I woke up and sat up as fast as the pain would let me. I looked around and realized I was in my parent‘s guest room. My head was throbbing and sucking in air, was a task. There was a calm as I saw my mother and her angelic smile hovering over me.

“Seriously Sophia Anabelle Thompson, the things you get yourself into. A broken rib! Getting out of a building just as it’s being demolished! Christ!”

Demolished. That was the key word that sent me back into panic mode. My heart sped up a couple of notches and my stomach twisted. “Alex! Where is he?” I tried getting up off the bed, but my mother pushed me back down with force. “I have to see him!”

“Would you just calm down. What is wrong with you?”

My mouth fell open as I watched my mother. There wasn’t an ounce of worry on her face. Not for Alex. He’d been quite the pain in the ass growing up, but my mother had always showed motherly love towards him. My father; can’t say the same for him.

“How could you be so at ease. You’re like dad…you guys never loved him!” I couldn’t help myself, I broke out into a sob. The memory of the building being nothing but rubble made my heart sting. There was nothing else I wanted more than to see Alex’s face.

“Oh for heavens sake Sophia. What has gotten into you. Of course I love your brother and so does your father.”

“Then why are you so calm and collected. He’s gone and we will never see him again…I will never see him again.” You could say I was throwing a fit. I wanted to kick and scream and maybe throw a couple of things around. The ache in my stomach and heart was growing by the second.

“Sophia, I think the medication has gotten to you. Alex is outside with everyone else. They are all worried about you. We think you shoul---”

“He’s outside? Alexander Mclean is outside? Is he hurt?”

My mother was looking at me like I had gone mad; maybe I had. “This attachment to Alex is a bit worrisome!”

I looked up at my mom. I wondered if she knew what was going on, her comment made me think she didn’t. If she didn’t, then my dad definitely didn’t. Ugh. At this moment all that didn’t matter to me, all I wanted was to see Alex standing in front of me. In the flesh. With that sexy grin on his face. “Please let me see him, mom.”

She sighed heavily and without a word left my room, closing the door behind her. I heard voices outside and a couple of minutes later the door slowly swayed open. I couldn’t help the smile on my face. There he was grinning at me, with his hands in his pockets, standing sexily at my door. “I thought you were…you JERK!”

“Well I would’ve been, if it weren’t for some big ass guy that came charging at me. We went right through the side window, luckily I landed on him. He wasn’t so lucky.”

There they were, the tears streaming down my face. This time it was of joy. I was just happy to see him. He walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, he moved strands of loose hair out of my face and with his thumb wiped away the tears.

“I thought you were dead.” I sat up and pulled him by the shirt and hugged his neck. Without hesitation he hugged me back and brushed his lips against my neck. At this exact moment, I didn’t care if anyone found out about us. If my father walked in and…speaking of the devil, my eyes locked with my fathers. He was giving me a confused and stern look and I quickly changed my mind about everyone knowing. I casually pushed away from Alex.

“I’m glad you and Bastos are ok. She was really impressed with you and said she would put in a word with the chief.” He raised his eyebrows playfully and I couldn’t help but smile.

“How is my little girl?” My dad cleared his throat as he made way towards my bed. Alex instantly got rigid and stood up. “What? We can’t even be in the same room anymore?” My dad growled.

“You’re the one that makes that a bit difficult, old man.” He gave dad a glare and turned to smile at me. “I’ll see you later.”

I wanted a kiss, but that was certainly out of the question. I also wanted them to get along…I’m not even sure when things got really ugly between them. We all knew that AJ was difficult, but my parents seemed to always give him the benefit of the doubt. Dad even seemed to be really proud when he became a metro officer. I guess everything went downhill when Alex and Frank got caught up in a shooting, where two people lost their lives. Something that is still pending trial.

“Maybe you should cut him some slack daddy.” I gave my father the usual puppy eyes, but he didn’t budge.

“That man is out of control. He’s an embarrassment.”

