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When traveling with children, all needs are special.
Over Thanksgiving, I traveled to Italy with my wife, two children, and my parents. The plan was to land in Milan on a Sunday, drive to Parma where my wife needed to work, celebrate the holiday in a rural Tuscan farmhouse, and then proceed to Rome where I had a conference. My wife and I love to travel and had spent a month in Venice in 2008, when our son was one. But since then long distance roaming had seemed impossible. First, we had no money. After the birth of our second child, we had even less money. Financial matters improved when my wife finished school and began her career, but then we had no time.
Furthermore, the logistics seemed overwhelming. Our son has Down syndrome, with a highly limited diet and – in the past – difficulty adapting to changes of routine. Even short trips to visit family often left all of us exhausted. So although I am an historian of medieval Europe and my wife is a food scientist focused on European products, foreign adventures seemed out of the question.
Then last January something magical happened. We went on a short trip over the winter holidays. The children were fabulous. They listened well. They were able to be self-contained with toys and games and ample screen time. My son learned to eat scrambled eggs, albeit with considerable cajoling. We started to think maybe, just maybe, we might be able to travel again. When work opportunities in Italy came up for both of us over Thanksgiving, we decided to give it a try, spending weeks planning every booking, every stop, filling an extra carry on with food and backup clothing, and launching into a new era of our lives as parents.
And then the worst snow in a November in more than 100 years descended on Chicago's airport. We sat for seven hours on the plane (we could leave, but then not re-board). The adults squirmed, worried, got backaches, and watched contingency plans fail. The kids, on the other hand, played on their iPads and ate snacks.
This pattern – adults worried and kids pretty much perfect – continued. We stumbled into an airport hotel around midnight near JFK, with a whole day of our magical trip lost. But then this happened: My son jumped in the bed and asked to go swimming. My daughter, beaming, told us it was like we had two vacations – first a New York trip and then an Italy one! Their attitudes carried us through the worst weather-related travel experience of our lives.
Finally, we got to Italy which, naturally, presented its own difficulties. We went to a supermarket to buy Thanksgiving dinner and it turned out to be a "supermarket de scarpa" – of shoes. The kids thought it was hilarious even as I swore.
That doesn't mean the kids were always easy. Far from it. But neither our developmentally disabled son and hyper-verbal daughter were more likely to cause trouble at any given moment. Both kids have strengths and weaknesses. He's distracted by police cars, loved police officers, and personally tried to shake the hand of every one of the 200 carabinieri we saw in Florence. He threw a huge tantrum when I tried to hurry him through the well-guarded Piazza della Signora. My daughter, on the other hand, demanded every single Kinder egg (small plastic toys contained in eggs made from terrible chocolate) in Italy, tried to pet every dog in Rome, and whined too much about wanting more gelato.
Down syndrome can make life harder. When I went off to my conference, my wife decided to stay close to our apartment, not wanting to risk him wandering or a behavioral collapse. Our son's limited diet required us to pack a bag with pretzels, Cheerios, and to learn the words for cottage cheese – one of his major sources of protein (fiocchi di latte). At least Italy can always guarantee a supply of plain noodles, his preferred lunch item. Other countries would be harder.
But he also excelled at moments when his sister struggled. I was never prouder of my boy when, exhausted by the trip to Rome, he grabbed his suitcase and followed his mother right to the taxi and climbed in. His sister threw a tantrum, refusing to sit in the middle seat for reasons known only to herself.
Travel is hard. Travel with children is harder. But we've reached a point where it's clear neither of our children have special needs. They just have needs, like all kids, and travel teaches us both how to improvise solutions to unexpected problems, while distinguishing the needs from the mere wants.
David M. Perry is a history professor and a freelance writer who focuses on disability issues. He can be found at How Did We Get Into This Mess and on Twitter @lollardfish.
Like On Parenting on Facebook for more essays, advice and news. You can sign up here for our newsletter. You can find us at washingtonpost.com/onparenting.
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Nursing-home lobby gets its way
In the Kentucky House of Representatives, few voices speak out more forcefully on behalf of health issues than Rep. Tom Burch, who chairs the Health and Welfare Committee.
But Burch's voice seems strangely silent when the subject turns to the health and well-being of some of the state's most vulnerable people — the residents of the state's nursing homes. Annual attempts to legislate minimum staffing levels and make other reforms in nursing home regulations can't even get a hearing in his committee.
Part of the explanation Burch gave to the Herald-Leader's John Cheves for his own objections to the reform bills made little if any sense.
In addition to expressing concern about the cost of mandating minimum staffing levels at nursing homes, Burch worried that it would set a precedent that could affect staffing for schools and prisons — public institutions that have little in common with the private nursing home industry.
Burch, by the way, has an investment in a real estate trust that includes nursing homes. But under the lenient rules of the Kentucky General Assembly, that doesn't register as a conflict of interest, even though any reasonable ethics standards would argue otherwise.
Burch's investment and his unreasonable worries aside, the more likely reason nursing home advocates can't get a hearing in Frankfort is they don't have the ability the industry does to use payroll deductions to collect vast amounts of money from employees to be used in lobbying lawmakers at the state and national levels.
Although the industry spreads its largesse in a bipartisan manner, it is particularly troubling that it seems to have warped the values of Democrats in the state House, whose caucus campaign committee has received $74,850 from the industry in recent years.
After all, this is the party that presents itself to the public as the champion of the poor and downtrodden, in contrast to a Republican Party that acts as a servant to wealthy corporations and individuals.
But Burch told Cheves that, in addition to his own objections, House Democratic leaders haven't been receptive to advancing the nursing home bills filed annually the last several years.
In this case, then, it seems $74,850 can buy the corporate world of nursing homes some good Democratic servants, too.

subset: commoncrawl


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Boston's take on "poutine"
One of Quebec's culinary symbol, "poutine", has become increasingly popular across Canada, as well as in the Northern border regions of the United States, which offer variations of the traditional dish. Cheeses other than fresh curds are commonly used (most commonly mozzarella cheese), along with beef, brown or turkey gravy.
Watch this video and tell us what you think.
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Cinzia Cuneo, founder of SOSCuisine.com, never wanted to neglect the quality of her food. She shares her special expertise to make good food quickly and without complications!
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This article first appeared in print in the October/November issue of Revelstoke Mountaineer Magazine.
Measures under consideration to protect mountain caribou in British Columbia could result in the loss of $55 million in revenue by the province's heliskiing and catskiing industries, according to a new industry report.
HeliCat Canada, the industry trade association for heliskiing and CAT skiing operators, recently announced the findings of an economic impact analysis of moves to protect more caribou habitat.
"The helicopter and snowcat skiing industry is a valuable part of the economic and social landscape across rural British Columbia, with close to $200 million per year in sales revenue," stated the organization in a news release. "Although the industry has been directly involved in caribou conservation for decades, recent pressure to protect mountain caribou habitat may threaten the viability of this industry unless solutions unique to the sector are implemented."
Southern mountain caribou populations have been in decline for several decades and some herds are considered effectively extirpated due to their small numbers and/or lack of females. Environmental groups, including the North Columbia Environmental Society, have called for habitat protection, while other tools such as maternity pens and predator/prey management have also been called for. Provincial legislation to protect caribou, which largely leaves out habitat protection, has so far proven ineffective at reversing the decline.
In May, Catherine McKenna, the federal Minister of the Environment, declared southern mountain caribou were facing "imminent threat" and issued an order to the government to take action. Should an emergency order be issued, large swaths of caribou habitat would be placed off limits to many activities, including forestry, snowmobiling, heliskiing and catskiing.
HeliCat Canada says this would impact 19 of 41 helicat companies in B.C., six of which would have to close down. The Revelstoke area is home to numerous heliskiing companies, some of which operate in areas that would be impacted by an emergency order.
The report finds that heliskiing and catskiing companies would see their operations threatened because mountain caribou feed in the alpine in the winter, when the deep snowpack allows them to feed on the lichen on trees. Snowmobiling has already been restricted in many areas north of Revelstoke.
According to HeliCat Canada, terrain closures would lead to a loss of $55.2 million in revenue, 466 jobs and $20.3 million in household income.
"With so much at risk, the helicat industry is concerned about its very viability," stated the news release. "Expert and science-based decision-making is crucial to the sustainability of this important world-class product."
Caribou habitat protection could also have a significant impact on Revelstoke forestry companies.
Earlier this year, the provincial government sought feedback on a new management plan for mountain caribou. It's unclear when the government will unveil their new, revised plan. The plan will likely seek to strike a balance between conservation efforts and economic interests, such as forestry and backcountry recreation. It will also have to satisfy the federal government's species at risk legislation, under the potential threat that the federal government could step in to take over the mountain caribou portfolio if it is unsatisfied with the provincial plan.


