time,” she answered, her face scrunching at the mere thought. She laughed when James, who’d walked up beside her, shoved her shoulder. She turned toward him, a retort ready at the tip of her tongue but all she could seem to do was shake her head as she watched him lick the chocolate sauce from his fingers.
“You’d miss it. I mean, it’s not like you get a sniff of that good ol’ male aroma,” Scott called as he had to reach around Eddie to get at the plate of zeppoli. Vittoria snorted, looking up from the counter in front of her. What he said was true, Vittoria couldn’t remember the last time that she had slept with someone. She was always so busy with work or spending time with her family that she just didn’t have enough time left to dedicate to a proper relationship. Her mother asked on occasion but settling down with a husband and kids wasn’t all that high on her priority list right now.
“Not if they smell like you,” Vittoria answered simply, popping a zeppoli into her mouth. She smirked as the room filled with ‘ooohs’. She’d won that one.
Vittoria groaned, reaching out to pick the plate up. She wasn’t going to stand at the counter all day. Leading the way back over to elaborate living room set up. A generous supporter had once bought the hall a reclining sectional - one large enough that it fit most of the crew that was on at any given time. They’d kept their old sofa set only so they had more room to sit and relax if it was a calm day. Plopping down on the end of the sectional, Vittoria put her feet up and let out a content sigh as she grabbed two of the zeppoli before allowing the plate to be pulled from her grip.
There was nowhere quite like the fire hall. It was Vittoria’s home more than the house that she had just received the keys to. It was arguably more of a home than even her mother’s home - the men that she sat amongst understood the demons that kept Vittoria up at night. They knew the ones that lurked at the back of her mind on the best of days, and the ones that haunted her on the worst of days. She didn’t have to talk to them but she could and they wouldn’t bat an eyelash at what she had to say. They would listen and nod their head, it wouldn’t cause them to worry like it would cause her mother to. She didn’t want to put that on Marietta’s shoulders. It wasn’t fair. Not after everything she’d been through.
Settled between them, Vittoria found herself lost in the news that was playing. It was mind numbing to watch. It was always one bad thing after another on the news so she paid no mind when yet another broadcast about a few made men winding up dead. The mob wasn’t doing a whole lot of talking but the murders had been brutal, no witnesses left, and conveniently, no footage of the killer coming or going anywhere nearby.
Eddie hummed, tilting his head to the side. “Bet you it’s the Punisher!”
“The punisher’s dead, you fucking idiot,” Scott said, rolling his eyes as he looked toward Eddie.
“The guy was a machine. How do we really know he’s dead?” Eddie countered, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, shut the hell up. Next thing we know, we’re going to be talking about how Elvis is still alive or some shit,” Scott said. Eddie had always been into conspiracy theories and on the occasion, it was entertaining but right now, no one really seemed to be in the mood for it.
Unfortunately, Vittoria’s visit lasted for less time than she had wanted it to. The bells rang before a nearly robotic voice began to call out the information for the call. Vittoria frowned as she watched the men jump to their feet, abandoning their posts on the couch as they rushed for the truck bay. She wanted to join them but she wasn’t on shift so she was just going to head home. She still had another day to relax before she was on the day shift.
Moving to her feet, Vittoria left the hall with her hands shoved into her pockets. She didn’t quite want to go home yet, knowing that she would be going back to an empty home as opposed to a filled firehall. She decided to stop by the bookstore that was only a few blocks away, the cute little one that she paid a premium at for the same book she could get five bucks cheaper at a chain store. She spent nearly an hour there, emerging with two new books tucked under her arm. Reading was an escape that she could enjoy, even when she was all alone.
The drive back home was normally a short one but people were just getting off of work so it took nearly forty minutes. Vittoria cursed under her breathe and rolled her eyes more times than she probably should admit by the time she was pulling up outside of her home.
Vittoria didn’t realize that the house that she now called a home was the former Castle residence. There was no crime committed there, the realtor had no obligation to tell her and she hadn’t bothered to ask. Even if she had known, it wouldn’t have stopped her from buying the house. It was a three bedroom home - enough for her extended family to stop by and have a place to crash if they were travelling at all. If anything at all, it would have better prepared her for the dreams that would plague her sleep.
She dropped her keys into the little stand by her front door, toeing off her shoes as she tossed the new books toward the couch. Vittoria made her way upstairs to her bedroom, quick to change into a tank top and a pair of plaid pajama pants. Walking back downstairs, Vittoria made a detour into the kitchen. She turned on her electric kettle, busying herself with fixing a cup of peppermint tea with the smallest bit of sugar stirred in. Once it was finished, Vittoria made her way back out to the living room where she settled back down on the couch. She pulled the throw from the back of the couch, fixing it on her lap before she started on the first book that she had picked up.
Vittoria was nearly two hundred pages into the book before she looked up, all the sudden realizing just how heavy her eyelids felt. Groaning as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, Vittoria blinked as she tapped the front of her phone to reveal that it was nearly eleven o’clock. Grumbling under her breathe, Vittoria placed the bookmark on the page she was on before pushing to her feet.
Her nightly routine was always the same. Go to the the washroom, relieve herself, wash her hands, brush her teeth. Vittoria never had been one for makeup so she didn’t have some sort of elaborate skincare routine that she had to follow. Even the stories she’d heard of others’ care routine was enough to make her thankful for that. Dropping into bed, Vittoria was relieved when she fell asleep shortly after.
The scene that unfolded before Vittoria felt intimate, one that she felt like she was intruding upon. Even if it was just a dream.
A familiar figure sat on a couch in a living room that looked oddly familiar to her. But she didn’t think much of it. Her living room had become familiar to her, what was so strange about dreaming of her living room?

The figure sat with a guitar in his lap, plucking at the strings. His attention was focused on the little girl at his feet, a grin matching his own stretched across her features. “Daddy, one more!” She all but shouted, leaning forward. Her excitement was more than palpable.

”Alright, alright. One more song then it’s time for a bath, Got it?”

”Fiiine!” The little girl agreed, nodding her head a bit reluctantly as her father began to sing.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

David hadn’t known Frank for very long. He had heard of the Punisher, of course, but he’d never met the man. Up until a year ago, David had been a law abiding patriot who never thought badly of his country. He thought Frank’s story was a tragedy, as did everyone else that he spoke to, but that didn’t mean he thought it was acceptable to go on some murderous rampage. That was just a few steps too far to David. Right up until he’d been given that fateful dvd that made David’s blood run cold the first time that he had watched it.
The thing was, David had quickly learned, that you didn’t have to know Frank for a long time to know the man. He was a creature of habit. He slept for a few hours between midnight and four am, depending on how bad his nightmares tended to be. Sometimes it helped if Frank went out on a hard mission, sometimes that made it worse because it made Frank remember. Remember what he had done overseas, what ultimately led to his family’s death. All because of what he had done, what he knew about what took place overseas.
Frank damned himself to hell, he was already so sure that he wasn’t going to be graced with the chance to enter those pearly gates that Frank saw no point in trying to ‘be good’. To do good. Why? At least he was ridding the world of one bastard at a time. It wasn’t like the feds were doing their job, someone had to. Frank was just willing to step in where the government failed to protect its own people.
It wasn’t hard for David to tell when something was bothering Frank. His emotions were on his sleeve, as one note as they might be. Frank was either angry or pissed off… on the best of days. On the worst of days, Frank was slightly off. There wasn’t really anything detectable in his actions but it was in the way that he carried himself, it was how his shoulders were tighter than usual. It made David sick, in a human sort of way. To know what Frank was going through. But they would wrought justice on the world if either of them had a say in it. As long as Frank or David were still breathing, they did.
Frank had been out longer than usual, causing an unsettling knot to form in the pit of David’s stomach. After nearly an hour and a half of no response to phone calls or texts, David tracked Frank. There was a tracking device on Frank’s burner, like clockwork. He’d install a tracker every time the ex marine needed a new phone. A security blanket, if you will. Neither of them knew what David would actually do, what it would actually help. David was a tech guy, not a fighter.
What turned the knot in David’s stomach into nothing short of a rock was the coordinates that were brought up when he tracked Frank. The address of Frank’s former home, the former Castle residence. The last place that held happy memories for Frank. It made a wave of nausea wash over David. He hung his head, his brows furrowing as his thoughts spun a mile a minute. Frank longed for a family that he would never have again… not through choice and here he was, staying away from his family. Logically, David knew that he had no choice. His family would be dead if he hadn’t faked his own death but still, damn if David wasn’t eaten up by guilt just at the mere thought alone.
By the time that Frank finally returned to the hideout, David was already half way through a bottle of whiskey. He hadn’t even bothered to grab a bottle of coke from the fridge to chase it with. His only hope was that he could forget an ounce of the pain coursing through his veins.
Frank gave David a strange look, raising an eyebrow as he chucked his jacket onto the back of the chair at the kitchen table. “Aye, spook,” he grumbled, his gaze flitting around the hideout to see if anything was aloof. The only strange part was how drunk David was but even then, it wasn’t enough to make Frank question anything. Not until David offered the bottle out to him wordlessly.
“D-Do ya ever..” David started, his face scrunching as he tried to figure out what he wanted to say. He wasn’t quite drunk enough to not consider just how dangerous Frank could be if he pressed the wrong buttons.
“Spit it the fuck out,” Frank growled, tipping the bottle back. He took a long swig followed by an even longer one, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as he sat against the wall.
“Do ya ever wonder what it’d be like if.. If ya didn’t enlist? ‘Cause I do. I wonder what it’d be like if I hadn’t gotten that job at the NSA. If I had gotten into something else instead of hacking…” David trailed off, letting his head drop back against the wall he sat against.
“The fuck? Why would I?” Frank countered, pushing to his feet and heading to grab his own bottle of whiskey. It seemed like they were going to be settling in for a long night of drinking, something that Frank wasn’t particularly against.
“Dunno.. I just.. Sawthatyou stopped at your old house..” David answered, his shoulders lifting in a half-hearted shrug.
Frank scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Of fuckin’ course ya did.”
“Why’d you go?” David asked, his head rolling to the side so he could get a better look at Frank.
Frank’s eyes narrowed as he chugged the liquid in his bottle. “Makes me feel closer to them,” he answered in a voice so small that he wondered if David even heard him.
David seemed to consider Frank’s answer before nodding slowly, seemingly satisfied. “Like my cameras.”
“Yeah, yeah. I guess so, spook,” Frank answered with a dry laugh. Shifting in his seat, his gaze dropped to the ground at his feet. “There was.. Uh, there was a moving truck out front,” he muttered, his voice darkening at the thought. Someone else was living in the house that he had once called home and Frank could only hope the person was treating it with the love and respect he felt it deserved. Disrespecting the house was equivalent to disrespecting his family as far as he was concerned.
“Yeah? I can.. I can… l-look into who’s livin’ there. I mean, ifyouwant,” David slurred. He wasn’t sure why he offered or what good it would do knowing who lived there but it seemed like one of the only things David seemed to be good at. Finding out information on other people and things.
“Nah… don’t. Won’t do any good for no one,” Frank uttered, running his tongue against his bottom lip. Heaving to his feet, Frank turned to head toward his bedroom. He paused long enough to nod in David’s direction before heading off.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

