Karma

Montana did have more success in keeping his second plant alive. We kept it a secret from the rest of the cub scout den, of course, and none of them ever knew the difference. When Montana won an award for having the healthiest looking plant, I felt a tad guilty but still didn't say anything.

October arrived, and the twins' first birthday quickly approached. "I can't believe it!" I said to Alexei. "It seems like only yesterday they were being born, doesn't it!"

"It sure does!" he laughed.

Although they'd both been a bit small at birth, they were both well within the average weight range for their age when I took them for their one-year physical. "They're some of the healthiest one-year-old children I've ever seen," Dr. Tanner's nurse, Penny, told me as she weighed and measured them. "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it!"

"I've been breastfeeding them since they were born," I told her. "And of course they're eating lots of different foods now as well, but I want to wean them and start giving them whole milk soon."

"You can," she replied. "They're ready. Try bottles first, and once they're used to that, you can switch to sippy cups."

After the twins' dinner that evening, instead of nursing them, I gave Jade a bottle. She turned away from it. "Come on, sweetie," I gently urged her. "You're old enough to drink milk like a big girl now! Isn't that great?" The next time I offered the bottle to her, she angrily pushed it away and cried. I sighed and offered the bottle to Juniper. She turned away from it and gave me a bewildered look as if to ask, What in the world is this?

"It's good, Juniper," I told her. "Try it."

She took a sip and grimaced. "Aw, it's not so bad!" I told her.

"It's real good, Juniper," Nevada told her sister. "I have it every morning in my cereal."

After much coaxing, I finally got Juniper to take a few sips, and after watching her sister drink from the bottle, Jade was willing to try it herself. Neither girl drank more than a couple of sips each, but it was a start.

I had a lot of fun planning their first birthday party. I decided to use a ladybug theme and decorated the entire house with ladybug posters and pictures and bought a ladybug tablecloth, red and black paper plates and plastic silverware, and dressed the twins in matching ladybug outfits. Then I remembered that Nevada had a shirt with a ladybug on the front of it and put it on her. "Now I'm a ladybug too!" she exclaimed.

"Now I'm the only one left out!" Montana complained.

"You have a shirt with a frog on it," I reminded him. "And frogs eat ladybugs," I whispered in his ear.

He grinned. "Oh, yeah!"

All our friends and relatives, including Ilya and Madison, came to the party. Secretly, I wondered whether there would be any rivalry between Madison and Lara, but they both seemed genuinely happy for one another, laughing together as they compared baby bumps while a bemused Ilya looked on proudly.

"So how does it feel to know you're gonna be a Dad soon?" I asked him. Twice over, I wanted to add.

"Fantastic!" he replied.

"And since you've had the training, you can even christen your own child, right?"

He laughed. "That would be a bit like performing my own wedding. Someone else would have to stand in for me as a proxy, and Madison and I just don't want to do it that way."

I looked around to see what Cole was doing and saw him talking with Aidan and Liam. Just then, a mint green Hyundai pulled up in our front yard and Jana emerged from it and made a beeline for Lara. "Hey Lara, you forgot and left your..." Suddenly, her eyes met Liam's and her mouth fell open. "Hi," she said with an embarrassed giggle, struggling to hide her discomfiture.

"Hi." He grinned and stepped toward her.

"I'm Jana, Lara's sister."

"Nice to meet you, Jana. I'm Liam."

They stared awkwardly at one another for a few seconds, and then Liam broke the silence. "It's a great party, if you don't have to dash right off."

She glanced down, suddenly shy. "Well, I guess I could stay for just a little while." Soon the two of them were chatting animatedly with one another. Alexei and I exchanged glances and grinned.

The party began to break up not long after that. Liam and Jana were the last two to leave. After everyone had gone, I cleaned up the mess, stripped the twins and gave them a quick bath, then settled them down for a nap. After that, I joined Alexei, Montana, and Nevada in the living room, where they were watching television. I sat beside Alexei on the sofa, where he gave me a quick hug. "Great party."

"It was," I agreed. "Liam and Jana make such a nice couple, don't you think so? After being alone for all this time, I think she's learned her lesson about how to treat men."

"I think so, too." He kissed my cheek. "After all, everyone deserves a second chance. I'll always be thankful you gave me one."

"So will I."

"Nervous?" Alexei asked me one morning not too long after that.

