Brenda squirmed slightly under Luis's heavy gaze. He hadn't said anything since they arrived back at the penthouse. She knew the speech was coming. Being with Luis had taught her that speeches were a part of life. However, the fact that he opted for the silence he'd said his brother favored made her more than a little uneasy.

She hadn't spent enough time around Lorenzo to really experience his cold silence, but she'd heard about it enough to know that it wasn't Luis. He was all fire and passion. He could explode on her for a straight five minutes when it was called for, and then just as easily quiet down and pour a drink. She was used to Luis's instant reactions and his immediate resolutions. She was not, however, used to complete and utter silence.

"Will you please say something?" Besides the gutteral, scratchy voice that still plagued her, Brenda had been warned that as her throat healed, there would be pain when she spoke. Her hand rose to her throat and she groaned. "Luis…"

He turned away from her and walked to the window. Now that was scary. Not only was he as silent as Lorenzo, but he went to that same thinking spot that Sonny had always gone to. He either sat on the sofa or stared out the window. Though, Sonny stared with his hand to his face. Luis stared with his hands behind his back, his chin tucked down against his chest.

"Luis…" Brenda let her arm fall to her side and approached him slowly, carefully. As much as she wanted him to say something, she didn't know if she really wanted him to react. She didn't know how he would react. She didn't know if he would…

In the second that the thoughts started to creep into her mind, Brenda shoved them away in shame. To think that Luis would ever lay a hand on her in anger was absolutely ridiculous. She had given him a hell of a lot more reasons in the past to hit her and he never had. The times that he'd come close to being aggressive with her, it had always been sexual in nature. That was Luis. He was passion and sex and in the end, he was love. His anger was always for other people, never for her.

Brenda swallowed painfully and stepped forward. "Luis, I had to do it," she croaked. She moved forward more, quicker in her steps. She stopped just a few steps away from him. She reached out and her fingertips lightly touched his arm. "Luis, please, talk to me."

"Talk to you." His eyes closed. He turned slowly and his eyes popped open. "Talk to you!" Brenda's arm dropped but she didn't step back. She even tried not to jump. "You don't want me to talk to you, Brenda."

"Yes, I do. I don't…" She shook her head. "I don't want you to be so silent. So… not you. This isn't you, Luis. You scream and rage…"

"Exactly like him!" His arm shot out, and he pointed towards the fireplace. To the place where he had knelt beside her and held her waist while she tried to breathe. Where he'd pulled a gun and come so close to putting a bullet between Sonny's eyes. "Do you want me to scream until I become him? Until I give you an excuse to need your vengeance against me, too? Until you can finally reach that point where you could kill me and feel nothing?"

"Luis…" She had wished that they could both forget that she'd ever said those words to him, but she knew that neither of them ever would. "I wouldn't do that to you! I love you!"

"You loved him, too! And yet, you drove him to beat you! Is that what you want from me?"

"You'd never do that, Luis! I know you!" She reached out to him, but he stepped back. "Luis, please, don't do this." Tears leaked from her eyes. With each step towards him, he moved backwards, until his back was firmly against the window. "I love you, Luis, and I know you would never hurt me."

"Do you, really? Do you really believe in your heart that I won't take you by the arms and shake you? That I won't slap you or strangle you for what you've done?"

"Yes," she said firmly, "I do." She left the tears that streaked her face, but did her best to staunch the flow. "You don't come from the same place that he does. Everything Sonny does is because he has to be in control, he has to be in charge and only his anger matters. Everything you do, even the harshest of them, comes from love." She stepped forward and put her hand against his cheek. "I've given you too many chances, done too many things to you… If you were going to hit me, you'd have done it that night when I said I didn't love you. I said evil, mean things to you because I knew that you wouldn't do anything. I knew then that I could hurt you and you would never hurt me. You won't hurt me now, Luis, but please, you have got to tell me what you're thinking."

He stared at her with ice blue eyes. His eyelids slowly started to lower. He turned his face into her palm and lightly kissed the skin inside. He sighed against her palm and his breath was warm against her skin. Brenda's head tilted to the side and she closed her eyes. His lips puckered against her hand again and she sighed lightly. Luis turned his mouth away from her hand and she opened her eyes.

"What I'm thinking…" Luis sighed. "I'm wondering how you're going to sleep tonight without seeing his face when you close your eyes. I wonder how I'm going to be able to come up behind you, now, and massage your shoulders without you screaming or jumping. I'm wondering when I'll be able to hear your sweet voice again without the effect of this disgusting night. I'm wondering how you can look at me when I'm upset and stand there like you did, unafraid eventually, but for one brief moment, scared to death because of what Corinthos did to you."

"Luis…"

"I'm thinking that I wish I knew why you put yourself at risk for people that you either hate or have no feeling for whatsoever. Do you think Carly or Alexis are going to thank you for what you've done? You've kept Morgan out of trouble, but will he forgive you for showing him the man that Corinthos truly is?" Luis pushed Brenda's arm down, then reached out and lightly held her face. "Tell me, Brenda. Tell me why you had to do it this way. Tell me why you couldn't just let me take care of it."

"Because…" She stopped and swallowed. Her throat burned, but she gulped again. "Because sometimes, Luis, a girl has to do things for herself." She covered his hands with her own. "I've been a damsel in distress my entire life, someone always coming to my rescue. And yeah, somebody still saved me from Sonny, but the situation…" She sighed. "It was my risk to take. This is my revenge, not yours. I decided that this had to be done, so I had to do it."

"Even if it hurts you?"

"Wounds can heal, Luis. And no, I don't know that when I go to sleep tonight, I won't wake up screaming, but I can say that I'll wake up and you'll be there. If I wake up from nightmares of Sonny losing his mind, you'll be there for me to curl up next to. You'll put your arms around me and I'll know it was all worth it." She smiled softly, just enough to turn her mouth up in either corner. "I don't care if Carly and Alexis don't thank me for it. Though, I think they might at least respect the measures I took. None of us will say it, and I won't ask for thanks, but that's alright. I didn't do it for them. I did this for me, and if they end up getting their children out of the deal, then good for them."

"And Morgan?"

Brenda's smile fell and she sighed. "I love Jason, you know that. We were close before his accident, and we managed to find something similar to that again. But, if he can't understand that this needed to be done, that those children are better off with their mothers…" She shrugged. "Then, he's not the man that I thought he was. And he'll just have to get used to living across from us, because I don't plan on leaving this penthouse just because he can't see what's right in front of him."

Luis shivered, then sighed, then suddenly laughed. He pulled Brenda in close to him and she'd never been so glad to feel his arms around her. He was warm again, alive. He was Luis, the man filled with emotions and unafraid to let them out. Brenda put her arms around him and squeezed him tightly, pressing her face against his chest.

"I think I taught you too well," Luis said with a laugh. "I may have made you too strong. You won't need me anymore."

"I'll always need you, Luis." His hand touched the back of her head, holding her gently against him. Brenda smiled, biting her bottom lip. "I'll never be so strong that I won't need you to hold me, to touch me." She sighed and closed her eyes, then said, "I'll always need you to love me."