Written By: Armina Qi Saxton

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Chapter 5: Beginnings

It didn't seem like anything had changed since he had left, on the outward appearances at least. His bedroom was still there, with most of his old furniture replaced as new and things in the same position as they had been remembered. The scents of everything still hung in the air, that of fresh linen and pine that was there after laundry day. The carpet was soft as ever, even softer then the bed that had little wear since it had been built over four years before. Now it had someone to occupy its confines for a short time, ready for it's owner to call it his own once again. It would be, if he was staying longer then he planned on staying.

It was small to those that grew up in the life of the rich, but it was bigger then what he had been used to in the same four years. The bed sat in the middle of the left wall, an oak nightstand on the right of it that held a lamp made of silver and a white shade overtop of the bulb. A long dresser laid on the other side, across from where the bed sat, a mirror reflecting a flipped image of what was on the other side of the room; the top of the dresser was just as bare as the inside of the drawers were, yet that would change in the next several days. A desk sat beside the wall that faced the doorway, underneath the window that overlooked the outside world beyond it; a single chair sat underneath the desk, ready to be used for letter writing or for anything else that came his way. It was as he remembered it, but without the same touch that the room brought once before.

Yet Gino was uncertain as what to make of it, as he stood in the middle of the room and stared at the bed in front of him. It was the same four-poster bed he remembered having as a child growing up, but not the same as the one that had been destroyed when the last mansion had been blown up. There were no memories associated with this room, not yet anyways. There would be some that would eventually come in time, in the next few weeks or years, depending on how long he stayed on the island or anywhere near it. Nothing was for certain yet, not when he had come home only a few days before.

The last couple of days had been uneventful to say the least, with him standing back to observe his father and what he was doing in the time that he had his son back. He was a busy man, that much Gino saw, and had very little time to do much else other then to work. The pauses between doing things for the Council and G-Corp, he spent just watching his son read or look around the mansion, a content look upon his face. Johnny truly looked happy to have his son back with him, even if he was only there for a short amount of time. It was something at least, to know that his father was there, watching him do the simple things.

They had spent time together, that much Gino could say, when there weren't so many things going on at once. A half hour was the most they had spent all at once, over a short dinner that had to be eaten quickly so that work could be finished for the night. The conversation hadn't been rushed, going slowly and smoothly like it should have been before he had left. There were no forced laughs or smiles during that time, only a joy that vanished as soon as Johnny had to go back to the work that he had not yet finished. Gino could tell that he didn't want to leave, not with the shortness of the time spent together, but it had to be done. A dark look had come upon his face and the rest of the meal had been spent eating alone, something that he had grown accustomed to. It was a start, at least.

There had been surprises that Gino learned since his arrival back at the mansion, surprises that showed more then on his face. G-Corp's re-instatement had been one on of those surprises, more to his horror then to his surprise, and was still operating underground like it had been before. Where it was, or what it was doing now, Johnny didn't say and Gino wasn't about to press that any further at the moment. It was bad enough to know that it existed again and there was a possible threat of the event so Halloween of 2004 could repeat itself over again on any given day of the year.

What was worse was that Gaia, in her entirety, was relying on G-Corp to get the winter information where the weather station could not get, despite any Gaian being the wiser about it. He wouldn't be surprised if the weather station itself had gotten its information from G-Corp as a concealed source rather then relying on their own radar to get what they needed. If G-Corp had been brought back to the public's full awareness, and all knew where it was located in cases of emergency so that no one would be around when something was triggered again, he would have felt better about G-Corp then he did currently. Even with his father's insistence that Silent Flash had been disbanded or had been broken up so that a missile wouldn't be the primary defense, he still felt weary about everything concerning G-Corp.

Why G-Corp had been created again, he didn't care to really know nor was willing to ask during his stay, as he had something else to worry about: Marie Von Helson. The shock of seeing her burst through the kitchen door that lead from the dining room when he had first arrived, startled him enough to stare open mouthed and wide eyed at her as though he had never seen her before. Marie seemed just as surprised to see him standing there as he was to see her there, but her shock wore off quicker then his did, when she looked at his father for any unspoken answers as to why Gino was standing there and how long he was going to be there. He didn't care what Johnny said in response to it, other then that Marie didn't seem too happy to have him back.

