This chapter alternates between father and son, Aaron and Nathan Pierce. Hope you enjoy.

"Yellow."

Nathan blinked. "What?" He felt mildly dazed, still not quite believing that Lupe had agreed to have dinner with him. Mentally he shook himself to pay attention.

"My favorite color? It's yellow."

"Ah. And do you like guitar music?"

"Yes, if it's good."

He raised an eyebrow. "We might have a problem then," he responded, and enjoyed her quick laugh. "I play at a coffeehouse on Saturdays, but they pay me in coffee drinks, not in cash. You can come to hear me if you'd like."

"Do you sing?"

"No, I know my limits. I do classical guitar mostly. The occasional instrumental piece that's more modern, but that's about it." He took a bite of his dinner. "What about my other question? Your plans for the future?" He waited for a moment. "Let me put that another way. Do you see yourself staying in Ambler Grove?"

Lupe considered. "Yes. When I moved to El Paso I was really looking forward to living on my own. It isn't the biggest city on earth, but I knew it would be a change from here. I liked it there; the different neighborhoods, the museums, restaurants and everything else. When my mother got sick I had to come back, which I didn't want to do. But when I got here I didn't mind it as much as I thought I would, and after she died I knew I wouldn't be leaving again. It's home. It isn't exciting here but it isn't dull either. And I like spending time with my friends from school, getting to see their kids grow up. It's so much harder to do that in the city." She looked at Nathan. "How about you? Are you climbing the walls yet?"

Nathan laughed and shook his head. "No, I feel like you. I didn't want to stay in Washington, even though I could have. I wanted to live somewhere where I had roots. My mother is here, my cousins and my father's family are here. My dad will be moving back soon. When I moved here I knew I had a choice. I wasn't planning to stay the rest of my life but the longer I'm here, the more I like it." He smiled at Lupe.

The waiter filling their glasses glanced at Lupe, did a double take and gave Nathan a suspicious look. Lupe frowned and waved him away.

"Someone you know?"

"Yes," she replied shortly. "He's a friend of my brother's."

"Small towns, huh? You can't go out without running into someone you know." He gave her a second look. "Is that a problem?"

"No, not really. It's just that he's probably going to tell my brother he saw me in a restaurant with you." She saw the incomprehension on his face. "I hate to say this, Nathan, but around here it's not so usual for Latinas to date white guys. You're supposed to stay within your comfort zone."

Nathan frowned. "Is there a race problem around here? I never got that impression."

"Not exactly. But it's understood that whites stick to whites and, well, my people stick to each other. It's just the way it's always been."

"Not in the Navy. There's lots of interracial dating going on there. Nobody cares."

"This isn't the Navy, Nathan, it's a small town."

"Then why did you agree to come out with me?"

"Because I like you. You're a nice guy, I could tell that from the start. And because I followed my own advice and I got burned." Her expression darkened. "And I'm sick of hiding at home with my family," she added.

"Tell me what happened. This trouble you're in, the reason you've been staying with your family—"

Lupe sighed. "There was this guy, Jorge. I met him after I came home when my mother got sick. At first he seemed perfect, so involved, understanding that my mother came first. But after a while I started to see how controlling he was. He wanted me to be either with my family or with him, all the time. If I went to see my girlfriends he would get really upset. If he didn't know where I was, even if I just went to the store, he'd get angry. We started to fight a lot and he'd curse me out, calling me a whore, saying terrible things. Then he started hitting me. The first time he apologized and I took him back. The second time I broke down and told my father what was going on. Papa was furious. He said if Jorge ever hit me again he'd kill him."

Nathan suddenly realized he was gripping the edge of the table. "So then what happened?"

"I told Jorge I wasn't going to see him any more, that it was over, and my father backed me up. I thought that would be the end of it, but it wasn't. He's been following me. I see him sometimes, watching me from a distance. I guess he wants to see if I'm dating somebody else. When my car broke down and you said someone had loosened the transmission cap I got really scared. I knew it had to be him."

"Has anything else happened since then?"

"Not so far. Like I said, I've been playing it safe." She shrugged. "It's not something I like to think about, but I wanted to tell you. I wanted to explain what's been happening."

