Ricardo's fingers twitch as Sofia gently curls her fingers around his jaw, lightly tapping his cheek. "Mi hijo," she says quietly, relieved when he stirs and blinks up at her. "What happened?"

He sits up, blinking in confusion, the early morning sun low and bright in the sky, and he frowns. "I... don't know," he confesses, picking at his jeans, looking around at Alberto's patio. "I fell asleep outside?"

"So it would seem," she responds softly, easing back onto her heels and examining him.

"I couldn't sleep in my bedroom," he finally says, standing awkwardly and stretching, Sofia wincing when various joints pop loudly. "I came out here to watch the stars, it's the last thing I really remember."

She exhales and leans in, hugging him. "I'm glad that's all it was, mi hijo. I was worried." He squeezes her back before pulling away, still looking sleepy and confused. "Perhaps you should go back to bed and get a little more sleep."

"No, I doubt I could get back to sleep now." He follows her into the kitchen and leans against the counter, helping her collect eggs and fresh vegetables for breakfast, smiling as she hands him a glass of orange juice. Sipping it seems to wake him up sufficiently and she puts him in charge of peeling and chopping potatoes and tomatoes for their omelettes. He enjoys it, humming to himself as he keeps busy.

The emptiness of his bed haunts him more and more, especially now that Alicia will at least speak to him a little longer. She's still a little distant, their conversations ending tense and sharp more often than not still, and he worries about her all alone up in Texas, her social media presence barely there as well, so he doesn't even get to see pictures of her as much. He invites her every time they talk to at least stay for a few days or a week, reconnect, and she claims she's thinking about it, but it never happens.

He tries to keep busy between Alberto's federation, things around the house, and sightseeing things around Mexico he'd never had the opportunity to see before, but it still weighs on him, more so at night when he's all alone with nothing and no one to occupy his thoughts. Sofia takes over chopping when his hand falters over the knife and directs him over to set the table with a small, understanding smile that he appreciates even as he hates himself for not finishing with the vegetables.

Alberto comes down for breakfast a little later and Ricardo smiles at him as they settle around the table, the fourth seat next to Ricardo always leaving him a little choked up as he looks at it and pictures Alicia there, bright and happy and full of energy and spunk as always. He misses her so much that it aches, but he tries to push it aside to enjoy the meal Sofia had put together, inclining his head towards her in thanks as she squeezes his hand.

Alberto only notices in passing that Ricardo isn't in the best mood, going on about his federation and schedule for the day, quickly finishing his omelette and wiping his mouth off with his napkin before getting up and pausing behind Ricardo's chair long enough to squeeze his arms and rest his chin atop his head, quickly disappearing down the long, dark halls of the house, probably to his office or the basement gym that rennovations just ended on. Ricardo and Sofia exchange half-smiles before tucking back into what's left of their meals.

His day is mostly quiet, another off day between events, and it's ok but his hand keeps twitching towards the phone, eager to check on Alicia, though he can't help but feel like his calls are only making things worse instead of better. Finally he compromises with himself and dials Heath's number instead, despite the guilt there too since Heath may be on the road, or just tending to a very heavily pregnant Maryse. Ricardo frowns, quickly counting months and realizing she's nine months along now. "Wow," he whispers to himself, sitting up straighter when the phone clicks.

"Hello!" Heath says cheerfully, and Ricardo closes his eyes, smiling as he immediately relaxes, aware that he'd made the right call.

"Hola, Heath," he responds, already feeling some of the pressure easing off of his shoulders. They talk simply for awhile, laughing over some stuff in wrestling, discussing other things- UFC, Heath's latest adventures on the road with Zack and Hawkins dragging him into more business with their podcast and action figures and things along those lines. Ricardo follows along with his running commentary eagerly, just happy to hear about anything going on over in the States, until finally he feels comfortable to interrupt when Ricardo was talking about figuring out a second car seat. "How is Maryse doing anyway?"

"Uncomfortable," he admits. "The second pregnancy wasn't as smooth as the first, she wasn't really bad with the morning sickness, but she's struggling with some blood pressure stuff, so the doc's monitoring her closely, especially now that she's close to her due date. Just that Texas has been monstrously hot this summer and I think she's glad we got ourselves an open ended invitation to come visit Mike and AJ in their new house, just to get out of here for awhile now and again. Though she's not racing around doing a ton of filming right now, since they're between episodes, kinda waiting to see how long this pregnancy is gonna progress."

Ricardo nods along, knowing Heath needs to talk himself out before he can move on to his next question. "Have you seen any of Alicia lately?"

Heath's pause adds to Ricardo's concern and he's not sure if he should worry more or not. "Yeah, we see her," he hedges. "Uh ya know I'd never tell ya how to live your life, or anythin' else, but I think... she could really use a visit by you soon, to see ya face to face and everythin'."

Ricardo closes his eyes. "I've been thinking about that," he confesses. "I just need to find a few days over here where Alberto doesn't need me for something."

Heath hesitates. "Well, I think I'd not wait if it was Maryse who was strugglin' all alone and missin' me, but you know. Just my opinion."

Ricardo closes his eyes, aware that Heath's right. He's let Alicia sit all alone for too long as it is. "Yeah," he says, somewhere between relieved and pained when Heath changes the topic once more, going on about reuniting with Titus O'Neil since Rhyno left the company.

Ricardo spends the day doing what he can, finishing off paperwork and other easy grunt work for Alberto, so his company will be fine without him for a few days, frowning in the pale light late into the night as he shifts around the living room of Alberto's mansion, exhaling hard. "Dammit," he mumbles, rubbing at his eyes as he struggles to focus on the scribbled budget prospects before him. Not his job, no, but he's taken up the mantle of Jack of all Trades, helping with as much as he could so Alberto could focus on his upcoming fight.

He's just nodded off once more when there's a knock at the front door. He frowns, not hearing the gate chirp once, before slowly getting to his feet and going to answer. Before he even gets there, the person is knocking again and he's uncomfortably aware of Sofia asleep down the hall, and Alberto resting peacefully upstairs, so he wrenches the door open. "What?!" he snaps, just for the rest of his sentence to die away as he stares at Alicia in awe.

"Now, is that anyway to speak to your wife?" Alicia asks, breezing past him and leaving him with no choice but to shut the door with his jaw dropping, still too sleepy and overwhelmed to really think through this right now, even as he follows her to the room he'd just vacated.

"Alicia..."

She turns to look at him, gaze steely but calm. "We have a lot to discuss, Ricardo."

He knows they do. Still, the way she'd said it, the look on her face, absolutely terrifies him. "Alright," he says, brushing the papers he'd been poring over into a semi-organized pile before turning to face her. "Go ahead," he says softly once she's sitting, still a decent amount of space between them.

She stares at him, takes in a deep breath, and begins to speak.