"I think I understand her more now after this, Willy," Jesse confessed to the whale as the truck lumbered on through the snowy night-now, thanks to the effectively plowed road under them, twice as fast as it had been able to before, "She only gave me up because she had no other choice, because no one else was going to help her raise me, and because she didn't have the means to do it herself then. And she hated having to let me go. She said she thought about me for the rest of her life. I guess I really was with her all the time. Just like she really was with me all this time too. I was just too mad and hurt to realize it."

He lowered his head, "For so long, Willy, I thought there had been a more selfish reason, that she just didn't care. If I'd been reunited with her then, I guess I would have chewed her out for it. I guess I really was just that angry deep down. And I thought bad about all adults because she had left me. But she did everything she could to hold on to me, and did everything she could to try and get back to me. It just didn't quite work out." He glanced down to his big friend. "I know this is probably a bit over your head, buddy, since you'd never been apart from your mother other than the times you were captured. But I hope you understand a little."

Willy exhaled, apparently understanding. "Good," Jesse rubbed the whale's nose. "I'm seeing now, Willy, that some grownups have lots of problems too. Sometimes really big problems that they need help with if they can get it," he glanced back at Mr. Perkins on the truck behind them, sitting close by his son and staring at Kago in the tank, then at Mrs. Corwin sitting with her daughter on the truck behind that, "They're not the enemies of us kids-well, most of them. Maybe we kids need to be fairer with grownups too. After all, some people go through things we can't see. I've also come to see that it takes an awful lot for a parent to stop caring completely for their kids. So for how bad they've gotten, there's hope for Jake's dad and Judy's mom, and I'm glad for that. Just like my mom never stopped caring for me, and still cares enough to do this," he gestured down at the cleared road underneath them. "So thanks, Mom," he smiled up into the dark, snowy sky above them, "Please stay with us until we get Willy and his family safely home."

"How's he doing, Jesse?" Annie stuck her head out the front passenger window for another status check.

"Not bad actually, Annie," Jesse called down, "How much further now?"

"Probably only about two more miles now..."

"I see the ocean, I see the ocean!" Jake exclaimed behind Jesse. Jesse looked up and saw it himself: whitecaps visibly breaking in the distance through the snow. And something else caught his attention over the wind: whale calls audibly ringing out from the distant waves. "I think your family's waiting for us, Willy," he told his friend excitedly, "I guess your mom had a feeling you'd be coming back this way too."

Willy let out a loud call in response to the distant cries, as too did every other whale in the convoy, all of them trying to let the distant whales know they were there. Glen braked to a stop, stuck his head out the driver's side window, and stared towards the distance. "Looks like the welcome wagon's out, Willy," he grinned up at his big passenger. "OK, Jack, once we reach the cove, then how do we get to the water?" he called back to the teacher.

"There's a trail down from the hill over the cove to the beach; the film crew used it to get the cameras and other equipment down to the water for some shots of the pirate ship for the finale," Mr. Banks called back, "As long as the trail isn't snow-covered, it'll be easy to see. You make a left at the top of the hill and take it down; it's about a half mile to the beach. Then I guess we go straight into the cove and dump the whales in, and hope they can swim out to sea with no problems."

"Right, and thank you, Captain," Walker was saying out loud on his phone. "Coast Guard's on their way," he called to the others, "They should get to McCaw Cove in about twenty minutes if the storm doesn't slow them down."

"Sounds great, pal. So let's hit that beach, Greenwood!" Mr. Perkins cheered Glen on. Glen nodded and pulled forward down the road again. "You're really excited about helping Kago and his family now, aren't you, Dad?" Jesse heard Jake ask him, sounded impressed and proud.

"I think I'm starting to see that they're not just dumb creatures after all, Jake," his father admitted, kicking the ice in Kago's truck loose, "They deserve to be free out in the ocean again, and getting to help to do it-for the first time in a long time, I'm feeling like I'm doing something good for someone. Especially for you."

He lowered his head. "I am so sorry for everything I became these last few months, Jake," he apologized, "Your mother, I loved her more than anything. Seeing her wasting away like that, and being unable to do anything about it, it tore me apart inside. I didn't know how to handle losing her, and it hurt more than you can imagine. I wanted to dull the pain more than anything, the bottle provided that for me, and I got so bent on killing the pain that the liquor consumed me. I was really bad, wasn't I?"

