The Age of Innocence

by white eyed fox

Childhood is a magical time - it's a time of wonder and precious moments full of new experiences. It doesn't last forever, but the impact does. Sequel to The Champ

10. Little Kids and Strangers

Lynn and Francisco look down at their son, who is smiling up at them from his crib. It's been nearly a month since his little health scare, but now after careful monitoring from Lisa and staying in the humid room, he slowly recuperated and looks better than ever.

Lynn grabs Francisco's wrist to look at his watch, "Look at that, he took one day less than you said," she tells Lisa, who is performing one last checkup on her nephew.

Lisa ignores her sister and places the chestpiece on the boy's back to listen to his breathing. She takes off the earpieces, "His lungs appear to sound well, so I can confirm that he has overcome his illness."

Lynn picks up her son, and proudly tells him, "Look at that, one for one, you're battin' a thousand, kid." She turns to her sister, "So he's not stuck in this room anymore?"

The younger sister shakes her head, "No, he is free to go outside, though I do-" Lisa stops when she realizes that Lynn is already leaving the room to pack their things. She turns to Francisco, who is slowly stepping out of the room, "I'd still recommend that you limit his exposure to others and take any necessary precautions to keep him from contracting another illness."

"Got it," is the last thing he says before stepping out of the room.

Lisa sighs. She can't blame them for wanting their lives to return to normal, though they could at least have some manners. She heads over to her room and pulls out her laptop to type in the latest information on her nephew.

It's a shame that he won't be across the hall anymore, but at the moment there isn't any new information that she can gather from him, so she's back to playing the waiting game.

In the meantime, Lynn takes Victor around the house. Sure, he's already seen it before whenever he stays with his grandparents, but now he can fly around after beating his illness.

"Let's go down the stairs," she tells him, as she quickly descends to the first floor. "Hey Mom, guess what?"

Rita turns her head. She notices her grandson in her daughter's arms and then it hits her, "He's doing better?"

"Yeah. We'll be able to go home soon."

Lynn Sr.'s ears perk up. He walks into the living room from the kitchen and spots his wife and daughter talking about heading home. He can't believe that after so much time together, they're going to leave. It was never meant to be a permanent thing, but he's gotten used to having them around - a helper in the kitchen, another man in the house, a cute little face that smiles every time he comes around.

His eyes begin to water.

Rita and Lynn look over at him as he fights back tears. He knew that the family wasn't going to stay forever, but he gets attached easily and they all know that.

He feels his wife and daughter give him a hug in an effort to calm him down. Lynn Sr. takes some deep breaths to calm himself down, "Okay, okay, I think I'm good."

Francisco heads downstairs with his family's bags, "I think I got everything packed."

Lynn Sr. runs out of the room, wailing.

The three watch him, and Francisco turns to the women, "What happened?"

"You know Dad."

Yes, he does. In the month that he and his family have been staying with the Louds, he's gotten a chance to get to know them a little better. Maybe a little more than he anticipated. He still shudders at seeing Mr. Loud in the bathroom, but regardless it was nice. The family was around to help them while they took care of Vic, heck, it was even helpful for getting out the door to go to work faster, but they can't stay forever. He misses the privacy that the couple had and he misses their home.

In an effort to avoid the cries from the kitchen, Francisco grabs their things, "I'll go put our stuff in the truck," he offers.

"Alright, I'll go get Vic's car seat," says Lynn as she takes the boy upstairs to get him ready to go home.

Rita watches the two of them walk away. She heads towards her husband, who is trying his best to pull it together, but his tears make it obvious that he's upset to see his daughter and her family leave.

She pats his back, and he immediately pulls her into a hug, "There, there. I know that you're going to miss them, but we knew that this was going to happen anyway."

"I know!" he sobs.

Rita notices her daughter run out the door with their grandson in his car seat. She dries his tears, "C'mon, you don't want them to go without saying goodbye."

He sobs loudly again while Rita quietly wishes that she chose her words a little more wisely. The two head outside and spot the young couple packing up the truck. Lynn Sr. dries his tears and walks over to his son-in-law, who is strapping Victor into the truck.

Francisco keeps his eyes on his son. He can feel his father-in-law's presence, staring at the two of them as if this is going to be the last time he ever sees them again. They're going to be back for Christmas in a few weeks and before that they'll likely drop Victor off again so that he and Lynn can go to work. Now he isn't going to give him a hug, but he turns around and extends his hand out to his father-in-law, "Thanks for letting us stay here all this time. We really appreciate it."

Lynn Sr. tries to thank him, but the thought of them leaving gets him sad again, so instead he pulls the younger man into a hug.

Francisco awkwardly returns the gesture. He glances over at Lynn, silently begging for help at getting him off.

She walks over with open arms, "Bring it here, Dad."

Lynn Sr. hugs his daughter, "Remember, if you guys need anything. We're always here."

She returns the gesture, "I know." Lynn tries to let go of her dad, but he refuses to let go of his daughter.

Rita calls out to her husband, "Lynn, that's enough, they have to go home."

"They can stay another night. It's far too late to be driving home at this hour."

The chirping birds and the noon sun would disagree with him. All three adults awkwardly stare at one another trying to figure out what to do, until Rita leads her husband towards the house, giving the couple a chance to leave.

The two hop into the truck, but as the family heads out, they hear Lynn Sr. break down, wailing, "Don't go!" while trying to run after them as best as he can.

Francisco looks up at the rearview mirror, "Should I stop for him?"

"Nah, he did that for all of us when we left the house. Just don't go too fast and he'll tire himself out."

He isn't sure about that, but regardless, he keeps a decent pace so that he can keep an eye on his father-in-law without having him latch onto the truck. Eventually, he does stop trying to run after them and watches them from the street as they drive home.

Shortly afterwards, the family arrives home. When they step through the door and Lynn looks around at their home. It's a bit different than how they left it weeks ago, things were rearranged since their family stayed over, but overall, it looks about the same, "Man, if it wasn't for the smell of your brother's crappy cologne, we wouldn't have known that he stayed."

"Right," says Francisco. He heads towards the truck to grab their things, but before he can call on Lynn to take a bag from him, she disappears.

Lynn crashes on her bed. She missed her mattress, the warm tiger blanket, and the extra bathroom right there in the couple's room. It's such silly stuff to miss, but being away from it for so long definitely makes one appreciate the little things.

Francisco walks into the room and crashes beside her one the bed, "Okay, the stuff's out of the truck-"

"And Vic's in his crib. Maybe he'll catch a nap if we're lucky."

He looks over at her, wondering if she forgot he's a fussy sleeper, "Sure… well, either way, it's not like he's going anywhere."

Lynn nods her head, "Yeah, good point."

"We should really enjoy it before he learns how to walk."

Francisco's phone rings. He quickly glances at the caller ID and answers, "Hey, Caroline."

"Hey, Francisco. How are you doing?"

"I'm fine. We're finally home."

He didn't mention anything to Caroline, but he figures that Elena probably did.

"Is Victor doing better now?"

"Yeah, he's much better. How are you guys doing?"

"We're fine. Andrew has a business trip coming up."

Francisco quietly nods his head despite knowing that Caroline can't see him. He has no idea why she's telling him about her husband's business trip, so he eventually responds, "That's nice."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I'm going with him and both kids are staying behind…"

Francisco knows where this is going, but he doesn't interrupt Caroline as she tells him about her upcoming trip and Elena staying home. When she's done talking he says, "Well, I hope you two have fun."

Caroline sighs in relief. She expected him to have groaned, mumbled, or muttered something, "Thanks, we'll try." However, she is a bit curious, "Are you sure that you're fine?"

"Yeah, I understand. If she needs anything, let her know to call me."

"I will. Goodbye, Francisco."

"Bye," he responds, before hanging up.

Lynn looks over at him, "What's going on?"

"Elena is babysitting Parker for the weekend."

"So she's not coming over?"

"Nope."

After hearing that, she expects him to be a bit upset that Elena won't be coming around, but he seems okay, "You're not… upset?"

He shrugs his shoulders, trying his best to hide that he is a bit bothered, "A little, but we definitely need a weekend to ourselves. So what's one?"

---

Caroline places the last of her bags in Violet's car. She didn't want it to come to this, but there's only so much she can see before it becomes too much. She gave Francisco opportunities to get over his problem, but it didn't matter and she's not going to let her daughter see him fall further down, so she'd rather that they walk away.