After a few days of reluctant relaxation, Vittoria was more than ready to head back to work. She’d visited most days that she was off but she hadn’t pulled on her turnout pants when the alarm sounded. Instead, she had either stayed planted on the couch or decided to just head back out. There was no use in staying around if the guys were gone - if she wanted to be alone, she’d stay home. Damn it.
The sound of her alarm blared at the same time it did, day in and day out - 3:45am. It gave Vittoria fifteen minutes to continue laying in bed, regretting every ounce of her life for those few moments. She was usually up until the late hours of the night and then when her alarm went off, Vittoria remembered all too quickly why she should have gone to bed earlier that she had. Never seemed to do any good, much like the day after she drank a bit too much and awoke with an undeniable hangover.
Vittoria sat up slowly, an unintelligible noise sounding from the back of her throat as she pushed the blanket from her legs. Standing, she headed for the bathroom to get ready for the day. She was lucky in the sense that she didn’t have to pretty herself up to go into work. She’d shower in the morning and the most she ever did was brush her hair out and put on some deodorant. There was no point in putting on lipstick and mascara if it was going to sweat off on the first call that she participated in.
Just the mere movement of stepping back through the doors of the firehall was enough to ease the tension in Vittoria’s shoulders. She always was a bit more tense than your average human but not everyone was out there doing what she did. Not everyone had ghosts of people she couldn’t save haunting her. Not everyone had a connection to those memories like she did - not even the firefighter to her left or her right.
“Bell!” Vittoria bit back at the nickname that greeted her. Letting her head roll to the side to find the offending individual with an accusatory gaze, Vittoria wasn’t the least bit surprised when she caught sight of a grinning Eddie.
“That’s what all you fuckers keep calling me,” Vittoria retaliated, tilting her head to the side.
“Because that’s your name,” Eddie answered with a huff, frowning as his shoulders sagged slightly. As soon as his discontent over her greeting had appeared, it was gone. His grin returned as he neared Vittoria. “So, did you.. I don’t know, did you get bored and decide to make more of those zeppoli?”

Vittoria couldn’t help but chuckle, shaking her head as she carried her bag toward her locker in the corner of the locker room. “No, Eddie. No, I didn’t. I’m sorry,” she said with a half hearted roll of her eyes. Tossing her bag into the locker with her last name emblazoned on it, Vittoria turned toward Eddie with a raised brow. “You keep nagging me, I won’t even promise to ever bring them in again. Much less…” she paused for dramatic affect, “even make them!”

Eddie threw up his hands, scowling a bit. “Fine, Bell. I’ll stop nagging… for now..” Eddie trailed off all conspiratorial like. He wiggled his fingers in her direction as he backed away, causing Vittoria to huff out what sounded like a laugh.

Vittoria sat down on one of the benches that sat between the rows of their locker room, kicking off her sneakers to replace them with her boots. Lacing them up was like a little ritual for her, careful as she made sure they were done up right before she exited the locker room. She made her way through the dorm rooms - rooms that were usually meant for the men who did overnight shifts so they could catch up on sleep if all of their duties were done and they wanted to. Rounding the corner to the dorms, Vittoria breathed a content sigh as she moved to drop down onto one of the stools up against the kitchen in the island.

“Hey, chief,” Vittoria greeted the man that was old enough to be her father. He was like a father to her and she couldn’t possibly ever repay that to him. It went unspoken between the pair. Her last name was well known in the firefighter world, particularly in the city. Once she was signed onto their station, it was a done deal. He’d taken her under his wing, that was nothing else to say.

“Mornin’ Vic,” he greeted lowly, effortlessly whisking at the eggs he was preparing for the omelets he’d make for the crew. It was a little tradition on Anthony’s when he started a shift rotation. Omelets for the crew that he would be with for the next any number of days. Hers was always the same. Mozzarella cheese, onions, and more bacon than she should probably admit to consuming in one meal.

“Enjoy your time off?” Vittoria asked, raising back to her full height when she realized that she didn’t have a cup of coffee in front of her. Pouring herself a mug, Vittoria returned to her previous seat. She took her coffee black, always, and if she was feeling fancy - the smallest touch of the salted caramel creamer that Jimmy insisted on having in his coffee.

Jimmy had started at the fire hall right around the same time she had so they’d always been close. He was the sort of person that you met and your soul just sort of did a sigh of relief - Vittoria had been looking for someone like Jimmy without even realizing it. He was loud and obnoxious, he countered her sarcasm with blatant jokes. He would do just about anything to make someone laugh even if it meant him being the butt of the joke. Just what Vittoria had needed.

“Yeah. Sue and I, we got to go upstate,” Anthony answered, a little smile playing at the edges of mouth.

“Oh! Did you go fishing?”

“Yeah, we did. Even happened to see this deer on the other side of the river getting a drink,” Anthony explained, so much happiness in his voice that it nearly made Vittoria’s heart burst. She wanted a love like Anthony And Sue had; one day anyway.

“That’s cool!” Vittoria exclaimed, sitting up a bit straighter. She was always the first to receive an omelet because she shared the kitchen with Anthony most often. It was just one of the perks. Anthony loved fishing nearly as much as he loved being a firefighter.

It wasn’t necessarily the actual act of putting out flames but it was the comradery that went along with it. That anyone of their crew would be more than willing to go head first into a blazing inferno to save one of their brothers. It was the knowledge that they helped save someone’s home, their belongings, their everything… that sense of being a hero. Even if not a single one of them liked to be called a hero. It was their job and it went unspoken; that they were all here because of an inalienable sense of needing to do what was right.

Vittoria just had no sense of what that would mean to her in the coming weeks.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

There weren’t very many days in Vittoria’s work that could be described as calm, quiet, slow. These words were worse than the words you grew up being told to never say. To a firefighter, saying that you were having a slow shift was paramount to just about asking for shit to hit the fan. A firefighter’s day was overwhelmingly good if things were slow, if things weren’t happening because it meant that people weren’t losing their belongings, their homes, their lives to the beast that each firefighter geared up to fight. There was never quite anything like when Vittoria was given the chance to go home without anything too tragic happening. Those were the days that Vittoria made sure to say an extra prayer at the end of.
It looked like this shift, she was getting lucky. Vittoria had started at seven in the morning on Thursday and it was very nearly six thirty at night, the next day. The crew had already planned to go out for drinks after before they would all retire to their own homes. It had been a good shift and damn if that wasn’t something to celebrate.
Vittoria checked her phone, relief flooding her system as the numbers on the screen appeared. 18:42. Eighteen minutes until the end of their shift and they were home free.
“Man, it’s been a quiet fuckin’ shi-” Charles, the rookie who’d only been around for a month, started to speak up.
Jimmy straightened at Vittoria’s side, tossing the television remote at Charles’ head. “Rook, if you don’t shut your fuckin’ mouth right now!” He shouted, a serious look growing on his features. Vittoria snorted, rolling her eyes at her friend’s reaction. Admittedly, Charles’ words had her a bit on edge.
“Don’t tell me you’re actually suspicious, man. It’s a word. Words don’t make shit hit the fan… not like tha-” Charles was interrupted for the second time in just a few moments, by the obnoxious blaring of the siren that launched them all to their feet. Vittoria grumbled under her breathe, racing after Jimmy and the rest of the crew. She all but threw herself into her yellows, dropping into her seat on the inside of the fire engine.
Jimmy was glaring daggers at Charles, who at least had the decency to look sheepish. “I-I.. I’m sorry, man. This is prob’ly nothing anyway… it’s probably just to accompany the medics…” Charles trailed off, trying to take some of the metaphorical heat off of his back. Vittoria let her out a small laugh, shaking her head as Jimmy turned his glare to her. “Something you need to say, Bell?”
Vittoria scoffed, holding her hands up in a faux surrender. “All I’m saying is that you need to go easy on Rook. He’s new, he’ll learn. Stop giving him shit, anyway. He probably thought we were safe, we had less than a fuckin’ half hour left.”
Even before she had finished speaking, Charles was nodding along. Vittoria had hit the nail right on the head. Jimmy groaned, tossing his head back as he rolled his eyes. “Fine. Whatever you say, Bell. Whatever you say.”
If Vittoria had only known just how wrong Charles’ prediction was going to be, she probably would have let Jimmy tease the rookie all the way to the scene of the fire and back to the fire hall… and for the rest of their lives, to be quite honest. But Vittoria hadn’t known.
Arriving on the scene, Vittoria was the first to jump out of the engine. She moved to the side, eyeing up the house in front of her as the rest of the crew filed out. They were the first engine on the scene which meant that the person in charge was going to either be Anthony or her, depending on if he wanted to pass the responsibility off to her.
Anthony climbed down, raising an eyebrow when he met Vittoria’s gaze more or less right away. “You have a plan of attack, Bell?”
Vittoria gave an immediate nod of her head, turning toward him and speaking a bit louder. So that she could be heard over the roar of the fire. “Yes, sir. I do.”
“Then it’s yours,” Anthony said simply, giving a reassuring nod of his head.
Vittoria turned toward the police officer that walked up, a relatively calm look on his face. The only telltale sign that he was concerned was the dip of his eyebrows. “Caller was a neighbour, said she thinks there might be a woman inside… with a young child..” Before the officier even finished speaking, Vittoria spun around to address the team in front of her.
“Jimmy, Scott. You two are with me. The rest of you, I want hoses on that fire. Now,” Vittoria’s voice hardened as she stepped around to the back of the engine. She pulled out a breathing apparatus, tossing it over her shoulders as she stepped out of the way for the two men that would be accompanying her inside. Vittoria never liked to send people in if she wasn’t willing to. She was a leader, not a boss that stood back and pointed fingers while taking no action herself.
It was only a few moments before Vittoria moved toward the home with the pair flanking her on either side. The closer they grew, the closer Jimmy and Scott moved to follow her in a straight line. Vittoria licked her lips, eyeing the house warily. There was always the chance of things going wrong when you entered a structure on fire, that was why they went through all the training they did. It was preparation, a hope that if they got in a shit situation, they’d be able to get themselves and others out.
Vittoria stepped through the already open front door, her eyes sweeping over the room in front of her. A living room that was slowly being engulfed in flames. They only had a few minutes to do the most important part of their job. They swept through the home’s first floor, quickly clearing it out. There was no one around.
“First floor, clear,” Vittoria relayed outside, moving toward the stairs. If there was anyone inside, there was no other place they would be. Exhalling, Vittoria willed herself up the stairs. The only true relief she was given was the presence of the two men behind her. If anything went wrong, they’d be there to help bail her out.
Vittoria’s instincts were to check the master bedroom but it was just as empty as the first floor had been. A weird ball had settled in the pit of her stomach, something was off but she couldn’t decide what and they didn’t have the time for her to just stand around and contemplate life.
“Over here!” Scott’s voice called from over the radio. Vittoria swiveled around, heading for the room that his breathing apparatus was peaking out of. Scott was already inside by the time that Vittoria was stepping through the doorway. Jimmy was right on her heels.
Vittoria’s heart broke at the scene in front of her. A woman lay huddled around a little girl. Neither appeared to be alert. She said a silent prayer that they had gotten here, gotten to them in time as she moved to scoop the little girl into her arms. They had no time to waste.
“Scott, Jim. Grab her,” Vittoria instructed, twisting on her heel, rushing toward the open doorway.
“Uh, Bell..” Scott spoke, his voice solemn. Vittoria paused long enough to look back at him. She couldn’t really see the expression on his face but his hand was dropping from the woman’s wrist. Vittoria didn’t need Scott to say it. She didn’t want him to say it. There was no pulse. They had already been too late for the woman but they still had a chance to help the little girl, right? Right.
“Let’s go,” Vittoria spoke, steeling her voice against the emotion that flooded her. She could deal with those later. They all could.
The paramedics rushed forward the moment that Vittoria burst outside, carrying a little girl that she hoped still had a chance. The girl couldn’t have been more than five or six, Vittoria could only imagine that the woman inside was her mother. It made Vittoria’s chest ache. She knew that even if the little girl survived, that her entire world had effectively just been changed. She would grow up without a mother.
Easing the little girl down on the stretcher, Vittoria stepped back to let the medics do what they did best. She took a moment to watch as they ran toward their ambulance, shouting words back and forth as they loaded the stretcher into the back. Vittoria turned away as the doors were slammed shut, knowing she had to turn her attention to the blazing inferno in front of her.
Vittoria tossed her helmet into the back of her station’s fire engine, not even watching it land before she was approaching Anthony. He had taken over command once Vittoria had dedicated herself to going into the home. Another engine had arrived, both teams working in tandem to put the flames out before it could destroy the homes on either side of the house. Once word got out about a body being inside, it seemed to put a pep into everyone’s steps.
The drive back to the fire hall was silent. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of the engine running, of the men and Vittoria breathing heavily. Their minds were all in different places, a million miles away and back at the home they had been too late to save all at once.
Anthony cleared his throat as the engine turned onto their street. Eyes moved to regard him, silently waiting for whatever the chief had to say. Even as pained as they all were, the trio that had gone into the home in particular, they would always look to Anthony when he spoke.
“That fire, it was hard. It..” he paused, gathering his thoughts. “Fought us just as hard as we fought it. And I don’t want a single one of us thinking that we did anything less than every damn thing we could! We went and we saved a little girl. Maybe we couldn’t save her mom but we saved that girl and she will live for another day. She’ll hurt, a whole helluva lot but she will be okay. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not a year from now. And even when she’s okay… she’ll have moments when she’s not,” Anthony drew in a deep breathe before continuing on, “and that’s okay.”
The crew didn’t go out for drinks after they got back to the hall. Vittoria had never been more relieved because all she could picture was that little girl’s face. It was so, so peaceful in a landscape filled with nights. When she pulled up to her house, Vittoria didn’t linger in her chevy She all but threw herself out of the driver’s seat, fighting back the well of emotion in her chest. She had been doing this long enough that she liked to think, most things didn’t really get to her but she simply wasn’t able to shake the girl’s face.
The moment that she burst through her front door, Vittoria let out a sob. She leaned back against the wood, dropping to the floor and hanging her head. She didn’t really know why she was crying… not really. Was it because of the woman? Because of the little girl and her loss of innocence? Was it all the past calls where things had gone wrong? Was it that no matter how hard and how long she trained, there was always going to be those calls where she wasn’t able to do enough? That there was always going to be a moment in time where you were up against something stronger and bigger than you could ever dream to be?
Vittoria’s sobs were deep, body wracking but eventually they quieted down. She sniffed, pushing to shaky feet as she locked her front door. Trudging into the kitchen, Vittoria grabbed a beer from the fridge before starting for her bedroom. She wasn’t planning on showering, sure as hell wasn’t planning on doing anything but passing out in bed. If her demons would let her.
At some point, Vittoria had managed to fall asleep. Her beer was empty and she’d managed to find the energy to go back downstairs for a second before returning to her cocoon of blankets. Just like any other night, Vittoria’s sleep was disjointed and rocky at best.
A brunette woman sat in Vittoria’s living room except it wasn’t hers. The couch was different, the decorations.. Different. Her living room, from a different time perhaps.

