A Day Away, A Lifetime Away (Patreon)

“A Day Away, A Lifetime Away” is a long pop-out account from the last few pages of “Final Healing.” In this NSFW (PG-13) Pic-Story, Vanessa takes some time away from the clinic and drifts through her memories as she enjoys a day in the sun at a nearby lake. Twenty-eight pictures and 5800 words.

 ~Ailana

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: 

Readers who look closely at the images will find subtle differences in what should be the same clothes and/or gear. Similarly, the generated faces may have minor variation (due partly to lighting, angle, and other effects). The slight variations should not detract from the story. 

~ ~ ~

A Day Away, A Lifetime Away

When things at the clinic and in her makeshift lab decided to take a day off, Vanessa decided she would, too. She needed a day away.

Vanessa Lenen, PhD, was among the youngest immunologists to graduate from University of California, San Francisco. She left graduate school and went directly to work for Health for Humanity doing field research. The locations of her work begged for her to pitch in with helping those being treated, so she trained to become an advanced EMT so that she could give injections, start IVs, and perform other treatments.

She was on a mission in Tibet during an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant enteric fever. Health for Humanity had sent in MD, Olivia Overmark, to join the work. Overall, the team was making progress.

As long as the equipment works! That morning, Vanessa’s centrifuge had stopped working. At the same time, the Internet went down. Vanessa felt like she was reasonably caught up, anyway, so she thought some time away from the lab and village would be nice. 

She packed a little lunch, grabbed the keys to the car the clinic was using, and decided to drive out to the lake. She thought a day there would be a nice change of pace.

When she got there, she looked across the lake and decided to take a little hike. There was a point off in the distance. She thought she could make for it and just see what happened. She grabbed her daypack and set off.

As she walked along, she was reminded of a weekend when she was in graduate school.

Vanessa’s family was not wealthy. They lived in a small town an hour away from San Francisco. Life was modest but adequate, as far as Vanessa was concerned.

Her parents did all they could, but Vanessa primarily paid for college with scholarships and part-time work at a fast-food restaurant. She paid for graduate school with assistantships and more part-time work.

However, she had a roommate, Gail, who had a different plan. She found out she could make a lot of money posing nude—eroitca and artistic work. One weekend, Gail needed a chaperone for a shoot at a remote location around Lake Tahoe. That lake there in Tibet reminded her of Tahoe in some ways.

Vanessa had been intrigued by the photoshoot at Tahoe, wondering what it would have been like to be the model. She, however, was not the model—not that day and nor any day after that.

Vanessa reached the point and thought she had hiked far enough. While she was there at the point, she stretched out and rested a little while she ate her lunch

With lunch done, she made her way back to her car. She looked out over the lake, her thoughts carried her back once more to Lake Tahoe.

There was still a lot of day left, and Vanessa was not ready to abandon the lake. On a whim, she decided she would act out a nude photoshoot of her own. It was a sunny day and warm enough to sunbathe.

Before she could talk herself out of it, she tossed her clothes into the car and headed back to the shoreline. She thought about when her roommate had posed in Tahoe and decided to try some of the poses she remembered. There would be no one to take the pictures—not that day—but Vanessa thought it would be amusing to play the part of a model, all the same. I’m such a nerd… She laughed at herself and carried on.

If anyone were to ask, I’d just say I’m sunbathing! Vanessa laughed to herself, then decided to forgo her ball cap, too. What’s the point! She laughed again at herself.

As she made her way to the shoreline she thought back again, going further into her past. That day in Tibet was not her first time to sunbathe in the nude beside a lake. 

The first time went back to the summer before college. It seemed like those days belonged to another life far away.

It had been a summer unlike any before and any after, and nude sunbathing was but a part of what made it so unique.

FLASHBACK 

Like most girls, Vanessa dated a little in high school. Starting the summer before her junior year, she had dated a couple of guys that she thought, at the time, were right for her. But the relationships had soured with time as the boys wanted to go further and further physically and she had wanted to go deeper and deeper emotionally. By the middle of her senior year, she was single.

