Sleeping on Raphael's couch was not how Marcos had hoped to end his evening with the omega that had captured his heart. He had turned it over and over in his head, trying to figure out where everything went wrong. They had shared so much with one another. Not just physically but emotionally as well. Opening up to one another about their pasts had left Marcos feeling an even stronger sense of kinship with Raphael.

Unfortunately, none of that seemed to matter anymore. Raphael seemed determined to end things now before they went any further. He didn't see the sense in prolonging their relationship even another day.

Now that morning had dawned and the rain had cleared, there was no reason for Marcos to hang around any longer. His clothes were clean and dry and a brisk walk through the chill morning air would probably do wonders to clear his head. But he caught himself hovering in the shadow of Raphael's bedroom door.

The omega was still fast asleep. The blankets and sheets were twists and tossed around like a hurricane had passed through. It looked like Raphael had passed a restless night.

He hadn't been the only one.

Marcos turned away from the bedroom door and crept out into the front room. He debated leaving a note, but ultimately decided against it. Raphael had made it clear that this was the end of their relationship and Marcos doubted he would be able to win him over a second time.

Whatever decisions Raphael made from here out would be his own. That realization was sobering. Marcos truly felt like he was falling for Raphael and could almost picture raising a child with him. A bouncing baby with dark eyes, dark hair, and a severe expression. The houseboat thing was just a dream that wasn't set in stone. With the right omega he knew he could be happy with a house on land.

Raphael could have been that omega.

Marcos slipped out of the house and into the cool, early morning twilight. Up here on the hill, sheltered by the trees, there was a slight chill in the air. The ground was wet and water still dripped from the branches overhead. It wasn't the sort of morning greeting that he particularly liked. Stepping out into the sunshine, the salt air, and the sound of the waves on the shore was more his kind of morning.

However, as he stood on the top step of the front porch the view took his breath away. All of La Bonita lay stretched out below him and beyond that lay the ocean. The clear blue of the water disappeared into the sky along the distant horizon. It was a view that Marcos never grew tired of. That view alone more than made up for the dreary, drippy, cold atmosphere that surrounded the house.

Taking a deep breath, Marcos started out. If the weather report had been right then the sunshine wouldn't last past noon and he had a lot of things to do before then.

As he descended the hill, however, his heart kept tugging at him. The urge to look back at the house once more was almost overwhelming. But Marcos stayed his course. Looking back and wishing things were different wasn't going to change things. No matter how much he might wish it were otherwise. There was no room for him in Raphael's life. The baggage that the omega still carried with him made sure of that.

Not that he was one to talk, Marcos' own baggage was pretty hefty and had created a rift with potentially deadly consequences. He only had one shot at making things right. Otherwise tomorrow, when the hurricane hit, there would only be one man on the Catalejo island coast guard.

* * *

Guillermo was unloading crates of alcohol from the back of a delivery truck with two of his employees when Marcos approached the bar. He had rehearsed what he was going to say over and over again in his head, but nothing had sounded right. In the end, he hoped that some sort of divine inspiration would aid him.

"Nice to see you. I didn't think you'd care to show your face around here after you skipped out on our meeting yesterday." Guillermo folded his arms and turned his back to the delivery truck.

"I'm sorry about that," Marcos said as he tried to avoid Guillermo's disapproving gaze. "My head wasn't on straight. I was hoping we could talk now, if you're not busy."

"Come on then. I've got some work to do inside." Guillermo turned and headed through the front doors of the bar.

The atmosphere was much different during the day than at night. The tables were empty and their chairs had been upturned and stacked on top of them. The air smelled more like citrus cleaning products and wood polish than alcohol. The windows were open and a light breeze swept through the room carrying with it the scent of the ocean and the sound of the waves.

Guillermo circled around behind the bar and took up a bottle of wood polish and rag that had been sitting out ready to use. The barman set to work, shining the wooden surface without a word. It was clear that he was still a bit upset at Marcos for his absence yesterday, and perhaps, for his many absences over the last year.

"You remember how I was that night, don't you?" asked Marcos, leaning against one of the wooden pillars and scuffing the toe of his shoe across the floor.

"Of course. It's the only time I've ever had to kick you out." Guillermo paused and looked up at Marcos. "But you know I understood. If you'd just come to me afterward, we could have worked everything out. It was no reason for you to stay away completely."

"It wasn't just that," said Marcos, shaking his head slowly. He carefully recounted the story he had shared with Raphael the previous night. Actually saying it out loud had knocked something loose in him and made him realize that maybe he owed it to Guillermo to explain.

"I'd heard the rumors, of course," said Guillermo after a long pause. He went back to polishing the bar. "I wasn't sure what to believe really, but I haven't seen the rest of them in here together since then so I thought part of it must be true. I'm glad you've gotten yourself cleaned up, but I wish you would have felt like you could come to me with your problems. I would've been happy to try and help you."