Taking her hint, Nathan changed the subject and began asking her about the local college, telling her that he wanted to enroll for his degree. Immediately Lupe became more cheerful and told him about one of her friends who had taken classes there. Dinner concluded without incident. As Nathan said goodnight to Lupe he added: "I'll be at the Yellow Rose on Saturday. I start playing at eight. Nobody can say you're dating me if you just happen to drop in. Right?"

She smiled. "Right. Thank you, Nathan." She gave him her hand. "Dinner was fun and I'll be there on Saturday." As Nathan was wondering whether to kiss her goodnight, the door opened and Mr. Hernandez appeared in the doorway. Lupe gave his hand a quick squeeze and then headed toward the house.

During a long and somewhat difficult meeting Aaron had made it clear to Director Finch that he had no wish to take over as the head of the Secret Service, while indicating that he was more than willing to work with whoever was chosen for the job. His diplomacy was stretched to the limit, however, when the Director told him who his second choice was: Agent Eric McFadden.

"Agent McFadden, sir?"

Finch sighed. "You can't deny, Aaron, the man is reliable. His administrative skills are first class. What he doesn't have, and what I need you to help him with, is the personal touch. He needs better communications skills."

That's because he's a bureaucrat who's never seen what it's like out in the field, Aaron thought. Externally, he managed a quiet "Yes, sir."

"I know you think this isn't a great choice, Aaron. But he's got the qualifications and he's got the seniority. You're both play-by-the rules types, and on paper he maybe looks better than you do, but you have leadership qualities he doesn't have. I'm being completely honest here: My gut told me to pick you, but if I'd gone only by the rules I would have picked him. The men respect you, Aaron. They know you know what it's like to put your life on the line."

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry, I really am. I don't want you to think I didn't think about your offer, because I did. But finally I realized that being Director wouldn't be a challenge for me, it would be a burden. It really wasn't something I was looking for." Thank you, Martha, he thought as he saw Finch nod in understanding: it was her advice that had clinched his argument.

"Okay. Then I'm going to ask you that for the next year, until I step down, you agree to work with McFadden as closely as possible. I need you to pass those qualities on to him as much as you can."

"I will, sir, but does he understand that?"

"He will. I'm meeting with him this afternoon and I'm offering him the position of Director. He isn't going to turn it down, we both know that. I'm going to make it clear that it's a contingency that he works with you or he doesn't get the job."

Great. "Yes, sir."

Aaron and Eric McFadden had known each other for more than a decade. Neither had a high opinion of the other: Aaron thought McFadden was an officious ass, whereas McFadden viewed Aaron as a run-of-the-mill agent who had spent all of his time in the field: brave, naturally, and dedicated, but not really leadership material. Aaron knew that McFadden had been somewhat surprised by his promotion and could only imagine how he would react if he knew that Aaron had been Finch's first pick for Director. Unfortunately, McFadden was about to hear exactly that:

"Good of you to come in, Eric."

"It's no difficulty, Director," McFadden responded briskly. "I've brought the figures for the first draft of the budget with me. I assumed that was what you wanted to discuss?"

"No, no, actually I wanted to talk to you about something else. I'm assuming the rumors about me stepping down have begun to spread by this time."

McFadden looked self-conscious. "Well, sir, I had heard it was a possibility. But there's been no confirmation." He looked expectant.

"I'm confirming it. That's why I asked you here. Naturally, there's going to be a need for a new Director for the Service –"

"Naturally, sir." McFadden's satisfied expression was beginning to rub Finch the wrong way.

"But I'll be honest: You were not my first choice. Unfortunately, Agent Pierce was unable to accept my offer for personal reasons."

McFadden's jaw dropped. "Pierce, sir?"

"Yes, Pierce. His administrative skills are not as highly polished as yours, but he has a great deal of field experience and he's a natural leader. He handled the Logan case brilliantly, I'm sure you'll agree."

"With all due respect, sir, Pierce had an additional motive for going after Logan."

"He did," Finch admitted. "After all, Logan tried to have him assassinated. But if you're referring to the fact that Pierce married Logan's ex-wife, there is zero evidence that they had any sort of relationship prior to Logan's arrest. There was never a whisper of one. And I have known Aaron Pierce for many years, and I am sure that he would never have done something so unprofessional as to initiate an affair with a President's wife." He gave McFadden a hard look.

"No, sir, no, of course not."

