"Mr. Parona—"

"Please, call me Antonio. Your dad and I were on a first name basis."

"Right. Antonio, please, come with me."

Helena closed the door behind her patient before she showed him to her office. Her work space was medium-sized, the light from the window behind her desk slowly diminishing as the early hours of evening approached. Mr. Parona was her last patient for the day, and she hoped it would be a quick session.

"So, I have here your file, the one my father kept for you. It seems that you may need to have the battery in your pacemaker replaced pretty soon. The earlier we do this, the better. I can place a call to the hospital in Anchorage and talk to the cardiologist and electrophysiologist. We'll schedule you for an appointment and they may even be able to do the procedure in that same trip. Does that sound like something you'd be okay with?"

"I suppose," Antonio shrugged, seemingly worried in reaction to the news. But Helena had gone through this more often than she could remember. 

"Look, I know it sounds invasive, but I promise you this procedure is easier than the original one. You'll receive local anesthesia and you'll be out that same day."

Antonio nearly cracked a smile as his face filled with relief. "Outpatient thing, right?"

"That is correct," she replied.

"Alright, let's do it then."

---

Helena walked through the doors into the meeting room. She sat on the far end of the table, keeping mostly to herself as she waited for the others to arrive. The little banquet event had been a nice surprise, mostly because that meant she didn't have to cook that evening.