"How are you certain this is going to work?" Merrill asked as he filled some more glasses and set them on the table.

Graham walked in from the bedroom. "Well, I think that they're only affected by tap water. That's why the alien could swim in the lake. Did you notice any blisters when you pulled it onto the dock?"

Merrill thought. "No," he replied "but why would that be?"

Morgan offered his opinion. "Probably because of all the chemicals we put into the water today. Chlorine, stuff to get rid of the chlorine, stuff to get rid of the stuff that gets rid of the chlorine, and who knows what else?"

"Where'd you figure that out?" He asked his nephew.

"Dad came up with it. I'm just a playback machine. I'm not smart. I just sound like it because I repeat stuff smart people say," He joked.

"Graham figured that out? You know you're smarter than I thought," Merrill teased. "For a Reverend," He ducked as Graham sprayed water his way from the tap. It splashed off the table, dripping onto the floor.

"You're cleaning that up," Merrill smirked. Graham shook his head and tossed the paper towels toward's Merrill's general direction. He caught them with a laugh and started moping up the water.

"I'm going to go up to the grocery store. We desperatly need the food. Morgan, do you want to come?" Morgan shook his head.

"I wanna go!" said Merrill forelornly.

"Why? Someone has to stay here with the kids," Graham looked at Merrill.

"We can stay by ourselves. I can watch Bo," Morgan offered.

"Well…Ok. Merrill if you really want to go, get in the car," Merrill jumped up and ran to the car. He slightly resembled a nervous rabbit.

"He sure is exited," Graham commented. It was a retorical statement, but Morgan decided to add his opinion.

"Havent you figured it out yet? It's the doctor at the hospital. He's totally in love with her," He commented from the couch, where he was reading a book.

Graham shook his head and walked out to the car. Once they were on the road Merrill asked him: "Hey do you think you could drop me of near the hospital? I saw an intresting convienence store near there,"he said, and Graham could see his ears were turning slightly red.

"Morgan was right," Graham laughed.

"Right about what?"

"You are 'Tottally in love with her' His words not mine,"

"I am not!"

"You sound like Bo. I'll drop you off near the hospital so you can see Doctor…what was her name?"

"Doctor LeBlanc."

"Ahh, yeah that's it. But what was her first name?" Merrill was silent.

"Merrill?" Merrill looked at him. "What was her name?" Merrill mumbled something incoherant.

"Yes, that was it. So, what are you planing to say to Dr. Mmblewhichunk LeBlanc? For real, what's her name?'

"Colleen, okay? Her names Colleen. I didn't want to tell you because I though you'd be weirded out by it!" Graham was silent. "Look, if it makes you uncomfortable, I won't ask her out."

"I'm not weirded out by it. It's just a pretty big coincidence isn't it?"

"Maybe it's another sign," said Merrill carefully.

"Maybe. But what would it mean?" Merrill was happy that Graham seemed to have gotten away from the "I hate God, nothing means anything" phase. Even after the invasion, he hadn't been sure Graham was through it.

"I don't know. But she is so hot!" Merrill said.

"She is very attractive," Graham aggreed.

They pulled up beside the hospital, and Merrill got out.

"What are you planning to do when you get in there?" Graham asked. Merrill's face showed that he had no idea.

"Well, I suppose I'll see if she's there first. Maybe I'll ask her for her number?"

"Well, you already have her number, don't you? She gave you her buisness card."

"Right, right," Merrill ran his hand through his hair. "Well, I guess I'll see if she want's to do something later or something. Maybe we can go down to the cafeteria or something."

"Okay, well, if you're going to be longer than an hour, I'll be across the street."

"Thanks Graham," Merrill said as he slammed the door. Graham waved as he drove away.

Merrill walked through the sliding glass doors and into the cool interior of the hospital. He looked around for the receptionist desk and walked toward it.

"Hi, could you tell me were I could find Dr LeBlanc?" He said, as politely as he could.

"Which one?" She asked

"Um…there's more then one? Uh…Colleen LeBlanc please."

"You must mean Amie. She's off duty right now, but would you like to see her husband, Jonathan LeBlanc?"

Merril couldn't speak for a minute. "She's married?"

"Yes, I believe so. Would you like to see him?" Merrill walked away with out answering. He walked across the street and into the grocery store. He found Graham trying to decide between 2% and 1% milk.

"She's married" Merrill announced. Graham turned around and saw the look on Merrill's face.

"I'm sorry Merrill," Graham consoled. "So you asked her? What did you say?"

"No, I didn't ask her. I found out at the reception desk. Her husband is named Jonathan or something, I didn't exactly stick around for the details," Merrill said sadly.

"Come on, lets go home," said Graham, leading him out of the store. ……………………………………………

"I'm sorry Uncle Merrill," said Morgan, trying to make him feel better. Merrill was streched out across one side of the L-shaped couch.

"Thanks," said Merrill tonelessly. He sat up and looked out the sliding glass doors onto the porch where Graham was fooling around with the water heater. He flopped back down and reached for the remote control.

"Guess what I discovered?" Morgan said excitedly. "We we have Satilite T.V. I looked through the onscreen guide. We get about five Discovery Channels!" Merrill laughed at his nephews exited tone.

"Anyhing that intrests me?" He asked, as he flipped on the T.V

"Wee-ell… We can see any baseball game that is on T.V at any given time. Major League, Minor league, even those local baseball games they sometimes put on T.V. And I think about 10 different MTV's," He added laughingly.

"Great. That should numb our minds for a couple hours."

Bo's yell carried down the stairs. Morgan looked at Merrill and got up. Knowing Bo, it was probably another nightmare. Merrill forced himself off the couch and slowly followed Morgan up the stairs.

…………………………………

Graham had heard Bo scream from upstairs. He figured she was just having a nightmare, and Merrill would probably check on her. He stepped back from the water heater. Normally Merrill did this kind of stuff, but he was feeling depressed, so Graham decided to leave him alone. He went inside and didn't see anyone, so he figured they were upstairs with Bo.

He heard a bloodcurdling scream. He looked around for some sort of weapon, and seeing the only thing available was the poker for the fireplace, he grabbed that. He ran upstairs and into Bo's room, brandishing the poker. He found Merrill, Morgan, and Bo standing on the bed. They turned to stare at him and Graham followed their gaze to the corner and saw…. A mouse. A mouse. He had feared for his chidrens lives because of a mouse.

Bo being afraid of a mouse was understandable, but Morgan, and Merrill, who was a grown man…Graham shock his head in mock disgust.

"I know!" Merrill half shouted. It's disgusting!" Then realizing Graham was disgusted at him, he climbed down from the bed and sheepishly lifted Bo and Morgan down.

"Merrill. It's dead." Merrill ignored him and turned to the kids.

"Morgan? Do you want to go swimming? Bo, I'll help you build a sandcastle," When they nodded, he picked up Bo and and they all walked out of the room. Merrill said over his shoulder: "We'll let your big tough dad pick up the mouse."

A/N: Yes so, this chapter. Finally got to the mouse part. In my origional story, it went much faster and the mouse part came earlier, so sorry about all the hours you probbably spent trying to figure out the name (yeah right) A correction. A ahem, helpful friend who shall not be named (Katya) pointed out that your not supposed to put Dr. and M.D in the same name. So sorry about that. And as for Bo being in the hospital over night, I wasn't sure if you would stay over night for a fever, but whatever.