One Day at a Time - (Season One)

Chapter Fourteen: Midnight Run

It was a beautiful day.

The chaotic affair that was lunch with eleven people had ended about forty minutes ago; Marty had just finished helping Mrs. Clark- Madison with the dirty dishes and was getting ready to go upstairs to join Griselda for a little while.

The second Marty caught sight of Alicia's annoyed expression as the teen walked into the room, she decided to scatter. Marty really did not want to get caught up in any more family drama... or worse, be another awkward bystander, stuck once more in the room while Alicia had another row with her mom. By the time she was passing Ofelia on the staircase, Marty could hear Alicia's raised voice wafting from downstairs. She was only thankful that she'd been able to escape before it had sparked.

She walked down the now-familiar hallway towards Alicia's room and knocked, "Buenas tardes, Señora Griselda." Marty greeted the tired woman after getting the go-ahead to enter the room.

The injured woman sent her a kind smiled, "Hola Martina, cómo has pasado el día?"

"Bien." Marty grinned, there was something soothing about the older woman's presence, "Te gustó el almuerzo? Recordé que me dijiste que disfrutabas la sopa de frijoles negros, así que le pregunté a la Señora Cla- Madison si podríamos hacerlo."

"Muchas gracias, Martina, me encantó." Mrs. Salazar smiled gratefully, her eyes crinkling in delight, "Dónde está tu hermanito? Ya estás lista para rezar el rosario conmigo?"

"Lukas está en la piscina con Nick... Entonces, sí, estoy lista para rezar." Marty responded in an easy manner as the aging woman handed her a red rosary.

"Entonces comencemos. En el nombre del Padre, del Hijo y el Espíritu Santo-" the Salvadorian started reverently, her eyes closed in prayer. Marty smiled softly repeating the words and doing the sign of the cross as well. It didn't take them too long to go around the prayer beads and conclude the rosary. Maybe only twenty minutes or so.

"Gracias, cariño, por compañarme, puedes irte a cuidar a tu hermanito ahora," the woman whispered thankfully before patting Marty's hand in a kind manner.

Marty shot her a small shy smile, "No fue una problema, fue un placer como siempre." she murmured before adding, "Si necesitas algo, no temas preguntarme!"

"Vaya con Dios." the religious woman replied before informing her tiredly, "Porfabor cierra la puerta, quiero tomarme una siesta ahora, estoy muy cansada."

The secretly pregnant nineteen-year-old shot her sympathetic grin and quietly shut the door behind her before startling as she walked right into Mr. Salazar in the hallway. "Oh, sorry," Marty whispered sheepishly as she rubbed her arm awkwardly.

The man nodded, stopping her before she could go around him towards the stairs, "I want to thank you for keepin' my wife company. I know that it means a lot to Griselda. It helps to keep her mind off the pain."

Marty blushed at the normally standoffish man's praise, "O-Oh, um, no problem. When my abuela was around, I used to pray the rosario with her... it's been nice to speak in Spanish with someone. I-I haven't really done it in a while."

Mr. Salazar eyed her curiously, "You clearly have a Spaniard accent when you speak, were your parents from Spain."

"Yeah." Marty nodded, "My parents moved here before we were born, but my papí didn't want us to lose our heritage even if we were living here, so we grew up with only Spanish in the house."

The Salvadorian chuckled softly, "My wife and I did the opposite with Ofelia so that she would learn English faster."

Marty grinned in amusement, "I should probably speak in Spanish more, así que no tengas miedo. Empieza a hablarme en este idioma mas, Señor Salazar." she said with a teasing smile, "De todos modos, necesito comenzar a sumergir a Lukas con el español."