"Then I don't see why not."

Melissa will redirect Juliet's attention to the pancakes. She can talk to Zach later about whether these play-dates should be held at the boarding house (like she suspects he'll be most comfortable with) or at the McCall household (where she thinks Juliet might be the happiest).

Pancakes! And coffee, if she wants. They also have tea and soda and a whole assortment of drinks, really.

Eventually Juliet hops down from the stool and goes to set the table and get out all the syrups and sugar and lemon and all the things that someone might want on pancakes.

She will happily take coffee, good god does she need some. After sipping on that, Melissa returns to the harsh reality in front of her...

...which is blissfully undercut by a kind neighbor, a cute kid, and pancakes.

"Can I tell you a secret?"

She stage-whispers this to Juliet. Zach can easily listen in, but there's enough plausible deniability for Juliet about whether he can hear them.

!! Juliet wiggles closer and nods many. "I'm good at keeping secrets," she promises.

Zach eats his pancakes and pretends he can't hear.

"I was really sad today, but you cheered me up."

Juliet smiles! And is very very pleased.

"When I get upset daddy makes me pancakes. They make everyone happy."

"Well, your daddy is very smart. I can only boil water, so I can't make pancakes when Scott is sad. What do you think I should do?"

"... hmmmm. When daddy is sad I paint him something? Or we go for a walk in the woods or or- we go swimming at the waterhole."

"Those all sound good..."

Melissa trails off, eyes glinting with amusement.

"What do you think?"

She waves her fork at Zach, to indicate that she wants his input.

"Well. I know a movie night always cheers us both up. With popcorn and the big projector. Does Scott like movies?"

"Are you kidding? If there was nothing else Rafe was going to teach that boy, he was going to teach him a love for cheesy action movies."

She says this as though mentioning Rafe doesn't feel like the screech of nails on a chalkboard.

"My favourite movie is the Goonies. Has he seen that? We could watch it together."

"You know, I'm not sure. I'll ask Scott what he thinks, but I'm sure whatever you pick will be fine by him."

Excited wiggles! And eating her pancakes.

"After I finish can I go and look through the movies and pick out ones to show Scott, daddy?"

"I don't see why not. Just remember to put them all away after."

"Have fun, honey. I think he likes aliens more than explosions, if that helps."

She takes her last bite, wiggles out from the table and places her plate in the sink. And then runs out of the room and out of sight, a bit quicker than most ten year olds can move.

Zach watches her go with some amusement.

"I'm pretty sure you've just made her whole year."

"That's what I'm in the business of, making kids happy."

...she sighs.

"Is it hard? Doing it alone? My abuelita always warned me growing up to be careful, but- she wasn't worried about this. My mom, on the other hand...she told me he was bad news from the start."

Her mother was wrong, Melissa wants to insist. Rafael is a good man with a good heart, who could have been a good husband and a better father, and she knows that she missed some way to make it work out better than this.

He has. Very conflicted feelings about this. This is Rafe's wife. But.

"...yeah, it's hard. They need so much from you and you're not going to be able to be everything they need." He pauses and pours her some more coffee. "But what you can give is just as important. Even if we have to work our asses off to do it."

Nod.

"I just never thought I would be one of them, you know?"

She's not sure what she means- single mother? Rafe wants joint custody at least, maybe full if he can push for it.

Divorced? They aren't, officially, not yet. Melissa isn't even sure if she could do that, not yet. Not if there's a chance. (There isn't one, though. That's becoming increasingly clear. He's checked himself into rehab, and that's- a good thing, that's what she wants, but- she didn't kick him out, really. She told him to take a walk, and he didn't come back.)

"Sorry," she says, backpedaling, realizing that whatever she never thought she'd be, she just implied he is. "I just meant that I never thought I'd have to do this alone. When I married Rafe, I thought I was at least getting him, even though both of our families said they'd never speak to us again. Now..."

She has Scott, as long as Rafe doesn't have him. She wants to scream about the unfairness of it all, but she already used up her quota of public displays of hysteria today.