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Photographer Spotlight - Episode 20 @Tatsu.photography
First of all, would you mind introducing yourself?
I'm Tatsu. 21-year-old photographer based in Japan, near Tokyo. I started photography 1 year ago. I'm mostly into street or cityscape photography but I take any kinds of photos.
What equipment do you use for your photos?
For now, I'm using Sony a7ii with Zeiss 55mm F1.8, and sometimes with Zeiss 16-35mm F4. I used to use Nikon D5500.
How and where do you find inspiration for your work?
I often check Instagram. So many great photographers are sharing awesome photos at there. If I found the photographer that has my favorite style, I also look for and check their other works. (For example, 500px or their own websites...)
Do you have any favorite location to take pictures at?
I love Shinjuku and Shibuya for shooting. Shinjuku has everything, tall buildings, old bars, nature... Shibuya is also my fav. The Crossing is always astonishing.
What is your all-time favorite picture?
This one is my all-time favorite picture. This is the composition I always wanted to capture since before I buy a camera. Isn't it cool ?? xd


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It is the mission of Bethlehem Township to promote community vitality, quality of life, and economic prosperity. Bethlehem Township will provide services which are responsive to the health, safety and general welfare needs of the community. The township government is dedicated to providing these services through the efficient and effective use of the community's available resources in an honest, open and caring manner. It is the vision of Bethlehem Township to foster a community that residents and businesses are proud to call "home."
Bethlehem Township
4225 Easton Avenue, Bethlehem, PA 18020
Phone: 610-814-6400
Hours: Monday - Friday, 8am - 4:30pm
Website: www.bethlehemtownship.org
Parks & Recreation
Bethlehem Area Public Library
City of Bethlehem
Bethlehem Historical Society


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Hotels in Stamboliyski, Bulgaria
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- • Plovdiv (PDV-Plodiv Intl.), 17.3 mi (27.9 km) from central Stamboliyski


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When you think of summer in Crested Butte, Colorado, you think of Lake Irwin. The closest lake to town accessible by car, this lake is a haven for tourists and locals alike to cool off, fish, hike around, and now SUP.
It is one of the most popular destinations in town, and takes about 15-20 minutes or 9 miles to get to from town. Turn down Whiterock towards Kebler Pass Road, and follow the signs to Lake Irwin. Make sure at the split you turn right on USFS road 826. The road is dirt and it does get bumpy, so make sure your boards, coolers, etc are tied down for the ride. Once you get up to Irwin, you can park by the picnic tables, or cross the water to the main parking area on the other side, or even drive up around to the camping area and the big rock. Note: There is no cell phone service or WiFi at Lake Irwin, so make sure you plan on a meeting spot if you are meeting friends and family.
No matter where you choose to park, make sure you find a nice area to set up for the day. There are no shops or areas to buy ice or food up at Lake Irwin, so make sure to purchase your picnic lunch and beverages in town before you head up. There are tons of rainbow trout and brook trout stocked and ready to catch from your SUP or kayak.
There are a few hikes to be found around Lake Irwin, including the mile and a half shoreline hike and Scarps Ridge via Middle Loop being the most popular. The lake, though, is the main draw and there is no better way to enjoy it then from a paddle board. This picturesque lake sits at 10,200 feet and is overlooked by the Ruby Range to the west. This location makes for gorgeous photos with the snowcapped mountains in the background. You can easily paddle around the lake and it is usually well protected from the wind. Per usual, it's always a good idea to bring a towel and dry change of clothes any time you are playing in or around water in the high alpine region of Colorado.
Lake Irwin is a family friendly lake with plenty of nature and activities to keep the whole family happy for the day or longer. There is a campground available, and reservations are highly recommended. Don't forget to grab your paddle board from CB SUP on your way up to the Lake, and enjoy making memories in Crested Butte!


