"Mommy!" cried Dawn, running to greet her mother as Roy and Mary Ann entered the house.

"Hi, sweetheart!" Mary Ann scooped the little girl up in her arms and kissed her cheek. "Have you been a good girl for Peggy?"

Dawn nodded vigorously. "Peggy said she was as good as gold," Roy agreed.

"I'm so glad." Mary Ann sat on the sofa and held her daughter close.

"I made something for Dusty," Dawn announced, jumping off her mother's lap. "Daddy helped me." She skipped merrily into her bedroom and returned a few seconds later holding a piece of paper folded into quarters, like a card. On the front of the 'card' Dawn had drawn a picture of a sleeping baby, and when Mary Ann opened it, she saw that Roy had printed a message on the inside. 'Get well soon, Dusty! Love, Dawn.'

"I told Daddy the words to write, and he wrote them down," Dawn told her mother. "Do you think Dusty will like it?"

"He'll love it, sweetie." Touched, Mary Ann hugged and kissed her daughter.

"Do you think Mary Ann would be home from the hospital by now?" Audrey asked Ginger after dinner.

"She might be," Ginger replied. "Wouldn't hurt to call and see."

Right away, the teenage girl went to her bedroom and dialed Roy and Mary Ann's telephone number. Roy answered.

"Professor!" Audrey exclaimed. She'd grown up calling him 'Professor' on the island and hadn't been able to let go of the habit.

"Audrey!" Roy replied. "How's school?"

"It's going all right. We get out for winter break in a few days."

"Yeah, so does the university. It'll be nice to have some time off, help Mary Ann with the kids. Would you like for me to put her on?"

"Sure, if she feels up to it."

"I'm sure she'd love to hear from you." He handed the telephone to Mary Ann. "It's Audrey."

"Hey, sweetie!" Mary Ann chirped happily.

"Hi, Mary Ann!" said Audrey. "How's Dawn?" She'd enjoyed helping to care for the toddler on her previous visits.

"She's fine. Concerned about her new baby brother, just like we all are."

"How's he doing?"

Mary Ann sighed. "As well as can be expected, I guess. If things continue to go well, they hope to do the surgery in a few days." She and Audrey talked for a few minutes, about Audrey's school, her friends. plans for the holidays. Then Audrey put Ginger on the telephone, and the two former castaways chatted for about half and hour or so.

"They are all right, yes?" Igor asked after Ginger hung up.

"As well as can be expected."

"When Mark was two years old, he have to have operation for hernia," Igor told his wife. "Pam and I, we worry about such a little one being put to sleep. He come out just fine, however." Pam was Igor's ex-wife, and Mark and Jennifer were his son and daughter from that marriage.

"I was sure lucky Audrey never had anything major like that wrong with her while she was growing up on the island," Ginger replied. "If she had, all we would have had to depend on would have been Roy and his scientific expertise."

"If anything had happened to Audrey on island, I never would have even known I had daughter," Igor said soberly.

"I'm so glad nothing ever did," said Ginger.

"So am I."

Mary Ann pumped breast milk and took it to the hospital every day. She and Roy spent a lot of time visiting with Dusty while they were there, talking to him, feeding him, and cuddling him. Although he was still very frail, the nurses allowed his parents to cover him gently with their hands, not stroking or patting, just holding. When he was almost a week old, Dr. Daniels said that he wanted to talk with Roy and Mary Ann.

"He's doing exceedingly well," the doctor told the couple. "I'd like to schedule surgery for eight o'clock tomorrow morning."

Roy and Mary Ann returned home to tell Dawn the news about her baby brother. "Peggy's going to stay with you all day tomorrow again," Mary Ann told her daughter. "Dusty's operation is going to be in the morning."

"Can he finally come home after it's over?" asked Dawn.

"Not right away," her mother told her. "He'll have to stay in the hospital long enough for the doctors to make sure he's going to be OK first."

"But what if he's not OK?" Dawn's eyes grew very round and serious.

"He is going to be OK," Mary Ann replied. "We just have to keep believing that."