The woman sat with a young girl at her side, words so hushed that Vittoria couldn’t make it out. Out of nowhere, the front door burst open and a boy ran in. His eyes were wide, fearful as he came to a halt in the middle of the room. “Mom, Dad’s hurt! I just saw him! And-and..” he stopped, his bottom lip wobbling.

The woman looked up, frowning as she sat up a bit straighter. “Baby, what in the world are you talking about? Your father isn’t here… not right now. You know that.”

”Mom, I know that! But h-he is.. I saw him! With my own two eyes! And he’s hurt! Real bad, too!” The little boy’s voice cracked as he grew a bit more frantic. He turned toward the stairs, his thoughts playing out on his features.

The woman’s shoulders sagged slightly as she looked toward the same direction. “Baby.. she probably won’t even know what’s going on. It’s probably best to just... “ The woman trailed off, worrying at her bottom lip. It killed her what she was saying but what other choice did she have?

Before either the woman or the girl could react, the little boy was bounding toward the stairs, a frantic look on his features. He burst into the master bedroom and ran toward the unreactive figure that lay huddled under the blankets.

”Miss, wake up! Please, miss!” The boy started to shout, shaking the figure’s shoulders.

Vittoria awoke with a gasp, propping herself up with her arm. Her eyes were wide, chest heaving with each breath that she took. Her eyes, they were locked on the figure that was all but sitting on her bed.

It was the same boy from her dreams. Her brows pulled together as she looked toward the open bedroom door. The woman from her dreams stood there, fear and apprehension written all over her features. The same could be said for the girl that stood rigid at her mother’s side. An even lesser emotion was there, hidden beneath the fear - hope.

It was only the boy who spoke, right in her face, “Miss… please. I-I.. don’t know how much time we have,” he began, his voice worried and sounding far away despite being on Vittoria’s bed. “My dad… he’s.. He’s hurt. And he’s not far from here. You have to help him. Please!”

Vittoria swallowed the lump that rose in her throat as she sat up a bit straighter. Her gaze flitted from the figure on her bed to the ones in the doorway. She knew she was seeing things but she had never seen a figure that was so very real before… never had ones that transferred from one realm to the other.

“Okay,” Vittoria started, taking a deep breath as she moved to her feet. “Where is he?”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Vittoria had raced down the stairs, with an excited boy at her heels as she skidded to a halt by the front door. She started shoving her feet into her boots, glancing toward the boy. His mother and sister remained at the bottom of the stairs, both looking increasingly anxious as Vittoria spoke to the boy.
“Where’d you see him?”
“He’s just down the block! In the alleyway across the street!”
Vittoria nodded, straightening up as she shoved her keys into her pocket. She was half way out the door before the boy could be heard shouting from the doorway of the home, “you have to hurry! He doesn’t have much time!”
Her feet carried her down the sidewalk until she was jogging, feeling like she had no other choice but to run. The little boy’s voice had been so desperate and even though he was the only one she had spoken to, she felt like she had some sort of obligation to him. A sense of loyalty that she couldn’t seem to shake. One that she didn’t have time to even think about.
It was the middle of the night, there was no one around to question why she was running down the street, looking like she had just rolled straight out of bed. Vittoria skidded to a halt as she approached the alley, crossing the street in four steps. She didn’t see anything of interest at first, slowing her pace as she started down the alley. Her shoulders pulled tight, apprehension leaking into each and everyone of her movements.
What the hell was she doing? Vittoria had just been woken up by what, a spirit? She’d just had one of the worst shifts she’d ever worked and maybe she was just… she was probably just hallucinating because of stress. Right? Right. Vittoria was just about to turn around and head back home when she heard a groan not too far off from where she was standing.
Vittoria exhaled slowly, sucking her bottom lip between her teeth. She was out of her goddamn mind. Giving her head a shake, Vittoria turned toward where the sound came from. Her eyes widened at the sight in front of her, all but throwing herself at the feet of the hunched over figure a few feet away from her.
It was dark and she couldn’t see all that well but that didn’t stop her from assessing his injuries. There was blood covering his face and even if there hadn’t been, she could just make out the telltale colouring around his eye. Vittoria swallowed, reaching for her cellphone that she’d shoved into her pocket. She needed to call emergency services.
The man’s hand shot out, gripping her wrist in a surprisingly vice-like grip despite the injuries he appeared to have. “No. No hospitals,” he grumbled, his eyes fixed on Vittoria.
“What? Man, I don’t know what got you into this mess and I really don’t give a shit but you’re royally fucked right now. You won’t make it through the night if you don’t get medical aid..” Vittoria trailed off, her eyes narrowing when the man squeezed her wrist. Likely to get her attention.
“Please.. No hospitals,” his voice was a bit weaker, more vulnerable as he spoke.
Vittoria’s brows pulled together, her thumb hovering over the ‘call’ button as she regarded the mysterious man. She exhaled, looking away from her. “Fine. No hospitals.” It was strange to her, the way he seemed to relax with her agreeing but she had no time to consider why that might be. At least not right now.
More than a bit thankful for the training that she had gone through, Vittoria stood and took a moment to regard the man in front of her. She could just leave him… she had no idea who he was or how he’d gotten himself into this mess but surely, it couldn’t be anything good. She’d just go home and do her best to forget any of this had ever happened. That was the smartest choice that she could make. Vittoria gave a nod of her head, as if to reassure herself as she twisted on her heel. She was just going to go home. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.
Vittoria took a step away from the man before suddenly realizing that walking away went against everything that she had ever known. That went against her core values, the very fibers that made her being. She couldn’t walk away from someone in such dire need of help. “Fuck,” she muttered, turning back around toward the man.
“I’m warning you now, if you pull something shady… I’ll kick your broken ass,” Vittoria muttered under her breathe, kneeling to lift the man’s arm over her shoulder. She stood as slowly as she could, only able to imagine the man’s pain as she took a small step forward. The man grimaced but otherwise didn’t make any noise, unlike what Vittoria had been expecting. She frowned slightly but opted not to say anything about it. She was going to help him as much as she could and he’d probably be out the next day… she wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised if she woke up the next day and he wasn’t around.
The trip back to her house took nearly half an hour, progress was slow moving. Vittoria would take a step, pull the man so he was even with her and pause until he looked like he was able to handle another step. Not for the first time tonight, Vittoria was thankful that it was the middle of the night. That no one was around to watch as she half dragged, half led an injured man into her home. Her new neighbours would have a thing or two to say about her, regardless of whether she was a firefighter or not if they saw her. They’d spread rumors about what the new neighbour did in her spare time.
Breathing a sigh of relief as they entered her home, Vittoria paused in the doorway as she tried to consider where to take the man. The couch? No, she didn’t want to get blood all over it… so the bathroom? Too small. Vittoria huffed at the realization of the onl suitable place to take the man. Rolling her eyes at the thought, Vittoria started up the stairs with the man at her side.
“Sorry, nowhere else to take you,” Vittoria explained in a half-whisper, as if she owed the man any sort of explanation. All he did was grunt.
Vittoria laid the man down on her bed, deciding she’d just buy new sheets when she got the chance to. She turned away from the man, disappearing into the ensuite bathroom where she grabbed her first aid kit. It was more extensive than your standard at home kit because Vittoria had seen what it could mean if every home had one. If every home had splints and mouth barriers and, admittedly, a few drugs that she probably shouldn’t have in her possession. Returning to the man’s side, Vittoria all but ripped the bag.
Grabbing the trauma shears from the kit, Vittoria offered a sarcastic smile to the man. He seemed to barely be conscious so she wasn’t even sure he noticed it. “Gotta cut that shirt off, to see what I’m working with. Hope you don’t like it too much,” she mumbled as she began to cut away the fabric of his shirt.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Vittoria sat in a computer chair that she had carried over from her spare room. Her feet were propped up on her night stand, one hand nursing the cup of coffee that she’d made herself a little while ago. She scrolled on her phone with her free hand, desperately trying to keep herself awake. She was more exhausted than she had been when she’d last gone to sleep but she thought that was warranted, given her current circumstances.
“You can stop pretending to still be asleep. Knife’s at my feet, anyway,” Vittoria muttered, her fatigue and annoyance leaching into her voice despite trying not to let it.
Vittoria didn’t look up right away, her eyes scanning the last bit of the article that she’d been reading. She was a trained firefighter - she knew basic first aid, sure, but she wasn’t particularly skilled. And she’d felt like calling anyone over to help had been off the table. Every time that she had considered it, the man’s face flashed across her features. He’d been so damn adamant about not going to the hospital.
Raising her eyes, Vittoria’s met dark brown orbs that were trained on her. She couldn’t quite decide what emotion was there - anger, confusion, frustration maybe? It was with a nauseating sense of realisation that Vittoria came to a final conclusion: fear. The fear was hidden by other emotions but Vittoria felt like if she looked hard enough, that she could find it.
Vittoria’s eyes narrowed as she dropped her feet to the ground, sitting up a bit more. She glanced down to her phone to check the time, realizing all too quickly that it was nearly six in the morning. She’d been up for the last five hours, since the spirits had woken her. Since she’d left her house on a whim, since she found a man bleeding to death, who’d refused to go to the hospital… so she’d gone with the only logical option. She’d brought him to her home so that she could care for him.
“Relax. I haven’t called anyone, no one knows you’re here,” Vittoria’s voice came out softer, in an attempt to ease the man’s fear. His shoulders seemed to relax, the tension in his body easing. Not by much but still, Vittoria was relieved by the reaction either way.
“Why?” The man’s voice startled Vittoria. It was deep, gravelly and she’d almost do a double take if they had met under different circumstances. But they hadn’t and Vittoria did her best not to live in a world of what ifs or maybes because they never got anyone anywhere.
Vittoria’s lips parted and she’d very nearly been ready to tell him about the spirits that had woken her but she’d realized how crazy that would probably sound so she thought better of it. Shrugging, Vittoria cleared her throat as she shoved her phone into her pocket. “Couldn’t sleep. Sometimes I go for late night walks to clear my head. Sometimes they work, sometimes they… bring about other.. Challenges,” she said, her lips pursing as she considered what to call bringing the strange man home. Vittoria’s lips twitched upward in a smile.
The man seemed to consider her words but didn’t respond. Vittoria figured it was because he was tired and injured so when he began to sit up, Vittoria was on her feet and pushing him back against the mattress. “You need to rest,” she stated as if it was the simplest concept in the world because for her, it was. The man was very clearly in trouble and moving around too much… well, it wasn’t the best of ideas.
Vittoria eyed the man, wary to leave him alone given that he’d just tried to sit up but she couldn’t babysit him forever. That certainly wasn’t realistic. Grinding her teeth together, Vittoria turned toward the door that she’d left open after she’d ran downstairs for a cup of coffee. “I’m going to go mix some oatmeal… I’ll be back in a bit,” she said over her shoulder as she left the room.
Only gone for ten or so minutes, Vittoria returned with two steaming bowls of oatmeal. She’d fully expected for the man to still be there but instead, she was met with an empty bed and an open bedroom window. Vittoria cursed under her breathe, dropping the bowls down onto her nightstand. She ran to the window, leaning out of it and looking to either side - she couldn’t see the man and she had a feeling that he was already long gone. As was his boots and weapons from the nightstand. Vittoria was sure she’d probably never know his name or his story. Muttering under her breathe, Vittoria slammed the window shut. She decided to shovel the oatmeal into her mouth before switching out her sheets. She wasn’t going to waste warm food because the strange man had decided to run out on her.

