"I am so in love with you baby, your so beautiful and sexy and all mine." I think I'm giddy. I run my hands along her gentle curves slowly just getting to know them. I don’t think anything has made me smile this much in years.

"Fireball, you’re a sick woman if you think a Jeep is the woman for you." Rico says ruining the romantic atmosphere.

"But she’s soooo pretty, look at her, shiny and black, all leather interior, big fat off road tyres and a rag top, c’mon tell me how do women compare with her?" I whine, yes I’ll admit it. I whine.

"Well if you find a chunk of metal turning you on more than full soft breasts and silky thighs….."

"Ok. Ok. But I'm never gonna get me any of those so one of these will have to do." Rico had been great the last few weeks even though she hates the idea of me leaving school. She just wants me happy.

"You drive safe now, I will see your cute behind at the try out match on Sunday."

"Thanks Rico, I’ll see you soon."

*** ***

The drive down to Oceanside doesn’t take too long and I pull in to an empty carspace in front of Pacific Real Estate just before 1. As I open the door a curvy, bubbly, redhead greets me.

"Hi, you must be Alice, the bank said you’d be down today. I'm Robin Murphy."

Another thing to never ever forgive my mother for.

Alice Cooper Benson.

What the hell was she thinking?

I mean really, I have 4 brothers and do you wanna know what their names are? Starting at the top we have Woodstock Freelove Benson, born 9 months after Woodstock the musical event.

Hendrix Morrison Benson, born in 73 a couple of weeks after Jim Morrison died.

Mohawk Ramone Benson, who was born in 78 when my mother discovered punk music.

Then me, and lastly my twin brother Gene Simmons Benson.

Someone should have tied her tubes a very long time ago. 5 kids, born in 4 different states to 4 different men. None of us even know who our fathers are. If I didn’t know anything about human anatomy, I would even say that me and Gene have different fathers, but apparently human women are not like cats who can have multiple fathers of a single litter.

"Please, call me Cooper, I haven’t been Alice since I learnt to talk."

"Your mom sure had a sense of humor didn’t she. Well I have the keys to the 4 properties that you were interested in, 2 of them I wouldn’t bother with; the owners want way too much money for them. So shall we take a look at the other two?" Wow a seemingly genuine and honest Real Estate agent, who woulda thunk it?

"By the way, have we met before, you look familiar for some reason?" she asks as we head out the door.

"Not that I know of, I play soccer for USC, sometimes people have seen me because of that." I say with more than a little embarrassment. I hate blowing my own horn amongst other things I do on my own.

"Actually that could be it, one of my closest friends teaches there. Antonia Davis."

"My roommate takes her Gender Studies, she is the only 100% hetero girl in the class but she loves it."

*** ***

Robin pulls her Subaru into an unmade sandy driveway; the trees on either side of us dapple the light so it feels almost otherworldly.

I can feel it in my bones that this is the one.

A few minutes of rough riding we pull into a clearing in front of a beat up summerhouse, it has a wide porch that wraps around the whole house and best of all private beach access by way of a winding cliff track. I climb out of the car and walk up the stairs to the porch; the view is incredible from up here on the cliff. Trees all around and then the big electric blue Pacific. I don’t even need to go inside to know I will live here.

"I’ll take it." Robin nods at my statement, smiles and takes in the view.

"I’d forgotten how magnificent the view was. You do realise, as your trusty agent I will have to come over for a celebratory bottle of red while relaxing on this porch. I have to make sure my job was done well you understand." She says with a conspiritory grin.

"You bring the red and I’ll supply the view and maybe even some chairs."

I think I might have made a friend here. I think I like it.

"There is a great seafood place not too far from here, feel like an early dinner Cooper?"

"Sure, my treat though."

"Where are we going? You know how much I hate surprises." I know I'm whining and grumbling, but I really do hate not knowing what’s going on. We have been in the car driving for half an hour already and I am slowly going insane.

"Liz I told you this morning; we are going to be moral support for my new favorite client, who was not only the most delicious eye candy I have EVER seen but incredibly sweet as well." Oooooooohhhhhhhhhh I get it now, Robin has a crush.

"This isn’t another one of your ‘diamond in the rough leather wearing bad girls’ is it Rob?"

"Nope, this one is perfect just the way she is. No nasty attitude, no ‘make my momma have a coronary’ language problems, and will definitely NOT send any cows into therapy with her wardrobe. She is perfectly nice, intelligent and charming."

I must be missing something here, Rob has always had a soft spot for misunderstood bad girls, why the hell would she suddenly be interested in Laura Ingalls?

"I know you Robin Aisling Murphy. Perfectly nice, intelligent and charming, who are you trying to kid? What’s wrong with her?"

"Nothing at all, there is just something about her, like a puppy that has been spanked too many times and thinks its her fault. I think she could use a friend." There’s the Robin I know, taking home Lassie and petting and loving them till it turns out to be Cujo in disguise. I just hope this one doesn’t have rabies.

*** ***

I never knew how many people were interested in soccer. There must be at least 500 people here to watch this match. I don’t even know who’s playing whom.

"Rob, who are we rooting for here?" I know I must look skeptical about this whole adventure, but I can’t help it. I am.