It was at that time a close friend, Laci, broke up with her boyfriend, too. Since the other girls in their nearest friend group all had boyfriends, LaCi and Vanessa began hanging out.

“We don’t actually need boys at this time in our lives,” Laci said one afternoon when they were at the mall. “We’ll graduate and move on. What’s the chance we’d stay with some high school relationship long enough for it to become forever? And if we get close over the weeks to come, it will just make going off to college harder.”

Vanessa shrugged. “I guess you are right. Why do we date in high school anyway? What’s the chance it will ever amount to anything?”

Laci laughed. “Good question! I guess we are trying out boys and learning how to get along in preparation to get married.”

“Yeah, but,” Vanessa replied, “if you know you’re not getting married, what’s the point?”

Laci sighed. “I know… but, I just… wish I had someone I knew would be there… to hang out. Cuddle…”

Vanessa nodded. “But most guys I know… Cuddling is just the beginning… I mean, if you know it’s not going to be forever, are you just making each other into… objects?”

Laci nodded. “I guess so. But if you both know what you are doing… I don’t know… You are just having a good time in the moment.”

They talked on about why they even wanted a boyfriend in the first place. In the days that followed, they came to decide that it was nice to know who they were going out with on the weekend—to know who they would be able to hang out with and do things. To have a guy who was there for them, who had set themselves apart from others to be with their girlfriend.

BACK IN TIBET

Vanessa found her way back to the shoreline and looked around. She let her mind jump forward in time to Lake Tahoe when she was in college. She couldn’t remember how the photographer had said it, but she had an idea of a particular pose. She imagined where the camera was and pretended she was the model.

Vanessa laughed a little inside. Would I really do this today if there really was a camera! She smiled and let her thoughts go back to Laci and before college, to that summer when so much happened.

FLASHBACK

The girls in Vanessa and Laci’s friend group, despite the fast-approaching fall separation, continued to grow closer and closer to the boys they were dating—closer to what Vanessa called the “August heartbreak” that would surely come when they and the boys separated for colleges or whatever would come after high school. The closer the other girls got to the boyfriends, the more time Vanessa and Laci spent hanging out.

As summer and graduation neared, Vanessa and Laci were sitting in a park one afternoon when Vanessa said, “Well, summer’s coming. I guess it’ll be kind of lonely and boring being single in the summer. I’m not a fan of playing third wheel… Guess I’ll just focus on saving money. I’ll work and get lost in YouTube or something…”

Laci frowned as she nodded and looked down. 

Then suddenly she swallowed hard and looked up. “We could date each other… What do you think?”

Vanessa thought she was making a joke but there was a look on her face, so Vanessa replied carefully, “Laci, I’m not into girls…”

Laci shrugged. “Me neither, but anything I’d want to do with a guy in the few weeks to come before college, I’d do with a girl. Like… platonic… platonic dating… Not making out or anything…”

Vanessa laughed a little. “Platonic dating? You made that up just now.”

Laci looked down a little. “Actually, last night. I was thinking about it.”

“Platonic dating?” Vanessa shook her head. “You… were thinking about this?”

Laci nodded and looked up, a little hopeful, “But with cuddles. Like when we were watching movies at my house with the whole family and we had to sit together in the recliner.”

Vanessa remembered the night. It had been nice. There was a closeness; an intimacy of a sort that was anything but sexual. Laci’s mom had taken a picture and posted it on Facebook; no one thought anything of it, other than two friends crammed into one chair watching movies.

“Platonic cuddling?” 

Laci shrugged. “Just when we are by ourselves. I don’t want people to think I’m into girls. I mean… that sounded mean to people who are… I just don’t want people to get the wrong idea about me… about us… and be confused.”

Vanessa understood.

So it was that, after only a little more discussion, Vanessa began dating Laci. They really enjoyed their time together, and there was a certain convenience to the arrangement. Anxiety over deciding who they would spend time with was replaced by anticipation regarding deciding what to do.

