Mariah garnered another promotion, this time to wiretap reader. She chose the forensics branch of law enforcement in order to pursue her lifetime wish.

Along with it came a free labtop, courtesy of the station. Which was good, because the computer had yet to be fixed.

Same with the sink.

The community would remember him as an affluent and influential man with charisma to spare. He was a loving father and a skilled surgeon. He married into money, but eventually left his wife to marry another. A hopeless romantic, he spent his last days with the one he loved.

What Kylie would remember is that one wasn’t her.

Though it left her stressed and feeling overworked, Kylie was always eager to return to the hospital. It was one of the only rewarding things in her life. Her love life was nonexistant, her oldest friend was an adulterer, and she was driving her kids away with her yelling.

It was a vicious cycle: go to work, get stressed, come home, yell at kids, go back to work to escape kids.

Sam Sekemoto showed up shortly after hanging up the phone.

The rest of the family enjoyed Sam’s visits, perhaps because they also always seemed to correspond with Kylie’s absences.

Cooper, ever the gracious host, started on a new painting.

She took advantage of the unoccupied bathroom, taking a nice long bath. She then returned to bed to catch a couple more ‘zzz’s before her shift.

The rest of the family were coming home. Cooper put the finishing touches on his painting.

He’d earned an upgrade to freelance writer back at the office.

The sisters bonded outside as Cooper continued to hone his artistic abilities.

Her sleeping patterns would have to adjust. As a trauma surgeon, Kylie would from now on be working the night shift, from 7pm to 3am.

When she arrived home Bobbie Dominguez was the only one awake. Ignoring her, she scarfed down some apple pancakes and went to sleep.

When her head finally hit the pillow Cooper was waking up for work.

She had to dash off to work so could do nothing about it.

By the time people returned home from work the kitchen floor was flooded.

Cooper then proceeded to break the computer.

He hung it up on the wall instead of selling it.

When he got home from work he immediately began his second piece.

PS. Merry christmas, everyone!

Her only friends are from work. In the morning, she was awoken by a phone call from Geoffrey.

During the course of their conversation, Kylie learned Geoffrey had split with his wife and was now engaged to some new woman, named Monika.

She offered insincere congratulations. This was for the best, she realized – Geoffrey was a cheating letch, and she didn’t need to deal with another one of those.

Besides, with her recent promotion to trauma surgeon, she was now effectively wedded to her job.

She was constantly angry over nothing.

With four separate daily incomes, money was rolling in quickly. The move was back on schedule.

It didn’t hurt that Cooper landed a promotion to automated spell checker checker. Mariah also got a promotion, to lieutenant.

Kylie was better liked at the office than she was at home. She got a permanent eleven dollar raise.