Chapter 18

After Claire left that night at the hospital Betty and the rest of the family didn't return to Manhattan, instead they decided to head back to Queens. They weren't sure what kind of state the house had been left in, but the neighbor who called 911 was also kind enough to lock up for him. When they pulled up to the house and stepped out of the car there were lights haphazardly thrown over the fence and yard in the front. The poor nativity scene was missing most of its components and had been shoved off to the side to allow the EMTs access to their patient. Everyone was quiet as they entered the house. They had half expected it to be a complete disaster, but Ignacio was actually very tidy and good at cleaning up after himself. It wasn't as if Hilda, Bobby, and Justin weren't around, only not as often as they would like. They had been getting ready to come to dinner with him when Hilda received the call. Everyone sat down in the living room, still silent. It had all began to sink in.

"Okay, so who's going to say it first?" Hilda asked.

"Say what?" Betty challenged.

"Come on, you're gonna make me say it?" Hilda looked at her, almost pleading.

"What do you want me to say?"

"Betty, what are we gonna do?"

"What do you mean what are we going to do?"

"How are we going to handle this?"

"Handle what, Hilda? The fact that Papi had another heart attack and he barely survived the first one, and he may not be able to use his left side now? You mean that?" The tiredness was catching up with her, and she was starting to get a temper.

"I just can't believe it." Justin chimed in. Betty and Hilda had momentarily forgotten that Justin and Bobby were even there.

"Who's going to cook?" Bobby chimed in.

"Nice, really helpful Bobby." Hilda quipped.

"I don't even want to think about that right now." Betty said.

Hilda's emotions had started to boil over and the tears started to flow. Bobby pulled her in close as Betty held Justin.

"I couldn't even look at him." Justin admitted. "When he hugged me and only moved the one arm? He pretended like nothing was wrong." Justin broke down, he couldn't keep it in any longer. Hilda moved to him immediately, pulling him to her shoulder and allowed him to let the emotion out. Bobby came over and sat in front of him, rubbing his arm, Betty still held his hand.

"Papi is strong. He's going to be fine." Betty reassured everyone.

"Betty's right, you know." Bobby directed his words to Justin and Hilda. "Ignacio is one of the strongest men I know, and that's saying something. He really messed me up when we had the power outage remember? Trust me, the man is strong, and he'll get through this. We'll all get through this. We have each other that's all that matters. Right now we just have to stick together, and get through this as a family, okay?" He took Hilda's hand and kept a hold of Justin's shoulder. They all nodded in agreement, his words comforting. They sat like that for quite some time, just needing each other's support. They truly were a strong and loving family. It didn't feel right not having Ignacio there, instead lying in a hospital bed all alone, but they could be there for one another, and they knew they would see him in the morning.

"Is anyone hungry?" Hilda finally asked. She was met with nods and sounds of agreement. "Okay, I'll go cook us something." She got up.

"You're going to cook?" Justin asked. "I don't think I can ever eat more eggs a la Hilda, mom, please. Anything but that right now."

"Oh come on! You know you love them!" she was standing in the dining room half way to the kitchen looking back at everyone.

"Why don't we order out? How about some pizza?" Betty suggested.

"Oh yes please!" Justin agreed and Bobby heartily joined.

"Alright, fine, pizza it is, but I get the first shower!" Hilda started racing towards the stairs. They all let her go.

"I'm going to go change." Justin got up from the couch and headed upstairs.

"I'll go take care of the lights out front." Bobby walked towards the door.

"I guess I'll go ahead and order the pizza then." Betty pulled out her phone.

She stared at the messages she had received in the last few days. Sighing she looked at Daniel's last message asking her if they could talk. She had already been teary eyed, but they threatened to fall again the longer she looked at the words. She wished she could go back to a few days ago, when things were right in the world. Those moments just before he broke off the kiss, everything that lead up to it flashed through her mind. Long glances, smiles, that little dance her stomach did that she hated to admit happened every time he walked into her office. He had even began to grow his beard out again, so when kissing everything was that much more intense. She didn't know it, but sitting there staring at his photo above the text messages, she had brought her fingers to trace her lips thinking of the way his felt on hers.

