Next day after school

As soon as Jack heard the door slam, he knew something was wrong, but he still couldn't lather up the courage to turn and face his wife as she regarded him. He could feel her eyes burrowing into his back, and he couldn't for the life of him figure out why.

"Jack, why did you do that?" she asked, her quiet voice quivering in anger. Jack shook his head, and finally forced himself to face her for the first time in days.

"Do what?" was all he could manage to say.

"You told me that Danny needed to be picked up from school. Well, I just spent the last hour and a half driving around, trying to find him. I walked around the school for half an hour before I went to the office and had him paged. Then I waited for another twenty minutes, totally panicking, by the way." Jack could only stare in confusion as her tiny feet clicked slowly and menacingly across the lab's metal floor. "So, I decide to go to his friends' houses. I couldn't get Mrs. Foley to stop talking, and when I finally do, the RV dies on me at the next stop light. Finally, I was able to get it started again, and head over to the Manson's, where he's been the entire time.

"Then," she continued, her voice still shaking with frustration, "he tells me that he told you he'd be there if we needed him."

"Yes, he did," Jack confirmed. Maddie threw her hands up in the air.

"THEN WHY DID YOU SEND ME ON THAT WILD GOOSE CHASE!" She said, trying unsuccessfully to keep her voice down. After seething for a few moments, she stopped and looked up at him with large, sad eyes. "Did you really want to get me out of here that badly?"

"No," the large man said immediately. "I don't remember telling you to go get him."

"I found this note," she held it up for him to look at. It definitely looked like his handwriting, and they both knew it.

"But..." he said, taking the note and looking it over, as if it would disappear if he looked hard enough. "But...I never wrote this."

"Then who did," Maddie crossed her arms.

"I don't know," Jack sighed, and let the piece of paper flutter to the ground. He couldn't bring himself to meet her eyes, trying to keep away the images of the dream that haunted him far more than any ghost ever could.

"Jack, we need to talk about this!" Maddie said, almost desperately. Jack simply walked back to his instruments, massaging the bridge of his nose.

"Maddie," he said slowly, "I...I just need a little time to myself right now, okay?" She didn't answer for several seconds, but the silence seemed to thicken...why couldn't he breathe?

"Fine," she finally broke the pressure with a voice that could have frozen water. "Find your time tonight, on the couch. You haven't seemed to like our room much lately anyway."

"Maddie, wait," her husband turned with an outstretched hand, only to see her vanish around the corner at the top of the stairs. His head hung in defeat, and he turned half-heartedly back to his project. For some reason, he couldn't get himself interested, and his mind kept wandering. He didn't notice the one or two tears that escaped his cheek. Nor did he hear his wife slam the door to their room before the sobs broke through her throat.

Sorry guys, but I was uploading this and the site totaly screwed, and I've alerady deleated all of the e-mails. So...no personal notes this time. Thank you again for waiting and reading. I'm sorry it's taken so long, but my block is finally gone. :D I should have more up soon. Thanx again.