"A little bit," I admitted. "I've never been away from the twins for a whole day before."

"They'll be fine," he assured me. It was my first day of work since Jade and Juniper had been born. After Montana and Nevada had both boarded their respective buses, I kissed my husband good-bye, put the twins into their car seats, and drove to the home of Lauren, who'd graciously agreed to babysit them for me. When we got to her house, I put them into their stroller and rolled it to the front door. Lauren was still in her pajamas, eating a piece of toast, when she came to the door.

"I really do appreciate this," I told her.

"It's no problem at all," she replied.

I never could have imagined how hard it would be to say good-bye to Jade and Juniper that morning. "Be good girls for Miss Lauren," I told each of them as I kissed their chubby cheeks.

"Oh, we'll have lots of fun, won't we, girls?" Lauren said to them.

Neither girl cried, but as I walked back to my car, I felt as if I was leaving a part of myself behind.

My hands were shaking as I pulled into the hospital's parking lot. Having seen all too many pediatric cases in which youngsters had accidentally swallowed poison or fallen from a great height, I was worried sick about the twins. In my imagination, I kept seeing Lauren running into the emergency room with one or both of my babies unconscious, bleeding heavily, or even worse. I almost regretted my decision to return to work.

"Welcome back, Addison!" Eileen exclaimed as she saw me entering the hospital to clock in for the first time in a little over a year. She came over to give me a hug, and I smiled in gratitude.

"How are the twins?" asked Donna. "Are they completely weaned now?"

"Yes, they're both used to drinking milk from a bottle now."

"And how about you?"

"My breasts kind of ache and feel heavy sometimes, but other than that, I'm fine."

I'd just begun to get accustomed to my normal work routine again when it happened. Two prison guards entered the hospital escorting a man bound in chains into the emergency room. "He was in a prison fight and got cut up pretty bad," one of them explained. "I'm sure he'll need stitches."

The man had a deep gash that went all the way across his face, but even so, I recognized him right away as the man who'd attacked Alexei in the hospital parking lot several years previously: Sydney's real boyfriend and Dylan's biological father. I remembered him from his assault and battery trial. He was groaning in pain and cursing, swearing to kill the fellow prisoner who'd cut his face.

"Addison, what's wrong?" asked Donna. "Get a move on! This man needs help!"

"I...think I'm gonna be sick," I muttered, running for the bathroom. Once there, I had to really struggle to stop shaking and get my breathing under control. How could I possibly help the monster who'd tried to kill the man I loved? Even though I hated him and wanted him dead, I realized that it would go against my professional ethics to refuse to help a patient in need, regardless of who they were or what they'd done. I knew what I had to do and, with a resigned sigh, returned to the emergency room.

By now the man had been heavily medicated and so had finally stopped ranting and raving. The physician had arrived and was preparing to sew the wound closed. Someone thrust a wad of gauze into my hand. "He's still bleeding pretty heavily," they told me.

Without a word, I took the gauze and stood wiping away the excess blood as the edges of the wound were stitched together. I'd gotten used to the sight of a needle with thread piercing flesh a long time ago and so didn't feel squeamish at all. However, I did feel extremely uncomfortable standing so close to Alexei's attacker and heaved a mighty sigh of relief when the operation was finally over and the semi-conscious man, who'd received a local anesthetic, was wheeled to recovery.

"He's gonna have a pretty nasty scar for the rest of his life," one of the other nurses remarked. Good! I thought to myself. It serves him right!

I was so badly shaken by the experience that it temporarily took my mind off my concern for the twins. I tried but wasn't able to put the incident out of my mind for the rest of the day. I was happy when my work day finally ended and I could return to them. I drove to Lauren's house and rang her doorbell. She was holding Juniper when she opened the door, and I could see Jade sitting on the floor playing with blocks a few feet away.

"Mama!" Juniper reached for me.

"Hi, sweetie!" I took her into my arms. "Have they been all right?" I asked anxiously.

"Everything's been fine!" Lauren assured me. "We watched Disney channel for awhile, went for a walk, and then had lunch and took a nap. They've been playing ever since they woke up."

"Thank you so much for watching them."

"No problem at all!"

I put the twins into their car seats, picked Montana and Nevada up from their after-school programs, and returned home, where I started dinner. Alexei arrived a few minutes later. "Mm, something sure smells good!" he remarked as he entered the house. He came to me and gave me a hug and a kiss. "So how was your first day back at work?"

