/ Francisco's POV/

You win some. You lose some.

Sometimes love is your friend. Sometimes love is your enemy.

You can have a best friend that is like your brother one day and the next day he's sleeping with the love of your life.

One day you can find the love of your life and the next she's sleeping with your best friend.

"Damn." I mutter as I stumble into the edge of the kitchen table and spill part of my drink out.

Do I want to go out and drink tonight or stay home and drink alone?

Before go anywhere, I need to shower.

Yeah. A shower.

Is that the phone ringing?

Surely not.

I set the glass down and meander into the living area. It's definitely ringing.

"Hello?" I clear my throat.

"Francisco. Get here now. I don't have time to explain." Carlos's voice booms over the phone in a panicked way.

"Where? What is the matter?" I answer; instantly putting aside any differences that we might have. He sounds like he's begging for his life.

"To Victoria's. It's for Lidia. Come quickly." Carlos says before slamming the phone on the receiver. Not to much after that really registers with me except that Carlos said that he needs me to help Lidia. That nothing else matters. Whatever I'm doing is not as important as getting to her. The only thought I have, aside from wondering what has happened, is the thought that Carlos was with her when whatever happened took place.

I can only say a thankful prayer that it's dark and it's not too far away, hopefully no one notes my speeding.

By the time I arrive, I'm a sweaty nervous mess. As I bang mercilessly at the door, my heart is pounding out my chest.

"Francisco!" Carlos flings the door open and practically drags me in by my arms.

I almost feel bad for pushing him off.

Almost.

"Where's Alba? Is she okay? What happened?"

"Follow me."

As we rush inside I slam the door shut and dash after Carlos to find Alba. He leads me down some stairs and into the first room.

When I do see her, I feel rage and pity.

Who did this to my Alba?

"Who did this? When did this happen?" I say through gritted teeth.

My beautiful Alba lays still, pale, and bruised. If I were in a different setting, I'd mistake her for being dead. Her breathing is so shallow that I have to strain to see the small rising and falling of her chest and the little twitch of her fingers.

"My mother. The monster. She wanted my child gone. She sent her goons for Lidia, there was an accident. It was about a week ago."

"Why is she not in the hospital? Why is she here?"

"She already went. They looked her over. She fell and lost a lot of blood, but once they gave her the all clear to leave, I took her and left. I didn't want to keep her there long in case my mother tried to attack her again. There's a possibility of a concussion. Her arm is broken. And-"

"And the child?"

"For now, it's okay. But, that's not to say that something might happen later."

"Why didn't you protect her?! Why?! How could you let her get hurt?!" I get in Carlos's face and drag him from the room Alba is in.

We're standing in what seems to be a burlesque parlor.

"Young Man, if you do not lower your voice, I'm gonna kick you out." Victoria enters the room and takes a seat with a drink and a cigarette. "Now, do you want to know why we called you here or do you want to continue to act like a caveman?"

It hadn't occurred to me that they didn't have to call me until just now. Now, I am curious as to why they did summon me.

"What do you want from me?" I release Carlos's collar from my grasp.

"Take her far away as possible. Take her somewhere safe. Nothing matters but keeping them safe. Nothing else matters! Take her to a different town, different country, or different continent; whatever it takes. Promise me. Promise me you'll take care of them. My mother's henchmen are probably keeping close tabs on me and I won't be able to hide as well as you can. You can protect her better than I can. You have to. Lidia asked for you. She wants you to take her away from here." Carlos shakes me by the shoulders. "They are in danger here. You have to protect them."

"Carmen did this?" I don't know why I sound so shocked. "You bastard."

Punching Carlos probably won't solve anything, but it felt good to.

He deserves it anyway.

"You should have left her alone. If you hadn't got involved with her then this wouldn't have happened! You almost got her killed! I wish that she never had set foot in that cursed building."

Carlos holds his jaw while trying to move it slightly.

"No one regrets this accident more than me. Don't turn this about me and you when it should be about her."