BACK IN TIBET

Vanessa found a place to sit and just look out over the water. She doubted Gail’s photographer would have liked it, but it was more or less comfortable. This is something I’d actually do… Vanessa smiled a little, thinking about some of the poses Gail was directed into, poses no one would ever do unless posing for a picture.

This modeling stuff is hard on the knees! Vanessa adjusted her weight and relaxed. There was no camera to capture the moment, but Vanessa pictured it in her mind. She thought posing naked was harder than being naked. 

Her thoughts again drifted back to the summer before college when she first sunbathed nude. There were some pictures on her iPhone that, in part, chronicled those wonderful weeks with Laci before the actual nude sunbathing happened.

And before the summer was over, Laci’s cousin took others. We changed a lot that summer in a lot of ways. Depending on the day—hairstyle, makeup, lighting, how they posed—Vanessa thought they could pass as being in their twenties or being barely old enough to drive.

FLASHBACK

That summer had been a coming of age physically, to be sure. But there had also been a lot of emotional growth, as well as a lot of self-discovery.

One thing Vanessa discovered was very important in how she approached college and graduate school. She learned that she didn’t need a man in her life to have fun and be happy. The relationship she had with Laci had been satisfying in most ways.

Someone asked her once about the lack of physical intimacy with Laci. Vanessa had said that there was intimacy. There was a lot of cuddling. There were hugs. They touched each other a lot, but it was just never overtly sexual in nature.

Vanessa and Laci did a lot of high-school-girl things, sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident. They met at a park one day to find that they were twinning! Both wore blue denim shorts and white tank tops. Both had on nearly identical sandals. They decided to just go with it, and not care what others thought.

Shopping was a regular event. Laci’s family was more wealthy than most people. Her grandparents were rich, and their three children benefited from that. The good fortune trickled down to the grandkids, including Laci, and even spilled over to Laci’s friends, at times. 

Laci bought Vanessa a few things when they were out shopping, but more than that, took her places and shared experiences with her that having extra money made possible. 

Laci’s aunt and uncle had a grand home that included a swimming pool. They also had a lake house with a boat dock and, naturally, boats. Laci and Vanessa, as the summer heat warranted, took advantage of the pool regularly.

Laci’s older cousin, Alison, was twenty at the time, and was working out all the details of being a professional photographer while going to school to study business. Laci and Vanessa didn’t mind being in front of Alison’s lens occasionally, so there ended up being some really good photos.

If anyone, that summer, had any ideas that Vanessa and Laci were dating, it was Alison.

“Aww…” Alison said after catching Laci and Vanessa sharing the corner of a sofa, “you two are so cute!”

She grabbed her camera and took some pictures. As she reviewed them, she came to one, then looked up quickly.

“This one is… I can feel a vibe here!” She showed them the picture. “This is good… Like there’s a lot going on under the surface here…”

Alison never asked directly, but comments like that led Vanessa to believe she had an idea that they were a step past hanging out in their relationship.

BACK IN TIBET

Vanessa tried another pose. This time, she thought about Alison and all the pictures she took.

As far as Alison was concerned, Vanessa—and Laci—were “real” models; Alison even got official model releases for the pictures.

She gave them both a dollar, as it was part of the release. “Here, now you are a paid model! You’re professionals!”

Alison knew they knew she was joking a little, but the releases were real, and Alison sold a few pictures. Vanessa was happy to see her friend’s cousin making a start in something she loved.

Vanessa thought, maybe, if Alison were in Tibet, she’d really be posing for nude pictures.

FLASHBACK

Alison took other pictures that summer. Some at the lake. Some back in town. Pool pictures were Alison’s favorites to take.

Vanessa didn’t mind. Laci certainly didn’t; she sometimes called Alison out to take them.

Over the course of weeks, Vanessa and Laci settled into a very satisfying routine.  When Vanessa wasn’t working at the burger chain, she was with Laci. The times they shared were filled with shopping, going to the park, and the occasional meal out and were broken up with cuddles on couches and in recliners in front of a TV or scrolling videos on their iPhones.

“Look at this one!” Laci would show Vanessa something she had come across.

