*Italic words = Spanish!

I am trying something different this chapter, so any Italic words are spoken in the story as Spanish. I wanted to see if this would be better, since I don't speak the language and I don't want to make stupid mistakes that may offend people. I also realized other people may think it was annoying to read the story and not know what the characters are saying till the end. Personally, I get annoyed by that.

BTW- It has nothing to do with any reviews. I thought of doing this when I started this, but forgot till now. (I had too much fun in Google Translate!) If everyone prefers this, I will change the first chapter as well. I can also have them speak the different languages more too.

This chapter is the main reason I wrote this story. I couldn't pass up the chance to write it. (Personally, this is my favorite chapter so far and I wanted to post it on my birthday.)

So, here you go. Thanks for all you do, even if it is just reading!

Enjoy!

It wasn't until the Glow Cloud incident that he took Old Woman Josie up on her offer to watch Tess, which was a few days after Tess came.

Up until then, he hadn't needed it. Tess was very good for her age. She listened to all the scientists and did what she was told. She stayed at Carlos's desk, either coloring, painting, or doing science that was a little kid's lab she suckered Josh into getting her. (She was only allowed to use when another adult could help her.)

All the scientists fell in love her and treated her like she was their child. There was always someone looking after her and Carlos was even able to leave a few times without her to collect data.

But that day, everyone was busy and he was the only one to go collect data on the Glow Cloud. Carlos had no choice, but to call Old Woman Josie who gladly took her for the day.

He dropped off a crying Tess and thanked Old Woman Josie before running off to chase the Glow Cloud. Carlos felt horrible about leaving Tess there, but Old Woman Josie said she can handle it and asked Tess if she wanted to make cookies. That got Tess distracted enough for Carlos to slip away.

He didn't get any good readings, but he was able to collect a few of the dead animals to study later. He was glad he didn't bring Tess on this trip.

He went back after dropping them off at the lab and picked up Tess from Old Woman Josie's.

"Thank you again, Ms. Josie." said Carlos as he guided Tess out of her house.

"It was no trouble. The Angels seem to like her. She is welcomed back anytime." said Old Woman Josie with a smile as she handed Carlos a box of cookies.

"Thanks, Ms. Josie for the cookies." said Tess with big eyes as she looked at the box.

"And?" said Carlos.

"And for watching me." said Tess with a smile before reaching for her father's hand.

"Would you be able to watch Tess again tomorrow? I have to do some dissections tomorrow and I don't want her exposed to that." whispered Carlos as he held the cookies out of Tess's reach. She was too focused on the cookies to hear what he was saying.

"Of course I can." said Old Woman Josie as she waved goodbye to the duo.

"Thanks again. Bye." waved Carlos before walking to the car.

"Bye, Ms. Josie. Bye Angels that don't exist." yelled Tess as she waved before Carlos put her in her carseat.

"How was your day?" asked Carlos as they pulled away.

"Good. Made cookies and colored. I tried playing dolls with the Angels, but they didn't seem to want to." pouted Tess before she went into more details on what she did today.

Carlos smiled as she continued talking and he gave input whenever needed. Soon though, his thoughts went back to science.

"Daddy?" asked Tess, snapping Carlos from his thoughts.

"Yes, princesa." said Carlos. He glanced into the rear view mirror at her in an attempt to show her he was listening before turning his attention back to the road.

"Why don't we listen to the radio?" she asked.

"What do you mean by that?" Carlos asked a little shocked by that question. He wondered where that came from.

"Whenever we get in the car, you turn down the radio. You always turn it off when that nice voice comes on. He sounds nice, so why don't you listen to him? He says good things about you." explained Tess tilting her head to the side.

Carlos made a mental note to tell the other scientists to turn off the radio whenever Tess was around. It seemed she heard a few broadcasts from Cecil, even though he has tried his hardest to block her from them.

That doesn't mean he doesn't listen though. He records the broadcasts for science and nothing else. Cecil mentions a lot of what is going on in Night Vale and it helped pinpoint where some scientific events that were happening around town. It had nothing to do with Cecil's soothing voice.

Carlos listened to the recordings when Tess went to bed so she didn't overhear and he could relax for a little bit.

"I am sure he is nice and he does say good things. I turn down the radio, because I am just so interested in hearing you talk. I can't listen to the radio and you at the same time." explained Carlos.

"Ok. Do you know Sunday is Dot Day? Red dots on what you love, blue dots on what you don't. Don't mix them up." she stated changing the subject.

"That's nice. Where did you hear that from?" asked Carlos with raised eyebrows.

"From the man on the radio. I only remember that and Khoshekh, the station kitty." said Tess.

