A/N - Thanks for the reviews. A very helpful reviewer pointed out that some of the Spanish phrases are incorrect. Apparently, using an online translator is not effective. At any rate, I'm still going to include phrases here and there, but I'll do better to verify they are correct! Hopefully, I haven't confused anyone too much.

Returning to the office after meeting with Carlos, Elena hurried to her desk. His parting words to her left her feeling worried. What if he had already set something in motion? She had to find out for sure. After logging into her computer, she opened an application that would tell her what she needed to know. She looked up quickly to make sure no one from the team was around. All gone from their desks, she assumed that they were working on a case. As soon as she found out what she needed to know, she'd call Jack to let him know she had returned from the meeting.

Looking back at the computer screen, she typed in the name: Rafael Alvarez. Immediately, several entries returned of Rafael Alvarez's with criminal records. Scanning the list, she found the one she was looking for rather quickly.

"Thank you so much for taking Nicky and Cristina with you today," Sylvia said in a grateful tone. "I know they are a handful…well, Cristina is a handful!"

When Elena suggested that they take Sophie ice-skating that weekend, just a couple of weeks after they'd started dating, Danny had asked if he could bring along Nicky and, his now almost two year old niece, Cristina, since he usually tried to do something with them at least one Saturday a month to give Sylvia a break and to keep in better touch with his brother's family.

"Our pleasure," Elena replied as she helped Sylvia prepare dinner in the kitchen. "I remember when Sophie was that age," she said as she nodded to Cristina who Danny was playing with on the floor of Sylvia's living room. "I was worn out keeping up with her, and I only had her!"

"Well, Nicky's actually a big help most of the time. So I'm lucky, but it was nice to actually get something done on a Saturday afternoon. I even took time to take a bath."

Elena smiled. She'd only just met Sylvia that morning, but she'd instantly felt comfortable with her. "Good for you, chica! Danny and I had a great time with all them. Sophie is in love with the little one and she's fascinated by Nicky, so it was all good. And to top it all off, Danny learned how to not fall down while ice-skating," she said in an extra loud tone so that he could hear.

"I heard that!" Danny called out from the living room. "Ice-skating isn't natural. It's wearing boots with knives on 'em on top of frozen water -- crazy past-time if you ask me, but I endured it for the kids."

"So self-sacrificing!" Elena called out as she heard Danny laugh in the living room. "He loved every minute of it," she said in a lower tone to Sylvia.

"I don't know what I'd do without him. I mean, I have family. I have a brother and sister and mother who are a great support system for me, but there's something about Danny that Nicky just connects with. Having him around the last couple of years, with Rafi gone, it's been a blessing," Sylvia said as she looked at a photo of Rafi, her, Nicky and Cristina during a recent prison visit.

Elena looked closer at the photo. Sylvia, Nicky and Cristina had genuine smiles on their faces while Rafi had a smile that didn't quite meet his sad eyes. "He and Danny have the same eyes," she observed.

"Eyes like their mother," Sylvia agreed as turned back to the stove. "But that's where the comparisons end. Rafi has a temper and insecurity like their father. I guess Danny's had bouts with that, too, but he got some kind of strength from their mother."

"You've been so patient to wait for Rafael. How do you do it?" Elena asked, remembering how she'd eventually lost all patience in dealing with Carlos and he wasn't in prison.

"Oh believe me, I've had my moments. There's a reason why Rafi and I aren't married yet. He should get out by the end of this year. If he comes back and proves that he'll stay clean and try to live a normal life without trying to pursue some unrealistic pipe dream, then we'll get married. If not, then I'll have to figure something else out. Danny and I have both promised ourselves that if he stays on the right path in prison and then makes an honest effort when he gets out, that we'll support him."

"Very admirable," Elena said as she shredded lettuce into a bowl.

"Especially admirable for Danny. When they were kids, Rafael broke his heart so many times. The whole reason he spent so many years in group homes and foster care was because Rafael would abandon him. Danny had to get past a lot of justified anger to be able to help Rafi again. I didn't really understand that when I first met Danny, but after getting to know him, and Rafi telling me the whole story, I'm amazed that Danny is still around."

Hearing Sylvia's words made Elena feel guilty and sad. There was so much Danny hadn't told her about himself, simply because he had been focusing on helping her with Carlos. She made mental note to make some time to talk about him. Motioning out to the living room, Elena finally responded, "I think they make it pretty easy to stick around."

Sylvia looked on with Elena as they watched a laughing Danny play a video game with Nicky as Cristina sat contently in his lap and Sophie leaned on his shoulders while watching them play the game.

Quickly becoming engrossed in Rafi's file, Elena made notes on a pad of paper. She was so involved in what she was doing that she had no idea someone was behind her.