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Monday, January 11, 2010
A cookie is the way to the heart
What better then a cookie to woo the one you love? Valentine's Day is soon approaching and we have the best gift idea to give someone special in your life - a sweet box of unique decorative cookies.
Share a bite with your valentine, treat your kids to a yummy cookie on a stick, or delight a good friend with a unique gift. For those of you who don't have a special someone to snuggle up to on Valentine's…. why not indulge yourself with a decadent cookie! …but do proceed with caution, our cookies are dangerously good!!
In the spirit of love and giving, we'd like to offer you a 10% discount on our Valentine's Lace cookie (as seen above!) Just ask for this discount when you call or email us at email@example.com with your order!
Click here to view our full Valentine's Day cookie collection on our flickr page!
Have a specific design idea in mind? Let us know and we'll create a custom cookie for you!!
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Chaos fic: It's not the fall (but the moment after)
Title: It's not the fall (but the moment after)
Authors: faye_dartmouth and moogsthewriter
Summary: Falling is easy. Landing can kill. But getting back up — it's getting back up that's the key.
A/N: This started on a whim when I said I wanted to have a fic where Billy was impaled on something. moogsthewriter indulged me and started. I picked it up where she left off and then she added on the ending. We both gave it a read through and this is the result :)
Disclaimer: Not ours.
The first time Billy broke a bone, he was six years old. He can't remember much of the incident itself — there'd been a concussion to go along with his cast on his arm — but he remembers the feeling of his stomach flying into his throat as he fell from the tree; the moment of realization that something bad was about to happen; the calm serenity of acceptance just before impact. After that, his memory is blank for about six days or so, which his father tells him was mostly spent in and out of consciousness at the hospital, throwing up nearly every hour in between classic reruns of Doctor Who.
Billy's lost track of how many times he's been to the hospital over the years; it's well into the dozens by now; perhaps even triple digits. He'd been a rambunctious lad, and his chosen career path has a higher injury rate than the average layman's, so he's no stranger to injury or the antiseptic smell of hospitals. Some hospital visits he remembers because of the locale; others, because of the scars marring his skin, even if he doesn't always clearly remember how he got them. Still others he remembers only because his teammates try to avoid going back to those areas, haunted by memories of what happened last time they were in Prague or Nairobi or Toronto.
But the hazy memory of that first injury has never left him. He's not entirely sure why; perhaps it had been the novelty of it, that childish instant of hope in the split second before his awful landing where he'd thought maybe they'll turn the siren on, even the innocent security of knowing mum and dad'll make it better.
Though in this particular instant, he's thinking of that first fall because he's falling again. Not from a tree this time, but still a considerable height. And given that this is an abandoned construction site, there's bound to be a myriad of unpleasant things waiting to injure him at the bottom of this pit he's tumbling into — not that he can see any of it right now, since it's the middle of the night and he's long ago lost his torch ( flashlight, he thinks as the air flows past his face, the Yanks call them flashlights ).
He can hear his team yelling — Rick in shock, Michael in anger, Casey in determination (he's no doubt delivering swift retribution to Pryce, not that it matters to Billy at the moment) — and he's touched by their concern, he really is, but it's okay now.
Because now, just like all those years ago, he feels a calm acceptance ( well okay, then, he thinks, so this is how it ends ) and he knows that whatever happens to him, the rest of the ODS will still be able to finish up the mission. They'll be safe, and that's what matters.
And then there's impact and white-hot pain for the briefest moment, and then nothing.
Michael should have known better.
When the trail led to the abandoned high rise project, he should have known better than to split up. This is Pryce's territory, a well-established area for drug deals, full of hidden nooks and crannies and items that can kill in the proper hands.
But that hadn't stopped him from issuing the order — granted, it was with an extra order of caution, but he'd nevertheless ordered his team to split up. Pryce is just one man, after all, even if he is a drug lord; one man on the run, desperate and caught off-guard, which meant they had the advantage.
Except they don't, Michael now realizes. Even if it hadn't been Pryce's stomping grounds, his desperation has put him over the edge, to the point where he will do anything to stay out of the ODS's clutches.
Even if that means killing one of the agents on his trail.
Billy's the one to find him, on the first floor. Old sheets of plastic flutter in the wind, partially blocking the pair from view as Michael and the others approach, drawn by shouts and the sounds of a vicious hand-to-hand fight. But the plastic doesn't stop them from seeing Pryce slip through Billy's defenses and land a solid left cross that sends the Scotsman reeling.
Nor does it stop them from seeing the perfectly executed roundhouse kick to Billy's chest that sends him back, arms windmilling, into the gaping hole of an open shaft to the basement.
For Michael, the next few seconds pass in a haze. He hears yelling, registers the fact that Casey has already moved to subdue Pryce, even understands on some level that he's one of the people yelling.
But really, all Michael can think about is how he should have known better than this. How he should have strategized differently at the beginning of this mission all those months ago, how he should have seen the inherent dangers in the skeleton of a building, how he should have known Billy's knack for attracting trouble guaranteed his encounter with Pryce.
But Michael didn't. And now Billy's gone, vanished into a literal black hole.
Still, the knowledge that this is inherently Michael's fault doesn't stop him from running over to the edge of the shaft with Rick right on his heels; if anything, it makes him run faster. He's got his MagLite in hand, and with only the briefest moment of hesitation, he aims the powerful beam down into the darkness, adjusting it until it lights up the area where Billy landed.
Beside him, Rick gags. Casey curses.
And as Michael stares, he can't help but think that even though Billy's known for rolling with the punches, this might be one fall he can't bounce back from.
On some level, Casey thinks, he shouldn't be surprised.
This is Billy, after all. The Scot has a tendency to attract a ridiculous amount of trouble, mostly because he throws himself into the midst of deadly situations with gusto and usually with a wide grin to match.
So of course Billy's the one to find Pryce. And of course Billy's the one to fall down the shaft into the basement.
And of course there's a piece of rebar protruding from the concrete at the bottom.
And of course Billy's landed on it.
The light from their flashlights illuminates the gruesome scene below. Billy's unconscious, limbs sprawled, a glistening piece of iron protruding from his upper right shoulder, a puddle of blood steadily expanding beneath him.
Next to Casey, Rick gags. Michael tenses.
Behind them, Pryce groans. Even if he's waking up already, Casey thinks, he won't be getting far with a broken right leg and dislocated left knee.
He's no longer a threat. Which is good, because Casey's already moved on to other priorities.
The drop from the first floor to the basement isn't bad when one's prepared to land on his feet instead of on his back. Casey keeps his knees supple as he lands, suppressing the pain of impact and focusing instead on the body in front of him.
The ease of the landing doesn't make it any easier to face what he's seeing. If Casey lets himself, he could panic; but there's no time to panic, not with Billy down a hole with a piece of metal stuck through his shoulder.
On the ground, the darkness makes it hard to see, and he's grateful when Michael shifts his light from above, moving it so it's clearly trained on Billy's upper body once again.
Although, as Casey gets a better look, he's not sure "grateful" is really the right word for it. Because in the glaring beam, Billy looks even worse. His face is pale, turned just slightly to the side, mouth hanging lax.
It's never a reassuring thing to see one of his teammates unconscious, but it's a reality Casey has learned to deal with over the years.
Still, Casey's not entirely sure how to deal with this.
Up close, it's clear that the rebar has poked through Billy's shoulder in what appears to be a non-vital location. It's surely made a mess of the muscles and nerves and there's a chance it caught the clavicle or even the scapula, which could entail a long and painful recovery for Billy when they get him out of here.
Looking at the wound again, though, Casey thinks when is a little ambitious. After all, Billy's impaled on a piece of rebar in a remote construction site with an internationally-wanted drug dealer in a country where they aren't lawfully permitted to conduct operations. There are so many obstacles to getting Billy out and to help that Casey's not sure he wants to start making a mental list.
So, he doesn't. It's really pretty simple in Casey's mind. He has to handle one pressing task at a time, and even if he's not sure where they're going to go next, he knows he has to do something to help Billy now.
Because Billy's not just impaled on a piece of rebar; he's also bleeding profusely, which means that the wound is open and leaking, and at this rate, there isn't a lot of time for worried what-ifs.
Moving forward, Casey positions himself next to Billy's head, squatting carefully. He moves his hands gently but efficiently, using a pocketknife to slice through the fabric of Billy's jacket and the shirt underneath to the point where he can lift away the layers to get a better look at the injury.
The skin is torn and red, and Casey tightens his jaw and puts the fabric back. He bends down, gently shifting Billy's arm to discern where the rebar originates. It's hard to see in the dark without jostling Billy, but by wriggling his fingers underneath, he can feel where the metal goes into Billy's back and where it protrudes from the cement.
Grimacing, Casey pulls his hands back, wiping the blood on his pants.
Up above, the light wavers just slightly as Michael calls, "How is he?"
Casey collects a breath, pressing a finger into Billy's neck, counting off the beats of his heart. Under his touch, the Scotsman doesn't flinch, his pale features impassive. Suppressing a shudder, Casey shakes his head, feeling grim. "Shocky," he calls back, glancing up.
Above him, Michael's face is composed and resolved. By his side, Rick looks visibly shaken.
Casey looks back to Billy, noting the wheezing of his breathing. "We're going to have to get him out of here — quickly," he says, refusing to think about what might happen if they don't.
"Can you move him?" Michael asks.
Casey glances back up with a pointed look. "He's impaled on a piece of rebar," he says flatly. "That's going to be a little difficult, unless you'd like him to bleed out in front of your eyes."
"Can you move the rebar?" Rick asks.
It's such an obvious question at this point that it almost annoys Casey to answer. "Unless you have a jackhammer nearby, I think we're out of luck," he says. "Besides, I wouldn't want to risk moving him without a professional opinion. I don't think it's hit anything vital, but he's lost too much blood already and if we do it wrong, he could bleed out just that much faster."
Rick doesn't seem to know what to do with this information, but understanding is already dawning on Michael's face, and Casey can easily see that their team leader is hatching a new plan. Something to take care of Pryce, to get Billy help, to get them a clean exit, one way or another.
It'll be improvised and it'll be slipshod, but knowing Michael, it'll work.
Casey looks at Billy again, looks at his pale face and limp body, looks at the rebar in his shoulder and the blood on the ground, and has to believe it'll work.
If Rick hadn't been involved with the ODS for several months now, he might think that the tales of their exploits were exaggerated. After all, the rumors of surviving five nights in the Russian wilderness or the stories of jumping out of crashing planes over the Pacific seem too far fetched to possibly be true.
But now, Rick's lived his share of impossible missions. Sneaking out of North Korea, having his cover compromised in Russia — the ODS makes a mission of the impossible and does it without the glitz and glamor one might expect.
So, really, Rick thinks he shouldn't be so surprised by this. Tracking Pryce had been one thing — a ridiculous chase that had taken them through three countries and two time zones — and to think, Rick had thought that would be the crazy part of the mission.
But standing over the hole, looking down at Billy splayed limply and pinned on rebar, he sees the folly in his thought. In the ODS, everything that can go wrong, will go wrong, which is why their missions make for the best break room fodder. In fact, he can almost hear it now — the furtive whispers about how the ODS tracked the man and cornered him in a true display of espionage brilliance, how they managed to pull their injured man out without compromising their mission or their cover, and how Billy has the scars to prove it.
It's a good story. Rick just hopes that's the story they get to tell when this is over. He wants to believe it will be, even if he's not sure how right now.
Because at the moment, things aren't looking so good. Casey's assessment of Billy's condition is sobering, though Rick only has to look at Billy to know that things are less than ideal. The Scotsman is pale and unmoving, and it's probably the longest Rick has ever seen the taller man be still and quiet, which is more than a little unnerving.
Then, of course, there's the rebar to contend with. It's a complication they don't need, and Rick's practical mind is already going through the way it changes things. If they can't move Billy, if they can't move the rebar, then they're going to need some kind of backup. There's no CIA backup in the area that could handle that kind of extraction, and while they might be able to cajole Higgins into military or interagency support sometimes, none of that will help extract a wounded man from a delicate situation when time is of the essence.
No, they need an EMS and a fast trip to a hospital.
In some ways, that's easier because that's common civilian aid.
In other ways, it's far more complicated. Because they are technically civilians, but they're also CIA. If the local authorities catch wind of who they really are — and their situation is bound to raise some flags — Rick knows the consequences won't be good.
Not that the consequences of doing nothing are so good, either.
In this, Rick's not sure what to do. Not even sure what to think. So he stands there dumbly at the top of the hole, looking down as Casey continues his field care and Billy just lies there.
Next to him, Michael collects a breath. "Here," he says shortly, thrusting the light into Rick's hands. "I need you to hold that steady, keep it so Casey can see what he's doing."
Rick fumbles a little to catch the light but lifts it quickly, repositioning the beam until it's shining starkly on Billy's slack face. Even from this distance, Rick can see the sheen of sweat on the Scot's forehead, the slick of blood on Casey's hands as he works to move away the layers of Billy's clothing to properly expose the wound.
The beam wavers and Rick has to consciously steady his hand. Pained, he looks away to Michael, who is rustling behind him.
When he comes back into view, he's holding rope and a cell phone. He drops the rope to the ground and holds out the cell phone to Rick. "This one's clean," he says, nodding at the phone. "You'll need to ditch it before we head back, but you can use it for now to call for help."
With his free hand, Rick takes it. "And the rope?"
"In case you need to get down," he says, and leaves it at that, but Rick understands the implications. In case Rick needs to go down and help Casey; in case Billy takes a turn for the worse.
Rick swallows hard. "So what's the plan?"
Michael's features are pinched, lines hard around his eyes and set into his forehead. "Our first priority is to secure Pryce," he says, and Rick glances back to where the man is still writhing on the ground. "We've already got the chopper in place to extradite him back to the United States."
Rick nods and frowns at once. "And Billy?"
Michael's jaw works a little but his expression stays the same. "You and Casey will stay with Billy," he says. "Once Pryce and I are clear, you need to call local emergency personnel."
"Is that safe?" Rick can't help but ask.
Michael inclines his head. "It's less than ideal," he admits.
From below, Casey grunts. "Billy dying would be even less ideal," he reminds them. Then he pauses, collecting his knife off the ground and putting it in his pocket. "We're going to have to ditch our weaponry or we'll get flagged by the hospital's security."
"Smart call," Michael agrees. "Lose anything that could affiliate you with the CIA or any kind of investigative capacity. You're business investors, looking to restart this construction project. Understood?"
It's a simple plan; compared to most of their exploits, it's almost painfully devoid of crafting and care. But they don't have time for much more than that.
Looking at Billy again, Rick knows they don't have much time for anything.
Pocketing the cell phone, Rick nods tightly, pulling out the blade he'd been carrying. He hands it to Michael, even though it makes him feel more vulnerable than he already does. "What about you, Casey?" he asks, looking down again.
Casey is shaking his head, still trying to attend to Billy wound. "I'll ditch them before we get to the hospital," he says. "And hope they buy this as a very unfortunate accident."
Michael grunts a little. "I trust in your ability to convince them of that," he says. "And don't forget Billy's—"
Casey's already on it, reaching into the Scotsman's jacket and removing the knife hidden there. "We've got it, Michael," Casey says before looking up and holding their leader's gaze.
Rick nods in agreement. "We'll take it from here," he says.
Michael looks at him, and there's a moment of indecision in his face. Not that he doubts his team, but it's clearly not in Michael's nature to abdicate control, especially not of something so important.
But Rick nods again, offering as much certainty as he can. Because he's not just the new guy anymore. He's a part of this team, and finishing the mission and getting Billy to safety is just as important to him as it is to the rest of them.
Rick can't fail that; he won't.
For once, Michael seems to believe him. He nods back, holding Rick's eyes just a moment longer. "Take care of Billy," he says again. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
With that, Michael heads off, hauling Pryce up roughly and ignoring their captive's grunts of pain as he drags him away forcibly. Rick watches them go for a minute, watches until they're almost out of sight, before looking back to Casey.
The older operative is looking up at him. He's torn away most of Billy's shirt, exposing the macabre wound. His pants are darkened and wet with blood, his hands nearly covered. He inclines his head, face drawn and serious. "You ready for this?" he asks.
Rick takes a breath, then another. Keeping the light steady, he pulls the phone back out and swallows. "I hope so," he says.
"It'll work," Casey assures him, and if it seems unusual to hear comfort from the normally negative man, he counters it by adding, "Or, if not, at least this time we won't necessarily die trying."
Rick frowns.
Casey shrugs. "What's a few dozen years locked in a foreign prison on charges of espionage?" he asks. His eyes drift back to Billy, who is still prone on the ground. "If it saves Billy's life..."
At that, Rick nods, resolute. Because even if he doubts the rest, he's certain of the need to do that much.
Billy doesn't have a problem with falling. To the contrary, he's always made his peace with his tumbles, embracing the weightlessness and finding certain comfort in the wind rushing by his ears. He can't change the way his feet leave the ground and if he can't tell up from down, then he can't tell if things are over or just beginning.
Falling is a loss of control, which is never pleasant, but worrying about it after the fact is like crying over spilled milk.
No, Billy doesn't have a problem with falling. Rather, he has a problem with hitting the ground. It's not the fall that kills you, after all. It's that sudden stop at the end.
Billy's never been a fan of such stops, literally and figuratively, and Billy's done his share of falling to know. From falling out of the tree in the backyard and breaking his arm, to screwing up a mission and getting himself decommissioned and deported, Billy falls with a flourish, to be sure. It's life afterward that he inevitably struggles with.
As a child, that cast had been more than somewhat cumbersome, keeping him from playing football with his mates all summer and costing him the chance to go camping with Andrew Gallagher.
As an adult, he'd ended up alone and embarrassed on foreign soil, with a career in shambles and a reputation that he's still trying to repair in some corners of the world. Not to mention the small detail that he can't go home.
But he's always survived, which is something. His mother used to tell him that boys like him bounced and evidence generally did support that claim, though admittedly in a less than scientific way.
So Billy remembers falling. Remembers the construction site, remembers Pryce's cheap shot and the kick to his chest. He remembers losing his footing and just falling.
But the thing is — and this is truly starting to bother him now — he can't remember hitting the ground.
True, this may be for the best, considering the pain usually involved in such an event, but the absence of memory is bothersome to him, grating at his subconscious and tickling the back of his mind until he has no choice but to figure it out.
With that decision, awareness comes filtering back. Slowly at first, and there's the sensation of something hard beneath him. That gives way to discomfort and as Billy shifts to get away from it, the pain makes itself known. It aches in his chest, pounds in his head, and Billy takes a breath before it erupts in his shoulder.
The agony is so sharp, so sudden that he can't fight his ascension to consciousness, and he comes to with a choked sob that catches in his throat.
He tries to move, but someone puts a hand to his chest, holding him steady.
"I would recommend against moving." Casey's voice is wry, but there's definitely concern underlying it, which is generally not a good sign.
Billy blinks a few times, sucking in harsh, shallow breaths as his vision clears and he flinches away from an onslaught of light.
Casey's hand is unyielding, so Billy settles for rolling his head to the side, grimacing at the slight movement, which sends sharp pain through his body and twists dangerously in his stomach. After a moment, he cranes his head back slightly, catching sight of Casey perched at his side.
Casey's face is taut, and he looks both tired and relieved. "Of course you'd pick now to wake up," he says.
Billy manages a wan smile. "I have been told my sense of timing is impeccable."
"Impeccably annoying," Casey agrees, but the sarcastic bite to his voice sounds forced.
At that, Billy frowns, remembering this time to keep himself still. "Pryce?"
"Michael's getting him secured as we speak," Casey reports.
Billy's brow creases somewhat. "I'm afraid I let him get the best of me," he says, feeling sheepish.
Casey's face betrays no emotion. "A momentary lapse," he says by way of assurance. "Happens to the best of us."
The gentleness of it is almost surprising, and the disbelief eclipses the pain for a moment. "Is that an admission of weakness?" he asks.
Casey's lips quirk into a small smile. "Well, it happens to the rest of you, anyway," he says. "And in this light and the unknown terrain, he had the upper hand. Son of a bitch knew just where he was taking us."
Billy's joviality fades as fresh pain ignites in his body. "I should have seen it coming," he grits out.
Casey shrugs. "We can discuss a new training regimen to get you back on your game later," he says. "Right now, I need you to focus on being still while we get you out of here."
This is the practical reality of the situation; for as much as Billy's always liked to talk like a dreamer, he's lived his life from one mundane pragmatism to the next. He doesn't think of it as settling, though; in his mind, it's survival.
So he takes Casey's suggestion to heart and lets his eyes roam, squinting again at the light. "Is that young Rick manning the light?" he asks. "Because I think he's being a wee bit overzealous."
Casey inclines his head. "I need the visibility," he says. "Unless of course you would prefer me to work in the dark while I assess your imitation of a shish kabob."
It's just like Casey to say something with such weight without any sort of emotion. Half curious, Billy's eyes wander and in the brightness, he sees the metal.
It glints in the light, sticking several feet above his head. Billy is contemplating why it's there when he actually realizes what Casey said.
Shish kabob. A piece of metal glinting with blood. He follows it down, sees it where it hits his shoulder.
Only it's more than that. Casey has pulled back Billy's shirt and jacket, and in the glaring light, it's easy to see the inflamed and ripped skin where the rod is poking through.
For a second, Billy can only stare. The pain makes sense now, mounting as tears sting at his eyes. "Oh," he says as the pain ratchets upward again. "Well, that's a new one."
Casey grunts. "Only you," he says, shaking his head, but the admonition is weak.
Billy nods convulsively, blinking rapidly as he looks back up through the growing haze of pain. "Well, I'm just testing your emergency preparedness," he says, almost choking on his own voice. He gasps slightly, his body starting to tremble against his will. "And right now, I must say, you are in peak form, as always."
He's going for casual and confident, but it sounds wispy and uncertain, even to him. He wants to rectify that for Casey's deserving sake but when he takes a breath to try, the pain almost blinds him, and the world tunnels dangerously.
Casey's hand is on him again, fingers laced around his arm. "Billy," he says, and there's a note of pleading under the order. "You need to stay awake."
Billy wants to comply — it's in his nature to be accommodating, especially with his mates — but it's harder than it should be.
Too hard.
He's trembling in earnest now and his limbs feel cold around the fire in his shoulder.
"We're going to get you out of here," Casey promises, almost desperately. "Damn it, we're going to get you out."
At this point, Billy's not sure who Casey is trying to convince, and he wants to offer some kind of reassurance, but his awareness is flagging too badly.
In fact, it's all Billy can do to stay awake, to look up at the light, to look up at the height and wonder about how far it is. Because falling is easy. Landing can kill him. But getting back up — it's getting back up that's the key.
That's why he'd climbed that tree the day he'd gotten his cast off. That's why he'd agreed to work for the CIA even after being disgraced out of the SIS.
That's why.
But this time, Billy's not so sure he can. Because the distance is just so far and his body feels so weak and the rebar in his shoulder is just too penetrating.
Somewhere, Casey's talking, but the light above Billy begins to fade until there's nothing left.
Nothing left at all.
In some ways, it's easy.
Pryce, for all the trouble he caused them, is easy to control now. Perhaps it's the fact that he's finally been caught, or maybe it's the fact that he's got a busted leg and knee — Michael doesn't know and Michael doesn't care. He's already wasted too much time on this piece of scum, and he's more than ready to turn him over to the military and be done with the entire thing.
This mission kept changing after they got Higgins' approval for it, but Michael's always had his exit figured out. He's had a military helicopter on the ready thanks to Fay's constant backup, and all he has to do is zip tie Pryce, throw him in the back of their rental car, and double time it to the drop zone she specified on their last transmission.
