A few days later, Quinn came onto the swing shift. Terri Hayes was going over the charts with her.

They discussed Nicole McNabb, who'd been in a factory accident, Elizabeth Webber, who'd been in an auto accident, and Lois Huffington, who'd had heart surgery. Quinn was happy to hear Terri tell her she'd seen Zander reading the books she and Alexis had given him. "He was even talking to Joanna Shields about it," Terri said.

People walked in and out, and Quinn tried keeping track of them in her peripheral vision. A couple of teenagers walked by; she thought they might be Mrs. Huffington's daughter and her boyfriend.

She said good-bye to Terri and wished her a good evening. She went to the end of the hall to go round to each patient.

Lois Huffington didn't have any visitors. Quinn thought that was odd, but went on to take Lois' vital signs.

Out in the hall, she heard some noise from Zander's room. "Oh, no, what now?" she thought.

It was the teenagers, a girl, standing back, and a boy, just standing by the side of the bed. She realized who it was.

"Mom told me to stay put," he was telling Zander. "But no way! This is Marianna," he said. "We came straight here without stopping, she'll tell you!" He sat down and hugged Zander. Zander caught sight of Quinn, and looked at her almost blankly, as if he had not quite absorbed what had happened, while Peter said, "Don't ever do this again, Sander! You'll never get away again anyway," he continued, sitting back, re-arranging his brother's hospital gown absent-mindedly. "Mom will have enough spies on you, you can't move without her knowing again. You're worse off than anybody in the old Soviet Union ever was - spies everywhere! I swear I looked and looked for you! I looked in Miami and all over West Palm."

"We put pictures on the telephone poles over half of Miami," Marianna said, supportively. "We had six kids at once working on it. And your old nanny, who lived in Miami," she added.

"Yeah, Rosa and her nieces helped - and then we'd have a party," Peter went on. "Man! We'd have these parties that were supposed to prove you were still alive, somehow. I don't know how! Didn't we, Marianna!"

"Yep, we did," Marianna said.

Zander was still speechless, and looked at Quinn again. She smiled. "Peter, how did you know to come to this town?" she asked, as if taking over for Zander and asking whatever question it would be natural for Zander to ask if he could still think.

"Mom called, and she told me she found him," he answered, turning back to Zander. "Finally! It was like, cool, I was getting so I never thought I'd hear that! Every month these detectives came with their report, and they were like never any closer. Mom said stay put for now, she's gone to Yekaterinaburg to research the family. Why she picks now to do that? Anyway. Who knows why she does stuff? Anyway, she said stay put, she just wanted me to know and said wait for her to come back. Well, what is she doing there, I would like to know? I guess she's telling grandma and grandpa, you missed that, Sandy, we went there to see them, Babooshka and Deadushka, you know? Really old little man and lady. Very sweet. Mom wanted to bring them both back here to stay with us but the consul said Mom had to apply for a green card first and that would take a year."

Zander almost started to laugh, exchanging a glance with Quinn again. Quinn was grinning.

"So that's where they're from?" Zander asked.

"Now you know you have grandparents," Quinn said. "I just need to take his blood pressure, go on," she said, nudging Peter aside.

"Oh, you got a real cute nurse to take care of you, right here. Look here, Sandy, meet Q. Connor! Anyway, Mom wouldn't tell me where she found you, so I called the airport and told them she forgot to tell me where she'd gone, and they told me, so I got my car and talked Marianna into helping me drive all this way. It's thousands of miles from West Palm Beach!"

"West Palm Beach?"

"Yeah, Mom and me moved there a couple of years ago. I swore you'd be down there, or in Miami. Never dreamed you'd go someplace that gets cold, like this. You really fooled me! You may have as well gone back to Mosk-VAH, if you didn't want to be warm. Dad's out of jail. Whether I see him is up to me, they say. What should we do, Sander, see him or forget it for awhile?"

"Let's not make this decision, now" said Quinn, folding up the blood pressure cuffs.

"OK, you're right, Q.," Peter said. "But what happened to you, Sander? Are you sick? That never happens! You haven't changed a whole lot!"

"You have," Zander said.

"Yeah, I'm not a little kid any more," Peter answered. "I'm not nearly as much of a pest. What is the diagnosis, Dr. Q?"

"Nurse Q. Gunshot wound, and it's getting better, but I think it may get a lot better now. Don't you think so?" she asked Zander.

"Gunshot wound! Who shot you?"

"I don't know," Zander said.

"Well, let's find out, so I can go and kick their butts," Peter said.

"Uh, no," Zander said, smiling.

"Oh wait! Rosa!" Peter tapped the side of his head with the palm of his hand. "I forgot. And I've promised her for years I'd call her the very instant!" He pulled out his cell phone.

"You have to go outside, first," Quinn said.

"Oops, sorry, Q." Peter said. "I better go now, or I'll forget. I'll be right back. Stay there, Sander. Don't move."

"Not a problem," Zander said to his retreating back. Marianna shrugged her shoulders, looking at Quinn and Zander, and followed Peter out.