The hospital had let Ramirez use a shower, but the day had still taken its toll on him as he found himself unable to do anything but sit and wait for ...aisson’s reports on her condition. Ortega had reported that Lady Maria... no, she was Contessa Maria now; had started seeing advisers and would call him for a meeting soon.The Generalissimo tapped the little stack of four 3x5 cards containing the information he had to give the press. He looked out the glass doors at the podium that had been set. He was a white guy about my age. We talked business for a while then he noticed the picture on my desk.“Cute wife and daughter you have there” Tom saidTom was the first person to get it right when seeing my family picture for the first time.I laughed at him telling how he was the first one to get it right.Then he asked me how long we have been married. I told him a year.“ So she must be starting the one year itch. Not that I am prying but you must feel like your wife is somewhere else after. ‘This should be fun,’ you think to yourself as you put your hand on her hip without saying a word. The girl plays along, her butt pushing against you as you both move to the music. You lean your head over her shoulder and see a cute girl with a round face, full lips and a toothy grin. You‘re instantly hit with the idea that you know her, but you don‘t know from where. “Bon soir,” you say in her ear as you assume she must be a French speaker. “Hello,” she says in a Southern twang. ‘That’s it!. " With Bud back in my head it was easy to know where and how, not that this was unfamiliar. The amount of power it took to fill the suit completely was surprising though."That's a lot more power than last time," I said when I was done."The suit has a lot more reserves now," Bud commented. "Plus it now has more active systems that require power. The first one is the new shape." I want to see" I said, and built myself a mirror. Creating an almost optically perfect mirror was an easy trick when.