The Center (Houdini and Nurse_K)

She swallowed hard when he apologized for what Carlos had done to her. Elsa wished there had been something that Brendan could have done to stop it too. But Brendan hadn't been there last night. Just her and Carlos. And she had agreed to let him do it. And he had loved it. She just prayed to God that he wouldn't ask her to do it again, though she was pretty sure he would. "I...I don't know, Brendan. I don't have a car. And I can't risk a neighbor seeing you again."
 
"So that's how he found out," Brendan said softly, his voice trailing off at the end. "Well, I can't come by there at all, then," he acknowledged, sitting up in the bed and trying to think hard. "I know it's a bad area, baby. But do you feel safe taking a bus to meet me somewhere? Or even if you walk three or four blocks away, I could pick you up there so the neighbor's don't see."
 
"I wish I could do that, Bren. Well..." she thought for a second, biting down onto her lip as she thought. Carlos had said not until after dark...and it was morning right now. "Okay. I'll walk to the bus stop two blocks away. I'll...I'll meet you at the mall, okay? I have to bring Gui with me though. You know that."
 
Brendan's heart raced as she agreed to meet him. Of course she'd bring Gui, that was fine. "Sure, Els. I'd like to see him again, anyway. So, around noontime?" he suggested.

After hanging up with Elsa, Brendan called his friend from the Center. They'd spoken the day before, and the friend had reluctantly agreed to get a copy of Carlos' file. Brendan desperately needed something on that guy, if he was to stand a chance. Good news, it seemed, as he talked to the friend, before showering and leaving to meet Elsa.
 
"Yeah, babe," Elsa said automatically without thinking about the fact that she sometimes called Carlos babe now too. She hung up with Carlos and got Gui packed up as quickly as she could. They had a little baby stroller for him and so she put him in it and set out. She walked the two blocks with him, his baby bag over her shoulder and her phone stuffed in her jeans pocket. She'd left a note for Carlos explaining that she'd felt shut up with Gui so she'd taken him for a stroll at the mall if he came home.

She got to the bus stop just in time for the bus. The ride was about ten minutes and she got off it with her heart pounding near out of her chest. She walked inside and stopped at the food court, sitting down and taking out a bottle of her breast milk for Gui to suck on as she waited for Brendan.
 
Brendan wasn't ready when he hung up with Elsa, but he dashed around his apartment as fast as he could, so he could get out there and meet Elsa. He took a quick shower, shaved and neatened his hair, dressed and was out the door. Once he got a parking spot at the mall, he made his way through the walkways, looking all around where they'd planned to meet. He kept his sunglasses on inside; he knew it looked strange, but he was a little embarrassed to have Elsa see his bruise. Finally, he spotted her sitting down, the baby on her lap with a bottle. "Elsa," he called out excitedly, approaching her from the side, his heart beating wildly. As she couldn't get up, he grasped at her shoulder and gave her a little kiss on the top of her head in greeting before taking a seat next to her, trying to catch his breath.
 
She smiled widely when she saw Brendan coming towards her. Elsa felt her heart swell as he grabbed her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. Oh, how she missed him. He had a completely different air than Carlos did. Brendan was sweet all the time, even when he was being dominant, while Carlos only pulled out sweetness when he wanted something from her. She looked at him in his sunglasses and shook her head a little, "You don't have to hide your bruises from me, Bren. You can already see mine," she was pretty blunt about the fact that Carlos hit her. She still had that bruise on her cheek bone, though it wasn't as bad as it had been two days ago.
 
Brendan suddenly felt silly about being more vain than Elsa was. It wasn't really that he was over conscious about his looks, but more that he felt like slightly emasculated by admitting that Carlos had beat him. He gave her mark a little once over, and saw that it was fairly nasty in its own right. "Well, I guess that's something we have in common, at least," he admitted with a little chuckle as he took off his glasses and pointed to his shiner. Looking at her, he found it hard to get over the idea that Carlos had done her up the ass; it just made him seethe with anger, but he couldn’t dwell on that. "I'm more than a little worried about you, Els," he sighed after pausing for a moment. "More than last time I saw you. Tell me what you want, baby," he asked, reaching out and tentatively touching her knee.
 
Elsa winced in sympathy when she saw Brendan's black eye. Carlos was mean when he wanted to be mean, and he sure as hell wanted to be mean to Brendan. She swallowed a little uneasily when he asked her what she wanted. She looked down, first at his hand on her knee and then at Gui, who was silently observing this new world around him. He'd pointedly tossed the bottle into his stroller as if to say that he wanted nothing to do with the stroller or the bottle. "I'm not sure..." she started with a sigh as she finally looked back at him, "I want safety, but Carlos gives me a different kind of safety. I want freedom, but Carlos thinks he's giving me that."
 