So really, after all his work, Michael has the easy job. Pryce is subdued and the military chopper is on time, and all Michael has to do is show up and make the drop.
As easy as it is, though, it's probably one of the hardest things Michael has had to do in the last few years. Because every mile he drives with Pryce safe in the backseat is another mile away from his team, where Billy's impaled on a piece of rebar and bleeding out in an abandoned construction site.
Michael's fingers tense on the wheel, and he looks in the rearview mirror. Pryce is slumped miserably in the seat and the road out the back window is dark. Michael reminds himself why he had to do this, why it was the only choice, but no matter how hard he tries, he can't relax his grip or stop his brain from thinking about the potential consequences of the choices he's made.
Pryce has to be turned over to authorities. There's no denying that. And there was no feasible way to keep Pryce on site and get Billy the help he needed. The drop had to be made — and quickly — and any delay would have resulted in possible compromise of the mission and their covers.
Besides, Michael reminds himself as he looks at the road ahead, he trusts his team. He trusts Rick to keep his cool, hold their cover. He trusts Casey to tend Billy's injury, keep Billy alive. And he expects Billy to survive, no matter what.
His team has earned that trust, no question. But it's still hard.
Because this is Michael's mission. It's his responsibility. He feels like he's shirking that, letting his team down. He's literally leaving them behind this time. And that's hard — harder than any mission.
The car hits a rut in the road, and Michael's attention channels on the task at hand. In the back, Pryce groans. "You alive back there?" Michael asks crisply.
Pryce's face is pale and sweaty. "It hurts, you son of a bitch," he grits out through clenched teeth.
Michael smiles darkly. "Please accept my apologies," he says, and then he promptly veers the car right into a pot hole.
Pryce cries out again, and Michael adjusts his course with a self-satisfied smirk. It's not nearly as much as Pryce deserves — for his crimes, for what he did to Billy — but it's as much justice as Michael can deliver.
The satisfaction is short lived because thinking of Billy makes Michael's stomach turn. He can still see Billy flailing as he falls, still see the blood slicking the ground and the glint of the rebar at the bottom of the hole. Logically, he knows Billy's probably getting help by now, maybe even out of the hole. Michael will meet up with Casey and Rick at the hospital, be there when Billy wakes up.
And Billy will wake up, because he's a lucky bastard like that, and he always bounces back, even when it seems like he shouldn't.
Especially then, and Michael can't let himself think otherwise.
Michael presses the gas pedal harder, fingers tightening again on the wheel as he wills the car to go faster. Just because this is the easy part doesn't mean it's not damn hard after all.
One of the reasons Casey likes being in the ODS is that it means he doesn't always have to bother himself with bureaucracy. He mostly resents being told how and why to do things, and he abhors the wasteful nature of committees and subcommittees, all drawn up to turn one simple task into fifteen infinitely more ridiculous ones. He can work within the system when he needs to, but he likes the fact that, when push comes to shove, the ODS will do the things that need to be done, red tape and regulations be totally and thoroughly damned.
Which is why this has been so hard on Casey. Between the protocol the EMTs had insisted on following, effectively slowing down how quickly Billy was transferred to the hospital, to the mounds of inane paperwork that had to be completed upon their arrival, Casey has had more than his fill of idiocy. It strains his patience, makes his head ache just behind his eyes, and the stress settles on his shoulders and in the crook of his neck with a nagging persistence. No matter what pressure point he presses, none of it will go away.
And, if Casey is honest, the fact that he'd watch Billy nearly bleed out before the moronic EMTs got him to the hospital isn't helping matters any.
In general, Casey prides himself on his emotional detachment. He's made a career of being rough and abrasive and keeping everyone at arm's length. He doesn't let himself fall prey to ideas such as affection and companionship, because such things are for the weak. Such things make him weak.
At least, that's what he tells himself and he dares anyone to challenge him on it. After six years, Michael and Billy really know better, and he's pretty sure Rick's a fast enough learner to not question it either.
But all of Casey's carefully crafted deflections aside, nothing changes that gnawing fear in his stomach when one of his own is in peril. He's cut out his family, broken the hearts of all his lovers, and stridently avoided friendships, but he can't ignore his teammates. It's an actual impossibility. He can't work with them day in and day out, he can't go on missions with them, he can't risk his life for them and have them risk theirs in return, and feel nothing. Casey's a human weapon, not a robot.
This is why his calm had been shattered in South America when Rick was bleeding out in the back of a van. This is why Casey can't sit still while they wait for news on Billy in this foreign hospital room.
Casey isn't prone to restless movement, but he can't sit still. He's on his feet, pacing back and forth, muttering a song under his breath as he tries not to watch the seconds tick by on his watch. Of course, none of that changes the fact that he knows they've been here exactly four hours and twenty-nine minutes.
Four hours and twenty-nine minutes of waiting.
Billy had been rushed off to an examination room and Casey had done his best to follow but the nurses had been surprisingly forceful, and Casey's linguistic skills aren't developed enough to convey let me in or I'll kill you now in a foreign language.
Casey might have forced the issue, but Rick had been there, hand on his arm, reminding him of their cover.
In retrospect, it's actually kind of impressive. Casey spares the kid a glance as he paces. He looks weary, a scared rabbit expression on his sallow cheeks. He hasn't moved from the chair since he sat down, staring dumbly at the wall as the time passed with no word about Billy.
Still, appearances aside, the kid has some grit to him, Casey has to give him that. Rick has proven himself to be an effective member of this team, and this is no exception. He'd handled the entire contact with emergency personnel like a true professional, efficient enough to get Billy help promptly without compromising anything regarding their mission or their cover.
And he did it all without attempting to kill anyone, which is a feat Casey couldn't have accomplished in this situation alone.
That's a sobering thought, and Casey looks down again at his hands. They're still covered in dried blood, which has caked into the crevices and crusted under his nails. His pants are stiff with it, and he probably looks morbid.
Working his jaw, he looks up again with a sudden and unexpected fit of self consciousness. At least this explains why the other people in the waiting room have been eyeing him so uncertainly.
Grinding his teeth, he's annoyed at the revelation, because he prefers to think of everyone else as the problem. More than that, he's not used to losing sense of himself like that. He's not used to being out of control.
And that's what this is about. Control. Ever since he watched Billy fall, he's been grappling for control and not finding anything. Because he can incapacitate the bad guy, treat Billy's wound, and pace in a waiting room, but he can't ultimately determine whether Billy lives or dies.
The clarity of that revelation is even more unsettling, and Casey's brow furrows as he turns sharply and paces back in the opposite direction.
From the chair, Rick looks at him tiredly. "You should sit down," he says finally.
Casey levels a glare at him. "And you should shut up."
Rick doesn't flinch at the callous words. Casey absently wonders if he's getting too soft. "It's not helping," Rick adds.
"And sitting will?" Casey shoots back.
Rick has no reply to that. Casey paces again.
After several more minutes, Rick takes another breath. "You're just stressing me out."
Casey rolls his eyes. "Billy is in surgery to remove a piece of rebar from his shoulder after suffering from severe blood loss and my pacing is what's stressing you out?"
Rick seems to accept this. "I'm just saying—"
Casey looks at him sharply. "Don't," he says, voice low and dangerous. "Billy's blood is on my hands and the last time we saw him, he was unconscious and in shock. So don't say anything."
Casey tries to say it as a threat, but the emotion is heavy.
Rick resettles himself. "It'll be okay—"
Casey stops cold and looks at Rick with disdain. "And don't do that either," he orders.
Rick blinks. "Don't do what?"
"Offer platitudes," Casey says.
"I'm just trying—" Rick begins.
Casey shakes his head. "To what? Soften the blow? To ease the tension?" Casey asks in accusation. "It doesn't change anything. It doesn't change how Billy's faring in surgery and it doesn't fix the weight of not being there when we both want to be."
The rant is stronger than Casey maybe intends, and Rick turns withdrawn from it, shoulders slumping further as he slouches in defeat.
To make matters worse, none of it makes Casey feel better. He's right — there's certainly no doubt about that — but putting Rick in his place and effectively silencing him doesn't change anything, except now Casey feels like he kicked a puppy.
Guilt, he recognizes immediately as he starts pacing again. He's feeling guilty.
Which is preposterous. None of this is inherently Casey's fault, and even if he can saddle himself with responsibility, feeling guilty is entirely unproductive. He needs to stay practical and cognizant, and he doesn't have time for guilt or Rick's platitudes or the bureaucracy of international heath care.
He needs Billy to be okay. He needs the mission to be over and his team to be safe and damn it, Casey's just as soft as Rick is, even if he has the better sense to hide it.
Still, he looks at the kid. Rick's been in some tough situations before, but there's a difference between bleeding out yourself and watching your teammate suffer through it. There's physical pain and emotional suffering, and Casey knows which one he'd take any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Casey sighs, stopping mid-pace again. "It's just that your platitudes are unnecessary," he says.
Rick looks up, somewhat surprised. "What?"
Casey sighs again, with gusto this time. "Billy doesn't need our platitudes."
Rick's face darkens. "So we're supposed to do nothing?"
"No," Casey says curtly. "We're supposed to do just this."
With a blank look, Rick looks around. "Nothing?"
Casey gives him an exasperated look. "Be here," he says.
Rick still stares.
It's clear Rick is going to need it spelled out. "When you were shot, do you remember anything we said?"
Rick considers this. "It's all kind of blurry."
"Exactly," Casey says. "Platitudes don't help, but do you remember us being there?"
Rick nods. "It's the first and last thing I remember," he admits.
"Words are superfluous. When everything else is lost, presence is everything. Solidarity is key and it's the most important thing Billy will need when he wakes up."
Rick is still staring at him, and Casey rolls his eyes. He doesn't do emotions and he doesn't feel guilt, and evidence to the contrary can really be damned.
If Rick's posture eases, if Casey's pace relaxes, then that's entirely coincidence as the minutes tick by.
Rick's trained for the hardest situations imaginable, but if he's honest, nothing has prepared him for this.
There are courses on withstanding torture, instruction on top secret infiltration. He's studied up on language and international laws. He knows how to use countless types of weaponry and is decently adept at all forms of technology.
But there's no course on waiting for a teammate to wake up.
That's what it is now, and Rick refuses to think otherwise. Because Billy is going to be okay. The surgery had been long and complicated. According to the doctor, the rebar had hit the bone, leaving a mess to clean up and that didn't even start in on the blood loss and muscle damage. Clearing out the fragments had been only half the battle; attempting to reconstruct the shoulder in a way that would allow Billy to stay an active member of the CIA had been entirely another.
Still, Billy is going to be okay. This is the mantra Casey and Michael have pounded into his head and the doctor has repeatedly backed it up. The nurses say Billy's vitals are rebounding remarkably and he's showing signs of improvement every hour. There'll be a long road to recovery, but the prognosis is good.
That's what matters, Rick reminds himself. That Billy is going to wake up, that they'll all leave this hospital together. But it's hard. Because Rick's spent all night in a hospital and Billy still looks a little like death warmed over lying in the hospital bed, and no matter how hard Rick tries, every time he closes his eyes, he can still see Billy lying at the bottom of that hole.
Billy's the one who hit the ground, but Rick's still feeling the impact. Because this is Billy. This is the ODS. This is the last of the old school spooks. That used to mean something distinctive in Rick's mind, but he's not sure anymore. Because his teammates—they're not invincible. They're just human.
They're just human.
At first, Rick had thought his teammates were nonsensical pains in his ass. In fact, he had been fairly certain that they were insane and dangerous. Over time, however, he's come to see them as something just shy of superheroes. Annoying, aggravating, and asinine, but damn near superheroes nonetheless. Because their plans always worked when they shouldn't and they always got the mission done when it seemed impossible and somehow they were always alive even when the odds were stacked against them.
But when Billy fell, when Rick saw the blood — it had changed. At the time, he hadn't had time to think about it much. Now, a day later, Rick's not sure what that means.
To make matters worse, his team isn't exactly helpful in figuring it out. Or in anything for that matter. Michael showed up in the morning, looking somewhat haggard but not missing a beat. After checking in with Rick and Casey, he had done what neither of them had managed and gotten a nurse to update them on Billy's surgery. Since then, Michael has been stoic, leading relations with the hospital staff even as he maintains his position right at Billy's bedside in the ICU.
Casey has been contrary, which is not too unusual. After their near-bonding in the waiting room (which Rick thinks may actually have been a dream), he's been relentless in his vigil, glaring so hard that Rick is convinced the man is dangerously close to hurting someone. He offers snide commentary when the situation presents itself, but he hasn't moved from his position against the wall of Billy's cubicle, which says more than anything else.
For his part, Billy hasn't done much except sleep. He's been heavily drugged of course, and he's surrounded by a myriad of medical equipment that Rick chooses not to think too hard about. At the very least, his mouth is covered with an oxygen mask and the doctor thinks Billy will wake up in the next few days. He doesn't so much as twitch, not when the nurses check his vitals and not when Casey threatens him with more bodily harm and Michael tells jokes that really aren't funny.
Overall, no matter how positive the prognosis, Rick can't shake the feeling that nothing's okay about this picture. The stress has been building all mission and now that Rick's been without sleep for a day, his nerves are starting to fray. It doesn't help that Billy won't wake up and Michael and Casey won't shut up. Rick is trying to be calm; he's trying to believe the doctor, but he's not sure how much more of this he can take.
"It's just the system," Casey says. He's making a face at the tray of food the staff brought for Billy. "They can't even do a simple check to see if the patient would need food, much less want a pathetic excuse like this."
Michael lifts his nose, looking at the tray. It seems to be chicken with vegetables as far as Rick can tell, but Michael seems unconvinced. "Billy would eat it," Michael decides despite his obvious doubts.
"Were he not unconscious and sedated, maybe," Casey agrees. "He doesn't understand that the human body is what it eats."
"Well, Billy's been a pretty effective potato chip in the field, then," Michael says.
"As team leader, you should not condone this behavior," Casey says.
This wouldn't be so bad of a conversation if it wasn't the continuation of hours of pointless back and forth.
Hours. Rick only wishes that were an exaggeration.
Rick's not sure what they're trying to prove, but he's suddenly had more than enough. "We don't have to talk, you know," he blurts out.
Michael and Casey look at him.
Rick shrugs. "For my sake," he says. "You don't have to keep acting like everything is okay."
Michael makes a face. "And what makes you think that's what we're doing?" he asks.
"More importantly, what makes you think things aren't okay?" Casey adds.
Rick looks from one to the other and then to Billy. Then, he laughs. "You mean, Billy impaling himself on a piece of rebar and undergoing reconstructive surgery and receiving three transfusions isn't obvious enough?"
He's laughing because, really, it seems like common sense. It is common sense, which is probably why Michael and Casey are looking at him like he's completely lost his mind.
"Billy's going to be fine," Michael tells him in no uncertain terms.
"But you heard the doctor," Rick says, protesting slightly. "It could be months—"
"Or it could be weeks," Casey counters. "Billy's the type to play the odds and win."
"But—" Rick begins again.
"But what?" Michael says. "You think we chased Pryce, pulled Billy out of a hole, got the mission done, just to settle for anything less than success?"
Rick gapes for the lack of something better to say. In his mind, he blames the lack of sleep and the mind numbing conversation, but he really knows better.
Casey shifts against the wall stiffly. "Besides," he says coolly. "Since when is everything about you."
It's a subtle thing, the subtext in Casey's words, but suddenly Rick hears what they're not saying.
They're not putting on a show for him. The banter, the back and forth—it's not for Rick's benefit. At least, not exclusively. It's for them.
Because, it's just like Rick realized looking down at Billy's body splayed on a piece of metal: the ODS — they're just human. Michael and his plans, Casey and his fighting, Billy and his charms: they're just human, he realizes again, only with fresh meaning. They fall, they break, and they get back up together.
The impact of the revelation is a little jarring, and Rick finds it difficult to close his mouth.
Still, he's part of this, too, now. So it's time to start acting like it.
Slowly, Rick closes his mouth, shifting in his seat. He looks to Billy again and, for the first time, he sees what his team sees. Not just everything they did wrong — because there is a time and place for self recriminations — but everything they can still do right. Everything they can still make better.
Billy will be okay. Just like Michael and Casey and Rick. It's not so much a blind truth as it is a simple necessity to everything they stood for.
Settling back, Rick nods. "Well," he says. "Then I think you're all missing the point."
Michael tilts his head; Casey's eyes narrow.
Rick shrugs easily. "If Billy would have eaten it, then don't we owe it to him to ensure that it doesn't go to waste?"
There's a small hesitation before Casey makes a face. "Billy resigns himself to these measures only out of desperation," he says. "I'm sure he'd forgive our abstinence in this case."
"And besides," Michael says. "We should save it for him for when he wakes up."
And Rick smiles as they continue, knowing without a doubt he has a place here, just like the rest of them. Michael keeps the bedside, Casey's on the wall. Rick stays at the end of the bed while Billy sleeps on.
The first time Billy broke a bone, he was six years old.
He's not sure why he keeps thinking of this story. It's not something he really wants to think about, after all — pain and consequences of the fall aside, that was the first time he'd realized his parents couldn't fix everything. Even the doctors couldn't fix everything; not right away, at least. They'd had to rely on Billy, on his body's healing processes, on his will and determination to get better quick so he could get back outside, climbing trees and playing football on the pitch.
And so, after it was all said and done, Billy realized there really was no one he could really count on at all. Not when he was falling, anyway. Not when he was getting back up, either; others might be around to offer a little support, but it was up to Billy to pull himself up by his bootstraps, as the Americans say.
At least, that's what he thought. He lived with that thought in the back of his mind for years, and time and time again he'd been proven right. From childhood accidents to his final mission with the SIS, the one that nearly cost his life, caused his family to disown him, and forced his country to kick him out, Billy had been left to his own devices.
But then he'd joined the CIA. Then he'd been selected for the ODS.
He's not even sure when exactly it happened, but somewhere along the line, he realized he'd been wrong all along. Falling was frightening, the landing painful, but getting up after? That could be a lot easier if the right team was at his back, helping him up, pushing him or pulling him or supporting him — whatever it took to get him up on his feet and back into the game.
The ODS is the right team, Billy knows. He knows because they've proved themselves time and again. He knows because he's done the same for them.
And he knows they'll do it now.
Because Billy's still falling.
Not physically — at least, he doesn't think so. His head is spinning and his body feels disconnected, but he still feels anchored. There's something underneath him, something softer than the concrete from before, and there's a warm, light pressure on his wrist — a hand, he thinks, keeping him grounded as he fights through the fog of pain and drugs and disorientation.
He remembers what happened. Mostly. The fight with Pryce, and the fall for sure. That moment of calm just before impact, the acceptance of his fate.
After that, things get fuzzier. He remembers the glint of rebar above him; the incapacitating pain in his shoulder. Casey, failing to hide the worry in his voice; Rick, pleading with him to stay with us, Billy, just stay; Michael, telling him to wake up sooner rather than later.
But the thing is, Billy's not sure he wants to wake up. Even though his body is at rest, Billy hasn't stopped falling. He doesn't know how badly injured he is (though he imagines it can't be good, what with the rebar that had been protruding from his shoulder), and he doesn't know how long he's been in this state, and he doesn't know how long it's going to be before he can get back to work.
And that's why he's still falling. Because he doesn't even know at this point if he can work — not in the field anyway. Every time he's been seriously injured in the field, it puts him just a little bit closer to that moment when it'll all be too much, when he isn't able to get up after a fall, when his body reaches the point where field work is no longer an option.
Billy doesn't know what he'll do if he ever gets benched permanently. He's meant for working on the ground, in the field; sitting in an office behind a desk is effectively a death sentence for him. Without his job, Billy has nothing. Billy is nothing.
"Is he waking up?"
"I think so. Billy?"
"It's about damn time. If I have to spend another night in one of these spine-shattering hospital chairs, I will not be held responsible for my actions."
They're there. His team. More than that, his friends.
Billy's not entirely sure why that surprises him. After all, they're always there — always have been, most likely will be. That's what's different about the ODS, after all. It's more than a unit; it's a team, even a family.
So Billy's not surprised; not really. It still catches him off-guard, though, sometimes. He's spent far more time trying to pick himself up on his own; the near-decade he's spent with the ODS can't completely wipe that all away.
Except that it sort of can. Because yes, Billy's still falling, isn't quite sure where he's going to land, but his team is there. His team is there, and they will still be there, even if the fallout from this mission means Billy's career in the field is over. Things will change, maybe, but that won't — that presence, that loyalty, that family. That will be there.
And so Billy decides he should at least open his eyes, acknowledge they're there. He owes them that much. And if that means he finds out he's going to be having a career change in the near future, well, so be it.
Of course, it figures that as soon as Billy decides he wants to open his eyes, his body wants to do the opposite and shut down. But he's not going to let that happen — not yet, anyway. He's got to start taking control of his body again sometime; it might as well be now.
Then, as if on cue (or as if he's able to read Billy's mind, which Billy wouldn't doubt), Michael's there, encouraging him and ordering him around, just like always. "Come on, Billy, I know you'd probably rather be sleeping, but we've been sitting around here for days wondering if you'd eat it, so you should at least wake up enough to tell us."
"The wha'?" Billy rasps, forcing his eyes open not so much out of determination as sheer confusion.
They're hovering around his bed — well, Casey's actually leaning against a wall at the edge of the small room, but that's how Casey hovers — and as soon as they realize Billy's actually awake, they all smile. Even Casey, which would worry Billy if he had more energy, because Casey's not one to smile unless it's in grim satisfaction of defeating a challenging opponent. Or if he's managed to best Billy at paper-wad basketball. Like he did a few days before the start of this mission. They'll have to have a rematch, because losing eight to two is absolutely unacceptable.
It's also not important right now, Billy realizes, because Michael's been talking to him and Billy's missed everything he said to this point. "...more surgery when we get you back to the States, but all things considered, you got lucky. It'll take awhile, but we'll get you back out into the field," Michael says, and it's like a tremendous weight has been lifted from Billy's shoulders.
He'll be fine. He's injured now — how badly, he's not even sure — but he'll be fine and he'll be able to go back out with his team, and that's really all that matters right now.
"And I know Berta will be quite pleased to have one of our number within her gasp again," Casey adds.
Rick shudders, and Billy chuckles, though it's raspy and rather painful to do so. "You don't approve of our resident physical therapist?" he asks, nodding gratefully when Michael offers him a glass of water with a straw.
"She's handsy, " Rick complains.
"That's putting it mildly," Casey agrees with a nod.
Michael's forehead furrows. "She's never that way around me," he says.
Casey and Rick shoot each other sidelong glances. "It happens when she likes the cute ones," Rick finally says.
"Ooh, zing!" Billy snickers before Michael can respond.
The others stare at him, eyebrows raised. "'Zing'?" Casey repeats. "Really?"
Billy glares, but the effect is ruined by a yawn and the fact that he's not been able to open his eyes real wide in the first place.
"Get some rest, Billy," Michael orders, setting the water aside. "We'll be right here when you wake up," he adds as the others nod.
Billy's never been one to fight Michael's orders, but it helps that this time as he falls into unconsciousness, he feels not just peace, but security. Security that he'll wake up again, that he'll soon be heading back to America — to his home, which is odd, because when he first arrived, he'd never thought he'd have a home again.
Then again, as he fades out to the sound of Rick and Casey discussing something, he thinks it's not America that provides the sense of home. It's the family he's found there. The team that won't leave him alone when he most needs help. The team that will ultimately be there to catch him when he falls.
And that, Billy thinks, is all he really needs.