Vittoria had done her best to get some sleep after she’d changed the sheets on her bed and tossed the bloodied ones in the washer, in an attempt to clean them. She did a whole lot of tossing and turning and not a whole lot of actual sleep.
Eventually, Vittoria had dragged herself out of bed and started her wake up routine. She showered, dressed, made her lunch, and was out of the door within the hour.
Just like every other time, Vittoria was more than a bit relieved to be in what she considered her second home. She smirked when she spotted Jimmy, sitting with his feet propped up as he turned on the news. She looked up, rolling her eyes when Anthony gave her an unimpressed look, apparently already having read her mind on what she was planning to do. Vittoria only grinned, shrugging her shoulders before she turned back toward an unexpecting Jimmy.
Vittoria started running, smirking as she launched herself over the back of the couch, unceremoniously tumbling into Jimmy. They fell to the floor and wrestled for a minute, before Jimmy stopped moving, instead dissolving into a fit of laughter. Vittoria grinned as she sat up, moving to sit beside where Jimmy settled back down.
“Holy shit. Wait a sec, guys,” Eddie shouted from the other end of the room, barreling through the room before he deposited himself on the other end of the couch, closest to the television. His eyes remained glued on the screen.
Vittoria’s brows furrowed as she turned toward the television, her eyes scanning the flashing words across the screen. ’The Punisher Returns’. She swung her legs from Jimmy’s lap, sitting up straight as she eased to the edge of her seat.
Jimmy gave her a strange look, raising an eyebrow. “What’s wrong, Bell? You look like you’ve seen a ghost…”
Vittoria swallowed the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat. She gave a weak laugh, shaking her head slowly. “Nah… sorry.. Just.. uh, can’t believe Eddie’s right. The Punisher’s alive..”
No. That wasn’t what had her looking as pale as a ghost.
The man on the television.. His name was Frank Castle. Frank was the man that she had saved the night before. And Vittoria felt a shiver run down her spine at the thought. She’d saved the Punisher… what did that mean for her?

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Vittoria sat on the couch, her thoughts racing a mile a minute as the news story played out. There was something wrong and she couldn’t quite place it. She was a firefighter, she wanted to help people. There was no changing that fundamental fact about Vittoria. And she’d helped Frank… because the spirits in her home had wanted her to. So she’d helped them in turn. But helping someone who was painted as a terrorist. A former Marine who had lost his mind after losing his family, who had gone on a murderous rampage.
For the rest of her shift, Eddie was going on and on about how he had been right. The Punisher was alive and he was well. He must be okay if he’s running around the streets of New York City, fighting crime and killing those that Frank deemed scum. She’d never admit it to anyone, sure as hell not Eddie, but she didn’t think Frank had done much wrong. He’d ridded the world of people that wanted to see it burn. Maybe not in the most humane way but when he took care of gangsters and mobsters, rapists and murderers, in a way the law wasn’t willing to… was it so wrong?
For the rest of her shift, the men around her seemed to give her more of a birth than usual. They all assumed that the call from the other day was still bothering her, had gottena little more under her skin than usual. Vittoria was normally jovial and upbeat, she didn’t mind making jokes at her own expense to keep the crew’s morale up. She’d do just about anything for them so when she sat on the corner of the couch, her eyes unfocused on the television that was always running. Jimmy sat beside her for a bit, nudging her and telling her he was there if she needed him. Vittoria would offer a smile and a slight nod, a soft ‘I know’ before returning to her previous stature.
Of course, Vittoria knew that. She knew that the men she worked with would be there for her, always, but she didn’t think she could bring this to them. She didn’t know how they’d react if she told them that she had likely saved the life of Frank Castle. And she didn’t feel an ounce of remorse over it. She was just… confused. Unsure of herself and what it meant for her.
Vittoria was more than a little relieved when she signed off that night, heading straight home. She didn’t bother to stop anywhere to even grab food, her mind focused only on one thing. She was exhausted and knew that she should go sleep because she was signing on for a forty-eight hour shift at 6pm tomorrow evening.
Kicking her boots off, Vittoria stepped into the kitchen to get her coffee pot going before she headed upstairs. She changed into a more comfortable pair of pajama pants and a plain tshirt before jogging right back down the stairs and making a reappearance into the kitchen. She eyed the already half full coffee pot, wondering if she should toss some food together. Vittoria’s curiosity was burning a hole through her but she knew that if she didn’t eat, she wasn’t going to get anywhere, any time soon.
Vittoria opted to slice a chicken breast up, bread it, and fry it up. It was easy and filling, after she added some of the frozen waffles that had ended up shoved to the back of her freezer. She mixed together some maple syrup with a bit of hot sauce, drizzling it on the finished dish before shuffling into her living room with a mug of coffee in her free hand. Vittoria shovelled the food into her mouth before settling onto the couch with her laptop opened in front of her.
Hours later, Vittoria found herself deep into the whole of the internet. She had read more articles than she could count about Frank Castle, who had been dubbed the Punisher. Her sympathy had only grown for the man. She could only imagine what it would do to someone, to come back from fighting overseas, only to watch your family be gunned down by men on your home soil.
She’d found information on Karen Page which was particularly interesting to her. Karen had worked for the lawyers that helped defend Frank during his trial. She had thought nothing of it at first until she uncovered even more information about Frank saving Karen’s life multiple times over. If anyone would care to listen to what Vittoria had to say, she thought that it just might be Karen Page. She knew there was the likelihood that the woman called her crazy and sent her on her way but that was if Karen even agreed to a meeting with her.
Vittoria spent the better part of half an hour debating on if she should email Karen Page or not. Was it a good idea to open up that can of worms or not? She wasn’t sure but after a long enough time, Vittoria took a deep breathe and pressed the ‘send’ button on her email before she exhaled. Her shoulders sagged as she read over the message, time and time again.
Karen,I want to start out by saying you don’t know me and I don’t know you. So that’s going to add to how crazy I probably seem but I recently discovered some information about Frank Castle that I would like to discuss with you if you’re open to it.
I can be reached at 718-555-9183.

Vittoria hadn’t signed the message with her name because she felt like she was stepping into uncomfortable territory and that it might not be the best of ideas to attach her name to it.
Vittoria hadn’t heard back from Karen Page by the time that she went in for her shift the next day so she was starting to think that she probably never would. She was going to simply shut the door on that chapter and do her best to forget that night had ever happened. She had done the right there and that’s all there was to it as far as she was truly concerned.

She was perched on the edge of the couch, looking a bit more lively when Jimmy found her in the living room area of the fire hall. He dropped beside her, flashing a grin. “You look a bit better than you did last time I saw you,” he commented, his voice dipping a bit to keep their conversation private.

“Yeah. I just needed some time to process that call, I guess... “ Vittoria answered, giving a short shrug of her shoulders. It was easier to lie about what had been bothering her, than to tell the truth. “I just… I know we’re probably never going to find out what really happened but all I can think about is that little girl. She’s going to lose everything she’s ever known. Her mother is dead and she’s.. She’s not going to be the same. And the father…” she trailed off. She didn’t want to say what they were all thinking. The father, he was likely responsible for what happened.

Jimmy gave a nod, their attention turning toward the television as a banner flashed across the bottom of the screen. A reporter appeared on the screen, replacing the two that had been discussing typical news stories.

