"I got this one at the mall," Stella said, lining up yet another toy pony. At this point, they were lined up in a spiral around her entire bedroom like dominos. Marcus couldn't fathom how, but she still wasn't done. "And this one's name is Priya," she explained, setting down another one. "I found her at the playground and we gave her a real good cleaning," she said, adjusting the pony to face her and Marcus with a smile on her face that slowly faded as she quietly added. "That was when I could still go to the playground."

"When's the last time you went to the playground?" Marcus asked.

"I don't know," Stella shrugged, grabbing another pony. "A long time ago. When I was still little and not a big girl."

Marcus nodded slowly, his fingers continually playing with the small pink and purple braided bracelet Stella made for him and tied around his wrist. She had a matching one she insisted he make for her but not knowing much about braiding, the one he made was all uneven while the one she made for him was perfect. Stella didn't mind, though. It gave it more personality.

"How's it going?" Mila asked, pausing and leaning her hip against the doorway, unable to stop the smile when she saw Marcus surrounded by her little sister's toys, his hair up in a man bun again because Stella insisted it was his best look.

"Good," Stella said, grabbing another pony and standing it beside the previous one. "This one's name is Carl, and I got him from my daddy."

Marcus noticed the way Mila tensed, her body stiff and smile tight. "When did daddy give that to you?"

"Last Wednesday when you were meeting Dallas," Stella answered, picking up another pony. "He always comes over on Wednesdays. This one's name is Koala because she kind of looks like a koala bear. I got her from Target."

"That's nice," Marcus commented, his gaze drifting to Mila.

Meeting Dallas? He sent into her mind, narrowing his eyes. Isn't that the fucker who threatened you?

Mila shrugged and Marcus contained the growl since Stella was nearby. Mila seated herself on the other side of Stella so there was a buffer between her and Marcus. He noticed and didn't appreciate it.

"Oops," Stella said when she went to take a drink of her water but it was empty.

"Oh, Marcus will get you more," Mila smiled, patting Stella's knee. "Right Marcus?"

"Of course he will. He is the best," Stella said, grinning up at Marcus who took a deep breath as he tried to accept the fact these two women held way more power over him than they had a right to.

I don't know why you think you're getting away with this, Marcus warned Mila. You can send me off for water fifty times, what makes you think I won't ask about Dallas again?

Mila shrugged and gestured to Stella. He wouldn't make her talk about it front of Stella and they were spending the entire evening with her. Marcus narrowed his eyes and Mila smiled sweetly before wrapping her arm around Stella and gasping dramatically, picking up one of the ponies and asking Stella all about it.

Marcus rolled his eyes and snatched Stella's empty cup. Going down the stairs faster than he probably should've given he was around humans, Marcus couldn't find it in himself to care. He got to the kitchen and went to the water cooler, filling up Stella's cup.

"Having fun?"

Marcus glanced back, seeing Terry walk in with an empty mug. Marcus shrugged and nodded. Terry shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Marcus could tell as he screwed on the lid for Stella's cup that Terry wanted to say something but Marcus didn't play mind games. He wasn't going to ask, Terry would have to spit it out.

"So, uh," Terry cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck. "Can I ask you something?"

"You just did."

"Something about Mila."

"You want to know something about Mila, ask her yourself," Marcus shrugged.

"It's not like that," Terry said, holding his hands up in surrender as Marcus turned to leave. "It's about her birthday," he said, pulling out his phone. He tapped on it while Marcus still tried to process what he just said. Her birthday. He didn't even know when that was. "I know it's still over a week away, but..."

"You know when her birthday is," Marcus said. He couldn't ask Terry when it was, that would be suspicious. As her boyfriend, he should know her birthday.

"Of course I do."

"When?" Marcus asked, narrowing his eyes. If he needed to pretend to challenge Terry to find out the day, he would.

"The fourteenth," Terry frowned. "You think I don't know my own sister's birthday?"

Marcus shrugged, memorizing the date. "Your relationship is complicated, I don't know how everything is."

"Fair enough," Terry muttered, holding out his phone. "Well here, I just wanted to ask if you thought this was a good idea for a gift."

"You're asking me?"

"Does anyone know her better?" Terry asked, raising an eyebrow.

That question had Marcus pausing. He would never think he knew Mila better than anyone else because he hadn't been in her life that long, but as he considered it... She wasn't shy, he knew about her past, the losses she suffered, her experience with death firsthand. He knew what kind of whiskey she liked, where she got her favorite muffin, what was more important to her than anything in the world. He knew she loved popcorn, knew she kept her tears for privacy but wasn't shy about giving away her laughs and smiles. He never thought about it until Terry said it but...

