That evening Wayne suggested Ford put a little more effort into his appearance, so he combed his hair back before meeting with Holly. When Ford walked to Frank's he saw him dragging a piece of tree to a burn pile.

"Evening Ford, Holly is in the House getting ready. We finished a little early today so she could shower and get dressed."

Ford nodded and lowered his voice, "Any more signs of Hunter?"

Hector scratched his head and replied, "No, but I wouldn't let my guard down."

"Agreed," Ford replied. He heard the screen door slam and saw Holly running out in her light blue dress with the apron.

Ford blushed as she ran up and touched his hair. "You need to wear your hair like this more often," she said with a smile.

Frank let out a laugh and said, "If he did, Wayne might have a rival in the ladies' department."

Ford ignored Frank's comment and asked, "Are you ready to go?"

Holly nodded and said, "Follow me."

As they crossed into Lulukoko, the first thing Ford picked up on was the smell of the ocean breeze. He smiled and squeezed Holly's hand as they walked to whatever restaurant Holly had her heart set on. Ford heard music in the distance and figured, 'it must be close.'

Ford's eyes widened in surprise as Holly pointed to the restaurant near the pier. It was the Seaside Cafe, where his ex-girlfriend worked. "Holly...We can't eat here?" He said nervously.

"Of course we can, I have a reservation made. She walked up to a purple-haired girl with a blue dress who was working at the bar. "I have a reservation for Ford please," she said politely.

At that name, she looked up and smiled, "Oh, hi Doctor Ford. It's been a while since I've seen you in these parts. Is this your new girlfriend?"

Ford nodded and said, "Siluka, If possible, can we be served by you tonight...rather than your sister."

"Sure thing, let me get some menus. You can sit right there in that corner.

"Hopefully, she will glance right over you... like she does all the other customers." Siluka replied bitterly.

Ford let out a sigh of relief and followed Holly to the table, "Isn't it nice here?"

Ford nodded and said, "Yes, but I feel like I owe your an explanation. I didn't want to come here because my ex works here."

"Was that her?" Holly asked curiously. Siluka was the very definition of exotic beauty and that left her feeling self-conscious.

Ford shook his head no and answered, "No, that was her twin sister."

Ford looked around for a moment and said, "Iluka, is the one in pink."

Holly spotted a girl sitting on the stage and thought, 'Great there's two of them.' Iluka looked comfortable flirting with two guys at the bar.

He squeezed her hand, to get her attention back on him and said, "Later, I have to talk to you about her."

Holly agreed and picked up the menu, "Let's just have a nice dinner."

...

As they were waiting for the bill. Iluka spotted them at the table in the corner. She was surprised Ford would even consider coming to her family's restaurant after what she did to him. That's when she noticed Holly. Iluka couldn't help but feel jealous as she saw him holding her hand at the table. She stood up and headed for his table ready to make a scene when someone grabbed her arm. "Don't you dare," Siluka threatened.

"She's dating my man. She has a right to know," Iluka said.

"Your relationship ended a long time ago when you nearly ruined his life with that lie," Siluka argued.

Ford heard the two sisters start to bicker and dropped some cash on the table. "Let's go, if you are going to hear about this, I want you to hear about it from me."

Holly grabbed her purse and he took her to a spot on the beach, far away from the restaurant. Ford faced Holly and said, "Iluka was the first girl I slept with. We dated back in college. She was a barista at the local coffee shop I used to frequent. After dating for a while, she said that she wanted more and we spent a night together in her dorm. Long story short, a resident walked in on us, and rumors spread like wildfire.

When she returned home people were harassing her for having sex before marriage. Oddly enough, they mostly left me alone at that time. Maybe it's because I'm a man or perhaps they just knew I didn't care what they thought. Regardless, she got tired of being harassed by them and claimed I took advantage of her."

Holly couldn't help the gasp that escaped her lips. She knew that Ford would never do that and couldn't understand why anyone would say something so horrible.

Ford swallowed hard and said, "Holly I assure you I did no such thing. She was fully alert and of sound mind when she wanted to progress to the bedroom. I had her consent."

Holly agreed, "Of course Ford, I know you wouldn't do anything like that. What happened next?"

"We ended up breaking up after having a huge argument over the situation. That seemed to make things worse because then people thought I stole her virginity and dumped her. Comically enough, I found out later from a guy named Ludus, that she was messing around with other people while she dated me."

Ford cursed, "Her grandmother owns a hotel, so she had an easy way to hide that she was having several partners at the same time. She just had them call her to the room for clean up."

"I'm so sorry Ford," Holly said as she reached up to touch his face.

Ford shook his head, "For the longest time I hated her. That one lie made almost the whole area turn their backs on me. The only two that believed me were Wayne and Brad. However, time heals most wounds, and I started to gain people's trust again when I became a doctor."

Holly leaned her head on his shoulder and whispered, "I won't turn my back on your Ford. I promise."