The woman seemed shaken, even as she began to speak. “Hello, my name is Susanna Martinez and I am reporting from the scene of an apparent crime. Thomas Edwards has been found dead, police are not releasing details at this time. Thomas was the husband to the late Bethany Edwards and father to the now, tragically deceased, Mikayla Edwards. Bethany was the victim in a house fire on Tuesday and Mikayla died later at the hospital as a result of her injuries. We will continue to update you on this case as details emerge on it and whether the deaths are related, in any way.”

Vittoria swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat, hanging her head as the woman’s words sank in. They had all known the woman wasn’t alive but now… now, the daughter had passed away. They hadn’t gotten there in time. They weren’t able to save Mikayla and that broke her heart. Vittoria had learned to separate the job from her life but she was human and she wasn’t always able to.

Her brows pulled together when her phone buzzed in her pocket. Lifting her hips, Vittoria pulled her phone free from her pocket before reading the message she had received. Culture Cafe. 7pm tomorrow night. That was all the message said and at first, she thought nothing of it. Assumed that it was a wrong number until realization dawned on her nearly twenty minutes later.

See you there was all Vittoria messaged the number. It would be only an hour after her shift ended and Vittoria knew she’d be exhausted but answers… she needed answers and she thought that Karen Page was the only one that may or may not be able to give them to her.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Vittoria sat in the corner of the little cafe, her eyes focused on the whipped cream that was slowly melting into her drink. She’d arrived at the cafe a bit earlier than she’d expected, given that people were still trying to get home from work but she wasn’t complaining.
After her shift, Vittoria wanted nothing more than to go home and drag herself into bed. She had gotten the chance to sleep at work but there never was quite anything like sleeping in your own bed. Each muscle in her body was pleading with her to do just that. She’d never quite forgive herself if she missed this meeting with Karen, if she missed perhaps the only opportunity she would have to interact with someone who knew Frank Castle on a more intimate level.
Vittoria had decided to reward herself with a mocha. Her mind was moving so fast that it damn well felt like she was going to suffer whiplash if she didn’t settle her thoughts soon. Breathing out a sigh, Vittoria lifted her phone from the table in front of her. 7:03. Karen wasn’t late enough that Vittoria was warranted in being worried but still, she couldn’t shake the feeling. She had reached out to a total stranger, there was nothing saying Karen would actually show up here. Maybe it had been a wrong number that had messaged her the other night… maybe Karen had second thoughts… maybe Karen had contacted Frank after receiving Vittoria’s message and he was watching her now, instead of Karen coming to meet her.
Lifting her eyes when a body came to a stop by the empty chair opposite of her, Vittoria swallowed at the sight she was met with. A blonde haired, blue eyed beauty with a look of trepidation on her features. Vittoria briefly wondered how bad of an idea this was, for what felt like the hundredth time. She’d saved a man’s life, like she had done before. Why did she have to pursue it any further? Hadn’t she learned?
“Karen?” Vittoria broke the silence between them, sitting up a bit straighter.
The blonde gave a smile, reaching forward to pull the empty chair out before she sat. “I got your message,” Karen explained even though that had been more than obvious. They were both timid, unsure of how to navigate what was happening around them.
“Th-” Vittoria paused to clear her throat. “Thank you for, uh, coming.”
Karen’s head bobbed up and down, fingers curled around her ceramic mug. A vanilla latte. Simple yet just sweet enough to satisfy her sweet tooth. “You’re welcome,” she answered, worrying at her bottom lip. “I’m sorry, I-I didn’t catch your name…”
Vittoria hesitated a moment, wondering if it was best to give that information out. “Vittoria. I’m a firefighter,” she said, rolling her shoulders back. Her brows pulled together as she tried to figure out what she was even supposed to say to Karen. She hadn’t thought this far ahead.
“You said you had information about Frank?” Karen prompted, tilting her head in an inquisitive manner.
Vittoria took a deep breath before she nodded, taking a sip of her coffee to help clear her thoughts. “I… I know how crazy this is all going to sound but please, hear me out. I really don’t want.. I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem smart to go to someone else with this information. And Frank, he seemed to like you so I thought…” she trailed off, shrugging her shoulders. “You were my best bet.”
Karen leaned forward, eyeing Vittoria warily. Something was bothering Vittoria, that much was obvious. But what? “Go on,” Karen prompted, offering a warm smile. She’d learned that people needed to feel like it was safe to open up sometimes. This seemed to be no different than those cases she’d worked.
“Well, as I said, I’m a firefighter. I recently got promoted to lieutenant and as with any promotion, more money came along with that..” Vittoria paused to sip at her coffee, unsure where she was even going with this. “So I moved out of my shitty studio apartment and bought a house that I.. I think belonged to the Castles before the murders..” Vittoria looked up, not surprised by the look on Karen’s face. She couldn’t quite place what it was. Maybe apprehension.
“I moved in a few weeks ago and I’ve been having strange dreams ever since,” Vittoria said, grimacing at her words. She didn’t talk about things like this, ever. She didn’t know how to talk about it.
“Mostly random scenes that I thought meant nothing so I ignored them. Then they started showing more and more as taking place in my home. It’s always two younger kids and a woman about our age. But still, thought nothing of it. Sometimes the dreams included a guy that looked familiar but that’s what dreams are, right? They’re faces you’ve seen in passing. We, we as humans, can’t conjure up faces on our own. Doesn’t work that way,” Vittoria was rambling and she knew she was but it seemed like she had opened a floodgate that she couldn’t hope to close until all of her thoughts were spoken out loud.
“I got home after a rough shift the other day and went to sleep… ‘cause that’s what you do. Y’know?” Vittoria let out a dry laugh, giving a slight shake of her head to center thoughts. “And these people.. The daughter and the mother were in the living room of my home and then all the sudden, the son came racing through the front door,” by this time, Vittoria was leaning forward, her words whispered so the ears that were listening in couldn’t tell what she was saying.
“He was talking about how his dad was hurt and that they needed to help him..” Vittoria trailed off, no damn clue what she was supposed to say at this point. Karen was looking at her, her expression unreadable. Vittoria shifted in her seat. She took a sip of her drink, her eyes roaming over the other customers in the small cafe.
Vittoria ran her fingers through her hair, a small frown growing on her features. She didn’t know what she was supposed to say now. How Karen was going to look at her after her full admission.
“They burst into the master bedroom after that,” Vittoria paused, chuckling to herself. “Well, the son did. The mother and daughter were a bit less eager to disturb my sleep,” she said, her eyes trained on the mocha sitting in front of her. She held her breathe, anticipating Karen’s reaction. She was ready for the blonde haired woman to laugh and dismiss her immediately. Vittoria looked up and all Karen did was give a tiny nod of her head, indicating she wanted Vittoria to continue.
“I woke up then and.. And,” Vittoria paused, her thoughts racing. She’d been told time and time again as a young girl to not talk about these things. That people would judge her and she’d become a paria.
“And they were still there. The boy was the only one that spoke to me though,” Vittoria whispered, her fingers drumming against the side of her cup. “He was begging me to help his father and he was telling me that his father would die if I didn’t. And fuck, I had to go, didn’t I? I’m a firefighter. Helping people, saving their lives as part of the job.” Vittoria exhaled, her shoulders sagging under the weight of her admission.
“So I went. I didn’t know what I was looking for.. Who I was looking for, really. I just left my house and went running. And I stumbled upon Frank hurt so I brought him.. I brought him home and helped patch him out,” Vittoria finished, sitting back in her chair. An overwhelming sense of relief washed over her even as she realized how knotted her stomach was.
Karen blinked, sitting back as she tried to digest the story that she had just been told. Logically, she wanted to tell Vittoria to leave her alone and to go bother someone a bit more gullible but then, she couldn’t quite shake the feeling that Vittoria had reached out for a reason. Because she’d been vulnerable and unsure of who else to reach out to. Why would she reach out with a story that could be conceived as crazy if there wasn’t some sort of truth behind it?
“Now you’re wondering what… what it means for you? Now that the world knows Frank’s alive?” Karen asked, not the least bit surprised when Vittoria gave a sheepish nod.
“Well, in my experience, if you keep him at a distance then you’re typically safe. It’s only when you start to get close to the man that you have to worry,” Karen said, a teasing smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
“Frank doesn’t pose a danger to you, I don’t think. I don’t think that anyone would come at you over this. Especially if you keep it to yourself,” Karen paused, sipping at her latte to help collect her thoughts. “But with that said, being involved in Frank’s world, at all, can be dangerous. Frank’s got a vendetta and so do the people he’s up against.”
Vittoria nodded, a solemn look enveloping her features. “I guess I already knew that,” she said, her face scrunching slightly. “It would be silly to expect anything else.”
Karen reached forward, giving Vittoria’s wrist a gentle squeeze before removing her arm. “Frank’s a good man, though. I know he has his faults. And I know he’s scary to others but Frank only wants to see the people that took his family from him pay. Wouldn’t we all?”
Vittoria nodded. “Yeah, yeah we would.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Vittoria sat in the little cafe even after Karen had left, nursing the cold remnants of her mocha. She was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go home but she knew what, or who, she would face when she went home and she simply wasn’t ready to take that on. She needed to digest the reality that she had made it known to a virtual stranger that she saw things that weren’t always there.
From a young age, Vittoria had seen them. She’d seen spirits of people no longer living, heard the whispered pleas of help. The spirits didn’t always know she could see them but when they did, they begged Vittoria for help. They asked for help passing on to the other side, wanted to pass on a message, they always wanted something from a young Vittoria.
The first time that she’d mentioned seeing someone who wasn’t there, Vittoria remembered the moment like it was yesterday. She remembered being cuddled up with her father on the couch, her mom sitting at the end with her dad’s head head in her lap.
“Daddy, are you going to try and find Charlotte’s parents?” Her voice was quiet, thoughtful as she studied the Christmas movie they were watching.
”Who’s Charlotte?” He’d asked from behind her, his voice dipping a bit in interest. He was expecting her to say a friend from her preschool or something equally normal.
”The girl that lives in my closet,” Vittoria spoke as if it was the most normal thing in the world because to her, it was.
Her father bolted up straight, looking at her with a frown. “What do you mean, Vittoria?” His voice took on a hard edge, one that made a pit form in little Vittoria’s stomach. It told her she was in trouble, something that she didn’t want.
”..I.. Daddy, the girl in my closet. She’s.. She’s always been there?” Vittoria’s words sounded more like a question than an explanation, even to her ears. She had always seen Charlotte, had always known she was there but Charlotte had only ever appeared at night. Wanting to play, wanting to feel like a real girl again.
”I don’t know what you’re getting at, Vittoria Belmonte, but I don’t want to hear another word about some imaginary girl!” Her father all but shouted, shaking his head. He didn’t want to hear about some girl that his daughter was imagining in her room. He was a kind and loving man but he’d also been raised as a man of God and seeing things that weren’t really there… that was bordering on evil. Evil was not something that he would allow into the Belmonte household.

