FORTY-ONE

"Daddy!"Rose yelled, hugging him.

He smiled and spoke warmly to her, while caressing her long hair, then frowned when he saw Ruby standing at the doorpost.

He looked at Rose and said,"I thought we agreed to keep this between us."

"And I thought we agreed that I wasn't going to talk to you or let you even see the company unless you were nice to Ruby."

"It's okay Rose, I'll leave."Ruby said.

"No you won't, dad, apologize, right now."

He sighed deeply then said,"Ruby, my daughter, I'm sorry...for everything, being in a place like this and looking at my past, I know I have many enemies who'd be glad to see me die and I know...that I deserve everything that has happened and will happen to me, but will you warm my cold heart by giving me a warm embrace?"

Ruby was skeptical at first even as she hugged him, but Rose could tell by his pure facial expression, that he'd been thinking.

Ruby pulled back, then asked,"What happened? Why was the Chief of Police threatening you? And why didn't you tell us earlier?"

He sighed again then said,"The Chief of Police and I had been friends for years, but once he found out what I did to Ruby, he began to hate me, just like that."

Ruby started getting angrier but Rose calmed her down as he continued,"He did some digging and found some dirt on your mother and me then used it to threaten us, we had no other choice than to pay him for his silence and he agreed, for a time. Since then, he has been taking money from us and bringing back stronger evidence on worse cases for more money."

Ruby actually couldn't blame him though, but Rose asked,"How long has this been going on?"

"About seven years."

Ruby almost yelled of shock as to why someone with the political status of himself didn't use his democratic immunity or connections to save his skin earlier, but that was all he said.

A nurse walked in and said visiting hours were over, but he held Ruby's hand tightly and said,"Use this how you will, just know that I love you."

It was an envelope.

She just left with her sister.

***

Lucy looked at Luis over the glass counter and saw he had even sipped his drink.

She then asked,"Luis, you haven't even tasted your drink, what's wrong?"

"I prefer to stay in my right mind when I'm spying on someone."

"But if you did this, you'd rather make them more suspicious, just have a drink."

"... I've never drank alcohol before."

She widened her eyes and he expected her to laugh as she did it all the time, but she rather calmly asked,"Really?"

"Yes, the most intoxicating liquid I've ever drank is three cans of diet soda, I don't actually do the whole drinking thing."

She did that pretty smile of her's and said,"Why don't you do it, just tonight?"

"I can't..."

"Then we'll start small, first one shot glass."

The bartender seemed to know exactly what was going on as she served the two of them with a shot glass of a relatively mild drink each.

Lucy picked her's up and looked at Luis, then said,"One..."

He gulped as his shivering hand took the glass, spilling some of the drink over the top.

She then said,"Two..."

He took a deep breath, then said the last number himself,"Three!"

They both emptied the glass in their hands and Luis winced as the burning sensation travelled slowly down his throat.

He waved his hands as a sign of him giving up and Lucy gently kissed him on the cheek, then the burning sensation travelled up to his cheeks, but he liked it, as she asked,"Feeling better?"

He smiled at her, then said,"Another one."

Danielle frowned at Phoebe then asked,"So when are we going to do it?"

"Oh just wait Danielle, let them have their time together..."

Lucy then pulled Luis to the dance floor even though he could barely balance on his own feet.

She then held his left arm with her's and placed her right on his cheek, then everything immediately cleared, and he smirked as he lifted her into the air.

Gary looked at the two, smiled and asked,"Danielle, would you like to..."

"Not now Gary."She said impatiently.

He had realized she had been acting strangely recently and barely looked at him the entire evening, she had her eyes rented out to Lucy's boyfriend.

He didn't like what was happening, but decided to keep his emotions in check.

After the dance, Phoebe rose a toast to Lucy and Luis, living happily, just like a fairytale and everyone joined in, then gulped down their drinks.

By now, Luis was totally drunk and Lucy realized, so she said they should head home.

He could barely take a step without bumping into some over expensively dressed couple and rendering the clothes unable to be worn again.

Back at Lucy's home, Luis couldn't stop jumping on the bed and Lucy couldn't stop laughing, till he pulled her on it as well and she had no other choice than to join him.

After about three minutes of the two of them jumping, they lay on the bed together and switched off the light...