"Do you really think we should take the baby out in this weather? What if she catches a cold or something?" Cruz was desperate. He wasn't above using his daughter to get out of a very awkward dinner party, one she had readily promised to attend.

"It's seventy-five degrees and sunny. Majandra will be fine." Bobbie laughed.

"What about...pollen? Is she allergic to it? The last thing a party needs is a sick baby. The other kids could catch something and it'd be our fault."

"You know very well our daughter is not allergic to anything. And even she was, allergies aren't contagious."

"How do we know that? What if one of the other kids is sick and she catches something?"

"Sweetheart, the twins are fine. Morgan is fine." Bobbie shook her head and sat down next to her husband. "You're not getting out of this party."

"Get out of the party? What makes you think I want that? I'm worried about our daughter." Cruz insisted.

"And while I find that as incredibly sexy as always, I think you are lying to me."

"Well, why do we have to go anyway?" Cruz grumbled.

"Number one, Robin is back and announcing her pregnancy to everyone who doesn't know. They need our support."

"Right, because they were so supportive of us in the beginning." Cruz rolled his eyes. "I don't enjoy surprises, or being a part of one. Don't you know that about me?"

"Cruz, if that was true, you would have never started this with me." Bobbie smacked him lightly in his shoulder. "Second, Patrick is one of your best friends and you two haven't seen each other in weeks."

"The door swings both ways." Cruz replied.

"You're being stubborn."

"The situation isn't going to be pretty and I really don't think it's right to put the baby in that kind of atmosphere when it can be prevented."

"It most certainly can be. Especially if you go prepared to be mature and deal with whatever it is that has you three acting like children."

"Acting like children?"

"Not speaking to each other. Trying to avoid seeing each other. It sounds very high school to me."

"You wouldn't think that if you knew the reason."

"Then tell me. Tell me what's going on." Bobbie pleaded leaning closer to him.

"I can't." Cruz said after a long, thoughtful pause.

"Why not?"

"Because it'll break your heart."

"You three not speaking breaks my heart."

"When he comes to his senses, then we'll start talking to each other again."

*****

"Angel, trust me. You are worrying for nothing." Luke moved to wrap his arms around his wife's waist. "Lulu probably has this all under control."

"That's what you keep saying." Laura snapped impatiently. "You didn't talk with her professor like I did." Laura had only been in Kelly's to pick up lunch for her and Luke when she recognized Lulu's history professor and made her presence known to him. He explained that Lulu's grades had started dropping drastically and he was worried she wouldn't pass the class. It wasn't so much his class that he was worried about, but how it would affect Lulu's GPA and scholarship. He was a very nice man, but the conversation had left Laura feeling bereft.

"He was out to scare you. All those academic types are the same. If you aren't pulling straight A's you aren't living up to your potential or something."

"That might have been your motto growing up, but it has never been our daughter's. Luke, she was the one who asked for more homework from the teacher in grade school." Laura reminded him.

"She was a strange kid. Maybe she's just becoming normal."

"She is not strange. She's stressed out. Something is very wrong." Laura told him.

"Nothing's wrong. If something's wrong Lulu would tell us." Luke pointed out. If there was one thing he knew about his daughter, it was the spotlight she craved.

"Not with that Spencer pride. That was one thing she inherited from you. Maybe she shows off more than Lucky, but I have a feeling the worse it is, the less we're going to hear about it. Come to think of it, she's been acting strangely for a while now."

"Angel, she's just trying regroup after what Logan and Emily put her through. That's all. Lucky went through the same thing."

"It makes me sick that someone from our family could put one of its own through such hell. She won't even talk about it." Laura mused.

"She will. Just give her time."

"We have to get her to that party." She met his eyes. "Would you go by her place and tell her to come?"

"Fine." Luke made an exaggerated sigh as he moved to get his keys. "You want her there early or exactly on time."

"On time. She needs her family and we're going to help her through this." Laura decided.

Luke made a mock salute as he stopped in front of the door. "Then on time she will arrive, my love."

Laura's head snapped up when she heard her husband gasp. "Luke? What's the ma—" It only took a second to see who was standing in the doorway. "Elizabeth, Robin, is something wrong?"

"Actually Laura, we came to ask for your help." Elizabeth began stepping inside, leaving Robin standing on the step.

Laura stopped and stared at Robin and her swollen stomach. "You need…you need my help?"

"That's right." Robin agreed. "The boys are acting ridiculous, and we need your help in getting them to talk to each other." She didn't miss the way Luke was staring at her stomach. "It's a baby Luke, relax." Her voice was shaking when she said it.

"It's one you didn't have when you left Little Scorpio." Luke pointed out.

