The End of The World: February 14, 2016

by SanJohn

The Ghostbusters are back to battle their old enemies for the end of the world is at hand. Will Professor Spengler's daughter get married? Will Ray lose his daughter and wife? Are Dana and Oscar lost to Peter forever? And what about Winston and the new Ghostbuster team, what is going to happen to them?

39. Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Kylie stood at the head of the long square table. She was looking out over an assorted group of people in front of her.

To her right was the new team of Ghostbusters. Eduardo sat next to her along with, Roland, Garrett, and Louis Tully their accountant. To her left were Doctor's Stantz and Venkman, along with Professor Spengler. Mr. Zeddemore was there too, dressed in his military uniform.

"Doctor Stantz," Kylie said, "would you like to inform us on how Ghostbusters International is doing?"

"Sure thing," Ray said standing up.

Ray watched as Kylie stepped back from the table but didn't take her seat. Her round belly was causing her issues in sitting and kneeling lately. She was only two months away from delivering her first child and Ray could sympathize with her.

His own wife, Melody, was due to have their second child. And things that she could once do easily were now an issue for her. Just bending over to tie her shoes or pick up something from the floor that Melody had dropped was difficult. Nokomis was a big help, when she was around.

Ray sighed and shuffled the papers in front of him. Nokomis would have to wait.

"Alright everyone," Ray said as he pulled the top paper off of his pile, "here's what we have so far with our franchises."

"In the United States we are divided up into six divisions: Midwest, New England, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest. And each division covers certain states."

"The Midwest covers the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin."

"Next is the New England franchise," Ray continued, "they include the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont."

"Moving over into the Northeast we have five states," Ray stated turning his paper over that he held in his hands. "They are Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and of course us here in New York."

"We also have the Northwest franchise," Ray continued reading down his list. "These are the states of Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming."

"The Southeast has The Alabama Ghostbusters, along with Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia."

"And finally the Southwest covers the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah."

"Anything overseas yet?" Peter asked sitting to Ray's right.

"Yes," Ray replied as he set the paper down that he held in his hand and picked up another one, from the pile in front of him. "We have franchises in Australia, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Northern Europe, Puerto Rico, Russian Federation, Uruguay, United Kingdom, and Western Europe."

"Each franchise is up and running and have been able to take the calls that we have been forwarding to them but…," Ray trailed off.

"But what Ray?" Peter asked.

"But," Janine said sitting on the couch nearby, "I've been working for six months without a break and you promised me you'd hire more help Doctor Venkman."

"Well Janine," Peter said, "Someone with your qualifications would have no trouble finding…,"

Peter was cut off by Winston placing a hand on Peter's right arm stopping him before he could go any further.

"Finding that," Winston interrupted, "it would help you greatly if each franchise would hire their own secretary and take their own calls, instead of you."

"Yes," Janine agreed surprised at Winston interrupting Peter's insult, "Yes it would."

"I have to keep asking which time zone each franchise is in when I go to forward a call to them. Not to mention getting up at all hours of the night to answer the phone," Janine finished.

"And," Winston went on, "would that bring our costs down Louis? We wouldn't have to be advertising our name all over the world. Let each franchise do that now. Have them take responsibility for their own business. Have them supply their own business cards, invoices, printing supplies, things like that."

"Yes," Louis said flipping through his ledger book sitting next to Eduardo's right side. "We are taking 10% of each franchise's calls that we give to them. With that money we cover their expenses for advertising. I say we drop our fees to 5% and let the franchises cover their own business paraphernalia."

"Are there any franchises," Kylie asked coming closer to the table, "that can't afford the advertising?"

"Well," Ray said looking through the papers in front of him, "maybe two, three tops. And that's only because they have signed on a month ago."

"But," Roland interrupted, "it would take a great deal of stress off of Janine if we could get these couple of franchises to pull their own weight."

"How?" Garrett asked, "If you can't advertise you have no business."

"Yes," Roland replied, "I understand that. But if we drop the price that these franchises have to pay us, then they can be able to afford simple business cards and a part-time secretary."

"Alright," Kylie said, "I think that we need to put it to a vote."

"All those in favor of dropping our percentage to 5% please raise your hand," Kylie said.

Seven hands went up as Kylie surveyed the table in front of her. The only hand not up was Professor Spengler's hand and she frowned.

Professor Spengler was having a rough time right now. Only last week Kylie had stood outside, in the ankle deep snow in lower Manhattan, as Professor Spengler had buried his first grandchild.

Echo hadn't looked well either. Pale, without a smile that she always had on her face, Echo had lost it as she placed the small casket into the ground to rest upon the top of her stillborn sister from her parents.

Kylie had stood next to Eduardo as she witnessed Doctor Echo Spengler on her knees in the snow, by the grave of her first born. Kylie's heart went out to Echo as her hand found its way to her stomach. Rubbing her stomach, with her unborn child inside, Kylie watched as Echo wept openly over the open grave.

Eduardo tugged on Kylie's arm and turned her away from the scene. As she was being led away she heard Professor Spengler's voice.

"Stand up!"

Kylie stopped and looked back over her shoulder. Echo was still on the ground with Verdie kneeling next to her right side. Verdie's arms were wrapped around the crying young woman.

"You're embarrassing me," Professor Spengler said under his breath to Echo.

Kylie sucked in a breath but held her tongue. She had never seen this part of her mentor before. Sure he was hurting, who wasn't, but to be that rude to his own daughter was out of character for him.

"No," Verdie replied quietly looking up at Egon, "she's not. What's wrong with you?"

"Verdie," Egon said softly gesturing with his head to his left, "what do you think the press will do with this?"

Kylie turned herself around to look to where Egon had gestured. The press and tabloids were there jostling for the best position, behind the tall, black wrought iron fence that surrounded the church and burying grounds.

Kylie saw flashes from the multiple cameras and microphones being held through the iron fence trying to catch anything that the reporters could use for the next day's news.

Looking back to where Professor Spengler stood, all prim and proper, Kylie heard Verdie quietly said, "Then do something they'll be talking about for years from now."

"Show them what the Spengler name stands for," Verdie finished.

Kylie watched as Professor Spengler carefully lowered his tall six foot three inch statue to the ground. He turned towards Echo as Verdie released her hold on his daughter. As Kylie watched Egon gently gathered his daughter up into his arms and wept openly with her. When they were done Professor Spengler stood up, helping his daughter to her feet.

Kylie thought that the group would just walk away and was surprised when she saw Professor Spengler walk away. She watched as he walked over to a man holding a shovel.

"May I borrow that?" Professor Spengler asked pointing to the man's shovel that he held in his hands.

The man bowed his head and quietly handed the shovel over. Egon took it, bringing it back over to the small grave.

"We do this together," Egon said into Echo's ear as he stopped next to her, "as a family."

Kylie watched as Echo stood in the center between her father, to her left, and her soon to be step-mother, on her right, as all three of them placed their hands on the handle of the shovel and carefully started filling in the tiny hole.

She wasn't able to see the trio finish filling in the grave as Eduardo pulled her away, but one headline had been kind to the grieving pair the next day. The headline had read:

"Professor Spengler's Loving Nature."

And the article was right to the point when Kylie had read it.

WhenProfessor Spengler's daughter collapsed at her son's funeral other reporters saw a stern father figure, but this reporter saw a human being.

This reporter saw Professor Spengler falling to his knees to grieve with his daughter. He even went so far as to help Doctor Echo Spengler fill in the grave with the help of his fiancée Professor Vladislava Tvardovsky.

All this reporter can say to Professor Spengler while others call him stern and rude is that you, Professor Spengler, are a true lifesaver and a wonderful human being.

You have been an unsung hero for so many people in your life. The trust fund that you and Doctor Spengler anonymously set up for a homeless mother and her four children. You didn't want anyone to know about that. And even though you both chose to be anonymous this reporter thought it best that the single mother know what you have done for her.

"Professor Spengler and Doctor Spengler are saints!" She told this reporter wishing that her name be kept anonymous, just like yours. But she did have this to say to you, "I wish to express my sympathies to Professor and Doctor Spengler over their recent loss. It's hard to imagine the loss of a child and my prayers and heart go out to them."

You've done amazing things for others without ever asking for a return. Do you remember when you and your wife Eden Parnell Spengler were walking home from the Metropolitan's performance of Turandot, where Eden played the part of Princess Turandot, and you found a man that was hurt, bleeding in St. John's Park?

Although this is no longer considered a park, inside the teardrop-shaped roadway that provides four exits for the Holland Tunnel is an interior space still referred to as "St. John's Park". The interior is not accessible to pedestrians and is clearly marked with "No Trespassing" signs, but that didn't stop you and Mrs. Spengler from helping that man. You did not know who he was or how he got there and you didn't care. You saw someone hurt in that "circular wasteland" and went to work. You saved his life, no matter what anyone else around you said at the time. You never knew him or how much he means to me. You see that man was my future husband. And so now you know how his story turned out.

You also respect those who have different perspectives. The qualities that most of us lack, you have maintained gracefully. You've been a voice for the voiceless, and a true champion of altruism.

In case my readers don't know what altruism means, it is the principle or practice of concern for the welfare of others. Something we can all strive to live towards, in my opinion.

The word was coined by the French philosopher Auguste Comte as altruisme, for an antonym of egoism. He derived it from an Italian altrui, which in turn was derived from Latin alteri, meaning "other people" or "somebody else".

Altruism can be defined as an individual performing an action which is at a cost to themselves, but benefits, either directly or indirectly, another third-party individual, without the expectation of reciprocity or compensation for that action.

This thought brought back to this reporter's mind the article that I wrote about Miss Eden Parnell's opening night as Mimi for the Metropolitan's Opera La Boheme, entitled "Modern Day Knight In Shining Armor" many years ago.

After Miss Parnell's performance she was greeted to an overly anxious and pushy crowd at the stage door where I had gone to try and get an interview with her. I didn't know Professor Spengler at the time. I only saw a good-looking man dressed in a black tuxedo, trying to keep order to the crowd and protecting Miss Parnell from the crowds that were pushing in upon her.

I had mistaken him for a body guard hired by the 'Met' but now I know the truth. He protected Miss Parnell with his own body, his life, as he was hurt in the end before security arrived.

Much debate exists as to whether "true" altruism is possible in human psychology. The theory of psychological egoism suggests that no act of sharing, helping, or sacrificing can be described as truly altruistic, as the actor may receive an intrinsic reward in the form of personal gratification. The validity of this argument depends on whether intrinsic rewards qualify as "benefits".