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As a kid or a parent, "Are we there yet?" is a common question we ask or hear, especially on a long trip. The question highlights the excitement, anticipation and anxiety for the journey. Today I will be starting a three sermon series through some stories in the book of Numbers regarding the nation of Israel's journey from the Egyptian exodus to the brink of the Promised Land.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have God clearly guide you as to exactly where to go and what to do? How many of us have prayed, "Lord if you would just tell me exactly what you want me to do, I will do it"?
In Numbers 9:15-23, the nation of Israel is given clear and specific guidance through a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Great! They knew exactly when to go and when to stay put. But the difficult part is they never knew how long they would stay or how long they would travel. It could be two days, a week or a month!
Can you imagine what it would be like to travel like that? How hard it would be to wait for the pillar of cloud/fire to move! What is God doing?
This passage in Numbers comes after the grand story of the exodus. The Israelites had been dramatically rescued from slavery and oppression in Egypt by the mighty works of God through Moses. First it was through the 10 plagues and then later through a miraculous crossing of the Red Sea. They were on their way back home, to the land that God promised to their ancestor Abraham.
Interestingly enough, after the dramatic and grand rescue from Egypt, God didn't miraculously transport them to the Promised Land. Instead the journey took days and weeks and months and years. Numbers 9:1 tells us it is the first month of the second year after they came out of Egypt. They have been travelling for over a year.
God has been faithfully guiding them but their journey was long and God was teaching the people patience, trust, obedience and God's provision.
Where are you at in your journey with God? Just as God did not transport the Israelites to Egypt after their rescue, Jesus doesn't beam us up to heaven once we receive Christ.
Instead after we have been rescued from sin and death and hell by the precious blood of Christ, we remain here. And in our journey through this life, God is teaching us patience, trust, obedience and God's provision.
Are we there yet?