"Actually, it is something I've had for about six months now." Robin admitted. "We were going to tell you at the party, but then this opportunity arose and I couldn't pass it up."

Luke shook his head. "And I was going to think up some way to get out of this."

*****

Maxie told herself that she was just going to call and bitch to his voicemail. It would be far easier than talking to him and there was the added bonus of hearing his voice. She was still mad at him and she felt she had every right to be. It would have been one thing if he had just told her Kate was going along with him; then it wouldn't have seemed like some secret rendezvous. She would have been able to trust that she had gone for the Colonel and not Ric…or at least that he was certain nothing would come of it. But he hadn't said a word, and she didn't appreciate that. It was as if the worst possible things were starting to happen in front of her eyes.

She would never understand Spencer Family Dinners, not for the rest of her life. They forced people who may or may not have been talking to each other into a tiny room where food and drinks were served. Things were going to be awkward as hell, but she didn't know why. Call it a crack in the ground that she had noticed. When things were rotten in the Spencer clan, they expressed it. Lulu hadn't been by once to harass. Maxie was wondering if she still lived at Kelly's. She was never there anymore. It was quieter, Maxie decided, but very unsettling.

Just dial the number, she beckoned her shaking fingers. Dial. It'll go straight to voicemail. He's had it turned off for days now. She didn't want to think about why that might be. Her fingers pressed harshly across the keys and she pressed her phone to her ear, glancing down at her bed that was covered in possible outfits for the dinner. She loved her cousin, really she did, but she was really starting to wonder why she had to be there. It wasn't requested either. She had been told she was coming. Something was going on.

Looking down, Ric couldn't suppress his smile as he saw her number flash across his screen. Maxie had been scarce for weeks and now she was calling him? He had to admit he was curious. Answering the phone, he waited a moment, trying to think of the perfect opening line to say to her.

Maxie heard the click of the phone and wondered why, if the machine had picked up, she didn't hear anything. "Ric, I think your voicemail might be faulty." She mumbled.

He bit his lip, deciding to keep quiet and see if she would say exactly why she had called him.

"It's better you're not there anyway." Maxie said. "So, the family is expecting me to go to a dinner party at my cousin's. Robin...you remember her, don't you? Or have you met? Anyway, she wants all of us there...every Scorpio, Jones, and Spencer alike. I don't know how I'm going to survive the evening without attacking Lulu, but I suppose stranger things have happened." She picked up the orange outfit and then threw it back down, deciding she didn't want to go to the freak house in a clown costume. "Lucy had to cancel our last appointment because Sigmund had a cold. Tragic, I know."

He bit his lip to keep from laughing. Only Maxie would complain about anything and everything before actually getting to the point of why she'd actually call.

"I wonder if Aunt Anna will make the trip. I wouldn't be surprised if Robin had her plucked out of whatever city she's hiding in to make sure she made this dinner. I have no idea what it's all about, but I think this family has had way too many surprises this year to handle even one more. Oh, I didn't tell you. Apparently Georgie is a Webber. Let me explain. It's a funny story." Maxie tried the green outfit, thought about it, and then hurried to the closet to get the shoes that matched. "She got married in secret during her semester in Paris. Do you know how we found out? You'll never guess. Steven Webber, that's her husband, was run over by a car and they drove away. He's holding his own, but the doctor isn't confident enough to do surgery. I guess it's not that funny a story."

"Well it certainly does lack a little something in the translation." Ric agreed.

Maxie dropped both shoes, the sound barely registering.

"It sounds like you've been keeping busy."

His voicemail wasn't faulty at all! He had purposely stayed quiet while she talked, the weasel!

"Maxie? You still there?"

"I'm plotting your death." She was suddenly aware she had spoken. "How could you do that?"

"Do what? Listen to you? I thought you told me I concentrated too much on your physical attributes."

"I didn't know you were listening."

"Then you normally leave ten minute long messages on voice mail?"

"I just needed to get it all out." Maxie defended. "I sure as hell didn't want to talk to you."

"Then why did you call?"

"To hear your voice."

"I've missed you too Blondie."

"Really? I figure you have enough there to keep you busy."

"Busy, yes? But not enough to distract me the way you can."

So he still wasn't going to own up to it. Maxie swallowed down what she recognized as a catch in her throat.

"Maxie? You ok?"

"I'm fine. Don't start worrying about me."

"Too late."

"Have a good trip, Ric."

"I'll see you soon Maxie."

"Tell Kate I said hi."

Previews:

"Are you alright?" Alexis's voice brought him back to the present. Maybe you didn't need to look quite so closely to see the truth. Or maybe Alexis just knew him better than anyone else. He assumed the latter.

"Yeah. I'm asking God to keep life changing secrets to a minimum." As he said it, he unintentionally stared over at Maxie.