"There, that should do it." Hector fluffed the pillows on his dad's queen bed and propped them up before turning the quilt. He swivelled around like a child showcasing something brilliant to his audience of three.

Devi, dripping wet atop the body bag on the floor, sighed with exhaustion at the sight of the bed. He couldn't blame her. It had been a tiring day.

Hilde, who stood semi-dry, blinked thoughtfully at the large bed. Hector would pay a pretty penny to hear her thoughts if he could.

Eve, stood by the doorway, peered in, uncomfortably rubbing her arm as if she were cold. "You three must be tired, and freezing. I'll go make us a nice cup of tea or chocolate ... and find us some biscuits." With that, she disappeared faster than a spooked rabbit, down the corridor to her old, musty side of the house.

"I'll need to get out of this wet gown," Devi said to no one in particular. "Do you have a towel, Hector?"

"Right. Yes." Hector scrambled out of the room in search of the linen closet, which he hoped was still a linen closet and not another space for Ma to hoard books.

Meanwhile, with Hector gone, Devi turned to her doctor. "I hate to ask, but could you help me change out of these clothes?"

When Hector returning with two towels interrupted them, Hilde took the towels and asked, "Would you have any spare clothes too, Hector? For Devi? She's kind of soaked and I don't want her fever worsening overnight."

Hector scrunched his face. Clothes? Sure, there were plenty of clothes in the house, but would they fit Devi? Or better yet, would his ma part with any of hers? They were about the same size from the looks of it.

"Any old thing will do," Devi chimed in upon seeing his hesitant face. "I'm not fussed. Honestly ... despite what you might think ..."

"See. Anything will do." Hilde beamed up at him.

Hector looked from one woman to the other. "Sure. I'll ask Ma."

For the second time that night, Hector left the two women alone and went in search of things.

"Hey, Ma, you got any old clothes still lying around the ladies can use?" When he arrived in the kitchen where Ma stood over the stove, churning a pot of hot chocolate, he heard her sniff. He'd figured Hilde could do with a change of clothes too. He'd noted a small puddle of water at her feet. Poor thing. But once he saw his ma's shoulder shake, all thoughts of Hilde left his brain.

"Ma, you have to get used to seeing that part of the house now. You have a guest. A guest you've been looking forward to meeting." He walked over to her petite figure, taking her shaking shoulders in his hands.

"It's just ..." She sprinkled some more cocoa into the heating milk. "It's so empty ... here without him."

"Even after what he did?"

"Even after what he did."

He could never understand her, not in a million years, not with that, yet he couldn't help but agree, even after all that, a part of him still loved his dad. Always would. That part missed seeing his scowling face lurking around the rooms and hallways, forever lost in thoughts about his damn books. Always his damn books.

No wonder his ma was always lost in the pages of her books too. She needed some entertainment, some ways to feel connected to the old man, even if he was too busy to pay her attention.

"Clothes, Ma." He gently reminded her of the reason he'd interrupted her. "And go to bed, you're tired." She stared at the three empty cups beside the stove and Hector reached for the spatula in her hand. "I'll do it. Just find me some clothes and please, go to bed. I'll see you in the morning."

"For both you say?" Ma relinquished the spatula.

"It's late. I can't ask Hilde to go back home in this rain." He stared at the dark liquid with hunger. He could do with some hot chocolate and maybe some choc-chip cookies if Ma still kept them for him. "Besides, if she goes back now, I won't have a way to get back to my car in the morning—we left it on the side of the highway. I will return with her in the morning." He stopped stirring and turned to his mother. "I don't want to leave you alone with her already. She's a bit of a handful. Let Hilde and I settle her a bit and then we'll get out of your hair in the morning."

Ma smiled and placed her hand on his arm as she turned to go. "I like Hilde."

Me too. Hector stirred the simmering milk. "Anything that might fit."

Minutes later, Ma returned with a pile of old clothes that looked far too familiar. He eyed the corridor past her suspiciously. "Did you just get them from my room?"

"You're not using them." She placed the pile on the kitchen counter and rushed to turn the stove off. "Besides, you said comfortable clothes, and these are the only ones in the house that are comfortable."

