Eliana:

The word hazy didn't even begin to describe what I felt. My sense of time was completely off, and no matter how many times I woke up from dreams that felt more like nightmares with enough consciousness to check the time on my phone, I was back asleep before I could react to it.

Someone must have been checking on me or taking care of me while I was in and out of my senses, because there was a half empty pitcher of water next to me and and a couple empty mugs. After about a week of not eating and being stranded in a cell, then being here where I was mostly living on liquids, I still hadn't gained all of my weight back and I still felt a little weak.

Pain was apparent in my body, which meant the medicine was wearing off, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. Pain could pass, it came in waves. I had felt much worse things in life, but now that I was awake for it, I decided to sit back in my pillows for a few minutes and take some deep breaths. It couldn't get rid of everything that hurt, but it did take my mind off of it. I found my phone on the bedside table and began to flip through the news, thankful that someone had been keeping it charged.

It wasn't more than thirty minutes before someone came into the room, a woman I didn't recognize. Even the doctor had been a man, so this appearance was extremely welcome. She was young, maybe around my age but with a very intimidating and mature look. I had a feeling that with different clothes she could have passed as young and innocent, but the dark jacket and smokey eyes made me wonder if she was one of Alessio's employees.

Her grin, however, was surprisingly comforting. She seemed genuinely relieved that I was awake, stopping at the foot of my bed, "I brought you some new clothes, I thought you might like a fresh set. I know Alessio brought some from your apartment, but they were mostly nicer clothes you might wear to work. I thought you might like the options of leggings and a t-shirt?"

I breathed a sigh of relief, "That would be amazing, my only clean clothes were probably all in the laundry. I wonder if I'm allowed to shower with these stitches."

"It's been a few days, and if you're comfortable with it, I could help."

I opened my mouth to tell her that I didn't want to inconvenience her, but there was nothing that I wanted more than to be clean. I gave her an apologetic look, "If you have a few minutes, I would be grateful."

"Of course, it's just nice to have another girl around here. I'm Lucia, by the way."

"Eliana. Are these your clothes that I'm wearing right now?"

"Yeah," She chuckled. "They had no idea what to dress you in after the doctor stitched you up, I had a feeling that you wouldn't want to be wearing a hospital gown forever."

"Bless you," I sighed playfully.

She offered me her arm as I swung my legs over the side of the bed, and I was extremely grateful. I didn't expect to feel as dizzy as I was, but I knew it was from everything my body had gone through lately. She helped me to the connected bathroom, then aided me in getting my clothes off without pulling my stitches. Somehow she managed to get me settled into the tub while playfully covering her eyes with her other hand, making me giggle.

"It's fine, I'm not offended. I've been in situations before where clothes aren't as mandatory."

She laughed and lowered her hand, but still avoided looking towards me, opting instead to rifle through a cabinet for something. "How do you mean?"

"I used to do ballet and it wasn't uncommon to have to change in front of each other in a hurry. In the last few years I also ended up in some living situations with other girls in tight quarters. There weren't always enough bathrooms, so privacy wasn't guaranteed."

"If it makes you feel better, I almost became a nurse and I even took some courses," She explained as she pulled a toothpaste and toothbrush from the cabinet, along with a washcloth that she handed me. "So it doesn't bother me either. Which might come in handy, because I don't think you should be lifting your arms that high to wash your hair, so I can help you with that. We don't need you pulling those stitches, Alessio would kill me, not to mention that doctor might have a word or two."

"You know Alessio well?" I asked curiously as I started to gently wipe at my skin with soap.

She stripped off her jacket so that she was in short sleeves and jeans, then poured some shampoo on my hair. "Not terribly well. I haven't been here as long, I only finished my degree in computer sciences a couple years ago, but I'd been hacking for a while so they took me on. I'm pretty much the only girl so it's been a bit of an adjustment, but my brother works for him as an enforcer so that helps with some of the street cred around here."

