"You okay?" Her mom inquired, sitting next to her at the farthest table in the corner of the room. There was still a line, even three hours after her brother's reception. "I haven't seen you pick at your food since you were nine."

"I'm fine, Mom. I just have lots of things on my mind." Slipping out of her chair, Jill dumped her half-eaten plate of food in the garbage. "I'm going to help clean up."

"I guess I'll see what I can do in the kitchen. The last time I checked, it was a disaster zone." Her mother backed off, then disappeared around the corner. Looking over her shoulder to make sure she was alone, she cleared a few plastic plates, then braced her hands against the rounded table.

She wasn't alone for long, however, as her nine year old niece approached her. "Aunt Jill?" Her green eyes were filled with worry. "You worked in a hospital, right?"

"I did, yes."

"So you know lots of doctors?"

"Becky—Did someone get hurt?"

"James and Mason were jumping off tables, even though Luke told them not to. Mason keeps holding his arm and crying."

Jill let out a deep breath, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "Okay, show me where they are." Becky immediately grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the back room located behind the gym. When they got there, Luke was holding both boys in his lap; James was looking around at the ceiling and Mason had tear streaks down his face.

"Hey Luke, why don't you go find Kendra or Lyle, and let them know what's going on."

Luke stood up, as Mason walked towards her. "I promise I just turned around to help Erin tie her shoe and before I know it, they both decided to jump off the table."

"Accidents happen, Luke. Okay?"

"Okay." He said quietly before leaving the room.

"Come here Mason, let's see that arm." Her two year old sniffled as he walked towards her.


"Mason, what happened?" Her brother Andrew inquired as he bent down to his son's level and to examine his arm.

"Luke didn't tell you?" Jill inquired, rubbing at her forehead.

"He told me that he turned around to help Erin tie her shoe and he and Mason decided to jump off that table." He pointed to the medium sized table sitting against the wall.

"Then you officially know as much as I do."I couldn't tell you if it's broken, but you still might want to get it checked out."

"Neither one of us can take him to the ER right now. We promised Ernie that we would take care of everything, and this place is a mess."

"Look, Drew-I've seen these kind of scenarios go both ways. Sometimes they're nothing, and sometimes they're a lot worse than they look. If it makes you feel any better, I will go call Hank and maybe he can stop by and take a look at Mason."

"You're sure you want to pull Hank into this?" He gave her an unsure look, as if she were crazy for even suggesting the idea.

"Just because we broke up, doesn't mean we stopped caring about one another." Mason whimpered, despite Jill carefully lifting him off her lap.

"So he knows you're here then?" She brushed herself off as she stood, a long sigh following.

"All I know is that I was fine until I got there."

"So what happened between that moment and when you got there?"

She took a moment to gather her thoughts as she leaned against the table that James and Mason had jumped off. "Hank and I have a complicated relationship. We've broken up, gotten back together, then broke up again. I didn't want to walk into his life, only to walk right back out."

"What do you think you'd be doing if you called him now?"

She looked briefly conflicted. "Hank is a good doctor. Otherwise, I wouldn't have suggested calling him."

"Okay." He held up his hands in surrender. "Call him."

Nodding, she looked over at Mason then walked out of the room. She waited until she was halfway down the hall before pulling her phone out of her sweater pocket and dialing his number. Not two rings later did he answer. "This is Hank."

"Hank, it's Jill."

"Jill?" There was definite confusion in the tone of his voice. "I thought you were in Africa."

"I was. That is until my brother decided to get married."

"Which brother?"

"Ernie, actually."

"Wow. That's great." Hank cleared his throat. "So what can I do for you?"

She looked over her shoulder to make sure that she was still alone. "

"I don't know the whole story, other than that my two and four year old nephew thought it would be fun to jump off a table."

"So which one of them got hurt?"

"My two year old nephew, Mason. Possible broken arm, maybe his wrist."

"Alright. Send me the address and I will come take a look."

"Thank you, Hank. I really appreciate this."


"Good news. Mason doesn't seem to have any broken bones, but he does have a good goose egg to the head." He took off his gloves and put them into the nearest trash can, then watched as Mason went back to playing with James.

"And from the looks of it, it looks like both James and Mason knocked heads on the way down." Jill pointed out an identical bump forming on the left side of James' head.

"So they're going to be okay then?" Andrew inquired, just his wife Carina walked into the room.

Something tells me they're going to be just fine." Hank gave them both a reassuring smile, then turned to Jill. "Can we talk?"

"Sure." They walked side by side down the hall. "What did you want to talk about?"

"I just thought you needed a break from your family."

She gave him an appreciative nod. "I'm not sure I was in my right mind when I decided to stay with my brother and his family."

"You don't look like you're feeling it either." Shooting her a concerned look, he set his bag on the floor and pulled out his thermometer. Before she could protest, he waved it across her forehead. "101.2"

"A low grade fever." She waved off his concern. "It's probably a virus that I picked up while traveling."

"It's possible. But I would like to do a few tests to rule out whatever is going through your system."

"Really, I'm good. The last thing I need is to become a patient again at Hamptons Heritage."

"That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid."

"Tell you what-" She compromised. "If I feel any worse, I will call and you can run any test you like. But for now I need to stay here and help my family."

He reluctantly agreed. "Okay. But the minute you feel worse, I want you to call me. Not a minute less."