"It's...I felt like I needed to do this myself." Marcos finally allowed his gaze to settle on Guillermo. "I needed to get my head on straight and figure out how to deal with my mom's death without relying on anyone or anything else to get me through it."

"Dammit Marcos." Guillermo slammed his fist on the bar and looked up at Marcos with thunder in his eyes. "You weren't the only one who lost her. Do you have any idea how much I blamed myself for what happened to her? I shouldn't have let her leave that day. I should have kept her here until you came for her, but I didn't. I let her go and it cost her her life."

Marcos felt as if he'd been slapped across the face. He'd known that his mother and Guillermo were close, but he'd never realized until now that the barman had harbored feelings for her. Looking back now it was obvious. The way he had doted on her and encouraged her. He had pushed her to take Marcos up on his offer and had been forever on her side in everything.

"You loved her..." Marcos felt as if new understanding had finally settled over him. A new barb of pain caused by his mother's death that he had only just now been made aware of.

"I didn't want you to think I was trying to take over as a surrogate father or anything after she died. I kept my distance and hoped you would rely on me when things got too difficult for you. Instead you kept drifting further away. You were the only other person that loved her as much as I did." Guillermo seemed to be fighting to hold back the tears that were forming in his eyes.

"I've been a selfish jackass this past year, I realize that. I dealt with my feelings, but I shut everyone else out. I didn't give my crew a reason to trust me and I pushed away the only person left that I could call family. I'm sorry, Guillermo." Marcos had known that this conversation would be difficult, but he had thought he was prepared for it after the emotional beating he had taken last night. The tightness forming in his chest and the burning in his eyes made it clear that nothing could have prepared him for this.

"Family?" Guillermo seemed to be momentarily stunned into silence.

"Yeah. It took me long enough to say it, but you're family. You were more of a dad to me than my own father ever was. You looked out for my mom more than he ever did. If that's not family then I'm not sure what is." Marcos offered a smile and found himself greeted by Guillermo's tear-streaked face.

After a moment of silence, the barman cleared his throat and dried his eyes on his sleeves. "That's enough of that then," he declared as he returned to polishing the bar. "What brought you around to finally talking about all of this? You blew me off yesterday so that must mean something happened since then."

"I met someone." Marcos returned to scuffing the floor with his toe. "It's not what you think. He's said he doesn't want a relationship with me—"

"But you clearly do," said Guillermo.

"That's not the point," Marcos frowned. What he wanted for his relationship with Raphael didn't matter. You can't have a relationship unless both people want to be in it. "Talking to him made me process a lot of stuff that I've been avoiding. I've been telling myself that I've been staying away from the bar because social drinking with large groups gets me into trouble. That might be true, but the reality is that I've always been able to come see you at times like this. I wasn't ready to face the conversation I knew we were going to have. This conversation."

Guillermo looked up at him but remained silent.

"I know you blame yourself for what happened. Just like I blame myself. I also know that we're both aware where the fault really lies. Blaming ourselves doesn't accomplish anything and in the end I think it disrespects her memory. I know she loved us both and wouldn't have blamed either of us for what happened." Marcos hoped that he had conveyed his message clearly enough. It was simple, but reaching that conclusion had taken him a long time. Too long.

"No, she wouldn't have blamed us and she wouldn't have blamed him either. She would have blamed herself. That was the problem. The entire blasted situation stemmed from the fact that she never blamed anyone for anything." Guillermo seemed to be backsliding. He wasn't ready to let her go. Maybe someday, but not yet. Until then, Marcos had to do what he could to help his old friend along. He owed him that much.

"I'm sorry, that I stayed away for so long. I'm not going to do that again." Marcos stepped towards the bar and tried to offer a reassuring smile.

"If you can't get a crew together, you're not going to have much say in the matter. There's no way a single man can run evacuations on his own." Guillermo folded his arms and eyed Marcos.

"I'm supposed to be meeting with the police and emergency services in a few hours to discuss our coordination strategy. How am I supposed to walk into that meeting and explain to them that I'm all they're getting from the coast guard?" Marcos shook his head and sighed. "I've got no strategy here."

"I think...your best bet here is to give your crew something that improves their chances of survival." Guillermo rubbed his chin as he spoke. "I heard the anti-drug task force just picked up a brand new boat with state of the art tech. It's a pretty fancy piece of equipment and I bet it handles like a dream. It's specifically designed to operate in shallow waters so they can operate in and around the sandbars and reefs easily."

"Good for them, they're not going to let us use it for rescue operations during a hurricane. The task force has made it clear they're not associated with us and want nothing to do with us. They might take the majority of the coast guard budget, but they're not interested in sharing our duties." Marcos was more than a little annoyed that the task force was buying shiny new toys when the real coast guard couldn't even afford full time staff.

"Right, so that's why you need to go over their heads. Find someone higher up that can straighten this mess out." Guillermo was grinning as he leaned forward with a gleam in his eye.

"I bet you know just the person, don't you?"

"Of course I do. Thanks to my close personal friendship with his alpha, I can put you in direct contact with President Fernandez himself."