Lynn turns the page on the book; for the last hour she has been trying to understand the instructions, but her hands are not cooperating with her brain or the book; especially if she keeps skipping paragraphs and other important information. Over the years, she's had the opportunity to pick up the skill, but usually a trip to the store was much easier than actually knitting a gift for her sister, but she doubts that she'll be able to find the gift in black like either of them want.

Francisco walks into the kitchen with some grocery bags in tow, he can see Lynn struggling with something at the table, "Alright, Lynn I got everything on your darn list, now can you help me out? There are some more groceries in the car."

Lynn groans and pushes away the book and knitting needles with yarn before getting up, "I'm coming," she tells him.

Curious about the new hobby that she is taking up, he asks, "What were you doing?"

Lynn, who is in the garage picking up some of the bags and not listening, asks, "What?"

He approaches her, and asks again, "What are you doing with knitting needles and yarn?"

"Raffaelina let me borrow them," she says as she passes him with the groceries.

That doesn't answer his question. As she sets the down the groceries to go back to the garage and get more bags, he approaches the table and sees instructions on how to knit baby booties. Francisco looks towards the garage, surprised that she would take up such a hobby. He picks up the book and looks at the patterns, all of them are baby items, and his mind begins to wander to a possibility.

'Is she…? Nah! Maybe…It wouldn't be the end of the world, and it is bound to happen, especially considering…' He shakes his head, 'Granted, it's not the greatest time, especially when it comes to our finances, but it's not impossible, especially with her family and mom around to help. If it's a girl, then the Louds will have baby stuff galore, and if they didn't, then mom will just buy as much as she can like she did with Elena.'

"Hey! Are you just gonna to stand there? I thought that you needed my help," Lynn says as she snaps him out of his thoughts.

She goes back to get the last few bags, and Francisco walks up to her and asks, "Lynn, are you pregnant?"

Shocked, Lynn drops the bags in her hands, "What?! No! Why would you ask that?"

"Well I saw the designs for the baby booties and I thought…"

"No," she says clearly, "They're for Lucy. We're throwing a baby shower for her and I wanted to make her a present, because I have no idea how easy it's going to be to find black baby booties."

"Oh…never mind then," he says with a blush from embarrassment.

Lynn nervously walks back into the house with the bags in tow. She drops them off on the counter and grabs the knitting materials off of the table, and places them in the bag that she got from Raffaelina. Out of nowhere, after he brought up the subject of a baby, it made her tense, and she desperately hopes that he isn't picking up on it.


Francisco opens his eyes as the light in the room turns on. He looks over at Caroline, who is looking over a written note. He makes an attempt at getting up from the bed, when she hears him struggling and walks over to him to gently help him up.

"How's your back?" she asks. "Is it better than yesterday?"

He nods his head in an attempt to tell her that he's doing okay, but his face can't hide the pain. He grabs a pain pill from the nightstand to consume, "I've been better."

After an accident at work, Francisco's back has gotten worse and he was put on bed rest by a doctor; with the help of a physical therapist, he has been making strides, but he has spent the last couple of days at home and in pain.

He looks over at his girlfriend, and notices that she is already dressed for the day, "Are you going out or something?"

"I told your mom this morning that I would run some errands that she needed done while she is at work," Caroline tells him, as she brushes her hair.

He looks at his watch. It's mid-morning and his mom has already gone to work, leaving the couple alone until she gets home.

"It'll probably be a few hours, so can you watch Elena? It's cold outside, and I don't want her getting sick, plus it'll be much easier to run around doing these errands without worrying about her."

Francisco scratches his head, "Yeah, I can handle her."

She kisses his cheek, "Her bottles are in the fridge, don't let her go outside without warm clothes on, and she will probably take a nap in a few hours, so she'll be easier to take care of."

He smiles, "I can handle it. I promise. Look," Francisco walks over towards Elena's crib, where the infant is turning towards her dad. He rarely spends that much time with her alone, but he can't imagine that it's going to be that difficult. He leans over to pick up the infant, but Caroline notices that he's purposefully resting against the crib to keep himself up.

"Alright. Just be careful," she warns him before giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Is it that hard to believe that I can handle my own daughter?"

Caroline shakes her head, "No, I meant be careful that you don't hurt yourself."