He hadn't been able to determine if the look on Marie's face was genuine surprise or because she was disappointed that he had come back to his home without notice or anyone knowing that he was back. Either way, she had kept her tone level and calm, her words civil so that there were no slips of her tongue that would anger Johnny. His reply to her was the same, short, simple, and without anything to show the anger of seeing her standing there as though this was her home as well. He put some of the blame on her and Anna for what had happened on April Fools, but most of it feel upon his father's shoulders. Still, he was more then willing to forgive his father quicker then he was to forgive Marie.

It was confusing to him, even when he found the secret of why Marie was in her rival's home, more confusing as to why G-Corp was still thriving. It had been a day after he had arrived and his intentions of walking into his father's bedroom to ask him a question only made him rush back out again, face red and a knowledge that he would never set foot in his father's bedroom again as much as he could. What he saw not only would leave a mental impression on him that would not go away any time soon, but gave him the reason as to why Marie was there in the first place. His father had admitted even further, two hours later after the embarrassment of being walked in on had faded, on that same reason.

He and Marie had started their relationship not long ago, he had said, and had been together since, to the shock of friends and to all of Gaia. No one had expected that the two rivaling families would find more then hatred between each other and it had been found on this rare occasion. Most of Gaia that knew the goings on between them was still attempting to get over the shock, many glad that the two could come together and put a good portion of their anger behind them. Gino couldn't find a reason to be angry with this any more then the average Gaian could, just the words escaped him and the horrified images that he saw stuck in his mind to even comprehend anything else Johnny was telling him. It wasn't something he was about to feel comfortable with any time soon, or give the advantage to Marie; he would have to see how she acted further before giving in to anything.

He was so deep in thought that he didn't hear the door opening up and a pair of light footsteps walking in. It was a moment or two before the knocking at the now-open door jarred him from his thoughts and he turned towards the sound in the doorway. Standing there, clad in a pair of tight red jeans and a white sweater, Marie Von Helson stood, her hands clasping behind her. She looked different from the woman that he had seen during the Anniversary Ball he had gone to several years before, yet still had that same aura about her that made him twitch. There was a coolness about her that fanned a flame, fending all off with the cool breeze but was warm as soon as someone got close to her. He wasn't about to get close to her, not when his own memories of her popped into his mind.

"I know it's hard being back here, but you'll get used to it again," Marie said as she stepped into the room. Gino looked away from her, intent on moving a finger along the top of the bed instead of watching her. "It took me a while to remember where everything was and how things worked, but I managed."

"Yea, by dividing Gaia in half, along with my father," He snapped, throwing the bag he had sitting on the ground and throwing it onto the bed. He gave her a sideways look at her, narrowing his eyes slightly. There was no reason for her to come into his room to talk to him, not when he had given her reason enough to stay away. Words weren't exchanged, but the looks and body language were enough to say what he did not.

"You probably don't trust me, and I probably wouldn't trust myself, not after everything." Marie bit her lower lip, twirling a part of her sweater around a finger. "I don't know what you remember about me or Anna since then, but not all of it was bad."

"From what I remember from the Anniversary Ball, all of it was. I don't see what is different about then and now." Gino reached across the bed and opened the bag, pulling out several pairs of worn socks and a shirt that had more patches on it then he could account for. Marie held her tongue to keep from saying something about what kind of clothing he had brought, keeping the words to herself as they would only re-enforce what Gino was thinking. "How much did you pay my father for this so-called relationship you have with him?"

"Excuse me?" She blinked her eyes at the question, too surprised to even come up with a retort to respond to it. She had expected to have that question asked by someone outside the two families, but not from inside of it.

"You heard me. I don't know if you think my father is stupid or anything, but I don't think he would want to have that kind of relationship with anyone, not even after all these years of having no one." Gino stared at Marie, trying to understand her mild expression and why she suddenly took on a defensive stance. "The last thing I honestly can remember about you and your sister was how much you looked down upon people and cared about nothing else. Yes, my father did the same to an extent, but not like you two did."

