Quinn had a couple of days off - she found Alexis' office address in the phone book and went to ask her to go to the bookstore with her.

"Nice office," she said, as they walked out.

"Thanks," said Alexis. "Now Zander can work for me here - he may as well. No reason to hide now."

"I don't know if you can pay enough, especially if Uncle Sam gets a cut," Quinn said, "he thinks he's going to support little Emily and put her through college. Oh, and his little brother, too."

"How good of him," Alexis said. "It is sometimes endearing how he must get in over his head, but then it gets tiring to the mopper-uppers later, you think?"

Quinn laughed.

They looked over the shelves together and consulted here and there. "Strategies for Effective Co-parenting After Divorce," Alexis read, taking a book down. "I can eliminate two people as the authors of this one. Sergei Kanishchev didn't write this. And neither did Oksana Kanishcheva."

"Those two," Quinn mused, looking up from a book she was looking at, "are the authors of "How to Impair your Children by Fighting With Your Ex."

In the end, they decided on "Understanding the Effects of Divorce on Children" and "Family Breakdown."

"He's stuck in a hospital bed," Alexis said. "What else does he have to do?"

Zander sighed and looked at Alexis, as if to say "I told you so."

"She gave me this to give to you," Alexis said. "She asked me to give it to you. I promise she is thousands of miles away at this minute. I took her to the airport."

He turned his head and extended his hands, palm outwards, towards her.

Quinn giggled. "That's just what my little brother Bradley does when he doesn't want to hear something."

"You might like it for itself," Alexis said, grinning, "even if you think she's trying to get to you with it. Pretend I brought it. I really want you to have it."

She put the photo into one of his outstretched hands. He took it, not without giving her an injured look, but took and it looked down at it. Slowly, he smiled. His face lit up and he looked a couple of years younger, all in that instant.

He looked at the books and the Journal of Marriage and the Family. "You're doing too much for me," he said.

"Read that stuff and you'll do much for yourself," Alexis said. "Oh you got some flowers from somebody. Who was it? Can I look?"

He nodded.

"Cheryl Shue. How sweet."

Quinn just felt bad that of the time he'd been here, those were the first flowers he got.

Later, going around to check the patients, Quinn found he was asleep when she got to his room.

She looked at the little table next to the bed - the hospital materials, the one set of flowers, the photo of Peter, the books and "dumb Emily's crummy letter." His life for the last few weeks - but how changed it was, she thought - out of his control, which he had previously had - or thought he did.