To other reports they would argue that Professor Spengler is only protecting his daughter from Doctor D'Artagnan's statement that he has been secretly sleeping with Doctor Echo Spengler.

Doctor D'Artagnan has stated that they have had a yearlong relationship when Doctor Spengler started her internship with him. He has also stated that the child that Doctor Spengler carried was his and not her partners Daniel McQuarrie. As proof he has provided the press with the paternity testing done, proving that the child is NOT Daniel McQuarrie's.

Other reports have taken up Doctor D'Artagnan's story as truth, including the decision of Doctor Spengler to name her son Emrick Spengler and not Emrick McQuarrie. This just places more fuel for the fire for the story that Doctor D'Artagnan tells.

However this reporter doesn't believe a word of Doctor D'Artagnan's story. The others in my field soon forget that Doctor D'Artagnan is awaiting trial for statutory rape charges and that Doctor Spengler filed those charges herself. Once Doctor Spengler filed the charges others have come forward to file additional charges against Doctor D'Artagnan. The good doctor is only trying to get himself out of a hole that he has dug for himself.

In closing I just want Professor and Doctor Spengler to know that I believe you, unlike my fellow reports. Your integrity has shown through in all that you both have done. That speaks louder to me than any words would ever do. Actions, whether good or bad, will be what we remember in the end. Words will tell others what we think, but our actions will tell others what we believe.

Your actions are the truth that I need Professor and Doctor Spengler. Just remember this:

People will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. Other may have a heart of gold, but so does a hard-boiled egg!

In this reporter's eyes it's not far-fetched to say you've already won at life! Keep up the good work!

"Professor Spengler?" Kylie called out trying to bring Egon back to the present.

Egon sat with his head bowed to the table. He had tuned Ray out after he had said New Jersey.

"Oh Eden," Egon said to himself, "what's going to happen to us now?"

But Egon got no answer only Ray's constant droning on about more teams joining the Ghostbusters franchises.

His problem lie with his daughter, Echo, and how he had treated her last week at Emrick's funeral. No matter what he tried, his apology had gone on deaf ears.

"You weren't there when Emrick was born," Echo said on the ride from their house to the graveyard in NYC in the back of the funeral car.

"I know," Egon replied, "I'm sorry."

"Verdie could have gotten you out," Echo said staring at her father, "but you wouldn't let her."

"It was too much money," Egon tried to explain.

"For who?" Echo questioned, "You?"

Echo narrowed her eyes at her father. "If Verdie had been allowed," she emphasized the word, "to spring you, would you have come to the hospital or would you have spent your time at the lawyer's office?"

Egon frowned. True to his word Daniel had filed charges against him and his daughter. It had been all that Egon could do to file a counter complaint and attend to his grandson's funeral. Not to mention the wellbeing of Echo, and moving Verdie into his house, all within the space of a week.

"That's not fair and you know it," Egon said pointing his finger at Echo. "You do know that Daniel is asking for his share of your finances and part of the house."

"I don't care," Echo snapped back, "Let him have the money. I'd give Daniel anything if it would bring Emrick back to me."

"And as far as 'your' house is concerned," Echo stated, "I couldn't give a rat's a…,"

"Echo Eddington Spengler!" Egon shouted at his daughter, "Not another word will come out of your mouth today, understand."

"Egon," Verdie interrupted, "Echo."

"This is not the time or place for this," Verdie said with calmness in her voice. "We can discuss this at the house."

"Now is the time for grieving," Verdie said taking both Echo's and Egon's hands into hers.

Egon sighed as he heard Ray continuing on with his franchise naming.

Verdie had been right. It wasn't the time for pointing fingers and laying blame. It was a time to grieve the loss of a child, something that Verdie and him knew only too well. That had sunk in when he had told Echo to stand up after she had fallen down to the ground on purpose.

After Verdie had told Egon that his daughter wasn't embarrassing him and to show the never-ending watchful eyes of the press what it was to be a "Spengler", Egon had caught sight of what he had done wrong.

He had tried to apologize to his daughter on the ride home, but Echo was in her own little world. Never taking her eyes off of the window, never saying a word to him, only nodding or shaking her head if he asked her anything.

"Echo's depressed," Charlie Levine said when he had come over to the house to pay his respects after the funeral. "I can prescribe some medication to help relieve some of her symptoms."

"That would be great Charlie," Egon had said placing his hand on his former student's shoulder.

"I'll fax the prescription over to the pharmacy when I get back home," Charlie had replied.

"Thanks," Egon had said.

But the medication that Charlie had prescribed was only half working.

Janine's voice brought Egon back to the present. He raised his head slightly to see that the group was still talking about franchises. Slowly Egon dropped his head back to the table. He was beginning to feel helpless again.

Verdie was trying to help Echo through the loss of her child when he, Egon, really should be the one to do that. But as before, on the ride home from Emrick's funeral, Echo was once again not talking to him. The only time she had spoken to him had been this morning at breakfast time.

"Echo," Egon called up the stairs to her bedroom, "come down. Breakfast is ready."

"Leave her be," Verdie said emerging from the bathroom.

"But all she does is sleep," Egon said turning away from the stairs to face Verdie.

"I know," Verdie said wrapping a bathrobe around her naked body.

Egon smiled as he caught a glimpse of her beautiful body before she covered it up. Once Doctor Spencer had declared Verdie healed Egon had loved her.

It had been fourteen years for him and nine for Verdie. Egon had worried if he could love her, but in the end after many unintentional elbows and 'excuse me' they had each found out what the other had liked. Egon's smile turned into a frown. He had been neglectful in his duties as a boyfriend lately in not satisfying his love. His mind was on other things these days.

Verdie saw Egon frown and watched as he turned his head slightly to the floor. Stepping forward she reached out and placed her hand on his chin, turning his face up to hers.

"Egon," she said gently, "let Echo grieve in her own way."

"But she doesn't even eat these days," Egon replied.

"Who says?" Verdie questioned, "You?"

"Where do you think that box of Twinkies went yesterday?" Verdie asked as she took her hand away from Egon's face.

She playfully poked Egon in his slightly protruding stomach as she finished her sentence, "In here."

"That's not a nutritious meal," Egon pointed out, "and you know it."

"So," Verdie said as she took Egon's hand and led him to the kitchen, "at least she's eating something."

"When I got home from the hospital after losing my two children," Verdie said as she stopped at the kitchen table, "I ate nothing but two chocolate doughnuts for the day and slept for a week."

"You had an excuse to sleep," Egon pointed out as he pulled the chair out for Verdie.

"Excuse?" Verdie questioned sitting down in the chair.

"Yes," Egon replied as he sat down in the chair to her right. "You were on pain medication for your broken left leg and arm."

"That's true," Verdie said picking up her fork, "but truly, deep down inside, I wished that I had died that night also."

Egon reached out and placed his left hand on Verdie's right shoulder.

"I'm so sorry," he told her.

Verdie smiled back at Egon, "Thank you," she said.

"Look Egon," Verdie pointed out, "Echo has to realize that sometimes you have to move on without certain people. If they're meant to be in your life, they'll catch up."

Egon leaned forward to kiss Verdie but the doorbell rang before he could do so.

"Someone's got impeccable timing," he muttered to himself as he got up from his chair to answer the door.

"Owen Fitzpatrick!" Egon said in surprise as he opened the front door. "What brings you here? Come in."

Owen entered the house carrying a large square item wrapped up in brown paper. He took his hat off and tipped his head to Verdie sitting at the kitchen table.

"Dia dhaoibh ar maidin," Owen said to the couple in a thick Irish accent.

"Gurab amhlaidh duit," Egon replied back.

Owen turned his face to the floor but kept his eyes on Egon.

"Gura slan an scealai," he stated.

"I'm sorry Owen," Egon said, "My Irish Gaelic doesn't get me very far these days. I only know Irish greetings. I'm sorry I didn't understand what you just said to me."

"Sorry Professor Spengler," Owen said, "My Irish Gaelic translates as may the bearer of the news be safe."

"What news do you have?" Egon asked.

"I…," Owen went to say before he was interrupted.

"Father," Echo's voice called from the hallway, "is it Daniel?"

"Gabh mo leithsceal," Owen said as he thrust the large square item into Egon's hands.

Owen had said 'pardon me' to Egon as he thrust the wrapped item into the man's hands and dropped his hat to the floor. He rushed down the hallway to stop by the stairs going up to Echo's bedroom.

Echo was standing on the landing, halfway up, one hand on the railing the other one on the wall.

"Owen," she said when she saw him, "where's Daniel?"

Owen could see that Echo was pale in color and she had lost a lot of weight. She was dressed in a short sleeping teddy until Owen recognized it as one of Daniel's shirts.

"Gabhaim pardun agat," Owen said dropping his head.

"Its fine," Echo said back in Irish Gaelic. "Please tell me where Daniel is? I have to know."

Egon set the large wrapped item up against the wall, listening to Echo and Owen, before he reached down, picked up Owen's hat, and returned to the kitchen table to sit down next to Verdie. He didn't know what the pair was saying as they spoke Irish Gaelic to each other.

"What's going on?" Verdie asked quietly in Russian.

"I don't know," Egon replied back in Russian setting Owen's hat on the chair next to him, "I haven't been able to pick up the Irish Gaelic language to speak it fluently yet."

Owen raised his head up to look at Echo. His friend Daniel was a fool.

After Owen had driven Daniel home from the hospital, after his surgery to fix his fractured nose, Daniel had quietly gone into the log house closing the door on Owen.

Owen had gone to the bunk house until later in the evening he had smelt a fire and had walked towards the main house to investigate. He found Daniel sitting on a log, by a campfire, at the edge of the lake drinking.

"Daniel?" Owen questioned softly coming up to the young man so he wouldn't surprise him.

"Owen," Daniel slurred out, clearly drunk.

"I don't think you should be doing that," Owen said sitting down on the log next to his friend.

"What?" Daniel questioned.

"That," Owen said pointing to the bottle of brandy. "The doctor told you not to drink while you are taking your pain meds for your nose."

"This is my pain meds," Daniel replied as he raised the tall oblong brown bottle to his lips and took a swallow of the caramel colored liquor.

"My ass!" Owen said grabbing the bottle of brandy away from Daniel mid swallow.

As Daniel took his hand and tried to awkwardly wipe away the brandy that had spilled on his shirt from when Owen had taken his bottle away, he half listened to his friend talking to him.