"Ok this is a special match apparently, the two teams are made up of Olympic hopefuls all trying out for Team USA. So we’re not rooting for anyone really, this is just a training thing for the selectors, but friends and family come to support their player."

Team USA,

Olympic soccer,

Robin,

Real estate,

Cooper being invited to try out,

Quitting school,

Oh My God.

Just how small is the world. That would be to big a coincidence wouldn’t it.

Well????????

"Ah Rob, which player are we here to support?" I ask hesitantly. I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach I already know the answer.

"Benson, Number 11 in the red shirts." Robin tells me without looking at me; she is too busy watching the players warm up on the field.

*** ***

I would never have thought that soccer could be so enthralling. Kicking around that little black and white ball takes so much skill, And Cooper, wow, the way she can run with it looking like its glued to her shoe is impressive. But then again my coordination skills leave a lot to be desired. I can barely walk and talk at the same time without causing myself an injury. I can’t help but watch Cooper play, she seems to have a foot in everything going on. Some of the blue team obviously have it in for her though, they are being really rough, elbowing kicking her in the ankles whenever they can and Cooper just takes it and keeps playing. Why hasn’t the silly little man in the stripy shirt told them off for it, any idiot can see that it’s being done on purpose. I can feel myself getting really mad at this injustice. It’s just not very sportswoman like is it? It doesn’t seem to be effecting Cooper though, she has the ball again and is heading for the net thingy. I watch in slow motion as three blue players converge on Cooper, they all go tumbling to the ground. The umpire or referee or whatever he is finally blows his whistle and holds up a little red card and sends the blue players off the field. My stomach heaves. Cooper isn’t moving.

*** ***

Robin and I headed over to the hospital Cooper was taken too, we can both hear a very irate heavily accented voice getting more and more angry. As we turn the final corner to admittance we can see a tall, stunning young woman snarling at the receptionist in barely recognizable English.

"Why wont you tell us how Cooper is? Is it so hard to look on that leedl compuder and jus tell me how my friend is? ¿Enfermera estúpida, es tan duro decirme cómo es mi amigo? Si cualquier cosa malo sucede al fabricante de vinos utilizaré sus entrañas como secuencias de la guitarra."

"I'm sorry, I don’t have a Cooper listed and I can only give that information to immediate family. If you don’t go and wait over there I will call security and have you removed." The nurse was rightfully worried, my limited Spanish skills translated something about entrails and guitar strings.

Robin takes charge of the situation, putting a gentling hand on the fuming woman’s fore arm. "Could you please tell me about my niece, she was just bought in here via ambulance."

"Name?"

"Alice Benson, there was an accident while she was playing soccer and the coach said she was taken here."

"Right, she has been taken for X-rays before she is then taken to surgery. I’ll page her doctor down to talk to you as soon as she can, if you could wait in the family room down the corridor."

"Has the rest of her family been notified yet?" Robin asks

"The only contact we had was for her mother, when we called she said she had a hot date tonight and that her kid was a clutz, then she hung up. Real nice lady." She says with obvious contempt. "Go wait and get some coffee, I’ll get someone to come and talk to you as soon as we can."

Robin and I head to the family room to wait for the doctor, with 6 worried looking college kids following.

"I’m Rico, thank you for getting some information. Are you really her Aunt? She never mentioned one before." She says suspiciously.

"Nope just a friend as worried as you are, I'm just a better actress. I’m Robin and this is my friend Liz. We saw what happened at the game and came straight here."

*** ***

4hrs and 37 coffees later a tired looking middle aged woman comes in.

"Hi, I'm Kay Austen, Ms Bensons orthopedic surgeon."

"I'm Robin, Cooper’s Aunt, what’s going on?"

"It has Alice written here….."

"We don’t mention the *A* word, she uses her middle name Cooper."

"Right, well Cooper sustained some serious damage to her left tibia, it had what we call a spiral fracture. It creates a lot of bone fragments and it will be a long road to recovery. I used metal plates and pins to put it back together. There was also some damage to her left knee that also required pins. The real worry at the moment is the head injury, she had a gash on the back of her head that required some sutures and she also had what’s called a grand mal seizure in x-ray, has Cooper ever been diagnosed with epilepsy?"

"Not, that I know of? Rico? You know anything about this?" Robin asks as a distinguished silver haired woman enters the room.

"Coach Walker this is Coopers Doctor, she is asking if Cooper has epilepsy." Rico tells the worried looking woman.

"No, Cooper’s never had so much as a cold. Is she gonna be ok?"

"Well our neurologist is in with her now, we should know more after the tests are done. Has Cooper ever had fainting spells or seizures before, anything out of the ordinary?"

"Can I talk to you ina corner for a minute?" Rico asks the Doctor. They move away from the group and talk quietly for a few moments before coming back over. I slip out the door to catch the Doctor outside. As awkward as this conversation will be, if it helps the Doctors help Cooper I’ll do it. I pace the corridor for a few minutes before the Doctor makes her exit.

"Dr Austen, can I have a minute?"

"Sure, what can I do for you?"

"Well you were asking if Cooper had anything like this happen before and I have some knowledge that may help……………"