The tough, elderly man at the AA meeting looked almost like the one now sitting before Jeffries and Kat. This Miles Chapman looked tired and worn. That's what carrying a secret for forty years'll do to you, Jeffries thought.

"It's a small world, Miles." Kat said. "I mean, what are the odds that you and your old doctor from Toronto would both move to Philly, and that you and his wife would wind up in the same AA meeting?"

Miles looked slowly at Kat. "I didn't plan that, if that's what you mean. I actually didn't know she was his wife until he showed up that night."

"But you did see him there." Jeffries said.

Miles said nothing.

"What was your baby's name?" Kat asked gently, finally break the silence. Miles didn't answer until she repeated the question

"Her name was Elizabeth." Miles whispered. "We named her after my sister. She was the most beautiful, fragile little thing I'd ever seen." Miles' voice cracked as his eyes grew teary. "The doctors only gave her two or three months, because of the... the deformities." A slight smile appeared on his face. "She lived for seven."

"As hard as it was on me, my wife was a hundred times worse." He continued. "She was never the same, for the rest of her life. She couldn't bring herself to try and have another one. We could never get approved for adopting one either. At some point, I realized kids just weren't in the cards for me. I've tried my best to make the most of it. I've volunteered at youth centers. I still read to kids at the library."

"I have a daughter." Kat said. "Something happening to her... I can't even imagine. And if I found myself face to face with the man responsible, a man who decided to run away instead of taking responsibility for what he'd done."

"I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him walk in." Miles said. "He didn't even notice me. I couldn't even bring myself to go over and talk to him. It was only after I left that I worked up the nerve. I went over to the nearest bar, threw a couple back, looked up his clinic in the phone book, then I drove over there."

"To confront him." Jeffries said.

"No." Miles answered coldly. "To kill him..."

("All Along the Watchtower" - Jimi Hendrix)

It hadn't been easy for Miles to tear himself away from the bar after only two shots but he needed to be lucid enough to get to the clinic and do what he needed to do. I've always been able to stop if I had a reason to, he thought grimly.

Madsen's car hadn't been in the driveway of his house, which meant he had to be working late over at his clinic. This is better, Miles thought. His family shouldn't see this.

Miles pulled into the clinic's parking lot and scanned the windows until he saw one with light coming from it.

Steeling himself, Miles forced himself out of the car, opened the trunk, and pulled the weapon from it.

The hunting rifle had belonged to his father. Miles hadn't joined his father on many of his hunting trip, but he'd gone on enough to know how to use it.

Miles looked down at his feet as he walked, noticing each step seemed to take much more effort to do this. Maybe one more whiskey would have helped. Maybe two.

Miles winced as he shattered the glass window pane of the door with the butt of the rifle. There was no way Madsen couldn't have heard that so he'd have to act fast. Reaching through the broken window, he unlocked the door and stepped in. He ran toward the office and quickly raised his gun as he caught Jim at the doorway.

"Whoa!" Jim cried, raising his hands instinctively. "Take it easy, all right? Just take what you want and get out!"

"You don't recognize me, do you, Doc?" Miles growled. "Just like you didn't recognize me at the meeting today. You ruined our lives and you don't even remember me!"

Jim studied Miles' face, poorly visible in the shadows of the dimly-lit office, until the recognition came to him. "Miles?" Jim asked in disbelief. "Miles Chapman? What are you doing here in Philadelphia?"

"Same thing you're doin'" Miles said. "Trying to start over. I thought a new place to live might help my wife get past losing... Elizabeth. Didn't work though. All I got was a drinking problem, and my wife?" Miles had to grit his teeth to continue. "It's been five years and she still doesn't wanna try again. At this point, I doubt she ever will. That's on you, Doc. And the bitch of it is you don't even know it."

Jim gave Miles a pained look. "You think I don't remember" You think I don't remember those babies" You think I don't see them every time I look at my own little girl and wonder what I did to deserve her? You've got every reason to hate me, but you don't know a damn thing about me!"

Miles snorted. "Yeah, you talk a good game, Doc, but I heard you talking to your wife at the meeting. You're up to something down here too, aren't you? I don't know what, but it's no good. You haven't changed a bit, Doc. You just line your pocket and to hell with anyone who gets hurt!"

"You're wrong." Jim said simply. "Somebody offered me the chance to do something. This clinic's going under without more money coming in. But I couldn't do it. Not if I wanted to look at my daughter again."

Miles glared at Jim, the gun still pointed at him. "I'm just supposed to believe that?"

Jim looked over at his desk and lowered one hand to point at the open journal on it. "You don't want to believe me? Look at that! I was writing it just as you walked in." Jim kept his hands raised and stepped back, giving Miles a chance to read the last entry in the journal. Miles kept the gun steady and he stepped forward and glanced back and forth between Jim and the page, the frustration in his face growing more and more evident.