"What's d'story bud?" Owen asked pointing a finger at Daniel.

"There's no story," Daniel replied back, "Now give me my brandy back. A bird never flew on one wing."

Daniel reached for his bottle but Owen easily kept it away from his inebriated friend.

"For the great Gaels of Ireland," Owen said turning the tall oblong bottle over and pouring its contents out into the snow behind the log, "May the devil take your last shilling!"

"Shut yer geggie!" Daniel cried lunging forward to reach for his bottle of brandy that Owen was pouring out.

Owen dropped the half empty bottle and caught his friend before he slipped off of the log. Carefully he set Daniel back into an upright position.

"Owen," Echo's voice said again pulling him out of his daydream, "where's Daniel?"

"Daniel's a gobshite for leaving you," Owen said.

"Thanks," Echo said, "but where is he."

Owen bit his lip; he didn't want to tell her where Daniel had gone. She loved him deeply even after everything he had done to her.

"Owen," she pleated.

Owen released a breath and told her where Daniel was.

Egon remembered the bloodcurdling scream from his daughter, followed by a loud thud of her falling down the stairs. Owen had caught Echo before she had broken anything on her way down the rest of the stairs to the hallway.

"Daddy," her voice cried out.

Echo hadn't called him that name in a longtime. It had been when she was really young and the family was still living at the firehouse. That had been the day Janine had…

"Daddy!" A voice called out louder to him.

"Echo!" Egon shouted standing up and sending the papers in front of him scattering across the table.

Standing at the top of the stairs, to the third floor, was Nokomis staring at him.

"Nokomis?" Egon questioned as he tried to stay on his feet.

Winston, who was sitting to Egon's left, placed his hands onto his friend before Egon could fall.

"Hey man," Winston said helping the trembling man back to his chair, "have a seat before you fall down."

Kylie was next to Egon's side a moment later. She knelt down the best that she could as she placed her hand onto his right knee.

"Professor?" Kylie questioned, "Are you okay?"

Egon felt Kylie's hand move to his right arm and turned his head to see her troubled face before him.

"I'm sorry," Egon said, "I don't know what came over me."

"Professor Spengler you don't have to apologize to us," Kylie said gently, "we all know that you have been through a lot these past couple of weeks."

"Please go home," Kylie said taking her hand away and standing up awkwardly.

"But I haven't given my update on Azazel yet," Egon protested.

"Someone else can read your notes," Winston replied as he watched Kylie slowly stand up.

"No they can't," Egon said turning to face Winston, "Not unless they can read shorthand."

"I can do that," Garrett said.

Egon looked up and across the table at Garrett. Raising an eyebrow he asked, "You read shorthand?"

"Yes," Garrett replied.

Garrett looked around the room at all the surprised faces staring back at him.

"Why are you guys all surprised?" He asked.

"Because," Roland stated, "you only enrolled in Paranormal Phenomena 101 to hear stories about the 'Ghostbusters' adventures."

"So," Garrett replied, "how did you think that I was going to write everything down that Professor Spengler told us? Longhand?"

"Shorthand or stenography increases my speed for writing compared to the normal method of writing a language," Garrett finished.

"I think the real reason that you learned shorthand," Eduardo stated, "was so that you would have more time to enjoy extreme sports. Am I correct?"

"Maybe 'Goat-Boy'," Garrett teased Eduardo, referring to his goatee.

"Knock it off you two," Kylie said as she started gathering Egon's papers that were scattered across the table, "Now is not the time for schoolhouse shenanigans."

"Kylie," Peter interrupted, "let's have a ten minute personal break here."

"We can all use it," Peter finished looking to his right to where Egon was sitting.

"Agreed," Kylie replied as she placed the papers she had gathered in front of Egon.

"We'll meet back here in ten minutes," she stated.

Turning to Egon she spoke softly, "Is Professor Tvardovsky working today?"

Egon nodded his head at Kylie's question. "Verdie won't be done till four," he replied.

"Did you drive into the city together this morning?" Kylie asked.

Egon shook his head. "No," he replied, "the insurance company is still investigating the car fire. We haven't…," Egon trailed off.

Kylie gently put a hand on Egon's shoulder. "Like I said before," she said, "go home."

"But…," Egon started to say before he was cut off.

"No buts man," Winston said, "you don't have to be here. We can do this another day."

Egon sat silently regarding the two people to his left and right sides. Slowly he nodded his head in agreement.

"Okay then that's settled," Kylie said, "Do you want me to call Professor Tvardovsky for you? Let her know what is going on and to come down here to take you home?"

Before Egon could answer Ray interrupted them.

"I'll take Egon home," Ray said.

Kylie took her hand off of Egon's shoulder and looked to where Ray was standing at the top of the stairs next to his daughter. Nokomis looked pensive, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, as she held her orange backpack in her hands.

Nokomis was supposed to be helping her mother, Professor Stantz, set up a new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a February first opening. The exhibit was entitled "The Lost Kingdom" and featured some of the relics and mummies from the Loulan Ruins. There was only two weeks left and Nokomis and her mother had been working late into the night to get the exhibit ready for opening day.

"Why was Nokomis here?" Kylie thought to herself.

"Come on old friend," Ray said walking towards Egon.

Coming to a stop next to Kylie, Ray offered Egon his hand.

"We can call Verdie from the car," Ray said as Egon took his hand, "and tell her what's going on."

"Besides," Ray continued, "I need to drop Nokomis off at Helen's house."

"Why?" Egon questioned as he stood up from his chair.

"She needs someone to translate Japanese," Ray replied.

"Don't you speak the language?" Egon asked as he released Ray's hand.

Ray rolled his eyes at Egon, "Only enough to say hello," he stated.

"How about you?" Ray asked as he led the way to the stairs, Egon following behind.

"Sorry Raymond," Egon said, "I know enough to get my face slapped in public if I speak the language. Translating is a different story."

Ray nodded his head in agreement. "That's why I was hoping Helen could help."

Egon knew what Ray was talking about. Helen was Eden's old roommate and her nationality was Native American/Japanese. Helen's mother was Native American, just like Melody, while Helen's father was born and raised in Japan.

"Understood," Egon stated as they came to the top of the stairs.

Kylie watched as the trio descended the stairs before she turned and walked to the back of the room where the pool table and piano had been. She stopped at the newly constructed door to Eduardo and her new room before she opened the door.

Inside the long rectangular room was everything from the second floor bedroom. The double bed from Egon and Eden was up against the wall on the left hand side of the tall window that looked out onto North Moore Street.

The long, six drawer dresser was to Kylie's left while to her right sat somewhat newer furniture.

Kylie walked through the door and closed it behind her. She stopped at the bed and turned towards the dresser to look into the mirror attached to the top, in the center. Her black hair and strained face stared back at her. She lifted her hand up to touch the ends of her short hair. There were only faint remains of blue left and Kylie sighed. She wished that she had the money to dye it back to blue, but as she turned around to look behind her, the items she saw there reminded her of why she couldn't afford it.

On the right side of the window sat a white crib from Janine.

"If you have another one or twins," Janine had told Kylie while Louis had tried to put the crib together, "I have the matching one in storage."

Beyond the white crib, with its elephant sheets and bumpers, was a matching changing table, dresser, and small shelf with infant toys.

Kylie slowly sank down onto the bed. She was tired but she didn't want to sleep. Looking to her left she saw the nine stacked tarot cards that her great-grandmother Rose had given her back in August of last year sitting on the nightstand. Next to the cards sat some books that Doctor Ray Stantz had loaned her from his occult book store back in November.

Kylie had taken the cards to Doctor Stantz's home on Thanksgiving Day.

"Tarot is a card game," Ray told Kylie when she showed him the cards, "that has been passed down from an earlier time where it was probably in widespread use as an oracle."

"Since the year 1600 the tarot has been essentially in the form that we know today," Ray went on as he thumbed through the cards Kylie had given him.

"A normal deck of tarot cards is made up of seventy-eight cards that are divided into two groups. The Major Arcana is composed of twenty-two cards while the Minor Arcana contains fifty-six cards," Ray stated.

"Not only are there many different types of tarot card decks available, there are also many different spreads used by the card readers to interpret the cards."

"Do you remember the physical layout that your great-grandmother Rose used?" Ray asked Kylie.

"Yes," Kylie said taking the cards back from Ray as she walked over to a small end table in the living room.

Carefully she laid them out into a horseshoe shape with the heel of the horseshoe facing her.

"Interesting," Ray said as he looked over the eight cards in front of him, "It looks like Rose used a seven card horseshoe layout. But where is this card?" Ray asked pointing to the far right hand side of the horseshoe.

"Sorry," Kylie said keeping her face towards the ground so that Ray couldn't see it, "I guess I forgot it at home."

"Alright," Ray said with concern in his voice, "but next time we see each other you should show me the card. It is the outcome of what is likely to happen."

"Rose told me that the cards would tell me what my future is like," Kylie said turning her face towards Ray.

"Then it is very important that we see and figure out the meaning of the last card."

Kylie slowly picked up the cards and laid back onto the bed staring up at the ceiling. She pulled her legs up so that she could use them as a back drop when she placed the cards onto her swollen belly.

Ray had discovered that Rose had also used a combination of two decks.

"These cards here," Ray said as he pointed to the Three of Swords, the Lovers, the Hierophant, the Hermit, and the Devil cards, "are from the Major and Minor Arcana of the Rider-Waite tarot card deck."

"While these cards," Ray went on pointing to the Magus, Seven of Wands, and the Moon card, "are from Aleister Crowley and are often referred to as Thoth tarot cards."

Kylie shuffled through the cards and placed the Lovers tarot card up on her belly. She reached back and placed the other cards back onto the nightstand. She took the corresponding book, "The pictorial Key to the Tarot" by A.E. Waite, and pulled it towards her. Carefully she opened the old arcane book from 1911.

The author was very concerned with the accuracy of the symbols that he had used for his tarot card deck and he had done much research into the traditions, interpretations, and history behind them, thereby writing the book that Kylie now held in her hands.

Ray and Kylie had been able to figure out the interpretations of the Three of Swords, the Devil, and the Seven of Wands cards, but as for the other cards they were only guessing at their meanings.

"The Lovers might represent you and Eduardo," Ray said. "It is placed in the spot representing the present."

"That's what I told my great-grandmother Rose," Kylie stated to Ray, "She told me I was wrong."

"Well," Ray said flipping through a book he had brought back from another room in his house, "according to this book, when the card is placed in the 'present' position it could mean that there is an approaching conflict that will test your values."