Hector peeked through the piles, his old t-shirts and exercise shorts. Clothes that sent hs mind on overdrive, imagining the sexy Dr Chen in one of those shorts and T-shirt, chewing her bottom lip, pulling him towards his bed tonight—not that he saw any chance of horizontal tango happening this late in the night, and without a prelude.

" ... I wanted to talk to you about something, Heck..." His ma's voice sidled into his mind, interrupting his pleasant daydream.

"What is it?" he asked as she eyed the adjoining corridor to the additional part of the old house from the kitchen. "Don't tell me you changed your mind about this?" his voice dropped to a whisper. "Where am I supposed to take her now?"

"It's not that." She placed her hand on his gently. "It's just that, I've been thinking. I'm doing you a huge favour—not that I mind—but I want something in return."

Alarm bells trilled in Hector's mind. Something in return? Like what? What could he possibly offer her, the woman who had everything? He stood straighter, no longer leaning against the counter. "Like what?"

A smile set his ma's face alight. A smile that told Hector with no uncertainty that what she was about to ask was not only something he could pay but that paying it would somehow cost him more than money? He swallowed, goose bumps rippling across his skin. "What?"

Ma pulled him to the side, closer to the pantry so anyone walking into the kitchen would not spot them straightaway. "It's about you."

Oh dear god! Not this again. Hector's heart squeezed, recalling the numerous ways Ma ambushed him, to talk about his 'love life' or the lack of. Why had he expected this to be a different day, different Ma? "Ma, this is not the right time. I'm working."

Ma folded her arms and glared at him. A classic move that said, 'We're having this conversation whether you like it or not'.

Hector glanced down that still quiet corridor, glad that the ladies couldn't hear them. "Fine. What is it this time?"

"You've gone through all this to get Ms Dhungel here without raising Brady's suspicions. You've asked me to house her until you solve this case; basically asked me to nurse her for a while when you know I hate all that—"

"Okay. I get it. I've asked a lot." Hector uncomfortably cleared his throat.

"You have. You know this will be hard for me, seeing your Papi's part of the house, and another woman in it ..." for a moment, her voice wavered. "So, I want something from you. Something that will be equally hard for you, I suspect. It's only fair."

After a moment of pause, Hector sighed. "What do you want from me then?"

"I want you to find someone." Ma pulled him flush against the panty.

Hector winced as his hip hit the wood panel. "Really, Ma? Let me just rush out there and find a girl right now."

Ma tutted. "Don't be so dramatic. You don't need to go that far if you just opened your eyes."

Hector narrowed his said eyes then, and slowly asked, "What?"

"You like Hilde."

"Yeah, so?" Hector's blush crept up. Was the whole town aware of his crush on the doctor?

"So?" Ma's brows knitted in question. "So? She's right there, mate. This wonderful woman who is the best catch there is in this town, and probably better than you deserve, and all you say is so? Have you seen how she looks at you?"

This is when Hector stole another glance at the corridor, praying Hilde was still sequestered away in dad's room and not hearing any of this. It would be utterly embarrassing and then some.

Ma shook her head, disappointed. "She likes you. Any fool can see it. Whether it's from the fact that you're the only eligible bachelor in town, or it's genuine, who cares. A doctor likes you. I don't want you to lose this opportunity."

"This opportunity? She's not a job or a prize..."

"She may as well be. When was the last time you went on a date?" Ma frowned. "You both like each other. It's the perfect time to give it a go. When are you going to come across someone like Hilde again, in this town or the next?"

Never? Hector pursed his lips. "Ma ..."

"I've decided." Eve folded her arms and pouted. "You aren't getting any younger, nor I. I want to see you happy, the way I was once. I want you to be with someone special in your life with. That someone can be Hilde." She squeezed his hands as if trying to convince him she was the wisest and he should her every word as gospel. "So, what I want in return is for you to date Hilde. Ask her out."

And here, Hector stared at his mother, feeling his tongue glue itself to the roof of his mouth. Should he tell her he'll be doing that very thing from tomorrow, ask Hilde out, and it will all be for show? 'Cause if Hilde really liked me, she wouldn't have agreed to fake it, would she? But before he could say anything, his ma squinted at him.

