After getting the address to the hospital, Lupe drove to the airfield and boarded the jet. He felt numb as he thought of sweet little Lulu being hurled through the air and flung to the ground. He put his phone on airplane mode and tried to get some rest as he considered that he would probably be up all night long.

***

Following the more sleepless jet ride, Lupe disembarked at LAX. He sighed with relief as he breathed the familiar air. Then he remembered why he was there and wanted to collapse under the weight of his own body. A small tear streamed down his face, then determined to save his daughter, he wiped it away. Calling a cab feverishly, Lupe decided that he would save Lulu today, even if he had to give his life in exchange for hers.

Arriving at the hospital, Lupe immediately searched for Vee. When their eyes locked he could only see two words in her eyes: I'm sorry.

He wanted to run to her. To give her a hug. To kiss her. To tell her everything would be okay and they could be a family. But it was her fault. And it wasn't about him anyway. It was about LuLu.

With fists balled up like he would knock-out whoever looked at him wrong, he walked slowly to the nurse's station unprepared for what would come next.

"Ma'am, can you tell me the condition of Luciana Jones? I'm her father."

The nurse looked at Lupe as if he had 6 heads. "Um, what?"

"What do you mean what? I'm her father. My name is Lupe Jones."

"Sir, there is no one of that name here. We do have a patient named Luciana but her last name is Johnson and her father is over there," the nurse said pointing to a taller brown-skinned man with a bald head. Lupe immediately looked at Vee who was sitting next to the man, holding his hand.

Lupe couldn't hold in it anymore.

"WHAT THE HELL, VEE?"

"Lupe, wh-."

"NO! SHUTUP! WHY IS HE HERE? IS HE THE FATHER? ANSWER ME!"

"Lupe, I don't kn-"

"Don't know Vee? You don't know? If you don't know then why is his name on her birth certificate? Huh Vee?"

"Hey man. You not gon be talking to my girl like that." The man said with a deep voice Lupe was not expecting. He could tell the man was in pain. Too bad Lupe didn't care about that. All he could feel right now was hurt and disgust.

"You know Vee. I really was starting to believe we could be something, a family even. But of course, you do what you always do and that's ruin it for yourself. You just couldn't wait til I left so you could sleep with this scum, huh?"

"Scum? You better watch who you talking about patnah?" Ray said.

"I'm not yo "patnah" and I'm not afraid of you. I used to take dudes like you to school all day'.

"I'm not like them dudes you used to. You could trust that?"

"You wanna bet..."

"ENOUGH!" Vee shouted, loud enough for the whole waiting room to hear. Then her voice went to a whisper. "Lupe, I just put his name on the certificate because he was there and you weren't. But we still don't know. They were going to do a plasma transfusion but her blood type is O- so the only person that can donate plasma to her is someone else who is..."

"Me. I'm O-... does that mean..."

"Yes Lupe, I believe that means you're the father" Vee said with a small smile.

Lupe wanted to jump for joy hearing those words. He wanted to hug and kiss Vee all over again. But the look on Ray's face could show that here not the time. They would have that conversation later.

"So what do I need to.."

"The parents of Luciana Johnson?" The doctor said interrupting their thoughts.

"That's us." All three of them said.

They looked on confused, but continued anyway.

"As you know Ray's blood was not a match, is this man your donor and are you sure? Another bad transfusion can send little Lulu into shock."

"I'm sure, sir."

"Okay," the doctor looked at Lupe, "Then you come with me."

As Lupe looked back at Vee he could see her mouthing the words "I love you" and it was in that moment he realized that they had to work it out no matter what.

Three Hours Later

Lupe woke up to his mom's sweet face. He had a bad dream that Lulu had been in a car accident. It wasn't until he looked around and saw a hospital that he realized his dream was reality.

"Hey baby. How you feeling?"

"Ma? What you doing here? And where is Vee? And how is Lulu?"

With tears in her eyes and her cross in her hand, she said the words that he had been waiting to hear all day: "You saved her, Lu. You saved her."