Kylie flipped through Waite's book until she found the page she wanted. She knew the entry, but reread it just in case she had missed anything.

"The Lovers or Marriage," Kylie read.

"This symbol has undergone many variations. In the eighteenth century form it is really a card of married life, showing father and mother with their child placed between them."

Kylie looked to her left at her baby's side of the room before she turned back to her book.

"The figures are also held to have signified truth, honor, and love. But I suspect that this was, so to speak, the gloss of a commentator moralizing."

Kylie sighed and put down her book. She didn't think that the card represented marriage and yet Ray's interpretation didn't sit well with her either.

"Our first instinct when we see the Lovers card is to associate the card as representing love," Ray said reading from his book, "either as a sexual instinct or a relationship being taken to the next step."

"But, much like love, it does not possess a simple nature. Love comes in many forms," Ray went on, "and the Lovers may indicate important or difficult choices; likely painful, but a correct decision and a positive outcome are within our grasp."

Staring at the two naked people, gazing at each other, Kylie could only think of one thing and that was a lover's triangle. The woman wasn't really looking at the man across from her; she was looking slightly up at the person above her.

"So if this card doesn't represent Eduardo and me," Kylie said softly, "who does it represent."

After Rose had given her the cards Kylie had been sure that Eduardo had been seeing someone else. Her teammates had been talking behind her back and whenever she had questioned them about it they had said that nothing was wrong. That was until Daniel had come to the firehouse one day as she was leaving for work at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.

When she had come back, that Thursday evening, the pool table and piano were missing from the third floor and in its place was a pile of drywall, long wooden 2 X 4's, a box of drywall screws, an electric screw gun, a roll of joint tape, and a bucket of joint compound.

"Just what the hell are you three doing?" Kylie said as she stood with her hands on her hips at the top of the stairs.

"Nothing," Eduardo said as he released the end of the tape measure that he had in his hands.

The end snapped back to the other side of the room to where Garrett was sitting, almost hitting the young man in his face.

"Hey Ed," Garrett cried out, "Watch it! What's wrong with you?"

"Me?" Eduardo questioned back pointing to himself.

"Hey," Kylie shouted at her husband as she walked up to Garrett, "Mr. 'half-a-brain-cell' you could have hurt Garrett."

Eduardo went to speak but Kylie cut him off.

"And you," Kylie said grabbing the tape measure out of Garrett's right hand, "Did it ever occur to you that maybe you're a little over-reliant on doing things your own way."

"I'm not over-reliant on anything," Garrett snapped back. "I'm…,"

Garrett broke off. He didn't want to be the one to ruin the surprise that they were working on.

"These are just tools," Garrett said sweeping his right hand over the pile of supplies, "for my new gym that I want to build for the guys."

"Really?" Kylie said placing her hands back on her hips.

"Yes really," Garrett replied back placing his own hands on his hips, "chick."

"Did you just call me a chick?" Kylie shot back mad at Garrett now.

"Hey," Roland interrupted the battering pair, "knock it off vampira!"

"We're just trying to make a new bedroom for Eduardo, you, and the baby," Roland blurted out.

Kylie smiled as she remembered Eduardo and Garrett turning evil eyes towards Roland as she stood there dumbfounded and relieved that this was what her teammates had been keeping secret from her.

Kylie studied the card even more. Her mind said that the card was Echo, Daniel, and Doctor D'Artagnan but in her heart she wondered if that was true.

Kylie had been wrong about the Three of Swords. She had thought that she had caused someone in her past pain, when it was really someone from Kylie's past who had caused her pain.

"The Three of Swords," Ray read out of his book to Kylie, "speaks of broken relationships."

"If you had drawn the Two of Swords you might have been avoiding the necessity of making a tough choice," Ray went on.

"But Kylie you pulled this card, the Three of Swords, signifying that the choice had been made and you are experiencing that consequence, that pain."

"However," Ray said turning a page in his book, "the pain of losing something of value is necessary in order to prepare yourself for a more fulfilling future."

Kylie now knew that the card represented her parents Steve Griffin, Jill Davies, and her great-grandmother Rose Lockyear. Three people in her life who had caused her pain, whether intentionally or not.

"Look Ky," Eduardo said one night as they curled up next to each other in bed, "Never regret anything that has happened in your life. It can't be changed, undone, or forgotten."

"So," Eduardo said kissing the top of her head, "take it as a lesson learned and move on."

And from that day forward Kylie had moved on.

"I'm a survivor," Kylie told herself whenever she was feeling depressed.

"I can and will make it through this storm," she would repeat to herself, "simply because I'm a survivor it's what I do."

Kylie had also been wrong in her interpretation of the tarot card for the Devil.

"The Devil card," Ray pointed out, "is in the position of obstacles in your way."

"I told Rose that it represented Azazel," Kylie said to Ray, "but she said it wasn't him."

"I would have said the same thing," Ray replied flipping through his book.

"Lucifer, Mephistopheles, Satan, the Prince of Darkness," Ray read out loud, "no matter what we call him, the Devil is our symbol for what is bad and undesirable."

"Traditionally the Devil stands for evil," Ray continued, "a struggle between light and dark. We want to vanquish the bad so that good can prevail."

"Yet I seem to remember something else," Ray said setting down the book he had been reading from onto the table.

Ray walked over to a bookcase that stood in his living room. Looking over the books he located the one that he wanted and pulled it out.

"I seem to remember that this interpretation had to do with the cards being used in a game and not for divinatory purposes," Ray said as he thumbed through the book.

"Ah! Here it is!" Ray said reading the entry out loud for Kylie to hear.

"Power: Summon the demon Asmodeus who uses a strong black magic attack on all foes."

"Strategic Use: This card does the most raw damage of any card and effects all creatures equally including those of low alignment. This card is very rare to draw, so when you get one, don't waste it on weak enemy units. It should only be used on extremely powerful units or the boss of the area. Later on in the game, however, the card's use becomes less powerful as many bosses have high resistances to black magic."

"Please," Kylie said rolling her eyes at Ray. "You're not Eddie. You do possess more then 'half-a-brain-cell' Doctor Stantz."

"We are not playing a card game here," Kylie stated, "We are trying to figure out what my future is like."

"I understand that," Ray responded, "and didn't Rose Lockyear tell you that you had the power to change that future."

"Yes," Kylie responded.

"So," Ray said getting excited, "this card represents the obstacles that are in your way."

"The Devil is not a creature of evil but one of great power. As a person, the Devil can stand for a man or woman of money or power. And like all power it is frightening, dangerous, but it is also a key to freedom."

"It can also represent temptation or addiction and make us ask ourselves a very important question: Who or what will we allow to enslave us?"

"By understanding this we gain power over the Devil and use it to our benefit rather than letting it use us."

"I still think the card represents a powerful demon Doctor Stantz," Kylie replied matter-of-factly.

"That may be true, but somehow I don't think so," Ray replied.

The Seven of Wands card which Kylie had no idea what it meant when Rose had given it to her, showing the attitudes of others towards her, had been interpreted by Doctor Stantz as well.

"The Seven of Wands is an overlapping of bravery and assertiveness with degeneration and weakness," Ray read. "A great deal of bravery is needed in order to defend oneself against destiny, which will ultimately win the battle."

"Crowley writes," Ray continued, "The army has been thrown into disorder; if victory is to be won, it will be by dint of individual valor: a soldier's battle."

"If anyone's life is in disorder," Kylie said to herself, "it's Doctor Spengler's."

Kylie took the Lovers card off of her belly and rolled to her left placing it back onto the top of the other cards sitting on the nightstand.

Doctor D'Artagnan had made it perfectly clear that he and Doctor Spengler had been having a yearlong relationship when Doctor Spengler had started her internship with him. All Kylie had to do was watch the television or read a newspaper to hear all about it.

"Doctor Spengler couldn't take her eyes off of me when we first met," Doctor D'Artagnan told a reporter who was interviewing him, "She wanted me and I thought, why not."

"What about Doctor Spengler's fiancé Daniel McQuarrie?" The reporter asked Doctor D'Artagnan.

"Mr. McQuarrie only asked my Echo to be his wife in July of last year," Doctor D'Artagnan responded. "I told her that she wasn't allowed to see him anymore, but she ran off with him instead."

"I believe that 'The Amazing Duo of McQuarrie and Spengler' were on a two month tour," the reporter stated back, "when Doctor Spengler, as you so lightly put it, 'ran off'."

"And how was Doctor Spengler not supposed to see Mr. McQuarrie?" The reporter went on quickly before Doctor D'Artagnan could answer her back. "He was living with the Spengler's, wasn't he?"

"He rented a room from them," Doctor D'Artagnan replied with a wave of his hand. "Mr. McQuarrie is of no importance to me or my Echo. We love each other and we wanted to start a family together."

"So," the reporter questioned, "you're telling me that Doctor Spengler's recently deceased child is yours?"

"Of course Emrick's my son!" Doctor D'Artagnan replied producing a piece of paper from the inside of his jacket's pocket.

"That is the paternity test that I ordered after my Echo gave birth," Doctor D'Artagnan said handing the paper over to the reporter.

"According to the hospital's nursing director, Grace Stringham, Daniel McQuarrie ordered the test done," the reporter stated.

"Lies," Doctor D'Artagnan said, "Mrs. Stringham is just upset that I find my Echo a more attractive woman than her. Mrs. Stringham is just trying to get back at me."

"And what about the lie detector test that was also ordered?" The reporter asked. "What do those results show?"

"My Echo hasn't taken the test yet," Doctor D'Artagnan stated, "she's too upset about losing our child right now. When she is feeling better in a couple of weeks my Echo will take the test proving I'm the father."

Kylie sighed. The only way that she saw Doctor D'Artagnan being the father of Doctor Spengler's child was when 'Hell' froze over.

"It could happen," one of Kylie's students told her after the incident with Doctor Spengler had made the local headlines.

"What?" Kylie had questioned the student. "That Doctor Spengler was having a secret relationship with Doctor D'Artagnan."

"Oh please," Kylie's student had replied back. "Have you seen what Doctor D'Artagnan looks like?"

"No," Kylie's student went on, "I'm talking about your statement that you made at the beginning of class. That it would be a cold day in 'Hell' before Doctor Spengler would sleep with Doctor D'Artagnan."

"Oh," Kylie replied, "how so? Please enlighten me."