"It was all right." I forced a smile, knowing that he didn't really need to hear the details of my morning. "How was your day?"

"It was all right." He gave me a puzzled smile that told me he knew something serious was on my mind but he'd wait until I was ready to talk about it.

Montana and Nevada talked excitedly about their day at school during dinner, and afterwards, Alexei helped me with the dishes and getting the twins settled. I read Montana and Nevada their bedtime stories and then got ready for bed myself. I was taking my earrings out and putting them away when Alexei walked up behind me and began kneading my shoulders.

"Oh, Alexei..." Suddenly I was crying hard, and he held and comforted me. "Nathan Phelps came into the emergency room today. He got into a fight in prison, and the other guy cut him across the face really bad."

Alexei froze, shocked.

"I had to help with the surgery to sew his face back together," I continued.

"When you're a professional, that's all you can do," Alexei pointed out. "Similar things happen to me sometimes. One time this guy cursed me out thoroughly for giving him a speeding ticket, and then later the same day, he was in an accident and was trapped inside his car. I had to help cut him free. Never before have I ever seen anyone as embarrassed as he was when he recognized me. You just have to put your personal feelings aside and do what you have to do."

"I know." I sighed. "But I don't think Nathan's even sorry for what he did to you."

"That doesn't matter." He held me close, and I basked in the comforting softness of his pajama top and the aroma of the soap he'd showered with. "I'm really sorry that happened to you, Addison."

"Yeah. Well, at least it's over with now, and I'm here in my favorite place: your arms."

He chuckled softly. Then he made gentle, sweet love to me, and we fell asleep in one another's arms.

It wasn't long after that that I met up with an even bigger surprise at the hospital. "Sydney's back," Madison told me one day right after I'd clocked in. She'd decided to work right up until she went into labor, like I'd done. By now she was very large and ungainly, so much so that I didn't see how she could even walk around without constantly tipping over forward. Vaguely I wondered whether she might be carrying twins as well.

"What!" I gasped, shocked. "But I thought they said she was permanently brain-damaged and moved her to a long-term care facility."

"They did, but her doctor decided that he needs to operate on her skull to relieve pressure on her brain, so he sent her back here."

"So she's here in the hospital right now?" Please let it not be so, I prayed.

"That's right. The surgery's scheduled for tomorrow morning."

I breathed a sigh of relief that I was off the following day. By a stroke of luck, Alexei was off as well, and we spent a relaxing morning with the twins, taking them to the park and then to a diner for lunch before Montana and Nevada got home from school.

I struggled over whether or not to tell Alexei about Sydney and in the end decided that I just couldn't keep it from him. "Sydney's back in the hospital," I said as we were eating at the diner.

He gasped. "So is she out of the coma now?"

"No. They did surgery to relieve pressure on her brain this morning."

He got really quiet after that. "I'm sorry," I said as he was driving us home. "I shouldn't have brought it up. I guess I ruined what would have otherwise been a very pleasant outing."

"That's all right," he replied. "As I've said many times before, you can say anything at all to me, Addison. Don't worry about upsetting me. I'm always here for you. I could tell there was something on your mind, and I'm glad you shared it with me."

"But are you OK with it?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "What choice do I have?"

Not that there was much time to worry about Sydney anyway, as both the holiday season and Aidan and Lauren's wedding quickly approached. Both the older kids were very excited, as Montana was to be the ring bearer and Nevada, the flower girl. Before we left the house, I gave them the obligatory speech in preparation. "You know that you both have to be on your best behavior at all times. A lot of people will be watching you, and I know you want to show them how polite and well-mannered you are."

"I'll be good, Mommy!" Montana promised.

"Me too!" Nevada added.

"All right, then," I said. "Let's go!"

As it turned out, I didn't have to worry about them at all, as they both performed their functions perfectly. After the ceremony was over, Lauren sought me out and embraced me. "I'm so happy we're sisters now!" she exclaimed.

"So am I," I told her. "I've always wanted a sister." I got along fine with Alexei's sisters, but since they all lived in Russia, I only saw them on rare occasions.

For their honeymoon, they went to Las Vegas. "I've always wondered what it would be like to go there," I mused.

