Sitting quietly in the waiting room, Elena nervously rubbed her hands together. They felt cold and clammy. That, along with the pit in her stomach, made her wish she'd stayed in bed that morning. She'd spent the whole weekend at home with Sophie, only leaving the house to go to church on Sunday. Sophie had asked her more than once about where Danny was. Sophie had looked forwarded to seeing him on Friday. Elena had to tell her that he wouldn't be joining them and her heart broke when she'd seen that sad look on Sophie's face.

Friday night

Elena smiled at Sophie as she dialed the telephone number. Sophie was just finishing her pizza at the kitchen table. When Elena had told Sophie that they wouldn't be going to a movie with Danny that evening, Sophie couldn't understand it. So Elena was praying that Danny would be willing to talk to Sophie to help her understand.

Walking into the next room, Elena sat down on the couch as the phone rang. Finally, on the third ring, Danny answered.

"Hello," he answered, clearly knowing it was her.

Elena's voice caught when she heard his clipped tone. Usually, when he answered her call he greeted her with a charming endearment.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice softening when she hadn't responded.

"Yes, yes, I'm okay. I'm sor—"

"Look, Elena, I don't need to hear anymore apologies. I'm kind of used to this by now. We get close and then you freak out. "

You have no idea, she thought to herself. She had no intention of telling Danny about what Carlos had told to her mother. She knew that would just make him want to confront Carlos.

"I know I'm not being fair to you, Danny."

"No, you're not. As much as I understand how hard this is for you, I don't understand how you can pull away after last night. We spent the entire night together, had a great time and Sophie was still okay. You didn't have to explain anything to her. I thought you were okay with what happened?"

Closing her eyes, Elena ran a hand through her hair. She tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come. The last thing she wanted to do was start crying.

After waiting a few moments, Danny spoke again when he didn't hear a response. "Why did you call? Was it just to apologize?" he asked, trying not to sound cold, but failing.

Taking a breath, Elena spoke, "It wasn't just to apologize. When I told Sophie that we cancelled our plans for tonight, she was upset. I know I shouldn't even ask, but—"

"Put her on," Danny said.

Taking the phone from her ear, Elena called out, "Sophie, baby, someone's on the phone for you."

When Sophie entered the room, Elena tried her best to smile and look like nothing was wrong as she handed her the phone.

"Hello?" Sophie greeted.

"Hola, mija. I'm sorry about tonight."

Elena could hear Danny's changed voice on the phone. While he had sounded distant and cold with her, he'd sounded completely happy with Sophie.

"Danny!" she exclaimed. "Mommy said you couldn't come with us tonight."

"I couldn't and I hate that missed pizza night with you. Was it our favorite?"

"Yep! Pepperoni and mushrooms. Mom picked off the mushrooms on her piece. We'll we see you tomorrow?"

Elena had to take another breath to keep from tearing up when she heard the hopefulness in Sophie's tone.

"Not tomorrow, mija. I hope we'll see each other really soon, but don't blame your mom if I can't get by to see you. Things are busy right now. Maybe you can stop by the office next week after school? We can go down to the cafeteria and get some ice cream."

"That sounds good. I can't wait!"

"Me, either. Buenos nochas, mija,"

"'Night Danny!" she replied as she handed the phone back to Elena.

"Thanks for that," Elena said as she watched Sophie go back to the kitchen with a smile on her face.

"I hope what I said was okay. I didn't want to tell her that we may not see much of each other. If she comes by the office, it shouldn't be a problem if—"

"No, that was a really sweet suggestion."

Again, there were several moments of silence as neither seemed to know what to say to each other.

"Listen, Elena, if this thing is ending, then I need you to know something—"

"I don't know if it's ending Danny, I just—"

"Listen to me, Elena. I can't keep doing this. I can't hold you in my arms one night and look forward to spending time with you and Sophie only to have it taken away from me the next day without so much as an explanation. I can put up with a lot, but not that much," Danny said in an exasperated tone. Sighing lightly, Danny decided to just lay it all on the table, figuring he had nothing to lose. "Just know this…I love you. I've loved you for a lot longer than you probably even realize. I think…I think we, the three of us, could be really happy together. I've always wanted that…to be a part of a family. So I probably got ahead of myself and that's not your fault. But that's what I want...eventually. Every time you push me away, I feel like we get further and further away from that. So I don't know how healthy it is for me to keep trying."