My hands clench firm at my sides in an effort to not swing at him again.

Everything starts sinking in.

Alba's life is in danger.

She's asking me to protect her.

"You have to hide her until the child is born. Once it's born, my mother can do nothing about it. Well, not at least without being charged with murder." Carlos interrupts my thoughts.

"She might consider it worth it."

He just slowly nods as if he already thought of that.

"That's what scares me. It's most important that you don't tell anyone where you go, not her friends, not me. Don't call or send letters. There's no telling what resources my mother has. Not until the baby is born and Lidia is able to travel can you return. And then we'll see what happens."

I turn to Victoria, who has a packet of papers and is going through them.

"Should you accept, we have all the papers you'll need to hide away. Also, some money. Can we count on you? Alba sure believed she could. She asked for you. Carlos wanted her to pick you to leave with even though all her other friends offered." Victoria neatly folds the manila envelope back.

My mind doesn't even comprehend them staring at me because of all the information flying though my head.

Alba asked for me?

"You see, I can't protect her. As I said earlier, my mother could track me down, but you know how to disappear. You can protect her. I know you won't let anything happen to her. I know you love her and you know this baby is what she wants. Please, do this for her."

"She came up with this plan?"

"Mostly." Carlos reaches over to Victoria for the packet and other things. "Here, I took one of Eliza's purses and fit as much money in it that I can. It should help you get a place to stay. If I had more money I would give it to you but I had to be discreet so Mother wouldn't notice."

I silently note that it's the purse that I bought for her birthday the first year we were married.

"We have Angeles on standby ready to get train tickets. Marga is packing Lidia's clothes and things to bring them here. We just need you to say that you'll do this."

"It's all so sudden. You're ready to us to leave nearly instantly."

"I'm afraid that my mother's henchmen will find her, even here. She's relentless. Will you do it or not?"

"I'll need to go pack my things."

"Take Sara with you. She, Miguel, and Carlota are around here somewhere. They're patrolling the area. But you'll get done a lot quicker if you have more hands to help."

"I'll go alone. If your mother is watching the place, I don't want to leave with any of Alba's friends."

"Thank you, Francisco." Carlos tries to reach out towards me but I side step.

"I'm not doing this for you." I take another step away. "I'll meet you at the train station in two hours. Go ahead and tell Angeles to get those tickets. But for somewhere not too far away. From that stop, we'll change directions so that no one knows where we're going."

"Good thinking." Victoria flicks her cigarette butt into her empty drink glass. "I always knew you were more than just a pretty face."

"Drop Alba off. Tell her that I'll met her at Platform 3. Don't bring more than two bags. We need to keep it light in case we have to leave quickly."

"Francisco."

I hear my name lightly to my left.

"Francisco. Here." I lock in on a blonde headed Alba.

"Alba?" She's so pale, almost deathly. The blonde hair is not doing her any favors. It makes her look paler than she already is.

"Shhhh. Don't say my name."

"What have you done to yourself?"

She pats the bench, motioning for me to sit with her.

In all honesty, she seems pretty pitiful with her arm wrapped and hanging in a sling. I'm sure that I'm going to receive some dirty looks from the people passing by. Little do they know that the only reason that I would ever lay a finger on her would be to run them down her back to pull her closer to me.

I set my luggage on the bench then sit down too.

"Francisco." She stiffly turns her neck. "Act happy to see me and give me a hug. We need to not seem suspicious."

"Of course." I lean in and wrap both my arms around her.

The awkwardness that I feared has come to light, I'm not sure what to say or even why I agreed to do this.

Because Alba needs me. That's why.

"Do you think you were followed? Or that anyone is suspicious?"

"No. But, we've got to be able to pull this off perfectly. I'm putting my child's life in your hands. Can I count on you?"

"I don't think I have to answer that seeing that you're the one who requested to have me go with you."