"Are you serious?" asks Lynn over the phone.

Lily called her sister and let her know that the heater has gone out at home, which is beginning to derail some of the details for the upcoming baby shower.

"Do you think that anyone else can host?"

"What about your place?" asks Lily.

"There is no way that Francisco is going to agree to it, unless I ask him," Lynn says.

"I meant your apartment."

"Oh…It's too small. It can't host mom, Lucy's friends and everyone that's visiting from out of town, not unless some people are cool with hanging out in the bathroom."

"Yeah, I guess nobody's gonna want to do that. Do you think that we'll be able to book a place to host it?"

"And waste that money?"

"Well what other bright ideas do you have?"

Lynn looks around and she thinks about what she said earlier in the conversation. Francisco's place is large enough to host the immediate family and some of Lucy's friends, and it's not like they're going to be hanging around for long, only a few hours at best.

"I guess I can ask Francisco to see if we can use his place."

He hears his name and asks, "Use my place for what?"

"Lucy's baby shower," she answers. "The heater at mom and dad's place busted down and it's freezing in there." A muffled voice sounds off from the phone, Lynn puts it on speaker, "Say that again, Lily."

"I said that we would really appreciate it, and that Lisa shouldn't have been playing with the heater!"

"I was attempting to repair it to help father!"

Francisco whispers so that Lily can't hear them, "Why can't Lucy host it? Her house is a hell of a lot bigger than mine."

"Because it's a surprise, and she doesn't know about it."

Francisco tries to think of another person that can host, but he knows that Lily and Lisa have no place of their own and Lynn's apartment is too small to host all of the sisters, let alone the other guests; how he wished that other Loud siblings still lived in Royal Woods, or at least nearby.

In a defeated voice, he asks, "What day?"

"Friday, we can do it early in the afternoon and then we'll be out of your hair in a few hours, and I can probably convince Lisa to give you a day off."

"Thank you, Lily," Lynn tells her little sister before hanging up the phone.

Lynn turns to Francisco, who does not look thrilled about the last minute arrangement, despite agreeing to it. She can see that he is trying to think of everything that he has to do to get the house ready and possibly wonder if he is missing anything.

"I'm letting you and the girls throw the shower here, but I do not, and I repeat, do not want to attend. I don't mind a little trash, but I don't want the house to have broken anything, understood?"

Lynn rolls her eyes, "How badly do you think we're going to behave?"

"I'm just covering my bases."

"And you don't want to come?"

He shakes his head, "No, thank you."

Lynn approaches him and looks him in the eye, "Even if we offer you cake?"

He shakes his head again, "No, but call it payment for using my home as your meeting place."


Francisco carries the infant to the living room, "Well, Elena, I can't move around a lot, but I guess that a good thing, since you can't either," he tells the infant. "What can we watch that both of us will like?" he asks as he grabs the remote and takes a seat on the couch.

He looks down at his daughter and back at the screen; he remembers that aside from sports and homework, his early years were filled with watching tv in his spare time, and while he didn't mind, he should at least not place his daughter down the same way that his parents did.

"Okay, maybe no tv for a few more years, do you want to play with a ball?"

He silently waits for a response, before realizing that she is not going to say anything.

Francisco sets her down on the floor, and struggles to get up from the couch to walk towards his closet. He figures that there should be something in there that Elena can handle and not hurt herself.

He spots a wiffle ball and he takes it to clean it now that his daughter has taken the habit of putting things in her mouth. He looks down at the spot where he let her down and notices that she is gone.

Francisco hears giggling, and he spots her crawling around the couch. He can't remember if Caroline mentioned if their daughter could crawl, but he doubts it, since she probably would have recorded it for him.

He pulls out his phone and calls to the still infant, "C'mon Elena. Crawl for the camera."

She doesn't move.

Francisco slowly moves away from her, but only her eyes follow him. He takes the wiffle ball and drops it on the ground, in hopes that the ball will grabs her attention enough to have her crawl towards it, but she still doesn't move. Francisco puts his phone away as he reaches down for the ball and Elena squeals upon seeing him slightly closer to the ground.

"Oh boy…"

He could just wait for a time when there is someone to help him up, but he can't help himself; he's happy to see his daughter reach another milestone. Francisco takes a seat on the couch, and slowly slides off of the couch to get to the floor.

