#oc dani

Daniela had texted her brothers the second she went on break at the hospital. They were no strangers to baby-sitting their niece, and nothing had ever gone wrong while they were watching her. Still, Daniela couldn’t stop herself from texting to check in and make sure that everything was going alright.

She no sooner set her phone down on the table and picked up her water bottle when her phone started to vibrate in the tabletop. Flipping it over, she couldn’t help but to be a little nervous when she saw Angel's name flashing across the screen, his contact photo that was a picture of him and niece staring Daniela in the face as she hit the accept button.

“Hey, all good?” she asked immediately.

“Yea,” he chuckled, “Why you always gotta assume something’s wrong?”

She sighed, “Self-preservation. Also, in my defense, I just texted to check in and you immediately called me. Sorry if that made me a little nervous.”

“Alright, alright,” she could picture the way Angel was probably rolling his eyes at her, “I wanted to ask you somethin’, but I didn’t wanna call you while you’re working.”

“What’s up?”

He hesitated, like he already knew that the question already wasn’t going to go over well, “I was just wondering if EZ and I could bring Ana to the clubhouse today.”

Daniela let out a long, exasperated sigh, “Angel…”

“C'mon, Dani. The guys miss her. Plus Creep's kids are gonna be there for a little while so she’ll have kids to play with. It’ll get her out of the house.”

“You reading all these reasons off a list in front of you?” she joked.

He laughed, “Nah, but I’ve been brainstorming all morning.”

She took a moment to really think about her answer to the question, “Is Coco gonna be there?”

“Dani—”

“Answer the fucking question, Angel,” she wasn’t yelling, just tired of the stress of the situation.

“Yea,” he said after a beat, “he's gonna be there,” he heard her taking a deep breath, most likely gearing up to argue, so he started up again before she could, “But EZ and I are gonna be there. And the rest of the guys, like I said. C'mon, ‘mana, just for a couple hours.”

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Daniela mulled it over. She knew that realistically there was only so long she could go handling things the way that she had been. Maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, even if she didn’t want to admit that to herself.

“Fine,” she huffed, “But I’m picking her up from the clubhouse. And if I hear any sort of sideways shit—”

Angel didn’t let her finish the sentence, “You got it. Thank you, Dani. Seriously,” it was the most earnest he’d sounded with her in a long time.

“Love you,” she meant it, despite the exhaustion in her voice.

“Love you too.”

When she hung up the phone with Angel, she immediately sent another text, this one just to EZ outside of their sibling group chat, “keep a close eye on Ana at the clubhouse today please. I don’t wanna regret saying yes to this.”

She knew that she could trust EZ with the situation in a way that she couldn’t quite trust Angel. Angel loved her, and Ana, and he would take a thousand bullets for either of them. Daniela didn’t doubt any of that. But she also knew how torn Angel had been as the entire situation between his sister and his MC brother crumbled in the worst of ways. He wasn’t going to turn his back on family, but he also couldn’t pretend that he didn’t still have his love for Coco. That was his best friend, he couldn’t just bail on him either. He never blamed Daniela for how she was handling the situation, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that he struggled with it a lot, being put between the two of them.

EZ didn’t share that same sense of inner turmoil. His lines in the sand were firm and impossible to miss. He didn’t have many positive feelings left for Coco, not after what the man had put his sister and his niece through. They still shared the club, and EZ was thankful that he was so good at compartmentalizing, otherwise the tension would’ve caused it all to start unraveling. Outside of Templo, or other explicit club business, the two of them didn’t talk. Coco used to try and mend that bridge, but he quickly realized how futile it was. EZ would come around when EZ was ready to, if he was ever ready to.

Daniela knew all of that. Which was why she knew that if anything happened that was even borderline not okay, EZ would step in to stop it, or at the very least tell her about it when she came to pick Ana up.

“I got you. Love you"

She sighed in relief at his text, sending back a quick, “love you too" before finally allowing herself to take a bite of her lunch.

When her shift was over, the drive from the hospital to the clubhouse felt like it took way longer than it used to. Maybe this time it was because deep down she was dreading it. The only times she’d set foot on club turf over the last year or so was when someone needed to get patched up, and even then she was in and out as quickly as possible. It wasn’t a social place for her anymore.

