It had been a long day, with a rising stream of patients. One of the night nurses had called off. Again. He had a tendency to do that. He wasn't any older than Jillian and he was far less responsible.

Of course he didn't have nearly the responsibility she had had when she first started working, either. She’d had to work her way through school, unlike the other nurse, and help support their family. Pay the mortgage payment every other month. When Mel had been shot, money had gotten a whole lot tighter for their family—and they’d been in an area where property taxes were rising to the point of being difficult to meet. Those first few months after the shooting had been tough, and she’d been taking time off to stay in St. Louis with Mel, too. But they had muddled through.

Someone—Jillian had her suspicions who—had paid off the rest of her tuition and all of Mel's loans; not to mention the second mortgage they'd had to take out on the house several months ago. Houghton insisted it wasn't him. But if it wasn't her brother-in-law, there was only one person it most likely was.

Houghton's creepy father. He was still out there somewhere.

Probably watching all of them. Jillian shivered.

The man had been stalking her family since before Jillian had even been conceived. That still creeped her out every time she thought about it.

The knowledge that Houghton's father was still out there somewhere didn't help.

It was five after ten when she actually got the opportunity to clock out. She was waiting in the lobby for her ride to arrive when someone large and male walked up behind her. A hot hand landed on her shoulder.

Jillian forced herself not to react outwardly. Even though it was far beyond the hour when he should have been gone, she knew who it was.

She just had a Rafael Holden-Deane barometer or something. She looked over her shoulder and up into his dark eyes. It was really disconcerting to see her best friend's eyes peering out of her worst enemy’s face. One of those little quirks of fate designed to drive a person loopy, she supposed. "Doctor.”

"Jillian, don't you think we can call each other by our first names now? We’ve known each other since you were in diapers. And with Travis and Lacy…Let’s just pretend that we don't…"

"Despise each other? Is that the words you are looking for?" Why not call a spade a spade and admit the fact? She didn't like him and he didn't like her.

Yes, they were connected. Pretty closely. Jillian had had enough of the animosity. The strain. She couldn't deal with fighting him over everything. In fact, Jillian was just ready to pretend that Rafe Holden-Deane was like any other Chief of Medicine she'd ever worked with—a politician in a lab coat. It just so happened that this one was on the outskirts of her family now.

She didn’t have to like him, she just had to find a way to deal. "I suppose we could do that. I'm going to try, if you are. I don't like people talking about me… We both know that they are. They think it's funny how you and I don’t get along—the way Lacy and Lanning used to fight. I don't. I just want my life to get back to being calm and normal again. What it was just a few months ago. Before hell happened.”

“Who are you waiting for tonight?”

"Chance is coming to get me. I don't have a car yet. And with everything that's happened lately, well, we try not to go anywhere alone this late at night any longer."

"Call Chance, I'll give you a lift. My meeting just ended. I am headed in the same direction, after all." He smiled at her. Too bad the man had such a nice smile. It was wasted on her. It was. And she was going to keep it that way.

"Okay, I would appreciate it. That way he can stay home with the baby and Brynna. I’m not sure where Dad is at this evening. Or Syd. I'm not even sure what state she's in right now.” Something was going on with her sister. Jillian just didn’t know what. When Syd came back, she’d be asking some serious questions.

"So, consider me your taxi service for the night."

She'd rather ride a roller coaster to hell, but it was what it was. Riding with Rafe made the most sense, caused the least amount of trouble for her family. Jillian texted her brother-in-law, then followed his cousin out to his assigned parking space, right in front of the building. Being Chief of Medicine had its perks, didn't it?