"Shannon!" Nick called. "Shannon stop, OK. Stop." He caught up to her, taking a gentle hold of her shoulder. "Look at me, Shannon." He seemed terrified of this getting out.

"You're gay?" she said.

"Can we not broadcast it?" Nick said. "Please."

"You're gay?" Shannon said softer. "Nick Messina?"

"Shannon, please, OK." Nick practically begged her. "You can't tell anyone. Please."

"Stop squirming superstar." Shannon said, stopping him. "I'm not going to tell anyone." She could see the terror in Nick's eyes subside a bit. "Geez, shill out, Nick... you're really freaked out about this."

"Nobody can know. If the guys on the team find out... or at KAD..."

"I won't say anything," Shannon said. She sighed thinking now about her SDD task. It was hopeless now. There was no way she was going to get him into bed now. "You can do something for me though."

"What do you want, Shannon?"

Shannon smirked at her bright idea. "Well since you don't want anyone to know about your... relationship, we can kinda help eachother. All you have to do is go on and on about you sleeping with me."

Nick laughed. "You want me to say we had sex."

"Gives you a girl and me a way into the SDD."

"Sorority pledging," Nick said. "You never struck me as one who would want to be one of the sisters."

"Well sometimes we don't know everything about eachother, do we?" She paused. "So will you help me?"

"As long as you keep your mouth shut about what you saw in there."

"See?" Shannon said. "What did I see? I didn't see anything."

"Then go ahead and spread the word about how great I was in bed. And do be sure to exaggerate."

"Thanks, Nick," Shannon leaned forward, kissing his cheek.

"Don't worry about it, OK?" Nick said. "Just... do what you have to do."

>>>>>>

Eric had managed to get himself on the first plane out of Boston, landing almost immediately in Pine Valley. It took him longer to drive to Llanview, but he pulled up in front of the construction site where he had recalled Marcie telling him that they had all been working. He stepped out of the rental car, walking slowly towards the building, calling out when he didn't see anyone.

"Hello?" Eric said. "Anyone here?" He didn't get a response, walking further into the structure, looking around. They had really gotten a lot of work done for one summer. Especially after experiencing all of the vandalism that Marcie had told him abut. Eric sighed. He had really missed seeing Marcie. They were always so close growing up and being so far away, especially while he was in Iraq, was hard for both of them.

"There something I can help you with?" Ron said, coming up behind him. Eric turned around.

"Don't recognize your own baby brother?" he said.

"Eric?" Ron said. "What are you doing here?"

"Nice to see you too Ronnie." Eric said. It was a little awkward. He knew what Ron thought about his life style. "I was... looking for Marcie."

"She's at the hospital" Ron said. He saw Eric's expression. "No, no. She's visiting a friend. The whole crew is." Ron paused. "I didn't know you were in town."

Eric took a deep breath, nodded. "It was... last minute, actually. I have some time and... well I thought I'd come to Llanview." There was a long awkward pause. "I'll umm... I guess I'll just head on over to the hospital. Yeah, I'll... head on over there." Ron nodded silently. "Umm... see ya, Ronnie."

>>>>>>

"It's a miracle, you know that?" Marcie smiled, sitting in the waiting room with Jen and Riley. "How he can just wake up like this. It's amazing."

"Yeah, well you know Mark," Jen said. "He wasn't about to give up anytime soon."

"It's still amazing." Marcie smiled, standing now, walking towards the door, looking out through the hallway. She had to look twice over towards the nurse's station. It couldn't possibly him, she thought. "Eric?" she said.

He looked over. "Hi sis," Eric smiled.

Marcie ran towards him, casting her arms around her brother. "Oh my God, I didn't know you were coming. How come you didn't tell me you were coming?"

"It was a last minute decision," Eric hugged her. "I'm so glad to be here though."

Marcie smiled. "Did James come with you?"

Eric took a deep breath. "Umm no" he said "He's really busy... new campaign. You know how busy we can get." Marcie nodded. "Yeah I... I just wanted to see you."

"Oh I can't wait to sit down and go over wedding plans..."

"Yeah umm... Marc..." Eric said. "We need to talk about that."