"Yeah," Jake nodded solemnly, "You were. I was afraid of what you'd become."

"I understand why you'd want to run away. I'd given you every reason to," his father shook his head, "In the end, I guess you were the more mature one in handling her death. So I'm proud of you for that, Jake," he beamed at his son, "You're becoming a man."

"Well, I still want to be a kid for a little while longer," Jake confessed, "That's why I'd like to have the old you back, so I can enjoy life as a kid while I can."

"I'll get help, Jake; I can tell I need it now. Hurting you was the last thing I'd ever have wanted to do, so whatever it takes to bury that guy I became, I'll do it, I promise. I love you, Jake," Mr. Perkins put an arm around Jake, "And I'm proud of you."

Kago exhaled loudly. "Glad you agree, Kago," Mr. Perkins told the whale, "I hope this truck works fine as a makeshift tank for you; it was the best I could do on short notice."

Kago leaned his head out of the water and rested it against Mr. Perkins' leg. The sanitation company owner smiled and rubbed the whale's side. "Glad to know it works for you," he told his passenger, "You know, I can see why Jake likes you, Kago. You're a pretty friendly whale, all in all. All the whales you've seen out there on the boat nice?" he asked his son.

"They seem to be so far, Dad. And I've really started to like doing it," Jake told him, "My life felt lost for a long time; now, I know what I want to do. I want to keep working in whale research with Jesse and Judy and everyone at the institute, as long as they can keep it going. I want to make a difference for the whales and every other animal in the ocean."

"Well, sounds like a great life to me," his father beamed. "You agree, right Kago?" he asked the whale, "Of course you do, I know you do. I hope you can stick around these parts once we get you back into the ocean, for Jake's sake."

Jake nodded at the thought and reached down to rub Kago's tongue again. Jesse gave a soft nod too, but deep down, part of him was wondering if, much as it would be hard on him, Willy and his family might be safer in a more protected area unless the region was declared a marine preserve. After all, he didn't want anything else to happen to his big friend again. Maybe, just maybe, it would be in their interests to find a safe place for he and the other whales after they got him back home, even if it meant taking Willy so far away that he'd never be able to return...

The thought was momentarily driven from his mind as the hill Glen had been driving down flattened out. The road was widening out, the forest was thinning out around them, and the whitecaps were much clearer through a large opening in the trees ahead. "We're almost there, Willy," he told the whale with a grin, "Nothing can stop us now..."

Suddenly, headlights switched on in front of them, prompting Glen to hit the brakes abruptly again. Jesse once more had to grip the side of the dumper to avoid being thrown off. "Oh no!" he groaned, seeing the way ahead of them was blocked by three large flatbed trucks parked across the exit from the woods. Another trio of pickup trucks were parked in front of the bigger trucks, their headlights illuminating the convoy. And behind them, Jesse could see close to a dozen armed men, their guns leveled right at the dump trucks. The whalers must have escaped the bathroom and beaten them to the cove, he realized glumly. And with guns in play, they undoubtedly meant business this time...

"Shut off your engines and get out of those trucks!" came Carl's furious order over a megaphone from behind the trucks, "Those whales are our property, and we're taking them back! You have one minute to comply, or we will shoot!"

Numerous guns clicked from behind the truck barricade. "Oh great! What we do we do now!?" Jake lamented on the truck behind Jesse's.

"Leave it to me, Jake," his father sounded unbowed by the whalers' threat. He slid off the front of the dumper and down the front of the cab to the ground. "So that's your ultimatum?" he called to Carl.

"It is, and you have forty-five seconds to comply now!" Carl shouted back.

"OK then," Mr. Perkins threw open the door to the cab of Kago's truck, "Here's your answer, pal: you guys can have these whales over my cold, dead body!"

He quickly shoved Hal over to the passenger seat, leaped into the cab, and slammed the driver's side door shut. "Follow me, boys!" he shouted back to his employees, then floored his truck towards the blockade. "George, what are you doing!?" Hal protested, although anything else he might have said was drowned out as his boss blew the truck's horn hard, apparently trying to startle the whalers.

"For Nekilstlass' honor, here we come!" Mr. Banks shouted defiantly, then gunned his truck forward as well, right as Glen also started ahead at high speed, followed by the other trucks. "You'd better run now, you cowards!" Jesse yelled tauntingly at the blockades' defenders, nodding in satisfaction at the radio in Mr. Banks' truck blaring out loud towards the whalers, quite fittingly, "Heal the world, make it a better place for you and for me and the entire human race. There are people dying if you care enough for the living; make a better place for you and for me."