"Your father and I have a two-sided relationship. We both have feelings for each other and there is nothing exchanged between the two of us except the same feelings." She paused, walking to the bed and sat down upon it. With her eyes looking up at him, she folded her hands in her lap and kept the same expression on her face. "Riches, power, and the lure of the spotlight can do that to a person Gino. I am not the same person I was four years ago. Yes, I still have several traits from which it doesn't seem that I can give up, but they aren't like what they were before. That time period changed everything."

"Yes, yes it did," Gino echoed, pulling out the last of the few items he had inside of the bag: a small, weather torn blanket. It had been made for him the year before, a surprise present for his birthday; he placed it neatly on the top of his pillow for the time being until he could find another place to keep it when he was alone. "How long have you and my father been together?"

"Year and a half, I suppose." Marie shrugged, tracing a finger along the quilt that laid upon the bed. "I can't really be sure, though. It could be shorter then that."

Gino stared at her blankly. "Why? Why you and him? That is something I can't understand."

"That is something I can't understand myself. There is a burning hatred of Johnny that is still there, deep within me, from what he took away from me. I feel drawn to him somehow," She answered, looking up at him quickly. "I want to hate him, I really do, but the more time I spend with him, the more I realize what my sister saw in him."

"Anna?" He asked, confused.

"No, your mother." Marie shook her head. "I see a lot of her in you, like you are almost the replica of her."

Gino stared at her, his eyes roaming her face for any signs of deception. He couldn't trust what she was saying; even if it were the truth, he had to make sure that it was something that he could ask someone else about when he had the chance. His father still was busy with the Council and G-Corp, but he could find ways of asking him about it during dinner. That wouldn't be the hard part, what would be the hard part was getting his father to admit anything to him. If he did, then that would be a step forwards in the direction he wanted to go in. There was still a lot of work between himself and his father, yet that would be worked on in the few weeks.

Marie took the inquisitive stare in stride, smiling lightly as she stood up from the bed and returned the look. I don't know why Johnny didn't tell Gino of his mother, if he mentioned anything to him since then, but I am not waiting until he does to say something, She thought to herself. This would be the opportune moment for her to get closer to Gino, so that she could see the inner workings of how the boy thought and what he did. She could almost pinpoint what Johnny did and how he acted; there were few instances where he surprised her with an action or a few words, but he was still the predictable person that she knew him to be. If she could understand Gino, then that was a step closer to knowing the family that she wanted to have.

"I am not one to tell you of your mother, Gino. Your father is more of the type of person to tell you then I am." That was the truth, but it was also the bait to get her to be able to get him to start trusting her slightly more then he already did, if he did at all. "Besides, what is keeping me from lying about her? You don't seem to trust me, since you came into the mansion three days before, and don't seem like you will ever."

"Edmund said the same thing, about my mother. That I should ask my father about it." Gino crossed his arms over his chest and stared deeply at her. "Try me, and I'll see how much I believe of what you say."

Marie rubbed the back of her head as she sat back down upon the bed, unsure of where to start with her stories about his mother. There was only so much that she remembered about her eldest sister, most of which had faded into the back of her head, and not all of it was something that Gino needed to hear. She could always tell him of what his mother was like as a child, the good memories that were still in her mind, yet there were the bad ones that outweighed the good ones. The earliest memories of her family life weren't the ones that she was going to share with him at the moment, not yet anyways. Those memories Johnny didn't even know and he would be one of the first people to be told them.

"Your mother was the eldest of the three Von Helson sisters, the apple of my father's eye. Nothing she did could do any wrong, not even when she got in trouble for the biggest things at school. Not even when she married your father," She started calmly, keeping her eyes with Gino the entire time. "Anna and I thought she had married him when she was pregnant with you and only because she didn't want to be an unwed mother, not because of love. The first two years of your parent's marriage, we didn't even acknowledge because of our growing hatred of your father. We were in denial, really. The supposed marriage started the public version of the Gambino-Von Helson feud, from what the few that remembered it anyways. Gaia was a lot smaller then and without the knowledge of how much else there was."

