Author Notes: Hey, this is a completely new fic idea. I usually don't write Strong Medicine stories about Dana, I know, but this one just came to me, thanks to Kay! This takes place I guess about mid-season four. Note-Dana is now in Virginia, remember? And Nick is still there...Kayla Thornton is yet to arrive at Rittenhouse.

Dedication: To Kay for inspiring me so much and to Megan for helping me out with this story.

Disclaimers: I don't own anything....duh.

Feedback: Same as usual. I love reviews!!

Hidden Secrets: Chapter 1

Krystal Marie Johnson opened her eyes slowly. The morning light shinning through her lavender window curtains caused her to quickly shut them again. The sounds of birds chirping on the big oak tree outside her window made her realize it must have been early. She glanced at her clock and yawned as she saw that it was seven. Krystal kept looking at the clock waiting for her twin sister, Kayla Whitney Johnson, to come running into her room. Since she could remember Kayla would come into her room at exactly seven oh one on the day of their birthday. Today was no different. It was their eighteenth birthday and just as Krystal thought, Kayla came bouncing into her room and jumped on her like a little girl.

"Ugh." Krystal grunted. She looked up to see Kayla smiling while her long curly brown locks floated down around her face.

Krystal and Kayla were practically identical. The only difference was that Krystal had naturally straight brown hair while Kayla's was curly. They both had big blue eyes with long dark brown eyelashes and brows to match their hair. Also, big smiles were always on their faces under a slender nose. Neither girl knew which parent they got their looks from considering they didn't know their parents. Three years ago, on their fifteenth birthday, their so called 'mom and dad' leaked the information that both Krystal and Kayla had been adopted from an orphanage when they were just a few months old. The news had hit them hard as ever but they got through it and realized they still loved the parents they had.

Something inside them directed them into searching though. A feeling and a need to find their biological parents had sat with them since they found out they had been adopted. So, since their sixteenth birthday, the two girls set out researching it and discovering various information.

After awhile of full dedication and raising enough money, they decided that on their eighteenth birthday they were going to set out on the road and finally meet their real parents. A shock had hit them again though around the age of seventeen when they discovered that they're biological dad wasn't living anymore. He had died in a terrible car accident a few years after they were born. Kayla and Krystal wondered why their parents abandon them when they were little and why they never came to find them as they got older.

Kayla forced Krystal to get out of bed and start getting dressed as she did the same. "By the way, Happy Birthday Sis." Kayla yelled while heading back into her own bedroom.

Krystal smiled and shook her head. "Same to you Sis." She responded and walked into the joint bathroom that connected to both bedrooms.

Kayla walked into the bathroom to join her sister after a minute of getting dressed. She had slid on a pair of jean overalls with a blue shirt under it. She started pulling her hair back into a ponytail. "So.....you ready for tomorrow?"

"Yep. I'm nervous. I have a feeling you are to." Krystal said.

"Gee, I wonder why? Maybe because we are going to meet our biological mother for the first time in eighteen years?"

"That could be it." Krystal said and laughed. She put her hair into a ponytail also and headed into her room to put on identical overalls but with a purple shirt underneath. "I'm really glad Mom and Dad are ok with this."

"Me to. I thought they would freak when they found out we were really going to meet her." Kayla responded with a sigh as she put on some fresh make up.

"Totally." Krystal said and walked back into the bathroom. They both looked at each other in the mirror and laughed. Ever since they were little, they always loved how they looked almost exactly alike and they could wear the same clothes. "I wonder what they have planned for us today?"

"Probably another family dinner, just the four of us. Same as every year Krys."

Krystal laughed at her nickname. "Probably." She responded and started putting on fresh make up herself. "Do you think she'll like us Kay?"

"I sure hope so. We aren't that bad...right?"

Krystal shrugged and semi-smiled as she finished with her make up. "Come on, let's get downstairs."

"Ok." Kayla agreed and put one last touch on her blush before following her twin sister out of the room.

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Kayla and Krystal were greeted with smiles by their parents when they got downstairs.

"Happy Birthday girls." Their father said.

"Thanks Dad." They said in unison.

