A/N – Sorry for the delay in updating, but many thanks for the reviews. This was a hard chapter to write because I'm headed toward a shift in the story. This chapter is necessary to introduce the shift, but there's not much going on in it. Hopefully, it's not too boring and you can look forward to some action-packed, angsty stuff in the next few chapters.

He was late, again, and Elena knew this was another very big sign that he would never change. Carlos would never take responsibility and do the right thing. He'd never realize how much he was hurting her and, most importantly, Sophie by continuing to play these games.

Sophie. She was the only reason that Elena was doing this. It was Sophie, and, strangely enough, Danny's advice that brought her to this place where she was once again waiting for Carlos to show up.

"I can't move my next appointment," Sophie's counselor, Andrea Sayers, said as she looked from Elena to the family court mediator that was always present when Elena had to meet with Carlos.

The mediator nodded. "I have an appointment as well, but we'll give it five more minutes to see if Mr. Aguilar shows up."

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Elena shook her head. "You know what? Maybe we should just forget the whole thing. If he doesn't care enough about Sophie to get here on time, then—"

"Oh here we go again," Carlos said as he strolled into the conference room. "I don't care about Sophie. I'm a bad dad. Once again, you're poisoning their minds with lies," he said as he nodded to the counselor and the mediator.

"I don't have to poison anything. You're the one who's late to a meeting about the daughter who you claim to care about."

"I do care about her! I love her and I'd do anything for her—"

"Except show up on time." Elena finished in a sarcastic tone.

Carlos took a seat across from her as he chuckled to himself. "Traffic. Bad traffic. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting," he said in a mockingly as he stared at Elena.

Closing her eyes for a moment, she took a breath to compose herself. "Can we just get this started?"

"Absolutely," the mediator said. "We're here, as Ms. Delgado pointed out, to discuss how Sophie's therapy is going. Also, since Mr. Aguilar has petitioned the court for supervised visits, we need to evaluate if that is in the best interest of Sophie considering the…the altercation from a few months ago."

Elena wanted to laugh at the term "altercation". "By altercation, you're referring to Carlos kidnapping Sophie and holding her and me at gunpoint?"

Carlos sighed heavily and started to speak, but the mediator cut him off.

"Ms. Delgado, Mr. Aguilar has not been tried or convicted. While we know an altercation occurred, he is innocent until proven guilty."

"Fine. Whatever. Let's just get to the point. Andrea?" Elena said as she looked at Sophie's counselor.

"Right. Yes. As you may know, I've been working with Sophie for the last few months…since…since the altercation. She's made great progress, but the fact remains, Mr. Aguilar's actions have caused her severe trauma. She feels responsible—"

"It wasn't her fault," Carlos interjected. "If her mother had just—"

"Had just what?" Elena interrupted. "Bent to your will? You were only going to be happy if I took you back. When you realized that was never going to happen – YOU TOOK HER! That's why we're here today," Elena practically yelled as she tried to contain her tears. "That's why Sophie has nightmares. And that's why she is terrified of you."

Carlos shook his head. "No…nah…All I need to do is spend some time with her and deprogram what you've drilled into her. What happened a few months ago got out of hand, but everything I did was because I love that little girl."

"Mr. Aguilar," the counselor cut in, trying to get them back on track. "We'd like to give you the opportunity to talk to Sophie, but we can only do that if you agree to a certain mode of communication. We want Sophie to feel safe. We want to try to alleviate the fear she has of you. And we need her to understand that it's not her that you're angry with."

"Sophie knows that," Carlos responded.

Rolling her eyes, Elena shook her head. She started to speak, but the counselor put her hand on Elena's arm.

"Mr. Aguilar, she really doesn't. I've spoken to Sophie at length about this. She doesn't understand that your actions were a result of your anger at Ms. Delgado. Sophie feels responsible. And she also feels guilty."

As the counselor said this, Elena turned to her. "Guilty? What does Sophie guilty about?"

