She was so relieved when no one answered her knocks; she figured it was the perfect opportunity to walk away before making another stupid mistake. Breathing a sigh of relief, she turned back toward the elevator and headed back to the parking lot. She shouldn't have been surprised though, it was too good to be true. She should have expected what came next being that she was a strong believer in Murphy's Law. So when she saw Reese leaned up against the car holding Gabby while Miranda sat on the trunk, she should have known that picture was just too serene to be real. For whatever reason she didn't though, and when she saw that the woman Reese was chatting with was none other than Maggie Stone it was no surprise that she had an internal melt down.

"Oh, there she is" Reese introduced Bianca. "This is my wife, Bianca Montgomery. But, I'm sure you recognize her from, well…everywhere." Reese bragged.

Bianca hated pretending there was no previous history between them. The whole time she stood there wondering what Miranda was thinking and if she would say anything. What Bianca didn't know is that Maggie started the conversation by betting Miranda she couldn't sit quietly for more than ten minutes. The little girl was determined to prove her wrong.

"Reese is being generous." Bianca said with a slight gesture. "Honey, are you ready?"

"Yeah, just give me a second." Reese assured her. "Dr. Stone is the doctor I was telling you about from before." She explained. Bianca nodded her understanding but she was getting antsy and really desperate to leave.

"She was saying we might want to set up another appointment for Gabby." Reese continued.

Bianca glared at Maggie as if trying to give her a death stare.

"Well, I'm sure it's nothing but she does have some visible swelling around her lymph nodes and you can never be too safe" Maggie explained. "I wouldn't mind taking a look if you have the time."

Reese had her mind set on accepting the offer, but as soon as she opened her mouth to do so Bianca shut her down.

"She has her own doctor, but thank you." She stated flatly. There was no way Bianca was going to let Maggie anywhere near Gabrielle. Bianca took the kids and got into the car all but telling Reese it was time to go.

"I'm sorry about that, she's been a little moody lately" Reese apologized.

"It's ok, I'm sure she has her reasons." Maggie reassured her.

Reese wasn't so confident about that. Maybe Bianca did have good reasons, but whatever they were she wasn't about to share them with Reese. She tried to pretend she wasn't irritated, but she didn't like the way Bianca acted about the children lately. If there was really nothing to worry about, why wasn't Miranda allowed to go to the park anymore? Why was Bianca always jumpy to answer the phone before anyone else did? Why was it that Bianca needed the front door man to hold the mail for her every day? Things were not ok, but Reese was doing her best to be understanding and trust that Bianca's intentions were good. She was still happy about the hospital job, and, more importantly, there were only two weeks until they moved in to the house.

By the time they got home though, Reese just couldn't take the agitation anymore. It was making her absolutely paranoid. Any time Bianca said something she found herself questioning it. She usually could look into her eyes and see the most angelic person, but now all she saw was someone who was lying to her. They walked together to put the girls down for a nap, but they never said a word to each other. Bianca sat at the edge of the bed and sang Miranda a bed time song and then it was Gabby's turn. Reese put her in her crib and read her a bedtime story while Bianca rubbed her back. It didn't take any more than five minutes before Gabby fell asleep.

"I don't know about you, but I could use a drink." Bianca sighed as they walked out of the room.

"Um, I don't want a drink; I want to talk." Reese finally let out.

"Ok, now I really need a drink." Bianca moaned.

Reese took her wife's hands in her own. She was looking for that same sweet angelic expression that used to be a constant for her. But Bianca was too distracted by the potential disaster in front of her. She had no idea what Reese wanted to talk about. What she did know was that she'd been acting like a bitch and she needed to make it right before it blew up in her face.

"I want to trust you, I want to believe in the decisions you make" Reese started. "But you have got to tell me what is going on. I need to know Bianca, and I need to know right now."

As much as Bianca wanted to take the opportunity to tell the truth, this was just a truth Bianca couldn't afford to tell.

"There's just, it's nothing ok. Everything is ok. I'm fine, the girls are fine, and you're fine." Bianca was reaching for something, anything that would make Reese understand.

"Fine?" by this point Reese was irate. "You want to see how fine things are?" She turned to the wall rack and grabbed her coat.

"Wait Reese, what are you doing? Don't do this." Bianca begged. It was too late though, her mind was made up.

"Whatever it is you're keeping from me, it's more important to you than the health of our daughter; it's more important than my job; hell, it's even more important than our marriage. So, you know what Bianca? Have fun with your secrets. I'm going to go have a decent night's sleep for once."