Vittoria sighed, her shoulders sagging as she swirled around the liquid in her cup. There wasn’t even half of a sip left, it was time to go. Whether she wanted to make her way home or not, it was time to leave the little cafe she’d sat in for hours on end by this point. Raising to her feet, Vittoria tossed back the last bit of liquid before throwing away the cup on her way out of the front door.
Her trip home was uneventful but the twenty minutes that it took seemed to drag on forever in Vittoria’s mind. She wanted to be home and cuddled under a blanket, watching some awful horror movie to distract her mind from the thoughts running rampant through her mind.
As she got out of her old truck and climbed the stairs to her home, Vittoria felt like she was being watched. She felt the heavy weight of a pair of eyes on her and she paused with her key in the door, glancing around. Her eyes lingered on the shadows that were cast by trees, cars, and homes but she saw nothing out of the ordinary. Frowning to herself, Vittoria took a second glance around before she opened her front door.
Kicking it shut behind her, Vittoria clicked the lock into place before she toed off her boots by the door. She sighed as she headed upstairs, intent on taking a shower before she settled down for the night.
Vittoria emerged from the bathroom with a pair of yoga shorts and a FDNY shirt on, her long, brunette hair wrapped up in a towel that sat atop her head. She trudged downstairs after sliding her feet into her slippers, content to mix a glass of chocolate milk. It was the one thing that she always had stocked in her house, something that reminded her of her childhood. Every night, her mother would let her have a glass before bed and if she wanted a bit of comfort, it always seemed to do the trick for her.
Her phone was shoved into the waistband of her shorts as she balanced her glass of milk and a bowl of popcorn in her other hand. Rounding the corner into the living room, Vittoria lifted her eyes to survey the room. And instead of being met with an empty room, she was met with dark eyes, staring at her intently. They were narrowed slightly, sizing Vittoria up as she jumped nearly a foot into the air. Chocolate milk splashed up over her arm, onto her shirt and onto the floor as she stared at him, her eyes wide as she tried to form a coherent enough sentence.
Vittoria shrieked, spilling her chocolate milk as her lips parted. “W-What the fuck?!” She knew the logical first question would have been more like ‘who are you’ but she already knew the answer to that question. She’d been researching his story for nearly a week. Each article, each story that she read had a picture or two of him on it.
His gravelly voice broke the silence between them, “we need to talk.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Vittoria’s eyes narrowed in an accusing way, her head tilting to the side as she studied the man in front of her. It would have been natural to ask who he was, what his name was but she knew the answer to those questions already. Frank Castle, the Punisher, was standing in her living room. She was torn between panicking and wanting to tell him just how sorry she was for him. But she had a feeling that he’d heard that all before and he was damn tired of hearing those words.
“Okay,” Vittoria finally breathed, giving a timid nod of her head. “But first. I have to go get a new cup of chocolate milk since someone decided to scare the shit out of me, instead of using the front door,” she grumbled, turning on her heel to stalk back into the kitchen. Had she been watching the formidable figure in her living room, she may have noticed a hint of laughter in his eyes. Just as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone, replaced by a steel exterior.
Vittoria returned, with not one, but two glasses of chocolate milk. She held the one glass out to Frank, making an indignant noise when he hesitated. “I don’t give chocolate milk to just anyone, y’know,” she declared with a huff. It was only then that Frank reached out, taking the glass from Vittoria’s grasp.
She shifted, looking up to Frank before her gaze dropped to the that she was standing in front of. Vittoria didn’t know the protocol for something like this. Was she supposed to stand? Tell Frank to sit then follow suit? She thought that was probably the best option but she had the sneaking suspicion that Frank wouldn’t give a shit. He wasn’t one to listen to orders, from what she knew of the man, he never really had been.
“Don’t know what came you’re tryin’ to play at, but you’re going to lose. You should have never contacted Karen,” Frank’s words broke the tense silence that had stretched between them.
Vittoria jolted, having not quite expected what the man had just said. She had no real clue what she had been expecting but that certainly wasn’t it. Her eyes narrowed as she pursed her lips, lowering down onto the couch. Vittoria set the popcorn bowl in her lap, exhaling slowly. Her eyes searching the blank television screen for the words that she was supposed to say but her mind kept coming up blank.
“I wasn’t..” Vittoria paused, still trying to grasp at straws to sort out what she was supposed to say. “When I saved you, I had no idea who you were. I just saved you because it was the right thing to do,” she explained, her lips pursed slightly when she finished speaking.
“And I didn’t even know if you were..” Vittoria hesitated, giving a one sided shrug as she tossed a handful of popcorn into her mouth. “That you were okay after you just disappeared. Hell, the only reason I found out who you were was b-”
“I left for a reason, yeah? I know you’re a firefighter, I know you like savin’ people but I’m not worth it, yeah?” Frank sat, giving Vittoria a pointed look when her lips parted, like she wanted to argue with him. “Because you don’t need to get wrapped up in my shit. You saved me, now, that was good. But gettin’ involved in my baggage? Not worth it, girl.”
Vittoria let out a dry laugh, shaking her head. She leaned back, sipping at her milk before she crossed her ankles in front of her. It was strange to her that Frank knew what she did for a living but then, when she gave it a bit more thought, it really wasn’t. She was sure that Frank had to know just about everything about.. Well, anyone that he came into contact.
“I wasn’t getting involved, Frank. I just needed to talk to someone that would understand,” Vittoria explained quietly, looking up to meet his hardened gaze. “And I didn’t think it would be safe.. Or, I don’t know, smart to tell anyone else. Karen seemed like she cared about you, like she wouldn’t run with the story, to print it.”
Vittoria was sure that she was supposed to be intimidated by Frank’s presence. By the way that he stood, still and rigid, while she sat on her couch as if this was a normal, every day occurrence between the pair. She’d forged ahead in an occupation that was largely male dominated, she had learned that acting brave, even if you were scared, was better than letting your fear on. That sometimes it was a better option to appear bigger than you felt, to be the brave, determined girl that she had always been.
“Listen. I’m not gonna say it again, girl,” Frank started, taking the smallest step forward. It was meant to intimidate and for a brief moment, Vittoria’s heart skipped a beat but still, her eyes remained on his. “You stay the fuck away from anything connected to me, got it? From Karen, from Russo, from anyone that’s ever been connected to me.”
Vittoria’s brows pulled together, her lips parting as confusion washed over her. She couldn’t help but wonder why Frank was so adamantly opposed. It wasn’t as if she had gone shouting to the world about how she had saved Frank Castle’s life, or how she actually sympathized with his cause. Hell, no one knew she sympathized with him other than herself. And she had a funny feeling that it was probably best left that way.
“I don’t know how.. How you found me. I don’t.. But I appreciate it, for what it’s worth. If you hadn’t found me…” Frank trailed off, letting the unspoken ending hang between them. It felt as if the air had thickened just then, the acknowledgement that Frank had nearly met his maker. And he would have, if it wasn’t for her.
Vittoria gave the smallest of smiles, a tiny nod of her head all that seemed appropriate to show she understood. She couldn’t very well keep going around in circles with Frank because they were just going to get nowhere, fast.
“I-I… I don’t.. Didn’t mean any disrespect and I hope you know that. But I understand. Stay as far away as I can. It’s best that way because I don’t know you. You don’t know me..” Vittoria trailed off, wetting her lips with the tip of her tongue. “And what you do is dangerous,” she commented, tilting her head to the side. Her features softened just slightly.
“But for what it’s worth, Frank, if you ever need anything… if you ever find yourself in a bad position like that again..” Vittoria shrugged her shoulders, nodding toward the front door. “Key is under the third rock in, on the right side of the steps.”
Frank’s brows pulled together as he studied Vittoria for a moment before he nodded, turning to head toward the aforementioned door. He lingered with his hand on the door, turning his head as if he wanted to say something. Instead, silence met Vittoria’s ears as Frank disappeared into the night. Leaving his untouched glass of milk behind.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The next morning rolled around and Vittoria found herself staring at the ceiling above her bed. She was exhausted, had hardly slept that night. What little sleep she had gotten was restless and she’d spent the better part of the night tossing and turning. Eventually, she’d given up entirely on the idea. A hand placed behind her head kept her propped up as her thoughts raced, from one situation to another.
It wasn’t that Vittoria was against Frank’s message because really, she wasn’t. But she was confused. Frank had shown up at her house, had the opportunity to silence her but he hadn’t. How many people could say that about a run in with the Punisher? Vittoria wasn’t sure but she doubted that number was very high, especially with two run ins under her belt.
A sigh escaped Vittoria’s lips as she pushed the covers from her legs, climbing out of bed as she shuffled into the bathroom. Vittoria had the day off and as much as the idea of relaxing seemed to be calling her name, she knew it would do no good if she simply laid around and did nothing. Since she was planning on going to the gym, there was no use in showering. She was quick to brush her teeth before pulling her hair back into a tight ponytail. Stepping into the bedroom, Vittoria changed into a set of work out clothes.
Vittoria had grabbed a banana on the way out of her house, making sure to lock up before she jogged down to her beat up old truck. The trip to Juan’s was faster than she thought it would be but she was relieved, every fiber of her being itching to inside. Most days, it was a typical work out. She’d push herself but not too far, but today was going to be one of those days where she’d waddle out of the gym like she’d forgotten how to walk. She could feel it in her bones - she craved that bone deep ache after a workout that kicked her ass six ways from next Sunday.
Stepping into the gym, Vittoria’s brows raised slightly as she spotted Juan in a ring with someone who she didn’t recognize. It wasn’t often that she saw a new face that she didn’t even recognize here; she came around enough that she was known to the regulars and she knew them.
Vittoria headed over to the lockers, tossing her gym bag into an empty one. Kicking off her sandals, she tossed them in as well before she clicked the lock shut on the locker. Dropping down onto the bench by the lockers, tying her gym shoes before she stood right back up. She was just going to head off and do her own thing, she didn’t want to interrupt Juan. Didn’t know if the other man was a new client or something equally important.
She’d put her headphones in, letting the lull of her feet hitting the treadmill put her mind at ease. Vittoria settled on a fairly decent pace, her thoughts seeming to clear up more than she had even expected. It was only when a shadow appeared in the peripheral of her vision. Her brows pulled together as she slowed the treadmill down to a light jog, reaching up to tug one of the earbuds out of her ear as she looked up.
“..Hi?” Vittoria recognized the guy that had just been sparring with Juan, getting a real look at him for the first time.
“Billy,” the man introduced himself, offering an award winning smile.
“Vittoria,” she replied, hitting the pause button on the treadmill. She couldn’t deny that the man in front of her was attractive, his eyes soulful and inviting. Tilting her head to the side, Vittoria’s smile grew a bit. “Don’t think I’ve seen you around here before..”
It was Billy’s turn to raise his eyebrows, obviously surprised that the woman seemed to be familiar enough with who came and went around here. “First time coming here but I’ve heard good things about Juan.. need someone to keep me on my toes,” he explained, giving a one sided shrug. “He’s good at what he does,” Billy said, glancing Juan’s way for a moment before his attention returned to Vittoria.
“Yeah,” Vittoria agreed, her heading bobbing in agreement. “He’s the best around. Puts his heart into what he does,” she said, knowing full well what Billy said was true. She moved off of the treadmill, moving to grab a rag and bottle of cleaner to spray it down. She was careful to kneel down, not to bent at the waist.
“Now that Juan isn’t busy cheating on me, I think I’m going to go spar with him,” Vittoria said, a smirk finding its way onto her features. She straightened back up, Billy’s smirk now matching her own as he eyed her.
“I could spar with ya. Marine Corps, covert operations. Who knows, might even be able to teach you a thing or two..” Billy trailed off. Vittoria hesitated, trying to sort through the unfamiliar feeling in the pit of her stomach. It wasn’t that she was uncomfortable with the idea because she wasn’t but since Billy had stepped up to her, shed felt a bit uneasy. But she shook that feeling off as just seeing an unfamiliar face in a place that she spent so much time in. That was all it was.
“Yeah, yeah. Okay. Might be good to give Juan a rest..” Vittoria trailed off, letting out a small laugh. “Let me just go grab my wrist tape and we’ll be good to go,” she said, twisting on her heel to head back in the direction of the lockers.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The stress that had pulled Vittoria’s shoulders tight eased away as the familiar sound flooded her ears the moment she stepped through the fire hall’s entrance. She exhaled slowly, her eyes roaming over the sights in front of her. The engine and the truck that she knew so well, shining and ready for it’s next call. Vittoria turned, making her way toward the main area of the hall. This was almost like a sanctuary to her - where she could focus on nothing more than her job. She didn’t have to worry about anything here, only a need to focus on the life saving work in front of her.
“Jiiimmy!” Vittoria called, turning on her heel to head into the locker rooms where she dropped off her bag, clicking the lock shut before she headed back into the living room area.
“Bell, bell. How I’ve missed you,” Jimmy called back as she appeared, walking up to her with a grin stretching his cheeks. He reached out, grabbing her into a tight hug. He gave her a squeeze before he released her, taking a step backward. “How was your time off? I didn’t even fuckin’ see you! Have a new boyfriend or something that I need to know about?!” Jimmy faux demanded, crossing his arms in front of him as he glared down at Vittoria.
Vittoria let out a laugh, shoving at Jimmy’s chest as she made her way over to the kitchen. She poured a glass of orange juice, dropping down onto one of the bar stools. She took a sip of her juice, considering what she was supposed to say to Jimmy. He was her best friend, it would only be right to tell him the truth but every time the words slid to the tip of her tongue, all she could think about was Frank. What would it mean for him? She trusted Jimmy with her life, as had been proved each time they entered a burning building together and yet, she didn’t know if she could trust Jimmy with Frank’s life.
“Nah. Nothing like that,” Vittoria said, shrugging her shoulders as she set the glass down in front of her. “I went to Juan’s both days and that was about it. Nothing exciting. I just relaxed at home, y’know,” Vittoria answered, rolling her eyes as she fixed the man with a glare. “I don’t always want your head shoved up my ass, Jim. Is that really so bad?” She countered, raising a single eyebrow.
Before Jimmy could even reply, the crew that had huddled around the television a few feet to the right erupted in laughter. Eddie’s face broke into a shit eating grin that Vittoria couldn’t even see. Eddie called, “Yeah, Jim. You have to branch out and find someone else. Bell don’t love you like that, man!”
Jimmy scowled, stomping his way toward Eddie where he started to wrestle with the man. Vittoria huffed to herself, her eyes finding Anthony’s as he stepped out of the locker room. He looked between the wrestling pair and Vittoria who only stared back with an innocent smile teasing at the corners of her lips.
“No idea, chief. I just came out here to get juice and that’s what I came out to…” Vittoria supplied, taking another sip of her drink.
“Somehow I doubt that, Bell. I don’t have any clue why but I have a sneaking suspicion that you probably know a bit more than you’re letting on right now,” Anthony said, his eyes narrowed in an accusatory manner.
Vittoria slid off of her stool, opening the dishwasher to deposit her glass on the top shelf. She glanced over her shoulder, nodding toward Anthony. “I would never antagonize the boys. They do that enough theirselves, don’t you think?”
Anthony laughed, shaking his head as he turned toward the task at hand.