"Okay," the student replied. "First we have to look at 'Hell' as being exothermic, giving off heat, or endothermic, absorbing heat."

"In order to do this we need to know how the mass of 'Hell' is changing in time. What is the rate at which souls are moving into 'Hell' compared with the rate at which souls are leaving

'Hell'," the student continued.

"I think that we can safely assume that once a soul enters 'Hell' it will not leave, therefore no souls are leaving 'Hell' answers one of our questions."

"As for the other question about how many souls are entering 'Hell' we have to take a look at the different religions that exist today."

"Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their congregation that you will go to 'Hell'. And since there are more than one religion and people don't usually belong to more than one religious group, we can project that all souls will go to 'Hell'. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in 'Hell' to increase exponentially."

"According to Boyle's Law, in order for the temperature and pressure in 'Hell' to stay the same, the volume of 'Hell' has to expand proportionality as new souls are added. This gives us two possibilities."

"One: If 'Hell' is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter 'Hell', then the temperature and pressure in 'Hell' will increase until all Hell breaks loose."

"Or two: If 'Hell' is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in 'Hell', then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over."

"So," Kylie's student finished, "it could happen and 'Hell' could freeze over."

Kylie smiled to herself as her student turned and walked away from her that day.

"Another Professor Spengler in the making," Kylie had commented to herself that day.

Yet here Kylie lie on her bed, tired, pregnant, and wishing that her life was different right now. Sure she loved being Eduardo's wife but at twenty-five years of age, soon to be turning twenty-six, was she really ready to become a mother? She was just starting her life, her career, was she willing to place her wants and desires on hold while she cared for an infant? Her mind told her yes while deep down in her heart lie another answer. An answer that she didn't ever want Eduardo to find out, just like her recent reoccurring dream.

Kylie closed her eyes. She wished she had never turned over that tarot card for death, but once she had the same dream had plagued her night after night.

Before Kylie stood a tall man dressed all in brown. The man had long gray-white hair that hung loose past his shoulders. He wore a thick leather 'jack of plate' which was comprised of small iron plates sewn between layers of leather and canvas. Below his belt the man wore a set of faulds to protect his waist and hips. These were "V" in shape and had studs embedded into the ends.

Set around the man's neck was a modified aventail that extended to the man's shoulders and had studs, spikes, and a set of skulls arranged on it. Vambraces were worn, without the couter or elbow defense, on his lower arms. The vambraces leather was reinforced with longitudinal strips of hardened hide complete with studs.

The man's look was completed by a pair of brown leather pants and tall leather boots that acted like greaves to cover and protect the man's lower leg and ankle.

"I am your God!" The man roared at Kylie advancing on her.

The man held out his right hand in front of him. His hand was slightly curved as he walked menacingly towards where Kylie stood.

Kylie placed her hands around her throat trying to tear away an invisible hand that held her. She could not escape and soon the man was standing before her with his hand physically holding her throat.

"You will give me your child," the man said as he slowly lifted Kylie off of her feet so that she dangled in the air before him.

Kylie had difficulty breathing and it took her back to the time that The Wishgiver had tried to choke her to death. Kylie tried to fight back, but as before, it was hopeless. She felt a hand on her abdomen, pushing itself into her body. She felt her body starting to shut down and saw movement out of the corner of her eye.

"Leave her alone!" She heard someone shouting as a body was thrust into her view trying to tackle the man that was holding her in the air.

"Eduardo," Kylie tried to choke out.

But unlike The Wishgiver Eduardo wasn't able to remove the man's hold that he had on her throat or abdomen.

"Enough," the man said as he removed his left hand from off of Kylie's abdomen and easily batted Eduardo's body away.

Kylie watched as the man sent out a blue bolt of energy with his left hand. It caught Eduardo's body in his chest and she watched, helpless, as Eduardo's body convulsed in pain before it lie still.

"No!" Kylie tried to choke out, still caught up in the air.

Her vision was slowly starting to turn to black and Kylie felt her head becoming light. She heard a voice, Garrett's maybe, before she dropped to the ground.

Slowly she crawled forward. Inch by painful inch, ignoring the cries of others around her. She felt the heat from the neutrona wands over her head, but all Kylie could think about was Eduardo. He had placed himself in harm's way to save her.

"Please don't be dead," Kylie said to herself as her hand touched her husband's right one.

Searching for a pulse she couldn't find one.

"No!" Kylie cried out as her vision cleared and she could finally see Eduardo clearly.

His body was charred, black smoke still rising from it and his eyes stared openly at nothing. Those beautiful eyes that were as dead as his body.

"Eduardo," Kylie sobbed reaching for his body to hold him close to her.

Suddenly a hand reached out and touched the back of Kylie's head. She sat straight up in bed, breathing heavily.

"Sorry Ky," Eduardo said standing over her, "We're ready to start the meeting back up."

Kylie took a hand and reached up to touch her husband's face.

"You're alive," she said quietly.

"Last time I checked," Eduardo replied sitting down next to her side. "Are you okay?"

Kylie nodded her head, but held her tongue as she took a hold of Eduardo's left hand and squeezed it tightly.

"Kylie," Eduardo said softly, "you can't lie to me. You're not okay. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Kylie replied wishing that Eduardo hadn't seen her like this.

"Ky," Eduardo said gently taking her face into his right hand and turning it towards him.

"Being honest may not get you a lot of friends, but it will always get you the right ones. Please tell me what's wrong?"

"I can't," Kylie said dropping her face to the floor.

Eduardo pulled Kylie to his chest and wrapped his arms around her body as she started to weep. He had no idea what was troubling his wife and until she spoke up and broke her silence he would never know. Gently he tried again.

"Kylie," Eduardo said, "you know that I love you. You know that I would do anything to make you happy. I want to see you smiling. I want to see that spark of life in your eyes again."

"I hate seeing you like this. It makes me feel powerless that I can't help you in the most vulnerable time of your life."

Eduardo stopped talking and carefully pulled Kylie away from his body. Getting up off of the bed he knelt down in front of her. He looked up into her tear stained face. She was white, scared, and upset about something and all he wanted to do was wipe the pain away.

Eduardo saw beyond Kylie's present body. He looked into her soul and what he saw tore him apart. She hadn't always taken his breath away, in fact in the beginning of their relationship they fought; a lot. He felt awful about those early days and hurtful words that he had spoken to her. Was she reliving those unpleasant times now?

Just because he didn't physically place any hands on Kylie didn't mean that he, Eduardo, wasn't being abusive. Abuse was control, blatant disrespect, and hurtful words. All of which he had done in the past. He shook his head. Now he knew why Kylie was upset.

It was him who had suggested that they have a child together. It was him who had wanted new living quarters, keeping Kylie completely in the dark about it. It was him who just last week, had told Kylie that she should stop going out on calls with them. It was also him who told her that she should give up her teaching position at the Manhattan Community College until the baby was older. It was all him, whether he had done it intentionally or not. The problem Kylie was having was his fault.

Never once had Eduardo asked Kylie if she wanted a baby. And if he had asked her would he have been okay with the answer that was in her heart. Would he be fine with Kylie wanting a career without the burden of children clinging to her, pulling her down, and holding her back from doing the things that she had planned for her life? Now here Eduardo was. But he had changed or had he?

"It doesn't really matter who I used to be," Eduardo thought to himself. "All that matters is who I have become."

But just who had he become?

Suddenly Janine's face appeared before him. They were upstairs in the kitchen and her twin boys had just spilt milk all over the floor. He had come into the kitchen just when it had happened and had accidentally stepped in the mess.

"Sandy! Harry!" Eduardo shouted at the two seven year old twins, "How…,"

He was cut off by Janine placing a hand on his arm. She squeezed his arm tightly and he turned his face to look at her. Her lips were turned down into a frown and her eyes were pleading. Asking, begging, him not to say a word.

"My," Eduardo started in again, searching for something else to say to the two downtrodden faced twins, "how you've both grown since I've seen you last."

"Thanks Uncle Eddie," the twins replied as they both ran around him and out of the kitchen's door.

"Thanks," Janine said as she bent down and started cleaning up the mess.

That day, even though Janine hadn't said a word to him, Eduardo had learned a valuable lesson. When the milk is splattered all over the floor and those little eyes were looking up at him for his reaction, he had learned what really mattered in the end. It took five minutes for Janine, with his help, to clean up the spilt milk. It would have taken a lot longer to clean up a broken spirit.

It had taken Eduardo a long time to mend his spirit from his brother Carl's constant belittling of him. He had almost done it to Sandy and Harry when they were seven. Had he unintentionally done it to Kylie?

"Love is not what you say," Winston had said at Eduardo and Kylie's wedding, "Love is what you do."

Eduardo knew he had done wrong by his wife and he needed to fix the problem today. He needed to be Kylie's best friend again, but he was afraid that he had already lost her.

"Kylie," Eduardo said, "I'm so sorry for what I have put you through these past seven months."

"I should have asked you if you wanted a child before we tried for one," Eduardo continued.

"I should have told you about the plans to upgrade our living quarters."

"I should have insisted that you come on our calls together, even if you just drove Ecto-2 and were our backup."

"I should never have told you to quit your teaching job."

Eduardo knew Kylie hated him and why wouldn't she?

"I'll understand…," Eduardo broke off as a tear fell from his face and onto the floor.

"…if you want a divorce," he finished.

"Don't worry about the baby," Eduardo went on quickly as Kylie raised her head up from the floor to stare at him in disbelief.

"I'll take care of him," Eduardo went on, "you can visit anytime you want, no questions asked."

"Eduardo?" Kylie questioned wondering why her husband was acting this way. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm so sorry Ky," Eduardo said. "I'm sorry I've been the cause of your nightmare lately."

Kylie bit her lip. How had Eduardo known? When she had awoken late in the night she had lied to him, saying that she just had to use the bathroom. But that wasn't the case. Just like earlier her dreams were, and had always been about her husband. But not in the way Eduardo was thinking.

"Eduardo," Kylie said, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about my dream."

"It's okay," Eduardo said half smiling. "I'm not the easiest of people to get along with."

"No," Kylie replied, "that's not it."

Kylie reached to her left to retrieve the tarot cards sitting on the nightstand but she couldn't reach them because Eduardo was in her way.

"Can you reach them?" Eduardo asked.

"No," Kylie replied, "but I can reach this."

Kylie reached out and grabbed Eduardo's goatee pulling him closer to her face.

"Hey…," Eduardo went to shout, but was cut off as Kylie pressed her lips to his.