"You're already dating her?"

"No." Hector chuckled nervously.

"You are!"

"No."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not, Ma!"

"Then why are you blushing?" She pouted, hot chocolate all but forgotten atop the stove.

Hector swallowed. I'll have to tell her...

"That's the deal, Heck." Eve pressed her lips. "Ask Hilde out and I let you hide Devi in my house, or hide her yourself and see how that goes with Brady."

"Ma, that's blackmail." Hector cried out.

"My house. My deal. Take it or leave it." Eve Martinez held her ground.

"It's unfair!" Hector grumbled. "What is it with you women and blackmailing me into doing what you want these days?"

"Is it too much for a mother to want to see her boy happy?" A classic emotional blackmail every mother was hard-wired to tap into, Eve tapped into. "All I want is for you to have someone by your side when I leave cark it."

"You're not gonna cark it, Ma. You're still young." Hector pulled out of her reach, heading for the pot of hot chocolate that was cooling by now.

"Look what happened to your Papi," she spat with venom.

Hector threw her a look. Had she just used Papi as an example of early death without her voice hitching with emotion?

She stepped closer to him again, fetching a ladle from the bucket of utensils by the stove. "I'm serious, Heck. Either you date someone for real, like Hilde, or I find someone for you. That's the deal. Otherwise, house your author yourself." The threat was real in Ma's voice this time. Hector would know. His mother rarely made threats so when she did her voice took on harshness he wasn't used to, even as a strapping young man of twenty-seven.

Before Hector could argue further, shuffling feet sounded in the corridor and Hilde appeared in the kitchen soon enough. His words of protest—though he didn't know why he was really protesting at all, he did like Hilde and wanted to date her for real—died in his throat. Why am I even pretending?

"Fine!" he quickly cried out before Eve could use the doctor's presence to corner him. "Fine. We have a deal. Now can we take the chocolate to people before its ice chocolate?"

"Here, let me." Eve pushed him out of the way with a satisfied grin, prodding him towards the pile of clothes on the counter. "Give Hilde a hand then."

Hector obliged, though his mind swam with how he was going to achieve this impossible feat. On one hand, fake-date Hilde so the doctor could check on her patient without raising Brady's suspicions, but also make it look real enough that his ma stopped threatening him with housing Devi all on his own.

Would you date me for real if I asked you? He held the pile of clothes to Hilde and smiled.

"What did I walk into?" Hilde peered up at him.

Nothing. He shook his head.

"I was just saying to Hector that it's late." Ma grabbed a large t-shirt from the pile, pinned it under her arm, before holding the tray of hot chocolates up, offering one to Hilde. "It's far too late for both of you to return to Mystery Cove in this weather. Here, grab a mug, dear, and Hector will show you the way to his room. You must be tired... I'll get this to Ms Devi myself."

Ma threw him a look, daring him to contradict her. "Hector got you some clothes too, didn't you, Heck?"

"Yeah." Hector smiled faintly, taking a mug of hot chocolate from the tray as Ma passed him, heading down the corridor toward Devi. You, evil, evil woman. He turned to Hilde, who was staring at him like she could read his mind.

"So, your ma wants me to stay the night."

That's not all she wants. Hector grabbed the rest of the clothes from the counter. "Here. I'll show you to the room."

Embarrassed wasn't even the word to describe what he was feeling as he awkwardly led the woman he liked to his old room. A room he'd only truly moved out of in his early twenties, first to go to the Police Academy, and then to live alone in that decrepit thing he called an apartment above the police beat. Part of him was terrified of how he'd left it. Was it still the giant mess? Had his mum turned into a hodgepodge of book storage, precarious towers reaching high? It was only naturally he wanted to impress the woman he liked, not impress upon her he still had some growing up to do.

God, I hope those old posters aren't still up. Those posters, meaning the ones of scantily clad models from the early two thousand he'd found in a hoard of old magazines their cruddy old library was getting rid of before it closed for good. He'd had many good nights under their gaze if you know what it means. 

(Chapter 10 continues in the next part...)

A/N: Sorry folks, this chapter ended up nearly 4k words so I've split it in half.