I closed the door behind me and let my shoulders hang my eyes still filled with tears.

"Hey, you took a while. Really needed to get out did you. Lin? Lin!?" She entered the hall and immediately stopped when she saw me. She rushed over to me and gently grabbed my face letting one hand rest on my shoulder.

"What happend?"

"I....I.."

Realizing I was still in shock she walked me to the living room and guided me to sit down on the couch. I let out a shaky breath and wiped away my tears.

As I saw the concerned look on my wife's face I forced myself to start talking not wanting her to think something had happen to me.

"I was walking down the street when I saw Sara. She was with a man and he.." I couldn't finish the sentence. V softly rubbed my back while patiently waiting for me to continue.

"He was older than her." I spoke up again "much older, 15 years older. He was yelling at her and grabbing her violently and, and it was so so wrong V." I started crying again. "The worst thing is, I didn't do anything about it, I mean I wanted to but I just couldn't move or talk or do anything, I was frozen.

"Oh sweetheart." She said sympathetically.

"They left, I just let them leave. I don't know where she is now. If she's with him or what he's doing to her right now!"

"Listen Lin, I know this is scary and i understand you feel guilty but this probably has been going on for a while now and it's not like she's entirely gone now. You will get your chance to help her out. Especially now that you now what's going on. Did she see you?"

"No, no I made sure the couldn't see me."

"Well than she will probably show up at the bodega again tomorrow." I softly nodded knowing I had a chance to do something about this.

"It's late, let's go to bed and we'll talk about what to do in the morning okay?"

"You're right." I captured her in a soft and slow kiss before standing up to take a shower before bed.

That night I couldn't sleep. I couldn't get sara's eyes out of my head. The way she looked at him. For how long has this been going on! And how far does he go, does he hit her? I would't be surprised judging by the way het yelled at her and grabbed her. I couldn't imagine treating Vanessa like that. And I couldn't imagine Vanessa staying with a man who does that to her. Why would sara? With my head full I slowly fell asleep.

Casa miranda was alive at 7 am. Vanessa was running around getting ready for work. Sebastian was eating his breakfast at a pace that would bring us a lot of trouble if he continued it and I was trying to get a screaming frankie into some clothes. "Alright, alright lesson learned. Do not take frankie away from his trains. But you gotta get into some clothes buddy, can't have you walking around in pj's all day." I let go of the 2 year old since i finally got him dressed. He immediately sprinted back to his trains and I let him be. "Lin i'm off to work!" I hear vanessa yell from the other side of the house. I ran towards the door to be able to give her a quick kiss before she left.

"I love you."

"I love you too, Lin. Enjoy your free day!"

"I will! Now go and teach some youths how to kick ass!" She walked out the door laughing.

After I dropped the kids off at school and daycare I had a quiet cup of coffee at home. It was my first day off since forever. Now with 'day off' I mean no meetings or press. I always had several writing deadlines looming over me, but I was home for the day. As I got started on my writing i couldn't help but think about the conversation V and I had earlier. She advised me to go down to the bodega today and talk to sara, but she told me not to bring the fact that I had seen what had happened the night before up.

Around 1 pm i decided to get some coffee so that I was able to talk to sara. As i walked in I saw her standing behind the counter as usual. I greeted her as usual and ordered my coffee as usual.

"On the go I assume?" She said.

"Actually, i'd like to drink it here." Not as usual I thought. And by the look on her face she thought the same thing.

She quickly looked down. As she started making my coffee I took a seat at one one of the bar stools at a comfortable talking distance. Not many people would be coming around at this time, the biggest bulk bought their coffee and lunch in the morning, so I knew I could have a conversation with Sara. I thanked her as she placed a big cup of coffee in front of me.

"So, how do you like working here Sara?" I asked her. She had an uncomfortable look on her face and was probably wondering why i was starting a conversation like this. I hoped my first question was light and inviting enough that I wouldn't scare her away. Luckily she answered.

"I like it okay, I used to work at a bigger cafeteria, this is much better." She said.

"Yeah, I can imagine. You live a couple of blocks away from here don't you?" I continued.

"Yeah up on 184th street."

"They don't have bodegas over there?" I said jokingly. She smiled.

"They do, but they didn't need anyone on my block. This was the closest one I could find that needed people."

As we continued to talk I could sense she relaxed so i decided to turn our chatting about simple things into a conversation about what i really wanted to know: that man.

"So, you have a boyfriend?" I asked her, trying to sound as casual as possible. She immediately tensed up. Poor kid.

"Euhm ye..yeah I do." I decided to pretend I didn't notice the way her behavior suddenly changed.

"What's his name?" I prompted her.

"Steve."

"How long have you guys been together?"

"Uh couple of years now." She said looking around for an escape from this conversation.

"How do.." I couldn't finish my sentence.

"Please Lin I have work to do and you finished your coffee 10 minutes ago."

"Work to do? There's no one here?" I said

"no, I..I have some cleaning to do."

No way that that was true, I thought. I really wanted to get more out of her so I put my hand on her shoulder trying to get familiar, big mistake. She nearly jumped out of her skin. Taking several steps back and flinching. I quickly stepped away from her putting my hands in the air, indicating that I wasn't going to hurt her.

"Hey, hey, calm down, your okay, I'm not going to hurt you okay." I said softly.

"You should go." She said. I looked at her with pity.

"Sara."

"Please Lin." She slightly raised her voice now.

"Okay, i'll go."

As I took one last glance behind my shoulder I could see she was starting to cry now. I gave her an almost pleading look before turning back and closing the door behind me.