"Good afternoon Miss McEntire?" A young doctor said as he entered Reba's hospital room swiftly, his piercing blue eyes smiling back at her as he looked up from his paperwork.

"Good-"

"Who the heck are you?" Reba answered back in shock, the last time she'd talked to Dr. Saura she thought that he had informed her he would be her official doctor from here on out.

"Dr. Saura." The man replied with a brilliant smile, causing Reba's eyes to widen in confusion. She did a quick double take, looking the young doctor over, his stature was a bit smaller than the man she remembered, leaner for sure, he wore the same dark blue suit, and his dark black hair matched that of the other doctors, but he lacked the graying edges. That and he was obviously at least twenty years younger. Was she going crazy? She was sure Dr. Saura had been older.

"Pardon my manners but you can't be!"

"Just a week ago you were older!" She replied back, still in great confusion. Laughing softly the doctor pulled out one of the rolling stools, from under the computer desk, which was to the right, and sat down on it, bringing it right in front of the bed Reba was on.

"Oh I'm not THAT Dr. Saura, I'm his son, Kai Saura." He explained with a small chuckle, a hint of a British accent evident in his voice. He hadn't meant to scare her. His father had left his patient list in the back office and he'd swiped it from him while he was preparing for Reba's checkup.

"Is this like a family patient swap?" Reba said as she looked around the room a bit, she still wasn't understanding why Ezra wasn't here.

"No, no, my father's been trying to get me and my bride to finish my training here instead of in England, so I've been staking out the hospital." He responded softly, causing Reba to shake her head as she slowly began to understand.

"I hope you don't mind."

"After all, according to the chart you are my father's number one patient." He slightly teased as he took one more look at the front page of his father's booklet. He didn't dare read any further, as that would be breaching patient confidentiality but it never said anything about making conversation.

"Number one?" Reba pressed as she turned her head slightly to the side. What did number one mean?

"You even made his name list." He added with another small chuckle before quickly realizing what he'd said and immediately regretting it. Whoops, maybe that was too personal.

"Name list?" Reba questioned further, her voice squeaking a bit at the end. She shifted a bit uncomfortably on the bed, her legs suddenly becoming very heavy.

"It's nothing bad!" Kai quickly reassured, waving his hand a bit as he noticed her growing concern.

"My late Aunt used to have this thing with names, every unique name he encounters he adds to her list, kind of keeping her memory alive in a way." He continued to explain with a soft smile. It was becoming evident to Reba that he really revered his father.

"Oh." Reba replied with a small smile. It was actually kind of sweet then, right?

"You said late Aunt?" Reba repeated curiously, she didn't mean to pry but since he had offered up the information first, she couldn't help but ask.

"She had leukemia at eleven, passed shortly after diagnosis." Ezra's voice interrupted causing Reba to jump.

"I see you've met my son." Ezra gritted through his teeth with a strained smile. Motioning for Kai to rise from the chair, he extended his arm out, inadvertently asking for his booklet.

"You can excuse yourself, I'll take from here." He mumbled once Kai had handed it over, his eyes cast downward, trying to hide the timid smile that was still playing on his lips. Just by watching the two interact, Reba could tell that Kai kept Ezra on his toes, much like she remembered Shelby doing.

"Shall we get started then?" Ezra asked with a relieved smile, once the door had clicked shut behind his son.

"Why did your sister have a thing with names?" Reba blurted out, nearly an hour later, towards the end of her checkup. She'd been meaning to ask Kai why he thought her name had made this so called list but Ezra had intervened before she had the chance.

"I'm sorry that was kind of a personal question." Reba excused nervously, as she scratched at her neck a bit. She wasn't really sure why she was so interested in the first place.

"Her name was Jacinta, quite unique itself, and I guess she just liked to find other unique names like hers," Ezra explained softly, his smile growing wider.

"You think my name is unique?" Reba questioned shyly, of course, many people had told her that it was unique in the past but other than belonging to her Grandmother she'd never seen anything overly special about it.

"Very." He responded back immediately.

"I've never met a single Reba before." He continued, causing her eyebrows to raise a bit.

"Not to toot my own horn per say but we do live in Nashville and I am, well a Country singer, have you never heard of my work before?" She inquired with a small laugh. She didn't care either way but she would have thought, living in Nashville, that he may have at least seen her name at a venue or something of hers in a shop before.

"I thought you looked familiar." He teased sarcastically.

"No, I have seen some of your records in the shops but you'll have to forgive me, I haven't lived in Nashville for very long." He retorted timidly. Before he had transferred to the hospital here in Nashville he had worked at various other hospitals over the last five years overseas, traveling from Ireland, England, Norway, and even Italy.

"Once my son left for medical school, I traveled around, working where ever they would take me." Ezra continued, as he set her paperwork on the desk beside him, there were a few things he needed to record before she left.