Alicia watches her pack her things. She wishes that she could talk Caroline into staying, but there won't be any point, heck, she doesn't even blame her either. There would be days when she notices Francisco taking more than the dose listed on the bottle, he always has a new prescription, and any time she or Caroline brought up anything, he would constantly tell them that he's fine.

At some point, he was going to cross the line and that day finally arrived.

She didn't make too much of it, since she knows that he is still in pain and able to go through his day to day life, but now Elena is old enough to notice what's going on. She's four and full of questions about everything around her. Every once in a while, the subject would turn to her dad and even she didn't know how to answer her questions without wondering why she's also putting up with his shenanigans.

Caroline turns to Alicia and lets her know, "Ya nos vamos…"

She walks over and gives Caroline and her granddaughter a hug, unsure of when she'll see either of them again. She didn't want this to happen, but she can't blame Caroline, if Pancho is going to be an idiot and abuse his medication, then he needs to pay some sort of price.

"Te quiero mucho, mija."

Elena gives her grandma a smile and says, "Bye, Abulita. Te quiero."

Alicia holds back tears as she steps back towards the house. Caroline gets in the car and she and Elena wave to her as they leave the house.

Elena looks over at her mom, "Mommy, where are we going?"

Caroline can briefly see her daughter staring at her in the rearview mirror, and she looks away, "To your grandparents' house. We're going to be staying with them for a little while."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

Caroline doesn't want to tell her daughter the truth, not that she thinks it's appropriate for a four-year-old to hear. However, she knows that if she doesn't say anything, Elena is going to keep pressing on and if not her, then her other family members.

"Your dad is sick."

That's the best excuse she could think of.

She can feel her sister's eyes on her for a brief second. It's not the best excuse, but it isn't a lie either, but all she hopes for is that's enough for the girl and she won't ask or say anything else.

"Okay."

---

Caroline checks her luggage, and after making sure that she has everything packed for the weekend she heads to the car. She and Andrew are going to be gone all weekend while he attends to business, and she does not want to forget anything. It isn't going to be exciting when he's gone, but luckily it isn't an all-day thing, so they will be able to enjoy the city sights together.

"Alright, this is my last bag," she says as she places her luggage next to his.

Andrew looks at the large and heavy bag wondering how much his wife really needs for a weekend trip to Chicago. He knows that he told that they'll be back tomorrow afternoon, but the way she's preparing, it's as if he told her that they'll be gone until the new year.

Parker watches as his dad packs the trunk with the bags that the couple plan on taking for the weekend. He doesn't like the idea of being left behind while his parents go away without him, but no matter how much he pleads, they refuse to take him.

"I wanna go!"

"Trust me, son, this isn't a vacation. It's a business trip. You're gonna be stuck in a hotel all day with nothing to do. You're better off staying here with Elena."

"And Mommy?"

Andrew tries to stay quiet, not wanting to let him know that she's going to be relaxing and trying to have some fun on this trip. She's been wanting for the two of them to go out for a while, but between their jobs, caring for a young child, and anything else that gets in the way it's hard to make time. Almost immediately after he brought up the business trip, she started asking if she would be able to join him. He didn't see a reason to say no, not that he didn't want some time alone with her.

He picks up his son, "Trust me, you're going to have a lot more fun here. You'll have your toys, your bed, and your sister can take you out."

Parker groans, "No flower park!"

"I don't think the botanical garden is going to be open right now," Andrew assures his son. "Don't worry, we'll be back Sunday afternoon."

"Is that a lot?"

"You know how Elena goes to her dad's house for the weekend? About that long."

Caroline carries out one last bag and gives both of her kids one last hug, "I love you, and call me if there's any problems," she reminds her daughter. "And you be a good boy for your sister, okay?" she tells her son.

He quietly nods his head.

Elena takes his hand and he watches as his parents drive away. Parker's eyes begin to feel tingly as he watches his dad's car disappear from view. He wipes his nose. Elena can see that he's upset, but they'll both be back before they know it. In the meantime, she has to worry about getting through piano practice, studying, maintaining the house and while entertaining a toddler.

She takes him inside and lets go of his hand. Parker runs up to his room. If she's lucky, he'll play by himself for a bit, so that she can practice for a few minutes. She heads upstairs to get her music book. As she passes by her brother's room, she doesn't hear anything, so she assumes that he's quietly playing.

Elena heads back downstairs, happy that Parker is being so well-behaved. She takes a seat at the piano, but before she can uncover the keys, she gets a text.

Are we still gonna hang out?

Elena looks at the message. She's tempted to say yes, but with her little brother around, she can't. She told her Mom that she was going to practice for an upcoming recital and while that's still a ways away, she knows that it's a good idea to squeeze in as much practice as she can.

I can't
I have to babysit my brother
Maybe next time

Elena puts her phone away and looks down at the keys on the piano. She and Noah planned on hanging out and taking a day trip into the city, but her mom and Andrew's trip put a damper on things. Sure, it isn't like they couldn't take Parker, but a fussy two-year-old will make the trip difficult for the couple.

Rather than dwell on it, Elena pulls out some sheet music, "It's not like we can't do this trip later, when the Christmas decorations are in place, and the skating rink is going anywhere. Yeah," she sighs, "we can wait."

A crashing sound from the kitchen grabs her attention and she runs into the room, spotting her brother crying next to a broken cookie jar. Elena sighs as she looks at the mess in front of her. There are broken pieces of ceramic all over the floor and crumbs everywhere.

She looks over at her brother to see if he has any cuts or anything, and luckily, she doesn't find any. Elena grabs a broom and tries to lead him away from the mess so that she can clean up, but he doesn't move.

She wonders how she didn't notice him sneaking downstairs. All she did was go upstairs to get her music book, and then came back down, that shouldn't have been enough time for him to get to the kitchen.

But it doesn't matter. It's done and she has to clean up the mess.

Parker eventually stops crying. He wipes his nose as he watches Elena sweep the broken cookie jar pieces. She looks mad as she searches around the floor for cookie crumbs nearby. He spots a cookie that rolled towards the dining room and he goes over to pick it up. It looks okay to him, so he tries to go in for a bite.

"Don't eat that! It was on the floor," he hears her say before she takes the treat away from him.

Elena goes back to cleaning. Rather than wait around, Parker heads upstairs to his room. It's boring with just the two of them, not that it's ever that much fun with Mom and Dad around, but at least they like to play with him.

Rather than dwell on it, he decides to do something about it. Parker comes down the stairs with some of his toys. He drops them on the ground, starts to play with a toy car. Elena turns around and notices the mess that he made, but big, bulky toys aren't that big of a deal, so she decides to not say anything.

Elena tries to go back to the piano, but she can sense a pair of eyes on her. She slowly turns her head so as to not alert the toddler. In his hands is a book, and she knows what that means - he's going to want her to read to him. It wouldn't be so bad, but Parker has the habit of wanting his books read over and over again.

"Not right now. I want to play the piano."

He extends the book out towards his sister, "Read it."

"No, I'm busy."

He loudly begs her, "Please!"

"No," she says in a more stern voice.

"Please."

Elena sighs and repeats herself, "No."

"Please," he pleads again.

"No! Now go play by yourself."

Elena sighs as he hangs his head, walking away from her. She didn't want to raise her voice, but she hasn't been able to even get started playing before he interrupts her again. It hasn't even been that long since her mom and Andrew left.

Just the thought of that has Elena shuddering.

He's only two, he can't help it, but there's no way that she can do anything with him awake. At some point, he's going to have to take a nap, but that's probably going to be its own challenge and it might energize him.

She tries to think of her options. Her mom and Andrew are probably already on the plane, and she can probably put everything off until next week, even though she doesn't want to, but it's better than trying to fight it.

Elena covers the keys and heads upstairs to play with him. When she opens the door, she notices that once again, he's not in his room. She calls out to him, but he doesn't answer. She starts to worry a little, wondering if he might be in trouble or causing some sort of mischief.

She takes a deep breath to calm herself down and calls out to him. This time he answers her and she follows his voice, which leads her to the backyard, where he is playing on the ground, in the snow.

Elena, once again, has no idea when he snuck out on her. She's happy that he's okay, but she sighs at the thought that this is what her weekend might be if she takes her eyes off of him for more than a second, "There's got to be another option."

---

Elena looks at the big house in front of her. She's never seen such a big house before. In Abuelita's neighborhood, the houses are much smaller and closer together and there's no giant fences around. Here everything looks further away, but it all looks so much prettier like that big flower park that her mom took her to.

She turns to her mom, "Are we gonna live here?"

Caroline immediately answers, "For now."

