There's a voice next to her, as well as a body and a basket full of fruit and flour and eggs- all beheld by Zachary Salvatore.

"Should we call in the apple inspector? Or are you thinking of trying out for the position."

"They already hired me. Don't tell anyone, but I'm not sure what I'm doing."

She smiles when she spots the little girl hiding behind him, but lets her imagine she's gone unnoticed.

That's good. Because she is invisible and nobody can see her hiding behind her papa's legs and peering up at her.

"Your secret is safe with me. To be honest, I also have no idea what I'm doing. Usually Kelly does all the grocery shopping. Think I've gotten lost in the aisles five times now."

Kelly? She doesn't remember Salvatore being married, but he was always more Rafe's friend. Rafe knew everyone in this town; another thing she'll have to get used to going without.

"Oh, I know, it's a nightmare." It's not, really, but she can imagine most men struggle with navigating without any practice. Melissa would never have sent Rafe to buy groceries.

"Maybe I can help you find what you're looking for. I'm horrible with fruit, but I can surf these aisles like a pro."

"Uh- yeah, that'd be great. A real life saver. Is Rafe around somewhere?" He looks around the area, searching for him. "With - Scott? How are they?"

He reaches down and presses a soft hand to the top of Juliet's head, reassuring himself that she's still there.

Oh.

"Oh. You- haven't heard?"

"...no? Are they okay? I've been swamped with work - out of town, mostly."

...Juliet reaches up high on her toes and sneakily snags an apple. Monch.

Right. She's explained to so few people- barely even her family. It should be pretty simple: just the facts.

"I- he left. He- we decided- Scott's with him this- I don't-"

And now she's crying.

- Juliet drops the apple! And starts crying too. She's sorry.

!!! Oh no oh no oh no. This is the opposite of what he wanted -

"Ah- It's-" He reaches out to her and - stops and quickly picks up his crying kid. Panicking and awkward. He tries to calm them both down. "I'm sorry! Why don't we-"

He has no idea what to do. What does he do?

Melissa- pulls herself together. She can't just break down crying on the first person who tries to talk to her about this. Especially not- the poor thing...

"It's okay, honey," she says, sniffling. "It's going to be fine. See?"

She offers a watery smile.

- she reaches out to her, still crying and trying to wiggle out of Zach's arms.

"Um...."

It's easier to put on a brave face for Zach's kid than it is for Zach, who is basically a stranger. She smiles at her, taking her hand.

"I'm just having a bad day. Adults have those, sometimes, but it's hard to cry when you have people to talk to about it."

Hopefully that's- a valuable lesson to teach a child and very distracting from the fact that she just cried in front of her.

Juliet is very unsure about this.

Oh good. He... thinks. "Do you want to talk about it? We were just going to spend the day at home. Making pancakes. I could make you pancakes."

Oh no. Okay. She tries to calm down. Just the facts.

"Scott is with his daddy right now. We decided we weren't going to live together anymore, so now Scott lives with him sometimes and with me sometimes. I'm feeling a little lonely today, and if you don't mind, I'd love to come 9ver for pancakes."

She says all of this to Juliet, making minimal eye contact with Zach, although it's an answer to his question.

... is that allowed. They've never had actual people over before. Not really.

Zach squeezes her reassuringly. He's not actually sure himself. She's been doing so well lately. But.

But also he be can't just leave Rafe's - ex? like this. Alone and crying in the local supermarket...

"We'd love to have you," he says to them both.

"Thank you," she says. She thinks of half of a joke about fruit but that sends her thoughts down the rabbit hole again, and she has to stop.

Melissa holds Juliet's hand as they leave. She doesn't end up buying anything; it's just her at home.

Zach does end up checking out the contents of his basket, ingredients for their pancakes.

After, as they walk to the car. "Have you been to the Boarding House before?"

It's not unusual for townsfolk to have stayed a night or two, or just had dinner there, when it was running as an actual boarding house - before Juliet was born and the eighty some years preceding it.