"I don't think I was followed, but make sure you keep your hat on and hide your face as much as possible. Whether it's behind a newspaper or book, just anything." Her hand caresses the back of my head. "Don't make too much of a scene. Stay close so we don't get separated."

Her lips brush my ear every few words.

I scoot closer to wrap my arm over her shoulders and our faces move closer. We probably really look like lovers right now. My finger toys with the bottom of her hair.

"I'm willing to risk everything for this child. If anything is to happen and it's either the child or me, my wish is to save the child. Do not be selfish and choose me. Is that clear?"

I pull away from the hug to see her face up close. She's had to have done something with make up to cause her to look so different.

Who could do this to her? Who could hurt her?

"Is that clear, Francisco? Let me hear you say it."

"It's crystal clear...But what did you do to your hair?" I couldn't help but ask. "It's -."

"It's just a wig."

"I was kind of worried that you actually did that yourself."

Just for a few more seconds passes before we really pull apart.

"Our train leaves in 30 minutes on Platform 6."

"Then we better get a move on it. Where are we heading?"

"Segovia." She opens up her new purse to pull out the tickets for confirmation.

"Good. Then we'll have to decide where we wanna go from there. Do any of your friends know where we're going?"

"No. Originally Angeles was going to get the tickets but that would have put her at risk. I just bought them when I got here. You said to be here around 11:30, so I picked the first train to be leaving after that. Here. This is for you." She digs around in the purse to pull out a wallet. "We'll have plenty of money for a while if we stay thrifty."

Where did this come from? Carlos?

"Just keep it on you for now. I have my own wallet. Plus, the money is for you anyway. I don't need to be in charge of it."

"It's for both of us. To keep us afloat while we're away."

I really want to make a sly comment on how I didn't need another man's money, but for now, I do. Perhaps, I can get a job when we find a safe town. It won't need to be a great job. I'll only need it for a few months. Perhaps a repair man or work on cars.

Wearily, she tries to stand up and this pulls me from my thoughts.

"Let me." I extend my hand over to her non-injured hand and help lift her.

"Thank you."

When she's steady, I take our luggage from the bench. Her eyes look so weak and her face so pale.

I'm gonna have to put her to rest once we find a place to stay.

"Did anyone tell anything about our new names? Or our backstory?"

"No." I shake my head. "I didn't really stick around long enough. I left rather quickly to pack up my things."

She carries herself as if nothing is wrong though.

Alba is so brave.

But, why did I agree to this? There's no way possible for this to have a happy ending for me. I mean, I'm just taking care of her for a few months until she can return to Carlos. She's running away to protect Carlos's child. There's nothing for me to benefit from in this scenario.

The benefit is seeing Alba happy.

I'll have to keep telling myself that.

No matter what happens to me. I didn't spend the last ten years looking for her only to ruin my only chance to be there for her.

"So, what are our new names? We should probably start using those as soon as we board the train."

"I'm Irene. You're Ivan Espinoza. Newly weds. Looking to start our own home."

"But, you're already pregnant, I don't think society would look kindly upon newly weds already expecting a child."

"Fine. We're not newly weds. We've just decided to make a fresh start for ourselves to raise our family." Alba sounds irritated. "Does that sound better?"

"Do we have rings?"

She shows me her hand with a wedding band on it.

"Yours is in the wallet."

I swerve to avoid bumping into a lamp post.

"What day did we get married on?"

"I don't know." For a second she counts on her fingers. "April 28, 1929."

It takes me a moment to roll that date around in my head.

"Did we have a big wedding or a small wedding?"

"Small."

"And, how far along are you with the pregnancy?"

"4 months."

"Alright. So, we're married, with a child on the way, and we're off to stake our claim in the world. Sounds pretty cliche."

She doesn't say anything but her limp has face saying 100 words.

"So, what do I do for a living?" I inquire.

"You don't have a job. That's why we're moving. But what do you want your old job to be?"

"I work really well with cars, so let's go with that. What about you? You're an obedient housewife? I suppose that it would be the most believable since you're with child."