It's only temporary while she finds a more permanent place for her and her daughter to live. She'll still have to ask her parents for help with babysitting, but Elena's about to start school soon, so it'll somewhat resolve itself.

"Go ring the doorbell and let Grandma and Grandpa know we're here," says Caroline as she and Violet walk over to the trunk to get their things.

Elena runs up to the front door and notices how high the doorbell is off the ground. She tries to jump for it, but she can't reach. She tries again, but realizes that there's no point, she's not going to be able to ring the doorbell.

Instead, she decides to knock on the door as hard as she can, "We're here!"

Violet looks over at her sister, wondering if that behavior is normal from her niece. Caroline doesn't seem bothered, but she eventually walks over to talk to her daughter, "Honey, that's enough. I'm sure they heard you."

The front door opens and the two are met by Caroline's parents.

Elena is startled by the two adults, and quickly hides behind her mom's leg. She's never seen either of these people before, and here they are talking to her mom and looking at her with a smile on their faces.

Her mom didn't mention much about who they are, only that they are her grandparents and that they would be staying for a bit. It has her curious, but she isn't sure how to approach the two.

Jacob walks over to the little girl and picks her. He smiles at her, "Look at you, aren't you adorable? You remind me of your mother when she was your age."

Elena doesn't say anything, but she looks over at her mom, who gives her a look reminding her of how to behave. It isn't any different than it was around her Abuelita, but her mom stressed the importance of good manners around her grandparents.

Jacob looks over at his wife, "She's a little shy."

Caroline looks over at Elena. She's not usually shy, but she can understand why she is at the moment; it's her first time meeting her grandparents, and she probably doesn't know what to say.

She takes her daughter from her dad, "We're going to go get settled in and then we'll be back."

"What's the rush?" asks Jacob. "The day's still young."

"I'd rather get this out of the way before her bedtime."

As Caroline heads upstairs with one of her bags, Elena looks back at her grandparents and gives them a shy smile.

Upstairs, Caroline leads her daughter to her childhood room. She sets down her daughter and Elena walks into the bedroom and is surprised at how nice it looks. There's a neat little canopy bed, the walls are a soft pink, a giant toy chest in the corner, and a bookshelf filled with books. She runs over to the toy chest and sees some random toys inside and she's tempted to take them out to play with all of them.

Caroline looks at everything. All the decorations remind her a bit of her childhood room, if she didn't know any better, she'd swear that it's all the same stuff.

Elizabeth knocks on the door and she opens the door, "Did you need any help with unpacking?"

It hasn't even been that long, and already her mom is coming in snooping, "I got it," Caroline stresses.

Elizabeth opens her arms in hopes of bringing her granddaughter into a hug, "I don't mind, if not, I could keep Elena company."

The little girl slowly walks towards her grandmother. Elena can feel her grandma place kisses on her head, but she doesn't know how to respond. It feels strange to receive such attention from a total stranger, but she doesn't break away.

Caroline looks over at her mother and daughter and notices the look on Elena's face. In an effort to help her daughter, Caroline startsm "You know, Mom. I'm feeling a little peckish and it's almost Elena's snack time. Could I trouble you for something light to eat?"

Elizabeth gets up and tries to lead Elena out of the room, but Caroline calls out to her, "Do you mind if she stays here for a bit? I want her to know where I'm putting her things so that she's not wondering later."

When Caroline's sure that her mother isn't around to listen to her, she walks over to her daughter, and quietly whispers into her ear, "We're only going to be here for a short time, but I need you to be on your best behavior. Grandma and Grandpa…" She struggles to think of how to finish that sentence. Caroline doesn't want to worry her or anything, but these are the same people that kept her and her daughter away for years. "They can be a bit particular. So, you need to remember to be on your very best behavior."

It isn't as though Elena is some wild animal, and even Alicia could be 'particular' too, but right now, they don't have a lot of options housing wise and she doesn't want to risk putting her daughter and any more bad situations.

Elena nods her head, "Okay."

---

Parker looks out the car window, but all he can see are houses and cars passing by. Elena told him that he was going to go on a little trip and that he was going to be back tomorrow. He knows that his parents are also coming back tomorrow, and his sister even packed a bag for the two of them with toys, clothes and his toothbrush.

"We're almost there," Elena tells him.

"Where'a we goin'?"

"I told you, on a trip."

"Where?" he asks in a whiny voice, annoyed that she doesn't tell him more than that.

Elena doesn't want to admit that she can't handle her brother for a few days. She didn't think that she wouldn't be able to handle him, but over the course of a few hours, he's broken a cookie jar, constantly bugs her to play, and his whining, she can't take it. She wants to sit back and relax this weekend, no, she wouldn't choose to study, but it's a lot harder to do so with a toddler around.

"It's a surprise," is all she says and drives them towards Royal Woods.

She can't handle a toddler alone, but she knows someone who can. Victor is still mostly immobile and between two adults her dad and Lynn can each handle her brothers.

Elena pulls into the driveway. She gets Parker's things and helps her brother out of his seat. She takes his hand and leads him towards the front door. Along the way, Parker looks around at the neighborhood. It isn't like home where the yards and houses are big, everything seems a little smaller and closer together.

He looks up and sees his sister ring the doorbell.

Elena waits for her dad to open the door. She didn't tell him that she was going to come over and drop off Parker and she probably should have, but in her tired state, she didn't think that far ahead. Hopefully, she can pull out the puppy-dog eyes and get him to agree or, at the worst, lie and pretend that she has a packed weekend that can't afford interruptions.

Francisco opens the door. He's surprised to see Elena with her brother greeting him, but regardless, he lets them in.

"Hey Dad, can I ask you a favor?"

Without saying it, he already knows what she wants.

"Can you please take care of Parker? I'm trying to study, but he keeps interrupting me and I can't get anything done," she pleads with her best puppy-dog eyes.

Francisco looks down at the boy. He hasn't spent much time with him aside from Elena's birthday last year, and even that wasn't much. He looks up at his daughter, whose eyes are begging him to help.

He hesitates to answer.

When Francisco doesn't immediately respond, "Dad, please," begs Elena, "I wouldn't ask you this favor if it wasn't important. I can't practice for my recital with Parker around. He needs constant supervision and I also have SATs that I need to study for."

"Did you talk to your mom?"

"Yes."

Parker blurts out, "You did?"

Elena looks down. She didn't think that he would speak up and say anything, but she hopes that Dad won't question what she said.

Francisco sighs. He doesn't want to spend his weekend acting as a babysitter, but he isn't going to leave Elena to care for the boy while trying to study and work on her recital.

"Alright," he responds, "but next time look at your calendar so that this doesn't pile up on you again."

Elena leads Parker towards her bedroom so that she can unpack some of the things that she brought for him. As they walk down the hallway, Parker looks at everything. He's never been to her dad's house. He's never even talked to the man and now he's going to be left here away from his family.

With tears in his eyes, "I wanna go home."

She gives him a hug, "Look, I have to study for my important test," she answers. "Besides, you're going to have a lot more fun here than sitting around watching me read. Dad will take good care of you and Lynn will happily play any game you want with her. They're much more fun than I am."

Parker stares at Elena.

He doesn't want to be with a bunch of strangers, he wants to go home. He wants to play with his toys, watch some videos on the tablet, and sleep in his own bed. Instead, he's gonna be all alone away from his family.

"I wanna go home," he demands.

Elena sighs, "No, I'm sorry, but you have to stay, I'll make it up to you when I come pick you up."

Parker hops onto the bed and crosses his arms, pouting at his sister in hopes that it will get her to change her mind, but it doesn't work.

Elena kisses his head, "I'll pick you up Sunday night. Be a good boy for Dad and Lynn, okay."

He mumbles under his breath, annoyed at being left behind from his parents and sister. He slowly follows after her sister and hides so that he can overhear her talk to her dad.

"I brought him a change of clothes, a bunch of toys so that he can entertain himself, and some coloring books and drawing paper. Thank you so much, Dad," she says before giving him a hug and a kiss. "I'll pick him up on Sunday afternoon. Bye, Dad."

"Make sure to take a few breaks in between so you can retain the information," he reminds her.

As she runs back to her car, she assures him, "I know."

Francisco watches her drive away, unaware of the little boy watching his sister leave him behind with a pair of strangers.

"C'mon," says Francisco, who gently leads Parker inside, "it's cold out here." He can see the sad look on the boy's face and in an effort to cheer him up, offers, "You know, we can have a snowball fight later today or maybe make a snowman or something."