It was a more quiet day than usual, it had been nearly an hour since their last call and Vittoria only had eight hours left. She breathed a small sigh, her head resting on Jimmy’s lap as she had twisted, resting her feet on the arm of the loveseat.
“Man, we should get together. At Chief’s house one of these days when we have the chance. As amazing of a cook as he is, Sue’s desserts…” Scott whined, tossing a ball up in the air. He side-eyed Anthony who pretended to be oblivious to the conversation going on around him.
“Hey! Yeah, you know what. We should on account of the fact that I haven’t even had the chance to try Sue’s cooking!” Charles said, perking up at the idea. Anthony seemed to realize that his input was going to be necessary because he let out a sigh, folding the newspaper that he’d spread out on his lap.
“I’ll talk to Sue, see if we can’t arrange something. Bring all the wives, girlfriends..” Anthony trailed off, nodding as he began to grow a bit more fond of the idea. It really had been a long while since they had managed to get everyone together. It would mean getting another crew to work in their station for the shift so it would certainly take time to put everything together but it was doable and with everything that had gone on, Anthony thought that they all deserved it.
Vittoria hummed, giving a small nod of her head. “I’ll bring Matteo, if he’s not working. Been awhile since he got to hang out with everyone here,” Vittoria said, already warming up to the idea.
Eddie punched the air in triumph, a grin breaking out on his features. “Yes! I fuckin’ love Matt! He’s so funny,” he said, causing Vittoria to scoff as her attention turned toward Eddie.
“The hell is that supposed to mean?! Am I not funny?!” Vittoria demanded, already flinging the pillow that had been half shoved under his side at Eddie. Her aim was off, it ending up hitting Eddie in the leg.
“Oh my god. I didn’t say that!” Eddie shot back with a roll of his eyes.
“Women,” he grumbled, only for the room to dissolve into laughter as Vittoria gave Eddie the finger.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