"Oh, so you love to travel then?" She questioned intently.

"Collect memories, not things," Ezra responded with a grin.

"I take it you've done your fair share as well?" He added, noticing that she seemed quite impressed with his passion.

"Sure have and there's still more to see."

"I like the way you think." He praised, taking a small look at his watch, they were running about five minutes over their allotted time.

"Seeing as we're a little over, I'll quickly go through the last couple of things." He said, bringing their fond conversation to a close.

"So it looks like your incision is healing ahead of schedule, which means that such a strict bedrest is no longer necessary, however, we ask that you still keep to minimal activity, and absolutely no exerting yourself."

"No exercise and still no working." He continued to instruct, flipping to the second page of his booklet.

"Other than that, everything looks great."

"I'll walk you to the front desk." He said grabbing her hand softly, helping her off of the hospital bed. Once she was on the ground again she thanked him with a sweet smile. Walking down the corridor they turned to their left, making small talk, before soon arriving at the west wings front desk. Other than the two of them, there was only one other person in the west wing's lobby, seated to the far left corner. Setting his booklet down, Ezra picked up a very small box, with McFarlan Bakery written in script on the side.

"I hope you don't mind but as your doctor, I felt bad for scheduling a checkup on your birthday." He guiltily explained with a small smile, handing her the box.

"Oh wow, that's so sweet," Reba replied back in slight shock.

"But honestly you didn't have to do that," Reba assured with an appreciative laugh.

"I know." Ezra shrugged softly.

"You know in the twenty-six years that I've been going here I've never had a doctor give me such special treatment."

"I really like the changes they made with their protocol, encouraging patients to each junk food." She added playfully.

"Better late than never and if you're going to indulge, it might as well be under doctors orders," Ezra replied back with a smug laugh.

"Also, I hope you like Strawberry Shortcake." He added, in reference to the flavor of the cupcake that was inside the box. Looking down at the box, Reba's eyes grew shockingly wide.

"It's my favorite." She mumbled almost wearily. Did he know that or was it just a really weird coincidence? Putting his hands up in defense he laughed once again.

"Okay, then you have my taste to blame for that, Strawberry Shortcake is my favorite too." He explained honestly. He didn't want her to think he'd been stalking her or anything.

"Well then thank your taste for me." She said as she shook her head a bit, the outline of Brandon coming in through the sliding doors catching her attention in the corner of her eye.

"Will do, see you in the next two weeks." He concluded with a warm smile as he watched Brandon motion her over in his direction. Walking over, she greeted him with a loving smile as he placed his hand on the small of her back and led her out towards his vehicle.

"You know you could get into so much trouble." Kai laughed a moment later, startling Ezra, and causing him to jump, taking his focus off of the hospital doors.

"No one will know and it was a cupcake." Ezra defended, his tone of voice growing quiet so that no one around would over hear them.

"Hey, I'm not judging I'm just reminding," Kai said with a cocky grin.

"Besides I'm proud of you and you really do have excellent taste, she's stunning." He added again, his eyes twinkling as he watched his father grow slightly uncomfortable.

"It isn't like that Mordecai." Ezra breathed out, his tone growing very serious.

"Whatever you say."

"Now that your done are you ready for your birthday lunch seeing as you gave away the birthday cupcake I woke up early to retrieve for you?" He inquired nonchalantly about their previous plans. The only reason he had come into the hospital today was that he had to see the reason why his father would have scheduled an appointment on his own birthday.

"I suppose," Ezra sighed, slipping his hands into his coat pocket and following his son back to his office in the back to retrieve his belonging's.

"Where the hell is she?" Brandon questioned in frustration as he walked around the living room for the third time that afternoon, a Sonic bag still firmly in his hand. He had gone to pick up his step-mother a birthday lunch and now she was nowhere to be found.

"On the jet to New York, with Shane, to see Hamilton for her birthday." Shawna squeaked out as she waved her phone in the air.

"He just texted me." She added softly, causing Brandon to stop his pacing and glare at the phone she was still holding up.

"Are you kidding me?" He questioned, growing even more annoyed with the situation.

"I could ask for clarification but I'm pretty sure he's just going to text the same thing." She mumbled, stepping back a bit so that she was out of her brother's line of wrath.

"She had surgery a week ago."

"What part of bedrest do people seem to not understand?" He questioned rhetorically, setting the bag of food on the hallway table that was behind them.

"You heard her, the doctor said she was healing ahead of schedule, and knowing Shane she won't even have to lift a finger this entire trip."

"Besides you sit on a plane and you sit at a play, all she's doing is bed resting in another state," Shawna explained causally as if it all made perfect sense to her. Brandon just squinted at his sister in growing frustration. It wasn't the fact of her sitting that was the problem, it was more of what if something happened, and she was an entire state away. It would be harder for them to get to her and the baby.

