Dani found herself sobering fast after the encounter with Rocco, she was wide awake, and her brain would not shut off, no matter how hard she tried.

She wasn't sure what to think of the fact that not only was he dreaming about her, but obviously, it wasn't a good dream if he woke up and all freaked out like that. When she found herself wrapped in his arms as he panickily held her, she wanted to melt there and tell him never to let her go. 

He quickly dropped his eyes away from her when she asked about his dream, telling her he remembered it even if he said he didn't. Maybe he just didn't want to freak her out or something.

"Maybe you should stop trying to figure out what every little thing he says and does means," she scolded herself quietly.

She groaned out loud and made her way to her bathroom. A cool shower would clear her head or, at the very least, quiet it down for the night so she could sleep. She spent a reasonable amount of time relaxing in the shower. The cool water did help. She wished she would've gone easier on the drinks at that barbeque. She couldn't stop worrying about what she had revealed to Lexi, who was as drunk as she was. What if Lexi had drunkenly told Dante?

Dani hadn't even told Kara about her secret crush in any of their chats yet, despite her begging for some scandalous Sun City gossip. Mostly because she didn't want to say it out loud, never planned to. She was sure this crush would fade once she found a cute guy to distract her.

Dating someone and taking her mind off things it shouldn't be on was the smartest thing she could do.

 Instead, she messed it up and told Lexi, one of Rocco's best friends. What an idiot!

She'd been living alone, well off and on with Kev, for a long time. She craved domestic bliss, but it had seemed so out of reach. She told herself that being here and feeling like a family was probably what was getting to her. Plus, Gavin was so perfect. She instantly fell in love with him. He was like a little clone of Rocco; no wonder it was mucking up her feelings.

Her crush on Rocco was no more than an extension of her strong feelings for her nephew combined with her loneliness. That's all it was.

 It wasn't a crush at all, she decided. He was a friend and a brother-in-law, and that's all he would ever be. She felt better as she left the shower, having convinced herself. Hopefully, she could also convince Lexi too.

She was still a bit shaky from the booze, but she was mostly sober. She wore her favorite flannel pants and a loose tee shirt and combed her hair before leaving the bathroom. She decided to watch TV for a while and left her room to sit on the couch in Gavin's play area. Just as she was about to turn the TV on, she heard noises coming from above her in the kitchen.

Rocco must be awake, she deduced; maybe he had another nightmare.

Despite her objections, her feet ignored her brain, and she started for the stairs. 'Just checking to make sure he's okay. It's a nice thing to do,' she told herself.

As she got up towards the door, she heard the fridge closing. She paused for a second to take a breath before walking into the kitchen.

"Hey, did you have another..." Dani stopped in her tracks as she came face to face with Alyssa. Who gave her an odd look as she cocked an eyebrow.

"You're home," Dani said lamely.

"Yeah, thanks to you," Alyssa rolled her eyes at Dani, "I had to take a red-eye home."

She sipped the water bottle she must have grabbed from the fridge and sat at the table. Only Alyssa would be dressed in skintight black jeans and a lacy little red shirt with sky-high heels at two in the morning and after getting off a plane. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun, making her face look thinner. She had a full face of makeup that looked like it had just been done.

"What, how is it my fault?" Dani asked.

"Don't play dumb. Katherine told me about you blubbering about the fire," Alyssa gave her a pointed look.

"Excuse me?" Dani narrowed her eyes, feeling angry.

"Oh, relax. I blame our mother mostly, anyway. She said she's the one that got you upset."

"Right," Dani started slowly backing up, desperate to return to her room.

"Anyway, lucky for us. I'm good at damage control," Alyssa grinned.

"Lucky for me?" Dani glared at her, "What would have been lucky for me was help when I asked for it."

"I didn't even know you then," Alyssa sighed, "but I'm helping you now, so whatever."

She got up and walked over, fluffing Dani's hair a little as she passed by.

"This is going to be fun. We can be like real sisters," Alyssa said with a little grin. "We should go get highlights together."

"Are you high?" Dani asked before she could bite it back.

"A little, yeah," Alyssa admitted with a laugh.

"What?" Dani gasped. What was with her damn siblings and drugs?

"I deserved a little me time before dealing with my brutish husband."

"When did you get in?" Dani asked.

"A few hours ago," Alyssa said nonchalantly.

Why wouldn't she have come right home from the airport? Where was she for two hours at this time of night? Somewhere with drugs, obviously. Alyssa got up and walked towards the kitchen area to throw out her water bottle as Dani stood there stunned.

"We need to go over some basic dos and don'ts," her sister's snotty voice drew her out of her stupor and she looked up sharply. 