The tears were rolling down Elena's face at such a rate that she stopped trying to wipe them away. She just tried to contain the emotion in her voice as much as possible. "I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. Just take care of yourself and Sophie…and…and I'll see you on Monday," he responded in a disappointed tone before hanging up the phone.

Putting the phone down, Elena let the sobs overtake her for a moment. She hadn't been prepared to hear all he'd just said. She hadn't been prepared to hear that he was in love with her.

"Ms. Delgado?" the receptionist called out.

"Yes, that's me," Elena replied.

"Your lawyer just arrived. Mr. Aguilar's attorney's is also here. I can take you to the conference room."

"Thanks," Elena said as she followed the receptionist down the hall of the family court building.

After she'd found out that Carlos had obviously been watching them, she'd immediately called her attorney to see if they could do something. Her lawyer said the only thing they could do was meet with a family court mediator. Elena had agreed to this partially because she wanted to see Carlos to try to reason with him to leave them alone.

"My client is running a bit late," Carlos's attorney said as Elena entered the conference room.

Elena smirked. "What a surprise," she murmured under her breath. Taking a seat, she started talking even though Carlos hadn't arrived yet. "I want your client to stay away from me, my daughter and my mother….and anyone else who is a part of our lives. I have a restraining order, Ms. Hughes. He can't watch us from outside the building—"

"Ms. Delgado, you have no basis to accuse my client of anything. He's honored the restraining order," Carlos's lawyer responded.

Shaking her head, Elena raised one of her hands, "If he's honoring the order, then why the hell did he call my mother and tell her things that he only could have known had he been watching us."

"The restraining order has no bearing on Mr. Aguilar calling you mother," Ms. Hughes said as she glanced at the family court mediator.

"No, but it does say he can't be with 500 feet. He was obviously close enough to see inside my apartment," Elena replied, her voice full of frustration.

"Ms. Delgado—"

""Hey, it's not very fair to start without me!" Carlos said as he casually walked into the room and took a seat next to his lawyer directly across from Elena.

"We just started. You haven't missed anything," his lawyer said.

"Good. I wouldn't want to miss a moment of this," he said as he stared directly at Elena across the table. "Estas buena verle, Elena."

She returned his stare with a cold, angry one of her own.

Elena's attorney broke the tension of the moment by restating what Elena just said, "Ms. Delgado would like to make it clear that you are not to watch her home, Mr. Aguilar."

Leaning forward, Elena elaborated, "My mother told me that you called her, Carlos. She said—"

Carlos smirked and then laughed. "Now it's against the law to talk to your mother? Come on, Elena. It's a free country."

"You were outside my apartment, you son of a bitch!" she responded, her voice raised.

Carlos just shook his head as he spoke. "Actually, you're wrong. A friend of mine happened to be going by your apartment, saw some disturbing things and thought I should know. Then I," he said, pointing to himself, "being a concerned father to a daughter I haven't seen in months, called her grandmother to air my concerns."

"What friend Carlos? Who? Who?" Elena demanded.

Waving his hand nonchalantly, he responded, "You don't know him—"

Elena shook her head in frustration, sick of his slimy game.

"But he saw some interesting stuff," Carlos continued as he looked at the family court mediator. "Like a single mom, who worked all day and then somehow found some time to bang her new boyfriend – with Sophie right across the hall, by the way."

Elena massaged her temples in disbelief as her lawyer spoke up. "Mr. Aguilar, I would caution you against being so coarse in this proceeding. Ms. Delgado is allowed to have a private life. She's done nothing to endanger her daughter."

"Oh really? When Sophie spent the night at my house, I'd never let someone stay over. I'd never expose her to some casual fling," he said pointed as he glared at Elena.

"He isn't a casual fling," Elena responded in irritation, but then regretted even dignifying Carlos's comment. Looking at the mediator, she explained, "He's been a friend to me and to Carlos. Sophie thinks of him as an uncle. I would never do anything to endanger or confuse Sophie. He came over that night as a friend. Sophie wasn't exposed to anything. But I can see where a peeping tom outside the window might get the wrong idea."