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New Reception Desks
A new reception desk can completely transform the look of your reception area. It can also have an impact on the first impression that you make with prospective clients or customers. For this reason, you should give careful thought to your selection. Here are some considerations to factor into your decision.
What Style Should You Choose?
You should first begin thinking about the style that you would like for your new reception desk. Consider the needs and function that you require. The style that you choose should reflect the style of your offices. Choose between modern reception desks, and traditional styles. You can also browse a selection of different materials, including wood, laminate, and metal.
What Size Desk Should You Purchase?
After considering the style and design of your new reception desk, think about the size of the desk. You need to ensure that you have enough room for the desk. The desk that you choose should accommodate the needs of your receptionist, without taking away from the function of your reception area.
You may need to leave enough space for guest seating. Also, if you are going to have multiple receptionists, then the desk may require space for more than one employee.
Do You Require Any Special Function or Layout?
Depending on the tasks being performed by your receptionist, you may require additional features, such as extra file storage space or enough space for electronics and computer equipment. Consider the function and layout of your new reception desks.


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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Amarin Corp., a small British drug manufacturer that specializes in neurological products, is suffering from the possibility of generic competition.
Yet Amarin AMRN, -3.05%, whose shares were the second-best performer among specialty-drugmaker stocks on the Nasdaq last year, may have exclusive rights to sell its main drug, Permax, longer than most investors are anticipating.
Eli Lilly LLY, +0.13% holds the patent for Permax, a dopamine receptor that treats Parkinson's disease and achieved sales of about $30 million in the U.S. last year, or approximately 67 percent of Amarin's total product revenue. Andrew Forman, a pharmaceutical analyst for Friedman Billings Ramsey, says patent owner Lilly is in litigation with at least one generic company over the drug, which treats Parkinson's disease.
"This could delay any generic by a year or two," says Forman. "It's small potatoes for Lilly but big for Amarin." A generic, over-the-counter version of Permax could reduce profit margins for Amarin. Forman says Amarin shares, down more than 50 percent since Jan. 2, also suffer from the company's ties to Elan Corp. ELN, -2.66%, an Irish drugmaker embroiled in controversy over the way it accounts for its many joint ventures.
"Elan has gotten clobbered on accounting, and so if you are in bed with Elan it doesn't help," Forman says from his Virginia office. Elan owns 39 percent of Amarin.
Richard Stewart, Amarin's London-based chief executive, says Amarin is "an on-balance-sheet investment for Elan, not a joint venture." Stewart says Amarin is partly under scrutiny from investors because of the way it is treating the purchase of Permax from Lilly, due to close later this year.
Permax will pay $37 million for the drug's underlying assets. In turn, the company's auditors decided in February to charge $18 million against earnings, all for the marketing and distribution of Permax. The quarterly charge sent investors fleeing, with the stock down 30 percent in a day.
The accounting charge in no way detracts from the $28 million of cash or so Amarin had on its books at the end of 2001, says Stewart, who was in New York last week speaking with fund managers. The $30 million is almost a quarter of Amarin's fully diluted Nasdaq market capitalization. The company has no London listing and runs sales and marketing from Marin County, just a jog over San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
On the matter of generic competition for Permax, Stewart is circumspect. "We believe the risk of generic competition is a drag on the stock but are increasingly confident that the threat of generics is not immediate," he said Monday. "However, the more successful we are with Permax, the higher the probability of generics."
Stewart took over leadership of Amarin, an ailing drug-delivery company at the time, in 1998. Before that, he was responsible for corporate strategy at SkyePharma (SKP), a British company. Stewart says he expects several positive developments for Amarin in coming months.
Amarin owns the rights to Zelapar, a fast-dissolving lozenge that also is a therapeutic treatment for Parkinson's, a nerve disorder. Zelapar is in the final phase of clinical trials. "We will file a new drug application with the FDA on Zelapar imminently," Stewart said. The Food and Drug Administration in Washington then would appoint a panel to study the drug's results and target market.
Another neurological treatment, LAX-101, is in development as a treatment for Huntington's disease. Amarin licenses U.S. marketing rights for LAX-101 from British company Laxdale. If LAX-101 clears final, Phase III trials on human patients, the drug could mark a breakthrough for those who suffer from the degenerative disease, Stewart predicts.
"We are cautiously excited about this product and working closely with the Huntington's Disease Association," Stewart says. In the United States, about 30,000 people are diagnosed with the deadly disease, with another 100,000 at risk. No drugs currently treat Huntington's, which can take 15 years or longer to kill victims.
Phase III trials for LAX-101, being conducted at Harvard University, as well as in Britain and Canada, will be completed in late July.
Stewart says he is happy a lot of investors made money on Amarin stock last year. "I expect to see that happen again," he says. "The market gave us a lot of credit for executing on our plan in neurology. A $50 million product can be very important for us and have the full attention of our sales force."
Amarin has about 80 employees, including 50 in a Swedish laboratory. Forman, the Friedman Billings analyst, recently repeated his "buy" rating on the Nasdaq shares. He expects Amarin to earn $1.44 a share this year.
South Africa miner abandons Nasdaq
Gold Fields Ltd. GOLD, +0.54%, the unhedged gold miner that recently supassed Anglogold AU, -0.51% as South Africa's largest bullion company by stock market value, will move to the New York Stock Exchange on May 9 from Nasdaq. Gold Fields' shares have quadrupled since January 2001. In that same span, Anglogold, once the world's largest gold miner, has seen its shares double.
Gold Fields, unlike Anglogold, declines to second-guess the gold market by selling any of its ounces forward in an effort to supplement income. The company's chairman, Chris Thompson, rapidly built gold reserves, approaching 90 million ounces, through the purchase of mines across Africa and Australia. Gold Fields, joining Anglogold on the NYSE, will trade American Depositary shares under the ticker symbol GFI and continue its primary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.