Gino sat down on the other side of the bed, staring intently at Marie as he uncrossed his arms. She couldn't tell if he was interested in what she was saying or if he was trying to see if her face was changing while she was telling him of his mother. Either way, she had his attention, which was more then what the figure at the doorway had. Neither seemed to notice that there was a third person in the bedroom, keeping to the shadows of the doorway as he listened to what the two of them were saying.

"Your mother acted more like a mother towards Anna and I then our own mother did. She didn't have the Von Helson attitude that all of Gaia knows or has placed upon us, far from it actually. She rarely acted as though she was the princess of high society and had more then a handful of trust funds and bank accounts in her name. That is what I remember most about her, the smiles that could show through anything, especially when she was pregnant with you. " Marie smiled at Gino, a genuine smile that she couldn't hide from him. "The last month of her pregnancy was the hardest, but we couldn't see it somehow. Two days after you were born, she died from complications."

"Was she in pain when she died?" Gino asked quietly. The last thing he wanted to know was if his mother had hurt when she had died and Marie's shaking of her head confirmed some of what he hoped hadn't happened.

"I don't know honestly. I have never asked your father about it and wasn't there when she died. I assume she was as peaceful as she could be, knowing that her only child would be okay and that he would grow up to be just like her. Or as close to it as possible." This was as far as she was willing to go, as she returned Gino's stare with an equally confused one. She wanted to know one thing from Gino and hoped that he could answer it for her. "Why hasn't your father talked about her with you?"

"Because it wasn't something I was willing to tell to a child or when he was growing up. Quite frankly, he didn't need to know a lot then," A voice said from the doorway. As soon as that booming voice came to them, both Marie and Gino jumped from the bed, their eyes wide as Marie turned around to face the familiar face of Johnny Gambino. Gino's mouth hung open when he saw his father standing there, fumbling to find the right words to say to him. Neither one seemed to have noticed that he was there, holding onto a small black book; that was the way he had wanted it to be, for him to surprise them both.

"Johnny! I...I didn't hear you come in!" She stole a nervous glance towards Gino before her eyes darted back to the man standing before her. "I'm sorry that I.... well, I didn't know how much you told him and he wanted to know."

"It's okay, Marie. I'm glad to see that the two of you are at least being civil with each other," He said, looking from one to the other with a smile on his lips. It was plastered on his face, showing little what the rest of his face did not show: the tiredness of doing so much in such a short amount of time. Marie took note that there was something in his hand, a book that looked like it had been burned beyond recognition and had been thrown away. Whatever it was, it was not meant for her.

"I better go, to let you two talk over things," Marie said, nodding quickly in response. Standing there for a moment more, she glanced at Gino one last time before walking towards the doorway. She paused only to give Johnny a kiss on the cheek before leaving the two of them alone in the room together in silence.

Neither one spoke to each other for several minutes, Gino running a hand along the blanket he had taken out of his bag, trying not to look at his father. There were so many questions that he wanted to ask his father, to confirm what Marie had said about his mother and anything else that he still wanted to know about her. There were other things that he wanted to know, other answers that he desperately wanted to get, and would get them answered in time. Anything else that he couldn't get from his father, he would get from somewhere else. That wasn't the problem, getting what he wanted to know from people was.

Johnny seemed to pale at the expression on his son's face, like he knew what was about to be said between the two of them. He had stepped lightly around any questions that came his way about his late wife or anything that had to do with G-Corp when Gino had been younger; now that he was much older, there was no possible way that he could continue to ignore the pressing issues that his son had. Gino was no longer a young boy but a young man, who wanted to know more about his family's past and anything else that had to do with it. There was little to tell without having to look through the pages of photo books and history texts that weren't there to show what had taken place and who had come before, as they were all destroyed in the last mansion's rubble. Save for a select few items, there was nothing left to show for the Gambino family.

"Is it true?" Gino asked, staring straight forwards. "Are the Von Helson and Gambino families related?"

"Yes, they are. Through marriage only, though. You have Von Helson blood in you as well as Gambino." Johnny's smile faded slightly. "You...you still remind me of your mother, Gino. Everyday, I see her in you more and more."