"Perhaps we'll go someday, when the kids are a bit older," Alexei replied.

I was at work the day Madison went into labor. She and I were sorting supplies together when suddenly a pool of water appeared at her feet, soaking her scrubs. "Oh, shit!' she cried.

I knew that her water had broken, so I helped her to the maternity floor and into a room as quickly as possible. As soon as she was resting comfortably in bed, I examined her and found that she was only dilated two centimeters. "It's gonna be awhile," I told her.

"Oh, shit, I don't know how much more of this I can take," she muttered.

"Would you like some Demerol?" I offered.

"Please!" I injected the medication into her IV line, then informed her physician that she was in labor and returned to my duties. A few minutes later, I saw Ilya enter the hospital, his face a picture of excitement mixed with anxiety. Madison was still in labor when I left that day.

When I returned to work the following morning, I couldn't wait to find out what had transpired during the night. "Have you heard anything about Madison?" I asked Donna, who was all smiles.

"She had a little boy, born about two in the morning," she told me.

"Are they both all right?"

"They're fine! I haven't been up to meet him yet, but I've heard he's a real beauty."

As soon as I had a free moment, I headed up to the maternity floor, where Madison sat in bed nursing her new son while a beaming Ilya sat in a chair beside her bed. "Congratulations, you guys!" I exclaimed.

"Thanks!" they replied together.

"I think he's almost finished, if you'd like to hold him," Madison offered. A few seconds later, she burped him and then handed him to me.

"He's beautiful!' I exclaimed. He had soft skin, and his head was covered with fine hair that was very dark brown, almost black. His eyes were very dark as well. He was the spitting image of his father.

"What's his name?" I asked.

"Joel Andrew," Madison told me.

As much as I would have loved to linger and visit some more with little Joel and his parents, I knew that I had to return to my duties, so I did. I'd hardly reached my station when who else should enter the hospital but Lara, who was obviously in an advanced stage of labor. "I kept trying to get her to come to the hospital, but she kept insisting that it wasn't time yet," explained Cole. "I was so scared I was gonna end up having to deliver the baby myself in the parking lot!"

"Please, Addison, will you deliver my baby?" Lara gasped. "We've been best friends forever, and I just don't want anyone else there but you...except for Cole and the doctor, of course."

"Well...sure!" I was a little surprised, as she'd never really discussed it with me before. "Let's get you into a deliver room. From the looks of things, it won't be long at all."

I helped Lara into a wheelchair and took her up to the maternity floor. She cursed and complained about the pain for the entire journey, and if I hadn't known better, I would have been genuinely afraid the baby would fall right out of her and land on the floor before we could even get there. Once we reached the delivery room, both Cole and I had to help her into bed. I checked her and found that she was already dilated eight centimeters. "It'll be about forty-five minutes, an hour at the most," I told Cole, who turned even paler than he already was.

"Please give me something for this godawful pain!" Lara moaned.

"I'm sorry, but it's too late for that," I told her.

"Nooo!" she howled.

"Remember your breathing , Lara," said Cole. "Hee hoo hoo, hee hoo..."

"That doesn't help at all!"ar screamed.

Somehow the three of us made it through what had to be one of the longest forty-five minute periods of my life, and then I checked Lara again. "You're ready," I told her. "When the next contraction comes, push as hard as you can."

By that time Dr. Brown had arrived and taken over, and with gratitude I returned to keeping track of Lara's vitals. With each contraction she bore down with all her might, and at last the baby's head crowned. Dr. Brown delivered it, then maneuvered it so that one shoulder, then the other, popped out. "You're almost there," said Dr. Brown. "Give me one more big push."

Lara gave a loud groan and did as he told her, and the rest of the baby's body slid out. "It's a girl!" Dr. Brown announced.

"Oh, let me see her!" Lara cried. I saw that there were tears in her eyes, and I felt them well up in my own as well.

"Lara had her baby today," I told Alexei later that night as we lay cuddling together in the afterglow of making love.

"Wow! Did you help deliver it?"

I nodded. "She told me that she wanted me to be there."

"That's quite an honor! How did it go?"

"She was already far along in labor by the time they got to the hospital. They were lucky they made it there in time, but she and the baby are both fine. She had a little girl."

"So Ilya and Madison have a boy, and Cole and Lara have a girl. How did Cole take it?"