Kylie kissed Eduardo slowly letting it last for a few seconds. Slowly she drew her lips away but kept them close enough to Eduardo's so that they were almost touching. This captured his full attention as Kylie opened her lips up slightly and let go of Eduardo's goatee. She wrapped her hands around his shoulders and pulled him closer to her as she pressed her lips once again to his.

Eduardo returned Kylie's pleasurable, loving, kiss. This wasn't an erotic kiss; it was a kiss of pure love. Here Eduardo thought that Kylie hated him but he had been wrong. Yes he wasn't perfect. He had done things that were wrong and yet he was still loved.

A soft knocking and a door being opened pulled Eduardo out of his thoughts.

"Eddie?" Garrett's voice called out.

Eduardo and Kylie pulled out of their kiss and looked towards the open bedroom door. There was Garrett with Roland standing behind him staring at the couple.

"Sorry!" Garrett cried out as he slammed the door shut.

"Janine!" Garrett shouted from behind the closed door, "Where do you keep the bleach?"

"In the cabinet in the bathroom on the second floor," Janine's voice replied. "Why?"

"I just saw our boy Eddie kissing vampira," Garrett replied as Kylie and Eduardo heard him wheel his wheelchair away from the door, "and I need to wash my eyes out."

"Not before I do," Roland's voice called back at the far end of the room.

Kylie laughed first breaking the silence. She watched as Eduardo stood up and offered her his hand. Taking it she got up off of the bed and stood in front of her husband.

"Three years of marriage and they still do that," Eduardo said nodding his head towards the door.

Kylie just shrugged her shoulders. "Don't pay attention to them Eduardo," she said, "I never do."

Eduardo smiled at his wife. He knew that he was still loved, wanted, but he still needed to clear the air with her.

"Kylie, I'm sorry about my recent actions," he said, "and I'll try to do better from now on and let you know about everything I'm planning on doing."

Kylie smiled up at Eduardo and placed a hand on his left cheek.

"You don't have to apologize," Kylie said. "Once I took away your protective layers and opened up your heart, I found a beautiful soul."

"I should have told you what was wrong months ago," Kylie went on, "because opportunities are lost in the blink of an eye, but regret can last for a lifetime."

Kylie took her hand away from Eduardo's face and told her husband what was troubling her.

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Nokomis waited impatiently in the foyer of the house shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

It had been an agonizing thirty minute ride in the back of her father's car as he drove Uncle Egon back home.

She had only one week left before she returned to Jin. One week to tie up loose ends before she said her goodbyes again.

Nokomis had no one here that she missed, each time she went, but her father. He was the only one who tried to understand her.

The month of September had been a blur for her. The last thing she remembered before waking up in a hospital bed, with her father by her side, was waking up on her futon with Yukimaru standing over her. Yukimaru's sword was raised above his head, and as he brought it down upon her, she had seen Jin jump over her, to straddle her, blocking Yukimaru's strike.

Nokomis started pacing the length of the foyer now. That had been the only time that Jin had been rough with her, but there had been a reason. Her life was in danger as she was roughly pushed behind Jin's body for protection. Slowly they had made their way to the shoji where Jin had stopped and pushed her out the open doorway.

Nokomis stopped at the front door and turned back to pace the other way.

Nokomis knew that she should have turned and run away that night, but she couldn't move. It was surreal that her protector was actually in a real live fight for her life. It didn't become real for her until she saw Jin turn his left shoulder towards her.

Nokomis stopped at the far end of the foyer and turned back. Closing her eyes she could still remember the strange feeling of being punched in the stomach even though no one was in front of her.

She had looked down to see the hilt of Yukimaru's wakizashi sword embedded into the left side of her abdomen. Shocked she stepped backwards and fell through the rice paper and out into the night.

Yoshiro had been there as she lay on the ground wreathing in pain. He had agonizingly dragged her towards Suruga Bay, but had stopped right before they reached the water. Each time Yoshiro had dragged her, the wakizashi sword had cut deeper into her bowels causing her unbearable pain.

"Iie!" Nokomis had shouted at Yoshiro in the end as he went to pull her body once again.

Jin had come to her side and had held her left hand while Yoshiro held her right one. She was in so much pain and wished it would stop. She remembered Jin pressing his forehead to hers before she blacked out from the loss of blood.

"Nokomis!" A cheerful voice called out. "Konnichiwa. Genki desu ka?"

Nokomis opened up her eyes and turned around. She placed her heals together, placing the palms of her hands on her thighs as she bowed, showing respect to the older man standing in front of her.

"Genki-desu," Nokomis replied raising her body up from her bow.

"Ah," the older man said rising up from his bow, "Nihongo o hanashimasu ka?"

"Hai," Nokomis replied watching the older man rise up to his full statue.

"Jin!" Nokomis gasped out loud placing her hands to her mouth and backing away from the older man in front of her.

For just a split second Nokomis had seen an older Jin standing before her, but that couldn't be true. The real Jin, her Jin, was far away. Or was he?

Before her stood his likeness if Jin were to grow up and become an old man.

The Jin look-a-like was wearing white tabi socks and black split hakamas. The man's kimono was indigo blue in color with a white four-diamond emblem on the left breast pocket area. He wore a jade bracelet on his right wrist. His short salt and pepper hair was the only thing holding him back from being the real Jin. That and Jin's glasses that attached with a string to loop around the back of both of his ears.

Nokomis' mind reeled. There was also a man that was dressed just like the man standing before her, sitting in the exhibit hall of the museum that her mother worked at. Melody was hosting "The Lost Kingdom" exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"But that was a 400 year old mummy sitting with his knees to his chin and arms wrapped around his legs," Nokomis' mind said. It also just happened to be the same mummy that had sent her on her journey here. That mummy, when it was being moved into the exhibit hall, had a rolled up piece of washi that had fallen out of the right hand sleeve of its kimono.

No one had seen this and Nokomis had gathered the washi into her hands, tucking it into her orange backpack that her mother had brought back from Loulan, China.

"Kore wa nan desu ka?" The older man asked in Japanese.

"Wakarimasen," Nokomis replied back as she backed up further, afraid of what she was seeing.

"Nokomis," the older man said switching to English, "what don't you understand?"

He slowly started walking towards her as she backed herself away towards the front door. Nokomis could see that he had the same stride as her Jin, but how was that?

"Your father called me and said you needed help translating some Japanese writings," the man said as he watched Nokomis back herself into the front door and stop.

Nokomis hesitated for a moment before she answered back.

"Yes," she stammered out taking her hands away from her mouth. "Yes, I do."

Nokomis quickly dropped her hands down and shrugged out of her backpack that she was wearing. She turned, picked it up, and turning back shoved it into the old man's hands.

"Here," Nokomis said scared of touching the man, "the rolled washi is inside and it looks very old."

"Very well," the old man said, "please follow me."

Nokomis watched as the old man turned and walked down the foyer. She shook her head to clear it before she followed him.

"Déjà vu," she said as she started down the foyer.

The old man turned to a door on his left at the end of the foyer. He held the door open for her as she entered the small study. Nokomis couldn't believe her eyes as she stopped inside the room and looked around. Before her in glass curio cabinets and in matted box picture frames were items from when she lived with Jin.

The old man watched as Nokomis slowly walked around the room, looking intensely into the two curio cabinets situated on either side of a window that looked out into the side yard. He crossed to the mahogany desk, sat the backpack down on the top of it, and sat down into the chair behind it.

"You speak Japanese very well," he told her as he opened up her backpack and carefully pulled the rolled washi from it.

"Arigato," Nokomis replied as she studied the clay jugs inside one of the curio cabinets.

"Have you learned how to write or read the language yet?" The old man asked setting the rolled washi onto the top of the desk.

"Iie," Nokomis replied turning away from the curio cabinet.

She could have sworn that the jugs she was just looking at belonged to Yoshiro. The three small circles with a larger rectangular one on top were the markings that Yoshiro placed on all of his belongings.

Nokomis came over to the desk where the old man was sitting. He had placed her backpack on the ground and was carefully unrolling the washi out onto his desk. She could see that the old man had used two paper weights at the top of the paper and a metal ruler at the bottom to keep the document from rolling back up on itself.

"You should learn," the old man went on as he began to study the washi.

"Hai," she replied as she pulled out a chair in front of the desk and sat down. "I was being taught by Yo…,"

The old man looked up puzzled as Nokomis broke off. How could she tell him what was happening to her every month? Hell she didn't even believe it herself.

"Where did you get this?" The old man asked.

Nokomis gulped and remained silent. She had thought about this when she was in the backseat of the car ridding over here. She had been hoping that Helen's husband would be able to translate the washi and not ask her any questions about it.

When Nokomis had placed the rolled washi into her backpack she had seen the kanji that depicted her name. Yoshiro had taught her how to write her name in the sand of Suruga Bay before she had been given a small bamboo stick and a piece of washi to write with.

Carefully she had dipped the bamboo into the ink, from the squids she had caught, and had practiced her name. Her name consisted of two kanji. The first one being a small square that sat inside a larger unfinished square with three lines coming out of the larger square's top. The likeness reminded Nokomis of "rabbit ears" on a television with a third line right in the middle. That kanji had been easy to learn. The second one wasn't.

The second kanji was a stretched out number three with a long line going through its center. Yoshiro had her repeat this kanji many times until she had gotten it right. Trying to change the subject she asked, "Can you read it?"

"Hai," Helen's husband replied as he stood up and walked over to an old yellowed paper that hung on the wall in a boxed frame.

"I just knew he wasn't a murderer," Helen's husband said as he studied the paper.

"Who?" Nokomis asked.

"My relative," Helen's husband replied turning back to where Nokomis sat.

"I was named after him," Helen's husband went on.

"The name Kin has been passed down from one son to the next for seven generations now," Helen's husband Kin went on.

"You see," Kin said as he walked back over to his desk and sat back down again. "I'm a descendant of Emperor Seiwa who lived from 850-880 AD."

"My ancestors controlled Kai Province, along with other families, before the decline of the clan at the Battle of Nagashino in 1575."

"My eighth great-grandfather Katsuyori suffered a terrible loss that day succumbing to one of the earliest recorded uses of guns in history. After losing support from the other clans in the area he was forced to commit ritual suicide along with his wife and infant son."

"But if he killed himself," Nokomis asked, "how can you be here?"

Kin smiled at her. "That's where Katsuyori's grandmother comes in," he replied.

