PART SIX

Angelique Bouchard Collins stood in the foyer of her son's home and stared at Ally as if she had not seen her before. She seemed different to her, but she didn't know how. It was as if her son now had a second wife, but that was impossible, wasn't it? She sensed a difference that should not have been there, and she was not comfortable with it.

"Okay," Ally prepped her daughters. "Your grandmother is taking you two little monsters to Papa John's for dinner and then you're spending the night with her so your father and I can have a night to ourselves. Lainey, no picking your nose and Georgia, no long distance phone calls."

"You never let us have any fun!" Little Georgia hissed as Ally tied her little hat. Angelique chuckled warmly at the two little darlings and then gazed at Ally once more and wondered why her daughter-in-law felt like a stranger. It was as if Ally was another person, but that was impossible. How many Ally McBeals were there?

"Don't worry, dear," Angelique lightly herded her grandchildren to the door. "Grandma is in control." The two girls scampered around in their little clothes and their tapping shoes on the hard wood floor of the foyer as their grandmother held open one of the front doors to them. Georgia rushed ahead to her grandmother's Jaguar as Lainey rushed to catch up. A moment to look back, Angelique stepped down off the front porch as she looked back to pull up the hood on her sealskin coat.

"Was it worth it, Ally?" She replied enigmatically.

"What?" Ally looked down from the porch.

"Your fantasy…" Angelique replied mystically with a knowing grin then turned down the walk. Ally froze where she was as a shiver danced down her spine. Just a bit afraid, she closed the door and stood where she was for a few minutes. Outside, Angelique's car started up and she drove backward into the yard and then around to head down the long driveway. As she turned round to see just where she backed up her cherry red Jaguar, she mumbled under her breath.

"Amadeus Roarke…" The retired sorceress almost silently whispered to herself. "What have you done this time?"

Spooked just a bit, Ally tried to hold her ground as she returned to the kitchen in back of the house. With her daughters gone and Maddie spending the night at Collinwood with her Cousin Carrie, she and her husband were going to have a romantic night together. She checked her roast in the oven and then tasted one of the noodles boiling on the stove and stirred her vegetable medley. Stepping back, she carried the candles to place at the table as she heard a sound from the living room. Someone had entered the house as she lit the candles and blew out the matches.

"Back from the library?" She called out. "I got rid of the rug rats, and just thought we'd have a nice evening at home." She poured wine into two glasses and lifted one each in her two hands. Backing through the kitchen door, she turned round to the living room as Mr. Roarke sat on the sofa looking at her. Ally froze as she stared at him.

"Mrs. McBeal," He started as he looked up at her. "I gave you as much time as I possibly could, but I'm afraid to tell you, your fantasy is really over."

"No." Ally replied adamantly with a quirky John Cage toss of her head. "This is my house. This is my family. I'm not going anywhere." He ended with a nervous chuckle.

"But you can't possibly stay."

"Yes, I can." Ally insisted. "I belong here."

"No, you don't." Roarke shifted his seat on the sofa. "I am truly sorry that Mrs. Ling Woo altered the events that prevented Mr. William Collins from asking you to marry him, but it happened… in your timeline, not in this one. It happened to you and it did not happen in this timeline. You could not possibly stay even if I wanted to leave you here. I am truly sorry."

"No one…" Ally gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes with the fury of a teddy bear. "Is moving me out of this house."

"I don't have to do anything." Roarke answered mysteriously as if everything was occurring according to his plans. "But I'm afraid she might have other plans." He gestured behind her as Ally looked back to her reflection in the mirror on the wall and turned back to face Mr. Roarke.

"That's me." Ally beamed. "And I say I'm staying."

"Are you?" Roarke's voice lowered softly as Ally looked again to the mirror. Standing before it was Ally McBeal-Collins herself. Ally's eyes widened in shock at the difference in their appearances. Circling each other, it became obvious that single Ally had shoulder length blonde hair and was quite thin, almost skinny. Her married counterpart had let her hair return to its natural collar and allowed it to grow quite long. It was almost as long as Nell's hair. Married Ally was also just a bit busty from nursing her infant daughters and quite a bit heavier, but not enough to make her less than a beautiful woman. It was obvious from looking at her at the amount of exercise she had done to lose her pregnancy pounds. They were as different as night and day, but one of them had paid her tolls and made the price for happiness and her marriage and motherhood and the other hadn't.