Parker mumbles. He drags his feet inside. When Francisco closes the door, Parker stops walking and stands right by the door.

Francisco figures that Caroline probably doesn't let him watch tv, which unfortunately rules out the game for him, but kids can find ways to entertain themselves. He recalls that when Elena was a little girl she would constantly be playing with her dolls, having tea parties, and drawing, though he's sure that the boy won't be doing all of that. Instead, he leads Parker back to Elena's room to get whatever she packed for him.

He opens the bag, and is surprised by how few toys she packed. The only things in the bag that he can play with are crayons, a coloring book, a toy car, and some toy figures. In Francisco's opinion, that'll only entertain him for only an hour at best, and the boy is supposed to be with them until tomorrow afternoon.

At the moment, they don't have a lot of toys for him to play with unless he's fine with playing with some of Victor's toys, but even then, it's not going to entertain him for long. Francisco grabs some of the crayons and paper and leads Parker to the living room. Drawing isn't going to do much in the long-term, but it'll give him some time to come up with something for the weekend.

As the two head to the living room, Francisco occasionally glances down at Parker. He's so quiet, clearly nervous about being left alone with a stranger, and clinging onto him, possibly afraid of being left behind.

Francisco takes a seat on the couch and sets the coloring book and crayons on the coffee table, "Do you want to color?"

Parker doesn't say anything. He stares at the crayons, then slumps his body over the table. He doesn't want to color, he wants to go home. Francisco doesn't egg him on, figuring that he'll get started when he's ready. After all, he can't expect him to be happy-go-lucky after being left behind by his sister.

"A little further, a little further!" yells Lynn as she moves furniture out of Victor's path as he rolls into the living room. "C'mon you're going for a record, kid."

Victor laughs, but then stops to sneeze.

Francisco looks over at Lynn, "What are you doing?"

She picks the boy and tells him, "I thought it'd be fun to see how far this kid could roll, and look he made it all the way from his room to the living room."

"All while looking like he belongs in those cartoons that Lily and Lincoln love," says Francisco, who is pointing at their son's disheveled hair.

Lynn playfully rolls her eyes and tries to set Victor's hair down, "You know, if we put double-sided duct tape on him, we could probably get him to clean the carpets."

Francisco chuckles, "Maybe. It's never too early for chores."

Lynn laughs. She walks over to the couch and notices the blond boy angrily coloring in his book. She has no idea where he came from or when arrived. Lynn quietly leans over to Francisco, "What's going on?"

"Elena said that she wanted to study and asked if we could babysit him for the weekend while Caroline and Andrew are away for the weekend."

Lynn accepts that response. She peers over his shoulder to look at what he's coloring, but Parker has scribbled all over the page.

"Whatcha coloring?"

Parker doesn't say anything.

Lynn doesn't take too kindly to that. She leans down and rests her head on the coffee table. He looks over at her, wondering what she is doing. He covers the page away from her.

For a brief second, Lynn is tempted to snatch the book from the kid to get her answer, but she doesn't instead she watches him stare back at her. Both of them stare at one another, neither one moving from their position.

Francisco watches them both stare at one another.

He's not sure who's going to move first. Lynn can be stubborn, but he's not sure if she's more stubborn than a two-year-old. Elena wasn't too bad, but she had her bouts, and he's seen other kids.

Eventually, Lynn speaks up, "Do you wanna play with me and Vic? We're gonna go outside and play in the snow."

He mumbles a response, but Lynn can't hear him.

She takes his hand, "C'mon, it'll be a lot more fun than sitting around and filling in pages," she tells him as she takes him towards the backyard.

That answers Francisco's question. Then he realizes that Lynn is about to take a toddler and their son out into the cold without a coat on. Before he could call out to her, she immediately goes back into the house, and without looking at him, says, "I know, I know."

---

Elizabeth pours four cups of coffee, "Now remember, don't say anything bad about her dad. We don't want either of them to get upset and leave," she says as she hands her husband and daughter their beverages. "She's four-years-old and it's the first-time I'm meeting my granddaughter in person, so don't chase her mother away."

Violet quietly looks over at her parents. Sure, she wasn't fond of her older sister's decision to live with his family, but she didn't try freezing Caroline out entirely like her parents did to some extent. It was mostly their dad, though Violet is sure that it would have been both had it not been for her sister's attempts to pull at their mother's heartstrings with photos and videos of the little girl.

"Do you really think I'm such a monster?"

Both his wife and daughter look at him. He was the most furious about Caroline's pregnancy, and has since not had a high opinion of Francisco. At first, it was terrible comments, but it's now gotten to the point of snorts and growls. As of now, he hasn't been mentioned, but they're sure that Elena might say something and no one knows how Jacob will react.

"I can handle myself around a child. I've raised two daughters, and handled everything they threw at me, I'm sure I can handle my little granddaughter."

"I don't think that that's what Mom's worried about, Dad."

He rolls his eyes and resumes reading his morning paper. It should be easy to keep a little girl happy, but her mom might be a different story. She's definitely more emotionally sensitive and is likely going to try to find a reason to get upset, but regardless, he knows how to be a good host, father and likely a good grandfather.

Minutes later, the sound of footsteps approaches the dining room. The three adults spot Elena standing at the doorway and they stop their conversation to look at her. She can feel their eyes on her, and she stands still, worried that they're going to say something to her.

Jacob calls out to the girl, "What are you doing standing around all by yourself? Come here and join us."

With some confidence in her walk, Elena walks into the kitchen. She sits down on one of the empty chairs and looks over at her grandmother, "Can I have a snack?"

Elizabeth looks at the girl. It's been a long time since there has been a young child in her home, and foods that young children like haven't been on their grocery lists since the girls were young, but either way, she pretends to look around the pantry.

"I have some fruit, would you like some?"

Elena would have preferred something like rice or frijoles on a tostada, but she's fine either way. Elizabeth places a fork and bowl of freshly cut fruit in front of her. Elena picks up her fork and tries to eat her food. She notices her grandpa and aunt looking at her. She wonders if she's doing something wrong, so she tries to sit up straight, eat slowly, and chew with her mouth closed so that she doesn't get in trouble.

Elizabeth notices that Elena is hesitating to eat,

"How about next time I go to the grocery store, you come along and we can buy something that you like, does that sound good?"

The girl nods her head, but she doesn't relax. She does her best to listen to her mom's words and behave properly, but all she can think about is how her aunt and grandparents are looking for a reason to get mad at her.

The two notice Elena looking down at her bowl, quietly avoiding their gaze. None of them know what to say, though they're sure that Caroline probably scared the girl.

Elizabeth takes a seat next to Elena, "Do you like your new room?"

She quickly swallows the food in her mouth, and responds, "Yes, ma'am."

"Oh, don't call me ma'am, it feels so impersonal. You can call me whatever you want."

Jacob and Violet look over at her. She's definitely going to try to get on Elena's good side. They don't blame her. Sure, Caroline has mentioned that they're only planning on staying for a short time while she finds a permanent home for them, but they're likely going to be in their lives more now that she left Francisco.

"Okay, Grandma."

It isn't original, but since Elena has only known these people for such a short time, she can't think of something better. Of course, that has her thinking about something else.

"You're my family, right?" The adults nod. "How come I never met you before?"

The three quietly look at her, unsure of how to answer. Anything they say won't be taken well, and while they can lie, Caroline can easily refute them later. They figure that they might get lucky and Caroline calls on Elena before she wonders what's taking them so long to answer her question.

While Elena waits for an answer, she finishes up her food, and Elizabeth immediately takes the bowl away,"Let me take that from you. You know, we were thinking about heading to the club to play tennis later this afternoon and catch an early dinner."

"You know, Mom, that sounds great."

Jacob stands up, "You know, what? While you two clean up and get ready, I'll go play with Elena." He takes his granddaughter's hand and leads her into the living room.

The girl is still confused, wondering why none of the adults answered her question, but she might be able to ask her mom later.

"So what are you interested in? Do you like drawing? Playing? Horsies?"

"Yeah!"

Jacob nods his head. She's like his daughters. They loved all those things at her age, so it'll be a cinch to get his granddaughter on his side, "Do you have any horsie toys?"

Elena looks down. She did until her abuelita threw them away because she left them on the ground and not putting them away. She didn't think that she was actually going to go through with the threat, but apparently, she did.

"Abuelita threw them away…"

Jacob holds his tongue, so that he doesn't accidentally say something that he shouldn't, instead, he says, "You know, one of Grandpa's friends has a stable full of horses."

With a hint of excitement, Elena asks, "Real ones?"

