There was no pulse. At that moment, everything became distant in her world as well. The sirens faded out and everything seemed to move slower. The lights on the ambulance and Sheriff's car didn't bother her eyes. Her eyes were fixated on Seth as someone ran up behind her and took her by the shoulders. He stood her up and pulled her back from Seth's lifeless body. She saw the paramedics start to work on Seth. In those moments she closed her eyes and let the tears fall.

"Oh, hello Jess," he said, a faint smile creeping to his face as he lay in his hospital bed after a battle with rat poison.

"Oh, Seth. You know you're the last person I ever expected to see in a hospital bed. How are you feeling?" Jessica asked him, taking his hand.

"God awful. My stomach seems to be hosting some sort of barbecue…"

Jessica felt her eyes growing moist as she looked down to hide her tears from Seth, but he quickly saw them and lifted a hand to wipe them off her cheek, saying, "There, there. What's this?"

"I'm sorry. I was just deathly worried," she told him, prompting a chuckle from each.

"'Bout what? Just a…touch of indigestion. Must be that new diet. My system simply can't abide healthy food." Jessica looked at him worriedly.

"Then you don't know?"

"Know? Know what?"

"It was poison."

"Poison? Are they sure?" Seth's eyes grew as wide as they could given how exhausted he was.

"It was something you ate or drank just before you keeled over."

Seth looked up at the ceiling to think for a moment.

"The apple!"

"What?"

"There were some apples in a little basket on your kitchen table, I didn't think you'd mind if I…If I took one…"

"Karen and Steve?" Seth asked. "Why they've been sniping at each other ever since they got here." Jessica giggled as she stood up outside the tent with Seth.

"Well, it's either a case of heat rash or, uh,… maybe something else." She said on a whimsical note as she lightly bounced a couple of steps.

"What?" Seth asked as they trotted along. "You mean romance?" Seth merely laughed at the idea. "Oh, come on. You've seen too many Gable-Harlow movies."

"Well Seth, the trouble with you is that you haven't seen enough." She lightly chided him. He chuckled back.

"Well, this is one time that you're wrong madame detective. Those two kids are both grad students under Stan Garfield. This dig is a kind of test. The winner gets a big fellowship so I've been told."

Seth gasped as he saw the beautifully intricate chess set all set up on Jessica's dinner table.

"Consider it an advance present on your next birthday," Jessica said. Seth was touched as he felt a lump forming in his throat.

"Well, I… wasn't planning on celebrating any more birthdays but…" Jessica watched him as he spoke. "I am touched." He walked over to her and kissed her sweetly on the cheek. Jessica had a smile forming on her lips and a slight giggle.

"Now! With the niceties out of the way," the two took their seats as Seth leaned in close to her over the table. "I'm going to beat your socks off woman!" Jessica smiled mischievously at him as she took one of her pawns and moved it. "Your move."

"That was a stupid remark. Why don't we just drop it?" Seth said trying to evade interrogation but before he could step out the door he was interrupted.

"No, let's not. let's not." She insisted. There was a hesitation in Seth's voice.

"Jessica," he paused. "What you do with your life is absolutely none of my business, and I tend to forget that."

"And a good thing, too." Jessica stopped him from leaving. "Do you realize, Seth, that if I didn't have you to keep me on an even keel, then who? Out with it!" Jessica told him, shoving him jokingly.

"Alright," he said quietly. "You recall last month I asked you to go hiking with me up to Spooler's Mill?" He said turning around and walking back into the kitchen away from Jessica. Jessica started to walk over towards him

"Yes, and I wanted to go, you know that!"

"Except you had that article you wanted to finish," Seth interrupted. "And a couple of months before that it was the fishing trip to Rockford, except you couldn't find any time for that, either."

"Well, I had this terribly important meeting with my accountant, and…"

"I'm sure it was very important, yes, I am. You know, Jess, I have arrived at an age—well I expect both have—where I don't think we ought to have to rev the engine as hard as we used to."

"Well, ar-are you saying that I'm working too hard?" Jessica asked defensively.

"I'm saying that's all you seem to have time for these days. Have you looked at your garden lately?" Seth asked motioning out the kitchen window. "The weeds are threatening to carry off the rhododendrons."

"Well, I…I've got a lot of obligations…"

"To whom, Jess?" He started walking over to her and pointed at the typewriter. "Now, a few years back, you needed this writing to help you get through the empty days and lonely nights. I know that; I went through it myself." Jessica felt her eyes get moist. "But Frank's a long time gone now, just like my Ruth, and another best-seller, or ten best sellers, is not going to fill that void." His voice got emotional to a whisper at the end of his sentence.

"Seth, I know that…" Jessica replied, tears filling her eyes.

"Maybe yes, and maybe no. All I know is, if Frank Fletcher were still around, you wouldn't be spending half your life chained to that typewriter and the other half chasin' 'round the country, no sir. You'd be out smelling the salt air at sunrise." Jessica avoided eye contact with him as tears threatened to fall.

"Seth, are you trying to hurt me?" She asked.

"Hurt you?" Seth was taken aback as he felt his own eyes get tearful. "Oh for pity's sake woman, that's the last thing I want to do."

She was brought back to reality as she could almost feel the electrical pulses radiating through her. One of the paramedics finally yelled out,

"We've got a pulse!"

She felt Mort's hands still on her shoulders keeping her steady. She felt a wave of relief crash over her head as she let out the breath she had been holding in for the past several minutes. He was alive. Barely, but he was alive.