Ford squeezed her hand silently hoping it was true. He turned to look at her and noticed her face was white as a sheet. "Holly, are you alright?"

She sneezed and nodded, "Yep, just sleepy."

He smirked, "Come on, let's get you home.".

The next day Holly got up extra early to do her chores. Her muscles were aching all over and she wanted to finish Uncle Frank's tree today. She knocked on the door of his farmhouse and was surprised to see he wasn't yet dressed. Frank yawned and greeted, "Holly, come in. I seem to have overslept. Are you hungry?"

She looked at his pajamas which were red with little farm animals on them and asked, "Miranda gave you those didn't she."

Frank laughed and replied, "Is it that obvious?"

Holly shook her head and walked outside to put on her harness. As she buckled her harness, she had a moment when her vision got blurry. She closed her eyes for a moment and opened them to see her vision had turned back to normal. Her Uncle came out of the house and asked, "Are you ready to do this?" Holly agreed, figuring she was just tired. As she climbed, she suddenly felt dizzy. She gripped the tree tightly and stopped on a branch to catch her breath.

"Is everything alright Holly?" Frank called out to her.

Holly went to answer him when her eyes rolled back in her head and the world went black. Frank watched in horror as the harness failed and Holly hit the ground at full force.

...

Wayne treated Ford to an early lunch to celebrate his belated birthday. "So, how was your birthday dinner with Holly?" He asked while sipping from his mug of beer.

"It was...interesting to say the least. Honestly, it's probably the best birthday I had, but it didn't come without a few snags. I told her about Iluka."

Wayne facepalmed, "Dang it Ford if you want to seduce a girl, you shouldn't talk about your exes."

Ford scratched the back of his head nervously and said, "Well she made a reservation at the Seaside Cafe. I didn't have much of a choice."

"How did she respond?" Wayne asked curiously.

"Surprisingly well. She trusts me and I..." Ford was interrupted as he spoke when Frank came running into the clinic.

"Ford quick, Holly fell," Frank said panicked.

Ford grabbed his medical supply bag and ran out the door faster than Wayne could even process what happened. Wayne quickly regained his senses and followed them back to Frank's farm.

"What happened?" Ford asked as he started to pull out his supplies.

"Holly was climbing the tree when she suddenly looked scared. I asked her if she was okay, and she passed out. That was when the harness snapped and she hit the ground. I didn't move her... I was too afraid to," Frank explained.

After Ford checked her vitals, he saw a tarp that he could turn into a makeshift medical stretcher and had Wayne help him carry her back to the clinic. As Ford accessed the damage he noticed something off, the rope on Holly's harness was almost completely cut through with a knife.

Ford's nostrils flared in anger and tears filled his eyes. He pushed that fact to the back of his mind, he couldn't focus on that right now. He had to help Holly.

...

Wayne and Frank paced back and forth in the waiting room as they waited to hear about Holly's condition. A couple of hours later, Ford came out with a grim expression on his face.

"How is she?" Frank asked, silently praying that she was going to be okay.

Ford steeled his nerves and said, "Holly has several broken ribs, a broken arm, and several other less serious injuries. I have placed her in a medically induced coma to aid in the pain and healing process." Ford looked up directly into Frank's eyes and said, "However, none of that is what scares me." He threw Frank the harness and said, "take a look, this rope isn't frayed, it was cut. Someone did this to Holly intentionally."

Frank and Wayne's faces paled. "Do you think it's Neil who did this?" Wayne asked.

"Or hunter," Frank added.

Ford bit his cheek, there wasn't any evidence on who could have done this, but he doubted it was either of them. They wanted Holly, this was done by someone who wanted her gone. He didn't know what to say.

Three days later, Wayne knocked on the door and walked into the room where Ford was watching over Holly. He could tell that Ford hadn't slept since she had fallen. Wayne sat the bag of food he brought down and said, "Why don't you go upstairs and rest for a few hours, I can keep watch over her."

"You don't have a medical license, Wayne. Besides, I want to be here when she wakes up," Ford answered.

"Well at least go take a quick shower. You don't want to take the chance of getting her sick, by being dirty," Wayne said.

That seemed to break through to Ford and he said, "I will be back in ten minutes or less."

When Ford was gone Wayne walked up to Holly and brushed a stray hair out of her face. "Wake up Holly. Ford is lost without you," he whispered.

When Ford returned, he looked somewhat refreshed, although still tired. He started to check her over when he heard her groan in pain, he put a bag of pain reliever in her IV and let out a sigh. "I expect she will wake up either tonight or tomorrow, but I wonder if I should keep her under for a little longer. She just sounds so miserable."

"Would you do it if it was another patient?" Wayne asked.

Ford let out an annoyed sigh, "Probably not."

"Then do what your mind is telling you, not your heart. Right now, you don't want to see her in pain, which is understandable. However, you have to trust your instincts as a physician," Wayne replied simply.

Ford smiled at Wayne and replied, "Thanks."