Francisco bites down on his lower lip in pain, but he figures that it'll be worth it when Elena crawls to him. He rests his arm on the couch to support himself, "Come here, Sunshine."

She doesn't move.

"Are you serious?"

He sighs; disappointed that she won't crawl. Francisco rolls the ball on the floor, but quickly loses control of it. He tries to reach for it, but the pain in his back is making it difficult to move from his current seated position.

"On my back or on my front?" he asks himself.

Francisco decides to reach for the ball with his torso facing down. He drags his body as best as he can to reach the ball, when he hears giggling again.

He looks over at Elena who looks as though she is going to crawl again. He quickly grabs his phone and makes sure that he captures the moment. The girl crawls towards her dad, who smiles as he records her.


Lynn buries herself under the blanket. Normally, cold weather wouldn't deter her, but she can't get out from under Francisco's silly tiger blanket. It doesn't even look like it should be able to handle freezing temperatures, but here she is, burying herself under a blanket like a stubborn child that doesn't want to go to school.

"Lynn," Francisco says as he pulls the blanket from her, "Stop it. I'm getting cold."

"Well, turn on the heater. Nothing's stopping you."

"Why? This blanket is perfect at keeping out the cold weather."

He isn't wrong, but rather than pull on the blanket anymore, she rolls over to him and pulls him into a tight embrace, "Better?"

"Much, but we'll have to get out of bed eventually."

"Why?" she whines. "I'm nice and comfortable."

"And the baby shower starts in a few hours," he reminds her. "Besides, didn't you say that Leni was going to be here early in the morning to help with the decorations?"

Lynn sighs. She did say that, but it didn't mean that she wanted to get out of bed to set up. At the moment, there are boxes of decorations in the living room, the snacks are in the kitchen, and the guests are on their way over while Lucy's friends distract her until it's time for the shower; so if Lynn is doing the math right, it should only take less than an hour to set things up.

The doorbell rings.

Francisco smiles and in an obviously sarcastic voice, "I wonder who that is?"

"Zip it," Lynn tells him. "Can you go distract her while I take a shower?"

"Seriously?"

"Please?"

He sighs as he gets out of bed. Lynn takes it as a good sign, and quickly grabs her clothes to take a shower. As Francisco gets to his feet, he can feel his back aching as he tries to move. He grabs and takes a pain pill before slowly dragging his feet to the door.

He opens the door and notices a taxi pulling away from the house, "Good morning, Leni. How are you?"

Leni pulls him in for a hug, "Good morning," she notices the tired look in his eyes. "Are you sick? Here," she says as she pulls out a scarf from her luggage, "take this to get warm."

"Thank you," he tells her, "but I just got up. Come inside, its cold out. Did you catch a red-eye flight?" he asks, as he helps her with her bags.

Leni walks inside and removes her coat, "No, I don't think that airplanes have red eyes, but I think some of the airline staff did. Luckily, I was able to find such an early flight from North Dakota."

"New store opening or just training the staff again?"

After Leni graduated from high school, she began to work at Reinenger's Department Store full-time, eventually grabbing the attention of higher-ups who noticed her warm personality and promoted her to training manager for all of their locations. At the moment, it grants her a lot of opportunities to travel, while teaching other employees her secrets to being a top employee; no wonder, Reinenger's has stayed strong for the last decade.

"Just staff training," Leni looks around the house. Her mind is beginning to work her decorative magic as she plans out how the house will look once she and Lynn place the decorations.

She walks around and Francisco follows her, as if waiting for her to say something to him. He notices that she is not paying attention to where she is going, and he tries to stay ahead of her to keep her from tripping over furniture.

As she moves, Leni goes in a random direction and ends up tripping over one of Lynn's discarded shoes. Francisco manages to grab her before she hits the floor.

Leni looks up at him before scowling, "Francisco! I'm a married woman and I'm not going to let you hurt my little sister."

He doesn't know what she is talking about, but he quickly lets go of her when she is on her feet. Leni continues her look around the room, when she turns around and asks Francisco, "Is Lynn here? I was hoping to catch up and then we can get started before everyone gets here."