Brendan knew it was a tough question that he'd asked Elsa, and wasn't surprised that she was conflicted, like before. "I know it doesn't matter what I think," he admitted. "But I'll tell you what I want for you," he added, clearing his throat and looking around at the Sunday mall crowd, as if to make sure none of Carlos' goons were around. "I want you to be able to decide how you live your life, to have a safe place to raise Gui, on the inside and outside of your home. I want you to be able to have a life and go back to work later if you want to." He paused for thought, running his hands through his hair and searching her eyes for approval. "And... " he continued. "To be honest, I want a chance to do it with you, to help you get there, but I want you to make that decision."
 
Why did it seem that every time Elsa was with Brendan these days or talking to him on the phone or even thinking about him, she started to cry? She felt the tears well up in her eyes and she heaved a heavy, sad, sigh. She stroked Gui's little tuft of dark hair and tried to hold back her tears, but they wanted out badly. "I want that too, Bren. All of that. But...but you've seen what he can do now." she paused to take a deep breath and try to calm herself, "And he came home and told me that he was gentle on you. He...he could have killed you,"
 
Brendan nodded, knowing that the issue she raised was the big one, the one that seemed insurmountable in every way. "I know, Elsa. He'd kill me if you tried to leave him and he knew I was involved," he acknowledged with another sigh, squeezing her knee again. Somehow, he seemed to be able to pluck up a little more courage when he was just touching her, even just a little grip on her knee. "I think I have a way out of it, a safe way. But you have to be on board. Because it'll take your help; we need to play Carlos’ game if we want out." He looked over at Elsa, knowing this was the moment where he would find out if she was just using the danger as an excuse to do the easy thing and stay with Carlos, or if she'd commit to a way out. Now, it was hers to decide.
 
She picked up her head and narrowed her eyes at him for a moment. He had a way? A safe way? "Of course I'm on board, Bren. Just tell me how. But you have to make sure it's going to work. If we mess it up it could mean bad things for all of us," Gui had started to fuss a little so she lifted him up off of her lap and laid him against her chest. He heaved a big sigh (as big a sigh can be for a little guy) and grabbed on to the fabric of her shirt. In seconds, he was knocked out asleep. She laughed softly at the paradox her little baby could be and rocked him back and forth slowly as she waited for Brendan to explain.
 
Brendan laughed nervously at her reminder that it had to work. That was for sure. Looking back at her, and then at Gui, he wavered a little in his determination. He couldn't bear for anything to happen to either of them. "I... I really hate to put you in any danger, baby," he started, sliding up next to her as if someone might overhear them above the din of the shopping mall. "But I found something out about Carlos. The last time he was arrested, they found a big stash of drugs in his basement. They never used it against him, because he pled guilty and took the option to go to the Center. So he doesn't know they found his stockpile. If he gets a third drug conviction, it's an automatic life sentence at the Center. I'm sure he won't want that...," Brendan suggested, trailing off before he finished the whole story, looking at Elsa with a tentative smile to see what her thoughts were so far.
 
Her eyes grew wide as he detailed his plan. She'd have to turn Carlos in. She'd have to get him caught. She swallowed again, thinking about all the things he would try to make sure happened to her if he knew that she'd turned him in. "Would...would he have to know it was me that did it?" that was really her only reservation about doing this. She would be okay with it if they could get out without him knowing she was his doer. Then he wouldn't try to come after her. "If he didn't know it was me, then he couldn't be angry at me. I could play it like I was upset he was going away. That would be better."
 
Brendan squinted his eyes and thought about her question. His plan was quite fluid, it actually could go any number of different ways. But it seemed she hadn't understood what exactly he had in mind. Then again, he'd been pretty vague so far. "Here's what I was thinking, Els," he answered her. "I was thinking he doesn't have to go away. If he does, he'll order moves from the inside, since he won't care any more what happens to him. "I was thinking that I hold this proof over his head. That way, he can still see his son, since I thought that's what you wanted. And he'll have a really good incentive to play along. But I can't promise he won't know you were involved," Brendan admitted, releasing her knee and rubbing his chin, wishing there was an easier way.
 
"Oh." Elsa said, almost laughing. She was so dumb sometimes. Maybe it was just because she was nervous, or scared, or worried, or a thousand other things. She nodded, "Okay. But...but we need to try to make it look like I didn't know about this. He already told me that if he thinks I'm trying to leave him to be with you that he'll just murder you. And...he's not kidding. So let's do this. But...try to leave me out of it, okay babe?" she gave him a tentative smile.
 