"I should shoot you anyway." He finally said. "It doesn't change what you did to us."

Jim just looked at Miles sadly. "You're right. Six years ago, I made a terrible mistake. There's nothing I can do except say I'm sorry and God forgive me." Jim stepped closer and the gun started to shake in Miles' hands. "I'm sorry, Miles. I'm so sorry."

Miles started sobbing as he lowered the gun and found Jim pulling him into a hug. Jim simply whispered it was all right as Miles cried on his shoulder.

Miles shook his head. "He said he wouldn't tell anyone, and just walked me out to my car."

Kat eyed Miles suspiciously. "You're saying Jim was still alive when you left?"

Miles shrugged. "He was as healthy as I was the last time I saw him. I never thought I could forgive him, but..." Miles trailed off and was still for a moment before continuing. "I just sat there in my car for, I don't know, maybe an hour. I only left when I saw another car pull in."

Jeffries leaned closer. "Another car? You remember what it looked like?"

Miles nodded slowly. "Yeah, it was a nice one. A corvette; red one."

Jeffries and Kat just looked at each other.

"You owned a red corvette back in '66, right?" Scotty said to the man sitting at the table.

"Just for a few months." Dr. Matthew Swain answered. "It was an impulse purchase."

"A red corvette, that's a car people notice." Lilly said. "For instance, somebody remembers seeing one pulling into the parking lot of the clinic the night Jim was killed."

"The night you said you were in New York." Scotty added. "You want to explain that one?"

A slight smile appeared on Matthew's face, a look almost of relief. Lilly knew exactly what it was. She'd seen it several times before. It's the look of someone who doesn't have to hide the truth anymore.

"My work for Marshall-Weller was more extensive than Jim knew." He finally said. "They'd called me in to do some research at one of their labs here. They didn't want anyone knowing about it, so I told everyone I was attending the convention in New York. Plus it gave me time to switch some more of the drugs at the clinic for ones from Marshall-Weller."

"Jim found out when you ran into him at the clinic." Scotty said.

"I was telling the truth when I said I broke things off with Marshall-Weller after Jim's death. I spent the rest of my career trying to be the kind of doctor he was. I know what happened to him in Toronto, but I thought if he could get past it, so could I. People do change, don't they?"

Lilly nodded. "But part of changing is owning up to your mistakes, otherwise they can catch up with you, even years later."

Matthew nodded solemnly. "I guess that's what Jim had to. Why should I be any different?"

From his corvette, Matthew eyed the other car as it pulled out of the lot. As he pulled into his space, and stepped out, Matthew looked at the window next to the door, the broken glass confirming his suspicions. Damn burglars, he thought. What did they take?

Matthew looked around at the clinic. Nothing else seemed out of place. It was only when he noticed the light to Jim's office was on that he gripped his bag tightly looked around for a heavy object to pick up.

Both doctors reacted with a start and an audible gasp when Jim stepped out of the office and the saw each other.

"Geez, Jim, you gave me a fright!" Matthew said.

Jim chuckled nervously. "Me? What about you? I thought you were in New York."

Matthew paused for a moment. "Ah... there was a change in plans. What happed here? I saw that car pulling away and now the window's broken."

"It's all right. I handled it." Jim said raising a hand as he walked back into his office. "Actually, since you're here, there's something I want to tell you."

"What's that?" Matthew asked, following him into the office.

"I'm not taking that deal with Marshall-Weller." Jim said, a serious look on his face. "I don't want to be a part of that. Just tell your friend Dillon the answer's no."

Matthew just stared in disbelief. "Are you kidding me? Do you know the kind of money we're talking about here? This isn't just mad money. We're talking about keeping the clinic open! What about your family?"

"My family and I will get by." Jim said. "I'm not gonna be a hypocrite in front of my daughter. She deserves a father she can respect."

"This is ridiculous! You heard Dillon, the drugs are safe!"

"Safe?" Jim looked at Matthew incredulously, and pointed at the broken window. "You want to know what that was about? That was about a 'safe' drug I gave somebody six years ago that ruined their lives, that just came back to haunt me, tonight, right here in this office."

"What are you talking about?"

"It's a long story, but the point is I can't do this." Jim paused for a moment. "And for that matter, if you're gonna be doing it, I don't think we should work at the same clinic anymore."

Matthew just looked at him. "You're serious."

Jim nodded solemnly. "Yeah, I am."

"Fine." Matthew said. "Well then I gonna need you to step out for a minute."

Jim's looked turned to suspicion. "Why?"

Matthew swallowed. "It's just better if you give me a minute alone in here. You won't have to worry about anything from Marshall-Weller then."