Francisco points down the hallway, "I'll go get her," he tells her as he goes to retrieve Lynn, so that the two of them can get started. As he drags his feet down the hallway, he hears footsteps approach him followed by Lynn running past him. She sneaks up behind Leni to give her a hug. The two sisters laugh and begin to catch up.

He leaves the two alone and heads down to the basement; deciding to spend his afternoon cleaning up and far from the guests, however, what he didn't count on was that he didn't have many possessions down there in the first place, and that cleaning up would take less time than anticipated.

As he organizes the boxes by their contents, he spots a box of Christmas lights and decorations. Francisco looks down at his watch; it's almost noon and only a few days into December, "I guess, that's something else to do.

Lynn and Leni set up the decorations, and when he walks upstairs he is taken by surprise by a slew of pink, blue, and black decorations. As Francisco said, he does not plan on participating in the baby shower, and he decided to clean out the basement in an effort to avoid the guests.

"This is an interesting color scheme for a baby shower," Francisco says, surprised by the decorations that Lynn and Leni set up.

"It's Lucy. What did you expect?" Lynn jokes.

"Are you sure that you don't want to join us?" Leni asks, "Lynn said that you just wanted to be alone and not participate."

Lynn shakes her head, "He made it very clear," she clears her throat and in her best Francisco impersonation, "I'm gonna be the only man there, I don't know Lucy's friends, this is more for you, your sisters, and Lucy's lady friends, I'll–" she breaks into a coughing fit. "I'll…be…fine…" she says between coughs.

"Are you trying to copy my voice again?" Francisco asks, as heads into the garage to grab his ladder and tool box.

"Where are you going with that box?" she asks, as she notices the box of Christmas lights.

"The basement wasn't as messy as I thought it was, so I'm going to go put up these lights. I figure since I'm not going to work and everyone is going to be inside, I can get a jump start on decorations."

"Really? You'd rather do that than stay inside and have cake?" Lynn asks, as she tempts him with a pink and blue frosted cake.

Francisco looks at the cake, unfazed, "I'm sure."

He takes the box of lights outside and sets down the materials as he steadies the ladder to head up to the roof. From his locations, he notices the guests as they arrive; each one greeting him, asking what he is doing, and inviting him inside to join them, which he politely rejects each time.

As Francisco hammers away the nails to set up the lights, he notices Vanzilla pulling into the driveway with a blindfolded Lucy. The sisters and other guests get out of the car and begin to lead her to the front door. He doesn't make a single sound until he can hear everyone inside yelling 'surprise', after which, he goes back to work.

He manages to set up some of the colorful lights, and as he gets up, his foot makes contact with a patch of ice and he slips; dropping his tools and box of lights on the ground. Francisco manages to land on a tree, but his weight eventually causes the branch to snap and he falls to the ground.

The women all hear a crashing sound from the roof and run towards the source. They can't see anything from the front window, except for the box of lights and the tree with a pile of snow underneath.

"Do you see anything?" Lori asks.

Leni responds, "I see snow and houses," the sisters all looks at her, "Oh! And there's Francisco stumbling towards the door after his snow nap."

Lisa opens the door, "Potential brother-in-law, do you require medical assistance?"

Rather than answer, he places his arm on door frame and pops his dislocated shoulder back into place, "I'm fine," he says before going back outside.

The women all look at him, stunned that he is planning on going back onto the slippery roof. They grab their coats and follow him, where they spot him by the ladder, rubbing his knee before making another attempt at going up on the roof again. He doesn't notice them, until he feels all of their eyes staring at him.

"What's wrong?"

"You," Lola responds. "You plan on going back on that icy roof?"

Lana asks, "What if you fall again?"

"Or slip off the roof again?" asks Leni.

"I'll be fine," he tries to assure them, but none of them are taking the response and they take his arms to lead him back inside. "What are you doing?"

"We're doing this for your own good," says Lori.

The group of women surround him and sit him down in a chair and put a slice of cake in front of him.


Francisco watches his daughter crawl around from the floor. Every few minutes, she would stop look at him, crawl to him, and then crawl away after he brought her in for a hug. He looks at the time, and decides that it she should have something to eat. He calls the girl with open arms and she crawls to him, but unlike the other times, Francisco keeps her in his arms and tries his best to get to his knees and place her on the couch.

