Chad Breyer and his sister Laraine were walking through the park. They got together every so often to exchange news.

Chad was amused with Laraine's story of her date with Sam Quakenbush.

"Wonder what Mom would think if she knew about that sister," Chad wondered.

"You know what she would think," Laraine said. "That the Lord has blessed Misty by making her brother a preacher who can save her soul."

"I have to say there is a good side to Mom's stuff. She doesn't condemn people like that. I mean, she has a lot of pity for people like this Misty. She's not like, lock them away and throw out the key, like many people are."

"Like Dad might be," Laraine mused. "You have a point."

Oksana was walking through the park with Mikhail and Irina. They had invited her to go along with them, and Oksana liked to spend time with her brother, so she took him up on that opportunity. It was a challenge not to resort to Russian. Her son Aleksander, who called himself Zander, had told her that morning to make them speak English on their walk in the park.

"My nephew is relentless," Mikhail said, in Russian, but grinning. "But that is good. How do I say 'relentless' in English?"

Oksana told him. "He will like it if you use that word on him," she told Mikhail, in English.

"Re-lent-less," Mikhail said. "I will try to remember it."

Irina repeated the word a couple of times. "What does it mean?" she asked.

"That he will not let us get lazy about using English," Mikhail said.

When they came up to the fountain, they ran into a young man and a young woman.

Mikhail recognized her immediately. The girl who had danced on the table. The one who had asked for lemonade. With yet a different man. But that might be a good thing.

She caught his eye and stared. She seemed frozen. He felt frozen, too.

"Oh, hello, Laraine," Oksana said.

His sister knew her. Now, that was a big break.

"Hi," the girl said, taking her eyes off Mikhail and turning to Oksana. Then it took her a second or two to say, "It's nice to see you back, Oksana."

"I'm her brother," Chad said, offering his hand to Oksana to shake.

"Oh, yeah," Laraine said, her eyes going from Mikhail to her brother. "Sorry. This is my brother, Chad Breyer. Chad, this is Oksana, my boss."

"Glad to meet you, Chad," Oksana said. "This is my brother, Mikhail, and his daughter, Irina. This is Laraine Breyer, she works in accounting at Deception."

"Le-renn," Mikhail said. His attempt to say her name came out like that.

A little recovered, Laraine said, "You're the bartender at London Underground."

"Of course," he said. "You ask for the lemonade," he added.

"Asked," corrected Irina.

"I thought you looked familiar and couldn't figure out why," Laraine said, feeling like she was rambling. She looked at Oksana. "It's the family resemblance that did that."

Oksana smiled. "I am so lucky to have my family with me now."

"Oh, I know, I heard the girls at Deception talking about how they couldn't come from Russia," Laraine answered. "For so many years." She looked at Irina. "How old are you?" she asked.

"Eleven," said Irina. "How old are you?"

"I don't think you ask grown-ups that," Mikhail said.

Laraine just laughed. "Twenty-eight," she told Irina.

"I'm twenty-three," Chad volunteered.

"But I am not answering," Oksana said, tossing Irina's pony tail. Everyone laughed.

"I am thirty-five," Mikhail said to Chad and Laraine. "And she is my big sister," he put his arm around Oksana.

"Oh, be quiet," said Oksana. But she smiled at her younger brother. "That means I remember stories of when you were a little brat, and I will tell them if you say how old I am."

He smiled and squeezed her shoulders.

Laraine smiled. "Hear that," she said to Chad.

"Oh, I already know that," Chad said, good humoredly.

"Are you the oldest, Laraine?" Oksana asked.

"Yes, and I have another, even younger brother."

"I am too, and have another younger brother and sister," Oksana said.

Laraine and Oksana smiled at each other. Oldest sister to oldest sister. "Are the others in the US now, too?" Laraine asked.

"No, not yet," Oksana said.

"I heard your parents are here."

"Yes. They and Mikhail came first."

"And me," said Irina.

"And you," Oksana smiled down at her niece.

"Well, it was nice seeing you," Laraine said, feeling like she and Chad should move on. "Nice meeting you – again," she said to Mikhail. "And you, Irina."

"Nice to see you," Oksana said. Mikhail and Irina echoed her.

"What was that all about?" Chad immediately asked her, with a big grin.

"I ran into my boss in the park," Laraine said. "And you got to meet her. That is what that was all about."

"Why does her brother – Mikhail," Chad drew out the name and put an emphasis on it, "Send you into a tailspin?"

"Like I said," Laraine answered, "I ordered drinks in the London Underground, and he did look familiar. Now he was with Oksana, I can put two and two together. It was one of those mystery things, you know, it was bothering me, where did I see him before? Hasn't that ever happened to you?"

"Yeah," Chad admitted. "But it doesn't throw me for a loop. Get me staring right at that person's eyes. Turn me into a temporary zombie."

"And I turned into a temporary zombie. Well, I space out from time to time. I wasn't expecting to see the boss in the park. So how did your date with that girl go? I meant to ask you about that. The reporter, wasn't she?"