"I wish I could have known my mother," Gino said in a soft voice, a light smile appearing on his lips.

"I wish you could have to." His eyes lowered for a moment, pushing back any lingering pain that had not left, before he raised his gaze to meet Gino's. He walked to the bed and handed the small book that he had been holding. "This is your mother's diary, Gino. Something that I thought I would never see again until it was found in the rubble of the last mansion. There are pages that aren't readable anymore, but some of it still is. It can give you an idea as to who your mother was, more then I could tell you."

He hesitated on taking the diary from his father, only because he wasn't sure as to what he would find in the charred remains of the book. Surprise upon getting something that his mother once owned came and went on his face, as he reached out and took the diary from his father. He was scared to read it, though it would give him some insight into what his mother was like, even with the burned pages that were beyond his line of sight. It was someone else's private thoughts, one's that he couldn't dare to read without their permission. But this was his mother's, someone that he had not met and would never in his lifetime unless he looked in the pages of the past.

"What was she like?" He asked, holding the book against his chest. Johnny's smile didn't fade any more then it did to reappear when he first stepped into the room; instead, he remained in a state of a fixed expression and looked like he was not about to answer the question.

"Sweet, caring, looked a lot like Marie but without the same eye color and with shorter hair. Just being around her was enough for me." At this point, his smile faded completely and a new expression came upon his face. He turned into the same person that Gino had seen when he had left him over four years before, when he had let Gino go without even a struggle. "There is a lot of her I see in you, Gino. She hated when I had to work a lot, especially during the holidays, and I missed several of her birthdays because of it. You are the same way."

"It couldn't be helped, right?" Gino snapped darkly, knowing all too well that the excuse for his father not being around more was always work.

"Some of it could have, but I.... well, you know how it was," Johnny said quietly. "I was constantly away, with you in the hands of nanny's and maids."

"Yea, I know how it was." There was an irritable tone to his voice, as he placed the diary on the nightstand next to his bed. "I barely saw you for days on end, not knowing what you were doing or if you remembered that I was there. Dad, I wanted you there."

Johnny's eyes flashed with something inside of them, a flame of anger or a pang of guilt that he hadn't been there more for his son. It was more of a combination of both; Gino's statement a drive to show that he wasn't the same person that had let him down during the first seventeen years of his life. There was also the anger that went along with those same words, knowing that they would eventually lead to an argument over something that had happened in the past and couldn't be taken back. There was no need to bring it up again, not when there was so much to look forwards to in the future.

"I wanted to be there, I honestly did, but there was so much that had to be done then," He snapped. "The things that happened in G-Corp, the Council needing more and more of my time, and everything else that went along with it."

"I'm sure that you did want to be there. That's why you distanced yourself so much from me. You didn't seem to care whether you were there or not." The glare that he gave him didn't show the true anger that he felt for not having someone there besides the many nanny's and maids that he had long since forgotten. That wasn't the only thing he felt at the moment, abandonment and heartache mixing in with the anger that had not dissolved over the years he had been away.

"Damn it, Gino," Johnny hissed, his voice rising up several notches. It had been the tone that he had used when he wanted to keep Gino in line and to make him heard. "I cared. I cared about what you were doing and how you were. Finding how to express it was hard enough as it were, with the public and without your mother. I didn't know how to function, know what to show you, or how to be the father that I was supposed to be."

"You could have at least tried to. I didn't see much of the father that I wanted to see and the father that was actually there," Gino retorted, his mixed feelings flowing in his voice.

"I tried, I honestly did. I....I..." Johnny ran a hand through his hair, attempting to convey his reasoning for not being the father that he should have been into words that he wanted to say. "It was hard, it really was. I couldn't concentrate on you because it hurt. I saw a small child standing in the middle of my study, looking up at me with a teddy bear in his arms, and wanting to be read a bedtime story. I couldn't do it because I had to work, had to ignore the pain and suffering that came with each time I saw you as a young child."