If looks could kill, I wouldn't have drawn my next breath.

"I suppose so."

"We could say that I work on cars and that I'm looking for work. That'll also give me an opportunity to find work. We'll need to find a cheap place to rent so that you rest. We'll want to avoid hotels and motels, I'm sure that Carmen is scanning through all the neighboring cities and towns. What about our families? Do we have any connections? Or are we leaving them behind?"

"I don't care. Just stop with the questions." She looks like she could pass out from the walking so I slow down.

We still have plenty of time to make it to the platform.

"Why don't you sit here for a moment?"

There was no resistance on her part. She nodded and reached out for the bench. The blush covering her face was very concerning.

"I'm gonna go find out which train car is ours, so you just rest here. Alright? I'll drop the bags off then come back for you."

She only nods and lowers herself to the seat.

I take our baggage along with me, it's not much, two suitcases for her and one for myself. Our train is further away than I originally thought, I'm glad that Alba didn't push herself to keep going.

There's just no way that we can stop at Segovia. That's too simple. Too easy.

But will Alba be able to travel further than that tonight?

I highly doubt it. She'll need rest.

So, stop for the night in Segovia then plan out the route from there.

Finally, I locate the train car then our seats. I store our luggage and feel okay with leaving it there because there's not too many people who travel this late at night. The only pairs of people I see is an elderly woman being escorted by her husband, both is black with sullen faces. A few seats away from the couple is a drunk man passed out with his hat lazily tilted to the side. A small group of nuns, maybe 4 or 5, accompanied by a priest. Odd to be seeing at this time of night but maybe they've had an urgent house call.

As I make my way back to Alba I become confused. She's not where I left her.

She's not there.

I look right where I left her but she's not there.

Where is she?

"Shit." I mutter under my breath.

Why did I leave her alone? What if they were waiting to snatch her the entire time? And I just left her there, out in the open.

"Excuse me. Did you see the woman who was sitting right here? Her arm is broken?" I ask of the attendant who stands nearby.

"No, Sir. I have not seen her. I just started my shift."

"Thanks anyway."

I turn my head in every direction to scan the station.

A few feet away another set of attendants stand so I ask them if they've seen her and they have the same response as the first one. So I continue on trying to be rational and know she didn't just evaporate into thin air and if she were to be grabbed, she would have screamed and someone would have heard her. I would have heard her.

As I pass the bathroom, I realize that I didn't think to check inside there.

After looping back to the original spot that she was in, I see her sitting on the bench against the wall just outside the bathroom. Her head laid back against the wall and her eyes shut.

A quick sigh of relief.

As I approach Alba I can tell something is not right so I quicken my pace and squat down in front of her.

"What happened? Did you get hurt? Is something wrong?"

"I was just sick in the bathroom. Nothing to be concerned about."

"Do you need something? A drink? To lie down?"

"No. Everything just hurts." She holds herself with a grimace on her face. "I'm in so much pain and stress that I'm worried about losing the baby. I'm trying to calm down but you left me and I got scared because there's no way I can defend myself. So I was hiding in the bathroom and being sick."

"You're not going to think about it because when you're thinking about it, you're causing yourself to stress. You'll lose focus. But you can't do that, can you? No. You've got to stay on top on your game. Never before has staying focused and rational been more important. I know you understand that. Just keep moving forward with no looking back. Got it?"

She nods her head, regaining her rational thoughts and mindset.

"Now, are you actually physically hurting?"

"It's nothing that I can't handle. We should get going. Don't want to miss that train."

"Yeah. Yeah. We should get a move on it."

I can see it in her eyes.

She doesn't have it in her.

I try to give her the dignity of trying, but I can't watch her suffer.

"Come on, Dear. Allow me." I scoop her up and she wraps her arms around my neck. "We're newly weds, aren't we? Why don't we act like it?"

"Thank you, Francisco." She whispers. "Thank you."