Reese was ready to walk out the door when she felt Bianca pulling forcefully at her arm.

"Wait, will you please just wait?" Bianca pleaded. "You can't leave me. Whatever secrets I kept, they were all for you, so you can't leave. I won't let you leave me."

Reese was on the verge of another break down. She felt like instead of talking to her wife she was pulling teeth. There was no way around it, if Bianca wasn't going to tell her the truth she wasn't going to stay.

"You won't let me leave?" Reese questioned. "Sorry to burst your bubble Bianca, but I'm not one of your Cambias minions. I'll do whatever I want." Reese paused before speaking again. "Before I go you should know that whoever or whatever your problem is, they've been watching Miranda for a while, even before the park." She finished her words and walked out the door, without even waiting to hear Bianca's response.

Staring blankly at the door for a while Bianca finally let her anger explode out of her.

"That Bitch!" she yelped. She couldn't believe Maggie would do something like this to her, she couldn't believe she would let Maggie be an excuse for what she'd done to her marriage. She was going to find a way to fix things if it killed her.

Bianca and Reese were each unable to sleep much that night; they were both dealing with major feelings of regret. Bianca woke the girls up in time to take Miranda to school. They were going by car lately to avoid anyone spotting them. After dropping Miranda off, Bianca returned to the penthouse to drop off some files and reschedule some of her meetings, but after that she went looking for her wife. She found her at her office working over her plans.

"Bianca how'd you get in here?" Reese didn't even look up from her papers as she spoke. Bianca approached her holding Gabby over her hip.

"You gave me a copy of your office key." Bianca put her hand on Reese's shoulder. "Do you have a few minutes, there's somewhere I'd like to take you"
she explained. Putting Gabrielle down so that she could focus on Reese, Bianca gently rubbed her shoulder in an attempt to lighten the mood in the room.

"I don't want to go anywhere; I don't want another one of your quick fixes; I want the truth." Reese had calmed down from the night before, but she was still holding her ground.

"And the truth is what I'm going to give you. But, I need you to come with me first." Bianca insisted.

Reese turned around just long enough to see the sincerity in Bianca's eyes, it was the look she'd been searching for and couldn't find for so long. That look was the reason Bianca finally changed her mind.

"This better be good." Reese warned Bianca.

They were at the hospital, Paris Central Hospital to be exact. Reese couldn't believe she let Bianca convince her to leave her office just to take her to a hospital none of them were ever patients at. Bianca, however, insisted that the truth had something to do with this hospital. Reese walked beside Bianca each of them holding one of Gabby's arms as they entered the building making a bee-line for the information desk.

"Hi, I was wondering if you could tell me where to find Dr. Stone from oncology. Bianca asked the short nerdy man seated at the front desk.

"Are you a patient of hers?" he asked.

"No."

"Are you family?" he continued as if reading off a familiar list of questions.

"No, but…" Bianca was about to be cut off with a final rejection when Reese interceded. She was still very confused, but Bianca had her attention.

"I have a meeting with her about the plans for the new children's wing" she explained.

"Who should I tell her is waiting" the little man purred. He had a bit of a pretentious drawl in his speech that reminded Bianca of Palmer.
Reese gave her name and walked over to the waiting area with Bianca. She couldn't understand why Bianca was so insistent on seeing Dr. Stone. Even if she allowed Dr. Stone to look at Gabby, it wouldn't change things between them; she was still upset. Bianca really didn't understand how they could do all this work and rebuild their relationship only to be back to square one so quickly. She was on the verge of tears from having to think about it in silence for so long, but, just when she thought she couldn't hold it in anymore, Maggie showed up.

"I was told you needed to speak with me." Maggie stated as if seeking confirmation. She couldn't help but notice Gabrielle sitting on Bianca's lap. The swelling she'd noticed earlier around the lymph nodes was getting worse. She was such a cute little girl; Maggie wasn't surprised no one noticed earlier, they were probably distracted by her bubbly personality and goofy little smile.

"Can we go somewhere private?" Bianca requested. She didn't once take her eyes off Maggie. It was shaking to say the least.

"Yeah, um there aren't any open exam rooms yet, but I can put one on hold. Until then, I have a few minutes we can go up to my office and I'll get started there."