Their mother giggled and motioned for them to sit down for breakfast. She placed two pancakes on each girl's plate with a plate of bacon in between them. "Are you glad that you're finally eighteen?"

"Yep." They said in unison again.

"What do you have planned tonight?"

"Nothing yet." Kayla responded.

"Oh, well aren't you two going to do something for your birthday? With your friends or something?" Their mother asked. Both girls looked at her strangely. Usually this was the time when they asked them if they wouldn't mind just having a family dinner. "Your father and I are going to your Aunt Mel's house for dinner." She stated.

"Oh." The girls said.

"We thought we would have a family dinner like always." Krystal said slowly.

"Really? Oh...well, you're welcome to come to you're Aunts house with us if you want."

"We'll think about it." Kayla said and continued eating her pancakes.

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After breakfast, the twins jumped into their Jeep Wrangler that they shared. Their parents had gotten it for them on their sixteenth birthday. Krystal was driving this time. They were going to the mall and local Wal- Mart to finish shopping for things they would need for their trip.

Kayla flipped on the radio and played with the stations. "I can't believe they didn't plan a family dinner." She said randomly.

"I know. They always do a dinner for us. What are we going to do instead?"

"There's nothing we can do...with other people. All of our friends are mysteriously all on vacations this week, remember?"

"Yeah. We could just hang out together." Krystal suggested.

"No offense Sis, but I'm going to be hanging with you all day tomorrow. I wanted to chill with you and our parents, or friends." Kayla responded.

"Yeah, same here." She responded. "Then, let's just go with Mom and Dad to Aunt Mel's."

"Fine. What a great eighteenth birthday huh?"

"Pssh...yeah right." Krystal said and pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot.

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That night, the girls dressed in identical looking shirts and tops. The only difference like always, was that they were different colors. Kayla had on a black and pink striped skirt with a matching pink tank top while Krystal had on a black and orange striped skirt with a matching orange tank top. Since, the girls took too long shopping that day they were running a little late for dinner. They promised their parents they would hurry but Kayla was driving and she always took extra precautions while under stress. It was a bad combination when she thought about it because when she was running late, which was a lot, she would drive slower and more carefully and be even later than she had already planned.

"Would you step on it some?!" Krystal ordered from the passenger seat.

"You know how I am Krys so just shut up. It's not that big of a deal." She responded staring at the road in front of her.

"Yeah, I do know how you are. And it's a good thing I don't have that quality because...I mean, how would that look after medschool and I'm in residency at some strange hospital and surgery or something?..."

"Uh, bad." Kayla said. "I can't believe you want to be a doctor...eww..blood...gross." She shivered at her words.

"It's genetic remember?"

"Yeah I remember. That's another thing that isn't the same about us. You like blood, I hate it."

"I don't like blood...that's just morbid. I like the idea of saving peoples lives and helping those in need." Krystal responded and looked out her window.

Kayla shook her head and continued to look at the road in front of her. Within minutes, they pulled up in the driveway of their Aunt's big mansion. Both girls quickly got out of their car and ran to the front door. It was locked so they rang the doorbell and waited.

"Hello ladies." Their Aunt greeted as she swung the big glass and wood door open.

"Hello Aunt Mel." They greeted back in unison. As they entered the house, it was completely dark. The only light that could be seen was in the dinning room where their parents already sat at the long dinning table.

"As I was telling your parents girls, I completely forgot about tonight and let my maid have the night off. Will you help me with the food?" Their Aunt asked.

Kayla and Krystal looked at them all awkwardly. Something was up and they knew as soon as she had said that she gave her maid the night off. She never did that and she never forgot about family dinners. The twins headed towards the kitchen first shrugging at each other on their way. Their Aunt and parents followed.

The lights were off in the kitchen and Kayla reached to flip them on. When she did, both of the twin's jaws dropped. Several of their closest friends were standing there in party outfits with balloons and Hawaiian lays around their necks.

"Oh my god." They said together.

"Surprise!!" Everybody else yelled at them. Big smiles were coming from all different directions. Kayla and Krystal looked at their parents and Aunt with smiles of their own.

"You guys did this?" Kayla asked.

They nodded. "We knew you'd fall for it."

