"Something's off," Kelly commented as she and Scott slowed their horses to a walk.

"Yeah, I feel it, too," Scott replied. "But the prairie looks fine. No dark skies, no fires."

Kelly looked all around them, twisting her body to get eyes on where they'd come from, but could see nothing out of the ordinary. "Do you think this means something's happening to one or both of us out there in the real world?" she asked, waving her hand vaguely toward the blue sky, where puffy white clouds sailed lazily by.

"Maybe. I know when this world was destroyed, I woke up in the hospital. Maybe one of us is going to wake up again?"

Kelly was perplexed, because very, very slowly her head began to hurt. Just a tiny headache, but the fact that she had one at all here in a place where she and Scott had always both been in perfect health, was unsettling.

"What is it?" Scott asked, bringing King to a full stop. Julie followed suit of her own accord. The horses were standing close enough that Scott's and Kelly's legs were brushing against each other.

She looked Scott in the eyes. "My head hurts a little."

"Is that what hurt out there?" Scott asked, also waving vaguely at the sky.

"I…think so," she replied. "It's hard to remember, but…my head hurt, yes, and I was cold. And wet. It…I think it was raining." She looked down at Julie's reins held in her hands. "Do you really think I'm dying out there?"

"I'm not sure how we'd tell. Would you stay here after you died, if you did?"

Kelly shrugged.

"Well, you made this world, Kelly," he stated matter-of-factly. "Doesn't that mean you make the rules of it?"

"Scott, I have no idea," she said, dismounting and giving Julie a pat on the flank so she'd walk away. Scott dismounted as Kelly began to pace, trying to understand this whole thing and failing miserably. "The only reason I started telling you the story my grandmother used to tell is because I just wanted to talk to you, and telling a story seemed the best way to do it. You were unconscious, but I've always heard that unconscious people can still hear others talking to them, like when they're in a coma or whatever. So I just got as close to you as I could, to physically try to let you know someone was there with you, and started telling her tale."

"And when you did that, we wound up here," Scott observed, and Kelly nodded. "You know, Kyrano always talks about some place called the Void."

"The Void?" Kelly repeated. "What's that?"

Scott's face scrunched up. "It's fuzzy…everything having to do with 'out there' is…but if I remember right, he said it's a place you can reach with your mind, and you can make anything happen there that you want."

Kelly frowned. "You mean like…what, like a psychic place or something?"

Shrugging, Scott looked apologetic as he replied, "I'm not sure. I'm afraid I never paid that much attention to it. I'm like my dad – never really put much stock in all that stuff Kyrano talks about." He shook his head. "I really wish he was here to help us out, because if anyone could shine a light on what's going on, it's him."

"Who is he, anyway?"

"I guess you could say he's Dad's best friend. He lives on Tracy Island with us, him and his daughter Tin-Tin. They're from Malaysia. He's actually a botanist, does a lot of research with new kinds of plants for being grown underwater and in space colonies. Tin-Tin is part of International Rescue."

"Wait, Malaysian? Is he about your dad's age and height? And does she have really porcelain-like skin, green eyes?"

"Yes. Wait, do you know them?" he asked.

"Not really, but…well, I think I've seen them with your dad. And an older woman, looked to be in her nineties, maybe."

"That's Grandma!" Scott told her with a grin. "She helped raise us after our mom died. Did you see them in the hospital?"

As Kelly tried to pinpoint when and where she'd laid eyes on these people, the pain in her skull increased to the point where she groaned and touched the top of her head, squeezing her eyes shut. Instantly, Scott was in front of her, hands on her biceps.

"What is it?"

"My head," she whispered. "It's really starting to hurt."

Scott looked all around, and Kelly saw his eyes widen as his head stopped moving, pointed toward her right. She looked in that direction as well, and saw a lone figure walking its way across the prairie.

"Who is that?" Kelly asked. "There's never been anyone but us here before."

"I don't know," Scott replied. "You stay here. I'll go find out."

"No," Kelly said, grabbing hold of Scott's arm as he began to pull away. "Don't leave me alone, I…I'm scared."