"If you said that you tried, then you could have tried harder, without the pain and suffering," He said plainly. It was true that he saw something in his face when he was a child, but he did not understand what caused him to be pushed away so quickly. Those few answers had come to him when he was older, when he could better understand what went wrong, and why it happened.

Johnny nodded slightly. "I know I could have, but there was so much to do that I couldn't break myself away from it. There were a few times that I was there."

"I do remember those few times, when I was sick," Gino said softly. "Remember?"

"Yes, I do" He responded, his smile returning. "You had a high fever once and could eat anything because it didn't sit with your stomach. Your nanny at the time didn't know what it was, and I thought it was because you were nervous about starting kindergarten that day. You were sent off anyways, but turned out you had the flu instead."

"I was sick for three days and you stayed there for the longest time, even when I couldn't hold anything down." Gino walked around the bed towards Johnny, looking away from his father. He remembered that day, when he was around five; it had been the first day of kindergarten and he had hadn't been able to sleep the night before. There had been a headache that had kept him up for the better part of the night, breakfast the next morning not even staying in his stomach. The nanny at the time had been new and didn't know, sending him off to school, by order of his father, with a fever and a flush to his face. He didn't recall what happened when he had gotten there or how he had gotten home, except that he had stayed in bed for the better part of three days until he got better. "You barely left my bedroom, even for G-Corp. I still don't know why, as I had been sick before and you had never stayed by me like that."

"I felt guilt for sending you off to kindergarten when you said you felt sick and you needed me there. One of the few times that I was actually there." He reached out and pushed a strand of hair out of Gino's eyes. "Once you were better, though, I sent you back to school without a thought as to what happened and went back to work as usual."

"I know you did," Gino said, looking back up at him. "I wished that I could have stayed home a day longer, just because I wanted to see what you did when I wasn't there or wasn't sick."

"I know you did," Johnny muttered quietly. They stood there for a moment, just looking at each other, nothing else seemingly to say to each other. The admittance of him not being there wasn't enough for Gino alone, but it was a step forwards in a direction he wanted to go in. There were still a lot of things that needed to be sorted out before all would be right again.

It was another moment before Gino stepped closer to him and wrapped his arms around his father for the first time in many years. Johnny stood there, blinking his eyes at the surprise of this action before his smile widened and returned the hug back. It was good to know that Gino wasn't completely devoid of emotion towards him, not after the things that had happened in the last few days. It was a start, at least, and there was still a lot more to go through before it would all turn out okay.

The hug lasted for several more minutes before Gino stepped back and looked at his father. Several tears had fallen during the hug, each still visible on his father's face more then anything. He couldn't explain as to why that affected him like that, yet he couldn't shake the happiness that was in his father's eyes from his memory for a long time to come. Just seeing that expression brought his own tears to his eyes, ones that he couldn't push back inside. There was little hope of the future, but he would make this time spent on the island well worth it.

"I know that you don't want to hear this, but I have to go back to work. There is still some things that needs to be signed and revised for the Council," Johnny said, wiping the tears from his cheeks. The dark look that had been on Gino's face a few minutes before, had returned, Johnny ignoring it as best as he could as he turned around and walked towards the doorway. He paused there, turning half way around and tilted his head slightly to the side. "How about we go out for lunch tomorrow, just the two of us? I've got more then enough time to catch up on things."

"That would be great," Gino said, returning the smile. Johnny nodded twice to seal the promise, turning fully around and walked the rest of the way out of the room. Gino stood there, listening to his father's footsteps fading away down the hallway before he turned to the bed and walked back to where he had been standing before. Reaching over to the nightstand, he picked up the black book that he had set there and sat down upon the bed. He ran a hand over the cover, feeling the burn marks from where it had laid in the rubble that it had called it's home for a long time.

There was no telling what was inside the diary or what his mother wrote, only that he felt scared to open it and read the contents that were more then aged with time. Still, he opened the diary to the first page, running a finger along the darkened page and taking in a deep breath. This was one of the links to his mother's past and a way to look into the forgotten realm that was the Gambino and Von Helson families. Here he would learn some of the mysteries that surrounded the two to make what they were today. If this didn't hold the answers to his questions, then he would have to look elsewhere.