With the infant seated, he makes strained attempts to get up, but each time he feels the intense pain overtake him, "Damn back…damn physical therapist…damn idea to get on the floor…"

After cursing everything that caused his back pain, Francisco takes a deep breath and gets off of the floor with all his might. Once he's on his feet, he lays on the couch, "Okay…no more floor exercises…at least…until someone else is home…"

Francisco hears the mailbox creak open and close. The mailman passes by the window, "I better go get those." He looks down at the girl and then looks at the snow outside. Caroline told him not to let her outside without something warm to cover her.

"I don't know where your winter clothes are, but I know where my jacket is, so we can do this and you can see the snow today. What do you say?"

She doesn't respond.

"Right, I have to remember that you aren't going to say anything," he says to himself.

Francisco grabs her and heads to the closet by front door and grabs his coat. He loosely places it around his shoulders and keeps Elena tightly in his arms, as the two head outside. He grabs the mail, and he shows her the snowy street, "I can't wait until we can play outside," he tells her.

He looks down and feels her burying herself in shirt. He smiles and gives her a little kiss on her head, before heading inside. Francisco grabs a tissue and blows his nose as he feels trickle down his nose, "Oh good, no blood."

He sets down the letters, and takes off his jacket, when he notices, a spot of blood on his shirt. He looks at Elena, who has blood on her face and on her clothes. Francisco chuckles, "Guess we have another bleeder in the family. You can blame your grandpa, he gave it to me and your uncles," he tells her.

Elena coos at him and he smiles, as he takes her to get out of the bloody shirt, "If your mom asks, you threw up on your shirt, got it?" he winked at her.

Saying that reminded Francisco that he hasn't fed the infant. After getting her changed, he heads to the fridge and grabs a bottle for her to drink, "Do I warm this up?" he asks her. "Probably."

He places the bottle in the bottle warmer, and he sets her down on her high chair and as they wait for the bottle, he decides to play with Elena.

He covers his eyes, "Where's daddy?" he asks. "Peek-a-boo!"

Elena giggles, and he tries again, each successive time changing it up by either sneaking up from under her high chair, covering only his eyes, or covering his face with a kitchen towel; and each time she enjoys her dad's little antic.


Francisco stares at the wall as he fiddles around with the plastic pacifier around his neck. He told Lynn that he didn't want to attend, because he knew that he wouldn't find much enjoyment out of a baby shower with nearly twenty other women. Every time he tries to leave, he can feel their eyes on him, and he won't leave; it's made worse by the Loud sisters' puppy-dog eye routine.

Rita takes a seat next to him, "Are you okay? Does your shoulder still hurt after that tumble off the roof?"

"It's fine. Just didn't expect to spend my afternoon attending a baby shower."

"Have you ever been to one?"

He shakes his head. Growing up, he heard his mom mention attending them, but she never actually told him what went down at a baby shower; even when Caroline had one, he never attended either. As he looks around at the living room, he notes the guests eating snacks snacking, talking, and playing a few games.

"I don't think that it ever crossed my mom's mind, although maybe if I was really little she might have brought me along."

"Well we're glad to have you join us."

Lily shows up in front of Francisco and Rita, and presents to him a hangar with a bunch of clothespins attached, "How many can you get with one hand, Francisco?"

Rita places a hand on his shoulder, "Try and make the best of it. You might even have a little fun."

He sighs and complies with both women. He starts unclasping the clothespins and Lily counts along with each one he keeps in his hand until all of them fall to the floor, "Alright, Francisco's the new lead with twenty-nine," Lily announces to the others.

"No fair! He's got a bigger hand than all of us!"

"You're really got to hand it to him," Luan jokes.

The others groan at the joke.

"Francisco! We've got another game," calls out Luan, "Do you want to play?"

He doesn't, but he figures that if she goes along then maybe everything can go a little faster. He tries to get up, but his struggles to do so. Rita calls out to Lynn, who asks, "Do you need your medicine?"

Francisco nods his head, "Yeah…I think I forgot to take it this morning."

"Alright, just give me a minute and then we can go back to playing games," she says excitedly.