"Yeah, why does Sophie feel guilty?" Carlos also asked.

Feeling the heat of both the parents' stares, the counselor took a breath before replying, "Sophie, um, Sophie feels guilty for liking, um, Ms. Delgado's…friend…Danny, is it? She knows that Mr. Aguilar is not happy that you're seeing someone and she also feels like she's made her father angry because she likes Danny so much. She feels like that caused the…the…altercation a few months ago."

Tightening her lips into a thin line, Elena ran a hand through her hair. "That's not an issue anymore. I've already discussed it with Sophie. Danny isn't a part of my personal life. He and I still work together, but that's all," she said as she glared at Carlos.

Carlos didn't even try to hide the smile that formed on his lips. "Well, that's progress," he muttered.

Continuing to glare at him, Elena continued, "No, what would be progress is if you'd do right by Sophie. Listen to Andrea and tell Sophie exactly what she tells you to tell her so we can help her get over this fear and guilt."

"And if I do that, what's in it for me? Will I get my visitation reinstated?" Carlos asked, sounding entitled.

The mediator sighed. "Mr. Aguilar, I'm afraid you'll never have the same visitation rights as before, at least not while there is a restraining order against you. But if you're able to follow Ms. Sayer's advice and alleviate Sophie's stress, then the court would consider supervised visits if Ms. Delgado was amenable to that."

Carlos glanced at Elena to gauge her response.

But Elena didn't say a word. She wanted Carlos to provide help to Sophie, but she'd never agree to reinstate his visitation if he continued to hold her hostage by threatening the person she cared about.

After the meeting, Elena went in to work a couple of hours late. Entering the bullpen, she greeted Sam and Vivian while taking note that Danny wasn't at his desk.

"Sorry I'm late," she said as she put her gun and purse in her bottom drawer.

"No worries," responded Viv. "We don't have anything hot this morning."

"Where are the guys?" Elena asked curiously.

"They're following up on an old case. NYPD got a tip about a sighting of that Foster girl from last year."

"Oh," Elena said as she took a seat at her desk and turned on her computer. That's when she noticed the note tucked inconspicuously behind her keyboard. Opening the note, she smiled when she saw Danny's handwriting.

"Thinking about you this morning. Hope you're okay. Meet me at MacGregor's at noon – if Martin and I get back in time. D."

MacGregor's was a bar that neither she nor Danny would normally be caught dead in, but that was the point. The Irish pub was out of the way and accessible from the parking structure underneath the Federal building. It would be almost impossible for Carlos to track them down there.

Unfortunately, this is what their relationship had been reduced to. They hadn't really been alone together since they got back from Virginia, over two weeks ago. Occasionally, they would try to steal moments in the office, but mostly, all they had were their late night phone conversations where they ended up talking about things Elena never imagined she'd ever talk to Danny Taylor about.

"Okay, so what about you?" Elena asked in daring tone.

"What about me?" Danny asked.

"Who was your first kiss?" she asked in a teasing tone. They'd start talking about these details mostly because neither wanted to get off the phone and they could only talk about Sophie and work so much.

Danny sighed heavily. "First kiss? Um, probably Tina Stomatina in first grade. She rocked my world underneath the jungle gym."

This response elicited a laugh from Elena that she had to stifle by bringing her bed sheet to her mouth so she wouldn't wake Sophie.

"No, no, no….I'm talking about the real first kiss," she clarified as she continued to laugh.

"Hey, don't underestimate Tina Stomatina."

Rolling her eyes, Elena tucked her hair behind her ear. "I told you mine."

"Yes, yes, you did," Danny replied with a chuckle. "And somewhere Ryan Meyers is kicking himself for not treating you better. By the way, does your mom know that your first kiss was with a gringo?"

Elena laughed again. "She has no idea. She would have locked me in my room if she'd known that I played spin the bottle. And she would have been so disappointed that I pined over Mr. All-American. But hey, we'd only been in New York a few months. I was a sixteen year old boricua trying to fit in even though I barely spoke English! But don't change the subject….first real kiss, please!"