She rolled into the lot and parked her car, taking a deep breath as she fought the urge to rest her head against the steering wheel. It couldn’t be that bad, she reassured herself, there was no way it was going to be as bad as some of the scenarios that her brain was conjuring up. She took a moment to redo her ponytail, and it hit her that maybe she should’ve changed out of her scrubs before driving over, but it was too late now. Grabbing her phone and taking her keys out of the ignition, she opened the door and stepped out of the car.

Small puffs of dust kicked up around her sneakers when they hit the ground. She wondered how many deep breaths it would take to get herself to actually calm down. Looking around, she noticed how quiet the yard seemed, which wasn’t at all what she remembered it being like. She wondered if some of the guys were out of town.

When she got a little closer to the clubhouse, that’s when she started to hear the laughter and the conversations. She could pick Ana’s laugh out of a crowd with no effort at all, and the sound brought her a small sense of peace. If nothing else, her little girl was at least having a good time. She glanced up at the deck, trying to get a good look at everyone who was there. She spotted Ana immediately as she ran up and down the length of the deck, along with Angel and EZ. Bishop was there too, and Gilly. Her steps faltered slightly when her eyes landed on Coco, who hadn’t seen her yet. The few seconds between her noticing him and him noticing her were going to be some of the longest seconds of her life.

Ana skidded to a stop when she saw Daniela walking over, her already bright smile growing even brighter, “Mommy!” she took off down the steps and ran to her mother.

Daniela laughed, feeling a little more at-ease as she crouched down to catch the running hug her daughter was bringing her way, scooping her up and swinging her around before settling the little girl on her hip. Daniela kissed the side of her head, “Hey, chiquita!” she kissed her again, “You have a good day with your tíos?”

“Yea!” she squirmed in her mother’s arms for a moment before hopping back down to the ground, doing her best to take Daniela’s hand in her won and pulling her back towards the step, “Tío EZ got a bubble gun!”

Daniela laughed as the two of them walked up the steps together, “Oh, did he?” she looked over at her brother, “Something tells me he might’ve already had that on-hand.”

EZ chuckled, smiling as he shook his head, “Nah, but I wasn’t going to say no to a reason to go and grab one,” he stepped in to hug her, “Hey, Dani.”

She hugged him tightly with the arm that her daughter wasn’t pulling on, “Thank you, Ezekiel,” her voice was soft enough that no one else could hear it.

She greeted Angel too, or she tried to as best she could between Ana’s excited rambles about everything that they had been up to that day. She talked about the kids who had been there earlier, how much fun they’d had running around playing tag and catch. She talked about how Chucky had made cookies to share with everyone, that she even got to have one before lunch. She casually peppered in, “Daddy let me sit on his motorcycle!” before diverting right off to the next point, already shifting her excitement to the aforementioned bubble gun that EZ had gotten.

She fought to tune into the rest of the things that Ana was saying as her own thoughts began to spin out. Turning, she looked back over her shoulder to see Coco standing there watching the two of them talk and interact. She could see all of the different emotions that were swirling around in his mind. The two of them hadn’t said a single word to each other but Daniela still felt herself getting choked up.

EZ clocked the entire thing. And, as much as he didn’t really want to leave his sister and Coco by themselves, he knew that their first real conversation in well over a year probably shouldn’t take place within earshot of their daughter. So, in an attempt to distract Ana, he crouched down, loudly whispering to her that the two of them should try to run down Angel and get him with the bubble gun. It was an idea that she little girl was all too excited to take EZ up on. She managed to get out an, “I’ll be right back,” between giggles as she let go of Daniela’s hand and ran with EZ after her other uncle. Daniela watched them for a moment, a soft smile on her face before she returned her attention to the other matters at hand.

Taking in a deep breath to try and give herself an extra boost of confidence, she crossed the deck so that she was standing in front of Coco. He could see the conflicting emotions on her face and it broke his heart. It’d been so long and yet here they still were, still struggling to figure it all out. Daniela wanted to be the first one to say something, but she couldn’t force the words out.

“Thanks,” Coco nervously fussed with the pack of cigarettes in his hand, “’Preciate you lettin’ Angel bring her over.”

She nodded, “Yea. N-no problem.”

He wanted to make a joke about how he knew it was probably a little bit of a problem, but he knew it wouldn’t land. They weren’t there yet—they probably wouldn’t be there for a really long time. So, instead, he kept his mouth shut.

Daniela had to admit that he looked like a completely different man from the last time that she’d seen him. It had been a long time, and despite her anger and her hurt she did truly always hope that Coco was getting his act together. She just couldn’t afford to keep herself and her daughter around him while he did. But he looked good. Nervous, because of the specific circumstances of the day, but he looked healthy. It brought her some relief, even if it didn’t wipe away the years of damage done.

