"Rosa I need fucking help." I said as soon as she answered the Skype call.

She frowned. "I hate it when you talk over me."

"Sorry. Why are you being so nice to me?" I leaned back in my desk chair.

She'd normally bitch about me talking over her. It was her number one pet peeve.

"Guess who came home today!" She smiled brightly and lifted a baby up to her face.

"When when was she born!? The Hell Rosa, I thought we were friends." I laughed.

"A couple of days ago. Ana is sleeping at the moment so she's all mine." She quickly kissed the baby's cheek then put her back down somewhere offscreen.

"What name did you go with?" Last time I had checked in they were debating between Aitana and Valentina.

"Well, my mother was sort of lucid a while ago. At least lucid enough to know who I was. She told me why name something after her while she's still here." Rosa sighed. I could see the hurt in her eyes, I couldn't imagine how it felt for her. "Since she's still technically here we went with Aitana in case they ever met each other. I just didn't want to upset her."

"I haven't been keeping up with studies lately, has anything major happened?" I frowned.

"No, I'm thinking about putting her in a clinical trial though. I'll probably end up doing it when she stops talking about me." She rubbed her eyes. "She doesn't recognize me most days, but she says I remind her of her daughter. That's enough for me to hold on for now."

"Jesus. I'm sorry Rosa."

"It's alright, what did you need help with?" She looked down at Aitana and smiled.

"I don't know how to phrase this. How do you like, have a relationship." I rubbed my forehead.

She looked up at me. "Who did you meet? Did you finally find someone who's not in the closet!"

"Avox." I groaned.

"Rivera?" She stared at me with wide eyes.

I nodded.

"Damn. I would've sent him to you sooner if I knew he was your type." She laughed.

"Well now that I have him I need help, please." I pleaded.

"I just wrote Ana a shit ton of love letters. Maybe try that?" She laughed and moved Aitana up so she her head was on Rosa's shoulder.

"I need real advice." I groaned.

"Communicate, boundaries. That's really all I can give you." She shrugged. "There's no answer key, especially for someone like him."

"Do you know about-"
"Has he told you about-"

We both spoke at the same time then laughed for a moment.

"We're like teenagers." Rosa giggled.

"It is so strange when you giggle." I shook my head.

"Like I said, teenagers." She smiled.

There was a quiet knock on the door on Rosa's end of the call.

"Ana. When will you learn you don't have to knock." Rosa laughed slightly.

"Do you want me to take her." Exhaustion was very clear in Ana's tired voice.

"Baby, go back to bed. I've got her." Rosa stared at her off screen.

"I didn't know if she was bothering you because she wasn't in the nursery." Ana yawned. "We're you talking to someone?"

"I'm on a call with Ronan. I'm showing her off." She motioned to her computer.

There was a sound of shuffling and then Ana was standing beside Rosa. "Hey, when are you coming to see us?" She smiled at me.

She looked very tired. Her hair was loosely pulled back into a bun and she was wearing a large T-shirt that hid most of the bump.

I almost felt bad for her. I couldn't imagine having to deal with pregnancy and not immediately going back to normal once it was over.

"Eventually." I shrugged.

"Baptism, question mark?" Rosa raised her eyebrows.

"I feel like me being a godfather is a really bad idea." I laughed.

"Sam and Luis already said no, please?" Ana pouted.

"Your pout doesn't work on me." I grinned. "Ask Jesús."

"We don't want it to get weird since he's her biological father. Plus Cat said she would be the godmother." Ana crossed her arms.

"Fine. I better be last on the list though." I wrote a reminder in my journal.

"Well if we both died it would probably be something cartel related, so I'd rather not immediately hand her off to a mafia leader." Rosa rubbed Aitana's back as she started to cry.

Ana sat on the floor beside Rosa out of frame.

Rosa sighed. "I'll be right back."

She walked off frame and a second later came back and grabbed Ana.

A minute later she came back and sat down. "I will never understand that woman." She shook her head.

"What happened? She was off screen." I spin Ik my chair.

"She sat down to sleep on the floor when she has a perfectly good bed." She sighed.

"Bad night sleep?" I rolled my eyes as Lana opened the door. "Your sister is here sir."

"Tell her I'm busy." I waved her away.

"No, it's four in the morning." Rosa shifted in her chair.

"Four in the- where are you?" I stopped spinning.

"New York City. Searching for the lovely Natalia Rivera." She rolled her eyes.

"Do we not like her?" I raised my eyebrows.

Avox seemed to really like her. Maybe it was a Rosa thing?

"No, we do. I expected to have Italy as an ally when I took power. People still technically follow Prime, but he refuses to go near Italy without her."

"Something tells me you care about more than Italy." I raised an eyebrow.

She bit the inside of her cheek. "She left him, he lost his fucking shit. Then we saw her at a masquerade ball. She's pregnant. Prime just stopped functioning."

"I mean, they were engaged. That sounds like a fair reaction."

I tried to figure out the emotion on her face. I couldn't tell, it wasn't something I'd seen before.

"She's not going to leave me, right?" Her voice broke.

"We've been over this a million times. You guys have a kid now too. She's not going anywhere." I leaned against my desk.

"I just- it can't hurt that much. My father had him locked in a cell for a long ass time. He was fine. I mean fine when he got out. He was regularly tortured along with his brother and her. How can this hurt so much more than that?" Tears started to form in her eyes.

"I don't know. I'm new to this world. I think you should go to bed and hold your wife."

She nodded. "Probably. But as soon as I think about sleep Aitana is going to start freaking out."

"I remember when my sister was little. I swear she hated sleep." I smiled.

"Aitana only sleeps when everyone else is awake. She doesn't hate sleep, she hates me." She shook her head and laughed slightly. "Ana said it's because my boobs are for decoration."

"How tired was she?" I laughed.

"Falling asleep standing up." She smiled. "Night. Good luck with your boy troubles. Keep me updated."

"I will. Sleep well." I hung up the call.

My office door flew open.

"You don't ignore me bitch." Ellie crossed her arms.

"I wasn't ignoring you, I was doing something important." I rolled my eyes.

"Oh yeah? What was it."

"International affairs." I yawned.

"Talking to your bestie is not international affairs. Even if she is Spanish. You had a boy over. Speak." She sat down in the chair across my desk.

"Ew. Don't call her that. Also, we discussed alliances with Italy, so I think it is international affairs. Get out of my office."

"Not until you tell me everything." She crossed her legs.

"If I do will you leave and stop bothering me during work?"

"Fine." She mumbled. "Speak."

...
It's actually not that late.

good for me.

i love rosa. i will involve her in every book.

I aspire to be her.

🦕
<3