"Fine, as far as I could tell. He seemed really happy. She's a beautiful baby. The only thing is..." I looked away from him for just a moment. "She looks just like Ilya, Alexei. None of us mentioned it, of course, but we all could tell. Her hair, her eyes, the shape of her face...everything."

He sighed. "I thought it might turn out that way."

When I went back to work the following day, I went to visit Lara and her new daughter as soon as I got a chance. The little girl was asleep in her mother's arms, and to me she looked just like an angel. "Her name is Tuesday Rose," Lara told me.

"What a beautiful name!" I exclaimed.

"At last I feel that my life is complete, almost."

"Almost?"

I saw the deep hurt in her eyes. "Sydney woke up from her coma last week," she mumbled.

"What?" After all that time, I'd just assumed her coma was permanent.

Lara nodded. "A couple of weeks after her operation, she opened her eyes and asked for something to drink. She's been getting physical therapy since then, and Cole tells me she's progressing really well. They're talking about possibly releasing her to go back home in a few weeks, and..." She looked as though she might cry. "She wants Dylan back, Addison. Cole says she really misses him and keeps talking about all the things she wants to do with him when she gets him back."

"But that's not fair!" I protested. "You and Cole have been just like his parents since he was just a couple of months old! He doesn't even remember her!"

"I know, but since she never signed away her parental rights, she's still his legal mother."

"But surely there's something you can do..."

She shook her head. "All that has to happen is for the doctor to tell the judge that she's capable of taking care of him again, and we'll have to give him back."

"But couldn't you apply to permanently adopt him, or something?"

She shook her head again. "Not unless she signed away her parental rights, and that's sure not gonna happen."

I felt so badly for Cole and Lara that I could hardly think about anything else for the rest of the day. Alexei could tell that something was really bothering me when I got home that evening, and I told him what was going on. "Lara's right, you know," he replied. "As long as Sydney hasn't signed away her parental rights, she still has legal custody of her son."

One Friday evening, Alexei came home with a surprise. "Rodeo tickets!" I gasped. "I haven't been to a rodeo in ages, and Montana and Nevada have never been to one at all, so they'll have a blast!"

"I was just thinking the same thing," he replied.

As I'd imagined, the two older kids were both thrilled with the idea. We arrived early to get a good parking place and then climbed the bleachers in search of a good seat. "I want to sit way up there at the top!" Nevada crowed.

"But then we'll be too far away to see anything," Montana objected. We found a seat about halfway up and sat down and waited for the rodeo to begin.

First was the tie-down roping. Montana and Nevada cheered when the cowboy roped the calf and then tied its legs together. Next was team roping, and then steer roping, which didn't go quite as had been planned. Things were fine until the cowboy dismounted from his horse, when the steer rammed into him and then stepped on his leg. The audience gasped, and Nevada began to cry. "It's all right, baby," I said in an effort to comfort her.

"Is the cowboy dead?' she sobbed.

"No, he just hurt his leg, but he'll be OK." Soon the ambulance arrived, and the injured cowboy was loaded onto it in a stretcher. The rodeo went on, but Nevada was still troubled about the incident. "What's gonna happen to the cow now? Are they gonna kill him for hurting the cowboy?"

"I don't think so," I told her. "It was just an accident."

The rodeo ended and we went home, but later that night, I awakened to the sound of Nevada crying. I went to comfort her and found her sitting up in bed, wiping away tears. "I had a bad dream Mommy!" she told me. I held her and rocked her until she went back to sleep.

For our three-year wedding anniversary the following month, Alexei rented a cozy little cabin in woods. We left the kids with my folks for the weekend and drove there Friday afternoon. The sun was just beginning to set, bathing the woods in an orange glow. Alexei parked the car, and we held hands as we walked through the woods and heard the dry crackling of the leaves beneath our feet.

The cabin itself was absolutely charming. The walls on the inside were painted with clear varnish, and just above the windows, they gently sloped to a point in the middle. In the center on one side was a fireplace with a pipe sticking straight up through the ceiling for the smoke to escape. The fireplace was surrounded by bricks, and several small paintings hung above it. On one side of the fireplace was a closet door with a full length mirror attached to it, and at the other end was a small doorway that led to an adjoining room, in which I could see a desk and chair. Beside the closet was a cute little dresser with several drawers, and beside it was a window with a lamp in front of it. Beside the window was the bed, which had a brown coverlet with black wolves stitched onto it, and across from the bed was a rocking chair.

