Page 20 of Amadeo (Dark Legends #4)

Gia

I just kept staring at Valencia then I turned to look at Tito.

He nodded. “There’s more to it but we don’t really have time to explain.”

“And why is that?” Amadeo asked.

“Because we have to use a window of time,” Max spoke up.

“Ok, like I know what the hell that means!” Amadeo exclaimed as he raised his arms up.

I grabbed one of his arms and pulled it down. Turning my head, I looked over at the couple that had just told us the wildest story I think I’d ever heard…outside of a fantasy book or mini series.

Valencia tried to explain, “Max came into Deacon’s room to take him away from danger. To save him.”

“Not to just save him really but to save your family from a divide that might never be healed,” Max told us.

“You mean if my father kills him,” Amadeo said.

“Exactly,” Max replied.

“So how are you going to do that?” I asked Max. “Save him, I mean?”

“Yes, I wondered about that too,” Amadeo agreed. “There are, as you know, cameras all over the property. Not just those.” He motioned to the ones Max had. “So getting off the property will be impossible.”

“I will not be taking him off the property,” Max told us.

“Ok,” I said. “But you can’t keep him down here forever.”

“I don’t plan to do that either. I will be taking him to a very distant…” Max paused to glance over at Deacon.

We all did that…looked over at him as he laid in bed.

He seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

Max studied him as if to make sure Deacon wasn’t in on this conversation. Finally, he turned his head back to me to continue, “I will take him to a different time.”

I blinked at him and my logical questions turned into stuttering blanks. I was really trying here. Trying to believe this.

Amadeo shook his head and voiced my thoughts, “I’m sorry, but I’m really having trouble with this. I mean I was never a big fan of…whatever fantasy this is.”

Valencia stared at him. “I know it’s hard.

I still doubt it all when I’m at the dining table, having dinner.

Or in my room. I constantly wake up in the mornings and think.

Oh, that wasn’t real, it was just some dream I had .

” She raised both arms and motioned around us.

“But here I am again. It’s true. It’s very real.

But I don’t care whether you believe any of it or not.

I just want my brother to be safe.” She grabbed Tito’s hand.

“I also want your family to be okay. I don’t want anyone hurt.

I don’t want my brother hurt anymore than he has already been.

He almost died in that plane. No one can deny that.

I also don’t want to leave here. I need to stay with Tito. He is the love of my life.”

Amadeo and I stared at her and at Tito as they held hands.

I understood how she felt immediately. I didn’t think about it too deeply before, but I did now.

I hoped this wasn’t just a dream I was having.

I hoped that all of this fantasy– as Amadeo called it– turned out to be true. For Valencia and Tito’s sake

“So this was my solution,” Max explained to us. “I waited until Deacon awoke before I took him. I needed to see if his memory was intact or not.”

I nodded my head at him then turned to Valencia. “If you believe that Max can do this. Then I am all for it. Deacon seems to be physically well enough. But he did say he was weak.”

“That’s why I am going with him.”

We all turned to where the voice had come from.

Nurse Jocelyn stood there with her hands clasped in front of her.

I went over to her. “You can’t be serious?”

Nodding, she replied, “I am, Dr. Ribisi.”

I gazed into her eyes and I could see she was intent on doing this, but at what cost? I looked over at Max to ask him, “Will this be permanent?”

He slowly nodded his head.

“I know it will be,” Jocelyn said.

“Why?” I asked her. “Why would you give up the life you have here?”

“What life?” she asked. “I’m single and since my parents died, I have no family.

I’m trapped in the job because there is nothing in my personal life.

I take all the double shifts because I never want to go back to my empty apartment…

My empty life. I mean look at you. Addicted to your work.

Never giving any guy a chance then even you found love! ” Tears filled her eyes.

I reached out and took her hands in mine. I know it might seem cruel but I had to ask her, “What makes you think you will find love in…” I paused. “...wherever it is that Max is taking you?”

Jocelyn slowly raised her head and looked over at Deacon lying in the bed.

I followed her gaze and then I gasped when it hit me. She was in love with Deacon?

Her gaze shot back over to me. “Yes, now you get it.”

I stared at her and tears filled my eyes.

Oh, I understood alright. I just got my new lease on life with Amadeo.

I needed all the things that came with it.

To never be alone again. To have him to share my highs and lows.

Having someone there that cared about how you felt and tried to be what you needed.

I really did get it. “I-I hope you find it. I really hope that you do.” I grabbed her up into a tight hug.

Finally, after a minute or more, we all heard a whisper, “J-Jocelyn?”

Deacon had called to her from the bed across the room.

Stepping back, she let go of me and rushed over to him.

I stared at her and Deacon. We all watched them for a long silent minute.

Deacon seemed to calm down as soon as she came near. The confused look in his eyes changed to warmth. He actually smiled a little as she spoke to him.

I looked back over at Max. “Will she be safe?”

Max shrugged. “As safe as she is here. I do have to say that I did not ask her to do this. I had planned to have him in the hospital back there. A very dedicated one that I know of. I have friends there as well. I will introduce Jocelyn to them as Deacon’s nurse.

I have made sure that she will have plenty of funds to get them a place and to start a new life.

I already made a couple of trips to arrange all of this. ”

“Already? It hasn’t even been a day,” Amadeo exclaimed.

“Don’t go there, cuz,” Tito advised. “You might fry your brain.” He chuckled.

“You're right and I do have so many questions,” Amadeo said. “But I would rather not ask them. I’m good with a lot of things, but this is…” He shook his head and whined in an overly dramatic voice, “I just wanted to find a Moon Pie.”

Max actually chuckled at this.

We all turned to stare at the usual stiff, stoic butler.