"Fine. Don't change the subject to my love life. You've got it for your boss's brother."

"Since I've seen him twice in my life and he doesn't speak English, that's a little premature."

"Apparently, that doesn't matter. You could cut the tension with a knife. Both of you."

"Sometimes I wish you were less perceptive," she said. "Do you really think so? Because how could I talk to him? OK, I admit he is cute. But how could I talk to him?"

"Hire an interpreter," her brother grinned. "How much talk do you need?"

"Chad!" she said. "Tell me about this reporter girl before I – find her and tell her about stuff you did when you were four."

Chad laughed. "OK, sis, I'll let up on you for a little bit. Mary Ellen is really nice. Her brother is also a bartender, at the London Underground, did you know that? And she has eight brothers and sisters. She is fifth, don't you know? Right smack dab in the middle. Just like me. And she's kind and funny. Dedicated to her job. I think she wants to be the best reporter in the world. She is best friends with two of her sisters. They hang out together a lot. They like the Dissentors. So she claims, but maybe she's just being nice."

"She sounds pretty cool. Will you see her again?"

"I hope so. I was thinking of asking her out to dinner. What do you think? Or should I make it less formal? Like going for drinks at the London Underground. Maybe talk you up to your Russian bartender."

"Maybe Luke's," Laraine said, ignoring Chad's jibe. "It's a little quieter, and you can hear yourself talk. I think the simpler, the better, at first."

"Yeah," Chad said. "We can talk. Mary Ellen speaks English. Fluently."

Laraine rolled her eyes. "Yeah, so you can say something to get yourself into trouble easier."

"Never looked at it that way," Chad said. "But there's something to that. But not so much early on. No, then you need to talk. Now, if I were as good looking as Oksana's brother, I wouldn't need to be so entertaining early on."

Laraine gave him a look, and he laughed.

Oksana stopped at Zander and Quinn's house on her way out the next day.

"Hi, Mom," Zander said.

"Do you want a cup of coffee?" Quinn asked.

"You guys – you are the expert at matchmakers, right?" Oksana said.

"You have somebody in mind?"

Oksana told them of how she and Mikhail and Irina had run into one of the Deception employees, with her brother, at the park. "And you could tell they saw each other before and they are – what's the word? Knocked out by each other."

"Whoah, Mom," Zander said. "Maybe I got this talent from you. So you want to work this one?"

Quinn giggled. "You're ridiculous," she said to Zander, but she kissed him on the cheek.

Zander was grinning at Oksana over his coffee cup. "We have a language barrier," he said. "That's a new challenge, even for us."

"Not total," Oksana pointed out. "Improving all the time."

"Sounds good to me," Quinn said. "Who needs talk?"

Zander gave her a teasing tap. "You women," he kidded.

"Yeah, right," said Quinn. "But I like Mikhail, a lot. And I can't talk to him any better than this girl could. Well, I have my Russian. But that's not much help. But somehow, we still talk."

"Mostly about learning each other's languages," Zander said. "Mikhail can handle English about just getting to know somebody."

"She's an accountant," Oksana said. "I had to explain that on the way back. Though he does know that word now. Still, just a chance to talk, and not in that bar," Oksana said. "And with interpreters around."

"Is a great idea," Zander said.

"I can ask her to bring figures to the house," Oksana said. "She'll probably do it."

"Yeah, and I'll be around, and you, so we can help with a word here and there," Zander said. "Even Quinn can do some of that."

"I can," Quinn said in Russian.

"You know, I knew he'd want an American girl eventually," Zander said. "He's all about becoming American."

"Very determined," Quinn said. "You're right. Tatiana was trying to get him to marry her again. Thinks it could get her a green card. You know, he was telling me about that. So his English isn't prohibitive of conversation."

"He will go live in Siberia before he will marry Tatiana again," Oksana said.

"It won't work anyway," Zander said. "The law does not allow for it." Zander was proud of how much he knew, from working for Alexis and helping with his grandparents' and aunt/uncle/cousin immigration cases. "He has to be a citizen, or it'll take Tatiana many years to qualify. But I wish there was a way. It's the Irina thing that's a problem. If Tatiana could just see that Irina will get so much out of it, and eventually be able to bring her and Ivan over, anyway."

"But she miss out on her teenage years," Oksana said.

It went silent a while. Oksana had missed out on some of that with her own sons. When their father, Sergei, had taken them to live with him in Russia, in violation of the custody order, and later, when Zander had run away.

"In an OK way, though," Zander said. "Irina stays with her every summer and Christmas, Mikhail made that clear. Not like us, where it was illegal and we were completely cut off."

Oksana got up and gave Zander a little hug, grateful that he took their situation in stride without getting upset. Just talked about it without getting mad.

There was a pounding at the door.

"What can this be about?" Quinn exclaimed.

An excited looking Rosa was at the door. "It's Alexis!" Rosa was beaming. "She is going to the hospital!"