Scott nodded, put his arm around her shoulders and stood his ground. The figure came nearer and nearer, and Kelly could tell it was a man, but the pain in her head was getting worse. She sagged into Scott, who tried holding her up for a moment, then slowly lowered her to the ground, flattening the tall grass as he helped her lay down and sat with her, pillowing her head on his criss-crossed legs.

Kelly was having trouble tracking what was going on. All she knew was that her head hurt like a bitch, and that Scott was talking softly to her, trying to soothe her with words and touches to her head, her arms. But no matter what he did, it wasn't stopping the pain.

And then a shadow fell over them. When Kelly looked up to see what had caused it, she found the sun to be directly behind a man's head, making it seem like he was glowing. Some sort of angel? Some beautiful otherworldly being?

"Kyrano?" Scott said, and she could hear the disbelief in his high-pitched voice. "What are you doing here?"

"You wished for my presence, did you not?" Kyrano asked, and Kelly instantly felt more relaxed for reasons she couldn't fathom.

"Yes, but…can you help her? Something's wrong, Kyrano. She can't die. You can't let her die."

"I can only help here in this place, not out in the world of our physical bodies," Kyrano replied. "But I will do all I can."

"You believe me? That if she dies, I will, too?"

"I believe that something larger than all of us is at work here," was Kyrano's response.

The next thing Kelly felt were two hands on either side of her head. Their touch was feather-light, but the effect was immediate. Warmth. Light. Purity. Things she could only name by the sensations they caused to permeate her from head to toe.

And the pain was gone.

"Be strong," Kyrano said, and she opened her eyes to find two dark brown ones that appeared to be made of crystal and had no end to their depth whatsoever, in her direct line of sight. "Hold on, Kelly. For your sake. And for Scott's."

She swallowed hard, and kept her eyes on his. Somehow, she had an idea that if she so much as blinked, it would be the end of everything.

"Scott, I have no idea if you can hear me," Virgil said quietly as he seated himself on the edge of Scott's bed. He lifted his brother's lax hand in his, sandwiching it between his own. "I want you to know that we found Kelly. She was in Miami, and Tin-Tin rescued her. They're on their way here right now."

There was no reaction. Virg didn't know what he'd been expecting, but something would've been nice to show Scott had heard him. He sighed, shaking his head.

"They're going to put the lung they made out of Gordon's lobe and my lobe back into you in about fifteen minutes," Virgil continued. "And they're going to try the piece of John's liver again, too. You have to let these organs work, Scott. You can't fight them this time. They said it wasn't your immune system rejecting them. They don't even understand why the liver was shutting down." He squeezed his brother's hand. "So if I'm to take a page out of Kyrano's book, I'd have to guess that something else made you not want those organs to work. And dammit, Scott, that is unacceptable!"

Virg knew his voice was rising in volume, but didn't give a crap. At times throughout the years, the only way he'd ever been able to get through to Scott was by yelling or even hauling off and giving him a good punch to get him to stop whatever the hell he was doing at the time. Scott had a habit of beating himself up over shit he had no control over, whether on rescues or in their everyday lives, and Virg had somehow taken on the role of snapping him out of these funks whenever they hit. It wasn't easy, by any means, but what the hell else was he going to do? Just let Scott beat himself up instead?

"You know, you are such an asshole," Virgil continued, much more loudly now. "Here we are, going under the knife, giving you parts of our bodies so you'll survive, and what do you do? You say no. I mean, what, my lung lobe isn't good enough for you, huh? Gordon's? John's liver? We're your brothers. We'd do this over and over again, hell, any of us would give you anything you needed, even if it meant we'd never work International Rescue again, and this is how you repay us? But refusing the help, kicking the organs out, almost dying on us? That's some hell of a thanks, Scott."

He watched Scott's face closely, willing there to be some sign of life beneath the ventilator tube, the closed eyelids, the far-too-still facial features.

"I don't know what the hell all this is about Kelly, but you've got us, Scott, your family, and whether there's some weird metaphysical thing going on between the two of you or not, the fact is you're my brother, and I need you, okay? I need you to live, no matter what you end up doing with your life afterwards. We all need you. Do you know what it'll do to Dad to lose you? What it'll do to all of us? We love you, you idiot. We're doing everything we can with ourselves and with Kelly to keep you around, but you have to want to stay around. You hear me? What, you're giving up, is that it?"

