Saturday, December 30th

While the family was at breakfast having waffles with whipped cream and strawberries, the phone rang. Dr. Quest picked up on the third ring.

"Hello," he greeted the caller, still laughing at a joke that Jonny had just told. "Oh, hi, Joseph; how was your drive home? Good. Oh, wonderful." Race, Estella, Jonny, Hadji, and Jessie had stopped talking and were watching Dr. Quest intently. "Wow, well that sounds great. Sure, I'll ask them. Just a moment." He turned to the faces staring back at him, and smiling back a giddy sort of smirk, he said, "Dr. Barnes has invited all of us to attend a winter faire sponsored by the local businesses in Landis, the town where he lives. He said it starts at 11:00 today. I know it's short notice, but do you want to go?"

"Sure," Jessie replied, excited about being able to see Scott again so soon.

"Slammin'," Jonny exclaimed.

"I think that's a yes," Dr. Quest said into the phone receiver. "We'll see you at noon."



It was flurrying as the Quest clan pulled their Land Rover to a stop in the great parking lot next to the Landis Park, where the faire was taking place.

Jessie stepped out of the back of the car, and closed the door, as she breathed in the cold, pure mountain air. She was in much better spirits than she had been the previous morning. Now that she had told her parents and the police the truth, she felt as if a weight had been lifted not only from her shoulders but also from her heart. The fear and anger having left her (mostly) allowed for other feelings to surface—feelings that she held for Scott. She had been so excited to see him, ever since Dr. Quest had announced that morning that they had been invited to spend the day with Scott and Dr. Barnes.

She had not spent much time with him, and the time that they had shared had been filled with fear and pain, but she had appreciated the way that he had shown concern for people whom he did not even know. She shuddered to think what would have happened to her, Jonny, and Hadji without his help.

She spotted him standing by a white gazebo with his father, looking amazing in jeans and a red sweater under an insulated black vest. As she approached him, with her family right behind her, she was immediately grateful that she and her mom had been able to cover her bruise so completely with makeup. She herself was sporting black jeans, a green turtleneck sweater, her renewed white coat, and her white knitted hat with her hair hanging loosed down her back; she felt that she looked pretty good.

"Hi!" Dr. Barnes called to them, waving as they approached the gazebo, hung with garlands and white lights. Indeed the faire looked very festive and inviting, decked with lights hung from tree bows and around evergreens. Tents had been constructed along the little cobblestone paths, which weaved themselves throughout the snow-caked historic park.

Already the park was filled with townspeople and holiday visitors, and the Quests, Bannons, and Barnes joined the throng of people entering the "Winter Wonderland," as the sign at the entrance announced.

After buying lunch of pizza under a pavilion along the side of the park, Drs. Quest and Barnes disappeared into a presentation that the local scientific community was giving concerning the harms of pesticides to the forests and wildlife of Maine. Race, Jonny, and Hadji headed toward the sporting events on the other end of the park, which featured snow tubing for $5 per person and ice-skating. Estella had ventured off into a collection of craft tents and tables.

"It appears that we've been deserted," Scott commented to Jessie, watching the members of their party dispersing in multiple directions. Jessie smiled her acknowledgement, but was not sure what to propose that they do, so she took a sip of her hot chocolate and glanced around the park at the happy faire-goers. She was not sure what Scott thought of her and she was not about to make a fool of herself if he did not share her feelings.

"So, wanna go for a walk?" He asked her, standing up from their table and pulling on his gloves.

"Sure, all right," she answered, somewhat surprised. The two walked in silence for a few minutes, watching the crowds and admiring the decorations. Finally Scott said,

"This week has been something else, hasn't it?"

"That's an understatement," she responded, laughing.

"I'm sorry that I dragged all of you into this."

"Hey, don't..." She stopped walking and grabbed his hand with her free hand. "This was not your fault. And it was nice having you there with us." They started walking again, and she let go of his gloved hand. "Jonny, Hadji, and I are used to danger. We've been in many more hopeless situations and gotten out of them alive." But this one definitely tops the list, she thought to herself, shivering at the memory. She did, however, feel more at ease with him now, remembering that he had gone through most of the terror along with them. She felt more comfortable being with him and found herself speaking freely.

"The first time my mom came to visit me at the mansion, Jonny and I were alone there, when my mom arrived. Hadji was in Bangalore, visiting with his mother and also taking care of some of his duties as Sultan."

"Sultan?" Scott exclaimed, stopping in his tracks again. Some people walking behind Jessie and Scott almost crashed into them, but accepted Scott's hasty apology and passed them, grumbling as they went. "Is Hadji a king or something?"

"I'm sorry, I thought I'd mentioned that earlier. Dr. Quest adopted Hadji when Hadji was only eight years old—Jonny had just turned seven. Dr. Quest had thought that Hadji was an orphan, because he lived on the streets of Bangalore. But then last year, he began having dreams about his mother. He thought she was dead, but we all traveled to Bangalore so that Hadji could talk to Pasha, the peddler who had taken care of Hadji before Dr. Quest adopted him.

"We found out that Hadji's father, the Sultan of Bangalore, had been assassinated by Hadji's uncle Deepak, who assumed the throne and threw Hadji's mother out of the palace. Deepak also ordered Hadji killed, but Pasha smuggled Hadji out of the palace instead and hid him in the city, deciding to raise him himself.

