It had been a week since the dinner party and Helen had avoided hanging out in the street for too long so she wasn't attacked by any of the neighbours who were dying to have a friendly chat with her. She didn't know what was making her feel like this because normally she was a kind, caring person who did want to talk to anyone and everyone but recently she had become so kind of recluse and it made her beyond tired.

Standing at the window, safely hidden behind the nets, she watched as Lynette Scavo struggled to convince one of the twins to come down from the tree house so that she could get ready to go to work to help David and Tom because they'd rang her up desperate for a hand because the place was busier than normal. She was pleading but the boy was flat out refusing to go to the silly babysitter's because her house smelt like rotting vegetables and because there was no toys there for him and his sibling to play with.

Taking a deep breath, Helen left the house and ran over the road before calling Lynette's name. Lynette looked over at her and her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment at the fact that she hadn't realised that there had been anyone home because most of the other residents were at work. "You not at work today, Helen?"

"One of us always stays at home in case anyone rings with information about our babies." She said looking up at the tree at the cute ginger face grinning down at her. "I'm actually getting rather bored and if anyone rings they can leave a message on the machine so I was wondering if I could borrow your children."

"Why would you want to borrow my children?" Lynette asked knowing that Porter was immediately going to be interested because he had immediately liked the redheaded woman since the day she had moved in because he was in awe that she was in a relationship with a woman and because she gave the kids odd cookies that she claimed she couldn't eat because she had to watch her weight.

"I'm thinking about buying Lauren a puppy for when she gets out the hospital but I obviously need to think about what kind of dog Olivia and Grant would fall in love with so why not ask the woman with the most kids and plus your kids look like they could pick out a real decent dog for me." Helen said shrugging as she looked up again and noticed that Porter was starting to climb out the tree.

"Can we go help get a dog for the Hunter kids, mum?" He said clinging to her hand and bouncing around before turning to look at Helen. "We get to see lots of dogs."

"But only get to pick one and it's a big decision for me to make. I need your help if it's okay with mummy." She turned to look at Lynette who realised that Helen was trained to work with kids. What harm could come to them? Sighing, she nodded.

"As long as no dogs come home with them!" She warned Helen knowing how persuasive Preston and Porter could be when they were after something. "You want them all or shall I take some to the babysitters?"

"No. I can take them all. Don't you worry about a thing, Lynette." Helen said bending down and picking Porter up, smiling at him. "If they behave, I'll buy them ice cream."

"Wow, ice cream!" Lynette said moving inside the house to get the rest of the kids ready.

***

Stepping into the restaurant, Lynette kissed Tom's cheek before moving to put an apron on and when it was tied she waved over to David, who was in the back kitchen making some pizzas but he did manage to raise his hand in a short wave. "Where are the children?" Tom asked as he came up behind her to use the cash register.

"Helen took them out for a visit to pick a dog for Lauren."

"Oh that was nice of her. I thought you'd be ringing in and telling me that Porter wasn't going to go to the babysitters."

"I was close to doing that. I swear that boy is a demon." She laughed before noticing that a patron had his hand in the air so she grabbed her notepad and moved over to him, smiling brightly. "What may I get you?"

Lynette Scavo was the kind of woman that made everyone feel at ease when she was working because they could tell she was in control of her emotions and rarely lost the stress with anyone. Right now she'd just swept her long blonde hair into a bobble to keep the hair from flying onto her face as she looked down at her customer, her hand holding her notebook lightly as she smiled brightly.

She heard the bell of the door ring and she turned to see Dylan and Julie walking in. She raised her hand in a carefree wave before turning back to the customer and finishing his order. Moving over she smiled at the two daughters of her friends. "Shouldn't you girls be in school?"

"Dinner break." Julie replied in her sweet, innocent voice and Lynette just looked at her before nodding slowly.

"And you chose to come eat here?" Julie nodded in response before smiling at someone who approached behind.

"Come now, Lynette. Don't chase away our customers." The warm voice of David said and Lynette looked at the expressions on the young girls faces and she immediately worked out why they had trekked over here for their dinner. "I'll be their waiter." Lynette found it funny that David didn't appear to notice the affection that the two girls held for him and she couldn't see what they saw in him because he looked tired, his body looked unfed and everyone knew this was at the stress of him losing his whole family.