"Mrs. Collins," Roarke stood up and smoothed out his white suit. "My name is Mr. Roarke and, well, this lady needs no introduction. This is the woman you used to be."

"I don't understand what's going on here." Married Ally gazed back at her single counterpart.

"Well," Roarke continued. "It's really quite simple. She wants your life." Married Ally turned to Single Ally. They stared at each other a bit as Single Ally stumbled back just a bit and felt just a bit afraid of the woman she could have been.

"No." Married Ally answered. "This is my house and my family."

"But…" Single Ally tried to talk.

"No." Ally McBeal-Collins answered. "You're not the one who went through ten hours of labor to give birth. You're not the one who nearly died in the hope that a second daughter might live…"

"But…"

"I'm not finished." The real Mrs. Collins continued. "I worked my ass off to make this once deserted house a home. I went through Elaine, Paula, Tricia and, god help me, even Georgia I think to get married to William. My daughters have embarrassed me publicly and privately driving off babysitters and flooding theatres and shopping malls. I have paid my dues in this marriage and I am not giving it up." She hissed a bit as if she expected a negative rebuttal from her counterpart.

"But…"

"This…" Mrs. Collins continued. "…Is my house!!" She stared down her counterpart as Roarke gently motioned to the front door. Still eternally single, Ally McBeal felt her heart was not just broken but crushed. Her feet moved stiffly as if they had become lead weights. Mr. Roarke opened the door for her as William's trans am came driving up the driveway. She stared upon him once more and then back to the woman she could have been had but her past matched that of her counterpart.

"Oh," Married Ally giggled an evil laugh and short toss of her hair. "Thanks for the dinner. My husband and I will love it."

Ally wanted to hit and punch her, but her heart and feelings were ripping her apart. It had all been so wonderful, and yet so brief. It was like waking from a wonderful dream she did not want to end. A part of her died as she heard William's car door slam shut. She wanted to hold him once more, and to say good-bye to him. She choked on the heartbreak that returned from losing him, but as she opened and closed her eyes, she was not on the front stoop of William's home in Collinsport; she was back on the veranda of Roarke's island paradise. Palm trees towered over her as oceanic natives moved about in Polynesian attire. One of them passed by her into Mr. Roarke's home behind her as she tried to hold on to her feelings.

"Mrs. McBeal," Roarke looked upon her. "Again, I am terribly sorry, but even you must realize that… love is one of the most powerful forces of the universe. Even if you lose it… you always find it again." He stepped out of the way as Ally recognized Jason Smart. Clad in a white shirt and blue jeans, he was holding a red rose to her as she stared upon him and hesitantly took it from him.

"I know I'm the last person you ever wanted to see, but…" He gazed upon her and took her hand. "Ally, I know I've kept my job secret from you and a lot of weird things happen around me, but all I know is that when I'm around you, my life isn't quite so weird. I see magic in you I've never felt from anyone else. I think about you constantly and when you're not around, I feel alone. Please… please take me back."

Ally looked at the rose in her hand. It pricked her thumb as she sucked the cut on her finger. She looked up at him.

"You can't tell me anything?" She pulled her hair from blowing in her face.

"I work for the government." The son of Maxwell Smart answered. "That's it."

Ally inaudibly gasped and allowed him to take her hand. Pulling her close, Jason closed his lips over hers as her hands pulled him close. She felt his body on hers as she looked over his shoulder and through a nearby window. William and Ally Collins were in a deep embrace as her counterpart stared out with a knowing grin and toasted her with a glass of wine.

"Don't look back, Mrs. McBeal." Mr. Roarke replied as he leaned against a lamppost. "Instead, perhaps you should look forward…" He raised his own tropical drink to his lips as Ally and Jason departed down the front steps of his home and walked away hand in hand.

"Boss," Mojo came rushing up. "Lizzie Borden got past one of those CSI guys and is now loose on the island."

"You know the drill." Roarke rolled his eyes. Every time a professional criminologist wanted to live through a historical crime scene to try and solve it, some historical figure always slipped through to the present!

END