"Aaron has agreed to work with you for the next year or so before I leave. He did this at my request, Eric. If you're going to be Director you need to have a good relationship with the agents you'll be leading, and I believe Aaron Pierce is the man to help you with that." Noting McFadden's lack of enthusiasm, Finch added, "I need you to do this, Eric. I came up through the ranks myself and I can tell you that experience made all the difference when it came to doing this job. Maybe you think being Director is all about putting together a budget and going to meetings. I'm here to tell you that isn't true. That's part of it, but what's most important is working with the agents, understanding what they face every day and motivating them to keep doing it. If you can't do that our turnover will be unbelievable and the Service won't be able to do its job. I'm sure you don't want that."

McFadden looked horrified. "Absolutely not!" he answered hastily. "If you think this is important, Director, I'll be glad to work with Pierce."

Late the next afternoon McFadden wandered into Aaron's office. "Ah, Agent Pierce. Glad to find you in," he began, trying to look as if he had just happened to stop by.

Aaron rose and gestured to a chair. "Take a seat," he said unenthusiastically, closing the door to his office. "What can I do for you?"

"I…" the other agent looked as if he were having difficulty knowing where to start. "I met with Director Finch yesterday. He's asked that we start working together more closely as I prepare to take over as Director." He paused, clearly waiting for Aaron to assent, but received only a silent nod in return. "And I thought now would be a good time to talk about it," he finished lamely.

"All right. I've been giving this some thought, and I'm going to assign Jon Cardona to work with you. He's my second in command. The truth is that I'm going to be retiring myself not that long after the Director steps down, and we need continuity," he added as McFadden opened his mouth to protest. "If both of us leave and you haven't established a relationship with anybody else here, it's going to make your job that much harder."

Seeing the logic of this, McFadden had to agree. "You're retiring?" he added, surprised.

"It's why I couldn't take the job," Aaron answered, but seeing Eric's irritated expression immediately realized this had been a mistake. Trying to change the subject he quickly added, "You came up on the Treasury side, didn't you? It'll be useful to have a connection with someone who does security fieldwork. That's why I thought of Jon."

"Yes, well." Aaron's remark clearly still rankled with Eric. "I was certainly surprised to hear… but it's the Director's choice, of course." His tone made it clear that the only reason Finch had offered the job to Aaron would have had to be temporary insanity.

"I was as surprised as you were," Aaron answered, trying to keep his temper. "It wasn't an offer I expected."

"He made it clear that the agents have a lot of respect for you. And he made it clear… that I have to work on that." McFadden was clearly trying to be honest. "I want to do this right. I have to do this right; we're part of Homeland Security now and I take that very seriously. I know I need your help with that. So I guess that's why… I'm sure that's why he offered you the job. But I suppose having connections never hurts."

"What sort of connections?" Aaron fired back.

"Oh, come on, Aaron. Your wife! It never hurts anybody's chances to marry well."

"You think that's what this is about? You think who I married had something to do with this? Well, it did, but not the way you think." Aaron suddenly realized that he was standing behind his desk. "I'm not the world's best administrator and I don't care who knows it. But my wife is a wonderful, gifted woman. She could have had a fantastic career of her own if she hadn't married Logan. When I got promoted she helped me learn what I needed to know. I was very lucky because I had her help and I had a good relationship with the agents here. And you're right, you need that. Nobody succeeds by themselves, haven't you figured that out yet? Hasn't your wife been a help to you in your career?"

McFadden suddenly looked stricken. "No." He looked down for a moment and paused, trying to collect himself. "My wife left me three months ago."

"I didn't hear anything about this," Aaron responded. He slowly sat back down again.

"I didn't tell anyone, didn't want anyone to know."

"I'm sorry."

"I need this job. I need to know that I'm not screwing everything up in my life right now." The desperation in Eric's expression struck a chord with Aaron, bringing back memories of his life after Diane had left.

"I know how you feel. My first marriage ended in divorce." Aaron was feeling his way, impelled to offer McFadden some support. "I'll do everything I can to help you, but I just want to say this: Don't invest your whole life into this job. When it's all said and done, even if you are Director, it's still just a job and someday you will retire. You have to have something else. Family, a cause that you support, close friends, religion – you have to have something else in your life that means something to you."

McFadden nodded and took a deep breath. "Okay. Thanks." He offered his hand and Aaron took it. "I'd like to meet with you and Cardona next week, see what we can work out." He left the office quickly, leaving a shaken Aaron behind.

