At 8 a.m. EST Sunday, JJ is nearly out of her mind with worry. She still hadn't heard from Emily and she had seen on the Weather Channel that Billings was having a rather intense snow storm. Not quite a blizzard but not exactly just a passing powder, either.

"Dad, when she gets upset, she drives. If she drove in that in some damn government standard rental she could be…she might be…Shit I can't even say it!" JJ groans.

"Jenny, do you really think Emily would have accepted a sedan knowing the weather up there? She would have upgraded to a 4-wheel drive SUV or truck. You and Henry mean too much to her for her to risk anything less," Alan states definitively.

"You're right. I…I'm going to call her at the hotel again."

JJ steps outside and redials the hotel number, which she had tried 3 times the day before. As the desk clerk connects her to Emily's room she starts to pace. She nearly trips and falls when the phone is answered.

"Pre—Prentiss," Emily croaks.

"Oh, God! Emily?"

Emily shoots up in bed. "Jennifer?"

"Emily, oh, Em—I—sure—you—for—lo—so—mu"

"Jen? Jen—er—eakin—up—ay—"

"I—ear—oo—di—sp—"

The busy signal starts to pulse in JJ's ear. She stares at her cell phone. "FUCK!" She races into the house and grabs the house phone. She frantically dials the number on the landline and gets the busy signal again.

"DAMN IT!" She hits another number on her cell phone. "Garcia! What the hell is wrong with Billings, Montana?"

"I don't know. Is this a trick question?" a sleepy Garcia asks.

"Penelope, listen to me," JJ says with barely controlled rage. "I was talking to Emily, she started breaking up, and now I can't reach her at all. Not on her cell, not on the hotel line. What the hell?"

Garcia pulls herself out of her warm bed and goes to her computer. "You are damn lucky I love you and Emily as much as I do, Jennifer Prentiss." The tech goddess types for a few minutes as JJ paces anxiously. Finally she lets out a disappointed breath. "Massive phone outages all over Billings, Jayje. Bad accident took out the town's cell center. They also lost part of their landline systems. Looks like most of their communications mainframes were housed in the same place. Honey, I'm not sure you're going to be able to reach her again today.


In her hotel room, Emily hits the phones disconnect several times trying to get a dial tone to no avail. She leaps for her cell phone and turns it on. She paces impatiently, waiting for it to go through the turn on routine. Finally it finishes…and has no bars. "FUCK!" She pulls on her boots and jacket and races out of the room, hoping to get a better signal outside. She stands out in the still swirling snow turning in various directions trying to get a signal but it's no use.

"The cell towers got knocked out," the desk clerk says from the doorway.

"What?"

"Driver lost control of his truck and slammed into the power station that serves the cell towers control center. Until it is back up and running there's no cell service."

"Son of a bitch! What's with the phone in the room?"

"We're on the same grid as the cell company. We lost our landline and intranet."

"But if I go somewhere else in town will I find a phone I can use?"

"I guess so. I mean, I don't know how far this outage reaches."

"Is there a guesstimate on when we might get back to the 1900's?"

The clerk gives her a smile. "With the storm going they will have a hard time getting it fixed. May be tomorrow before they do."

Emily drops down into one of the chairs in the lobby. Why had Jen been calling? Was she hurt? Was Henry sick? What is happening?

Emily finally stands and heads back upstairs to shower and get ready to meet the defense attorneys who plan to tear her life's work to pieces. If nothing else, maybe they will have a working phone.