Her explanation seemed to satisfy the mediator, but Carlos still had a sly smile on his face. "That son of bitch is no friend to me anymore," Carlos said, his voice cold. "I'm still wondering what I'm doing here? I haven't violated the restraining order. You have no evidence that I was outside your house. If you did, you would have called the police. And unless we can talk about something important, like allowing me to visit Sophie, then I don't think we have anything more to say," he said as he rose from his chair.

His lawyer also piped. "I agree. Unless we can talk about something productive—"

"I'd like to talk to Carlos alone," Elena interrupted.

Now her attorney spoke, "I wouldn't advise that."

"Neither would I," the mediator agreed.

Raising her hand, Elena said, "Five minutes. If you could just wait outside the door, I'd like to talk to him for five minutes."

"I have absolutely no problem with that," Carlos said as he sat back down, across from her.

The mediator stood up and walked toward the door with the lawyers. "This is against my better judgment, but if you both want to talk I can't stop you. Mr. Aguilar, you are to stay on this side of the table. I'll call a security officer to stand with us outside the door. If we hear anything—"

"We're just talking. Right, Elena?"

"Right."

As the three left, Carlos looked at Elena and smiled. "This is how it should have been all along, just you and me, querida."

"I tried just working it out between you and me. That ended with you kidnapping my daughter."

Carlos's smiled faded. "It wasn't just you and me, then. You already had Danny in your corner by that time."

"This isn't about him, Carlos."

"Isn't it? We had a shot before he started looking at you with those puppy dog eyes of his."

Frowning, Elena pinched the bridge of her nose. "It was over, Carlos. It was over long before anything started with Danny. I tried to make you understand that, but—"

"How much do you know about him, anyway?" Carlos interrupted. "I mean, you two were never great friends when you and I were together. He's not the sweet, stand-up guy that you think he is."

"I'm not going to get into this with you, Carlos. All I want is for you to leave us alone. All I want is to feel safe and to know that Sophie won't go missing again. And that you won't try to hurt—"

Cutting her off like he hadn't even heard her, he continued, "Back when I first knew him, he was with a different woman every night of the week. See Danny's an addict. Did you know that?"

Elena rolled her eyes to let him know she could care less about what he was saying.

"He stopped drinking, but he couldn't stop that lifestyle, you know? Maybe he's grown out of that a little bit. Maybe he's on his best behavior with you, but it's still in him. The addiction. It's just like those pathetic losers we'd see in Vice…always needing a fix. Is that what you want our daughter to experience?"

"My daughter is my first priority. She is the most important thing to me. That will never change, no matter who is my life. Can you promise me that you'll leave us alone?" she pleaded, trying to keep the focus on Sophie.

"Can you promise me that you'll dump Danny?" he countered.

Elena shook her head. "Why are you making this about him? What is this? If I can't be with you, then you don't want me with anyone?"

Shrugging, Carlos leaned forward. "There's a thought," he said in a sinister, low tone.

"As long as you feel like that, then I'll never, ever consider letting you see Sophie. You will not threaten me or anyone around me," she said as she stood up.

"You'd never let me see her anyway. What do I have to lose?"

Stepping away, Elena started to walk towards the door.

"You want to know something else about your new lover?"

"Shut up, Carlos!"

"He has a brother in prison – who he actually helped put back in prison the last time. It'd surely send Danny into a tailspin if his brother couldn't make parole. No telling what he'd do…drinking, drugs, women…if he had to deal with that kind of guilt again," he said as he stood up. "You should be careful…for Sophie's sake."

"If you do anything—"

"I'm not going to do anything. I'm just saying, Danny's not as strong as he wants you to think he is. You'd be better off cutting ties with him and focusing on our daughter," he said as he walked toward the door and opened it.

"Hasta luega, baby," he said as he walked out the door.

Feeling like the wind was knocked out of her, she sat down quickly. Now she knew for sure: Carlos planned on punishing her by hurting Danny. She couldn't let that happen.