"Long story short, when we learned what had happened we went to the palace and overthrew Vikram, the current Sultan and son of Deepak. Then we rescued Hadji's mother who had recently been thrown in the dungeons. Hadji wasn't ready at sixteen to assume the throne, so he placed his mother in charge, until he should return."

"Wow, that's...that's amazing." He looked so stunned and speechless that Jessie could not help but laugh.

"I guess I'm so used to it, that it seems normal," Jessie said, "but I shouldn't have just sprung it on you like that," she giggled again, and he gazed at her for a moment, not speaking. Finally he said, as they began walking again,

"So you were telling me about your mom's first visit."

"Oh, right," Jessie continued. "Well, the three of us were alone in the house, when suddenly the security alarm system notified us that there were intruders on the lawn. Before we could react, though, the walls started collapsing around us, and these huge machines, shaped like giant spiders forced their way through the walls and grabbed each of us, pulling us inside the giant metal spider heads.

"Jonny and I knew, as soon as we saw the machines, that they belonged to Dr. Zin, a psychopath, who's been out to destroy Dr. Quest for years. When we finally reached our destination, we were inside an ancient pyramid in Egypt, and we were locked inside a room with hieroglyphics carved into the walls. Eventually we found a secret passage out and were looking for a way out of the temple when our fathers arrived with a friend they had enlisted to help them save us. Dr. Zin confronted us though, blocking our way out, and he used a mind control devise, which he wore on his forearm, to force Dr. Quest, my dad, and their friend Jade to grab Jonny, my mom, and me and jump over the edge of the bridge on which we were standing."

"How did you escape?" Scott asked, enthralled with the story.

"Jonny's dog Bandit saved us. My dad and Dr. Quest brought him along and he attacked Zin, biting his arm, and knocking the gilded mind control devise off of his arm.

"When we returned to the States, we had to spend the next few months in the Florida mansion, while we had the mansion in Maine rebuilt. After Zin's robots had destroyed the walls, they'd dropped a detonator and blown up the mansion. The fire department loved that one."

"How many mansions does Dr. Quest have?"

"Just the two," Jessie replied, realizing that just the two houses alone were worth millions even without the furniture, security systems, and inventions inside. "He used to live in the Florida Complex but moved to Maine after his wife died.

"You certainly do live an exciting life," he said, shaking his head.

"Well, what about you?" Jessie asked, rounding a turn in the path. "I don't know anything about you. Have you lived in Maine your entire life?"

"Pretty much," he said. "Dad moved here with my mother after they married. He knew some scientists in the area who were starting a research lab, and he decided that he wanted to be a part of it. He came from money, so he had enough saved to be able to afford a change like that, and my mom was a stay-at-home mom. I have an older sister too—Jennifer. She's away at law school in Albany.

"Well," Jessie responded, "it sounds like your dad and Dr. Quest certainly have a lot in common. I think that you and Jonny would get along pretty well too. You were saying the other night that you play soccer?"

"Yeah, I was on the varsity team at school."

They talked for hours and had wandered around the park over three times before they noticed that the sun was setting.

"We should probably try to find the others," Jessie said, not really wanting to have to share Scott's company. But she turned and started back toward the entrance to the park. Scott caught her arm though, and as she turned to face him, making eye contact, he said,

"Uh, I meant to ask you something...just something I've been wondering about." She continued to watch him, waiting for what was coming. "Is there something going on between you and Jonny?"

"What?"

"I mean, are you two...dating?"

"Oh," Jessie was so taken aback by the question that she almost laughed.

"No! No, we're not dating. Why did you think that we were?"

"Well," Scott's face was turning red, "he is a good looking guy and you talk about him a lot."

"Well, he and Hadji are my best friends, but I think of them more like brothers than boyfriends. Besides, Jonny has a girlfriend—my friend Alicia."

"Oh, okay," he said, somewhat embarrassed.

"So," Jessie began, taking advantage of a perfect moment, "we're having a New Year's Eve party tomorrow night. Would you want to come?"

"Sure," he said immediately, looking more at ease.

"Great. Well, it's getting dark. We'd better find our fathers." They turned to walk back up the path and in a swift and unplanned movement, Scott slid his hand into hers, lacing their fingers together. It felt so natural, that neither of them even noticed they were holding hands, until Jonny pointed it out to Jessie later that evening.

"You two an item now?"

"Oh, I don't know," Jessie responded, blushing. The two of them were sitting alone in the living room toasting marshmallows in the fireplace. It was nearing 10:30, and the rest of the family had already retired for the night.

Jessie was exhausted, and she would have retreated upstairs as well, but she had been meaning to talk with Jonny about something.

"Now that everyone else knows—well, I mean my parents, your dad, and Hadji know—I didn't want you to hear it from anyone but me." She took a deep breath as he watched her, confused. "I told you that when Hadji and I were held captive in that warehouse, Joey attacked me." Jonny nodded. "Well, he tried to rape me."

"What!" Jonny exclaimed.

"I got away, before he could. The gunshots outside startled him, and I pushed him off of me and ran away. But afterwards I couldn't stop thinking about it. Finally Hadji convinced me to tell my parents, and he had wanted to talk to Dr. Quest about it too."

"Oh, Jess," Jonny said, pulling her into his arms. "I'm sorry I couldn't have been there for you."

"It's all right, Jonny," she looked into his eyes. "I'm okay now. I'm going to see a psychologist for a few weeks, but I'll be all right." The two sat in silence late into the night and listened to the crackling fire.