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Park Avenue Limousine
- 4206 B. Old Lincoln Highway
- Trevose, PA 19053
- (215) 364-2470
Each of our chauffeurs are properly trained and licensed to operate a variety of vehicles and how to handle the most difficult situations. We only staff knowledgeable, courteous and safe drivers to ensure you receive the best possible service. We service any social and corporate event. Whether its a business function, Wedding, Prom or a night on the town - we provide reliable, quality service that is second to none.


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Blacksburg, VAHome Menu
Aquatic Center
- Address:625 Patrick Henry Dr.
Blacksburg, VA 24060
- Phone:(540) 443-1120
- Available for parties
- Bike racks
- Electricity
- Hot tub
- Parking
- Restrooms
- Sauna
- Showers
- Wheelchair accessible
- Town of Blacksburg Property
- Address:625 Patrick Henry Dr.
View Aquatic programs in the About Town
Register for Aquatic programs online
Blacksburg Aquatic Center Programming and Public Swim Schedule (374kb pdf)
Hours of Operation
Daily Admission Fees
Rental Fees
The Blacksburg Aquatic Center is an indoor aquatic facility. The Aquatic Center offers six lap lanes in a 25 yard swimming pool with a splash pool and zero depth entry. The aquatic center also has a hot tub, men's and women's saunas, locker rooms, family changing room, and a lobby area.
Hours of Operation
|Monday – Thursday
|5:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m.
|5:30 a.m.-7:15 p.m.
|9 a.m.-6:30.p.m.
|1 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
The pool closes fifteen minutes before the building.
Therapy Swim
The Aquatic Center is closed to the general public 9-11am Monday - Friday for Therapy Swim.
Therapy Swim time is restricted to only those patrons who have had water exercise prescribed by a physician. A doctor's note and daily admission or a swim pass are required to use the pool during Therapy Swim times.
Daily Admission Fees
$3.25 (ages 3-14)
$3.75 (ages 15 -64)
$3.25 (ages 65 & up)
*rates decrease by $0.50 after 7 p.m.
10-Swim PassesAdults (15-64): $32
Seniors (65 & up): $27
Youth (3-14): $27
30-Swim PassesAdults (15-64): $90
Seniors (65 & up): $75
Youth (3-14): $75
Yearly Pass
Adults (15-64): $250
Seniors (65 & up): $225
Youth (3-14): $225
Family Pass
Primary Account Member
Adults (15-64): $250
Seniors (65 & up): $225
Youth (3-14): $225
Additional Account Member
Adult (20-64): $175
Senior (65 & Up): $110
Young Adult (15-19): $110
Youth (3-14): $95
Pool Parties
The facility is available year round for private rentals on Fridays from 7:15-9:15 p.m., and Saturdays 6:45-8:45 p.m. Lobby parties can be scheduled from 1:15-3:15 p.m. or 3:45-5:45 p.m. on Saturday or Sunday. All private rental reservations must be made at least one full week in advance. Groups larger than 25 people must be scheduled at least two weeks in advance.
Private Rental Package: $125
Pool admission for up to 25 people.
For parties larger than 25 people there will be an additional charge of $25.
Add a Float Package to any private rental for $35. Includes use of all aquatic center inflatable toys and animals. Float toys may vary according to availability.
Lobby Rental Package: $70
This package includes pool admission for up to 15 people and use of the lobby for two hours.
Additional price per person is $3.
PLEASE NOTE: The lobby will remain open to other pool patrons at all times.
Packages do not include food. The party may bring their own food and drinks. Alcoholic beverages are not allowed. Groups larger than 25 people must make reservations at least two weeks in advance.
For more information, contact the Blacksburg Aquatic Center at 540-443-1120.