Vanessa would reciprocate. 

While in the midst of that summer, Vanessa was utterly content with the closeness, the human contact, loving touches, and the sharing of ideas that was the very essence of her relationship with Laci.

They held hands. They leaned on each other. One would put her head in the other’s lap. It was warm, intimate, and fulfilling.

In the middle of June, Laci turned eighteen. Vanessa had turned eighteen in April, and Laci had made a big fuss about it.

“All grown up now!” Laci had said, as she gave Vanessa a birthday car and a very generous shopping card. “I just got you a money card so you can pick out clothes and stuff for college. I want to shop with you of course!”

For Laci’s birthday, Vanessa wanted it to be nice and sweet. A time they could share quietly and together.

She bought a decorated cake, candles, and other decorations, then had Alison help arrange to get Laci to Alison’s house where they could celebrate. Vanessa figured after the cake was cut, Alison would take some pictures, then leave them alone.

Laci loved it. She hugged Alison and Vanessa; she was almost giddy.

“This is a huge surprise!” She hugged Vanessa again. “Thank you! Thank you!”

Vanessa was happy she could create a special moment for Laci.

A few days later, Vanessa and Laci were back at Alison’s house. It was a warm, sunny day, and Vanessa didn’t have to be at work until 5:00 that evening.

After splashing around in the pool for a while, they retreated to the deck and stretched out on a towel to sunbathe.

Laci sighed, then tilted her head a little toward Vanessa. “Thanks for the birthday party. I’m glad it was just us… once Alison had her fill of us! We had such a sweet time together. It… Well, it was a great way to usher in me being an adult.”

“It was fun to do it. Now, we are both adults.”

“Yes, we are,” Laci said, tilting her head and looking back at Vanessa. “That means I can do things I couldn’t before.”

“Like what?”

“Like this!”

Laci leaned forward and the next thing Vanessa knew, she had taken off her bikini top and laid back down. She handed the top to Vanessa. “Here…”

“What am I supposed to do with it!” Vanessa laughed.

Vanessa thought she should take off her top, too—just because Laci had. She looked back toward Laci’s aunt’s house and no one was looking, but Vanessa was afraid.

The next night, they were back at Laci’s house on the sofa watching TV again. Vanessa didn’t know if it had anything to do with the birthday or not, but Laci had another surprise for her that night.

They were at Laci’s house sharing the corner of a couch. Laci was leaning back on Vanessa, her head on Vanessa’s chest.

“I like this,” Vanessa said. “It’s just so cozy and… it feels like warm from the inside out.”

“I know what you mean,” Laci replied. “I… I love dating you like this.”

“Me too,” Vanessa replied. “It’s easy… just us doing us…”

“But…” Laci paused and took a deep breath. “It’s different from what I thought. It feels more… real… It’s… not just a bunch of things we do written on a calendar… It’s… deep.”

Vanessa agreed. She supposed the feeling was a product of all the time they spent with each other. She believed any two people who spent as much time together as they had would either grow closer or grow farther away. She was glad she and Laci had grown closer.

Laci adjusted how she was positioned, sitting up and turning toward Vanessa. “Vanessa… I’ve been thinking for a little while…”

She stopped, and it didn’t seem like she was going to start again. She was looking down at her knees.

“What, Laci? What were you going to say?”

Laci looked up and shrugged. “What would happen if we kissed? I wonder if…”

Vanessa smiled. “Have you been listening to Katy Perry’s old stuff again?”

Laci smiled back and looked down once more. “I was just thinking… we are… so close… that…”

Laci was talking about a romantic kiss. That would be different. Vanessa knew a lot of girls in a lot of places kissed casually as a way of greeting each other or when they were parting ways. That was not the kiss Laci wanted–not then at that moment.

In all the times that they had cuddled, hugged, held hands, and otherwise touched each other, it had always felt nice, safe, and—indeed—intimate. Vanessa had never thought about being any more physically intimate. Not until that moment.

“If we kissed?” Vanessa smiled. “I won’t like you any less. I promise.”

