Nico's brother Giambattista calls him from Rome and tells him their parents are sending their younger brother Andrea to L.A., "He hit Papa, Nico, hit him hard & Mama sent him to me. But I can't keep him here, and he's closer to you anyway." Nico protests that with his new career & new family, it isn't the best time for an unexpected visit, but his older brother refuses to argue, laughing, "Too late, little brother, he's already on his way," and then proceeds to give Nico Andrea's flight information. Great, Nicolas thinks...not that he doesn't love his younger brother, he & Andrea were always very close, and Nicolas often misses having him to talk to. But Nico understood some things Giambattista didn't say out loud in his call, the thing he didn't have to say, the reason Andrea hit their father, the reason Giambattista doesn't want the fiery young man in his own home: that thing is going to come between Nico & his younger brother, if he finds out. But Nicolas cannot even stay & arrange for his brother's coming: he has more video to shoot today, and Mary is doing a television appearance in a studio not far from where he'll be, so they've scheduled a 'meeting', again, in her dressing room. He has to leave the details of welcoming his brother to Jackie.

When Nicolas comes home, Andrea is upstairs with Jackie & Trill. He hasn't seen any of his family in so long, and he was always closest to Andrea, only a year younger, the nearest to him in age, and he greets his brother with a warm embrace. "Congratulations, Nico, you have such a beautiful family," Andrea says, speaking in their native tongue, smiling happily.

"I'm thrilled to see you, Andrea," Nico says, starting in English & then switching to Italian, "But why did you do it? Why did you hit Papa?" Andrea glares at him angrily & growls, "I told him if he went out to his whore that night, I wouldn't let him back in the house. He knew I would be waiting for him when he got home." Nicolas shakes his head sadly, "Mama kicked you out after you did it, didn't she? You shouldn't have interfered, it wasn't your place."

"Damn it, Nicolas, don't you remember what it was like, watching the way Mama would die when he'd go out to his whore? You are right, it wasn't my place, I'm her fifth son...it should have been her first, her second, even you Nico. It shouldn't have gone on so long that it had to be me..." Andrea is close to shouting now, and Nico is glad this whole conversation is in Italian, so that Jackie isn't overhearing any of this unpleasantness.

"Andrea, you hit Papa, but that isn't going to stop him from being what he is. Mama threw you out, not him," Nico says with a sigh. He should have known this would happen after he left home, Andrea's anger & resentment towards their father grew daily, and without Nico there to talk him out of acting out violently, it was only a matter of time before he lashed out. He doesn't even have to ask Andrea if Giambattista sent him away for the same reason, for hassling his older brother about his mistress. Like their father, Giambattista has a wife at home & a woman in town: the wife is always the same woman & the mother of his children, & the mistress changes every few years, for variety. What Nicolas is doing with Mary isn't repeating that pattern, he believes. Mary is a one off, and when they are finished, he will be done with other women, he's sure. He's not like his father, his older brothers, but he's just not comfortable looking Andrea in the face while he talks about their mother. Andrea has their mother's eyes, and reflect that betrayed, haunted sadness their mother's wore whenever their father would go out in the evening..

NEXT