He'd worked himself into a tizzy by this point and he knew it, but there was no one else in the room, so he didn't care how he looked or sounded. He needed to vent sometimes too, dammit, and right now he was so worried he didn't know what else to do.

"International Rescue's motto nothing more than words to you when it counts, Scott, is that the case? Huh? Never give up at any cost just means throwing yourself into danger to save the lives of strangers? It doesn't mean fighting to live, it doesn't mean fighting to stay around for the people who need you to survive? Goddammit, Scott, answer me. Anything. Show me you give a rat's ass about staying here where you belong!"

Virg was breathing heavily by this time, frustrated and pissed at himself for losing his temper and yelling at a guy who had half his goddamn organs missing and was being kept alive by frickin' machines and…he gasped.

He'd felt movement between his hands.

He searched Scott's face, but there was nothing.

Then he looked down at their joined hands, lifting his left one away, leaving Scott's left hand palm-flat against his own right hand.

"Fight for it, Scott. For your life, for Kelly, if that's what you need to do. But fight for us, too," he begged. "Please."

Scott's hand moved ever-so-slightly, barely a move at all, but with his thumb and the tips of his fingers, he squeezed Virgil's hand.

The backs of Virgil's eyes stung. "Okay," he whispered, covering Scott's hand with his other one again and squeezing back. "Okay."

Scott was fighting.

Virgil had gotten through.

As the door to Scott's room opened to admit two nurses done up in full scrubs complete with face masks, Virgil held on to that truth.

The nurses gently urged him away from the bed. Virgil stood aside and watched as they moved all the equipment keeping Scott alive, and then were joined by a third nurse who wheeled the ventilator machine, while the first nurse wheeled the external liver replacement and the second nurse got behind the head of the bed to push Scott through the halls.

Virg didn't think he'd ever spoken that many words at once in his entire life. But if it made any kind of difference at all to Scott, then he didn't care. There was nothing more he could do at this point, anyway. It was up to Scott to make good on the promise that the small squeeze he'd given Virgil's hand had been.

It was up to Scott to live.

"Oh, God," Scott breathed.

Kelly's eyes snapped open as Kyrano's hands moved away from her head. There was still some residual aching, but she didn't feel nearly as bad as she had before.

"What is it, Scott?" Kyrano asked.

"I…don't know. I felt like I…winked out there for a minute. I heard Virgil. He was talking to me. He sounded angry."

Kyrano closed his eyes as Kelly sat up and turned to face Scott, who looked more than just a little shaky.

"I believe you are being taken for your second transplant surgery now," Kyrano stated as he reopened his eyes. "Perhaps Virgil was speaking with you before they took you to the Operating Room."

"He wants me to live," Scott said, as though in a trance. "He said they need me."

"They do," Kyrano replied. "We all do. The world needs you, Scott. Without you, I don't know whether your brothers and father would wish to continue the work of International Rescue. It would be a terrible blow to all of us, to lose you."

Scott looked at Kyrano, eyes filled with pain. Kelly didn't know what to say or do. She really knew nothing of these men, other than their last names…at least, in the case of the Tracys. And all she knew about Tracys was that they were recluses who were very wealthy. At least now she understood the recluse part...and understood a lot about the type of people they were to sacrifice everything for the sake of saving lives.

"I don't want to let them down," Scott said, looking to the softly swaying grasses that swished against his right thigh and knee. "I don't want to leave them."

"But it has to be more than that, Scott," Kyrano said gently, and Kelly looked at him as he spoke. "You have to want to live for yourself, as much as for them, or for the people whose lives you'll help save if you survive to run International Rescue."

"You saved mine," Kelly said. "And Mari's. And so many thousands of people in the six years you've been around. You've got to be pretty damn special to dedicate yourself to something you'll never get publicly acknowledged for."

Scott looked up at her, a small smile gracing his face. "I'm not any more special than anyone else. I just happen to have been born into a life where I can do good. So I'm doing it." Then his smile vanished. "But what about you? Will you live?"