"Her own son Yoshinobu was forced to commit suicide and Sanjo, Katsuyori's grandmother, couldn't bare to see her young grandchild be killed because of something that wasn't his fault."

"Sanjo went in the middle of the night to Katsuyori's home and stole my seventh great-grandfather away before he could be killed," Kin continued.

"Sanjo was an extremely wealthy widowed woman who raised my great-grandfather up in her estate in Kofu, Japan."

"I have an artist's rendition of what the estate would have looked like when my great-grandfather would have lived there," Kin said pointing to a picture on the wall behind Nokomis.

Nokomis turned around in her chair to look at the picture. Somehow it looked familiar and she got up from her chair to look more closely at it. Kin watched Nokomis walk away from him but went on with his story.

"Sanjo taught my great-grandfather how to read and write. She taught him how to recite our family history by heart. Much of what I know about my clan comes from him," Kin went on.

"At any rate, when my great-grandfather was eight years old Sanjo became too feeble to physically care for him herself. So she sent him to Kisarazu and placed him in the care of Master Mariya Enshirou of the Enshirou dojo."

"Here my great-grandfather leaned the ways of kenjutsu and jujutsu until ten years later he graduated as a samurai warrior and took upon himself his samurai name."

"Shortly after this happened my great-grandfather's Master Enshirou was killed," Kin said as he watched Nokomis as she studied the picture.

Nokomis narrowed her eyes and stared at the picture. The genkan was off centered in the picture, more towards the right of the bamboo house. The pit toilet was to the far left of the house while the furo sat to the right. The courtyard was oblong in shape and not a rectangle. But still, as Nokomis looked, she knew this place. It was the place where Jin, Yoshiro, and her had been living for the past two months when she had been there. She took a step back from the picture scared of what she had discovered.

"Nokomis?" Kin asked seeing her back away from the picture clearly frightened.

"It's nothing," Nokomis said in Japanese and then shook her head to clear it.

"One language," Nokomis scolded herself in silence, "use English here."

"I'm sorry," Nokomis replied coming back to the chair she had been sitting in, "please go on."

Kin studied her face as she sat back down. It was definitely scared. Something had happened to her as she placed her hands on top of the desk. Kin reached out with his right hand and placed it on top of hers.

"Are you sure?" Kin asked gently in Japanese as he softly squeezed her hand.

"Iie!" Nokomis shouted pulling her hands back quickly into her lap.

Kin's soft hand had felt like Jin's. For two months she had felt his left hand in her right one as they walked together through the fields and mountains of her new home.

"Sori," she replied, "long day." She finished in Japanese.

"Okay," Kin said in English taking his hand off of the top of the desk.

"So," Kin went on, "here the story of my great-grandfather is lost."

"I know he fled the Enshirou dojo in the middle of the night. I know that the shogunate was hunting him down wanting his head, but I never knew why until I read this letter."

"That's a letter?" Nokomis asked pointing to the washi in front of her.

"Yes," Kin answered, "this proves that my great-grandfather wasn't a murderer as the shogunate claimed he was."

Nokomis listened as Kin leaned forward and read from the washi in front of him.

My dearest love,

I am writing this letter to you in hopes of it someday reaching your hands. We have known each other for half a year now and I had plans on asking you to become my wife, but I can see that what I want can't be right now. Hopefully later on I can ask you, but for now it is impossible.

I have asked the Celestial Buddha Shino to close the picture of where you have come from permanently so that you can never return to me.

My life is in danger. The shogunate's senior member, a roju named Councilor Kariya Kagetoki, has discovered my great-grandmother's Sanjo's estate where we have been living and hiding for the past four months.

Nokomis sucked in a breath as she realized who the author of the letter was. Kin didn't hear her as he went on reading.

Yoshiro, who has now become my segregate father, after all these years, has refused to leave my side.

We are both leaving Kofu and heading for Nagasaki and the Ryukyu Islands that lay beyond. We will cross over the East China Sea and head for the mainland from where you have come from according to the reports from the shogunate and your mastery of the Chinese language.

Nokomis sat stock still. Last time she had been back with Jin and Yoshiro she had met an old man who said he was from China. The pair had sat for hours speaking Mandarin to each other. He had told her about his life as a farmer in China and she had told him about her life with her mother as a teacher in Loulan. Nokomis didn't know how to tell the old man that Melody was an archaeologist, nor could she believe, after he had left, that the kind old man had been a metsuke for the shogunate.

My love, Kin went on, I know the night before we parted last I had said unkind words to you and I am sorry for that.

Nokomis nodded her head in agreement. Jin and Yoshiro had been angry that she had talked to the strange old man, but Yoshiro had told her "what was done was done."

"You didn't know that the shogunate is after Jin," Yoshiro had told her, "because we didn't tell you."

"Sori Noko," Jin told her that night as they lay on the same futon together.

When Nokomis had returned at the end of September after Yukimaru had thrown his wakizashi sword at her, Jin had never left her side for more than a minute, day or night. Except for that one day when Yoshiro and Jin had traveled into town leaving her alone. That was the day she had talked Mandarin to the old man.

But I loved it when we laid together before you left, Kin went on not noticing Nokomis' cheeks as they started to turn red, our love will grow even when we are parted for a time.

When Yoshiro and I have arrived at your place of birth in Loulan, China we will search for you there. But if we don't find you I want for you to know about my past and why I am hiding from the shogunate.

It all started when my Master Mariya Enshirou made a deal with the shogunate to turn his dojo into a training ground for assassins.

All of Enshirou's students were fine with this decision but me. I went to my master and told him my true feelings. That he was making me walk a path of darkness, in doing this and that it wasn't a part of my Bushido upbringing.

I was brought up believing in the seven codes of virtues. Rectitude; courage; benevolence; respect; honesty; honor; and loyalty. How could I go against all that I believed in, lived my life to achieve, to turn away and leave it all behind? I couldn't.

The shogunate sent Councilor Kariya Kagetoki to Mariya Enshirou, I found out just recently. Kagetoki forced my master's hand into assassinating me in the night.

The night when this happened it was extremely late, with no moon showing. I felt a presence by my side before I heard the intruder draw his sword. I ducked out of the way as a sword went through the futon where I had been lying moments ago.

I grabbed my katana, which was sitting at the top of my futon, pulled it from its scabbard and blocked the next blow that came my way.

I was angry and became venomous ready to strike down my opponent. I wanted revenge. Revenge for my father being forced to commit the ritual of seppuku taking my mother with him.

Revenge for my Master Enshirou's belief that he would lose his dojo unless he made a deal with the shogunate.

My revenge was everything my Bushido upbringing went against, and when my katana finally found its mark, I drove its blade deep into my opponent's abdomen. I was seeking that revenge, looking for fulfillment from my childhood days.

My opponent fell back into the shoji, his right hand tearing through the rice paper so I could finally see this shogunate's dog for who he really was.

"How dare the shogunate send someone to kill me," I thought.

I was Enshirou's top student. I had carried his name. I was the person that would become his heir and receive procession of his dojo after he died. I was praised and placed above everyone else at the dojo.

And then as the light from outside filtered through the torn rice paper I could finally see who had attacked me.

Standing before me with the tsuba of my katana in his front and the blade of it out his back was my master!

My spirits dropped right then and there. I had become what I had feared the shogunate wanted me to become. I had assassinated my own master! I stood there shocked, covered in my master's blood as Enshirou pulled my katana from his abdomen.

"Your skills have grown well my son," Enshirou said weakly to me as he fell to the ground.

I stood there for only a moment watching as his blood pooled onto the tatami mats before I grabbed my wakizashi sword, still at the head of my futon, and rushed towards my master's body.

I heard people shouting and saw lanterns being lit. I grabbed my katana and fled out through the torn rice paper.

I ran. I had just killed my master and according to the code of the samurai I should have committed suicide, but I could not. My mind raced with questions. Why did Enshirou try to kill me? Who had put the idea into his head? And what was the shogun going to do to me when they found out that I had delivered the fatal blow?

I became a ronin that night. I was on my own, with no one to call family and no place to call home. I lived with the guilt for years. I tried to be all that a samurai should be. Gentle, kind, seeking inner peace and balance in my life, and yet at my darkest hours I radiated bitter, repressed anger to the world around me.

I hid my past from everyone I met, telling them a half truth in that my master had died, but leaving out the fact that I had been the one to kill him. My heart was in turmoil until I met you and then Yoshiro, the apothecary, when I turned twenty-three years old.

Yoshiro helped me through my past. Helped me to place my feet back on the path that I should be going and taught me to open up my heart to love again.

I now know that killing my Master Enshirou was in self-defense, just like killing my adoptive brother Yukimaru was also.

Councilor Kariya Kagetoki has been sending metsukes looking for me for years. And now that includes Yoshiro and you as well. Kagetoki has failed twice and is now personally coming himself to kill me. That is why I have asked the Celestial Buddha Shino to close the picture of your birth land for a period of time.

Kagetoki is known as 'The Hand of God' and he is extremely skilled as a samurai. I know that you have been training and learning the ways of the naginata and kaiken; in the art of tantojutsu, but you are not ready to fight by my side. Neither is Yoshiro.

Whereas Yoshiro will not leave I can at least protect you, for I'm afraid if I fail both Yoshiro and I will be killed by Kagetoki's hand.

So until we meet again dear Naoko I shall leave you with my love and this letter.

Takeda Katsuyori Yoshinobu Kin

Kin stopped reading and looked up at Nokomis. Her face was white and she wasn't moving.

"Who's Naoko?" She finally got out.

"Naoko," Kin said, "was my great-grandfather's wife. But I didn't know that she came from China. My research says she was born in Kamakura and that her parents were Gorou and Hachi."

"After Naoko died of hososhin or smallpox as we call it today, she left her only child, a boy in Gorou and Hachi's care."

"What ever happened to your great-grandfather?" Nokomis asked not really wanting to hear the answer.

"Well," Kin said never taking his eyes off of Nokomis.

"Through my research it says that the shogun finally caught up with him. They killed anyone who he was with that day before they came after him."

"Do you know the names of who was killed?" Nokomis asked.

"No," Kin said shaking his head, "but it looks like if Yoshiro, my great-grandfather's segregate father, was with him that day, then most likely he would have been killed."

"My research came up with the name of Councilor Kariya Kagetoki as the man who confronted my great-grandfather and tried to kill him."

"Did Kagetoki succeed?" Nokomis asked.

"I don't know," Kin answered.

"I only have one entry in the shogunate's official papers," Kin went on.

