NOTE: My Portuguese SUCKS! I'm really wishing I had sent Zach to Peru or Mexico instead of Brazil. So, just bear with me and forgive my booboo's in grammar if you happen to speak Portuguese.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edie came into the penthouse, angrily shoving Zach to the side, muttering profanities under her breath. She could not believe that Zach actually flew all the way to Brazil to get away from Pine Valley. If he could catch the next flight to the moon, she was sure he would have taken it.

Zach held the spot on his face that felt like it was on fire. He looked over at Edie, who would most likely claw his eyes out if he stepped any closer. "You mind telling me what that was all about?" he said through the lingering pain. "If it's about the extra work at the casinos-"

"Shut up and listen," she said in the harshest voice Zach ever heard come from her that was usually reserved for incompetent workers or men who crossed her the wrong way. Zach figured he was probably a little bit of both. "The casino is not why I'm here, I could run that place blindfolded."

"Ok, so-"

"Shut up!" she told him again, and he put both his hands up. "You abandoned Kendall. I know it's not really any of my business what goes on in your love life."

"I didn't-"

"Shut UP!" She screamed at Zach and he sat down in the nearest chair to take the lashing he was going to get whether he deserved it or not.

"Shuddup," he heard come from the door. He turned to see Ursula sitting on a pink and silver trike blocking his doorway. "Bom dia!" the child said and smiled at him then waved at Edie.

"Ursula, you shouldn't be here now," Zach said as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Shoudn be here now," she parroted back to him as she hopped off the tricycle and entered the penthouse.

Zach wasn't sure how he would get across to her, she only knew a few English words, and he knew plenty Portuguese, only not enough to explain to her that she had to leave because he was having a grownup conversation.

Ursula went straight to the pantry and opened it, pulling out a large tin can full of cookies. "Cookies," she said taking the tin to Zach so that he could open it. Ursula studied Edie for a moment and smiled at her then hid her face in the cushion of the couch next to Zach. When the tin was opened, she reached in and grabbed two cookies with one hand and two more with her other, giving them to Edie. "Cookies," she said and smiled when Edie smiled back at her.

"Ursula," Zach said as he closed the tin and set it on the floor. "Este é meu amigo, Edie."

Ursula looked at Edie, "Edie," she repeated then bit into a cookie. Zach watched as Ursula turned and proceeded to wander through his home, touching everything while she concentrated on chewing the cookie.

"She's my neighbor, Ursula. She likes to visit. The nanny should be by soon, if she isn't on the phone or sucking face with some boy."

"Well, back to what I was saying to you about abandoning Kendall," Edie said in a now quiet even tone as she watched the little girl walk around the dining room. "She needed you, Zach, and you hopped on the first flight out of Pine Valley."

"Is she ok?"

Edie looked at Zach as if he grew a third eye, "Would I be here if she was OK? NO she's not OK," she said placing the cookies on the glass coffee table in front of her then went to sit on the arm of the chair Zach was sitting in. "She is in the hospital, Zach, she is very sick."

Zack felt like his whole world had just crashed down around him. He closed his eyes and from somewhere deep inside him, he felt his heart breaking. He had done a terrible thing. He should have been at Kendall's side. "She must be so scared," he whispered.

Edie put her arm around Zach's shoulders and pulled him into a hug. "Maybe," she said and kissed the top of his head then held him tighter, trying to brace him for her next bit of news, "She was unconscious when I left, Zach." She felt him just collapse under her and start to cry.

"What have I done?" he cried into Edie's side. It hurt Edie to know he was hurting so much and she tried to keep her own tears from falling. "I have to go to her, now." Zach said suddenly as he moved to stand up. He moved quickly to the counter in his kitchen and picked up his telephone.

"I already booked us flights out of here," She said to him and hanging up his phone. "The soonest are tomorrow evening. We go into Panama and then to Mexico City. Your jet will pick us up there and take us to Pine Valley.

"Are you sure that's the soonest-"

"Yes, Zach, I'm sure. I checked more than a few times. I even checked different routes and that one will get us to Pine Valley the soonest."

Zach held on to the countertop and bowed his head. Edie took a deep breath and rubbed Zach's back. There was nothing she could do to make the hurt and pain go away.

He was starting to feel his chest and throat tighten; it became hard for him to breathe. Tears stung his eyes; he squeezed them shut, an attempt to keep the tears from falling.

Ursula entered the kitchen carrying the cookie tin and drowning in Kendall's mink coat. It dragged on the floor behind her; the sleeves were bunched up on her small arms. She looked up at Zach and burst out in tears, "Por que você está gritando?"

"Minha esposa," Zach said, looking at the little girl through his tears. "Minha esposa."

"Por favor não grite" Ursula said as she dropped the tin on the floor. She wiped her face with the hanging sleeves of the mink coat then put her arms around Zach's leg, giving him a hug. Zach looked down at her, and rubbed the jet black hair on the child's head. He should be home, with Kendall, talking to her belly; instead he was thousands of miles away, running his fingers trough the silky tresses of someone else's child.

A female voice came from the other room, calling for Ursula. Zach went into his living room and with Ursula trailing behind him. "I'm sorry, senhor," the girl said and then saw Edie come from the kitchen a moment later. "Did she interrupt anything?"

"Never," Zach said as he helped Ursula out of the coat and patted her on the head. He watched her get on her tricycle and ride it out into the hall. The girl apologized again then closed the door behind her as she left.

Zach ordered dinner for him and Edie and then called Pine Valley Hospital to inquire on Kendall's conditions. The secretary put Greenlee on the phone and she filled him in on Kendall's condition. Kendall been awake, but she was very depressed. He asked Greenlee to put Kendall on the phone. Greenlee tried to explain to him that Kendall was sleeping and that she should rest. Zach demanded that she put Kendall on the phone and all he got was a dial tone.

He would deal with that pathetic excuse for a woman later.