"Yeah. I could ask him one day if he could let us all go for a ride. Does that sound fun?"

"Yeah!"

"Well until then, how about we play horsey?"

Jacob gently lets her down and sits down to rest his back. He knows that he's no spring chicken, but a four-year-old should not be that much of a hassle to carry. When she gets on his back, he can feel his knees ache, but he slowly trots around the living room, luckily, Elena isn't begging him to go faster.

After he circles the living room a few times, he stops and lets her off on the couch, "Sorry, honey, Grandpa needs a little rest."

Elena looks at him. She's used to it. It happened plenty of times with Dad, though he would usually be breathing in really quickly and complaining about how much his back hurt; instead, Grandpa is quietly trying to rub his knees.

"Yeah… Dad can't carry me much either."

"Don't worry. Grandpa definitely needed that reminder to hit the gym…"

---

Parker looks down at the snow. He can't remember ever being out on a snowy day and not wanting to play, but he's still upset at his family for leaving him behind. He wants to go home, instead he's stuck being with people he doesn't even know. Parker looks over at the brown-haired woman, who is chasing after Elena's dad while carrying around their laughing baby. She has a snowball in her hand, ready to throw it at him, but he tries to stop her by putting the baby in front of him.

"That's not fair. Put him down," demands Lynn.

Francisco, who is trying his best to gather some snow with his free hand, shakes his head, "No way, you're gonna hit me."

Lynn scoffs, "A little snow won't hurt you," she turns to Parker, "and I'll prove it."

The boy watches as she approaches him. He's sort of afraid that she's going to try to hit him, but instead she hands him the snowball and tells him, "Alright, hit me with it."

He's not sure if he should. His dad told him to never hit girls with anything and his mom has never been a fan of playing around in the snow. Usually, she stays indoors making hot cocoa, while he and Dad play.

"C'mon," says Lynn, showing him a throwing gesture to mimic. "Hit me right here," she says while pointing at her torso.

Eventually Parker complies, and Lynn pretends to fall to the ground, groaning in pain, "I'm hit… I'm hit…" then she laughs. She looks over at Francisco, "Is that what you're afraid is going to happen to you?"

"No, this is," he surprises her with a snowball that he hid while she focused on Parker.

Lynn laughs, "Oh you're gonna pay for that!" she playfully threatens while running after Francisco. She looks back at Parker, "C'mon! Don't tell me you don't like a good ol' snowball fight, get over here."

Parker looks down at the snow and picks some up to make into a ball. Lynn isn't like his mom, who likes sitting to the side watching him and his dad. No, instead, Lynn likes to play around like him. He slowly walks towards the adults, Francisco has begun to fire back at Lynn, and she's laughing as she watches him try to form a snowball while holding Victor.

The boy runs towards the two and he attempts to throw a poorly-built snowball at Lynn. Parker misses spectacularly, but regardless, she pretends to run away from him as he chases after her. Francisco decides to take the opportunity to rest and walks over to the fence to lean against it.

He sighs as he feels some of the pain in his back subside. It wasn't even that much running, but somehow his back aches as if he pushed himself further. Francisco closes his eyes in an effort to stop fixating on the pain, but Victor starts squirming in his arms. He looks down at Victor, who is looking back and forth at Lynn and Parker, "Sorry buddy, I'm sure you had fun, but you gotta let your old man relax for a minute."

Victor looks up and Francisco is sure that he's seeing him pull off Lynn's puppy dog eye routine.

"Fine, but let's do something that isn't going to kill me later," he sighs.

He doesn't know how he is falling for it, but now he's more concerned that he has two family members that can work that trick on him.

Francisco grabs a little snow and sprinkles the flurries in front of Victor. It isn't running around the yard, but it has his attention for a bit.

He then walks over and takes a seat on an old lawn chair so that he can watch the other two, who occasionally throw snowballs towards him. The two have been happily running around like idiots since the first time he rested and it doesn't seem like Lynn will stop, though Parker definitely looks like he can use a nap. Victor is starting to doze off a little, but who knows how long that'll last, and Francisco would rather get them to bed while they're a bit compliant.

He calls out to her, "Lynn," she doesn't hear him. Francisco tries again, "Lynn." He looks down to Victor, "You wanna try?" but the infant doesn't interact with him either. Then he decides a more sure fire way of getting her attention, "The game's about to start."

Lynn immediately stops in her tracks to ask Francisco, "What? What time is it?"

Francisco looks down at his watch, "Half past one."

"Dang, and I was having fun too, let's go."

Lynn walks past Francisco, who reminds her, "We still have time, and it's not like Parker is going to like sitting around watching a hockey game."

"I'm sure he'll like it. Besides, what about snacks and the pregame show? And Vic needs a nap too. Dang it, we might have to record the game," she complains as she takes Victor from Francisco and runs inside.

Francisco looks down at Parker, "Do you still take naps?"

Parker doesn't answer, in an attempt to avoid his afternoon nap, but his yawn gives him away.

"C'mon," says Francisco as he leads him back into the house, "you need a nap."

The boy kicks the snow, "No, I don't."

Francisco takes his hand, "Don't worry, it'll be over before you know it."

He opens the door to Elena's room. He takes Parker's things off of the bed and gestures that the boy hop in for his nap, but he refuses. Luckily for Francisco, he doesn't move either, the last thing he wants is to run after a toddler.

"Get on the bed, and take a nap."

"No!"

"You had plenty of fun running around, but now you have to sleep."

Parker attempts to make a run for the door, but Francisco quickly gets a hold of him, "I'm not sleepy!" he whines.

"Too bad. Try," is all Francisco says before placing him on the bed and walking out of the room. He can hear Parker crying, and whining about not wanting to sleep, but it's for his own good, though he hopes that he stops before Victor is disturbed from his own nap.

In the kitchen, Francisco spots Lynn running around trying to get their snacks ready before the game starts, "Do you need help?"

Lynn turns around, "Umm…" She tries to think of something, but all she can think about is finishing up so that they can sit down and watch the game. Sure, just some cheese puffs and a couple of pops will be enough, but she is craving some other sweets and junk.

"Get some snow for the cooler."

"Sure…?"

While Francisco gathers a cooler for their drinks, Lynn notices that Parker has finally quieted himself down, "You know, I forgot how fussy toddlers are about naps, especially when they can talk."

"How could you with so many younger siblings?"

"I don't know. How bad do you think it's gonna be with Vic?"

Francisco doesn't want to think about it. They were lucky that Victor went down for his nap so easily just now, but they don't know how long it'll last until he wakes up again. Of course, at the moment, he can't walk or escape his crib to make things harder on them, but that's not going to be the case for long. Soon, he'll be kicking and screaming and possibly complaining about having to go to sleep, and that just has him shuddering. His thoughts are soon interrupted by their son's cries, "I'll go get him…" he groans.

Moments later, Parker opens his eyes. For a brief second, he thinks that he's back in his room, but then he spots all of the unfamiliar furniture and decorations and remembers that he's not in his room, or even his house. He kicks the blanket off and grabs on tightly to the bed so that he can put his feet on the floor. He doesn't know how much time has passed, but he's sure that it was enough for a nap, so he shouldn't get in trouble. He opens the door and hears the adults talking, so he settles on going over to see if it's time for a snack.

"How the heck did he miss that? We coulda made that shot."

Lynn scoffs, "A little pee-wee player coulda made it." She groans, "I need more cheese puffs." She gets up and notices Parker standing alone in the hallway, "Hey, you woke up. Good timing, the game's still going on." She takes his hand, "You want something to eat?"

He nods his head and Lynn leads him to the living room after grabbing her snack.

Parker takes a seat in front of the coffee table. He looks at all the snacks in front of him, all of them a variety of colors and smells. Then he spots a forbidden treat coated in sugar and drizzled in chocolate. He looks up at the adults, who are busy watching tv, so he figures that this is his chance. He quickly reaches for the snack, but is surprised that Lynn is also reaching for it.

"You want some puppy chow, little man?"

The boy is confused, until Francisco grabs a handful and places some in front of him. Parker looks at the little white squares. Lynn takes a few from the bowl and begins to eat them. The boy takes it as a good sign and begins to eat it. When the sugar hits his tongue, he's surprised by the sweetness, but more importantly, he wonders where this has been his whole life.

Francisco notices how quickly Parker is scarfing down on the puppy chow, and when he's preoccupied, the older man hands Victor to Lynn and takes the bowl, so that he can hide it under a pillow beside him.