The next few hours go as Francisco saw before Rita began chatting with him. Yes, managed to win a few games, even if Lynn jokingly tells him that he has an unfair advantage in some, but he tries to make the best of the situation for everyone else's sake.

"Alright everyone!" Lynn calls, "Time for more cake!"

The guests surround the dining table and Lynn begins cutting slices of cake and Francisco helps her by handing out slices of cake to everyone.

Rita takes a seat next to her daughter, "How's our new little addition to the family doing so far?"

"Not bad, sigh…"

Leni asks, "What's wrong, Lucy? Are you nervous about the baby?"

"A little, but I think that Rocky is getting more anxious with each doctor's appointment."

"Trust me, Lucy. You're both going to be fine," Francisco speaks up, "Right now, he probably has all these thoughts running through his head, and believe me I've had my fair share. I mean, the women do all the work and we have plenty of time to think, 'Am I going to relate to him?' 'Will I be a good father to him?' and 'What if he turns out to be a she?'."

The guests laugh.

"All that ran through your head?" asks Lucy.

"There was more, but it's not like you're the only couple to have these thoughts running through your heads. And I know it's stressful, but sooner or later, you're going to have that little baby in your arms and I think that you and Rocky will be fine."

The words comfort Lucy. For the last couple of months, she kept thinking about how different her life is going to be, and she may not be ready for motherhood at such a young age; but hearing those words eased her fears a bit.

"Even when they're little," Francisco continues, "you'll find something you have in common with your kid. Heck, when Elena was a baby we had so much in common; we liked eating on time, a nap in the afternoon, and good game of peek-a-boo."

Everyone laughs.

Rita places a hand on her daughter's shoulder, "And you'll always have your friends and family to help you with our little…" she strays, hoping that Lucy will reveal if she is having a boy or a girl.

"Boy and girl," Lucy finishes.

The sisters squeal in delight and Francisco and Lucy's friends cover their ears at the shocking sounds. Everyone offers their congratulations to the mother-to-be.

When the shower is over and the guests gone, Lynn and Francisco begin to clean up the decorations; luckily, they kept it neat, except for the confetti and glitter that Lola insisted on.

"I've got a few more hours until I have to pick Elena up from her piano lessons, do you want to go out to eat later?"

"Why? We've got plenty of food," Lynn says. "I left some cake and snacks for you and Elena in the fridge."

He chuckles, "Lynn, I meant something more substantial than cake and chips. C'mon, it's my treat."

Lynn looks over at him; after an afternoon of junk food, it does sound nice to be able to sit down, go out and eat something better than sugary snacks, "Deal! And I promise to not take advantage of your generosity."

He doubts that she won't try; Lynn is a sucker for good food, no matter the cost.

As they continue to clean, she speaks up, "You know, I didn't know that that sort of stuff ran through a guy's head when he finds out that he's going to be a dad, or maybe it was more like it never crossed my mind."

He smiles, "I don't think that it ever crossed your mind."

"Yeah, probably," she says. Then she begins to wonder, "So what would go through your mind if instead of one kid you ended up with twins?"

"I probably would have been shocked at the news, but the ideas are still the same. Although, if one of the twins was a boy, I'd probably understand him a little more than Elena."

"That difficult to understand her?"

"She's getting older. It's bound to happen, it still hurts, you know," he says, a little sad that Elena is getting to the age where it's normal for her to want more independence.

"Well, you're still young, you can have another kid and even after a few mishaps," she tells him in a nonchalant way.

Francisco raises an eyebrow, "A few mishaps? Like what? A miscarriage? I didn't know you liked dark humor, Lynn." He notices her looking away. "Lynn…what are you trying to tell me?"

She scoffs, "Nothing. It was just a hypothetical," her eyes shift.

"Lynn, tell me the truth. What are you trying to tell me?" he asks again.

She sighs after being found out. She shakes her head back and forth, as if trying to get the words out of her mouth, "It's happened before."

"I'm sorry, what?" He wants to be sure that he understands her correctly. "A miscarriage?"

She nods.

Francisco notices her looking away from him; he doubts that she would joke about such a thing, but he almost can't believe it, "Lynn…Wh-When did that happen?

"When I was sick this summer."

"So months ago? Are you serious? Why didn't you tell me?!" he asks, clearly upset that she never mentioned it once.