Vanessa wasn’t sure why she said that or even, really, what it meant. Laci seemed to interpret it as permission. She smiled and leaned forward a few inches. Vanessa’s arm was already around Laci, so she pulled gently and leaned toward her.

And they kissed.

It was a good kiss. It was soft. It was warm. It was gentle, and it lingered. After a moment or two, they relaxed, slightly lessening the pressure between their touching lips, but then, they both leaned in and Vanessa held Laci in place with her hand. Vanessa had no way of knowing how long their lips were together, but it was, by any measure, a good, long, intimate kiss.

When they finally parted lips, Laci leaned back and took in a deep breath. “Wow… That was really nice.”

“Yeah,” Vanessa replied.

“What do you think? Really… ‘Yeah’ doesn’t tell me much.”

Vanessa couldn’t find words for her feelings quickly, but she said the first thing she was sure about. “I’m glad we kissed. It…”

Vanessa wanted to say it felt really good, but that it also felt strange. Kissing guys made her feel a certain way that she liked. Kissing Laci didn’t feel the same. But, she wasn’t sure how to say all that she felt in a way that made sense. She was afraid it would make Laci sad, too.

Laci seemed to be thinking hard, too, and it was her that broke the silence. “I don’t think we should kiss again.”

Vanessa was a little surprised and it seemed like Laci could tell.

Laci took Vanessa’s hands into hers. “We agreed when we started dating that we’d… know it all ended when we go to college… I’m not smart enough for UCSF, so all this… sort of ends in a few weeks. If you kiss me like that again… I… it made me want… more… and…”

Laci squeezed Vanessa’s hands and looked down. “More might not be good, in the long run… I don’t want to mess anything up.”

Vanessa squeezed back, glad Laci had decided; glad that the decision was not hers to make. “Okay, I… agree. But… Laci… you know…”

Laci looked up. “What?”

Vanessa smiled and shook her head. “I love you. I don’t know if sisters cuddle like we do, but I can’t imagine loving anyone more. I don’t want to mess anything up, either. No one probably would understand this thing we are doing… I love it. It’s… just perfect, and kissing or anything else wouldn’t make it more so… And not kissing won’t make it less…”

Laci smiled again. “Yeah… so… no more kissing…”

Vanessa leaned back into the corner of the sofa and pulled Laci back until her head was once more resting against her.

BACK IN TIBET

That was the only time Vanessa had ever kissed a girl. Laci had taken Vanessa into a realm of relationships that was new, never anticipated. As far as the kiss was concerned, it wasn’t really part of the relationship at all. It hadn’t fit, as far as Vanessa was concerned. 

Everything else was great, though.

Vanessa looked at the sky and decided she had time to carry on with her trek through memories. She ventured back to Lake Tahoe. She moved a little and tried a different pose.

Again, the question rose into her mind. Would I do this if Alison were here with her camera? 

It would not be a problem for Alison. In those last weeks of that summer before college, Alison had been afforded more than one chance to take pictures of Laci and Vanessa in various stages of… sunbathing.

FLASHBACK

Laci was beside herself with excitement. “We are going to Uncle and Auntie’s lake house for the next three weeks. Pack your stuff!”

Vanessa had put in her two weeks notice before going off to college, and her boss had been disappointed. He didn’t schedule Vanessa any more, so instead of two weeks to get ready to move out, she had four.

Laci saw it as a glorious windfall opportunity. “We will have the best four weeks of our lives! The only down-side is we have to share the guest room, but it has its own bath. Queen size bed… Oh… and there’s a little fridge and microwave in the bathroom, so we can have snacks!”

They reached the lake the next day, set to wrap up their summer by spending it in the sun. 

Laci didn’t make it through the first day at the lake without taking off her top. Vanessa had become accustomed to Laci doing that at the pool, behind the fence. But there on the lake… Vanessa, though, decided that miles away were as good as being behind a fence.

Laci was shocked the first time Vanessa, after untying her top while face down, rolled over and sat up. But she recovered quickly.

“Mmm, girl…” Laci shook her head. “I’ve been waiting all summer for this.”