"No, I never visited."

Rafe talked about it, though, in some of his wild stories- the fun was always in guessing which ones had actually happened.

"I only moved in just before Scott."

- right. Yes. He knew that.

"It's pretty far on the edge of town. A lot of sharp turns and gravel road. Probably be easier for you to come with us in my car, and I can drive you back here after?"

Now that she's some distance away from her crying jag, Melissa hesitates; he's Rafe's old friend from school, but they haven't been in touch since then. Besides, can she really trust Rafe's judgment? What if he's a rapist, or a serial killer?

"I can drive myself, don't worry. I promise I won't cry until we get there."

"I wouldn't want to miss out, so I'll take you on your word." He reaches out for Juliet's hand and pulls her close. "Come on, Melissa is going to follow behind us. You'll be able to see her in the rear view."

She doesn't want to let go, and considers making us fuss... but she's supposed to be good- she let's go of Melissa's hand and doesn't cry.

Then Melissa will follow behind. He's probably not going to murder her. She's probably going to see her son again. Everything's going to be fine.

Eventually, after many twists and turns and over a few hills and large parcels of land where only trees exist, they come up to a large Tudor Revival style mansion. It's easy to imagine it in its heyday, as a functioning boarding house.

Juliet jumps out of the car first and waits for her to park and get out of the car.

It's very isolated. Remote. It's too late to back out now. And he's being so nice. Melissa parks and approaches to admire the building.

"It's as gloomy as I imagined."

Zach grabs the groceries and laughs. "It is a bit. I suppose I could put the effort in to lighten it up, but I'm pretty sure the historical society would yell at me."

Juliet runs ahead once she's sure Melissa is coming inside and opens the door for them, bouncing a little on her feet.

He's probably not a serial killer, since his daughter seems relatively well-adjusted. Melissa smiles at her as they walk in and as she gets a good luck at the fabled Boarding House.

"Someone's a charming young lady, isn't she? Who should I thank for that?"

Zach smiles bashfully and runs a hand over the top of Juliet's head as they walk inside.

"That'd be me, I suppose. It's just the two of us here. She has plenty of room to run and grow."

"It's a beautiful home. It's just the two of you?"

Most of her knowledge of Zach Salvatore comes from Rafe or the town rumor mill, and she can't trust either source.

Juliet runs ahead into the kitchen and jumps up onto one of the tall kitchen stools to wait for them.

He nods and follows after his daughter. "Her mom died when she was born. I closed the Boarding House so she would have more privacy and made it our home. Sometimes we have her - cousin around to spend time, but yeah, mostly just the two of us."

The pause around 'cousin' sounds incredibly awkward; she can understand not wanting to talk about family. Melissa leaves it be.

"That sounds like a quiet life."

It's probably a bad idea to just say 'lonely'; she doesn't know how his daughter will react to that, but she's been remarkably intuitive so far.

"You don't ever worry about what you're missing out on?"

- Constantly. He lets out a breath and doesn't actually say the word. Or think about the life he could of had. But. This is his life and he loves his daughter more than anything. So much so that when it hurts it bleeds.

He rubs her forehead and starts setting out the ingredients for pancakes. Giving himself a few more moments to answer. To weigh his words.

"Sometimes. I try not to get caught up in them," he looks up at Melissa then. "I try to do my best with what life has given me."

Melissa nods, although she doesn't really understand it. She had the life she'd always dreamed of, more or less. Maybe she'll understand what he means soon.

"Do you need any help mixing? I'm a terror in the kitchen but I can handle ingredients just fine."

"Sure. You can handle the tiny terror and make sure she doesn't upend a mixing bowl again?"

"Daddy," responds Juliet, face blushing and embarrassed. "Haven't done that in ages. I can do it."

"Well, then, maybe you can make sure Melissa doesn't do it instead. Keeping each other responsible."

"All our mixing bowls will stay right-side-up."