"You weren't exactly in a good place around that time, remember? I figured that you didn't need to stress yourself out about something out of your control and make yourself upset about what could have been."

He begins to take deep breaths, "Lynn, no matter what the hell you thought, that doesn't mean that I shouldn't have known! It involved the two of us, and it didn't once cross your mind that maybe I should have known?!"

"That's why I'm bringing it up now!'"

"I would have preferred to have known when it happened!"

"Fine! They were both in July!"

He opens his mouth when she says that, "Both?" he whispers, "This happened before? When was the first time?"

Lynn stares at him, "It was after we got back together."

Francisco sets down the trash and walks away from her. He needs to clear his head and think about everything that she just told him. He can't believe that she kept that from him twice. He would have understood if it was only a few days ago, but months, years without telling him, is too much for him to emotionally take in. He pulls out his truck keys and drives away.


Francisco rocks the freshly-changed Elena on his lap. The last couple of hours have been going well except for the bloody nose incident and getting stuck on the floor for a little longer than anticipated, but he admits that both incidents are his own fault.

He picks up her stuffed sheep and bounces it around in front of her, "Are you getting anything from this?" he asks.

Elena looks up and blinks.

"Yeah, I thought so…" he doesn't know what to say, and instead he continues to play with the toy.

The infant reaches out for the toy and Francisco hands it to her. Once she has the toy in her possession, she stuffs one of the legs in her mouth and drools all over it. Francisco makes a light attempt at taking the toy from her, but she holds on tightly to her little sheep.

He chuckles, "I can't blame you. It's your favorite toy."

Francisco rests his back on the couch and he places his daughter on his chest, but she squirms, "I thought that you would want a nap. It's getting late, you know." The girl blinks and smiles at her dad, "Right. You can't tell time yet. When you go to school, then you'll learn."

Elena bops Francisco's head with her sheep and she giggles when Francisco pretends to be hurt by her 'attack'.

He rests his feet on the edge of the couch, squares his knees, and places Elena on his shins as he begins to rock her in hopes of getting her to fall asleep. For the first few minutes, she seems to be enjoying the ride with a smile on her face, before Francisco notices the look on her face. He stops rocking her, but it's too late and Elena throws up her lunch on her dad's lap.

"Okay, I deserve that," he sighs, as he takes her in his arms. "I wish that it wasn't in such an unfortunate spot, but now we're both getting new outfits before your mom gets home."

Francisco takes Elena to his bedroom to change out of his pants. As he sets her down on the bed, he can hear her yawn, "Are you tired? Alright, let me get you to your crib," he tells her.

She becomes fussy in his arms, "I know that you don't want to nap, but it's time for you to get your rest," he yawns. "See? Even daddy needs a nap," he tells her as he sets her down in the crib.

Elena begins to cry, and Francisco picks her up to rock her to sleep. She begins to settle down, and Francisco makes another attempt at placing her in her crib, but once again, she cries.

"You have to go to sleep," he tells her. "Trust me, when you're older you'll beg for a nap."

She snuggles up against his shirt, and he sighs. He takes a seat on his bed, rests against his pillows and watches her as rocks her, "Sorry I can't sing to you, but trust me you're better off," he jokes.

Elena's eyelids begin to get heavier and she closes her eyes to fall asleep.

Francisco tries to move, but Elena squirms. He immediately stops and so does she, "Alright, you win, but only because I love you so much."


Elena opens the door to the truck, and notices her dad staring at the windshield as he greets her. She buckles up, and he begins his drive. During his usual pick-up days, she knows that he's not the most talkative person out there, but she can see raw emotion in his eyes. He's doing his best to concentrate on the road, but bottling his feelings can't good.

To break the silence, she asks, "Are you okay, dad?"

He nods his head, "Yeah…" he quietly says.

She doesn't believe him. She remembers that same look on his face when he apologized to her for not telling her about his relationship with Lynn and as much as she wants him to tell her what is bothering her, Elena knows that he probably won't open up at the moment.

When they arrive home, Elena walks up to the door, and notices him grabbing a bag out of the back seat. The look on her dad's face is still the same, and she opens her mouth to ask him what's bothering him, but before he could say anything, he says, "Can you give me and Lynn a few minutes of privacy please?"