Vanessa laughed and replied. "Stop that! That makes it sound… you know…”

“Maybe that’s what I’m thinking,” Laci replied. “But… I can control myself. Please don’t put it back on!”

Vanessa didn’t.

It turned out that Alison showed up at just that time. “Okay, girls, I’m shooting this!”

“Not unless you take yours off, too,” Laci replied.

“Not unless you promise not to sell them,” Vanessa said.

Alison thought only for a moment. A minute later, she was snapping photos.

It was two days later when the bottoms came off, too. And after that, sunbathing nude was the norm.

Wearing tops at all became the exception to the rule whenever they were planning anything to do with the lake. From the house, they would walk topless to the boat dock and proceed on from there to whatever they had planned.

Alison’s twenty-one-year-old brother, Haddon, was tolerant of the behavior, frequently driving the ski boat for the three at-least topless girls. A few of his comments to Vanessa, over the passing weeks, told her he was only-just tolerant, but far from immune. Nevertheless, he never crossed any line; rather he stood back from the line and kept his distance, crossing it only with his eyes.

In it all, in all the nude sunbathing, the topless boat rides, and even that one nude jet ski ride when the two of them sat together and raced across the lake—in it all, there was an innocence.

Everything was bathed in a sweet, gentle innocence. 

Even the time Vanessa woke up with Laci spooning her sweetly, arm draped across and down. 

They shared that queen sized bed all summer. The first night, they slept in just t-shirts. But after a few days sunbathing topless, they changed from sleeping in t-shirts to sleeping in just panties. Then, after that, more nights than not, they just slept nude. To wake up spooning with anyone nude, Vanessa thought, should evoke some sort of erotic thoughts. 

But, to Vanessa, it was just warm and sweet. Unconscious cuddling… Years later, she wondered if she had just told herself that to justify it. She never could answer the question, but she was sure, then and there, she found it lovely.

BACK IN TIBET

Vanessa stood up and walked along the shoreline for a little while, then recalled one of Gail’s photographers instructions. “Turn your head, chin down… now give me a far-away look, like you are remembering something precious.”

All things considered, nothing in Vanessa’s life had been as precious to her as her summer of platonic dating. 

FLASHBACK

Three weeks at the lake came to an end. Laci and Vanessa found their bras and shirts, and laughed with each other about how little they had used them. There had just not been many trips away from the lake.

It was a week before Laci would go off to college and ten days before Vanessa would. The summer was coming to an end, and so too, was their relationship.

“We are going to be so busy in the next few days,” Vanessa said as they sat scrunched into a recliner at Laci’s house.

“Time will fly by,” Laci replied. “I wish this summer could just go on and on.”

“We knew it would come to this,” Vanessa replied. “That’s why we didn’t want to waste time getting together with some guy, only to end up here heartbroken.”

Laci looked down and seemed to draw into herself for a moment. Then she shrugged. “I didn’t know I was going to be heartbroken over having to leave you.” 

Vanessa nodded. “It turned out different, didn’t it.”

Laci smiled and looked Vanessa right in the eyes. “I wish you were a guy. I’d make you marry me and we could do all that house and family stuff.”

Vanessa smiled back. “I have to be the guy?”

Laci shrugged. “Sometimes, over the last month or so, I wished I was into girls like that. I wished we…”

Vanessa didn’t say anything.

Laci, after a little while, spoke up again, looking up with a little smile. “It’s been good, Vanessa. You’re the best boyfriend I’ve ever had!”

Laci laughed and ducked her head onto Vanessa’s shoulder. Vanessa put her arm around her and held her tight.

Laci took in a deep breath and relaxed. “You know, I thought about it. About really being with you. Not just platonic cuddling. But… I guess that kiss… I could tell you didn’t have the fireworks I was having. After that, I thought about… being with you that way and it always ended up feeling… I don’t know… It would have had to have been both of us, you know?”

Vanessa understood. She hadn’t explored the possibilities as much as Laci was claiming to have, but she had let the idea pass through her mind a few times. I just wasn’t right for her, if she were honest about it. She thought it could be an exciting adventure, but she believed, in the end, it would sour and fizzle out.