Melissa will go over to keep the girl company; she probably needs it, and frankly, Melissa probably needs it, too. They can work on mixing together. Melissa asks Juliet how her week has been, and whether she misses her cousin, and whether she likes chocolate chips or blueberries in her pancakes more. This last one could be a gamble, since she didn't actually think to buy any fixings like that before they left the supermarket. Hopefully she's not creating an unpleasable monster.

She's a little shy at first! And keeps looking to her dad to make sure that's it's alright to answer things, but:

She tells her about the school assignments that her tutors have given her, all her math and science and language classes. How she learned how to make paint! She wants to go out into the woods surrounded the house and find all the plants and berries to make different colours.

Talks about her cousin, who seems to be much older than her. And how she wrote to him and he responded and she's going to take a bunch of pictures of her and the house and her daddy so he remembers what they look like.

Blueberry pancakes are best! Chocolate could go in cupcakes and blueberries also in muffins and she made chocolate cupcakes that she can take home is she wants?

"Do you have a kid too, can I play with them??" She asks, finally, after answering all of Melissa's questions.

"I do! His name is Scott, and I'm sure he'd love to play with you! We should ask your dad first, though."

Melissa isn't sure about that at all, actually; Scott can be playful and rambunctious, often at his own expense, and Zach's daughter seems very energetic. He works himself up into asthma attacks and she doesn't know how to explain to him how to prevent them. He's learning, but mostly through her laying down rules and him breaking them. She's also tells her that she would love to take home chocolate cupcakes. Maybe she can drop off something for her in return? (If Zach says 'yes' to play-dates, which is still up in the air; he seems to be a loner for a reason.)

He... hesitates and steps over to wash his hands.

"We don't really... she hasn't had many play dates before," he tells Melissa. Especially after the Incident. But. It's been a while since then, and there haven't been any others. He relents, a little, at Juliet's pleading look. "It would have to be supervised. To make sure you don't get over excited."

"Then I don't see why not."

Melissa will redirect Juliet's attention to the pancakes. She can talk to Zach later about whether these play-dates should be held at the boarding house (like she suspects he'll be most comfortable with) or at the McCall household (where she thinks Juliet might be the happiest).

Pancakes! And coffee, if she wants. They also have tea and soda and a whole assortment of drinks, really.

Eventually Juliet hops down from the stool and goes to set the table and get out all the syrups and sugar and lemon and all the things that someone might want on pancakes.

She will happily take coffee, good god does she need some. After sipping on that, Melissa returns to the harsh reality in front of her...

...which is blissfully undercut by a kind neighbor, a cute kid, and pancakes.

"Can I tell you a secret?"

She stage-whispers this to Juliet. Zach can easily listen in, but there's enough plausible deniability for Juliet about whether he can hear them.

!! Juliet wiggles closer and nods many. "I'm good at keeping secrets," she promises.

Zach eats his pancakes and pretends he can't hear.

"I was really sad today, but you cheered me up."

Juliet smiles! And is very very pleased.

"When I get upset daddy makes me pancakes. They make everyone happy."

"Well, your daddy is very smart. I can only boil water, so I can't make pancakes when Scott is sad. What do you think I should do?"

"... hmmmm. When daddy is sad I paint him something? Or we go for a walk in the woods or or- we go swimming at the waterhole."

"Those all sound good..."

Melissa trails off, eyes glinting with amusement.

"What do you think?"

She waves her fork at Zach, to indicate that she wants his input.

"Well. I know a movie night always cheers us both up. With popcorn and the big projector. Does Scott like movies?"

"Are you kidding? If there was nothing else Rafe was going to teach that boy, he was going to teach him a love for cheesy action movies."

She says this as though mentioning Rafe doesn't feel like the screech of nails on a chalkboard.

"My favourite movie is the Goonies. Has he seen that? We could watch it together."

"You know, I'm not sure. I'll ask Scott what he thinks, but I'm sure whatever you pick will be fine by him."

Excited wiggles! And eating her pancakes.