Lynn notices what her husband is up to snatches another handful of the treat before Parker figures out what happened to the bowl. She is about to take a piece, but stops in her place to look at the action on screen. Her finger is right within Victor's grasp and he takes the chance to bite down on his mom's finger.

She looks down when she feels his gums on her finger, "What the? Vic, what are you doing?" Clearly the boy can't answer, and he continues to bite down. Lynn tries to take her finger away, but he starts crying, so she lets him have his little win.

Francisco looks over at her, "Lynn, do you want a teething ring for him?"

"Nah, I think he's good. Besides, he can't hurt me, he doesn't have a tooth yet."

He notices the amount of drool from their son's mouth. Lynn's right that Victor's first tooth hasn't come in, but he's probably going to get one pretty soon with how he's going to town.

"Dang kid, you're really trying to bite me, aren't you?" she says as Victor chews on his mom's finger.

Parker looks up, "Does it hurt?"

"Nah, Vic's all gums right now."

Parker watches the screen. He's not usually allowed to watch tv, but he's not going to say anything if Elena's other parents don't mind. Parker watches as the guys in white and the guys and red skate around. He doesn't know what they're doing and he is growing a bit bored at watching them go back and forth.

Soon, blaring sounds come from the tv, everyone looks like they're yelling, and the lights are turning on and off, "What's goin' on?"

"Red Wings scored," says Francisco.

"Are they the red guys?"

"Yup."

"And who are the white guys?"

Lynn points at the tv, "Now those are the Blackhawks, we don't like them."

"Why not?"

"Because they're against us. You root for your teams, boys. You got that?"

Parker nods his head. He didn't know that he had a team, but she wouldn't lie to him. Then a thought occurs to him, "Why are they called the… B-Black… ha…Blackha…"

Francisco finishes the question for him, "Blackhawks?"

"Yeah, they're in white?"

"It's an away uniform. That means that they're here in Michigan visiting us, so they wear a different uniform than normal."

Lynn tries to think of where the name came from, but she can't think of it, instead all she can think about is how wet her shirt is becoming from all of Victor's drool. She hands Victor over to Francisco, so that she can dry off her shirt, but as soon as the napkin touches her shirt, the Blackhawks score. Lynn kicks the coffee table and Francisco hands Victor back to her, knowing that she's going to want him back so that the Red Wings get their mojo back.

She takes Vic from her husband and looks down at her son, "C'mon, Fun-Size, the Red Wings need more of your magic drool," she tells him as she offers him her finger for him to bite down on.

Victor looks at his mom's finger, but he ignores it, "Really? Now you're sick of chewing on my finger? Looks like I'm gonna have to break out the big guns."

Francisco sighs, "Oh boy, here comes the good luck ritual."

"Hey, don't complain, they work." She sets Victor down in his chair, "Now I'm gonna show you boys how to do the perfect good luck dance. With this, your team is guaranteed to win."

"Like magic?"

"Better."

"Woah!"

Francisco shakes his head. He can't believe that Lynn is actually going to try to convince them that her superstitions are magic. Actually, he can, he doesn't know why he thought that.

The three watch as Lynn spins around, and dances back and forth. They wait around for the Red Wings to score, but neither team is able to score a point. At some point, Francisco and Parker think that Lynn will stop dancing around, but she doesn't let up.

"What's up with you guys? C'mon," she takes Victor into her arms, and forces Francisco off the couch to join them. Francisco can barely move back and forth, while Lynn has Victor bouncing through the air. Eventually, Parker gets up on his feet, but like Francisco, he barely moves. He wants to copy Lynn, but she's moving around too fast.

Lynn notices him staring at her and slows her moves down a bit so that Parker can dance along. He stands still for a bit, but then she picks him up and carries him as she dances around the living room. A smile forms on his lips and soon he starts to laugh as he moves around with the family.

After the game and a quick bath, Francisco set out to put the boys to bed, leaving Lynn to clean up the living room and the kitchen. It sounds like she got a raw deal, but based on some of the screams, groans, and cries, she definitely got off easier… sort of.

She definitely wishes that she cooled it on the snacks.

The sound of the shower lets her know that Francisco finally got the boys to bed, and that they have the house to themselves until Victor wakes up. She realizes what crossed her mind, and immediately knocks on the counter hoping that she didn't jinx them.

Lynn stares across the room as she dries the dishes, thinking about how the day went. She didn't anticipate it going the way it did, but it was definitely fun to have snowball fights, watch the game, and eat noxious amounts of food while passing down her little game day traditions to the boys.

Without even knowing it, a smile forms on her face.

Soon, the sound of cries gets her attention and Lynn sighs, "I'm coming, Vic."

Eight-months-old and he still struggles to sleep through the night. At first, she and Francisco would immediately try to soothe him. Then, as he got older, they let him cry a bit before tending to him. Then there was the brief time that Francisco wanted to let him cry it out, but they would hear Victor babble on for hours on end and they would be worse off than if they tried helping him get to sleep, thus they went back to trying to help him get to sleep.

She opens the door and the crying gets louder. You'd think that after years of dealing with multiple baby siblings, a loud house, and months of his crying, she would be used to it, but it always worries her to hear him cry.

Lynn takes Victor into her arms and tries rocking him back as she walks him around the room, then towards the kitchen, the living room, and finally, he quiets down as they head back to his room. She's happy that it'll soon be over, all she has to do is gently place him in his crib and she'll be home free. However, a new sound gets her attention and Victor's.

She sighs and takes him back into her arms so that she can check on Parker. Lynn can hear whimpering from Elena's room. She opens the door and notices Parker whimpering under the covers. She isn't sure if he's scared of some make-believe monster or if he's homesick, but she tells herself that she'll tend to him once Vic is in his crib.

However, she can sense Parker looking over at her.

She walks into the room and turns on the lights, "Can't sleep?"

He doesn't answer.

"Did you see a monster?"

Nothing.

"How about a story?"

He shakes his head. She's sort of happy that he said no; she's not really the creative type, and they don't really have a lot of storybooks lying around.

"Do you want a horsey ride?"

Parker quietly nods his head.

Lynn looks around. Francisco isn't around and she can't leave Victor on Elena's bed, or he might roll off and she can't trot on four legs if she holds him, Parker's too small to hold him and Vic's likely going to get bounced off.

Hmm… she didn't think this through.

Then an idea pops in her head, "Ah, forget it. We're doing a kangaroo hop!"

"But you can't ride kangaroos."

Lynn isn't sure about that, so she does her best to wrap both boys in her arms as she hops around the room. Victor takes all the rough bouncing well, and Parker is laughing as they go around the room, but surprisingly, Lynn is getting a bit tired, regardless she perseveres until Parker decides he's ready to get off.

"Ready to go to sleep?"

He shakes his head, "Can you stay?"

Lynn doesn't want to, but she remembers what it was like to be little, tired, and wanting one of her parents around until she was able to fall asleep. Dad always did it, but eventually he stopped once her younger siblings were born, and Mom didn't always do it. Meanwhile Parker doesn't have either of his parents around, and he's in a new place, so just for tonight, she decides to lay in bed next to him until he falls asleep.

Francisco begins to wonder where Lynn has gone off to, so he gets up and goes searching for her. He glances into Victor's room, but she's not there. Then he looks in their room, but again, nothing. He figures that she might be in the bathroom, but he doesn't hear her either. There's no way that she randomly decided to go down the basement or the attic, especially without him hearing or seeing her.

Eventually, he passes by Elena's bedroom. He spots her laying down on the bed with Victor snuggling up against her torso and Parker holding onto her. Both boys are asleep, but Francisco notices Lynn staring at him.

She whispers, "I can't move."

"I bet," Francisco quietly answers. He walks over to her in an effort to help her out, but Parker looks as though he might wake up whenever she tries to budge out of his grasp. "He's treating you like a teddy bear."

"I know," she tries to hand Victor over, "take him back to his crib. I'll figure something out."

---

Alicia scrolls through her tablet, bored. The house hasn't been so quiet in years. At this time, she would normally be hearing her granddaughter playing, or trying to make some sort of conversation with her, instead it's silence.

She misses her so much.

From the living room, she can hear the truck pull up. She's had all day to think of what she's going to tell Francisco, but nothing she thought of sounded right. She was furious at her son for the problems that he caused, but more upset at the thought that she might not see her granddaughter again for who knows how long because of those problems.

The front door opens and her sons walk in.

Francisco calls out, "I'm home!" hoping to get his daughter's attention. However, the little girl never comes. "Elena! Caroline! I'm home!"