Kelly swallowed hard, the idea of dying not something she even wanted to entertain. "I don't know if I will. But even if I don't, Scott, you touched me in a way no other human being ever has. Just knowing you, even so briefly, and even if mostly in this dream world, it's had a huge impact on me." She laughed self-consciously. "Do you know that I kissed your brother on the lips before I left the hospital to return to Miami?"

Scott's face registered surprise and amusement. "Who, Virgil?" When Kelly nodded, he asked, "You like him, huh?"

She shrugged. "It was the only way I could think of to convey my thanks quickly. He was kind of out of it at the time. I don't know if he even knows I did it. Kind of embarrassing, actually. Please don't tell him."

Scott grinned. "Virg will never turn away a pretty lady's kiss," he quipped with a wink, and Kelly felt her face get hot. Then he looked back at Kyrano, serious once more. "If they're operating on me again, they must think that this time I won't reject the organs."

"Your doctors are optimistic. Your father made the decision for them to try once again with your brothers' donated organs." Kyrano looked all around them at the peaceful prairie, the swaying grasses, the apple trees, the horses nibbling on fallen apples not far away. "This place is beautiful and peaceful. Once we find such a place within ourselves, it's difficult to want to return to what can sometimes be an ugly and unforgiving world, full of pain and suffering. Sometimes we have to endure. And sometimes, it hurts too much to want to."

"But I need to return, don't I," Scott stated. "No matter how much it hurts."

"That's a decision only you can make," Kyrano replied, looking at him once again. "And it's a decision Kelly must make as well."

Kelly shook her head. "But if I'm injured enough that it's affecting me even in here, then what if I physically can't survive?"

"I believe," Kyrano said, sitting back and criss-crossing his legs, "that our souls decide when it is our time. Only after all the lessons we chose to learn in this life we entered have been learned; only when all the karma we promised to pay back from previous lives with others has been repaid; and only when we feel we have accomplished all we can or wish to accomplish in the life we're currently living, will our souls determine that it's time to go. Thus, strange accidents occur which seem random, but are truly the way the soul wishes it to happen. The lives saved by International Rescue are those which are meant to be saved. Those who still perish, perish because they felt at their higher level of existence, that it was time to go."

"Like Fate?" Kelly asked, trying to wrap her pain-fogged mind around his words.

"Something like that, only individually decided by us before we choose a life to be born into," Kyrano replied with a small nod. He captured and held her gaze. "I am no expert in these matters, but I have a feeling your soul has not yet completed all it intended to, Kelly McInerny." Then he looked back at Scott. "And I know that yours has not."

Kelly bit her lip. Then she looked at Scott when he took her hand and squeezed it. "We can do this, Kelly. Maybe we need each other to get through it. And if we do, well…we're here together, and we've got Kyrano to help us. What do you say?"

"I say," Kelly said, feeling the resolve build within her, "that I was drawn to fly a thousand miles just so I could be near you, and talk to you. And while I don't understand it, and I'm not exactly sure what Kyrano's trying to explain to us, I'll do anything to keep you where you need to be. And as much as I've loved being here in this place with you," she continued, looking all around at their beautiful surroundings, "I think we both need to go back to our real lives."

Scott swallowed hard. "This is going to hurt like a sonofabitch," he said.

Kelly couldn't help but bark out a laugh. "I'm kind of getting that notion," she replied.

Kyrano scooted across the grass so that his left knee was touching Scott's right one, and Kyrano's right knee was touching Kelly's left one. He took their free hands, one in each of his, and closed his eyes. "I'll help you prepare to return as best I can," he said softly, squeezing their hands. "But most of this work will have to come from you…no matter how much it hurts."

Scott and Kelly shared one last look. One last smile. Kelly watched Scott's eyelids drift closed. She looked at him a few seconds more, then at Kyrano's placid features, and then closed her own eyes.

And as the ache in her head grew worse, she tried as best as she could to steel herself for the pain she knew was to come.

She would do this. She felt Scott's hand squeeze hers tightly. They both would.