"That sounds okay with me." Lynette said in a dazed voice as she watched him lead them away, listening to their laughter as he told them something.

***

"Julie has a crush on David?" Susan said in shock as she poured Lynette a cup of coffee, her hand resting on her back as she thought through what Lynette was saying. "I can see why because he is a good looking guy but surely her and Dylan realise that he is a broken man now."

"His wife isn't dead, Susan. She comes home next week and the only thing wrong with her is that she kind of struggles to not have flashbacks!"

"What are you saying Lynette?" Susan asked as she sat down on one of the stools and shook her head. "Julie is a smart girl, she realises that she can't have anything to do with David. He is much older than she is and knows he has two children out there that we all believe will come home one day."

"How do you know that?" Lynette asked looking out the window to where David was sat on his porch swing, Cassy was walking up the garden path to him but he didn't even appear to notice because of the daze he was in over everything happening. "I don't think they'll be coming back now, Susan, or if they do. They're dead." She whispered hating what she was admitting because it was admitting defeat but no one took two children for this long and kept them alive. She could see that Helen knew this, that David inside knew this but no one would admit it. Everyone still believed in keeping faith.

***

"David, you can't sit out here all day. The sun isn't good for your skin and if Lauren ever caught you she'd go berserk!"

"Don't talk to me as if you understand who I am, Cassy. The only reason you are here is because you tricked Helen into believing that you loved her and she had the right to marry you when she didn't. She was happy with Hafid. You ruined her life. Get away from me." David spat as he stood up and moved inside his house, locking the door so she couldn't follow him inside.

Cassy just watched after him, tears falling down her cheeks as she realised that she had pretty much done that to Helen. She'd given her a choice and Helen hadn't wanted to lose her best friend. She sighed as she looked at the locked door, a smile forming on her lips as she realised that she had the biggest power of them all yet.

***

The sound of a car braking outside her house followed by the excited shouts of children and a happy bark of a dog hinted to Lynette that Helen had returned with the kids. Moving outside, she watched as Helen picked up Porter and span him around. There was a happy smile on her face that no one had seen since Lauren had been attacked and Lynette couldn't help but smile at its return.

"Did we get a cute dog?"

"We bought a sharpei puppy because Helen says they are Lauren's favourite!" Parker informed his mum before reaching in and picking up a wrinkly ball of fluff. He walked over and showed his mum. "Helen trusted me to hold it all the way home because Preston and Porter kept trying to squeeze it!" He said sadly stroking the dog. "Isn't he adorable mum?"

"He's gorgeous, Parker."

"Also because you said I wasn't allowed my own dog, Helen said I could help Lauren look after it because Lauren won't be strong enough to do it all by herself just yet."

"Now isn't that a caring thought." Lynette said rubbing the young boy's ginger hair before smiling at Helen. "Kids can you go inside a minute, I just want to talk to Helen a moment." She ordered watching as Parker lightly held the dog over to Helen, who took it off him just as gently.

"What's wrong, Lynette?" Helen asked the minute the kids were all inside. "I swear I'm not allowing them to get too attached to the puppy but Parker was the only one that really showed a caring interest and..."

"Parker is the sweet caring child but that isn't what I want to talk to you about." She looked around before taking a deep breath. "I don't know if I should be telling you this."

"What?"

"Julie Myers and Dylan Mayfair both have a slight crush on David."

There were a few moments of silence before Helen started to laugh. The laughter went on for a while before she started to shake her head, her hand covering her mouth as she tried to regain focus.

"Those two girls fancy David? Why? Surely they are more likely to fancy Carlos... A guy with money?"

"I'm sure they just have a thing for David because he is emotionally wounded." Lynette explained before moving over to Helen. "I was just wondering if you could have a word with him because he is still being charming and friendly like he always is and I don't want the girls to get hurt especially with Lauren coming home. I don't want Lauren thinking he was leading girls along while she was in hospital."

Helen looked over at the house and nodded. "Someone will talk to him. Don't worry."