There wasn’t anything I could tell my dad to change his mind, we’d had this argument so many times that I wasn’t sure what the hell to tell him anymore. So I did the easiest thing, which was to change the subject. “So, where is everyone else?”

“Howard went to see his family, but he told me that he’d come back later. Nick is outside…” My dad paused. He knew that we weren’t in speaking terms and was probably waiting for me to say all was good and to tell him to come in. “Don’t you want to talk to your brother again? I can’t have my kids feuding all the time.”

We weren’t really fueding, I was just avoiding his grumpy ass. “I was just giving him his space that’s all. He seems to have a lot on his plate, plus, I have my own things to deal with dad.”

That wasn’t the phrase I should have used, now he was taking a seat next to me. His face was covered in worry. “What is going on? You know you can talk to your father, right?”

“Dad…it’s nothing serious, really. It’s just the usual. Work. Myself. Men.”

“Men? How many do you have?” His eyes were wide.

I couldn’t help from laughing. “That’s just it…there are none.” It was really gut wrenching to lie to my father, it freaks me out to imagine how he will react and feel the day the finds out about Alex. I opened my mouth, but then closed it. I just didn’t have the guts to say it.

“Oh…I kinda like that.” He gave me a smile; one that mirrored my own. I thought the conversation was over, but boy was I wrong. “I really like your partner. I think you should bring him to dinner on Saturday. We are gonna celebrate Brian’s birthday.”

Oh shit.

"Daaaad he's my partner. That would just be awkward." I was whining like a child, but I really hated when my parents or anyone else wanted to fix me up with someone.

Now that I thought about it, maybe bringing Kevin to dinner was a good thing. There was nothing wrong with having my partner over for dinner. What the hell, I would bring him Saturday and I would have Alex bring Bastos, if she was feeling better. She could use a new man in her life, that way there was no way she could get her hands on mine again. I was grinning at my wonderful plan, when my dad decided to ask me the unthinkable.

"You're not a lesbian are you? Because that would be devastating to your mother and I. Not to mention God. Plus, she wants lots of grand kids.”

I made a face, not sure what kind, it was just a face. “I thought you said God loved us all…no matter what.” I was just messing around with my dad. The only time I’d thought I was a lesbian was when Molly Hendricks had kissed me playing spin the bottle. What? It was a kid thing.

Before my dad could answer me, which I wasn’t expecting him to. Leighanne, out of all people was standing at the door. She was trying to smile, but I could tell that something was on her mind.

My father patted my leg and kissed my forehead and walked out. “Shit, you just saved me from the whole I’m not a lesbian dad…men are just not---”

Leighanne flopped onto the bed and cut me off, “I think he’s cheating on me. He comes home really late…and…lately he’s spaced out. I’m afraid to ask him, I wouldn’t’ want to be wrong and upset him. I need your help.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, hating the whole big family thing at the moment. Why did everyone run to me? It was like they forgot that I was the baby of the house. That they had lived way more than me. My brothers were pretty much grown ass men, that were supposed to know how to deal with their own lives. Yet, here and there I always had to repair one of their life vessels. Tell you the truth, I was tired of it already.

“Are you sure? You know he works long hours and Brian helps people more than he should. Maybe, his problem isn’t that he’s cheating he’s just…putting his job first.” I gave her a reassuring smile. That was a reasonable explanation. Brian wasn’t known for cheating or doing anything that would damage his impeccable image or perfect little family. He loved Leighanne and the kids, there was just no way.

She smiled.

“There is no way that Brian would risk losing his family. You should just talk to him.” I should have been a damn family counselor.

“Thanks so much, Soph. I knew I could count on you.” She hugged me tight and then waltzed out of my room. I sighed softly and laid back down. I could hear some of my family laughing and talking outside the room. Then I remembered what Bastos had said and my stomach coiled.

Was my family really in danger? Shouldn’t I say something?

The thought scared me, but I was too tired and overwhelmed with the conversations of the day to focus on it. I closed my eyes and hoped that when I woke up it would be Sunday morning.