Walking in to the bullpen, the first thing Elena noticed was that Danny was back. He was talking on the phone in that animated, easy-going way of his. As she came closer, he glanced up at her. After spotting her, that easy-going look on his face immediately changed to something uncomfortable as he quickly looked away continuing his phone conversation.
Taking a deep breath, Elena addressed the others. "Good morning," she said while making her way to her desk.
Sam, Martin and Vivian all said good morning to her as she put her purse on her desk. Before she could even sit down, Jack entered the area.
"We have a new case this morning. Kyle Wentworth, 35. He's a teacher at Currington Academy. Married with two kids," Jacks said as he taped the man's picture to the whiteboard.
Walking back toward the bullpen, Elena focused on Jack as he brought them all up to speed with the details of the case. After telling them all what he knew, he told them what he wanted them to do next.
"Viv, Elena, Martin – I'd like you to head out to Currington. He was last seen leaving there last night. The locals have done some interviews. We need to talk to any teacher or student who may have seen him last night. Sam, you're with me. We're going to talk to his wife and other family members that have gathered at his house. Danny, you're on his background and financials here at the office. Call me if anything suspicious pops up."
Hearing Danny's name, Elena glanced at him. He'd gotten off the phone as soon as Jack entered the bullpen. Nodding to Jack, he took a file from him to start the background-gathering process.
"Elena…Elena," Vivian said.
"Yes," she responded turning away from Danny and re-focusing.
"Ready to go?" Vivian asked, clearly noticing Elena's distraction.
"Sure. Let's go," she said as she headed back to her desk to gather her things.
Elena rode with Vivian as they followed Martin in another car to Currington Academy. Elena purposely stayed close to Vivian, so she wouldn't have to ride with Martin – not wanting to talk to him anymore about Carlos or Danny.
About twenty minutes in to the forty-five minute drive, Elena's cell phone rang. Looking at the display, she saw that it was her mother.
"Hola, mama," she greeted, after opening the phone. "Is everything okay with Sophie?"
Hearing her mother's heavy sigh on the other end, Elena asked, "What's wrong?"
"Sophie is refusing to go to school. She says she doesn't feel well, but she doesn't have a temperature or stuffiness. She seems fine."
Noticing that Viv looked worried, Elena rolled her eyes as she assured her, "Sophie just says she's sick." Returning her attention to her mother, Elena said, "Put Sophie on. Let me talk to her."
After a few seconds, she heard Sophie's voice. "I'm sick, mommy."
"Mamita, are you sure? If you miss today, then you won't be able to be in the play, remember?"
"I don't care about the stupid play," Sophie responded in a whiny tone.
"Sophie, that's no way to talk. We don't say words like that, is that understood?"
At first, Sophie didn't respond. Then Elena repeated in a more stern tone. "Entiendes?"
"Si, mami, but I don't want to be in the play."
"But why, baby? You were so excited when—" Elena almost referred to Sophie telling her and Danny about it, but then stopped herself. "What's wrong, Sophie?"
"I'm sick, mami. Please don't make me go to school today," she cried.
Sighing heavily, Elena replied, "You can lay back down for another hour or so, but no television. You have to rest. When I call back, if you're feeling better, then abuela will take you to school a little late. If you really don't want to be in the play, then I'll call your teacher and let her know."
"Okay," she responded quietly.
"Put your abuela back on. Te amo, mamita."
Sophie didn't responded, she just handed the phone to her grandmother. Running a hand through her hair, Elena spoke to her mother one more time before closing her phone and sighing heavily.
"So Sophie's already at the 'talking back' age?" Vivian asked knowingly. "I wish I could say it's just a phase."
Elena smiled as she glanced at Vivian. "She's a good girl; she's just going through a tough time. I can't really get angry with her, since most of it is my doing."
Quickly looking at Elena, Viv shook her head. "What Carlos has done isn't your fault, Elena. You have to give yourself a break on that."
"It's not about the kidnapping. It's…it's…," Elena trailed off, not finding the right words.
"It's about Danny?" Vivian finished. "Is she having trouble accepting him as part of your life?"
Vivian's question caused Elena to almost smile at the impossible prospect of Sophie not accepting Danny. "No, no, on the contrary. She loves Danny so much," she replied as her smiled faded. Deciding to just come clean, Elena admitted, "She blames me because Danny and I broke up."
"Oh," Vivian said, her voice surprised. "I didn't know. I mean, I knew that you were both kind of navigating your way through things, but I'd assumed that you were back together."
"We were. I mean, we were trying, but it just didn't work out," Elena lied. It had been working perfectly, but staying together wasn't worth risking Danny or his family being hurt. "When we told Sophie, she was devastated and she still hasn't gotten over it. So now, she's sour on everything: school, playing with friends, the school play, and me, especially me."
"Well for what it's worth, I'm sorry to hear about that. When you and Danny connected, I really thought it was a great fit. I can't imagine how hard it is to be a single mother, let alone try to date. Because Danny's so great with kids and you two have so much in common, I thought—"
Hearing Vivian's remarks were making Elena feel emotional. No wanting to cry, she cut Vivian off, "Thanks, Viv. It's been tough getting through it, but it's for the best."
Realizing that Elena didn't want to talk about it anymore, Vivian stopped talking and just focused on the road in front of her.
Wiping the corners of her eyes, Elena sniffed slightly as she tried not to show Vivian how much she was hurting. She'd spent the past two nights crying herself to sleep, so she completely understood why Sophie was upset. Elena literally couldn't believe how much she missed everything about him.
After spending the morning doing interviews, Vivian and Elena returned to the office while Martin stayed behind to follow up on a few leads. Vivian pulled into a parking place in front of the building because she knew they'd be leaving again soon. As Elena exited the car, something or rather someone caught her attention across the street. Danny was sitting at a table near the window of the Starbucks. There was an attractive woman sitting across from him. Elena would have assumed it was about the case, except the way Danny was interacting with the woman told her otherwise. They were laughing and Danny was leaning toward her like he was hanging on her every word. Suddenly feeling nauseous, Elena braced herself by putting her hand on the hood of the car.
"You okay?" Vivian asked as she came around from the driver's side.
Quickly, Elena just nodded as she fell in step with Vivian on the way back into the building.
Once upstairs, she and Vivian conferred with Sam about what they had found at Currington. Two witnesses said that it had looked like their missing person got into a car with someone last night. They'd found security footage that backed this up, and also made it look like he didn't go willingly.
In the midst of discussing where they were in the case, Jack came in and interrupted, "Where the hell is Danny?" he asked, looking at Sam.
Elena glanced at Samantha, extremely interested in her answer.
"Oh, he had a lunch meeting that he had to get to. He was going to tell you, but you were on the phone. He'll be back in a half hour."
Sighing heavily, Jack turned to head back to his office. Before getting too far, he called out, "Tell him I need to see him as soon as he gets back!"
"Okay," Sam replied. "Wondering what Danny did to deserve that wrath?"
Vivian just shrugged as she returned to her desk.
Frowning, Elena turned to return to her desk as well. She had no idea why Jack wanted Danny, but she certainly was curious about who we was with. Sam had just confirmed that his "meeting" had nothing to do with the case. Was it really possible that he could have moved on so quickly, after just three days? Was Carlos right when he'd said that Danny was just one step away from falling back into his old womanizing patterns?