Finally Vanessa answered. “This has been a great summer. I’ve had so much fun with you. We’ve grown in so many ways. The stuff we did at the lake felt like we had escaped prison and were free to just hang out and…”

Laci started laughing. “Hang out… I think you got more to hang out than I do!”

Vanessa laughed too. “That’s not what I meant, but that… was an adventure I never would have, in my life before, imagined. I don’t know… I feel… different about myself in a lot of ways.”

Laci signed again. “If I ever do find a guy and think it’s going somewhere, I want you to give him lessons on how to cuddle and have fun.”

BACK IN TIBET

Vanessa and Laci had kept in touch throughout undergraduate school. Less so after that. Laci went to work in the business world. Vanessa stayed at UCSF for her PhD in immunology. Things got busy.

The sun was sinking low to the west and Vanessa was out of pretend poses from Gail’s photoshoot at Lake Tahoe, so she just sat down where she was.

After Laci, she had never really had a serious relationship that offered any real promise. There had been a nice young man in graduate school—Charles Roger Witworth was his name—who she liked in a lot of ways. He was gentle and kind, and didn’t push the physical aspects of dating like other guys did.

But he had his head set on a certain lifestyle. He was in the MD program, and his vision was essentially the country club version of white house and picket fence. Per his plan, after they married, Vanessa would work from home—if at all—and manage the household while he saved lives as an ER doctor.

Vanessa wasn’t interested in managing a house. As time passed, her humble up-bringing emerged as a complication to his plan a few times.

“Well, we can work on that,” he would say.

Vanessa finally told him she was too busy with her research to keep up the facade he needed her to have. She wished him well and said goodbye. 

It had been a vastly different ending than the one with Laci. There was no lingering longing, no heartbreak. Vanessa, when broke things off with Charles Roger, it had felt like a weight was removed from her neck.

Vanessa sighed and looked around her. She had filled her day with thoughts and memories, and she was relaxed and refreshed.

It was then that she heard the sound of a truck approaching. She looked and recognized that it was the truck from the clinic. Vanessa stayed where she was. She saw no point in panicking and trying to make a dash to her car to get dressed.

Laci wouldn’t have done that. Vanessa laughed. I should check in on her soon. See what she’s up to.

She doubted she’d beat the truck to the car anyway, so she just stayed put. The truck stopped near the car, and Vanessa recognized the driver; it was Olivia.

As the doctor approached, Vanessa looked back over her shoulder. “Hi, Doc. Is this not utterly beautiful?”

It is. I was worried. Amir said you left this morning.”

“I’m fine. Internet was down, so I was dead in the water, anyway. I thought some fresh air and sunshine would be nice. You know, fresh air and sunshine almost never glitch out, right?”

Olivia laughed and nodded. “Amir told me about the centrifuge.”

“I’ll fix it again.” Vanessa replied, then pointed across the lake. “I hiked all the way to that point over there before coming back. Then, I decided to… basically just sit in the sun. And think…”

“I see.”

Vanessa stood up, took another long look across the water, then turned back to Olivia. “I’ll be fine. Outbreaks of diseases is what I do, you know. I’m on the front line of immunology, out here. My reports are going right to WHO and CDC. I… just needed to get some…”

Olivia pointed at her and smiled. “Sunshine. Fresh air.”

Vanessa nodded. “Right… I guess we should get back.”

Olivia nodded as Vanessa started walking toward her. “Where are your clothes?”

“In the car.”

Vanessa walked to Olivia, then on to her car. Olivia followed her.

“What about you, Doc?” Vanessa said as she pulled on her shirt. “This is not what you went to med school to do. The strain is never ending.”

Olivia answered, cementing her ideas from her picnic by saying them aloud. “Someone needs to do this. Not everyone can. I can. I can do what others cannot do, and I’m willing to do it. I just have to find a way to get some emotional recharging from time to time.”

Vanessa smiled. “Try a day at the lake once in a while.”