“She looks like you,” Coco commented as he nodded towards Ana, “Thankfully,” he added with a laugh.

It got Daniela to chuckle a little bit too. She shrugged, “Yea. Sometimes she makes faces that are very much you, though,” she raked her fingers along her scalp, “I know I’m gonna be in for it when she’s older.”

Coco watched her watch their daughter, and he wished that he knew what to say to her. He wished he knew how the conversations were supposed to go now. He knew that they couldn’t just start over, but he didn’t want to dig into everything else on the front steps of the fucking clubhouse, either.

“You look good, Dani,” he said.

She looked back over at him, a weak smile on her face, “Thank you, Coco. You too,” she motioned towards his hair, “The braids look good,” she sucked in a breath before leaning back against the railing, crossing her arms over her chest as she continued to look at him, “Today was okay?”

There was only one right answer to the question. But Coco knew that he wasn’t the only person that she was going to be asking about it. And he couldn’t blame her at all, even if he wanted to. He nodded, finally stuffing his cigarettes back into the pocket of his kutte, “It was good. She’s,” his lips twitched into a smile, “she’s a funny fuckin’ kid, you know?”

She had a soft smile on her face, “I do.”

Even though the two of them were running around with Ana to keep her busy any away from the conversation unfolding between her parents, both Angel and EZ were trying their best to sneak looks over at them to get a feel for how the conversation was going. There were none of the usual tell-tale signs of Daniela’s anger. There was no yelling from either of them, no angry gesturing. Angel hoped that that was a good sign.

He saw EZ watching the same way he was. He shrugged, “Looks alright.”

EZ didn’t look quite as convinced, “We’ll see,” he looked back at Angel and saw the way he wanted to argue, “Quiet doesn’t always mean good.”

Angel sucked his teeth, “C’mon, why you always gotta,” he gestured vaguely at nothing, “What if it’s a good thing?”

EZ rolled his eyes before blasting a slew of bubbles at his brother, causing Ana to break out into laughter, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Coco caught the fact that both of Daniela’s brothers were watching them intently. He also knew that they were watching for very different reasons, “I gotta,” he nodded towards the area where the bikes were parked, “I gotta run. But thank you. Seriously. I know it’s not…you know.”

Daniela nodded, knowing all too well, “You’re welcome. Stay well, Coco, okay?”

He was surprised at how genuine she sounded. He had been ready for more anger, more venom, which again he wouldn’t have blamed her for, “Okay.”

He walked away, leaving her leaning against the railing as he made his way towards the stairs. She turned so that her arms were folded and braced on the top of the rail, watching as Coco went over to Ana to hug and kiss her goodbye. It looked so natural, Daniela though, even in spite of everything. But one afternoon going well didn’t mean that everything was alright. Still, there was an ache in her chest at the sight of her daughter excitedly waving to her father as he strode over towards his bike.

Once he was gone, the two girls didn’t linger too much longer. Daniela gathered up her daughter’s things and brought them to the car while she finished playing with her tíos. The sounds of the three of them laughing eased the knot that was in her gut after seeing Coco for the first time in so long.

EZ was buckling Ana into the car as Angel walked over to say goodbye to his sister. He pulled her into a hug, “You good?”

She sighed, not wanting to lie but not wanting to get into it all with him when she was so close to finally being able to go home, “I’ll be fine, Angel.”

He stepped back, “It meant a lot to him, you know.”

A sarcastic comment was on the tip of her tongue but she managed to stop it just in time. Instead, she side-stepped his comment completely, “Get home safe, alright? Love you.”

He couldn’t stop the frown on his face, but he still returned the sentiment, “Love you too.”

Angel said goodbye to his niece and made his way back towards the clubhouse while Daniela waited for EZ to finish saying goodbye to her. She smiled at the sight of the two of them interacting, always laughing together.

He kissed Ana on the forehead, “Be good, alright?” he ruffled her hair, “Love you.”

She giggled, “Love you!”

EZ carefully shut the car door before heading over to his sister. He could see the exhaustion on her face, and he knew that it wasn’t just from a long day at work. He knew better than to ask, because it wasn’t like she was going to get into any of it with him in that moment.

“I love you,” he ran his hand up and down her back.

She gave him a squeeze before pulling away, “I love you too.”