"Fire!" Carl ordered his men, who immediately started shooting at the oncoming convoy. Jesse jumped down into the water with Willy despite it been completely freezing, hoping that would be enough protection from any bullets. "Get down, quick!" he called back to Jake and Judy, "We're going to crash good here!"

"Oh my god...!" a panicked Mrs. Corwin dove into the water behind Polaris and pulled Judy down with her. Jake, unable to swim, hastily ducked down behind the back of his truck's cab. More horns from the trucks rang out as they got closer to the barricade, and Jesse, daring to look over the edge, saw the goons turning pale as their opponents kept accelerating faster and faster towards them (he remembered with a grin Wade several months ago, at first smugly holding up his hands to stop them at the marina's gate, then waving his arms with increasing franticness when Glen had sped up towards he and Dial's other cronies instead). And just like Wade and those goons, these goons now screamed and dove aside moments before the trucks could reach them. "Hold on, Willy," Jesse told the whale, ducking down right before the trucks impacted with the barricades with a tremendous bang and a shower of sparks. "Yeah!" he pumped his fists, seeing the blockading trucks, heavily damaged, flipping over sideways, allowing the convoy through onto the hill overlooking McCaw Cove...

...when suddenly, loud bangs rang out from underneath the trucks, and Jesse could hear ominous clip-clop noises ringing out. "What happened!?" he called down to the cab.

"Great, they must have buried spike strips in the snow!" Glen shouted out loud, answering his question for him, "I think we lost all our tires just like that!"

"No!" Jesse slapped both hands to his face, feeling the truck already starting to decelerate. And loud shouts behind him made him turn and see the goons rushing after them, aiming their guns ominously at their quarry. And worse, another glance to the left showed another pair of pickup trucks blocking the trail down to the water, with another half dozen or so armed men standing behind them. "We're cut off!" he shouted down, "They have the way blocked!"

"I see it!" Glen sounded very frustrated. "Banks, any other ideas!?" he shouted back to the teacher.

"One chance; go straight down the hill!" Mr. Banks shouted back, pointing to the drop straight ahead of them, "It's a steep enough grade that we can coast down even on blown tires!"

"That's way too steep!" Annie protested, leaning out the passenger window and staring worriedly at the drop, "We'll never make it!"

"Do we have any other choice!?" Glen countered, seeing the heavily armed whalers starting to catch up to the slowing convoy. "Hold on real tight, Jesse!" he called up to his foster son, then gunned it as best he could forward over the drop down to the beach. Jesse tightened his grip on the edge of the truck until his knuckles were white, fighting against the forces of gravity threatening to send him flying into the air; the grade was that steep. Their speed was picking up rapidly, though, and when he looked back, he saw the goons were being left well behind again. He looked forward again towards the cove below, barely visibly in the darkness and snow except for the whitecaps cresting every few seconds. "Just a few more moments, Willy!" he told the whale, who was letting out a wail of alarm at the steep descent they were experiencing. The drive-or perhaps more accurately tumble-down to the beach seemed to go on forever, but eventually the dump trucks reached the sand and sputtered into the water just as their tires were starting to go completely flat. Glen spun the steering wheel around to get the rear of the truck facing towards the open ocean. "OK, Jesse, get down from there; I'm going to dump him down!" he shouted.

"Right!" Jesse dove into the water and splashed away from the truck. The back tilted up, dumping Willy into the cove. The other whales, dolphins, seals, and sea lions were dumped back to the saltwater one by one in turn. "We made it!" Judy splashed over to Jesse, smiling.

"I'll feel better when they're safely out to sea, Judy-Rae, how do they look!?" Jesse called to the former whale trainer, examining several of the now freed orcas.

"No serious injuries, Jesse, thank god; I think they're OK to go," Rae sounded relieved.

"Great. OK, Willy," Jesse splashed over to him, just making out his bent fin in the darkness, "The way out's there," he pointed to the dark far end of the cove, where the whale calls were getting louder, "Your mom and the rest of your family's waiting out there. Take everyone here and go; don't look back, don't stop. Go on, be free again," he gave his big friend a gentle shove, "Don't worry about me, I have all the memories of you I'll ever need, and I'll never forget you. Go on, Willy, go, be free!"