"That's neat that your brother is here, too."

"Yeah," She sighed and hesitated. "His boyfriend got shot a few weeks ago though, injured during one of the shipments gone wrong, so I've been a little worried about both of them."

"Are you dating anyone here?" I was curious if that was a common thing, and I had a feeling that as the only woman in the organization, she was probably a catch.

She hummed and I could feel her shrug as she poured water from the bath over my hair to wash out the shampoo and replace it with the conditioner, "I went on a date with Alessio a few weeks ago, but not other than that."

"Oh," I froze. Some odd part of me he deluded myself into thinking that I was special, but Alessio was a mafia leader. He probably had supermodels and socialites available to him whenever he wanted, I knew that I couldn't be that special. I even helped him choose coffee for a blind date, probably for the very girl helping me right now.

"Honestly, it was a little bit like going on a date with my teacher," She gave a laugh and a faux shiver at the recollection. "But it seems that you two hit it off."

I felt a blush rising in my cheeks, thankful that she was sitting behind me. I hadn't talked about this to anyone, there was no one in my life to confide in about dating or men. "Yeah, I think we did. At least I hope so."

She helped rinse the conditioner from my hair as I wiped off my face, "I don't know how you feel, but he seems to really like you."

"You think so?"

She laughed again in a good natured way. "Hell yeah. I may not have been here as long as some of the others, but Alessio rarely shows emotion as it is. All this that's happened has driven him into a frenzy. The guys have been talking for almost a week about how he reacted when you collapsed in the foyer, how protective he's been. But men are a little more oblivious, somehow most of them haven't put two and two together yet to understand what your relationship is."

I grinned as she stood and dried off her hands. "Ready for some fresh clothes?"

"Yes, please," I begged. She helped me stand again and get some new clothes on, then pushed me down onto the closed toilet seat so that she could brush my hair out while I scrubbed my teeth. It was basic hygiene, but after what I had been through, it felt like a spa. She even handed me small fuzzy house shoes that were a little large, perfect to fit my bandaged feet into.

Either they had healed up quicker than I expected, or the doctor had done something special, because they weren't preventing me from walking. Lucia was incredibly patient as she looped an arm through mine and made sure I didn't tip over, but she balked as I asked, "Do you think it's possible for me to go to the kitchen? Or to see Alessio and the others?"

She bit her lip nervously, "The doctor said to let you sleep as long as you wanted, but he got called back to the hospital. His bed rest command technically ended yesterday.... But you have to promise me that if anything starts hurting at all, you'll say something so that we can get you back here."

"Pinky promise," I assured her, but really I just desperately wanted to leave that room. It was beautiful and calming, but I needed a change of scenery. She lent me her arm again to lean on, but while my sedation may have worn off, my pain medication was still holding on by a thread- not getting rid of the pain, merely starting to melt away. I was still grateful for her help though, and as I glanced in the mirror, it was obvious that I was slowly getting better. My black eye had faded, and while it was still noticeable, in a couple of days it could probably be covered by makeup. The split lip and obvious marks of violence on my face were slowly but surely healing, I would just need to wear long sleeves and tights for a while. The hardest thing to cover would be my hands. A couple of my fingers were taped together as they healed from fractures, and it wasn't like I could wear gloves to make coffee.

I felt a little more steady on my feet and looked hopefully at Lucia, "Do you know if the doctor said anything about solid food? I'm really hungry and a little shaky, I could use something more than juice and broth."

"I was wondering if you were going to ask," She laughed. "You should be alright as long as it's not too rich or harsh on your stomach."

With an odd excitement at the prospect of getting to leave the room, she let me lean on her arm again as I tried to stave off the dizziness. I hadn't thought that it would be the biggest problem after being bedridden for so long, but I had never before been asleep for that amount of time. I even tried to take my mind off of it by memorizing our pathway there, but there were more twists and turns than I remembered after my last trip to the kitchen.

