Claudia stares at the ceiling, in her thoughts. The never ending whispers in her head. Its cold, stay in bed. But she knew it was either stay in bed or have Carmy come for her again. The last thing she wants is to be nagged at, by him or by the one and only Richie. She prayed to have a semi great day, just one where she doesn't want to scream in her car after the shift.

Into the cold, bundle up with her blue puffer jacket, scarf that was wrapped around her head and sunglasses to block out the tiny sunlight peeking in. She scrapes the ice from her windows, warming up her car as she does. Claudia loves her city, wouldn't trade it for anything else but Chicago winters are fucking the worse. Shes so dry, the wind feels like it's cutting her up, a cold slap to the face. And don't forget those stupid roads that are never cleaned.

She sits in her car in the parking lot, dreading to get out of her nice and toasty car. But its go time. She immediately gets her stuff in the locker and looks around, quiet but she hears voices up front. As she makes her way, she walks into puddles of water.

"Did a pipe burst?" She looks at her shoes and the crew cleaning up the mess.

"Toilet." Marcus tells her as he hands her a mop. "Exploded on Carmy." She looks at him with a disgusted look. Great. She gets into cleaning, what a start to her morning.

"Yo! What is good you fuckin replicants?" Richie gets in, wearing sunglasses and drinking coffee.

"Toilet exploded." Ebra tells him. Richie laughs.

"Tina, Audi, Sweeps, Sydney, Ebra, you guys are with me in the kitchen. We're gonna go over that new menu still okay?" Carmy calls them.

"We are still opening like this?" Claudia looks back at the man.

"Yes, we cannot afford to close." She stops mopping. "Marcus, desserts, please, thank you chef. Manny, Angel, Cousin, just lock this shit down. Get it dried down. Fak's bringing a shop vac, okay?" Claudia hands over the mop to Richie, he grabs it from her.

"Fak's mouth is a shop vac." Richie jokes.

"You are hilarious Richie!" Claudia pretends to laugh. Everyone gathers around Carmy as he shows the cooks the new menu item. Claudia watches as she leans back on the table. She eyes Sydney writing in her tiny book. It brought her back memories of when she was in culinary school, writing away in her tiny book, asking questions. She still had her book in her memory box back home, she looks at it time to time, but shes gotta translate everything since she wrote everything in cursive. Baby Claudia really thought she was the shit.

Tina got the first taste, she was amazed. Delicious. Claudia snaps back to reality when Fak's walks in, slamming doors behind him.

"Smells good in here." He looks around. "Fak attack!" He sings. "Hi Claudia!" He waves at the chef in front of him, smiles and all.

"Hi sweetheart." She smiles back. The crew separated, doing their jobs for service in a bit. Claudia cuts away, the onions were her worst enemy. That stinging feeling in her eyes.

"Check on Marcus for me, ask him about the cakes." Carmy tells her. She nods, leaving her station and heads to the back.

"Hey!" She walks in to see Marcus doing some Bill Nye shit, him and his friend wearing googles. "This hazardous or?"

"Nah, we are fermenting." Her brows knitted together.

"Hi, Chester." His friend introduced himself to her.

"Claudia, nice to meet you." He clicks his tongue and winks at her. "Carmy wants to know about the cakes."

"Putting them together in a bit." He was too focused on his science project.

"Trust you." She nods. "Save me a slice, I've been craving for a while." She drums the table. "See ya Chester." She heads back to her station but her attention pulls to the front. There was screaming. Everyone in the kitchen ran out to see Fak and Richie fighting on the ground. Richie had Fak in a head lock. Carmy got a pitcher with water. "Can I?" He didnt care, hands her the thing. She throws the water at them to knock it off. They both immediately stopped.

"Hey guys can you shut the fuck up please?"Carmy yells.

"He is mean!" Fak points at Richie. Whats new?

"Cousin, you know me!"

"He is fuckin not nice! He is a fuckin asshole!" They started to talk over each other, yelling, pointing. Claudia stood there watching. "I wasn't even gonna say this, he is selling fuckin coke in the back alley of the beef!" Claudia's jaw dropped.

"Fucking woah!" She chuckles out of shock. "What did i sign myself into?" She walks away.

"Richie's selling coke!" She hears Neil yell again. She cuts more onions until the lights turned off. She drops the knife down, head drops. She hears Richies stupid laugh from front.

"Fucking a." She whispers to herself. That prayer didn't work at all. The crew had to take everything out of the freezer, walk in was toasted. Richie and Carmy had to take the meat to his sisters, and the rest outside since it was cold.

Sydney came up with an idea to cook outside of the restaurant since gas line was out and power. Even though it was close to opening, she thought of it quick. They set out the makeshift grill, tables. They were opened.

"Im impressed chef." Claudia smirks. "I wouldn't think of this. Smart."

"Thanks chef." She smiles to herself. Happy to hear that from Claudia.

—

Claudia walks into the dim light hospital room. Her dad smiles as he waited for her. She takes off her millions of clothes off of her.

"You look like you're ready to go hike mount Everest." He jokes.

"Might as well, its gonna hit below 5 tonight." She pulls a chair to sit next to her dad. She hands him a sandwich that she snuck for him, Carmys approval, of course. "How was treatment?"

"Sucks." He said in a full mouth. "How was work?"

"Ready?" He nods. "The toilet exploded, so we cleaned that up, then turns out one of the guys sells coke in the alley."

"Oh shit." He laughs.

"Tell me about it." She laughs with him. "Then power goes out, then gas was out."

"No fricken way." She keeps nodding away as she eats. "What are you working for?"

"I would like to know too."

"You had a rough day."

"Not really, Richie didn't annoy me today, which is a blessing and plus one of the chefs, Sydney, she took the kitchen outside so we wouldn't close. Big brain." She taps her head.

"This Richie guy, keeps bothering you? Find out whats his problem?" She still didn't know what was up Richies ass. I mean ex wife, divorce, being away from his daughter, but why Claudia. Just why.

"Pa, i can handle Richie." She shrugs off.

"With the shit you tell me, sounds like you both are married." He cracks another joke. Claudia rolled her eyes. Not this bs again. "Im kidding."

"I know. Keep up with the jokes and this will be your last time eating with me." She threatened to take his sandwich.

"You thinking of staying there or you looking for something else? Jose told me that they are looking for someone at Alinea."

"Cant just leave Carmy like that."

"You have potential. Why spend it on a sandwich shop? You worked for the biggest restaurants, Evers, Halles, you went to France for crying out loud."

"Dad." She warns him to stop.

"I don't want you to waste your talent. Thats all." She lets out a deep, long sigh. "I don't have a lot of time left Claudia."

"I dont want to talk about that." She looks away from him.

"Im serious. You know what my wish is?" She says nothing, trying to hold back her tears from thinking that her dad was leaving soon. "I wish to sit in your restaurant, have you cook my food and have you deliver it to me. My daughter, the chef. You worked hard and long to make that happen. I am proud of you." He starts to cough. "Know your worth." He continues. The nurses come in, Claudia stood back as they get him what he needed and had him sleep.

"Hes doing okay, just let him rest, he had a big day today." The nurse told Claudia as she leaves the room. Claudia sat down on the chair, looking at her sleeping father. Her lip starts to quiver as she hears his breathing, heavy and unsteady. She held his hand. He didn't have a lot of time left. He was getting weaker. Claudia cries to herself, quietly to not wake him. It wasn't fair. None of this is. She wanted her father back. Her teary eyes looked at the man she loved. Her hand covered her mouth to minimize the sound of her sobs. She has done too much to get where shes at. She left everything just for her life to fall apart. Why couldn't she just get a break?