"I love it!" I exclaimed.

"Well, what do you want to do first?" asked Alexei.

I yawned. "How about a nap?"

"Sounds good to me!"

I took my shoes off and got underneath the cover of the bed, and Alexei joined me a moment later. He wrapped his arms around me in a spooning fashion, and soon we both were asleep. When we awakened, the position of the sun had changed, and the cabin's interior had darkened. "I'll go ahead and start the stew," I announced. I opened the cans of stew we'd brought and heated them over the fireplace, and we spread a quilt on the floor and opened the crackers we'd brought and got canned drinks out of the cooler.

"Ah, this is the life!" Alexei sighed as he spread his legs out in front of the fireplace.

"I could stay here every night," I agreed.

"I wonder how they're managing without me at the police station."

I laughed. "Wonder how they're managing without me at the hospital!"

He put his arms around me and held me close. "Well, Nurse Addison is all mine tonight." I rested my head on his shoulder and cuddled closer.

When we were finished eating, we toasted marshmallows and chatted. "It's so nice to be here with you, just the two of us," I remarked. "And it's so quiet and peaceful out here."

"I've waited far too long for this, and we both deserve it," he agreed. For awhile we just sat cuddling together, watching the flames, and then he fetched the battery-operated CD player and slipped in a Michael Buble CD and we began to slow dance. Suddenly feeling playful, I slid my hand down to cup his crotch as we moved together.

He needed no further encouragement. Right away his lips were on mine, his tongue seeking entrance to my mouth as his hands caressed my entire body. A moment later, his lips moved to graze my nipples, teasing them until they were hard and straining against the material of my bra and shirt.

The next thing I knew, he'd relieved me of both and picked me up and carried me to the bed, where he ripped the rest of my clothing off with abandon. Seconds later, he was naked as well, and we proceeded to have one of our hottest lovemaking sessions ever. I wasn't one bit tired afterward; instead, I was energized and wanted to dance some more. We began to act goofy, making ridiculous moves while completely naked, until the wee hours of the morning, when we tumbled onto the bed, exhausted, and slept until almost noon the following day.

We really didn't want to leave, but neither did we want to be charged for an extra night, so with reluctance we packed our stuff up and left, stopping at a diner for breakfast on our way home. Still in a playful mood, we fed one another scrambled eggs and pancakes, giggling as we did so.

Our mood quickly changed when we got home and saw Mom holding a wailing Jade, who was pulling on one ear. "She was up all night long, crying," Mom told us. "I took her temperature, and it was a hundred and two."

"Oh, no," I groaned. "Here we go again. This is exactly how Nevada's earaches always started," I explained to Alexei.

"Poor baby." He held his arms out to her. "Come to Papa." She went to him with no hesitation and seemed content as long as he was holding her, but when we put her into her car seat to go back to our house, she became cranky again.

When we reached the house, Alexei took Juniper and the two older kids into the house while I rushed Jade to the emergency room. We waited several hours to see the emergency room physician, who quickly examined Jade. "Just as I suspected," he announced. "She has an ear infection. I'm prescribing Amoxicillin for her. Give her one teaspoon three times a day for ten days."

"Her older sister had to have tubes put in her ears when she was two and a half. Does that increase the chances that Jade will have to have the same thing in another year or so?" I asked.

"Not necessarily. She might not have another ear infection for six more months. You can just never tell."

Relieved, I thanked him and went to get Jade's prescription filled and back home.

As soon as I started giving Jade the antibiotics, she began to get much better, but about two or three days later, Juniper began to develop the same symptoms and had to be put on antibiotics too. "We may as well get used to it," Alexei laughed. "I guess things are just going to be this way from now on."

A few weeks later, WalMart had a big sale on baby and kids' clothes. I was choosing outfits and putting them into my buggy when I heard two women's voices nearby, talking quite loudly. I went over to investigate, peeking through the cracks in a hair ribbon display so that they wouldn't know I was there, and who did I see but Sydney and Olivia, who were looking at CD's. Sydney was in a wheelchair, which Olivia was pushing.

"I can't wait to get him back," Sydney was saying. "I've missed too much of his life already. I can't believe how much he's grown since the last time I saw him. My lawyer showed me a photograph of him yesterday, and my first visitation is supposed to be Friday. I'm so excited!"