"Good morning."

At the sound of Martin's voice, Elena nervously tried to close the application. In her haste, she typed the wrong key so that it only enlarged the window on her screen. Finally finding the right key, she closed the window and turned to Martin. "Hey," she responded, knowing she looked like a deer caught in headlights.

Eyeing her skeptically, he started to say something when Jack approached. "Good, you're back," he said as he looked at Elena. "I need you and Martin to head out to Hudson University. Martin will get you up to speed."

Turning the pad of paper over on her desk, Elena just nodded as Jack walked away. Standing up, she noticed that Martin was still watching her with a confused frown on his face.

"Ready?" she said as she took her gun out of her desk drawer.

"Uh, yeah, let's go," he said as he stepped back so that she could go first.

The first few minutes of their drive consisted of Martin telling Elena about their missing person, a female college student. After he told her everything, there was a deafening silence between them until Martin finally spoke again.

"If you want to know about Danny's brother, why don't you just ask him about it?" he asked, his voice not quite accusing, but curious.

"Martin, I can't…" she stopped, not sure what to say.

"It's none of my business, but I just—"

"I can't tell Danny about this. I can't involve him," she stated emphatically.

"If it's about Rafael, then it already does involve him. What's going on, Elena?"

Shaking her head, Elena wiped the corner of her eyes. "He can't know about this. If I tell you, you have to promise me that you'll help me protect him from this."

He looked over at her quickly, not understanding what she was saying. Returning his eyes to the road, he asked, "Why does Danny need protecting? What does it have to do with his brother?"

"Promise me, Martin," she pleaded.

"I'm not going to promise anything until I know what the hell is going on. I'm not going to promise that I'll keep something from my friend about his own brother, Elena."

Sighing heavily, Elena ran a hand through her hair. "I had meeting with Carlos this morning. I found out that he's been watching or he's had someone watching my apartment building. I just wanted to see if the mediator could do something to keep him away. But there's nothing more they can do since we already have a restraining order."

"What's that got to do with Danny's brother?"

"I asked to speak to Carlos alone. I thought I could convince him to leave us alone, but he ended up just giving me a very cryptic ultimatum."

"What do you mean?"

"If I don't stop seeing Danny, then he'll do something to hurt Danny. If he can't get to me because of the restraining order, then he'll strike Danny."

"If he's threatening Danny, then maybe he needs a restraining order, too."

"He didn't come out and threaten him. He's too careful for that. But he did mention Danny's brother and how Danny would be devastated if something happened so that his brother didn't get out of prison."

Finally understanding the full picture, Martin's eyes widened as he glanced at Elena again. "You think Carlos might try to get to Rafael."

Elena nodded. "I know I can keep everyone safe if I just end things with Danny, but what if Carlos has already set something in motion? He has informants inside who could already be planning something."

"Why would he already have something in motion? What would set him off?"

"He saw Danny come to my apartment the other night. He spent the night," she replied sheepishly. "He hadn't done that before, and I think that sent Carlos over the edge. He knows he couldn't get away with doing something to a federal agent, especially since there is still a microscope on him. But he could get away with doing something to Danny's brother."

Nodding, Martin thought for a few moments. "So what were trying to find out this morning?"

"Where he's serving time, when exactly he's up for parole, cell mates…whatever I could to figure out if he might be headed for some kind of trouble."

Taking out his phone, Martin started to scroll through his contact list. "He's in a medium security prison in White Plains. He got a pretty decent plea deal at the time, so he should be up for parole fairly soon."

"Who are you calling?" Elena asked, concerned that he'd decided that Danny should know.

"Someone who can help us make sure that Rafael is safe and doesn't get into any trouble that Carlos could manufacture for him."

The next day, Elena arrived at the office early. When she'd left the night before, their latest case had gone cold. Danny and Sam were still out following a weak lead, but Jack had told the rest of them to go home and plan to come back in the morning to start fresh.

This made her surprised to see Danny sitting at the conference table pouring over what looked like phone records. Sans jacket, tie loosened, and his sleeves rolled up, he appeared to be deeply focused on the numbers in front of him as he absently chewed on the end of his pen. Watching him like that made her heart beat a little faster.

"Morning," she said as she approached him.

"Morning," he replied, glancing up from the records. After giving her a quick, obligatory smile, he looked back down.

"Have you been here all night?"

Looking out the windows and then back at her, he ran a hand through the back of his hair. "Nah, I went home for a couple of hours, and then came back. These came in right as I was about to leave last night, so I just wanted to get a head start."

Taking a closer look at the documents, she asked, "What exactly are you looking for?"