"What are you talking about?" Jim asked, gesturing to the supply cabinets on the wall. "These are my meds, what they have to do--" Jim's face sunk as realization sunk in. "You've been switching my meds too? Huh? Is that why you tried to get me on board, so you wouldn't get caught?"

Matthew held up his free hand. "Look, don't be like that, all right? I'll take them back and that'll be the end of it. No harm, no foul."

Jim's eyes widened. "No harm? Claudia Burke was having a reaction to the pain medication I gave her. I couldn't understand why. It got so bad her husband had to take her to the emergency room! She almost lost her baby!" Pain and fury raged in his eyes. "Do you have any idea what's like to be responsible for the death of somebody's child!?" He opened the cabinet and pulled out a small jar. "How long have you been at this? A week?" He hurled the jar at Matthew, who raised his arms to deflect it. Jim pulled out other jars, and threw them at Matthew as well. "Two weeks? A month?"

"Will you calm down, all right?" Matthew said, dodging jars. "You're safe, all right? Nobody has to know!"

Matthew saw the rage in Jim's eyes, and knew what was coming just before Jim started running at him. Jim grabbed him and began burying his fist in Matthew's stomach, while Matthew tried vainly to push him off. The two circled the room, colliding with desks, tables, shelves, and cabinets, leaving a mess of tools and drugs on the floor in their wake. Matthew managed to get in a few good hits, but one good punch from Jim, knocked him clear, dropping him to the floor next to the a table, surrounded by overturned jars and other items.

"I'm gonna report you, you son of a bitch!" Jim said, breathing heavily while Matthew sat there wiping the blood from his nose and mouth. "I don't care what happens to me. I'm not letting this happen again!" With that, he turned around and started walking out.

Matthew struggled to get up, gripping an open drawer on the table as he did so. His fingers came down around a scalpel, though he did not notice it until he was standing up. "No." He hissed quietly at the exiting Jim, who did not respond. "No!" He screamed this time, gripping Jim's shoulder with his left hand and turning him around while the right hand swung the scalpel at Jim's neck.

The blade was small but deadly, digging into Jim's throat and leaving a bloody mess behind as it passed through. Jim's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. His hands instinctively covered the wound in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding. The only sound he made as he stumbled to the floor was a horrible gasping noise. Matthew wasn't sure if he was trying to say something, scream, or neither.

Their eyes remained locked for a few moments until Jim's eyes glossed over and his head lowered, his hand still gripping his throat. The only movement Jim made after that was shivering steadily, interrupted only by the occasional spasm.

Then he stopped moving completely.

Matthew wasn't sure how long he stood there over the body. At some point, the scalpel fell from his hands to the floor. When he finally came to his senses, the first thing he saw was Jim's journal sitting open on the desk Walking over to it, he quickly tore out what he thought were the last few days' entries and dropped it into the bottom drawer of a cabinet. He then grabbed every container of medication from Marshall-Weller, either from the floor or the cabinet, and stuffed them into his bag.

By the time, this was done, Matthew was breathing heavily. While picking up the containers, his gaze had drifted back to the body more than he meant, which quickened his breathing. He tried to tell himself that the entire scene simply looked like a robbery, but that didn't help. Something about the slumped body just seemed to draw his eyes to it.

Even as he stood up and walked out, he found himself turned out to look at it one more time. He began to wonder if it would keep him there, until his feet found himself again, and he was able to look forward again and walk out of the clinic...

("You'll Never Walk Alone" - Gerry and the Peacemakers)

His head lowered, hands cuffed behind his back, Matthew seemed alone in his thoughts as Lilly and Scotty walked him to his cell...

As Jackie showed the young couple the living room, their five-year-old son jumped around, clearly excited at the house. As the couple took the boy into their arms, Jackie watched and smiled...

Standing over the hospital bed, Paula stroked the head of the young boy laying in it, who seemed comforted by her presence. She watched, content, as the boy lulled into sleep...

In the children's section of the library, several children listened, captivated, as Miles finished the last few pages of the book. When he finished, a number of children applauded, and one small girl stood up and hugged his leg. A smile appeared Miles' face, and he patted her head...

As Vera placed the last few papers in the case box, now marked CLOSED, Jeffries lifted it up and stacked it among the other boxes, before the two walked off...

Standing over a table at the just-finished AA meeting, Sylvia looked up as Lilly and Connie walked towards her. Decades apart did nothing to keep the two from recognizing each other as Sylvia pulled her daughter into a hug. When she finally pulled back, Connie caught a glimpse of a man watching over them from the corner of the room.

Jim, looking proud as ever, smiled at her. Connie smiled back at him, just as she had as a child. The two looked on at each other for a moment longer before Jim walked off and faded away...

THE END