"Ya se fueron," is all she says.

He innocently asks, "¿A donde?"

Alicia stares at her son, "Se largaron. Ya se hartaron de estar con alguien que nomas quiere hacerse pendejo y tomar drogas como si no tuviera problema."

Francisco stares at his mom. He can feel his throat closing up. He wants to answer something back to her, but he doesn't know what to say.

"Bueno, ¿que tienes que decir?"

Francisco remains silent, unaware that his eyes are giving away the anger and hurt that he's feeling. He knows that Caroline was trying to get him over his 'problem', but he didn't think that she would actually leave behind his back while he's at work. He didn't think that she would take his daughter without saying goodbye. He didn't think that it would happen now.

Chuy stares towards his mom and brother, but tries to avoid eye contact with either of them. He doesn't want to be around to hear the conversation, but can't bring himself to leave either.

The room stays quiet.

If you ask Chuy, those wouldn't be the words that he would have used, but he agrees with their mom. He would sometimes overhear the conversations between his brother and girlfriend, and how she was getting tired of him refusing her help. It was bound to happen, and she finally reached her limit; he just didn't expect that she would leave without saying anything.

Chuy turns to Francisco, who slowly walks to his bedroom, past his mom and brother.

Alicia tries to follow after her son, but Chuy takes her hand and stops her. They're both upset and right now they both might say or do something that they'll regret.

Francisco walks into his room and takes a seat on his bed. Everything of hers is gone, leaving him alone as he stares out at the wall. He's sure that Elena's room is also empty, and he doesn't want to look to see the bare room. The room and the house feel so much emptier without either of them, but he doesn't know what to do.

He lays down on his bed and feels pain from his back. Without a second thought, he reaches for his medicine and pops two pills into his mouth.

For a minute, he stares up at the ceiling, trying to take everything in. In the span of over eight hours, he went from having his family all under one roof, to his girlfriend running off with their daughter without saying a word to him. He doesn't know where they went, but he has an idea of where they could have gone.

If only Francisco knew the exact address.

He grabs his keys and gets in his truck without saying a word to his mom or brother. He knows that he probably isn't going to change Caroline's mind about leaving, but that doesn't mean that she gets to run off without seeing his daughter.

Francisco pulls out of the driveway and heads to Huntington Oaks. It's a long shot, but he's going to try and if he doesn't find them today, then there's tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that.

At some point, he should be able to find them.

Francisco slowly drives down the streets as he looks at the driveways in hopes of finding a familiar car or maybe someone familiar in the yard. He drives down plenty of streets, doing his best to avoid attracting unwanted attention. Soon, the sun begins to set, reminding Francisco of the late hour.

He turns on the headlights and decides that he'll have to try again tomorrow. However, as heads towards the stop sign, he spots a familiar man standing by the gate.

Francisco immediately slams on the brakes and parks in front of the house. He jumps out of his truck, and calmly calls out to Jacob, trying to hide the desperation in his voice, "Hey… how are you doing?"

"I'm fine. What are you doing here?"

"I was just in the neighborhood, and I thought I'd come by…"

"And what?"

Francisco stays quiet before answering, "What, I wanna see my daughter?"

Jacob crosses his arms, "No."

"What do you mean no?"

"I said, no. Caroline said that she didn't want to see you, and that includes Elena."

"Who are you to say anything?!" complains Francisco as he steps towards Jacob, but the older man doesn't budge.

"She told me what's going on with you - jumping from doctor to doctor, taking pills everyday, and not caring about what my daughter says or what you do around my granddaughter, so I'll be damned if you set one foot in this house or hurt them."

Francisco looks back at him. He should have known that Caroline would have said something to him, or that he would have had questions about why she suddenly left, but to hear it from the guy that didn't want to have anything to do with them is rich.

"Since when do you care?"

Jacob knows that he hasn't been the most attentive of his daughter and granddaughter, that he never made much of an effort to get in contact for nearly all of Elena's life, but that doesn't mean that he's going to disobey his daughter's wishes and get her back in contact with him.

"Since this morning. I may not have been there, but Caroline does want me here now, which is more than I can say for you."

Jacob turns around, but Francisco yells, "Four years! Four years, I've been helping to raise our daughter, one day doesn't suddenly make you more qualified."

"It doesn't matter, she's made her choice, and it's not you."

Francisco can feel his lungs breathing heavily as he tries to process the evening's events, Jacob's words, Caroline's actions, and the fact that he might not see his daughter again for who knows how long. He wants to prove to them that he doesn't have a problem, that he's only using his medicine to treat his pain, and that he needs to keep taking more to numb everything.

Of course, forcing isn't going to do anything, and if he tries too hard, they'll come after him and could possibly keep him away permanently and by law.

"Look, I…" He can see Jacob walking back to his house. This is his only chance to say something, "I'll… I'll back off… just, uh…" Jacob turns to face Francisco as he continues, "take good care of Elena…" is all he can mutter, feeling his head going numb as he speaks.

"Fine, now leave before Caroline notices the neighbors talking about you."

Francisco is confused, but Jacob turns him around and forces him towards his truck. Jacob can hear the younger man go on about Elena starting school, her birthday, and a variety of other milestones. He doesn't know how long his daughter is planning on keeping him away, but in his opinion, if she's smart, she won't bother going back to him. There's nothing that Francisco can do that the family can't take care of.

"You better not forget what you said about backing off," starts Jacob. "I don't want you coming around here anymore for anything. Understand?"

He can see Francisco muttering under his breath, possibly angry at being reminded to stay away. Now, he knows that Francisco is a big guy, so it isn't like he can take him down, even if he is slowed down by his back pain.

So Jacob decides on making sure that he doesn't come around.

When Francisco reaches the driver's side door, he begins to dig around in his pocket for his keys, when he hears Jacob tell him, "Remember you said that you'd back off, so I don't want to see you crawling around here again, and just to make sure of it, I'm going to make you a deal."

Francisco stares at the man, upset to know that he doesn't trust him, but he isn't an idiot, so he angrily responds with, "Fine," after Jacob makes his offer. He gets in his truck and drives off, but not before looking out at the house, hoping that he can see his daughter through one of the windows, but he can't.

Through the window, Elena spots her grandpa looking in the direction of a truck driving away. It looks like her dad's truck and she wonders if he came to visit. It should be him, she recognizes that truck anywhere, but he wouldn't leave without saying anything to her.

She runs outside and calls out to her grandfather, "Was that Dad?"

Jacob turns to his granddaughter, "What? No, sweetie. That was just a friend of grandpa's. He came over to remind me to check in on his house while he heads up north."

Elena looks down, disappointed that she didn't get to see her dad. She can feel tears in her eyes and soon she begins to sob. Jacob looks down at his granddaughter and picks her up, "There, there," he says, as he pats her back. "You're going to be okay. Grandpa's gonna make sure that you're well taken care of. I promise."

---

The next morning, Parker is awoken by a smoky smell wafting into the room. It's not burning, but it definitely smells good. He's ready to run out of the room to see what he's smelling, but stops when he realizes that he's in his pajamas. He haphazardly changes into his clothes, and runs towards the source of the smell.

Parker stops when he gets into the dining room and looks at all the food on the table - pancakes and eggs and burger patties. His mom never cooks this much food for breakfast and it definitely doesn't smell as good as this either. Usually, it's only fruit, oatmeal, and eggs with veggies, and none of that looks as good as what's in front of him.

Lynn looks down at the little boy, "Look at you all dressed up for breakfast."

He notices that everyone else is still in their pajamas. Francisco pulls up a chair for him, but notices that he's too short to reach, so he settles on letting Parker sit on his lap so that he can see over the table.

Lynn starts to fix up a plate for the boy, "What do you want for breakfast?"

Parker looks at the food in front of him. He can't decide, it all smells so good. The scent of the meat, the sweet maple syrup on top of the pancakes, and something else he can't figure out that's probably on the table.

He points to the small stack of sausage patties and the eggs. Lynn places a portion on the plate and cuts it up for Parker to feed himself and places the plate and a small plastic fork in front of him.

Parker looks at the small baby fork and refuses to grab it, "I'm not a baby."

"Too bad," starts Francisco. "We don't have big boy forks and these are for adults only," he says while showing him the large metal fork. "Make the best of it."

He isn't happy, but he tries, at least he's able to feed himself unlike the little baby in front of Lynn. Parker grabs a piece of sausage patty and he immediately spits it out, panting in an effort to relieve his tongue from the spiciness. Francisco offers him some milk and he immediately guzzles it down.