"Okay, okay, but it's kind of a depressing story," he said apprehensively.

"Well, I don't want to make you depressed," she replied, hearing regret in his tone. "You don't have to tell me."

"No, it's okay. I just haven't thought about it in a long time," he reflected in a quiet tone. "I was eleven. My parents had just died and Rafi and I were trying to lay low so that Social Services wouldn't place me in a group home. We lived in this dump of an apartment. He and his girlfriend, who couldn't have been more than 15, would deal to support their respective habits. Her name was Angel. And I thought she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen."

'You had a crush on her?" Elena asked.

"It was more than that, I thought. Every time, Rafi would treat her bad, I'd try to work up the nerve to confront him. I wanted to save her and I thought she and I could run away together."

"So she was your first kiss?" Elena asked.

"She was my first everything," Danny replied, regret evident in his tone. "After my parents' funeral, Rafi disappeared on me. So Angel took me to her house and hid me in her closet. That first night, she held me in her arms and I cried like a baby because I missed my mom so much. And then she kissed me…a real kiss. When I got older, I realized she was just mad at Rafi for bailing on us that day."

"She was using you to make Rafi jealous?" Elena asked, her heart breaking at hearing how alone Danny had been at that time in his life.

"That became obvious about six months later when she and Rafi had gotten into a fight and he dumped her. That night, she came back to our apartment while Rafi was out. She got into bed with me. At first, we were just kissing…that was normal for Angel to get close to me when she and Rafi were on the outs. But then one thing led to another and before I knew what was happening…" Danny trailed off, not quite believing how much he was divulging to Elena.

"You were only eleven? You were still a baby."

"I'd just turned twelve. And believe me, those six months after they'd died, I had grown up a lot. I wasn't a good kid, Elena."

"Still, it was wrong of her to take advantage of you like that. I'm so sorry, Danny. I didn't mean bring up such bad memories," Elena replied, feeling guilty, but also relieved that Danny felt comfortable confiding in her. Learning about his childhood explained so much about the things he'd done in his past and the things he continued to struggle with.

Danny shrugged. "It wasn't that it was bad. I just thought she cared about me. But really, she just wanted to get back at Rafi."

Elena shook her head, feeling bad that she'd brought this up at all. A few minutes earlier, she'd lamented about her first time with a boy she'd dated when she was eighteen. She'd been so excited to be with him, only to wonder what the big deal was after it had only lasted about five minutes.

"Oh, Danny, its awful what happened to you. What did Rafi do when he found out?"

"He was so high most of the time; I'm not sure he ever cared one way or the other. The trouble came when Angel took me to her house one night. We were in her bedroom…in the middle of…you know…and then her father walks in. It was dark, so I don't think he even noticed that I was just a kid. He just beat the crap out of me and threw me out. That was bad enough, but then I went to school a couple of days later and a teacher saw the bruises. Once they saw that, they took me away from Rafi and put me in a group home…which started me in the wonderful world of foster care."

Elena shook her head at the disturbing memory of their conversation. If she'd been with him instead of just on the phone, she would have put her arms around him. He deserved so much more than what she was giving him right now. He deserved to have a girlfriend who could be there for him all the time.

Shortly before noon, Elena noticed that Martin had returned. As casually as she could, she walked over to him.

"Did the lead pan out?" she asked.

Shaking his head, Martin sat down at his desk. "Nah, it was a dead end."

"Oh, well, did Danny come back with you or—"

"He said he had an appointment at lunch, so he took off after we parked the car. He'll be back in an hour or so."

Elena just nodded as she smiled and returned to her desk. Trying not to be too overt, she grabbed her purse from the bottom drawer and then logged off her computer. As she passed Martin's desk, he looked up at her.

"I, uh, I have an errand to run, but I'll be back soon," Elena said as she smiled at him again.

Narrowing his eyebrows, Martin gave her a small smile. "Okay," he replied quietly.