"Come on Betty. Get it together!" she whispered to herself. She exited the messages and walked to the kitchen to grab a menu, sighing as she went. Everything was so complicated now compared to a few days before. She just wished she could go back. She wished she could change it so that nothing was different, and Ignacio wouldn't be lying in that bed, and she wouldn't be here again. She hated this position, of having feelings like this and not being able to truly act on them. She hadn't known they were there for a very long time, but once the suggestion was out there, it was as if they had taken on a life of their own until most of her day was spent thinking of him. She'd even had a dream or two that even just thinking about made her knees almost buckle where she stood. She couldn't believe this was happening. Why now? Why was it all so different? Why had Claire said anything? Why had Daniel followed her to London? She couldn't keep going on, hoping for things she knew she couldn't have, and she hated the idea of allowing herself to hope for more than what they have. It was heartbreak waiting to happen. How much more of this could she stand? She had to make a decision.

She couldn't wait to see Ignacio in the morning. Even if she couldn't talk to him about this, she knew that she just needed to see her dad. Until he was up walking and standing in the kitchen with a knife in his hand to chop and a spoon in the other to stir, she wouldn't be satisfied. In the past at Mode she could help take care of him and still keep working. She couldn't put all of it on Hilda again and head back to London any time soon if she truly wanted to help out. She couldn't stay if she wanted to keep her job. Where was her friend Daniel when she needed him? Ah, why was everything so wrong? She hoped things would be better in the morning.

…

After the morning they all had trying to get ready to come to the hospital, tensions were high again. Eggs had been burnt, hair was only half washed, crappy jokes had been made in an effort to lighten the mood, and clothes were merely thrown on to get out the door.

"Papi?" Betty and Hilda asked simultaneously as they entered his room, Elena standing off to the side. Ever since the wedding, the two had seemed to reconnect. They weren't necessarily together again, but when Elena heard what happened she dropped everything to be there. Everyone was glad to see her and Justin went to give her a big hug.

"Mi familia! Wow, you all look terrible." Ignacio joked, and if he wasn't laying there in a hospital bed Betty and/or Hilda would have playfully slapped his arm. Everybody laughed somewhat but there was an awkward tension in the room. Betty cleared her throat.

"Has, has the doctor been by this morning? Is there any news?" she reached down and touched his left hand by instinct but when he wasn't able to respond except a few movements in his fingers her heart dropped. This wasn't good and she had never seen her father like this. It was frightening.

"No, but they'll be doing rounds soon." Elena chimed in.

"Okay, well what can we do? Is there anything you need?" Hilda asked.

"There is really nothing we can do, but wait." The doctor stood outside the door with a group of young medical students.

"Oh, hello Doctor!" Hilda nearly screeched. She had been so stressed the day before, she thought she better try and get on his good side. However, the way her comment sounded it came across as something much different. She did always have a thing for doctors, the cute ones anyway. Bobby immediately pulled her in close to him, a subconscious movement.

"Right now we simply have to let Ignacio recover. We'll keep monitoring him here at the hospital for a few days and continue running tests. How are you Ignacio?" the doctor walked over to the bed speaking directly to his patient.

"I've been better. Tell me doc, how bad is it?" the doctor began to check reflexes and directed his actions towards the students making sure they could see what he was doing.

"Well Ignacio, at this point it looks like the stroke has mainly affected your left side, I'm sure you noticed." He winked at him. Ignacio appreciated the humor, it helped. "Time will tell us if that will improve. It's not going to be easy, but with therapy you have a high chance of fully recovering. You have to do the work though."