Bianca hadn't realized that Maggie would automatically assume this was about Gabby. She didn't have the energy to correct her. They went up to Maggie's office floor in silence. Bianca stopped just in front of the door. She still wasn't sure if she should be doing this. Once she walked in to that office, there would be no turning things around. Taking one step forward, she walked in with Gabby and shut the door behind her. Maggie was busy prepping swabs and cleaning her stethoscope, which sort of frightened Reese; she didn't think Gabby could be that sick.

"Wait." Bianca insisted before Maggie could even approach Gabrielle.

"Before you do anything, there are some things we need to get out in the open." Bianca continued.

Maggie was prepared for this. She knew Bianca wouldn't keep everything a secret for very long. She had a plan; she hadn't thought she would need it this early, but she still had a plan; she always had a plan. Reese looked just about as confused as she could possibly get. She was waiting for someone to explain the apparent staring competition going on between Bianca and Dr. Stone. Then Bianca spoke up.

"Honey, this is Dr. Maggie Stone." Bianca started. Reese laughed and smiled innocently.

"I know that sweetie, I introduced you." Reese laughed.

"No, you didn't" Bianca continued. "See the truth is, me and Dr. Stone, we go way back. In fact, I've known her since high school. See Dr. Stone is the Maggie I came to Paris with, the one I told you about, the one that broke my heart."

Reese found herself without words. She wasn't expecting this sort of news, she wasn't expecting anything really. And yet, when she thought she'd heard it all, there was more.

"So after nearly three years of no contact what so ever, I figured she'd moved on. I was wrong. See Maggie here decided to start following our daughter around; stalking her. She even had the nerve to talk to her and give her a balloon." Bianca had to pause and take in the absurdity of it all.

"I didn't know right away, not until I started getting these." Reaching in to her purse Bianca pulled out Maggie's letters and handed them to Reese. Bianca never broke her stare, she was locked into Maggie like a bull ready to charge.

"I didn't tell you at first because I didn't want you to worry, then I didn't tell you because I thought maybe it was time and maybe Maggie and I could actually be friends again, and then I didn't tell you because I thought maybe she had something to do with you getting this job."

Bianca finally looked at Reese who was still staring in shock at Maggie's letters. She didn't even know where to begin. She felt so disoriented and confused. The only thing she knew for sure is that she wanted to get the hell out of that room. Bianca reached for Reese's hand and found it cold and limp.
"Reese, listen to me. I messed up; I know it ok, I know I messed up" she looked into her wife's eyes in search of something, anything that would reassure her.

"But you have to believe me; I will do whatever it takes to fix this. I just don't want her touching our daughter, but I'll let you decide."

Reese was still staring at the letters; she couldn't believe Bianca would hide something like this from her. She finally was able to look back up in time to see a picture sitting on Maggie's desk. She must have forgotten to put it away. It was a picture of Miranda at The Rooster, it was from the day Reese took her back to the park she could tell because even though Maggie cropped her out, Reese's hand was still there wiping cheese off of Miranda's mouth.

"Listen, I didn't mean to cause any trouble" Maggie began. She didn't get very far though; Reese was infuriated just at the sound of her voice.

"Shut up!" she commanded. "You shut up, and you stay the hell away from my family." With that, she got up and left throwing Maggie's letters on the ground. She honestly didn't care if Bianca followed after her; she just needed to get out of that hospital. Bianca smiled with satisfaction as she got up to follow Reese, but before she could leave Maggie called after her.

"Bianca wait." She pleaded. "Just hear me out for a second."

There wasn't much logic behind her decision to stay, except that, in spite of all this, Bianca still cared for Maggie.

"You don't have to like me, but you know I would never hurt a child. I would never hurt any child, but especially not yours." Maggie pleaded.

"We're not talking about hurting children Maggie…" Bianca interjected before being interrupted herself.

"Which is why you have to listen to me Binks. Your daughter needs to see a doctor, if you don't want it to be me take her to another doctor. But you take her there and you tell them she needs a nasal lymphoscopic examination."

Bianca was fighting her feelings of fear and mistrust. She really wanted to believe this wasn't another part of Maggie's scheme. Maggie could tell her words weren't reaching her. She looked down at Gabby and decided then and there that she couldn't let Bianca walk out unless she knew Gabrielle would get to a doctor soon.

"I'm a bad friend Bianca; I admit that; I'm even worse in relationships. But Bianca, I am an amazing doctor. I know what I'm talking about and I won't let you walk out of here until you've made an appointment." She handed Bianca her office phone and gave her the number of another specialist at St. Christopher's.
Eventually Bianca dialed the number, reluctantly, but she did do it.