Mila didn't have a best friend like Marcus did. The closest thing Mila had to a best friend was Lindsay, and while the girl seemed nice enough, when Marcus thought back to their interactions, they were all shallow. Friendly, yes, but rarely about anything real. Mostly about men they found attractive, office gossip, who drank the last of the coffee without making more, whatever TV show was popular... They were all nice enough topics but they weren't deep. Mila kept more people at a distance than Marcus realized.

He'd somehow, though he wasn't sure when, became the person that knew her the best.

"Let's see," Marcus said, taking the phone from Terry, seeing a black, ripped shirt with a band name scrawled across the front. Marcus wasn't familiar with the music, but he did recall seeing Mila wear several shirts with that band name on them. "I think she'd like it just fine," he said, handing it back to Terry. "Are you doing something for her birthday?"

"Uh no, I mean, just the present," Terry said, frowning. "She doesn't like doing big things for her birthday, didn't she tell you?"

"Not yet," Marcus said. She was about to, though.

Marcus went back upstairs with the water but it was impossible to ask Mila anything with Stella there, so he didn't bring it up. Not before dinner, not during. His only opportunity came up after dinner when Mila offered to do the dishes.

It wasn't easy to pry himself away from Stella who wanted to paint nails again and watch her strange show. He could not figure out why she liked the show so much, but he was kidding himself if he thought disliking it meant he wouldn't sit through it with her anyway. Still, he found his way out, telling Stella he was going to help Mila with dishes despite the fact he'd never done dishes in his life. He didn't even know how to.

After escaping, Marcus went to the kitchen where Mila was alone. He leaned back against the counter and tried not to stare at her. She was sexy, but he had things to focus on.

"Why didn't you tell me your birthday is coming up?" Marcus asked.

"Why would I?" Mila shrugged as she scrubbed the plate from dinner before placing it in the dishwasher.

"Don't you want to do something?"

"What for?"

"Because it's your birthday," Marcus frowned.

"Eh, who cares?" Mila shrugged. "I'm not hard to please. Let's get a bottle of good whiskey, some take out, and fuck a few times. That's good enough for me."

"Why don't you want to celebrate?"

"How is that not celebrating?" Mila laughed.

"I don't know," he frowned. "I just have seen other people do more."

"I'm simple."

Marcus watched her carefully and if he hadn't spent so much time staring at her- something he would never admit- he would've missed the small twitch in her lips, the even smaller quick intake of breath like talking about it was painful. They were all so subtle, they would've been missed by anyone else.

"All right," Marcus said, reaching over and turning off the water. "Now tell me the real reason."

"Real reason?" Mila scoffed, trying to smack his hand away so she could get the water on, but he wouldn't budge. She glared at him and grabbed the towel, moving onto drying instead. "I told you. I'm not hard to please, why should I have a huge thing? I don't have the money for it."

"If you did, would you want a big thing?" He pressed. Mila shrugged. He narrowed his eyes. "Fucking hell, Mila, where's that boldness? Just tell me the truth."

"Okay look," Mila sighed, setting down the towel and turning towards Marcus with crossed arms. "My mom was the only one that ever did shit for my birthday, and even when she did, my dad found a way to always make me feel bad about it. Then after she got sick, she didn't do anything because she couldn't remember and now I'm not interested. I just don't care to do anything big. Except you," she added with a wink. "I'll definitely do that kind of big."

"Mila," Marcus said, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. He needed to talk to her and not get distracted by her comment. It was not easy. It took deliberate focus. "What did he do to make you feel bad?"

"Does it matter?" Mila shrugged, turning back to the dishes and grabbing the towel.

Marcus's hands landed on her shoulders and he turned her to face him, taking the towel out of her hands and setting it down. "Yes."

"It's nothing, just the same shit he always said to me and it's not a big deal," Mila shrugged. "It's not like he was the worst dad in the world. He never hit us. He just abandoned us in our time of need."

"And it sounds like he put you down a lot," Marcus commented.

"Ha, he tried to," Mila said with a sly smile. "Stop thinking so hard about it. I just don't do birthdays big. It's not that deep."

"If it's not that big of a deal, why won't you just tell me?"