"And his heart?" Betty asked,

"Your heart seems to be doing fine! It's been through a lot, but if I may say so myself, you've got some pretty great doctors here. The team is working together to come up with a care plan to assure this doesn't happen again. Two major heart surgeries puts you at risk for even more complications and if there's a next time, the odds of survival are very slim. I know that sounds scary, but take this as a wakeup call. It's time to make some serious permanent changes and learn how to pace yourself. Doctor's orders." He winked. "Okay kids, on to the next patient. I'll be back to check on you later."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief; the doctor had said everything that they didn't even know how to begin to approach with Ignacio.

"See? It will all be alright." Elena kissed Ignacio's cheek.

"I know, I know. I'm just sorry to put you all through this." Ignacio said.

"No Papi, don't even go there." Hilda said.

"Papi, we're here for you. We love you. No more about putting us through anything."

"Yeah grandpa, we love you. We just want to be here for you." Justin chimed in.

"Hey, you listen to me. I may be the newest member of this group, but we're a family. Okay? Families stick together and take care of each other. We will always be here for you." Bobby walked up and put his hand on Ignacio's shoulder, and Ignacio squeezed his hand in gratitude.

"Los amo a todos." Ignacio said.

"We love you too." Everyone replied.

"Listen, why don't you all go and get some food or something? I'm feeling a little tired."

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, yes I'm fine. It's just been a rough couple of days." He smiled.

"Okay good because I am starving!" Justin grabbed his bag and started heading towards the door.

"Hey, hey wait up!" Bobby followed behind him.

Hilda walked up and kissed Ignacio on the cheek. Betty patted his right leg as she passed by the end of the bed.

"You go ahead and go too Elena, you need to eat."

"You sure?" she asked.

"Yes, go eat, I'll be here." He laughed.

"Alright then." She sped up to catch Betty just outside the doorway. Hilda had run ahead and caught up with Bobby and Justin, heading down the hallway towards the cafeteria.

"Betty! Wait up!"

"Hey Elena."

"So... how are things going in London?" she smiled at her, wrapping her arm around Betty's so they could walk down the hallway together.

"Um… they're good. I'm sure Papi's told you all about it."

"Well yeah, but I figured I should ask you. You know how he can brag." Betty smiled in response. "Is everything really okay?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?"

"Oh no reason, I just wondered." Elena tried to deflect. Daniel had said that Betty didn't know he was in New York yet. She wasn't sure if she should say anything, and now that they were heading to the cafeteria she figured she would let it play out on its own. Thank God Ignacio hadn't said anything. Sometimes he could be a little obtuse but Elena was far more intuitive, and thought she could sense some tension there. It wasn't her place to say anything.

Betty asked her how she had been and she responded positively, but Betty thought she could sense some trepidation in her tone. They weren't very close, but Elena had grown on her and she liked to see her father happy. She made him happy, and that's all that she could really ask for.

They rounded the corner to find the entrance to the cafeteria.

"Oh my god! I can't believe it! Betty! You'll never guess who's here!" Hilda had come rushing back towards Betty, keeping her from entering through the doors.

"What? Who?"

"Daniel!" Justin's voice could be heard all the way out in the hallway. For as cool as he liked to play it, Justin could still get very excited about certain things and discovering Daniel Meade by surprise anywhere, let alone in the cafeteria at the hospital despite how close Daniel was to the family, would always leave him a little bit star struck.

"Daniel?" Betty gasped. She started to back up a little. Her heart was racing, her palms were a little sweaty, and she felt like she might faint. Daniel was here? In New York? How? When? He was here at the hospital? This was too much. She turned around and ran down the hallway.

"Betty! Wait! Come back!" Hilda called after her. "Where are you going?"

Hilda and Elena stood there looking after her as she ran down the hall, passing glances to each other, disbelief written across their faces. What the hell had gotten into her?

Betty ran into the nearest bathroom she could find and slammed the door behind her. This was too much. Why was she hiding? What am I going to do? What am I going to say? Why the hell am I in here? And Daniel, he's out there right now! He came to New York. Could this mean what I hope it means? No, stop it! You can't think like that. Oh god.

Hope you liked this one! Don't worry, we're getting closer! Don't forget to review! Let me know your thoughts. Much love to you all. xxx