Nathan was loath to admit it, but he had polished his boots, ironed his jeans and spent a good fifteen minutes picking out his shirt before arriving at the Yellow Rose. Before beginning to play he checked in with the manager, asking to see his credit account.

"We owe you nine coffees, Nate. You going to drink them all tonight?" chuckled the manager.

"Nope, but I have a friend or two coming in and I wanted to give them a freebie."

"Not a problem."

Nathan settled himself on the stage and scanned the crowd: Lupe was sitting in a booth and he flashed her a grin before realizing there was a man sitting with her. His smile slipped for a moment until he recognized Tony, her brother, who had come to pick Lupe up the day her car had been vandalized. They're keeping her on a short leash, he thought to himself before mentally shrugging and beginning to tune his guitar. Maybe she needs him to feel safe. He leaned over to the barista and asked her to get drinks for Lupe and her brother, then turned to the microphone.

"I'm Nathan Pierce. I'm a student of classical guitar and I hope to share my enjoyment of it with you tonight." He gave a quick nod to the audience and began to play; to start off with he had picked two or three standard pieces he knew would be crowd-pleasers. Twenty minutes later he took a brief break and casually wandered over to Lupe's booth.

"How are you tonight?" he asked, nodding to Tony.

"I'm fine, Nathan, thanks." Lupe gave him a warm smile. "Thank you for the drinks. You're doing great."

Nathan gave her a smile in return and glanced at her brother. "We met the other day, right?" he asked. "Nathan Pierce." He held out his hand and after a second's hesitation Tony shook it. "Nice to see you here."

"It was Lupe's idea," Tony responded. Urged on by a glare from his sister, he quickly added: "You play pretty well. Have you been doing this for a while?"

"I'm mostly self taught. I took a few lessons here and there." Between playing sessions, Nathan carried on the conversation and soon learned that Tony had dropped out of college and that his chief interests were cars and farming, specifically growing grapes.

"Grapes?" Nathan echoed, puzzled.

"For wine. There's a few wineries around here that are just getting started and they're all looking for more grapes. A good source of grapes would be worth a lot to them." Tony's face lit with enthusiasm.

"Really? My father bought a ranch outside of town just recently. He's going to be retiring here in a year or two and he's trying to figure out what to do with the land. I'm living there right now and I've been researching a few ideas for him."

By the end of the evening Tony and Nathan had agreed to meet with the owner of one of the local wineries to evaluate the ranchland's suitability for raising grapes and to give Nathan a chance to gather more information. Mellowed by their conversation, Tony decided to leave early, allowing Nathan to drive Lupe home. As he headed through the parking lot toward his car, Tony suddenly found himself grabbed by the shirt and shoved up against a truck.

"Where is she?"

"Jorge, man, what the hell is the matter with you?"

"Where is she?"

"She's still in there, she's going home with a friend." Tony pushed the other man away. "What's it got to do with you anyway? You know she doesn't want to see you."

"She's got to see me. I have to make her understand –"

"Understand what? She already knows everything she needs to know. She isn't going to get back with you, Jorge. Get over it." As Tony turned away to head for his car, Jorge threw a punch that hit him on the side of the head and knocked him to his knees. Tony quickly jumped up and got ready to defend himself, but at that moment a crowd of people exited the coffeehouse and Jorge quickly ran into the darkness. Muttering a curse and holding the side of his head, Tony hurried back inside.

"Tony! What happened?" Lupe jumped up.

"I got attacked. It's nothing serious, I'll get some ice when we get home. Lupe, I think you need to come home with me, now. Nathan, I'm going to walk you to your car."

"It was him." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yes. He wanted to know why you weren't leaving with me. I told him you were with a friend, but I didn't say who."

"Lupe," said Nathan quietly, "I think you need to get a restraining order against this guy."

"That isn't going to do any good."

"It's better than nothing."

"We can argue about it later," Tony broke in impatiently. "Come on, we need to leave now."

The three of them walked to Nathan's truck. After a defiant glance at Tony, Lupe kissed Nathan on the cheek. "Goodnight. Be careful driving home," she whispered.

"I will. You be careful too; I'll talk to you soon."

Nathan kept an eye on the rear view mirror as he drove home, but no one followed him. Maybe I should get a dog like Mom said, he thought as he turned into the driveway. I'll ask Uncle Bill about it tomorrow.