I'm repeating these AN's because they bear repeating. Also THANK YOU to everyone for the birthday wishes!

Sammy's Notes: There are not enough words for me to possibly express my gratitude to Mari and Ilna for all the love and support they've given me over the last month but also for stepping in and covering my stories for me and telling me to take all the time I need to get well. When I went to the ER back in September I honestly thought I was having a small allergic reaction and would be back home a few hours later. As it turned out I was admitted to the hospital for 8 days, discharged for 2, then readmitted for another 10. And it sucked.

My words of advice to all of you as I sit here now is that there is NO SUCH THING as a small cut. This whole nightmare started for me with what I thought was an insignificant cut on my shin from the door of the dishwasher. It ended up with a skin infection that covered 85% of my right shin and required 18 days of IV antibiotics so strong that I suffered collapsed veins multiple times and even after they inserted a midline to supposedly handle that issue I developed phlebitis in my arm.

I have since come to learn that the door and handle of your dishwasher are two of the germiest places in your kitchen because you often touch them immediately after having touched raw meat.

I'm home now and feeling better but still dealing with pain killers that alternate between making me want to throw up and putting me to sleep. Over the last several weeks I've heard nightmare stories from people about how their friends and loved ones have battled cellulitis that make me feel lucky because as bad as I feel like my case has been it could be much, much worse.

So please, if you have a cut, not matter how small, that starts to exhibit signs of infection, please don't ignore it an assume a little more Neosporin will do the trick. The pain that comes along with cellulitis is like nothing I could possibly describe to you but suffice it to say it left me sobbing almost to the point of hyperventilating more than once. I would not wish that level of pain on my worst enemy. So please, take any and all signs of infection seriously.

That's my soapbox speech for the day. LOL

Also, please forgive me if this one is kind of short. I'm literally working between painkiller doses here and have to get this done before I fall asleep again.

Thank you so much for all your well wishes. You guys are the best. And a million THANK YOUS to Mari and Ilna for keeping the train on the tracks when I was unexpectedly unable to write for so many weeks. You guys are the best.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Pittsburgh as they deal with the tragedy that happened over the weekend and especially with the families and friends of those who were killed and injured, the people who attend the Tree of Life synagogue and the entire Pittsburgh Jewish community. This one hit close to home for me as Squirrel Hill is about 20 miles from my house.

Choose Wisely (1/1)

Steve entered the Shop 'n Save, grabbed a cart and headed immediately towards the candy aisle. He'd gone about ten steps when he realized Danny wasn't following him. He turned back towards the sliding entry doors and saw his partner standing with his hands on his hips and a perturbed look on his face. "What now?" he asked with a sigh.

"You're not even going to let me drive the cart?" Danny groused. "It's bad enough I never get to drive my own car when you're around but a grocery cart?"

Steve looked at his partner incredulously. "Are you being serious right now?"

"I'm drawing the line," Danny replied stubbornly.

"This," Steve indicated the cart as he tried to hide a smile, "is where you choose to take a stand?"

Danny crossed his arms over his chest. "It is."

Steve sighed deeply. "Fine." He stepped away from the grocery cart. "You drive."

Danny stuck his chin out defiantly and stepped up and grabbed the handle of the cart. "Thank you," he said as he headed towards aisle 7.

"You really are unbelievably petty," Steve opined as he fell into step beside his best friend.

"Call me what you want," Danny said as he instinctively tightened his grip on the cart.

Steve shook his head. "Catherine said to expect about 250-300 kids to come through the office on the Governor's Trick or Treat Trail, so we have to make sure we have plenty of candy." He reached for several bags of candy corn and as he went to throw them in the cart Danny moved to the other side of the aisle. "What now?" Steve sighed.

"Not candy corn," Danny said.

"Why not candy corn? It's a Halloween tradition."

"It's a Halloween tradition that sits in a bowl getting stale until you throw it away right before Thanksgiving," Danny insisted. "No one really likes candy corn."

"I do," a pretty young blonde in running attire said as she grabbed a bag and threw a smile over her shoulder at Danny before she headed towards the checkout.

Steve smirked as he tossed several bags into the cart. "See."

"You're gonna end up taking that home and giving it out to trick or treaters at your house," Danny predicted.

"We already have our candy," Steve said as he reached for several bags of fruit chews.

"Fruit chews?" Danny grimaced. "It's a good thing you have Catherine to help you pick out candy or your house would get egged every year."

"What's wrong with fruit chews?" Steve asked.

"Well to start with … they're sugar free," Danny snorted as he read the package. "Maybe you want to just give out toothbrushes."

"Fine," Steve stepped back and crossed his arms over his chest. "You pick."

Danny began plucking bags from the shelf and tossing them in the cart. "That's the smartest thing you've said all day." He chose individually wrapped Reese's peanut butter cups, fun size Payday bars, and orange and black wrapped peanut butter kisses.

"You complain about candy corn and you're buying those disgusting peanut butter kisses?"

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Danny said as he grabbed several bags of M&M's, both plain and peanut. "All your years of eating healthy has destroyed your taste buds."

"Hardly," Steve scoffed. "I notice almost everything you picked either has peanuts or peanut butter. What about the kids who don't like nuts? Or are allergic to them? Catherine sent a list of candy that would be safe for the kids with allergies." He pulled out his phone and scrolled to the message. "Junior mints, tootsie rolls, dots, smarties."

Danny grabbed the bags of nut-free treats and put them in the upper part of the basket away from the other candy just to be safe. He then grabbed a couple more bags of smarties and tossed them into the bottom of the cart. "Everyone loves Smarties."

"Everyone also loves these," Steve said as he examined a bag of various fun-size bars. "Snickers, Milky Way, Twix."

Danny nodded in agreement and tossed half a dozen bags of treats into the cart.

"Do we think that's enough?" Steve asked as he surveyed the selection. "Maybe we should get a couple more of everything just to be safe."

"If you want to." Danny shrugged as he began adding more candy to the cart. "We'll just end up taking home the leftovers." Danny grabbed several bags of Butterfinger bars followed by several more bags of M&M's.

"Aren't Butterfinger and M&M's your favorites?" Steve chuckled.

"If I'm gonna end up taking some of this home I want it to be the kinds I like," Danny replied unapologetically.

"You used to raid Grace's trick or treat candy after she fell asleep, didn't you?" Steve accused good naturedly.

"It wasn't good for her to have too much sugar," Danny said, unable to meet Steve's eyes. "I was just being a good dad taking temptation out of her way."

"You keep telling yourself that," Steve laughed.

"You just wait until Angie comes home with enough candy to feed the entire neighborhood," Danny warned. "You'll see."

Steve opened his mouth to say he would never raid his daughter's treat bag then stopped. Of course he would. Monitoring her sugar intake was part of his job. She'd be allowed some extra treats to celebrate the holiday, of course, but there had to be a limit. After some thought he said sheepishly, "I hope the people in our neighborhood give out good candy."

Danny barked a laugh. "Welcome to fatherhood, my friend."

THE END

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