I was proud of myself for not needing to stop until we got there. The pain was manageable, but Lucia was insistent that I sit and not help her. I felt bad, I hadn't relied this heavily on people in a very long time, it was a little unsettling. My independence was a large part of who I was, it was part of my identity. It was difficult for me to come to grips with the fact that it might change or be a little different sometimes.

I was so deep into my own thoughts that I jumped when Lucia set a bowl of fruit in front of me and grinned, "Does this sound good?

"Amazing, thank you so much."

Lucia seemed like a very sincere person, and incredibly sweet. I was usually very good at reading people and getting gut feelings about them, but Lucia felt warm and comforting to me, there was no taste of distrust or dislike about her. When she first admitted that she had gone on a date with Alessio, some odd part of me had felt a new type of jealousy, but she was too nice for me to be upset. I couldn't imagine that anyone wouldn't get along with her, but I also trusted that her comment about their date was true- it was a little too much like going on a date with a teacher or your manager. I had never been a jealous person before, and I wasn't about to start now.

Lucia perched on the chair next to me, and by her grin, I got the feeling that she was grateful for the female company as well. "I texted Alessio that you were awake and in the kitchen, that way he doesn't panic if he can't find you."

"Thanks," I laughed, knowing that she was right.

"Honestly, I'm shocked that he hasn't already shown up, he's been checking on you every couple hours. I swear I thought he was just going to move his own office into the infirmary room at first, but eventually they convinced him to go get some sleep."

I was sure that a blush was forcing its way onto my face, but my specialty was avoiding questions that I didn't like and pressing down topics that I wasn't comfortable with. "What's been going on around here while I was asleep?"

I knew she would have to filter her responses, there was no way that she could explain details to me when I wasn't a part of their organization. She tried her best anyways, "I've been working on a new decryption for a couple days, I've been trying to crack a code that could get me into someone else's system, but I'm getting worried that it's going to need an evil maid attack and we don't have a single informant who could help with it-"

Approaching footsteps made her cut herself off, but I knew so little about computers that I had already become extremely confused. When Alessio rounded the corner, Lucia immediately rose to her feet and gave him a nod of acknowledgement, "Sir."

"Thank you for letting me know that she was awake. Did you get any closer to the plans last night?"

"The computer is still extracting possibilities right now, but I'm starting to worry that it won't be possible. They've got their own experts, this isn't some person who just went to DEF CON, we're talking about some of the best of the best. I'm doing what I can, but I'm not sure how far I'll be able to get."

"Let me know if you can get any farther. She'll be here in the next few minutes, it might be worth mentioning to her. She's not a real hacker, but she runs in circles with some of the most elite in our field, we can ask for a recommendation."

"Yes sir," She responded with just a tilt of her head. Lucia's previous friendly demeanor seemed to disappear, I had a feeling that was a pattern I would experience with the other men here who weren't close friends with him. "I'll go and get ready for her arrival, if that's alright with you?"

He gave a curt nod and Lucia took a moment to break her professional facade and give me a happy grin before she left the room. I hoped that I would get to see her again, she had done a lot for me just in the couple hours that I had known her.

It was odd to see Alessio allow his own facade to change- he didn't drop it entirely, but it became softer as he gazed at me with concern. "How are you feeling?"

"Doing alright, how about you?"

He shrugged and turned to pour himself a mug of coffee, "Alright, I have a meeting in a few minutes, but I would feel bad leaving you without company. I know you've been isolated for a while."

"That's alright, I know that this is your job, I don't want to get in the way of you doing it."

He frowned and added some creamer, but then glanced at me as though he wasn't sure of something. "You know.... You might be able to help, actually. I understand if you don't want to talk about what happened, and we may need you to leave the room if details about.... Other issues.... Are discussed, but this meeting has to do with the Russians."