He opens the door, and Lynn greets them as if she never brought up anything. She looks at Elena, "There's some snacks and cake in the fridge if you want any."

Elena looks up at her dad, and notices the serious look in his eye as he stares at Lynn, "I will. I'll probably get some after I study," she lied.

Francisco takes a seat on the couch. Lynn's eyes turn towards the girl, who is walking towards her room, and she looks back at Francisco, who seated with a bag in tow. He opens the bag and reveals two little stuffed animals – a horse and what Lynn assumed to be a lioness or maybe a puma, however it could be a cougar; not that she has been to the zoo recently to know the difference.

He interrupts her thoughts, "I was looking through some articles on my phone and–"

Lynn knows what he may be trying to do and she tries to deflect, "Are they for you?"

"No, they're for you. I don't know, maybe holding something can help you let go or not be upset," he sighs. The whole time, he was mad that she didn't mention anything to him, but forgot about how she went through this ordeal alone without anyone around to help her. Once he calmed down a bit, he began some research on some ways to comfort someone in the aftermath.

He hands her a toy, but she doesn't take it, "I'm fine. I got over it years, months, whatever ago," she tells him in an effort to remind him that she is fine.

"Good for you," he says under his breath.

"Look. I get that you're mad. Go ahead, be mad. Think the worst of me, because I don't have a good enough reason for what happened," she loudly tells him.

He takes the toy back, "Fine!" Francisco says getting up from the couch. "Forget it!"

Lynn sighs. He isn't going to get over it overnight, and rather than make him look at her and have a constant reminder of what she did; she decides to go home.

Elena hears Dutch from her room. She steps out and she notices that Lynn is gone and her dad is angrily making a sandwich, "What happened?"

Francisco looks up and tries to calm his angered movements, "Nothing, Lynn just needed to go to her apartment."

She knows that he's lying. For the last couple of months, Lynn has been around visiting more often and the women's clothes in the laundry hamper confirm that she's been spending the night as well. She doubts that Lynn really needs to go home, but she can see that her dad is going back to angrily making his sandwich, and she knows that she needs to tread lightly.

"Do you want me to make you one?" he says with a strain in his voice.

Elena shakes her head, "Its fine I can make one." She looks in the fridge and sees the pink and blue frosted cake. The eleven-year-old doubts that he would make such a cake, but after noticing bits of confetti on the ground and a pacifier necklace, she figures out that there was a baby shower earlier in the day. She takes a seat next to her dad, who is silently stroking the horse's mane.

"Bucky?" she asks, assuming the horse's name.

He chuckles a bit, and goes back to playing with the toy, "You know, when you were a baby, I used to do this with your little sheep. I don't remember if you liked it or not, but…"

He drifts off, and Elena tries to get him back on track, "I think I remember that sheep," she lied; she doesn't know what he was talking about. "Did I take it around a lot?"

"Only until your abuela threw it away; I can't remember if it was because it was too dirty or you left it on the floor."

That was usually Alicia's reason for throwing out anything of his growing up, she always said that it was because it looked like he didn't care about the toy, but he can imagine that it was really about him being messy as a little boy.

"That's a shame."

"I think I have a video of it in the cloud. I'll look for it later, and you can see how cute you were with your little chubby cheeks," he teases.

"Dad," she groans in embarrassment at hearing that, despite looking forward to seeing the video.

Later that evening, Francisco gets into bed. His back is aching after all of the day's tension; he grabs a pill and hopes to at least numb the physical pain until he can fall asleep. He's all alone in the bed, and he's relieved that he doesn't have to worry about seeing Lynn after what she said.

He looks over at the little stuffed animals that he bought, grabs the horse, and falls asleep with it in his arms.


Can you believe that it's almost Christmas again in the story? That's what happens when I make the original story had far fewer chapters and needed a rewrite to make longer than intended and make it somewhat more believable, especially since I originally planned for this to only go for around 12-15 chapters, so I really went past that.

Anyway, did you actually expect that that was what Lynn was hiding? Maybe, I wasn't exactly descriptive before, so I might have missed some key clues, but I love revealing things a little slower than necessary, plus the mystery is more fun (to me at least), but don't think that that's the only thing being kept in the shadows.

Thank you readers, until next time.