An evening at the beach, a perfect time for reflections. Steve had a lot of thinking to do; he and Amanda had had an argument. It was a small argument, a silly one to be exact. He had broken their plans once again because of a case. While he was sure Amanda was supportive of his job and knew how much he identified with his job, this was the third time in two weeks he had backed out of their plans. She accused him of placing the job ahead of her that what he had planned to investigate could wait a few hours. In his line of work following up on leads was vital and shouldn't be put off, but as his dad had pointed out was interviewing the victim again tonight something that couldn't wait until tomorrow morning. The victim was under guard at the hospital and would be there in the morning. Since his question was about a business that he wouldn't be able to follow up on until tomorrow after they opened was it necessary to interview again tonight. Now he wondered if they were both right. He was torn, how could he balance this; the love of this life Amanda and work. His dad had a demanding profession also, but always had time for him – how did he balance it.

Now that he had time to calm down he realized that maybe he should just ask his dad how he does it. Reluctantly he could see why Amanda may be upset with him and he should talk to her as well.

As he walked back to the house, he thought he'd start with talking to his dad, he reviewed the case. There had been a homicide just down the street from the police station last night, in the alley between a grocer and a bike shop. One victim was dead the other had been severely beaten. After the second victim, Arnie Hallin, came to he had told Steve there had been three of them that jumped he and Cole (the dead victim) in the alley as they were talking out the rotten produce to the garbage they had been dressed in dark clothes, jackets that looked to be the same with a patch on the right arm, he hadn't been able to see what the patch said though. They had been upset with Cole about something to do with a trail. This didn't make any sense to Steve at first until he had interviewed those at the grocer and found out Cole had been an avid bike trail rider. This had led him to think about the bike shop next to the grocer. He wanted to ask Arnie if there was a connection between Cole and the bike shop.

When he got back to the beach house his dad was making dinner, "Hey son, dinner will be ready in ten minutes. Will Amanda be joining us?"

"Not tonight," Steve almost whispered.

Mark could tell something was bothering Steve, but would wait until after dinner to ask him. He didn't have to wait that long.

After they had started eating Steve began the conversation. "Dad, how did you balance things?" he paused, "I mean how did you balance work and family?"

"Ah, does this have anything to do with why Amanda, who had the day off isn't eating with us tonight and you're not eating with her?"

"Yeah, we had a little disagreement, I have this case, and want to follow up on something tonight, so I cancelled our plans. We had a difference of opinion, I know Amanda understands my job and being called away, but she said I put the job first. How can I not when there's a killer loose?"

"Is it something that can't wait until tomorrow, will the lead be gone or is someone's life in danger?"

"Well, no."

"I think you've just answered your own dilemma, but to answer your question. I didn't always balance things at first. Your mom was left with you and Carol so many nights that weren't necessary. Yes, I get called away at times also, but I always had to check one more time on a patient even though there were doctors and nurses on duty that could to so just as well. One day, when you were young your mom told me of how I had missed one of your school activities again (I don't even remember what it was) and could see in her eyes and yours it had been important for me to be there. That night your mom gave me a stern, but loving talking to. It helped and I did better, I wasn't perfect, but I did better. When you mother died I realized you never know when your time with someone is up, so I learned to balance every better, thought still not perfect."

"Thanks Dad, and thanks for dinner I think I need to go talk to someone."

Mark just smiled.