Only just now, he looked animated and very human as he showed his amusement over Amadeo’s Moon Pie whining. “They are down toward the back end of the pantry, next to the saltines.” He paused to ask, “However, I am puzzled by your explanation. I thought you hated marshmallows?”

“I do. I really do,” Amadeo replied with a firm nodding of his head.

“But Gia doesn’t know what they are. So stupidly, I asked Zia and she told me they were in the pantry.

When we entered, Tito was standing there.

And as we all know, he was never good at lying or at any deception, so he just gave in and here we are. ”

“That is correct,” Max agreed. “In fact, he is so unencumbered by the usual human complexes that he still remembers all of this…” Max spanned his large hand over the room. “Everyday.”

I held onto Amadeo’s hand as I looked over at Tito to ask, “You remember?”

Tito shrugged and explained the odd statement. “Max has told us that he can make us forget all of it. But it didn't seem to work on me or Valen. I think that’s because we don’t want to forget.”

Amadeo looked back over at Max to ask, “So if we want to forget this, we can?”

He nodded. “And you might want to. I mean despite your differences, you are loyal to your father. So it would be easier for you to not know what happened.”

“Hell, I don’t know what happened right this minute,” Amadeo quipped.

Tito chuckled. “Always with the humor.”

Max agreed, “The times I had to hold my laughter in after listening to him.” He now openly laughed.

“Especially when he is fussing about his father’s attitude.

I admit it almost broke me the day he told Stephano to shake it loose.

I admit I had no idea what that meant until Deo cleared it up for me.

He said his father was so stiff that there had to be a stick up his…

” Max seemed to realize what he was describing as he halted.

“However, I finally understood the concept. And I must say that your father was not amused.” He then proceeded to laugh loudly.

I chuckled at the story, because knowing the main characters in it, made it hilarious.

Amadeo and Tito didn’t join in as one would think. No, they kept staring at him like he had two heads.

“Please Max, stop doing that, will ya?” Amadeo admonished. “With the laughing and all that smiling. I just can’t, man. It’s…” He shook his head.

“Surreal?” Tito suggested. “Uncanny? Spooky as all hell?”

Amadeo just kept nodding his head in total agreement with his cousin’s description.

“Like Dr. Who meets Quantum Leap and they had a baby named Max.” He shook himself and waved his hand as if he could just make it all go away.

“Never mind. I refuse to go there.” Finally, he looked over at me.

“You’re his doctor, Gia. You told me that you would make sure no one hurt him.

And this seems to take care of his safety.

Even though he won’t exist here anymore.

” He again halted and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration.

Then he seemed to again get his composure as he dropped his hand to his side.

“But I also made a vow to not allow you to be hurt. So, what should they do? Is he well enough to travel…” His voice faded to nothing.

“Man, I just have to think of it differently than traveling…” He stopped talking altogether.

I slowly shook my head. “I have no idea how to reply.” I scoffed at the totally outrageous concept too.

“Do I want to remember that your butler is really a time traveler or whatever he is and he solved this horrible family dilemma by taking my patient somewhere in time, so he would be safe from death?”

Amadeo nodded. “That makes more sense than you’d expect, Gia.

If we forget this, then we will never know what happened to him and Nurse Jocelyn.

That would bother us maybe? But if we did know, would it bother us more…

I mean to know?” He laughed. “And if we remember we may just be happy that this will all be in the past.” He paused and stared at Max.

“Or will it be in the future? No, wait! A different dimension?”

Tito raised his hand up at Amadeo. “Ok, cugino. I think you are gonna hurt yourself if you don’t quit.”

We all laughed.

Looking over at Deacon and Nurse Jocelyn, I nodded. “I think Max came up with the only plan we can all live with.”

“So we all agree?” Valencia asked.

I nodded at her. “You are his family, Valen. So who are we to disagree with this?”

Amadeo also nodded.

“I can see that he doesn’t remember,” Tito said.

“And he seems to be a different person from the one Rocky and I guarded when Uncle Stephano had him in the cells. That man was scary in his own right. He never looked afraid like many would while handcuffed and in a cell owned by… well the mafia. He acted unafraid. He never tried to talk his way out of it or deny any of it. He actually didn’t seem to care at all.

Now, I see a different person. One who is concerned and he has asked many questions.

So, he is now…a new man? I guess. One with no memory of the crimes he committed. ”

Valencia agreed, “He doesn’t remember me or his mother.

And that doesn’t hurt my feelings either.

In fact, I’m grateful for it. You all don't realize what our mother did to his mind. I never knew what he must have gone through. I do know that he has kindness in him. I happen to know because he helped to raise me. So when everyone kept telling me how sinister he was or how evil he could be, deep down I refused to believe it. And what’s odd is I never saw the evil in our mother.

I’ve had a lot of time recently to recollect growing up and I now see that he protected me from seeing her in her true form.

He would spirit me off somewhere fun suddenly.

He did that a lot. Trips to amusement parks, museums, zoos.

He moved me away from her worst tirades.

He was the one that sent me to college too.

I think that was also to get me away from her.

That’s why I never knew all the horrible things she was doing.

So, he did love and care for me as his little sister.

Now, I can return the favor.” She looked over at us.

“I can protect him from the horror of her and his deeds.”

Tito took her hand and gave her a gentle smile.

Her love for her brother and her desperation to avoid the tragedy of splitting a family apart was deeply moving for me.

I swiped a tear from my cheek. I could understand it.

I really could. What was it I’d told Amadeo before this?

People would make a deal with the devil to protect a sibling, to protect family.

While Max wasn’t the devil, this still might be considered to be a wild deal not aligned with reality.

If I could protect my father and my mother from the horror and misery they suffered.

Yes, I would do the same in a heartbeat.