Willy let out a call to the other orcas and started swimming towards the open sea. The others fell into line behind him, calling excitedly to the rest of their family in the darkness ahead of them. "Yeah, yeah, that's it, go on!" Jake cheered them, leaping on top of Jesse's shoulders in triumph, then turning around to high five Judy behind them. "Ha, ha, you lost!" he taunted the whalers as they reached the waterline, "You'll never catch them now!" he pointed at the orcas disappearing into the darkness of the cove, well out of the men's reach.

"Who's the big tough guy now!?" Mr. Perkins leaned right in Carl's face to taunt him, "We beat you good; these whales are going free, and there ain't a single thing you can do about it now!"

"That's what you think," Carl said darkly. He hefted a radio. "OK boys, here they come! Hit it!" he gave the order. Moments later, a phalanx of floodlights burst on from the entrance to the cove, blinding everyone. Once Jesse's eyes adjusted to the light, he saw with horror that two rows of boats-all chained to an oil tanker in the center-completely blocked off the exit to the ocean, nets visibly extending from them down into the water to complete the blockage. And worse, the roar of engines signaled more boats coming to life on the sides of the cove. "Oh no, they got out of the bathroom and set a trap!" he realized, watching several smaller boats zooming out into the cove, their passengers dumping more nets into the water as they went, "They'll never make it out!"

"Who's laughing now!? Ha, ha, ha!" Carl sneered in Mr. Perkins's face. "Close up the rear, boys. Then we'll force them back into the nets," he ordered his men over the radio, "They're not getting out of...!"

With a roar, Mr. Perkins slugged him hard in the face and shoved him into the surf. "Come on, we can't let them get away with this!" he shouted at the rest of the party, then broke into a run for the nearest boat as it sped across the cove, dropping nets behind the whales and other sea life.

""Stop, stop, you don't know what you're doing!" Mr. Banks bellowed at the whalers, splashing after him. Several of the other adults did the same. Jesse, meanwhile, had no intention of standing around himself. "Come on, let's go!" he told Jake and Judy, "We've got to do something!"

"But what can we do!?" Jake asked, running after his friends through the shallow waves, unnoticed by any of the other adults in the confusion.

"I don't know; I'm making this up as I go!" Jesse shouted, his eyes locking in on a boat still moored to the side of the cove, the whaler on which was preparing it for departure, "We can let them cut Willy and the others off, though! Stop that guy before he gets out!"

He put on a burst of speed, quickly closing in on the boat as the man on board started its engine and began motoring out, shoving an attached net overboard. With a loud roar, Jesse leaped onto the boat before it could get out of the shallows and started grappling with the man, catching him by surprise. Jake and Judy leaped on as well. "Here!" Jake grabbed an air horn from the stern and flung it to Jesse. With a nod, Jesse grabbed it and blew the horn as hard as he could in the whaler's face. Yelping in shock, the man stumbled backwards and fell overboard with a loud splash. "Cut the net loose!" Jesse called to Judy in the stern. She bent over the rear and unhooked the net, then flung it back into the water. "Jake, take us out!" Jesse instructed him, "We've got to find a way to break that barricade up there!" he pointed to the mass of ships at the front of the cove.

"How!?" Jake inquired, nonetheless revving up the engine and motoring them across McCaw Cove, "There's at least four rows of nets there as far as I can see, and they'd never be able to make that big a jump over two rows of boats, even with a magic Indian prayer!"

"It'll only take one hole to get them through, Jake! We just have to get one net undone, and...uh oh, look out!" Judy cried a warning. Jesse saw it too: a huge wave, stirred up higher than it ordinarily would have been due to the storm, bearing right down on them. "Hold on!" he called to his partners, then gripped the side of the boat as it rose very high with the wave and crashed down hard, rattling all three children. "This is madness! We'll never make it out here in a blizzard!" Jake cried, looking very worried.

"We can't let them catch the whales! Willy! Willy, to the side!" Jesse cried to his big friend, whom he could just make out through the snow in the center of the cove, having come to a stop in apparent confusion at what was going on around him, "You've got to get to the sides, Willy; they'll try and force you and your family back into the nets...!"

