thinking out loud, ignoring Meaghan’s suggestion to put a pin in it. Meaghan huffed a laugh. “ Yeah where exactly on the agenda would that go? None of Your Business section maybe?” Meaghan said. “Look Dean, I get it. You’re spirit is willing and so is your flesh. I didn’t know before but I do now. You don’t have to do anything, I promise.” Dean nodded his head, but he still looked skeptical. Meaghan pushed away the bed covers and slid out of bed, naked. “ I need a shower now though seriously, we’ll get where we wanna go. Lets just not be all worried and shit. It’ll come together by itself. I promise you.” Dean stood up and made as if to follow her to the shower. Meaghan put up her hand, palm outward. “ Halt. Where do you think you’re going?” she asked. Dean grinned. “I thought I’d scrub your back for you,” he said hands on the waistband of his boxers. “ Uh huh. Not happening,” Meaghan said eyes on his hands. “I still don’t know how I’m even going to function after that…session. I’m not looking to inflict any more damage on this vessel,” she said indicating her body. “ What damage? That was just standard sexual procedure for you; just coz you were on top this time doesn’t mean anything changed,” Dean said grinning smugly. Meaghan threw a random sock at him and mock-glared. “Stay away from me fool,” she said slipping into the bathroom and shutting the door. “ You don’t know what you’re missing!” he yelled at the closed door. “ Oh yes I do,” she sang back as she switched on the shower. ***** Meaghan and her mother walked into the narrow brick building that housed the offices of the Shelley project. She had an appointment with the project manager who would give her orientation on the work that they did here. When she’d told her mother about the work that Conrad had offered her. She’d been very excited and asked if she could come along and see what work they were doing as well. Meaghan had called Conrad to see if it would be alright and with his enthusiastic permission had brought her mother along on what was essentially sort of an interview. “ Hi,” she said to the receptionist. “I’m here to see Maggie Martinez?” The receptionist looked up, brown eyes friendly and welcoming in her freckled face. She smiled widely and stood up to point out the correct office; in spite of her substantial bulk and the gray in her hair she moved easily, guiding them to the right door and leaving them to it with a nod and a smile. Maggie Martinez also turned out to be enthusiastically friendly greeting Meaghan and Amanda like they were old friends. “ Conrad told me about you – we don’t get many doctors who grew up around here so we’re really excited to have you,” she said as she led them down the hall to show them the clinic space. “ I’m excited to be here,” Meaghan replied exchanging a look with her mom. “ Most of our patients are disadvantaged in terms of access to insured health care. We have a payment policy that allows them to settle their bills slowly at a rate that won’t break them” she said as they walked past the packed waiting room where nurses were carrying out triage. “ And do you get many defaulters or are people good about paying?” Meaghan asked curiously. Maggie shrugged. “Most of our patients are return customers. They are well known to us and we to them. I think Dr. Conrad told you that we don’t just do the clinic, but we also have a mentorship program and needle exchange every other Saturday? We know most of these people by their first names; we’ve been to their homes. We know their challenges. It’s a very hands on project we run here. Very few of our patients are walk-ins. And most of those who are have some sort of emergency or have heard of us through their neighbors for example.” As she talked, Maggie showed them the state of the art laboratory that had been built through the efforts of