"But what about your nephew and his wife?" asked Olivia. "He was so little when you had your accident, they're the only parents he's ever known. Won't he just see you as a stranger?"

"I know he will at first, but he'll get used to me really fast," Sydney replied. "I'm his mama. He has to love me!"

"Oh, absolutely!" Olivia agreed. "You carried and gave birth to him, so he belongs to you!"

Not wanting to hear any more, I returned to my shopping. I found two new outfits for Montana, four for Nevada, twelve altogether for the twins, and swimsuits and pajamas for all four kids. After making sure that Olivia and Sydney were nowhere in sight, I got into the check-out lane. My total tab came to more than eighty dollars. "Wow, I really got carried away!" I said to myself as I headed toward the parking lot with my buggy.

Between that and the incident with Sydney and Olivia, I was so distracted that I wasn't paying enough attention when I backed out of my parking space and crashed right into a police cruiser! My heart was in my throat and I was shaking all over as I got out of my car and walked over to the police officer. "Oh my God, I am so sorry!" I blurted out, sure that I would soon be headed straight for jail.

"Just let me see your driver's license, ma'am," he barked. I handed him my license, and his eyes lit up with surprise. "Are you by any chance related to Alexei Romanov?"

"I'm his wife."

"Oh, uh, well...just be more careful from now on." He blushed a deep red.

After copying down my insurance information, he let me go. I was still shaking just a little as I drove back home, but by the time I got there, my thoughts had turned once again to the situation with Sydney. I was still worried about it when Alexei entered the house, and I definitely wasn't prepared to see the huge grin of amusement on his face.

"What's so damn funny?" I snapped.

"Mitch told me about the little run-in you had with him in the parking lot of WalMart today." He was laughing so hard he could barely talk.

"Oh, yeah." Suddenly I was laughing along with him. "Something bad did happen, though. I was shopping for clothes for the kids when I overheard two women talking. I looked to see who it was and saw that it was Sydney and Olivia. Sydney was talking about how she has visitation rights now and how she's still planning to take Dylan away from Cole and Lara."

"That has to be really hard on them."

"I haven't even talked to Lara in a couple of weeks," I admitted. "I've just been so busy with work and the kids and everything, but I really should check on her. All this stress, plus just recovering from having Tuesday, can't be very good for her."

After I'd cleaned up from dinner, given the kids their baths, and gotten the twins settled for the night, I called Lara. "Hey, girl!" she said when she heard my voice. "How's it going?"

"Fine," I replied. "How's it going for you?"

"Fine! Tuesday just had her six weeks check-up. She's gaining weight and reaching all her milestones just like she's supposed to."

"And what about Dylan?"

"He's fine, too. Looking forward to the end of the 'terrible two's.' How are your kids?"

"They're all doing OK. Montana is still enjoying the Cub Scouts, Nevada's class just took a field trip to the zoo, and the twins are into everything!" I laughed. "You wouldn't believe the great deals I found for the kids at Walmart today!"

"Yeah, I was thinking about going there tomorrow. Dylan's gonna need something nice to wear on Friday. His Mom's coming to see him."

"Isn't there anything you can do about that?"

"Nope. It's court ordered."

"Well, I don't know what to say about that, except I'm sorry."

"She only gets him for a couple of hours, and it's supervised. She's still in a wheelchair, you know. So far she hasn't said anything else about trying to get custody of him, and I'm too scared to ask about it."

"I don't blame you. I'd be scared too! Well, at least Tuesday's yours, so nobody can try to take her away."

"Yeah. Well, she just started crying, so I'd better go."

"OK, talk to you later."

I had to go back to work the following day. I was just about to go to lunch when there was a big commotion in the emergency room. It turned out that a trailer had caught on fire with a father and six kids inside. The only boy and one of the girls had been killed, and the father and the other four girls had severe burns and had also suffered smoke inhalation. Of course I immediately forgot about lunch and went to see how I could help.

"Does he know about his daughter and son?" I whispered to another nurse.

"Not yet," she whispered back. "We're waiting until he's out of danger to tell him."

I got busy with starting IV's and dressing wounds right away. I knew that it was going to be a long afternoon, but I didn't care about that. I couldn't stand the thought that the man might die, or that he might lose even more of his children.