He spoke hesitantly, like he still wasn't comfortable with me knowing what he did for a living, or he wasn't sure if he needed to ease me into it, which made me laugh. If he knew about my history with the law, I don't think he would have been terribly concerned.

"If it'll help, of course."

Something flickered in his eyes, almost akin to pride. "I'll be there the entire time, if you want to leave at any point, just let me know."

I glanced down at my mostly eaten bowl of fruit, knowing that the nervous butterflies in my stomach were going to prevent me from finishing it. "Would you like some? I'd hate for these to go to waste."

Alessio smiled and popped a piece of apple into his mouth, "We can always leave the rest on the counter, there's so many people in this house that I'm sure it'll get eaten by someone."

He offered me his arm and I took it gladly, knowing that I still wasn't back to my full strength or balance. I let him guide me since this place felt more like an office building than a home, and I would have easily gotten lost. I tried to fill our silent walk with some sort of conversation- after being alone and in and out of twilight sleep, I was ready for human company again. "So, how many people live here?"

"Most of my capos," He paused, seeming to hesitate when using official terms. I couldn't tell if he thought I didn't understand the jargon, or if he was still not used to the idea of me knowing what he did, but it took him a second to continue on. "All of my men that have sworn Omerta are allowed to stay here if they would like, but some of them choose to live further away in their homes. They prefer to keep their work lives and personal lives separate."

"You don't?"

"I don't have much of an option," He chuckled. "As the don in America, I need to be close to the work. And I've never had much of a personal life to separate. I've lived here ever since my mother and father came to this country to take on the role, but once my mother went back, I have to admit that I got a little lonely."

"There's so many people here," I teased. "How could you ever be lonely?"

He grinned, "The house itself isn't, but my mother and I had a whole part of the house to ourselves after my father died, and once I was old enough to take over and he was gone.... Well, it feels a little empty in that part of the house sometimes."

"I get that," I tried to stop the rueful look that I knew had a tendency to sneak onto my face. I knew all too well what it felt like to be in a house full of other people, even some going through the same problems as you, and still feel completely alone.

He stopped outside of a set of double doors, then glanced down at me. "If you need anything, or want to leave, let me know."

I nodded silently, not trusting what I'm sure would be an extremely shaky voice if I spoke out loud. Instead I opted to pull my shoulders back into the best facade of pride and confidence that I could manage, and follow Alessio into his office.

It wasn't what I expected, but I don't know what I thought it would look like. What felt out of place to me, the bookshelves lining the walls, the massive desk, the large armchairs already occupied by some of the men in suits and ties? Perhaps my mind didn't know what to expect from a leader of the mob. Was that even the proper term that I should be using, even if it was just in my head?

There was a certain type of intimidation that came with walking into a room of trained killers, and it was only heightened by the fact that they all stared at me, some more discreetly than others. I tried not to catch any of their eyes, but I knew tha tI stood out not just because I was the only other woman than Lucia in the room, but because I was stumbling in with a large shirt and leggings while everyone else looked incredibly put together.

My instinct was to shy away from all of these people, not because I was inherently scared, but because it was easier to get a read on them from afar while I could be objective. Alessio threw me a careful look before he took his seat behind his desk, and while I knew that he wouldn't mind me standing near him, I opted for a chair towards one of the corners of the room where I could still hear and participate, but not be the center of attention. It was a relief on my feet to sit down, but I stayed towards the edge of my seat, attentive and quiet.

It was obvious that there was a drastic attitude change when Alessio had to do business. I suppose that I had gotten used to the way he was when it was just the two of us, but this was more like the person I had first met, the man who walked into that coffee shop and couldn't even bring himself to smile.

"Emilio, I trust that you at least got a hold of Ansel?" Alessio began, addressing one of the men that I didn't know yet.

They began to talk about something in the German's syndicate, and I began to realize how huge this organization really was. If each country had a branch in America, it made sense so that international trade and cooperation could be more efficient, but it made me wonder what all was being traded between borders without the government knowing. It made