"Do you pay attention to what he is saying?" asked a nervous Carlos.

"No. I was only interested in Dot Day and the floating kitty. I didn't know a kitty could float." giggled Tess. She thought that was so cool, but she could only beg her daddy to get her a real kitty. It would be so much cooler if it floated too.

Carlos sighed in relief at that. He did not need Tess talking to Amy about glowing clouds that rained down dead animals that night. He was able to block out most of the strange things in Night Vale from Tess so far, but he didn't know how long that would last.

He also didn't need her to hear of Cecil's love for him as Cecil has a habit of gushing about him on air. Carlos did not need Amy to know about that. He will never hear the end of it. Amy made it her duty to 'help' Carlos in his love life and he didn't need that.

The next day went a little better. There were fewer tears this time around. Tess still cried, but not sobbing like the day before. That helped Carlos's guilt about leaving her.

He went to the lab and things could have gone better there. Of course, science and Night Vale don't mix. None of the results of the dissections made any sense. The only results they got was that green blood was acid like, purple blood vanished into thin air, blue blood floated, orange turned into a gas that made anyone who breathed it in turn orange with green dots all over them (Josh was the unlucky one on that one and they had no clue of any other side effects of that one), and yellow blood turned into spiders and attacked Dave.

Luckily, nothing bad happened to Dave and Josh was in quarantine at the hospital. The doctors were confident Josh would make a full recovery, but it would take a few days.

Carlos was exhausted when he went to pick up Tess later that day. Old Woman Josie was sitting on the front porch, drinking tea when he pulled up.

"Hello, Carlos. How was your day?" asked Old Woman Josie as he walked up her sidewalk.

"Could have gone better. You?" asked Carlos as he looked around the yard for Tess.

"Good. Tess is such a doll. She helped me out in the garden today. She is inside coloring right now. Tess says it is too hot for her to color outside today." explained Old Woman Josie.

Carlos looked through the window Old Woman Josie was pointing to and was surprised (and relieved) to see that Tess wasn't alone in the house. Sitting cross legged right next to her was Cecil. It looked like he was coloring with her and by her body language, telling him how to color.

Cecil just smiled and followed her demands like it came naturally.

"Cecil has been a big help today as well. He came by for a visit and has been playing with her for four hours now." said Old Woman Josie "He is really good with her, don't you think?"

Carlos couldn't agree more. He watched them for a little bit before following Old Woman Josie into the house.

"Is this good enough?" asked Cecil kindly, looking over to Tess for confirmation.

"Yes, only use this color." said Tess as she handed him a purple crayon which he gladly took.

"I see you are training Cecil in your special art of coloring." stated Carlos bringing both the colorers attention to him.

"Daddy!" yelled Tess forgetting about her coloring and jumping up to hug Carlos.

"Hey, princesa. How was your day?" asked Carlos.

"Really fun. I had fun with Cece." said Tess pointing to Cecil "We played dolls, had a tea party, and colored."

"That does sound like fun." said Carlos with a grin looking at Cecil "Thank you for playing with Tess."

"It was no trouble. I was happy to help and watch her. She is such a good girl." stuttered Cecil with a slight blush.

"How about I treat you to Big Rico's Pizza tomorrow as a thank you? Just a thank you, nothing more." clarified Carlos. He got down on the floor to help Tess and Cecil pick up her crayons and papers.

"I would love that. I should be off by five tomorrow." said Cecil with a smile.

"We will meet you there at five then." said Carlos standing up.

"Neat." said Cecil.

"Well, we should be leaving. It is getting late." said Carlos as he picked up Tess and walked towards the door.

"Thank you, Ms. Josie. Cecil." said Carlos.

"Your welcome." said Old Woman Josie and Cecil together.

"Bye, Cece. Bye, Old Woman Josie. Bye!" waved Tess as Carlos put her in the car seat.

"Bye." waved Cecil and Old Woman Josie.

"Bye." said Carlos before pulling away.

The next day, Carlos woke up the next morning to four sticker sheets under his front door. He was confused at first till he remembered what Tess said the other day.

Today was Dot Day. Red stickers for love, blue for what you don't. He guessed that they both get one sheet of each color. He went and put the sheets on the table before going to wake up Tess. He was sure she would be excited about today. She was very worried the night before that she wouldn't get stickers for today, since she was only here for a little bit.

As soon as Tess saw the sheets, she squealed with delight and immediately put a red sticker on Carlos's forehead. He in turn put a red one on her forehead making her giggle.

As they were leaving, Tess noticed someone put most of their red stickers in the shape of a heart on the outside of their front door. That made her day as she was all giggles any time she told anyone about it and she told everyone who would listen.