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Worst Things that Could Happen Before 2017nelsonerica 2016 is just almost over, but horrible things we've never experienced before could happen very soon.
The Top Ten
Notice how almost everything here concerns America and only America. - Puga
America is our top nation, and with ISIS on the move, they will not stop until they get us, so America could be destroyed sooner than we know. - nelsonerica
Because ISIS will clearly destroy a whole country (continent if we are talking about what "America" really is) before 2017. - Martinglez
ISIS will never destroy America. Heck, I want America to destroy ISIS.
Well, if it happens, it won't be till Jan - ProPanda
Hillary Clinton is on our wa to becoming president very soon. - nelsonerica
She did not - Neonco31
This would put all humanity and our world in danger. - nelsonerica
Oh for fooks sake. - IronSabbathPriest
It'll most likely be nucleur.. - LemonComputer
Given how Hillary would run for President, since Obama messed up our country pretty bad, Hillary might push it to being bankrupt, and we'll all be poor. - nelsonerica
What...again?! - Britgirl
America is pretty corrupt now, and with Hillary running for president, could put NASA to an end.
NASA is how we put humans on other worlds, like the Moon. - nelsonerica
Yeah, but I hope it never happens. If it does, then we must find a way to survive.
We've all worried about that for decades, and as we more closer and learn more about geology, we are expecting a HUGE Earthquake to destroy California, killing (almost) everybody on it. - nelsonerica
THIS above everything else that can potentially destroy world as we know it? This needs to be MUCH more DOWN! - LemonComputer
Aw cringe - Neonco31
They can't!
Cartoon Network put Steven Universe on hiatus after the 1st episode of Season 4, yet they said the next episode would air on Thanksgiving Day, but we worry it might get cancelled.
Television will be impossible after that. - nelsonerica
Both options are awful. I would rather have Bernie sanders as president.
More likely Hillary will become president, she's got more votes than Donald Trump. - nelsonerica
Yep, both options are horrible, America is messed. - Martinglez
And apparently, it did happen. - ModernSpongeBobSucksV 1 Comment
Well, it got cancelled on December.
Harvey Beaks is very rare nowadays, and it could come to an end this year.
It's one of the few good Nickelodeon shows left now. - nelsonerica
It's Nickelodeon's best show now besides SpongeBob, and because so many people like it, it could get cancelled after its next season, or it could get cancelled if Nickelodeon decides to change their mind and cancel it before Season 2, since Nickelodeon is already screwed up nowadays. - nelsonerica
The Contenders
He is our worst singer, and if he releases another album before the year ends, music is screwed. - nelsonerica
Too bad he did - Neonco31
NO, PLEASE NO! - LemonComputer
NO NO NO NO NO NO, IF DISNEY BUYS NINTENDO WE NINTENDO FANS WILL BE SCREWED UP! (Sorry for caps)
Who had this stupid idea? - LemonComputer
Video games are sort of a freedom of speech thing, so yeah, not happenng (fortunately).
Another TLK item? Jeez, the TLK haters will scramble for any list to spread their hatred of The Lion King on... - ModernSpongeBobSucks
Should be changed to a snake or a poisonous scorpion.
It didn't destroy Florida THANK GOODNESS! But it did damage the East Coast, and a few people were killed by falling trees.
We know it's gonna hit, and it could mean everyone in Fl will die from the damaging forces, lightning and waves.
Everyone in Fl is told to evacuate.
It is a bad thing and should never happen.
I find that ironic since the US is supposed to be a free country in the first place, and it is supposed to be a republic, not a democracy.
I hope this never happens, and this is ironic because the Republican Party was MADE to put an end to slavery and give women the same equal rights as men. It shouldn't be the opposite of what it was made to be.
Being someone with autism who votes for the party of the elephant, I hope this doesn't happen.
I heard this rumor might happen and I am not happy with it. Disney are a bunch of needy, greedy swine!
Related ListsTop Ten Things that Should Happen on Steven Universe Before the Series Ends Top Ten Things that Should Happen on Miraculous Ladybug Before the Series Ends Things You Don't Want to Happen Before Getting On a Roller Coaster Things that Will Happen Before a New Tool Album is Released Top Ten Random Things That Could Happen
List Stats
2 years, 324 days old
Top Remixes
2. Hillary Clinton is President
3. World War III Starts


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Member Guide
Financial Assistance
Corporate Partners
American Behavioral Health -Parkside
Cashmere Manufacturing
Cashmere Valley Bank (CVB)
Chelan County
Chelan PUD
City of Wenatchee
Confluence Health
Douglas County& Douglas Fire
Eagle / Life Line
East Wenatchee School District
East Wenatchee Water
Libke Insurance
Stemilt Growers
Tree Top
Wenatchee School District
Wenatchee Valley Hospital
Wenatchee Valley College
Providing a wellness program is a great way for your organization to create a culture of healthy living and invest in your most important resource — your employees.
With rising health care costs and the push to do more with less, the health of your employees is a pivotal piece contributing to better productivity. Plus, it gives your employee benefit program an added option that leads to greater employee satisfaction and retention.
Wellness at Work
▪ Free Personal Fitness Consultation
▪ Free MobileFIT Account:Customized workouts and nutritional support, with easy access on your phone app.
▪ Access to two swimming pools year round (EYCA Currently closed for renovations)
▪ Access to all adult group exercise classes at no additional cost, including water fitness classes
▪ Reduced pricing for memberships for larger businesses
▪ The Y offers many programs that provide support for those who are just getting started on their health and well-being journey, which begins with our free Coaches Connection and/or Personal Training consultation.


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An unexpected problem during a commute can be extremely frustrating, but will likely happen at some point during a vehicle's lifetime. The problem will likely be as simple as a flat tire, but could be something much more serious. A regular maintenance schedule can go a long way in preventing unexpected breakdowns and stops, but if it happens, remember the following steps.
Contact Us Today
The following five steps should be followed if you ever have to make an unexpected roadside stop:
Remove vehicle from traffic lanes as quickly and safely as possible
If you are experiencing any problems while moving, such as engine failure, you are still able to switch your vehicle into neutral and coast to the shoulder. If it is impossible to pull over immediately, then do so at the first safe opportunity that presents itself.
Contact someone for help
Make sure to contact a loved one to let them know that your vehicle is broken down at a given location. If you are a CAA or other auto club member, contact them immediately.
Notify other drivers of your problem
A parked vehicle can be extremely dangerous if other drivers do not notice that it is stopped. Turn on 4-ways and other exterior lights in order to make yourself as visible as possible.
Safety trumps a quick fix
Don't try to pop the hood and fix the problem yourself unless it is absolutely safe to do so. Roadside repairs on a crowded highway can be extremely dangerous.
A vehicle breaking down is highly inconvenient, but can be understandable. Notify those who are relying on you - such as a coworker or boss - and simply have patience.


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Explore the Quaker way: read about the basics of our faith, find answers to common questions and find a Quaker meeting near you.
Partners in Spirit—bringing young adults and mentors together
Young adults need mentors. When you look back on your spiritual growth, who encouraged you? None of us grows to our full potential without others seeing our inner promise, creating space, and encouraging us along as we move through the hardest stretches.
Mentors are omega-3s for our spiritual growth, increasing vitality and drawing out potential. And yet, many young adult Friends in New England report they struggle to find authentic mentoring relationships. I do not believe that this problem exists because there is a lack of Friends capable of spiritual nurture; I believe it is (at least in part) due to an awkwardness at starting mentoring conversations and a failure to see ourselves as worthy of this powerful role. Even as someone who has worked intensively with youth in an explicitly spiritual context for years, I feel shy about claiming myself as a mentor or bringing the full intentionality of mentorship into my local meeting relationships. I believe there are other Friends out there who may feel this same shyness and yearning to grow.
Seeking to respond to this concern, "Partners in Spirit" is a retreat focused on enlivening aspiring Quaker mentors by deepening their understanding of mentorship and their own gifts. The retreat will be held February 15–18, 2019, at Woolman Hill and is made possible thanks to the Obadiah Brown Benevolent Fund.
This retreat is not only for aspiring mentors, it is also for emerging adults (ages 18–25) who seek to strengthen their understanding of Quaker spiritual practice and to better use their faith in their day to day lives.
By bringing these two cohorts together as partners in the spiritual journey, the retreat seeks to grow multi-generational spiritual friendships and fuel the Quaker movement. Read more about the retreat on the Woolman Hill website.
Does this retreat sound like a good fit for you? Applications for mentors and emerging adults are due by December 10th. Please spread the word to Friends you know who may benefit from this special gathering.
~Nia Thomas
New England Yearly Meeting of Friends
901 Pleasant Street, Worcester, MA 01602
(508) 754-6760 - [email protected]


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Todays Listener Question: What is Manual mode exactly and why is it so much better?
Shooting in manual can seem scary. I've been there I know. Having full control of your camera means its your fault if you miss a photo. You may even think, I spend this much money on my camera why not let it do most of the thinking and decision making. On paper that makes sense but loosing that control will make you lose confidence. Part of what makes a good photographer is their ability to walk into a room and know what camera settings they need. When you shoot in auto you'll never know what your camera decided to do so you will always be shooting reactively instead of proactively. Shooting with your camera in manual mode will be scary in the beginning, but with everything once you gain the experience you will gain the confidence!