"Here comes a bigger one!" Judy cried another warning. Jesse turned and saw the latest wave bearing down hard on them. Yelping, he hit the floor as it splashed down hard on the boat-after which his heart froze upon hearing a terrified scream in the stern. "Oh no, Jake!" he gasped, seeing his friend being washed overboard into the water.

"Help!" a terrified Jake screamed, splashing about frantically in the water, "Please, help!"

"Hold on!" Jesse dove for the stern and reached out desperately for Jake's flailing hands, but was unable to reach him. And Jake was rapidly sliding under the waves, unable to swim to safety. "Hold me!" Judy pushed in front of Jesse, "We can reach him working together!"

Jesse knew there was no time to argue. He seized Judy's legs and dared to extend her out over the water. Straining for all she could, Judy just managed to grab hold of Jake's hands-by this point the only part of his body still above water. "Pull me in, quick!" she told Jesse, who heaved her backwards as hard as she could. Together, the two of them managed to pull Jake back above the water and onto the boat. Jake coughed in shock. "Thanks, I owe you guys," he told them gratefully.

"We vowed we'd always be there for each other, didn't we? Now we've got to..." Judy stopped and frowned, smelling at Jake. "What?" he asked, confused.

"You smell like oil, Jake," Judy leaned over the side of the boat and sniffed again, "There's loads of oil in the water. Why would...?"

And then it hit Jesse exactly what their foes' plan was. Mere seconds later, he heard a loud clicking sound above them. He glanced up and noticed they'd drifted close to the oil tanker at the center of the blockade-out of the ports of which he could now see oil spilling-and that Dial was standing over him with a dark glower, a lit cigarette lighter in hand. "Oh god...no, Dial, please!" he begged the park owner.

"These whales are mine. Goodbye, kid," Dial said coldly, then reared his arm back, preparing to toss the lighter towards the water. "Go, get us out of here!" Jesse screamed to Jake.

Jake shrieked as Dial flung the lighter down towards them and revved the engine up full blast. The boat tore across the waves away from the blockade-for about two hundred feet, at least, before the engine sputtered to an abrupt dead stop. "No, no, don't die now!" Jake frantically pulled the cord again and again, but to no avail; the engine was now dead. "That wave that knocked me overboard must have got water in the engine; we're in big trouble!" he whimpered fearfully.

A loud scream erupted from Judy. And Jesse saw exactly why: the lighter had very quickly ignited the oil in the water, and the flames were rapidly spreading away from the blockade into the cove, right towards them. "Paddle!" he cried, very scared now, "Paddle for your life!"

He stroked desperately at the water, trying to get their boat back to safety. Jake and Judy joined in, stroking the waves for all it was worth. The fire, however, was getting closer and closer by the second, despite the current giving the boat at least some momentum back towards shore. With frightened cries of their own, the orcas were quickly retreating backwards from the flames all around them, straight towards the solid net line now strung across the middle of the cove. "No, no, not there, you'll be caught!" Jesse screamed to them, seeing more whaler boats coming out from the sides of the cove dragging more nets.

"Never mind them, we'll be caught too! It's going to cut us off!" a terrified Jake cried, seeing the fire starting to close in around them on both sides. The opening in front of them to safety was getting smaller and smaller by the second. Jesse strained with all his effort to try and stroke them to safety. He looked up however, as the whales cried out in fear. And for good reason, for they had been forced back against the net, and the new boats crossed over in front of them with new nets, trapping the whales. "No! Leave them alone!" Jesse cried, seeing the now laughing men tossing more nets over top of the orcas, "They're not yours!"

"Jesse, hurry!" a frightened Judy cried, but it was too late; the fire merged together in front of them, trapping them amid a sea of twenty foot high flames. "Now what do we do!?" she shrieked fearfully.

"I don't know!" Jesse had no answer to this terrifying turn of events. And it got even worse now, as a high burning wave crashed down into the boat, sending he and the others scrambling to the sides for safety. "The engine-there's still fuel in it...!" he realized, "Abandon ship!" he cried to Jake and Judy, grabbing their arms and preparing to jump overboard. No sooner had he gone airborne, though, then the gas in the engine exploded from the flames. The force sent Jesse flying a good distance, losing his grip on his friends in transit. He smashed hard into a rock, then fell into the water and rapidly sank towards the bottom, the water overwhelming his lungs rapidly. He'd failed, he knew sadly. Willy was going back to captivity, and there was nothing else he'd be able to do...