Over the past year, I've grown very close to my former patient, as was evident by the fact that I was pretty much lounging in her living room with my two-year-old nephew running amok when she and I discussed potential travel plans.

Her husband Nick was already in Anders narrowing down some of the potential properties picked out by Tahlia's twin sister, Kaliana.

She was to follow in a few days and my hope was for me and the Kit to travel with her and baby Alexei now that they were cleared to fly.

Kit, so nicknamed because he was the youngest member of the Fox family, needed to get to his dad in Nevada. The distance between Anders and my brother's new house was only about four hours by car.

I was curious about how Kaliana was settling in and these friends Tahlia talked about nonstop. Apparently, the hotter sister had finally settled down and I was dying to meet whoever had made that happen!

Kaliana (and I guess Tahlia too) is gorgeous, I've had a crush on her for years but she was such a disaster and likely strictly straight, I never made a move on her… well, not an official one anyway… it's weird though. Being identical you'd think my crush would transfer to her twin but no, I've never seriously thought of Tahlia that way. Maybe the coma and her care were factors? Whatever. Anyway, it’s more likely due to Kaliana's piercings, I love them, I want to play with them! I've always been into pierced women who, for the record, are few and far between in Blues Meadow… Maybe my fascination stems from the fact that I couldn't/shouldn't have as many as I would like on my own body? As a charge nurse in this small town, it was best that I at least try to conform. My ears have multiple earrings, all of which I love. I also have my septum done, though I frequently wear a retainer instead of showing it off, especially at work. Doc Avarez has made some disparaging comments over the years, serving to make me paranoid about displaying much of my jewelry. I envied Kaliana's rebellious nature and all the piercings she had, which is to say a great number, but they were well done and tastefully displayed that it never appeared to be too much. Just her, only amplified and rumor had it she had her snake bites redone! Yeah, I wanted to see her again… just a little visit before taking my nephew to his new home…

I was going to miss having him underfoot, I've been taking care of him ever since his mother died and my brother checked out emotionally. They’d been separated for over a year, but he still loved her and took Ember’s death very hard. Maddox was in a much more stable place now, both mentally and physically, and ready to handle the responsibility, hence my travel needs. I didn’t mind making the trip, in fact, there was a convention near him. He was supposed to take care of my ticket for the convention in exchange for delivering his son to him, but my brother has a nasty habit of forgetting to follow through on things like that… The con: Inked & Pierced was huge out on the west coast and had a significant turnout of big names in the industry, many of which I wanted to meet… okay and drool over.

Like Megara Sutton, I heard she was on a panel this year and I really wanted to hear her voice. I would say I wanted to meet her, but I doubt that will ever happen. Not only is she gorgeous, successful, talented and in-demand, but everyone knows it and she’s never on her own at these things. There’s always someone at her side and I’m not crazy enough to believe that it could be me (in anywhere except my dreams). I know she has three studios, one of which is in Anders, so if I went with Tahlia… maybe I could meet her in a less crowded environment? Probably not, but at least it would be more likely!

“I’d love the company.” Tahlia didn't take much convincing. I could imagine she was pretty desperate for adult conversation. Not only was Nick out of town, but she only had a two-month old son for company… Well, sometimes she watched Kit for me, but as smart as I thought the little guy was, his conversation skills left a lot to be desired still… And I’m going to be missing out on so much of it! He’s not mine, I knew this day was going to come and I really thought I’d be ready for it, but I’m not.

“Awesome! Let me know your flight plans and I will get me and Kit tickets for the same flight.”

“That’s not actually necessary…” she hedged, though I'm not sure why. Did she change her mind?

“You aren’t buying them for us!” I shot back, refusing to believe she’d be so cruel as to change her mind after just telling me yes.

“I’m not even paying for me!” she spit out, laughing. “One of Ana’s friends is flying us out there.” Her explanation required a little extra processing on my side. Mostly because my girl goes by Ana now, I’d really have to work on that before I saw her again.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, private plane, plenty of space for you and Declan,” she assured me while using my nephew’s legal name. He was always just Kit to me, ever since I first held him, I’ve never really thought of him as Declan.

“Well, that’s pretty awesome!” I agreed cheerfully, but probably not for the reasons Tahlia thought. Not having to pay for plane tickets meant I could pay back Maddy faster, go sightseeing, do extra touristy things… maybe even get inked… “When do we leave?”