"Sorry," says Francisco, "We're not used to having kids who can eat the same food we do." He looks over at Lynn, "We're gonna have to get used to buying more regular flavored stuff soon enough."

"What? Why?"

"You think Vic is gonna love spicy foods too?"

"I don't see why not. Kid endured spicy meatball subs in the womb, I'm sure he can handle it." She takes a bite of her food and asks, "What'd you want to do today?"

Parker blurts out, "Play!"

Francisco hands Parker a napkin to clean himself up, "Maybe, I didn't have much planned today except to get things ready for later this month."

Lynn looks at him wondering what he's talking about until she realizes that it's almost Christmas. It's hard to believe how quickly the year has gone by, it seems like not too long ago they got married and brought their son home, now she has to worry about getting ready for the holiday. They can probably put off decorating the house, especially with Parker around, but the presents have to get wrapped and sent out before it's too late for the post office.

She sighs, "Alright, we can start later this afternoon."

"You say that like you're about to watch golf on tv."

"Well, it's about the same level of excitement…"

After breakfast, Lynn and Francisco play around with the boys until it's naptime. They aren't going to be alone for long, but it should be enough to pull out the presents and start wrapping them while the boys are asleep. Between the two of them it shouldn't take too much time, but it's a lot of presents and eventually the boys are going to wake up and want to do something. It isn't like Parker can't entertain himself, but he definitely thrives having someone around, and while Victor can provide some entertainment, there isn't much he can do based on his current physical abilities.

Francisco unrolls some wrapping paper and sets it down the coffee table, "Is there a reason everyone wants to meet up again for Christmas?"

"Some got some more days off from work, others had their in-laws go on vacation, and Mom and Dad are hoping that they can start a new Christmas skit tradition, since Vic couldn't participate in the Thanksgiving one."

Just hearing that has Francisco shudder. He doesn't mind the idea of a tradition, but he's worried that it'll mean that the family will do skits a year.

Lynn finishes wrapping up a present, and sighs at the number of items left to still wrap. Every year it keeps getting harder to wrap all these presents especially when the family keeps growing, but there's no use complaining. However, it's times like these that she misses Christmas the way it was when she was a little girl - no worrying about anything, just wake up and enjoy the magic.

She looks over at Victor, who is slobbering on one of his toys, 'Well, at least he'll be able to enjoy it one day.'

"I'm bored!" complains Parker.

Francisco doesn't look up as he measures the wrapping paper, "Well you can go play."

The boy grabs Lynn's hand, "I wanna play."

She looks over at him, "Sorry, buddy, no can do, not until we finish, then I'll take you boys out to play again."

"But I'm bored!" he whines.

Lynn tries to ignore the itching feeling in her brain, but she can't resist accidentally muttering, "Hi bored, I'm-" she immediately cuts herself off. She can feel Francisco's eyes on her after starting that dad joke and she shudders to think how she almost blurted it out.

She grabs a large cardboard tube and takes a pair of scissors and cuts off a chunk, "Do we have something to punch a hole into these?" she asks Francisco.

"I think so. Why?"

"I want it for something."

"You went from dad joke to crafts mom pretty quick," says Francisco, as he struggles to get himself up.

Lynn doesn't appreciate the comment and takes the opportunity to smack him with one of the cardboard tubes. He looks over at her surprised, and with a smile on her face, she hands him the shorter tube for him to cut in the kitchen. He isn't sure what she wants him to do, until she swings the larger piece of cardboard like a sword.

Francisco returns from the kitchen and hands the roll back to Lynn, who makes a weapon for the boy. She hands Parker a makeshift sword, and immediately runs to the playpen to take Victor into her arms. Then, in the deepest voice she can muster, pretends to talk through him, "You think you can pierce my armor?! You are no match for the-"

A knock on the door interrupts everyone.

Francisco heads to the door and looks through the peephole where he sees Caroline. As soon he opens the door, she walks in, apologizing to him, as she calls out to Parker to take him home. "I am so sorry. I told Elena to watch Parker, but I didn't think that she was going to dump him on you so that she can goof off for the weekend."

He's confused, "What are you talking about? She said that she was studying for the SATs."

"Well, she lied. I caught her getting out of Noah's car as we pulled in. I am going to talk with her, but again, I'm so sorry that she left him to you."

"It's fine. We managed to have some fun."

Parker runs after Caroline to give her a hug, "Mom!"

Caroline returns the gesture, but she still looks at Francisco to avoid alerting her son that she's in a bad mood.

From the living room, Lynn notices Caroline. She figured that Elena would have come for her kid brother and didn't think that she would be the one to pick up Parker, "Hey, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to pick up Parker."

"Oh, that's cool. He was a good little guy, couldn't stop thinking about you for a minute."

It almost looks hard to believe, considering how they were playing as she walked in.

"Wanna see my sword?"

Before she can answer, Parker runs back to retrieve his cardboard sword.

Caroline turns to Francisco, "What were they doing?"

"We were wrapping presents, Parker was getting bored, so Lynn fashioned a cardboard roll into a sword for him. It's a good thing we were almost done."

"That's nice…"

Francisco can see that Caroline is still upset about Elena, and he's sure that she's going to give their daughter hell, or more, in case she hasn't started before coming over.

"You know what? Why don't you guys go back to playing while Caroline gets Parker's things," suggests Francisco. The boy stops in his tracks and goes back to trying to attack Lynn, while Francisco leads Caroline down the hallway, "His things are in her room. She didn't bring much, so it should be easy to find everything."

"Great," is all she can say as he leads her to Elena's room.

The two quietly walk into the room, and Caroline immediately begins to pack away her son's things. As she does that, Francisco looks around the room for any more of his things. It's hard to believe that Elena would do such a thing, but he almost can't blame her. She's a teenager with a car, unsupervised, and with a dad a short drive away, why would she want to spend a weekend taking care of a toddler?

Still it doesn't make it right, and she's going to have to suffer the consequences.

Caroline eventually lets out, "I cannot believe her."

"I know."

"What made her think that this was a good idea?!"

Francisco shrugs her shoulders, knowing that Caroline doesn't want much of an answer and only wants to vent to him as he nods his head and agrees with her on the matter.

"We didn't ask for much, just a weekend, but she couldn't give us that."

"I know."

"If she thinks that she's going to be left alone again, she's got another thing coming."

"I know…" he responds halfheartedly.

She sighs, "I'm sorry. I just needed to get that out."

"No, I get it." He leans against the wall and watches her angrily put Parker's things away. "How about later after they're both asleep, you call or text me and we discuss how we're going to go through with this."

She doesn't know how she's going to punish her daughter, but it'll definitely start with her not being able to see Noah for a few weekends. Of course, she has to remind herself to get Francisco on the same page and probably take her car away so that she doesn't sneak off when she's supposed to be in Royal Woods.

Francisco figures that by the time both Parker and Elena are in bed, Caroline would have enough time to calm herself down and think of an appropriate way to deal with their daughter. It's a first-time offense and she's typically a good kid, so he isn't expecting much, but he's definitely going to remind Caroline to keep an eye out while she's with Noah.

Caroline walks out of the room and calls out to her son. She thanks the couple for taking care of him, takes her son's hand and leads him back to the car.

Lynn notices the cardboard sword leaning by the door. She calls out to them, "Hey," she runs after them, "You forgot this!"

Parker lets go of his mom's hand and runs back to get his sword. Then as he runs back to his mom holding on tightly to his sword, he asks, "Can we come back?"

"What?"

"I liked it here."

She's sure that he did, after all, based on the brief moment that she saw Lynn interact with him, he was probably spending a lot of time playing and having fun. However, this weekend wasn't supposed to happen. Parker was supposed to stay home with Elena, not get dumped onto Francisco and his family. She's sure that they were fine to care for him but doesn't mean that what Elena did was right.

"Sure, maybe one day. If they say it's okay."

Francisco, Lynn, and Victor watch as the car pulls out of the driveway. It wasn't how they expected their weekend to end, but regardless they made the best of it.

"I hope they bring him back soon. It was nice having another kid in the house," says Lynn as she takes Victor back into the house.

Francisco shrugs his shoulders, and follows his family back into the house, unaware of the smile on his wife's face.

---

At this point, I don't know if I should keep apologizing for being late with my updates or not. I probably will, and just leave my occasional reminders that I'm working on the story while thanking everyone for being so patient with me. I'm also debating whether or not to take a brief hiatus to work on the next five chapters before posting again, but I don't want to keep you all waiting.

Either way, thank you for reading and see you next time.