"Either way, they're almost there."

"Shane said they'd be back in two days and that any sightseeing they do will involve sitting." She reassured as she tried to get him to relax. She didn't necessarily appreciate the fact that Shane had stolen their step-mother away for a birthday celebration either, but she was a grown woman, she could make her own decisions.

"You let Savannah go off to Florida, how is this any different?" She questioned intently, trying to reason with him, noticing that nothing she was saying was easing his anxiety about the situation.

"Savannah isn't a pregnant fifty-year-old who just had surgery a week ago." He argued quickly, stopping a moment to realize how weird that statement sounded.

"Neither is Reba," Shawna said shrugging her shoulders. Staring at his sister impatiently, Brandon awaited a further explanation.

"She's a fifty-year-old pregnant woman who had surgery a week and two days ago." She corrected with a smug smile, which in return caused Brandon to throw his head back, letting out a frustrated growl.

"Look Shane said he told her to call and check up with us both tonight and tomorrow morning."

"There's no point in further stressing."

"What's done is done." She stated sternly. There was no point in getting all worked up about it, she was already almost to New York by this point and there was no way they were going to convince her to come back tonight.

"Alright." He mumbled bitterly, picking up the Sonic bag once more, along with his keys, and motioning for the both of them to head to the front door.

"Hello?" Reba said as she answered her phone, stepping away from the restaurant's table as she did so.

"Brandon is furious with Shane." Chassidy's voice informed from the other end with a laugh, causing Reba to giggle in response.

"I know, Shawna sent me many text messages about it," Reba replied with a giggle as she turned around to face the table that Shane and her two friends were currently sitting at, awaiting their dinner.

"How is the secret birthday vacation?" Chassidy continued to question. She had actually been the one who had called Shane to set the entire thing up. She knew Reba was dying to see Hamilton again so when she booked the tickets for the show, she asked if Shane would be willing to take her.

"Nothing shy of perfect, thank you, honey." Reba mused in appreciation. Her kids always came up with the greatest and sneakiest presents.

"It was my pleasure."

"Just make sure Brandon goes easy on Shane for me will you?" She questioned softly, still a hint of amusement in her voice. She hadn't meant for her brother to get so upset but she knew if she told him there was no way Shane would have been able to get Reba out for the show.

"Anyway, I won't keep you, happy birthday!"

"Make sure you kiss your stomach for me." She added, making a small kissing sound on the other end of the phone. Laughing a bit, Reba's smile grew wider.

"Only if you kiss my grandchildren for me." She negotiated teasingly.

"Do I have too?"

"I already gave them their daily dose of affection?" She questioned back in a fake whine.

"That's the deal," Reba stated with a chuckle.

"Okay, I love you," Chassidy said giving in with a small huff from the other end.

"I love you too baby, bye," Reba said, the call coming to an end. Once she'd heard the click, signifying that Chassidy had hung up, she closed the call menu, going to straight to her messages. It was getting late and she'd warned herself to stop checking but she just couldn't help it. Seeing no new notification, she swallowed the lump forming in her throat with a sad sigh. She didn't know why she cared so much, she knew this certain person wasn't going to message her but apparently the reality had hit her more than she had expected. Biting her lip she begged herself not to cry but couldn't stop the few tears that suddenly started to brim the corner of her eyes.

"Why do you care?" She chastised herself with a small whisper as she brushed them away. There were certain days of the year that she just couldn't get away with not thinking about him and today was one of those days. As her husband, his gift's used to always be her favorite and now he didn't even acknowledge that the day existed, the hard truth really hurt sometimes.

"Hey," Shane whispered softly, startling her a bit as he appeared behind her, his hand going straight to the small of her back.

"Stop." He said once he saw the tears in her eyes, brushing the few that had made it to her checks away. He already knew what had her so upset.

"Stop it right now." He mumbled once more, bringing her into a tight hug before she even had the chance to respond. Pulling away, a sympathetic smile graced his face. Brushing her fringe out of her eyes, he shook his head.

"You have a cake to eat, laughs to laugh, and a bad ass life to live."

"There's no more room for him, now come on." He instructed, causing her to laugh lightly. If anyone could make her feel better, it was Shane. Handing her the small birthday cake with 'Happy Birthday Reba' decorated across the plate he smiled widely.

"Here." He said encouragingly, as their friend Matt stood up and walked over right beside him.

"Tonight we celebrate the birth of a redheaded cowgirl that is not quite done having too much fun." Shane whistled out as Matt handed him his phone, the camera setting already open on his screen.

"Say cheese birthday girl."

"It's officially Reba McEntire day!" He said once more, capturing the photo as Reba proudly held up the plate. Shane was right; there was no more time to worry about Narvel.