Knock Knock

No, not everyone. Just Shay. Angelo didn't know everyone. Angelo couldn't just adopt everyone. He could help them find new places, could help them find new homes, but he couldn't take them all in. Just taking Shay in would be a lot, and it wouldn't be responsible for him to take more.

"I think you'd be surprised," Angelo said quietly. "What would happen if the family dissolved. People don't want to think of themselves as villains. People don't want to think they're the bad guy. The number of people who'd go after kids--real kids--is pretty small, especially if people find out Klaus's left you all behind. That'd be something the police could handle."

He didn't think it would work, not really, but he wasn't going to give up anyway.

"Keeping the gang going just invites more trouble. It brings attention. If people find out you're running things--not an adult, but Klaus's little girl--people will think you're weak and they'll go after you. People might get hurt. But it doesn't have to be that way. There's still time to change."

Angelo let Shay's why hang in the air for a moment, frowning ever so slightly.

"I liked you, when we met Shay. I know you probably don't realize it, but I'm not exactly rich. I don't have a house of my own. I don't have a high paying job. I've gotten promoted now, but back then I was a beat cop. And then when I saw you again, you'd already been adopted, picked up by the Rosales family like it was nothing. But the offer stands now, even if I didn't get to make it back then. The option is still there."

He'd expected her to cry, so at least it was easier to handle. A part of Angelo's brain noticed she'd taken the ring off when she was the most vulnerable, but there wasn't enough information to connect the dots.

"You don't have to abandon them," Angelo said. He knew the responsibility was there. Knew she felt responsible. He knew exactly what not to say--that she wasn't responsible, that she shouldn't be burdened with it because she was just a kid--but didn't quite know what he should be saying. He had a chance, he felt like. She hadn't expected him to ask. She hadn't expected the offer to be there.

"You could still be there for them as a sister, but as a don? It's not a good life. It's not a happy life. It's not good for them, and it's not good for you. Being involved in this sort of thing does awful things to you, and being in charge of this sort of thing is even worse. You can't trust anyone. Someone betrays you and then you're jumping at shadows, wondering who the next person is, wondering who you shouldn't be trusting. What the Rosales kids need is a person they can go to for support who isn't involved. Who they can go to because they're being bullied by a classmate, or who they can go to because they have relationship troubles. If they don't have that it's nothing but Family as the answer to every problem, and that's no way to live. You could be that for them. You could be the family who they go to."

Angelo paused for a moment, his face set.

"It's not the easy way out. Not by a long shot, because it won't be easy either way. But the option is there."

He felt like he was making some sort of progress. He just had to help her understand that he understood. She didn't know enough of his past--he didn't talk about it--to realize how real it was to him.

"Do you really think so little of them to think they'd hate you for giving it a chance?" Angelo said. It was, being honest, slightly manipulative--but it was also true. Shay imagined the people around her as more demanding then they actually were. No one would really expect a fifteen year old to just abandon any hope of a normal life to take over the mob.

No one but Shay, apparently.

"It's not about who deserves it, or who doesn't. If you come with me it doesn't mean you deserve it more then they do. It means we have stuff in common. I don't talk a lot about it Shay, but I'm not exactly a good person either. If we're counting stuff that happened in the past, my hands are as red as they come. I used to be a hitman, Shay. I killed a lot of people when I was nothing more then a kid, right around your age. That was all I was--a killer--and I didn't have any sort of a life outside of the Family. I was lucky though. Manta Carlos offered me a way out, and the Don--honestly I owe him a lot--he said I should go. He gave me a chance to get out. So I did. And now I want to give you that same chance, because it's important that you do. Because right now you hate yourself and think you don't deserve it, but I've been through that same shit. I know it's awful. I've seen it, I've lived it, and now you'd never know I had."

Angelo knew she was expecting a no. It was a lot. There were who knew how many kids, who knew how many people. But Angelo had been a part of that life. He knew what it was like. He knew how hard it was to escape, to make a clean break. You couldn't just walk away. Not without losing fingers, arms, your life.

Not unless everyone walked away.

"Yes," Angelo said simply. "It'll take a lot of work, but yes, I would do that. You could all pull away. You could all choose a better life, one where you don't have to worry about looking over your shoulder, don't have to walk around with people watching your every move to make sure you'er safe."

Angelo was sure the Don would be happy with the choice he'd made, if he knew.