Elena practically jogged through the parking structure to the entrance of the other building, knowing that he was waiting for her. She took the elevator to the Lobby level and then walked through the lobby to the small pub. She nodded to the bartender as she made her way to the back of the room. She and Danny had been there once, before she had broken up with him. And she found him at the same table as before – a booth in the back that was well hidden from the rest of the bar.

Her eyes meeting his, she smiled as he stood up.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," she replied as she threw her arms around his shoulders.

Encircling her waist, he held her close as he breathed in the scent of her hair and her skin. ""Hey…hey…you okay?" he asked as he rubbed small circles on the small of her back.

She nodded as her head rested against his shoulder. "I just miss you. And I've wanted to give you a hug ever since our phone conversation the other night."

"Oh, well, thanks," he replied, slighty embarrassed at all he'd told her that night. "I miss you, too," he said as he gently pulled away from her to look in her eyes. "How'd it go this morning?"

Elena shook her head as she rolled her eyes.

Smiling sympathetically, Danny motioned for her to slide in the booth and then he slid in after her so they were sitting side by side.

"You already ordered for us?" Elena asked as she noticed the two iced teas and a sandwich basket for them to split.

"Yeah, and I gave the waitress a twenty to make sure we weren't interrupted for the next hour," he said as he leaned in to kiss her.

Elena turned her body to face him as his lips devoured hers. They hadn't kissed like this since Virginia. She let her fingers tangle in the back of his short hair as he deepened the kiss. She felt his hand on her knee first and then slowly drift up her thigh. Suddenly, she was very thankful she'd worn a skirt that morning.

After they continued kissing for a few more minutes, Elena had to break away for a moment to catch her breath. She took a few small breaths before saying, "We have to find a way to be alone together. This is crazy," she said.

Shrugging, Danny kissed her lightly a few more times. "I'll take what I can get for now. You look beautiful today, by the way."

Elena smiled. "Thanks, querida. And thanks for the note and setting this up. I needed it."

They moved away from each other a little, but still stay as closed as possible – their hands intertwined as Danny's arm was wrapped around her protectively. Laying her head against his chest, Elena just tried to imagine they were somewhere different.

"So tell me about this morning," Danny said as he played with her hair.

"Mmmmm, it was frustrating, but Carlos agreed to work with Sophie's counselor. After she talks to him for a few sessions, she'll evaluate if him meeting with Sophie is a good idea or not."

"What do you think? Do you think he'll do what's best for Sophie?"

Elena shrugged. "I have no idea, but I have to try to see if this can work."

"Did you and he talk about anything else?"

"The counselor mentioned that Sophie was feeling guilty about liking you so much…thinking that was the reason that Carlos took her. So I lied and said that we weren't an issue anymore. That made Carlos very happy to say the least."

"Well if that makes him do right by Sophie, then we just need to keep this up for the time being. Maybe after he clears things up with her, then we can figure out what our next step will be."

Elena sighed heavily. "I know you're right, but we have to find a way to spend some time together, mi amor."

"What do you want to do? Meet in a hotel room at lunch?" he asked in a frustrated tone. "This already feels too much like an affair…meeting at a seedy bar."

"Maybe we'll get lucky and get to go out of town on a case again."

"Something tells me we won't have anything like Cherry Hill again."

"No, we won't," Elena responded sadly before deciding to change the subject. "When is your interview with that law firm? Are you still going through with it?"

Danny nodded. "Yeah, I'm going to see what they have to offer. The interview is tomorrow afternoon. It would be a great opportunity if it pans out."

"But then we'd never get to see each other," lamented Elena.

"Hopefully, by then, we'll be able to figure things out. Something has got to give, Elena. Carlos can't control your life forever."

Elena sighed as she looked up at him. "Okay, that's enough talking, Taylor."

"No more talking? What will we do?" he whispered as he leaned down to capture her lips with his.

Giggling against his lips, Elena shimmied closer to him to make the most of their stolen hour together.

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