Brendan nodded solemnly, rubbing at her knee. "Well, here's what I had in mind," he explained. "The only way he'll play along is if he knows I have proof. I can't even be sure that he still uses the same place to hole up his inventory," he admitted. "But I need you to snoop around a little down there and find out. And then I need your help to get some evidence. If you think you can do when he's not home, maybe we can get by without him finding out it was you." Brendan reached over and lightly stroked Gui's back. "He's cute," he observed. "But why don't you think about it for a little bit? It's a lot to process, and you really need to know what you want. We'll talk about the details later if you decide you're in."
 
She stayed silent for a few moments, thinking about what Brendan was proposing. She had tons of time at home by herself. She could definitely do some snooping around. Carlos would never know. And even if he did she could just say she was trying to make their place less of a pig sty. He'd probably let her get away with it then. "Okay. I'll think about it." she said with a nod. She looked down at Gui again and smiled, "I'd let you hold him, but he doesn't seem to like it when anyone except me holds him. Especially not Carlos," she laughed.
 
Brendan laughed when she said Gui didn't like Carlos holding him. He wasn't sure why, but it kind of made him feel good. As if maybe he wasn't attached to a man yet, and maybe there was a ray of hope that Brendan could still be his father figure. "That's okay, but I'd like to try and hold him some other time," he smiled at her. "So... do you have much time? Maybe we can walk around the mall a little, and, I don't know, have an ice cream?" Brendan suggested with a silly grin. He had a good feeling about this now. There was at least some possibility that this would all work out, and that was better that the best he could have hoped for the rest of the time he was apart from Elsa.
 
She grinned. The prospect of walking around the mall and eating ice cream with Brendan was spectacular. It was as if Carlos didn't exist anymore. She always felt that way when she and Brendan got passed their initial awkwardness. In the awkwardness Carlos loomed larger than life, but once they were passed that he was just a memory in the breeze. "Yeah, let's do that. I can't stay for hours or anything, be we can go for a walk." she stood up and picked up Gui's rejected bottle, laying him in the stroller. She buckled him in and tucked the bottle into his baby bag. "You lead," she said to Brendan.
 
As they started off from the food court, Brendan glanced over at Elsa, and everything seemed right. Sure, they were both a little banged up, and they weren't together in the true sense of the word, but they were together for now, and it felt great. "Can I lead from right next to you?" he asked with a grin, turning to face her, looking down at Gui's stroller, and then putting an arm around her shoulder. He would have liked to hold her hand, but they were both occupied with pushing Gui. Soon, they spotted saw the ice cream kiosk, ordered two soft serves, and found themselves sitting on a bench with Gui's stroller parked right in front, watching the people go by. "You know, doing things like this with you is what I've missed the most," he reflected. "Although, I have to admit, the whole 'mother' part is new to me. But just having an ice cream with you, walking you home, hanging out on the couch. Those things were the best, weren't they?” Brendan asked, not too wistfully, but with a little smile, hoping that could become a reality again.
 
"Yeah..." she said, reminiscing about the life they used to have. "Yeah, they were the best." her mind flashed back to all of their crazy escapades in bed. Those hadn't been too bad either. The thought of that made her smile, but she decided not to bring that up. That probably wouldn't be wise. She dipped her finger into her soft serve and held it out to Gui, who eagerly sucked it off of her finger and then laughed. Elsa grinned at him, "You're so silly!" and she leaned down and grinned in his face, which caused him to giggle even louder. Gui was truly the love of her life. She loved Brendan, yes, but Gui was her life now. She leaned back against the bench and turned and looked at him, "Maybe we'll get to do that again sometime."
 
It was cute the way she gave Gui some of the ice cream and made him laugh, but then Brendan’s heart jumped when she opened the door for a future between them. If Carlos was out of the picture, he was sure they'd have never broken up in the first place. Maybe they'd even have a wedding date set by now. But complications were part of life, and he had to accept that. "You're a great mother," he beamed at Elsa. He wondered how she learned that. Maybe she was just a natural. "I could never be that natural of a parent," he told her with a grin. Turning towards her, he spotted a little sticky spot of ice cream on her upper lip. "You're making a mess," he chided softly, before leaning in and, his eyes closed, planting one short kiss on her lips, brushing away the ice cream in the process. What was that? Brendan hadn't planned on that. He just kept smiling at her, hoping it wasn't going to turn things awkward.
 
Elsa had been about to answer him about being a parent when he leaned forward and kissed her. She was shocked for a second and didn't move. But then she felt a gentle wave of warmth wash over her and a giant smile spread across her lips to match his. She leaned forward and kissed him again, closing her eyes for a moment and sighing into his mouth. After a couple of seconds she pulled away from him, a healthy blush in her cheeks. "I've missed you a lot, Bren. A lot."
 
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