"What?" she barked into the small receiver.

"Damn!" Dr. Ellen Burgess and Faith Ward Corleone exclaimed in unison, via the three-way call.

"First Ellen, now you, too?" Faith replied.

"Hey," Ellen chimed in, "I have a legitimate reason to be in a pissy mood."

As if on cue, the maddening itching commenced once more and Ellen reached for any available sliver-like object to snake down the length of her freshly cast right leg.

"Well, if you'd keep your feet on the ground--" Faith began pointedly.

"And to stop doing crazy shit like jumping out of airplanes--" Sabrina finished scolding.

Both women felt chills creep along their spines as they recalled the phone call they'd both received from Ellen's cousin, Assistant District Attorney Dara Jensen, informing them Ellen had been injured.

"Wait, I'm crazy for skydiving, but you, Miss European," she nailed Sabrina, "are perfectly sane for deep sea diving…in the nude?"

"That's different," Sabrina huffed. "Besides, I was with Jerry and in perfectly good hands."

"Yeah you were." Ellen gave a soft snort of derision. "And so was your ass, and your boobs, and…"

"Hey! Hello???" Faith cut in.

One would have sworn they were all gathered at one of their homes, as was per their usual unofficial "ritual," engaged in their usual fare of hurling insults and wisecracks as they each unwound from the seemingly never ending drama that either came from their demanding careers, family, or sometimes both.

"Are you two finished??" She shook her head in disbelief, muttering aloud, "And to think I was calling both your lil' monkey-asses," she feigned attitude, "to see how your Valentine's Day was going???"

"It's not!" Sabrina muttered through clenched teeth as she continued down the hall. "The only thing "going" is my tired ass - home. Alone."