Mila sighed and tugged on Marcus's wrist until he finally let go of the faucet and allowed her to turn it on again. She picked up the sponge and started washing, pushing back some loose curls with her elbow- for all the good it didn't do, it just fell right back in her eyes. "I was a bit hyper as a kid," Mila started, trying again to push those curls back but they fell in her face again. Marcus gathered her hair back, pulling it behind her shoulders. Mila tried to tell her heart to stop responding to the small gesture. "So I'd get loud and excited easily. You know, I say as a kid but I'm still like that," she laughed. He noticed the shift in her laugh. Not her normal laugh. A masked laugh to hide the pain behind it. "Anyways, he would just get sick of me and it was worse on birthdays because I'd get a lot of sugar and I'd be so excited about the gifts, I was just... You know, too much for him," she shrugged. "He said I was an attention-seeker."

"Because you were excited on your birthday?"

"Because I was always excited and hyper," Mila shrugged. "I guess. I don't know. He just said everything I did was for attention. I mean, it wasn't. I couldn't give two shits what someone else is thinking of me, or if they're thinking of me, I just... I live my life like that, you know?" Mila said, looking over at Marcus. "But he always accused everything I did as me being an attention whore. Too loud, too obnoxious, too weird, too bouncy, too everything. And he believed it was all for attention. So every birthday, we'd get in a fight when he'd get sick of me, and I'd usually end up tears hiding in my room and keeping to myself so I didn't piss him off. Anyways, I just don't like the birthday thing. I don't need a lot, I don't need anyone around, I'm perfectly happy sitting at home alone with a food and drink I like. And if I get a good fuck in there too," she said, leaning over and brushing her lips against his jaw. "That's fine, too."

"So for your birthday, you just want me to fuck you the whole day?" Marcus asked, raising an eyebrow. He had more questions about her dad, mostly about where he lived so Marcus could pay him a visit, but he was picking up cues she didn't voice. She didn't want to talk about it anymore as evidence by changing the subject and trying to distract him, and they were at Terry's house which wasn't the greatest place to have a serious conversation, so he let it go for that moment. It was stowed away in his mind to bring up later. "I would do that every day. That's not a good birthday present if it's what you get every day."

"Like I said, not hard to please," Mila said simply.

"Mila! Can you grab the nebulizer?" Terry called.

Mila quickly turned off the water and dried off her hands before rushing to the cabinet where Terry kept all Stella's medicinal needs that didn't need refrigerated. She grabbed the nebulizer and the medicine to go with it before hurrying to the living room.

Marcus followed, watching as Mila hooked up the machine and poured in the medicine. Terry helped her assemble the machine and Mila brought the mouthpiece to Stella's lips. Her breathing was wheezing again, something Mila told Marcus was just kind of a normal thing, even though it was scary to hear.

Watching them take care of her reminded him again of his conversation with Gabriel. He watched Stella, trying to breathe slowly through the mouthpiece. If he was being honest, she wasn't looking good. Despite the fact she was almost completely recovered from the lung infection, she seemed more worn down than ever.

Picturing Mila's expression when Stella's fate came for her had Marcus turning for the door. "I have some things to take care of."

"What?" Mila frowned, glancing back.

"I'll be back," he promised, heading out of the room and towards the front door.

He didn't make it far before Mila came up behind him. "Where are you going?"

"Just need to get away for a bit," Marcus said, stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets. "I'll see you later."

Marcus reached for the door and Mila frowned, grabbing his arm and dropping her voice. "Is something wrong?"

Marcus stared down at her and felt a physical pain in his chest, like if his heart was still in there somewhere, it was actually being split open. He couldn't tell her. He couldn't not tell her. He was stuck in a limbo between his two options, both of which would cause pain, both could potentially make things worse, both felt like a losing battle no matter how he looked at it. The only thing Marcus could think to do was get away, not have to stare into the face of a little girl he knew would be dying any day now, not have to look at that little girl's sister and know her life was about to be shattered. Distance was what he needed. To have a clear head, to figure out what to do. He couldn't do it right there in that house.

"Nothing is wrong," Marcus said, grabbing Mila and pulling her in for a quick, hard kiss. Mila squeaked in surprise but didn't have time to react before he pulled back and backed towards the door. "I just have things I have to do. I'll see you later."

"Okay," Mila said, her brows furrowing as the door shut behind him. He seemed off, like something was bothering him and she couldn't place what or why. Communication wasn't exactly their strong suit. Something was definitely bothering him but she had no way to contact him once he was gone and Stella needed to be her focus anyway, so she shook off the weirdness and returned to the living room.