"They are phone records from the security office at Hudson. Their system crashed last week, or so they say, and all they could salvage were these print outs. I'm just trying to see if our girl made a call to them last week. I still think someone in their security office is covering for someone."

"That's a needle in a haystack, Danny."

"Well you know me, I do like a challenge," he said as he looked up at her, clearly referring to the state of their relationship. "Besides, we don't have much else to go on, right now."

"Guess you're right," she responded quietly, deciding to disregard the first part of his response. "I'm going to get a coffee, and then I'll come back to help. Can I get you a refill?" she asked, motioning to his cup.

Danny looked at his almost-empty cup and then up at her. "I'll come with you. It will help me stay awake."

Elena smiled uneasily as she walked to her desk and put her purse away. She was glad that he wasn't acting cold to her, but knew it was just a matter of time before things would get worse. As they walked to the coffee room, she realized this was as good a time as any to talk to him.

He poured coffee into her mug and then into his, followed by a dash of cream in his cup and a more generous amount for her. It was the little things about Danny that always got to her. He knew exactly how she liked her coffee. Looking back, he'd known this long before they even got together.

As he turned to head back to the bullpen, she stopped him. "Um, Danny?"

"Yeah?" he answered as he turned to her.

"Could we…could we talk for a minute?" she asked, voice laced with dread.

From seeing the frown that suddenly appeared in his brow line, she thought he was going to say no, but instead he replied, "Sure. Here?" he asked as he looked around the break room that had a few morning stragglers hanging around.

"No. Let's go…" she motioned out the door.

Following her, he walked down the hall and into the stairwell. "First the coffee room and now the stairwell – are we taking a tour of all the places where I've kissed you?" he asked sarcasticlly, remembering a late night a few months ago where they stole a few moments together here.

Sighing slightly, Elena couldn't help but smile at the memory.

"What's up?" Danny asked as he leaned back against the wall.

"I, um, do you remember when you told Sophie that she could stop by this week to see you?"

"Of course."

"I was hoping she could stop by today after school. I could have April bring her here."

"Sure, that's fine."

Biting her lip, Elena closed her eyes for a moment before saying her next words. "I, um, I actually think it would be helpful if we could explain things to her this afternoon, so she understands—"

Danny smirked as he interrupted. "I hope you plan on being the one to explain things because I still don't know what the hell is going on between us."

Taking a breath, Elena crossed her arms in front her as if she was bracing herself. "I'm…I'm not ready to be with involved anyone, Danny. You made things really easy for me and I love spending time with you, but I don't want to lead you on. And I don't want you to think we are headed toward being this happy family. I…I…don't…I don't love you."

Right before her eyes, Danny's expression changed from obvious hurt, to anger, to something more contained. Tightening his lips together, he just nodded slightly, murmured something, and then turned toward the door.

"Danny," Elena said as she reached out.

As soon as he felt her hand on his arm, he flinched and turned toward her. "What time is Sophie going to be here?"

Looking at him with sympathy, Elena repeated, "Danny—"

"What time, Elena?" he barked.

"Around 3:30."

"Fine. I'll be there. I'll just follow your lead with whatever you want to tell her," he said as he opened the door and walked out.

As soon as the door closed, Elena's covered her mouth with her hand to stop herself from crying. She literally felt a physical ache inside from what she had just done.

Martin spent the rest of their ride to Hudson University on the phone with a few different people. One contact led him to another which finally connected him to the warden of the prison where Rafael was doing his time. Elena heard him talking about precautions they would take and even transferring Rafael to his own cell. Occasionally, he'd ask her a question about Carlos like what his aliases had been or any known associates. Right as he pulled into the parking lot at Hudson, he thanked the warden and closed his phone.

"The warden seems willing to take precautions. And he says that Rafi has been a model prisoner, no trouble. He should be paroled by the end of this year."

Elena nodded. "Thank you. Thank you for doing that. I don't think I could have gotten the warden on the phone so quickly."

"What next?" Martin inquired as he looked at her. "Look, I can't tell you what to do, but Danny needs to know—"

"No, he doesn't. Carlos won't do anything if Danny and aren't together. So that's just the way it has to be."

Shaking his head, Martin shut off the car. "You can't let him rule your life like that. It's not right."

"Martin, a few months ago, he kidnapped my daughter. Even with a restraining order, he's still dangerous. I won't expose people I care about to that. Please, just…thank you for helping me, for giving me peace of mind. Now I just need you to let it go and let me handle it."

Reluctantly, Martin had agreed with the caveat that she would get help if she needed it. Elena knew that Carlos would leave her alone if she ended things with Danny. It wasn't fair, but it was her only choice until Carlos slipped up and violated the restraining order or just lost interest in them all together.