Elizabeth Watson reached for her luggage on the baggage claim conveyor belt and took a deep breath. Seeing her hometown from the air as the plane descended through the clouds usually filled her heart with serenity and warmth. It typically meant some sort of holiday or fun family time. This visit, though, was different. This time, there was nothing to celebrate. Just as her mind began to drift back to her mother and the reason for her trip home, she heard a familiar squeal of excitement and the sound of running feet. She turned just in time to see her sister as she lunged at her, wrapping her arms around her neck.

“Lizzie, you’re home!” Kate cried as she embraced her.

Elizabeth couldn’t help but smile. No matter what was happening in either of their lives, having her sister close was always something that brought her joy.

“Kate, I’ve missed you so much.” All the fear and sadness she had felt since finding out that her mother was sick momentarily faded away in her sister’s embrace.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Kate whispered, hugging Elizabeth tightly as she had when she was a little girl, afraid of the dark.

“How is mom holding up?” Elizabeth asked, anxious about the answer. Since her mother was diagnosed with cancer, she had been nothing but positive and evasive on the phone. It was a big part of why Elizabeth had decided to take a leave of absence from her job as a nurse with Doctors Without Borders and to come home. She knew that they weren’t telling her everything and she refused to be away when her family needed her most.

“You know mom.” Kate shook her head. “She’s been pretending that nothing’s wrong at all. I don’t really know how to handle this, Liz. There’s no getting through to her. It’s like they told her she had asthma or something.”

“It’s going to be all right, Kate. We have a long road ahead of us, but she’s going to get the best care. She’s going to do everything her doctors say and we’re not going to take no for an answer.”

“She doesn’t take her appointments seriously. Last time, she baked them cookies and was twenty minutes late because she had to make the rounds and say hello to everyone she knew from the time when you worked there. She even insisted on tracking down the parking lady she claims was so sweet to her when she would visit you back then.”

“Well, everyone there always loved her. I think they were sadder to lose her regular visits when I left than they were to lose me.” Elizabeth giggled, trying to keep her thoughts from drifting to the pain of those past memories.

“She’s an easy woman to love,” Kate said, tears welling in her eyes as worry washed over her.

“Don’t let your mind go there, little sister. We’re going to take good care of her.” Elizabeth forced herself to believe her own words.

“You do know that we’re not the only people taking care of her, don’t you?” Kate skirted the issue that they had been trying not to talk about since their mother started treatment.

“You can say Nathan’s name, Kate.”

“I didn’t want to hurt you. He caused you enough pain back then.” Kate suddenly looked very uncomfortable.

Nathan did hurt her. Elizabeth couldn’t deny that, especially not to her sister. Kate kept her from falling apart from the heartbreak. That was in the past, though. The broken engagement, the pain, it was all behind her. She had healed.

“It was eight years ago. I know you suffered for me, sweetie, but you need to let it go. Your heart is too pure to be filled with such resentment.” Elizabeth was doing her best to look as calm as possible. “I have some nice memories from my time with him too. If I focus on the pain alone, I lose those,” she added, patting her sister’s arm gently as she spoke and hoping that Kate understood what she was trying to tell her. She had decided long ago that she wasn’t going to let Nathan’s memory be something that made her heart bleed at every turn. Life was too short for that.

“But he left you! He made us all think that he was a good guy and then he broke your heart and turned his back on all of us,” Kate snapped, unconvinced by her sister’s argument.

Elizabeth’s mind began to wander to a time she didn’t like to dwell on. She had met Nathan Parker when they were very young, and it had been love at first sight for both of them.

Nathan had been a lonely child. He grew up with nannies while his parents traveled the world, pursuing their professional careers. His father was a powerful businessman, his mother a popular fashion designer. Although Nathan had always been surrounded by luxury and attended the best schools, he had never known real family love and warmth before meeting Elizabeth.

There were no men in Elizabeth’s family and Nathan quickly found his place there. The two of them had rarely been separated, especially during the stress of college when they spent countless hours at her house studying, with her mom buzzing around them, cooking elaborate meals and scolding them for stressing too much. Kate found in him a big brother. He was kind, mature, reliable and none of them ever doubted that they could trust him.

After college, Elizabeth got her nursing license and Nathan went on to medical school. Eventually, they both found their way to a local hospital. Their first few years there had been so sweet. The love between them had grown each day, as did their admiration for each other and their dedication to their work and their patients. They had shared stolen kisses in the staff lounge, supported each other during the heartbreak of losing patients and the euphoria of saving lives.

When he got down on one knee in the hospital parking lot and asked her to marry him, she didn’t hesitate for a moment. She threw her arms around him and promised to be his wife. He had been, as he explained, unable to wait until the dinner he had planned at the romantic restaurant for the next night. When he apologized for proposing in a parking lot, she only laughed and told him it was perfect.

Neither of them wanted a fancy wedding. What they wanted was to help people. She remembered the feeling of sitting on the hospital’s roof with his arms wrapped around her as they looked down on the city and talked about what they wanted their future to be. It was in one such moment that it had struck them. They knew just what to do to celebrate the start of their lives together. Instead of taking a year to plan a big wedding, they would do a small ceremony in the garden at her mother’s house. After, they would join Doctors Without Borders together. It was such a perfect picture. She could still remember how full of joy and hope she had been in the weeks leading up to the wedding.

It had all run so smoothly until that day. To build excitement and anticipation for the wedding ceremony, they had agreed to spend the day before apart. The last time she had seen him, his eyes were so full of love for her. When he burst into her room the morning before the wedding, they were full of fear. She had known before he started to speak that it was over.

He paced up and down the room, agitated. He said a lot, about his future, success and the good he could do at the hospital if he was ambitious enough. He told her that he needed to put his career first, that they were too young and that he needed to take a break from their relationship and their dreams. After he finished, he just looked at her, waiting for her to say something. Instead, she stood up and walked out of the room, leaving him staring after her in shock. She had gone to Kate and cried for what felt like days. Then she did what she had agreed to do. She became a nurse with Doctors Without Borders and never looked back.

“Elizabeth, Earth to Elizabeth.” Kate waved her hand in front of her sister’s face.

“Sorry, sweetie. I spaced out for a minute. It’s been a long few days and a lot of traveling. Let’s get to the hospital and see mom.” Elizabeth sighed, pushing the memories away.

“Are you sure that you don’t want to go home first and take a nap or something?”

“No, I really need to see mom. I need to hug her.”

Kate squeezed her sister’s hand as her throat tightened. “I’m so glad that you’re here. Mom’s going to be happy too, once she finishes fussing over your trip.”

“Well, she wouldn’t be mom if she didn’t.” Thinking of her mother made Elizabeth’s heart ache. Usually when she came home, she would walk through the front door of the house and be greeted by the smells of her mother’s homemade pasta. Today, she would be greeted by the scent of the hospital.

“Are you sure you’re okay with seeing Nathan Parker?” Kate asked again, clearly worried about her big sister.

“Nathan is the head of the best oncology department in the state. We’re lucky that he’s mom’s doctor. He cares about her. He always has. Nobody will try harder to heal her than Nathan.”

It was true. Nathan was the best. He had traded their love and their future together to make himself the best. In a way, she was glad he had become the best in his field. If he hadn’t risen to the top, there would have been no silver lining to the heartbreak she endured.

“He’s been good to her, but that doesn’t mean that I have to be nice to him,” Kate said. She might be the younger sister, but she had always been particularly protective when it came to Elizabeth. She loved that her sister was selfless and generous, but she hated to see how putting others before herself exposed her to the risk of being hurt.