"Pop is like poison. I do not allow it in my home," Alyssa held up an empty can of coke from the recycling bin.

Dani kicked herself for throwing it there in the first place. She had tossed it in there earlier when she was kind of drunk and too lazy to bring it to the bigger recycle bin in the garage.

"Sorry, I won't bring any pop here," Dani said, uninterested in getting into it with her this late. 

"Trust me, your hips will thank you if you give it up," Alyssa gave her one of those looks meant to make her feel inferior, but it only annoyed her.

"Good night, Alyssa," Dani said. She got up from the table and started back towards the basement.

"We don't do this either, just tacky," Alyssa mumbled, and Dani heard a paper shuffling. She turned to see Alyssa taking the pictures Gavin had colored for Alyssa off the fridge.

"Those were pictures he colored for his mommy," Dani said harshly, "We put them up there so you would see them."

"That's so sweet of him, but he'll understand mommy keeping them in her little Gavi stuff drawer," Alyssa said in a haughty tone. She stacked the pictures up and set them down next to her purse.

"Do not judge me, Danielle," she added when she saw Dani was still glaring at her. "This is an eight-thousand-dollar refrigerator. A home represents who you are in society. I take great pride in mine."

Dani stared blankly at her sister. She hadn't heard anything past eight thousand dollars. For a fridge?

"I can't expect you to understand. You'll never have a real home to keep." Alyssa shrugged in that haughty tone again.

"Dani ?" Rocco's distant voice from upstairs floated down. 

"Do you two always come looking for each other in the middle of the night?" Alyssa whispered in her ear, and Dani's eyes shot wide open.

"No. Of course not," she stammered.

But Alyssa was already giggling at her words, apparently too high to care, as she pushed Dani towards the stairs. "Now go on so I can try and smooth this thing over."

**

Rocco was sure he'd heard her voice, but Dani didn't answer. Confused, he headed towards the kitchen. 

"Dani, is that you?"

"Better," he heard Alyssa's voice and cringed. It was a good thing he hadn't walked in yet, or she would have seen it. Somehow, he wasn't surprised she was back. Maybe his dream was a premonition.

"You're back," Rocco walked in and nearly scoffed at her ridiculous airport getup.

"Don't look so excited," she replied in as flat a tone as him.

"Not tonight, please, it's almost morning," he begged tiredly. 

"And I have been flying home to you all night," Alyssa said. "I know why you're all pissed. I talked to Katherine."

"I don't want to hear any excuses. It was wrong. You should have come to me," Rocco glared at her.

"It was right after Becks left Dante, and he was throwing me under the bus. I was losing you as it was. How was I supposed to come to you and ask you for a large amount of money? Dante would have taken that as proof or something," Alyssa stood up and walked over to him, her dark brown eyes pleading with him to understand something he just couldn't.

"It didn't have to be money. I could have helped legally," Rocco pointed out.

"I guess I didn't think of that," Alyssa admitted, "Besides, it wasn't her in trouble. It was like her cousin or something."

"Try her brother, and it's all just a bunch of excuses with you. It always is," Rocco complained, "Maybe Dante was right about you and you were too scared to ask me for a favor because you had something to hide."

"We both know that's not true, Rocco," she snapped. "We both know I never wanted this. I mean, at first..."

"Yes, Lys, well aware that you never wanted children and didn't want to marry until your career tapered off. You remind me daily of what you had to sacrifice for me and our son."

"Yet you don't appreciate it," she said. "I married you because it was the right thing to do and because I loved you and trusted that you'd make it okay. We would have a good life with our kid, and I'd have the life I wanted. Here I am, Rocco, so behind in my career, it's like I'm starting over."

"I can't control the world you work in and whether or not you book jobs," he said, raising his voice and then cringing as he glanced at the clock. 

"I realize that." Alyssa looked hard at him. "But you could be more supportive of me."

"I can't get into all this right now. It's late. I'm half asleep, and my head is pounding," Rocco muttered.

"You reek like whiskey," Alyssa frowned.

"Yeah, well, you smell like pot," he shot back.

"Touché," she smirked and strolled out of the room.

"You coming to bed?" she called down from the steps after a few moments, and he winced, hoping that didn't wake Gavin.

"In a minute." 

"Before you do take a shower first, you seriously reek. I am not sleeping beside you smelling like that," she called down before he heard the bedroom door close.

He sat there for a while with his throbbing head in his hands. He wasn't sure how long it was before he finally got up. He tried to muster his earlier resolve to give this marriage one last fighting chance but couldn't find it now.

Instead, he grabbed the bottle of bourbon he'd partaken in earlier and sat on the couch. He was done thinking for one night.