Past Lives Could Never Come Between Us

79

"Okay, the Don's with Frankie, and he is not happy." Luigi tells Mario.

" We're the most powerful gang in Rogueport, and everyone knows it. " The Don tells Frankie. " You marry my daughter and don't see fit to send me a wedding invitation? "

" Boss, I was going to tell you. " Frankie promises nervously. " But I thought you wouldn't be too happy about it... "

"Looks like the Don believed us after all. He's just confronted Frankie about it." Luigi says.

" Francesca doesn't want me as part of the business, okay? " Frankie says.

" Now you're blamin' my daughter for what you did? " the Don clearly doesn't like that.

"Frankie didn't rat out his wife." Luigi says.

" I don't know what you think, Boss, but-- " Frankie tries.

" You set us up! " the Don accuses. " You made us look bad right as I was about to retire and hand over the reins! But clearly I chose poorly. Get out of my sight, and you'd better pray I don't ever see you again. "

"The Don just fired Frankie, said he'd better pray the Don never sees him again." Luigi tells Mario.

" Just talk to me and your daughter. Please. " Frankie begs.

The dreamscape changes, so Luigi says, "Okay, we're somewhere else now."

As he watches Frankie get petrified, he says, "Found him. Wake me up."

Mario nods and jumps through the dream portal as Luigi smashes open the nightmare chunk.

Now

"And that pretty much brings us to now." Luigi tells Marilyn.

There's a knock on Mario's door, so he rushes to answer it.

"This was a mistake." That's the first thing Peach says when she sees him.

"No, trying to cook two power ups together is a Mistake." Mario tries to joke, but Peach doesn't smile.

"I'm mad at you, and you want to joke about cooking?" Peach says flatly.

"Okay, my bad." Mario says sheepishly. "Can I ask you to come in?"

She does, slowly.

"They're taking their sweet time." Mr. Verducci complains in the hospital. "They'd think I wasn't dying at all."

"Dad, stop it." Pauline admonishes. "You're not dying. You'll go into remission and live to see me get married and have grandkids. Okay?"

"Hello?" Spike's voice comes from behind them, walking in with a box.

"Spike!" Mr. Verducci lights up upon seeing him, hugging him once.

"Don't you have some important work thing?" Pauline asks pointedly.

"Are you kidding?" Spike shakes his head. "There's nothing more important than this right now.", then he opens the box. "And I just had to get these for him!"

"Bomboloni!" Mr. Verducci exclaims happily, grabbing one.

"Went through Little Italy to find the best." Spike shrugs. "No biggie."

"Not until after." Pauline reminds him, taking it out of his hand.

"Mr. Verducci?" the doctor comes in. "We're ready."

"Don't worry about a thing, Paulie." Mr. Verducci says. "With that Bomboloni waiting for me, there's no way anything can go wrong."

"He'll be okay." Spike promises, rubbing Pauline's shoulders, as they watch the doctor wheel Mr. Verducci away.

"I love you, dad!" Pauline calls, but the second he's gone, she breaks down. "Shit, I can't do this here."

"It's fine." Spike says.

"I don't deserve to be Brooklyn's mayor." Pauline cries.

"You've shown more leadership in the Dream Lab and with your dad's sickness than you ever could as Brooklyn's mayor." Spike declares, taking her hand.

"Someone leaked the Trouble Center case to Rogueport."

"What? I thought it was supposed to be hush-hush." Clark looks genuinely shocked.

"And where is everyone, anyway?" Snoozemore looks around, noticing the emptiness of the dream lab just now.

"Mario's trying to mend his 'diplomatic' relationship with Princess Peach." Clark recaps, making air quotes. "And Spike's with Pauline in a Brooklyn hospital."

"What about Luigi?" Snoozemore asks, crossing his arms.

"Looks like we're out of espresso, and you're out of anecdotes about your life." Marilyn notes, setting her empty cup down. "So I guess there's only one thing left to take care of."

"You're right." Luigi agrees. "Well then...where is my uncle?"

"Okay, listen." Marilyn turns to look at him. "Not that this whole back and forth about your job and coworkers wasn't fun, but unless someone else comes in here to tell you where my dad is, you're gonna stop stalling and tell me what the technology he found does. Now."