It was fairly late when Daniela heard the knock at her door. She put Ana to bed a few hours before, the little girl falling asleep almost instantly when her head hit the pillow. It’d been a long, exciting day for her. Daniela was happy for her, but she was also exhausted by everything it had dredged up.

She was expecting the worst when she walked over to see who was standing outside her front door. She was relieved to see that it was EZ, though. Unlocking and pulling the door open, she did her best to give a smile, “Hey, you good?”

He nodded, his smile coming to him a little more easily, “Yea. Just,” he held up the bubble gun, “Ana forgot her weapon of mass destruction at the clubhouse.”

Daniela chuckled softly, shaking her head as she pulled the door open a little more and motioned for her brother to come inside, “Figured you kept it on purpose.”

He laughed, setting it down on the table as they walked into the kitchen, “I can’t be trusted with that kind of firepower.”

“Hm,” Daniela hummed in amusement as she grabbed them both beers from the fridge, “That’s true,” she sat down at the table, motioning for EZ to do the same once she handed him his beer, “What’s on your mind, Ezekiel?”

He shook his head before lifting the bottle to his lips, “Just wanted to check in on you. Today wasn’t exactly what you had planned.”

Her laugh was hollow, “No,” she took a long drink out of the beer bottle, “it wasn’t. He was…he was okay, though? With her?”

He nodded, not hesitating because there was nothing to hesitate about, “He was good, yea. He missed her.” EZ saw that Daniela was biting back a comment, “What?”

Glancing over at him, she remembered who it was that she was talking to. She didn’t have to pretend, “He fucking should.”

“I know,” EZ nodded.

“I’m not,” she took an unsteady breath as she toyed with the bottle in her hands, “I’m not ready for that to become a regular thing, EZ. I saw him for about five fucking minutes and I’m so tired.”

His expression hardened, “What’d he say?”

She shook her head, “Nothing, that’s just it. He was perfectly,” she took another swig of her beer, “perfectly fucking cordial. And I don’t, I don’t mean to sound like a horrible person. I’m glad he’s doing better. I am, really. But all of the, all of the damage? It’s hard to look at him and not see that.”

“I get it.”

She looked down at the bottle, “Ana loves him.”

“She does.”

Tears started welling up in Daniela’s eyes after an entire afternoon and evening of trying to keep her emotions pushed down. She leaned back in her chair, letting her head drop back for a moment as the tears spilled over onto her cheeks. She quickly wiped them away before looking back at her brother.

“I don’t want her to go her whole life without him. I don’t. But just, fuck, how am I supposed to know when he’s ready? How do I know he’s not going to do the same thing he did last time? I can’t go through that again. I sure as hell can’t put her through that now that she’s old enough to really see what’s going on. How do I…” her voice trailed off.

“You’ll feel it,” EZ nodded, “You knew when it was time to go. You’ll know when it’s time to let him come back.”

She let out a dry chuckle, “I waited too long to leave.”

“But you did. You’ll know when it’s right,” he brought the bottle to his lips.

“But Coco—”

“Fuck ‘em,” EZ’s voice was quiet, but firm. He saw the look on his sister’s face, “I’m serious, Dani. This is about Ana. If you don’t think he’s ready to show up for her, then fuck ‘em. He cost himself this.”

It was more nuanced than that, but also, it really wasn’t. She knew that EZ was right, that at the end of the day it was about what was best for Ana. Everything would’ve been different if Daniela only had to think about herself. She could put up with a lot, put a lot of work and struggle into something, but she couldn’t ask the same of her daughter.

“Thank you, EZ,” she said with a nod.

“You need anything?”

She chuckled, “You got a time machine?”

“I’m working on it,” he joked before finishing off his beer and standing up out of his seat, “I just wanted to stop and check in on you. Go get some sleep—you look like shit,” he chuckled.

Daniela laughed as she stood up, walking over and hugging him, “You’re lucky that gun isn’t loaded,” she leaned against him for a moment, “Drive safe.”

“Always,” he started making his way back towards the door, “Call me if you need anything.”

“Will do,” she sighed, running her fingers through her hair, “Lock the door behind you, yea?”

“Got it.”

She lingered in the kitchen, listening for the sound of EZ’s pickup truck starting and driving away. Once it was silent again, she tossed their beer bottles into the recycling bin. Grabbing the plastic toy off the table, she quietly made her way upstairs towards Ana’s room. She quietly walked inside, placing the toy on top of her daughter’s dresser.