Carlos spent the morning with Tess getting soil samples and rock samples from the Scrub Lands and the Sand Wastes. Tess loved helping him collect the samples, but he wouldn't let her pick any plants, or flowers. He was a scientist, not a botanist or a dendrologist. He was just doing this as a favor for Josh, who was still in the hospital.

They went back to the apartment for lunch. After lunch, Carlos had Tess do her writing as he did paperwork just like they always do when he had paperwork to do. (Which was every day.)

Tess was learning to write her letters and numbers. Her hand writing was getting better from a doctor's signature to recognizable letters. She has also been learning to draw shapes and some of the shapes he could tell what they were. He had her practice drawing shapes and tell him the colors she was using when she got bored of writing letters. When she got bored with that, he was done with his paperwork and it was almost time to meet up with Cecil. He also had to drop off the samples they took earlier today.

Tess carried her sheet of stickers around the whole day. She gave red stickers to all the scientists and they had to stop by Old Woman Josie's on the way to the lab, to give her a red sticker as well. For all the red stickers she gave, she got a red one in return. Of course, most of her red stickers went to him as well as most of his stickers went to her. He noticed she actually hasn't used any of her blue stickers yet, that is until Big Rico's Pizza.

They walked into Big Rico's and saw Cecil putting the last of his blue stickers on Steve Carlsberg.

"Hi, Cece." said Tess as they walked up to Cecil and Steve.

"Hi, Tess." said Cecil with a huge smile "Ready for some pizza?"

"Yep. Who are you?" she asked pointing to Steve.

"Steve Carlsberg. Nice to met you." said Steve holding out his hand for her to shake.

"Steve Carlsberg…" she whispered with a frown on her face.

"I don't like you." she said with narrowed eyes and putting a blue sticker on a shocked Steve's hand. Then she looked back down at her blue sheet deep in thought. There was an awkward silence as they waited for her to make her next move. Made even more so because Cecil was trying really hard not to laugh.

"I don't need the rest of these. You can have them. I would put them all on, but I hungry." she said handing him the rest of her blue stickers before skipping over to a table and sitting down. That broke Cecil's resolve as he started laughing like crazy leaving Carlos shocked and slightly embarrassed and Steve speechless.

"Um, I don't know where that came from. Sorry." stuttered blushing Carlos before giving an awkward smile and making his way to the table Tess was sitting at.

Cecil followed shortly after and sat down across the table after he was able to calm down.

"Oh, Cece. I want to give you this." Tess said standing up and crawling across the table to put a red sticker on Cecil's forehead.

"Why, thank you Tess. This is for you." said Cecil as he put his last red sticker on her forehead in return.

"Thank you." giggled Tess as Carlos picked her up and put her back in her seat.

"Oh, you would never guess what happened today. Someone used their red stickers and made it in a shape of a heart on my front door this morning." said an excited Tess.

Carlos noticed Cecil blush before Tess started pointing to each sticker and telling him who gave it to her with great enthusiasm that only a three year old could possess. That confirmed his theory that Cecil was the one to put the sticker heart on his door earlier today and Carlos didn't know quite how to return the gesture yet. Tess had been in such a giggly mood today because of that. Carlos felt he had to do something to make it up to Cecil somehow.

"Daddy?" asked Tess after she looked at the rest of her red stickers.

"Yes, princesa." said Carlos looking at her.

"Can we send the rest of my stickers to mommy?" she asked.

The look on Cecil's face didn't go unnoticed by Carlos when she asked that question. For a split second, he looked hurt. He quickly covered it back up before Tess noticed.

'Of course he would feel hurt. He admitted he loved you on his radio show for everyone to hear and here is YOUR daughter talking about HER mother. He doesn't even know anything about you.' thought Carlos before he answered Tess's question.

"Yes, we can. We will ask her tonight for the address to send them and we can send them when the Post office opens up again." said Carlos as an idea struck him.

"Cecil? Can you watch Tess while I go to the restroom real fast?" asked Carlos to which Cecil agreed wholeheartedly.

Carlos made his way to the restrooms and looked back at the table to see if he was being watched. When he was satisfied he wasn't, he snuck out the side door. A few minutes later, he came back in and sat down.

The rest of dinner was nice. Tess colored while the men talked about science and newsworthy stuff that was happening around town. Before Carlos knew it, it was time for Amy's daily phone call. They said their goodbyes and went their separate ways.

Carlos hoped that Cecil liked his surprise as he lay in bed that night waiting for sleep to come. Then again, he hoped Cecil didn't realize it was him. He thought back to when he had put the rest of his red stickers on Cecil's drivers side window as a show of thanks, or so he told himself, as he fell asleep with a smile on his face.