It was nearly three weeks after Scott had determined that it was a top priority to get together at their chief’s house that Vittoria found herself getting ready. It wasn’t very often that she had the opportunity to wear something special so she’d opted to pull on a floral print, flowy dress the hung to her knees. She wore a bathing suit beneath her dress, knowing that in all likelihood that she would be going for a dip in Anthony’s pool. Voluntarily or involuntarily, regardless - she would be swimming today.
Vittoria frowned slightly as she looked at herself in the mirror. It wasn’t that she was trying to impress anyone, she wasn’t looking to pursue a relationship with anyone. She was far too busy to but that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy looking good. Smoothing the material of her dress down, Vittoria headed for the stairs. She was quick to slip her flip flops on, grabbing her keys and wallet on her way out the door.
Vittoria had punched the address into her GPS, unfamiliar with the place or the location. It took her nearly half an hour before she pulled through the security gate after giving the guard her name. She wasn’t all too comfortable here but her truck would be safe, she’d been assured. Pulling into a parking spot near the entrance, Vittoria plucked her phone from the seat beside her. Her fingers flew over the keyboard, with a quick message of ‘here! :)’.
It was only a few minutes before she saw a familiar figure approaching her, sunglasses concealing his eyes. Vittoria climbed out of her truck, still holding her phone in wallet, keys dangling from a finger. “Hey, stranger!”
A smile spread across Billy’s features as he nodded in her direction, falling in step beside her as he led the way over toward his sleek, all black Dodge Charger. Vittoria let out a low whistle as she slid into the passenger seat. “I like my old school cars but damn, gotta admit this is nice,” Vittoria said, her eyes scanning the interior.
Billy let out a low chuckle as he nodded, leaving the parking lot. He gave a half-hearted wave to the security guard, his hand still on the wheel as he followed Vittoria’s direction toward Anthony’s. “I was going to say,” he paused, wetting his lips with the tip of his tongue, “that truck’s old. Should get something a bit more… restored.” Billy’s lips pursed as if he wasn’t quite satisfied with quite what he’d said.
Vittoria gave a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes, giving a lopsided shrug. “Dad loved that thing. He always wanted to restore it but.. But then 9/11 happened and he didn’t get the chance to,” she said, her smile dropping a bit at the memory. It was easier for her to put it like that than to say he’d died. Some days she still didn’t even believe it was real.
There were still times when Vittoria thought she was going to see her father sitting in his chair at Mom’s or she thought about calling him up to go upstate for a bit of hiking. But reality always set in before she could do something foolish like calling up her mom’s house and asking to speak to her dad.
Billy’s features softened at the explanation that Vittoria offered, nodding a bit in understanding. “Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean..” he trailed off, not even sure how he was supposed to apologize for something like that.
Vittoria shrugged, the pain easing from her features. “It’s been a long time. It hurts still, yeah, but I choose to look at the happy memories and cherish them now. I don’t want to focus on the pain. Doesn’t get me anywhere, you know?”
Billy only hummed in reply, not all that familiar with being close to even a single parental figure. He didn’t care to offer words that he couldn’t even quite find. He leaned forward in his seat, flicking on the music. Heavy rock washed over them, settling them into a comfortable silence save for Vittoria uttering directions every so often.
Vittoria’s face broke into a grin as she climbed out of Billy’s car, lingering at the front of his car for him. When he joined her, Bell turned to lead him around the side of the house. She leaned up, flipping the latch on the gate before she pulled it open. She led him inside, waving to the group of men already assembled. She noted that Matteo wasn’t there yet but he’d be there soon, she was sure of it.
“Hey guys! This is Billy, the guy I met at Juan’s,” Vittoria said, motioning toward Billy. The man gave a lopsided grin, waving as he moved to take a seat on one of the benches by the pool.
Vittoria stepped over to the grill where Anthony was laboring over the meat; an assortment of ribs and chicken for anyone who didn’t want to eat ribs. She grinned as she leaned down, lifting the lid of the cooler. She grabbed two beers, deciding that it wouldn’t hurt to have one or two tonight.
“Thanks for having us all over, Chief. It’s nice to get together and be able to wear something other than our yellows,” Vittoria said, a light grin on her features. Anthony laughed, nodding his head. He reached out, pulling Vittoria into his side. He gave her shoulders a squeeze before releasing his grip, lowering the top on the grill.
“Sue and I are always happy to have you guys over. You know that. Just hard to arrange,” Anthony said, sipping at his opened beer. Vittoria nodded, motioning for Anthony to follow her over to where she had left Billy.
“This is Billy. He’s a Marine,” Vittoria relayed, knowing all too well how much love and respect her chief had for the military. He hadn’t served himself but his grandfather and father both had, as well as his brother.
Anthony’s demeanor changed and he gave a nod of his head, holding out his free hand. “Thank you. Appreciate it,” he said as Billy shook his hand.
Billy gave a shrug as he cracked open the beer that Vittoria had offered to him. “Don’t worry ‘bout it. Was just about the only smart decision I coulda made at 18,” he said, letting out a low chuckle. He glanced down to his feet before he looked back up to Anthony. “Still think it was the best damn thing that I could have done.”
There was something unspoken in Billy’s words. Something about the pain that was only inflicted overseas. Anthony and Vittoria shared a look but said nothing because some demons were better left alone. Before any other words could be spoken, there were shouts from the gate that Vittoria had just come through.
Vittoria and Billy both turned, her face lighting up at the sight of her brother shutting the gate behind her. She tugged on Billy’s sleeve, leading him toward Matteo as the grin grew on her features. “Matteo, this is Billy. The guy from Juan’s that I was telling you about. Billy, Matteo. My brother,” she said, giving a nod of her head before she turned, stepping away from the two men as they were quick to dip into a conversation.
“Hey,” Vittoria greeted both Jimmy and Eddie as she dropped down onto a chair between them. “It’s nice to be outside. That way I don’t have to be choked by your damn stench,” she said, letting out a laugh as Jimmy shoved her shoulder.
“Don’t attack me like that. You love me. It might be hard for you to admit but you’d be lost without me!” Vittoria declared, sticking her tongue out at Jimmy.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Months had passed since her first and second encounter with Frank Castle. At first, Vittoria had wondered about him. Where he was, what he was up to but she knew the answer to that question. Frank Castle was either alive and doing what he was content doing or he was dead. Vittoria had only ever had one real conversation with Frank, she didn’t need any more to know that in her heart of hearts. With all of the articles that had been written about the vigilante and Eddie’s incessant obsession with the former Marine, Vittoria had all the knowledge of him that she needed.
Vittoria didn’t wonder about him anymore. Not unless his family visited her at night. She could never be too sure about any of it at all but those nights always seemed to be before an unsolved massacre popped up in the news. There was never ever an answer of who did it, just that what had happened had been brutal. Bloody and angry, that’s what the news anchors always called it. Eddie had even connected some of the dots. Thoroughly convinced that Frank had to be at fault and truth be told, Vittoria believed it. She had never voiced it though. She felt like it would be some sort of disservice to the man if she did.
It was one of those nights where Vittoria couldn’t sleep, no matter how hard she tried to. She’d given up trying to sleep, for laying and staring at the ceiling for nearly an hour. Her mind was racing, with the images of homes that she couldn’t save, entire lives that had been turned upside down by accident. On purpose. Sometimes motivated by anger, greed.. The thought was enough to turn her stomach if she let it. And for some reason, tonight Vittoria was letting it.
The images of lost material items were nothing compared to the flashes of charred skin that jumped to the forefront of her mind every single damn time that she decided to close her eyes and try to rest. It was a god damned nightmare, through and through. One that she was content never living through again.
“Fuck. Me,” Vittoria growled under her breathe, shoving her covers away from her. She dropped her legs off the edge of the bed before she stood, trudging downstairs. Pulling her hair back into a messy bun, Vittoria let out a heavy sigh as she stepped into the kitchen. She opened the fridge, eyeing the contents inside before she grabbed a leftover bottle of champagne from her housewarming party. Vittoria considered grabbing a glass but it was her first day off tomorrow, of three in a row. She could afford to just drink out of the bottle if she damn well pleased.
Vittoria was half a bottle of champagne deep (they’d opened it and abandoned it pretty much right away at her party), watching some ridiculous television show geared toward teenagers. She laughed and laughed and as she did, the tension in her shoulders slowly relaxed.
Her phone started to buzz and she started to grumble under her breathe as she reached for it, glancing toward the screen for a moment before she pressed the phone to her ear. “Heeey Matt,” she greeted her brother, shifting around on the couch until she could rest easily against the arm of the couch. Her eyes fluttered shut, a content smile resting on her lips.
“You sound a little tipsy,” Matt answered in return, letting out a short laugh.
Vittoria shrugged her shoulders as her only reply, taking a moment before she realized that Matteo couldn’t actually see her. Opening her eyes, Vittoria frowned at the way the room was spinning. “Tiny bit… couldn’t sleep. Gave up. Y’know..” Vittoria trailed off before she knew that Matteo didn’t need an explanation. He dealt with his demons better than Vittoria did, he didn’t see them in the same capacity that she saw hers.
Matteo sighed, rubbing at his cheek on the other end of the line. “Tori.. you need me to come over?” It was an unwavering offer, always there but Vittoria was quick to answer this time.
“No. Don’t bother. ‘M fine, just.. Relaxing. Tomorrow is my first day off so I’ll be fine if I don’t get to sleep until later. Anyway!” Vittoria started, wanting to change the subject before the kept going in the same, depressing circle. “What’s new with you?”
“Eh. Nothing much. Billy and I hung out at a pool hall the other night. It was a lot of fun but you know I won. Us Belmontes don’t know how to lose,” Matteo said, pride filling his voice. It was a simple game of pool, nothing of importance, but it was enough to send pride surging through him. Billy had been good at the game so it had an entertaining round.
Vittoria hummed, flexing her feet as she looked down at them. “Sounds like fun. I’m glad that I introduced you guys. I knew you’d get on well with him,” she said, biting at her lip. It was nice to know that she had introduced Matteo to Billy, it seemed like they were going to be good friends for a long time. No one could have too many close friends, as far as Vittoria was concerned.
“I was thinkin’ we should go over to Ma’s either tomorrow or the next day. It’s been a little while since we all got together and I feel like Ma could use the company,” Matteo commented after another beat of silence.
“Of course. There’s never too much time spent at Ma’s house,” Vittoria stated, a wide grin spreading across her features. Matteo and she were always so busy with work, they didn’t get to spend nearly as much time together as they would have preferred but their mother understood well enough. They cherished what time they had together, even if it wasn’t as often as any of them wanted.
“Alright. I’ll give her a call tomor-” Vittoria’s attention was dragged away from her phone call by a knock on the door. Her brows pulled together as she glanced toward the clock on the front of her cable box. 12:37, it was just after midnight and she wasn’t expecting anyone. “Was that a knock at the door?” Matteo asked, concern filling his voice. Vittoria didn’t see it but Matteo was suddenly alert, confused as to who was knocking at Vittoria’s door so late at night.
“Uhhuh. Not expecting anyone either,” Vittoria muttered into the phone. She pushed to her feet, setting her champagne glass down before making her way toward the front door. “It’s probably just some dumb teenager playing ding dong ditch,” she said with a scoff.
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s it,” Matteo agreed.
Vittoria reached forward, unlocking the deadbolt on the door before she pulled the door open. She jolted slightly at the sight she was met with. Frank Castle stood on the other end of the door, looking nearly as lost as Vittoria was feeling at the moment.
“Oh. It’s uh.. It’s Jimmy. I’ll call you tomorrow, Matt,” Vittoria said, ending the call before her brother could even answer.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Can I come in?” Frank’s voice echoed through Vittoria’s ears. She blinked up at him, surveying the imagine in front of her. Frank stood with a hat and hoodie pulled down low on his forehead, his hands shoved into his pockets as he looked at her.
Vittoria lowered her phone from her ear, her brows pulling together as she stared up at Frank. She couldn’t understand why he was here, why so late, why in the first place. She exhaled slowly, nodding her head when Frank cleared his throat. The noise had been the only thing to shake Vittoria from her stupor. She stepped to the side so that Frank could come inside.
Motioning with her hand, Vittoria waited to close the door until Frank was inside.
“Sorry. I’ve been.. Drinking,” Vittoria supplied as she turned, starting for her place on the couch. She plopped down before she seemed to realize she’d never even asked Frank why he was here… or thought to offer him a drink. Her face scrunched a bit before she spoke again, “do you want a drink? Water, tea? I have some hard liquor in the cabinet beside the fridge if you want something else.”
The corners of Frank’s lips tilted upward before he shook his head, leaning against the doorway into the living room. A look came over his features, somewhere between being uncomfortable and a sense of pain that Vittoria didn’t think Frank had even been able to process.
“Nah. Not really here for a drink,” Frank answered, his eyes roaming over the room. His gaze softened a bit before it finally came to rest back on Vittoria, who was looking at him expectantly.
“Why… are you here then?” Vittoria’s voice was apprehensive as he tilted his head to the side, eyeing Frank warily as she bent her legs in front of her.
Frank shrugged his shoulders, letting out a ragged sigh as his shoulders sagged. “Just wanted to.. See the house,” he answered, his eyes dropping to his feet. “Just been a long while and I thought.. I thought since you helped me out that one night, you wouldn’t mind. I kind of dipped out last time. Before I had the chance to look around, y’know.”
“You used to live here… with them,” Vittoria stated, not a hint of question in her voice.
Frank’s head snapped up, staring at Vittoria in shock. “You say that like you know,” he answered, shifting his weight slightly. Her statement had made him uncomfortable as Frank took a slight step backward. He had thought that Vittoria would know what the media knew, not that the home she owned had been his, in another life.
“What can I say? I found you damn near dead in the alleyway by my house and patched you up as well as I could,” Vittoria said, giving Frank a pointed look. The conversation had taken a sobering turn. “You disappeared and a few days later, your face is all over the news. You’re alive, you’re not dead like everyone thought you were. And I had a name to put to the face of the man I’d saved. I dug into you because I needed to know. That’s how I found your connection to Karen,” Vittoria explained, her eyes dropping to her lap. It felt oddly uncomfortable to be explaining this to Frank. He was a homicidal vigilante, who was to say he wouldn’t lash out at her for digging into who he was?
Frank let out a laugh as he shook his head, grinding his teeth together as he looked to the side. She could see the muscles in his jaw clenching as he worked through whatever was on his mind. “Why am I even surprised?”
“Shouldn’t be. My Pa always said I was headstrong. THat only got worse as I got older,” Vittoria added, glancing around the room they were both standing in. “Do you.. Do you want to take a look around? If it’ll help you, I mean.”
Frank stiffened, nodding slowly at the offer. He did. He wanted to roam through the halls that were haunted by the ghosts of his family, hidden and unseen to an untrained eye. “I won’t touch anything. I just want to..” he shrugged, waving his hand around the room as if it would say what he didn’t have the words for.
Vittoria nodded, relaxing further into her couch. “Show yourself around. You know where I”ll be,” she uttered, pulling the blanket from the back of the couch, onto her lap.
Frank raised an eyebrow as he watched Vittoria get settled on the couch. Was she not going to sleep upstairs? It wasn’t his place to ask and he realized that so he turned, starting around the main floor first.
The living room was the same as it had been the last time he’d stepped into the home. Vittoria’s television rested against the wall, next to the front windows. Her decor was warm, a wooden coffee table and espresso coloured, leather couches. They looked like Frank could fall asleep if he dared to lay down. His lips quirked upward in a half smile before he turned, letting his feet carry him into the kitchen.
Frank’s heart broke because it was nothing like what he had known. Light gray walls accented the weathered wood cabinets, letting the stainless steel appliances stand out. It was obvious that Vittoria had done some renovations after she had bought the home. It was nothing like the kitchen that he had watched Maria cook so many family meals in, the same kitchen that he had taught her how to cook a few dishes.
Turning on his heel, Frank shook his head as he headed toward the stairs. His breathe hitched with the first step up that he took because he knew that what he was going to face wasn’t going to be what he wanted to see. The rooms weren’t going to be decorated like they had been when he called this house his home.
Why Frank was here, he didn’t really understand. It was his and Maria’s anniversary, sure, but that didn’t give him a right to be here. It didn’t mean that Vittoria had to allow him inside. It didn’t mean anything because this wasn’t his home and Vittoria owed him absolutely nothing and yet, she was opening an intimate part of her world for Frank.
Frank paused halfway up the stairs, turning toward the living room to ask Vittoria if it was alright that he was going upstairs. Bedrooms and a bathroom were on the second floor, there was something that felt wrong about going into the bedrooms. It felt like he was invading Vittoria’s privacy but Frank had felt drawn here. He’d written it off as the day that it was and little more.
Lingering for a moment longer, Frank continued up the stairs after deciding that Vittoria wouldn’t mind. She seemed to care more about helping others than her own safety. That sort of just ran as a theme in her line of work and certainly showed through when she’d decided to help him.