"Thanks." Krystal responded and the two girls gave them all hugs. After a few seconds, their friends came to them and greeted them, wishing them a happy birthday and saying that they should have seen the look on their faces when the lights went on.

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After the party ended, it was late as ever and the girls still had to make the drive back home and get up early in the morning to leave for a very long road trip. They quickly gathered all their presents into their jeep and Krystal drove them home considering Kayla could barely keep her eyes open. The next morning, they woke up to their alarm clocks and were constantly yawning as they both got dressed.

Kayla and Krystal heading into their bathroom at the same time and saw each other. They sighed and realized they were wearing almost exactly the same thing again. Kayla had on blue jeans and a black shirt while Krystal had on blue jeans and a white shirt. They both shook their heads and put on their make up. Kayla pulled her hair into a ponytail again but Krystal left hers down.

For the next hour they packed their car up and kissed their parent's goodbye. They had figured they would be traveling all day from their hometown of Sanford, Maine to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were going to have to travel through three different states to get to their destinations.

While on the road, the girls listened to the radio mostly and occasionally one of them would pop in a favorite CD. Krystal did most of the driving while Kayla sat in the passenger seat and concentrated on her journal. Unlike her twin, Kayla wanted to become a writer in her future. She kept journals about everything and wrote down anything that popped into her head. Most of her stories or poems were of being a twin and their experiences together.

Now she was writing about what she saw in the towns they would stop at for gas or to use the restroom. Everything seemed to inspire her lately: music, movies, and random people in the mall or on the street. She seemed to be full of different thoughts about life and she put all her thoughts on paper.

On one of their pit stops, she found a young couple stopping also from what seemed like a long road trip. She could tell they had just fallen in love and gotten into a serious relationship by the way they were acting. The kind of couple that is all lovey-dovey and constantly linking arms or holding hands, even when he was paying for their drinks and gas. It made her think of the special someone she used to have in her life before they all graduated. Her boyfriend then went off to college in Michigan and left her there alone. He had told her before he left that he didn't want to be tied down while starting college and she, with sadness, has agreed to move on herself.

Kayla remembered exactly how it had happened. Afterwards, her sister was there for her. Krystal was always there for her and vice versa. They were twins and they stuck together. It inspired her to write more and more on their trip. Not only about her old flames but Krystals to. Her twin sister had been in love with an older man earlier in the year but it hadn't worked out. He also left her alone in Maine for a new job in Texas. Their parent's had always warned them about how hard it would be and that sometimes love hurts. Both girls knew that now and it only brought them closer together.

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After many, many hours of traveling, the girls arrived at their destination earlier than they thought they would. The Rittenhouse Women's Health Center was just a few feet away. Both girls tried to swallow past the knot in their throats and took a few deep breaths before entering.

Lana Hawkins was sitting at her receptionist desk as usual and Dr. Lu Delgado was looking at a patient's file next to her. Dr. Andy Campbell walked out of her office and saw the two twins standing there awkwardly.

"Can we help you?" Andy asked slowly approaching them.

"Umm..." Kayla said.

Krystal looked at her twin and then back at the women in front of them. "We're looking for Dr. Dana Stowe." She said.

Lu and Lana heard them mention Dana's name and approached them like Andy had.

"What do you need with Dr. Stowe?" Lana asked curiously but awkwardly. The twins looked familiar to Lu and Lana.

"Dr. Delgado?!" A manly voice called from behind them all. It was Dr. Nick Biancavilla from the Emergency Room. He noticed he was interrupting something when he walked to them. "Sorry. It's just a patient thing. Is everything ok?"

"They're looking for Dana." Lana said.

Nick looked at the girls curiously and thought they looked familiar to. Andy looked around at them all.

"What's the big deal? You're probably just old patients of Dr. Stowe's right?" She asked the twins.

Kayla and Krystal shook their head no in unison.

"Who are you?" Lu asked.

"I'm Kayla Whitney Johnson."

"And I'm Krystal Marie Johnson."

"Dr. Dana Stowe.....is our mother." They said together.

End Hidden Secrets: Chapter 1

Hey!! How about that cliffie! I bet you guys are like "WTF?!!!" Hehe..you'll see what happens in the next chapter. Review please!!