"After I finish can I go and look through the movies and pick out ones to show Scott, daddy?"

"I don't see why not. Just remember to put them all away after."

"Have fun, honey. I think he likes aliens more than explosions, if that helps."

She takes her last bite, wiggles out from the table and places her plate in the sink. And then runs out of the room and out of sight, a bit quicker than most ten year olds can move.

Zach watches her go with some amusement.

"I'm pretty sure you've just made her whole year."

"That's what I'm in the business of, making kids happy."

...she sighs.

"Is it hard? Doing it alone? My abuelita always warned me growing up to be careful, but- she wasn't worried about this. My mom, on the other hand...she told me he was bad news from the start."

Her mother was wrong, Melissa wants to insist. Rafael is a good man with a good heart, who could have been a good husband and a better father, and she knows that she missed some way to make it work out better than this.

He has. Very conflicted feelings about this. This is Rafe's wife. But.

"...yeah, it's hard. They need so much from you and you're not going to be able to be everything they need." He pauses and pours her some more coffee. "But what you can give is just as important. Even if we have to work our asses off to do it."

Nod.

"I just never thought I would be one of them, you know?"

She's not sure what she means- single mother? Rafe wants joint custody at least, maybe full if he can push for it.

Divorced? They aren't, officially, not yet. Melissa isn't even sure if she could do that, not yet. Not if there's a chance. (There isn't one, though. That's becoming increasingly clear. He's checked himself into rehab, and that's- a good thing, that's what she wants, but- she didn't kick him out, really. She told him to take a walk, and he didn't come back.)

"Sorry," she says, backpedaling, realizing that whatever she never thought she'd be, she just implied he is. "I just meant that I never thought I'd have to do this alone. When I married Rafe, I thought I was at least getting him, even though both of our families said they'd never speak to us again. Now..."

She has Scott, as long as Rafe doesn't have him. She wants to scream about the unfairness of it all, but she already used up her quota of public displays of hysteria today.

"You don't need to be sorry. I... know what sort of man Rafe is. For all his good qualities..." It actually hurts to say. He doesn't even know what happened between them. If Melissa was even the hurt party. But again, he knows Rafe. "I'd like to help. However much you need. Even if it is just making pancakes and watching 80's movies with our kids."

"Sorry. I know he was your friend," she says with the casual air of someone who knows the least bit about it, "but I just had to explain- I don't usually cry on strangers, you know. You got to see a pretty rare event."

"And I don't just invite crying strangers into my house and make them pancakes," he teases. "I guess this is new for us both."

"Thank you for that, by the way, and for offering to set up some play-dates. Scott doesn't have tons of friends yet, but Juliet seems like exactly what he needs."

Hopefully. They would probably get along like a house on fire.

He takes a sip of his coffee and- nods.

"She isn't able to get out much. I worry a lot about it. But she's been doing a lot better lately, so hopefully... it'll be good for her. To be a regular little girl and have a friend."

"Scott can't run around with some of the other boys, which is part of why he's not very good at getting out there. Asthma, for him. What about Juliet? If that's not too private."

He hasn't had to- explain her condition to someone like Melissa in a while. It's surprisingly easy. Lying. But she needs to understand. Especially if her kid is involved.

"She has emotional problems. Has trouble managing her emotions and can get too excited and hurt herself- or others. She's been doing well the past year or so, she started a new set of medications. But it's still a struggle."

Nod.

"Alright. Is there anything I should keep an eye out for?"

"I'll make sure she gets her exercises in before that meet. But that should be avoided when they're together. Competitive games... getting too excited. But she has meds she can take if that happens."

Nod.

"I'll be careful. Maybe they can do it together- Scott carries an inhaler, for his asthma. It's not really the same thing, but..."

"We'll make it work. It's been a long time coming. I can't keep her inside forever, you know?"

Nod.

"I've been so protective of him- it's just that there are so many things out there to worry about. But I need to let him grow and learn how to handle it on his own. Juliet too. They won't have us forever."