"It says that the roju Councilor Kariya Kagetoki was killed and his assassin was badly wounded."

"I like to think that great-grandfather lived but…," Kin trailed off lost in thought.

Nokomis was rigid before him. He knew from his military training that she was hiding something, but what?

"Do you have any other letters after the 23rd of February 1599?" He asked hoping to get her to talk.

"What?!" Nokomis asked.

Kin watched her face. He could tell that she was trying to figure something out.

"Letters," Kin repeated pointing to the piece of washi sitting on the top of his desk.

"This one's dated February 23rd, 1599," he stated.

"No, that can't be," she muttered to herself, "1599?"

A knock on the door interrupted the pair.

"Kin," Helen's voice said as she opened the door to the study, "I'm so sorry to interrupt you, but they finally came back."

"Really?" Kin said getting excited.

"Excuse me Nokomis," Kin said as he stood up and bowed to her crossing to his wife's side.

Kin took the large rectangular box from his wife and hurried through the open door with Helen following behind him. Left alone, Nokomis got up from her chair and followed too.

Turning left out into the foyer she followed Kin and Helen as it opened up into the family room. Kin had placed the large rectangular box onto the coffee table as he tore off the lid and tossed the shredded paper aside.

"After all this time," Kin said to his wife as she stood next to his side holding a long red silk sash.

Kin carefully pulled two swords from the box, one clearly longer than the other one and Nokomis stopped in her tracks.

"They are beautifully redone," Helen said as her husband pulled the longer sword from its scabbard.

"Yes," Kin admitted, "it's been a long time in trying to get these daisho's repaired."

"Daisho's?" Nokomis questioned, but Helen and Kin didn't hear her.

Nokomis watched as Kin replaced the sword back into its scabbard as Helen tied the daisho's around her husband's waist with the red silk sash she had.

As Kin stepped away from his wife Nokomis caught a glimpse of the tsuba design on the two sword's collars and she gasped. She knew the design by heart, having seen it day after day now for five months.

A beautiful design of a pair of eyes and a set of lightning bolts that were forged into the sword's metal, while the handles were wrapped in a blue braided rope.

Nokomis watched as Kin stood in the center of the family room as Helen pulled the coffee table over to one side.

She watched fascinated, as Kin took his left hand and placed it on his katana. He turned the scabbard over so that the blade faced down. Kin then took his right hand, as he crouched his body down, and pointed the tsuba towards the ground. As he drew the katana out he raised himself up to his full height.

Turning, slightly away from Nokomis, Kin placed two hands on his katana, his right one near the tsuba while his left one was near the end and raised the sword over his head. She could see that Kin's feet were shoulder width apart as he brought the katana down at a slight angle, which was levered by his left hand. He stepped back and lowered his sword.

"It handles beautifully," he told his wife as he pulled the wakizashi left handed out of its scabbard raising its blade up into the air.

Kin turned his body again and shifted his weight from his leading foot to his back one, holding his wakizashi at face level. Carefully he lifted his left foot up off of the ground and held it at knee level. As he brought his wakizashi down in a diagonal cut, along with his left foot, Nokomis gasped.

Kin turned around to look at Nokomis standing at the end of the foyer watching him with two hands held over her mouth. He had been performing a series of sword fighting styles that had been made famous by Miyamoto Musashi. Musashi was a famous samurai who had developed a style of fighting called Hyoko Neten Ichi-ryu. This style of sword fighting worked in a sequential rhythm with both the katana and wakizashi swords. As one sword defends, the other one attacks.

Quickly Kin returned his daisho's to their appropriate scabbards and slowly walked towards Nokomis.

"Nokomis?" He questioned, "Kore wa nan desu ka?"

Kin knew that Nokomis was hiding something. "You don't just get a piece of washi from 1599 handed to you from some stranger off of the street," Kin told himself as he approached Nokomis.

"And," Kin went on in his head, "you don't see anyone using a set of daisho's in tandem unless they are an expert in their field these days. There are very few people who are masters of the sword, yet Nokomis seems like she has seen this before. But where?"

"Nokomis?" Kin questioned again stopping in front of her.

"What?" Nokomis muttered through her hands in Japanese.

"What's wrong?" Kin questioned back in Japanese.

"Nothing," Nokomis replied back in Japanese taking her hands away from her mouth. "Nothing is wrong."

"Wakarimasen," Nokomis said her voice barely a whisper.

Here standing before her was Jin. The only thing missing was the four-diamond emblem on each of his sleeves and the one in the middle of his back. That and those ugly, stupid looking glasses that he wore all the time so that he could see.

"Nokomis," Kin said gently reaching out with his right hand for hers, "what don't you understand?"

"You've said that before," Kin said as his hand closed around hers. "Please tell me where you got the washi from."

"Iie!" Nokomis shouted pulling her hand away.

"You're not my Takeda Jin," she fumbled.

Turning around Nokomis bolted for the front door with Kin right on her heels.

"Nokomis no!" Kin shouted as she opened up the door and fled down the driveway.

"Kin?" Helen called as she stepped outside the front door, "What's going on?"

Kin stopped in his pursuit of Nokomis and turned back towards his wife.

"I need to call Doctor Stantz now," he said as he hurried back towards were Helen stood on the porch.

"Why?" Helen asked as her husband hurried passed her and through the front doors, removing his daisho's as he went.

"Because," Kin said stopping and turning around to face Helen, "that eighteen year old girl just handed me a letter from my seventh great-grandfather Takeda Kin, providing me with proof that he didn't kill his Master Enshirou."

"What?" Helen asked following her husband into the house and shutting the door, "How?"

"That's what I intend to find out," Kin replied as he entered his office.

Kin set his daisho's down on his desk, next to the washi and reached for the phone. He had to find out how Nokomis had come across the letter from his great-grandfather and why she was scared to death of his presence.

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Nokomis reached the end of the driveway and turned to her right. Her Uncle Egon's house was only one block away from Helen and Kin's residence and she needed answers.

How could there be three people who looked exactly alike, in three different places, all at the same time?

"No," Nokomis said as she kept running, "Jin's in 1599, Helen's husband said so himself."

But how? Then it hit her and she stopped running. Bent over with both hands on her knees breathing heavily, she saw the answer staring her straight in the face. Her Aunt Jean and the round glimmering ray of light that appeared each time there was a full moon.

Nokomis had gone back in time. There was no other explanation for it. And if the letter that Kin had just read was real, then her Jin and Yoshiro were going to die sometime after the 23rd of February in 1599.

Suddenly she felt sick to her stomach. Now Nokomis knew who the samurai mummy was and she had been right all along. The mummy had been running and hiding from the shogunate and hadn't been 'planted' as her mother believed back in Loulan. And yet he was dead, had been for hundreds of years. "No wait," Nokomis' brain said.

"It's January," Nokomis said out loud as she straightened up.

"I have time to save them," she said to herself as she started to run more fervently towards her Uncle Egon's house.

She knew what she had to do. She had to talk to Uncle Egon's fiancée Professor Vladislava Tvardovsky whose hobby was time-travel research.

If anyone could shed some light on to what was going on in Nokomis' life right now, it would be Verdie. Nokomis had to get back to Jin and never leave his side. If she did she knew that she could change the outcome of the letter that he had written.

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Verdie walked through the back door of the house and shut the door behind her. Taking off her winter coat she hung it on a hook by the back door. Next she pulled off her winter boots and set them into the black tray that sat on the floor beneath the hooks. She could hear two people arguing in Daniel's old room and she wondered if Egon and Echo were going at each other.

"Egon?" Verdie called out walking up to the closed door of Daniel's old room.

"I'm here Verdie," Egon's voice called to her from down the hallway.

Soon Egon's head appeared out of the door that led to the kitchen.

"Who's in there?" Verdie softly asked in Russian pointing her right hand towards the closed door.

"Ray and Nokomis," Egon answered back in English, knowing that the names didn't translate into Russian very well.

Egon beckoned for Verdie to follow him into the kitchen, as he turned back and walked over to the stove.

Verdie followed and could see that Egon had a tray with a large piece of salmon on it sitting on the stove.

"So, what's the fire all about?" Verdie asked gesturing her head towards the closed bedroom door.

"Oh," Egon replied, "Nokomis took something that she shouldn't have."

"Anyway," Egon replied as he opened up the oven's door, "I was just getting ready to put dinner in. What do you want as a side dish?"

"Rice would be great," Verdie replied as she watched Egon place the tray with the salmon on it into the oven.

"Choice of vegetable?" Egon asked closing the oven's door and setting the timer on the stove.

"I would like Brussels sprouts," Verdie replied as she opened the cupboard to where the rice cooker was. "But," she went on as she pulled the rice cooker out and closed the door, "I ate them last night."

Crossing to the counter Verdie sat the rice cooker down and plugged it into the electrical outlet.

"So that's where they went," Egon replied as he pulled a bag of rice out of the cupboard that had been built into the ascending stairs to Echo's room.

"I was hungry," Verdie replied taking the bag of rice from Egon.

"Well at least two of us are eating these days," Egon said quietly looking towards the kitchen's ceiling.

Verdie sighed. It seemed that she was the only one trying to help Echo through the loss of her son, not to mention, her fiancé leaving her.

"Egon," Verdie said as she placed the bag of rice on the counter, "Where you like this when Eden miscarried?"

"Excuse me?" Egon said caught off guard.

Verdie knew that Egon had been married before and that his wife had miscarried children before she was killed in 9/11, but Verdie had never brought up Eden's name after she had moved into his house.

"You know what I mean," Verdie said taking Egon's right hand into her left one.

"Just once forget about what Daniel is trying to do to ruin your life," Verdie said.

"Forget about if Echo lied about who the father of her child really is and place yourself into her shoes. You've lost children. How did you feel when that happened?"

"I…," Egon paused.

How did he feel? All he could feel lately was frustration at the world around him. Daniel's lawyer, Echo's lies, the press always following him, wanting something from him.

"Where was the truth in all of this?" Egon often wondered. "When was it going to end?"

"Egon," Verdie said squeezing his hand. "I know you're upset right now. Hell I would be too, if I was in your place, but that doesn't give you the right to be impertinent to your daughter."

"She needs you," Verdie pleaded, "Not the stern father figure that you have become lately."

"You should have been there with her when Emrick was born. You should have been there when Emrick took his last breath. You should have been the one to carry Emrick's casket and place it into the open grave, not Echo."

"Echo is dying," Verdie went on. "The light has gone out of her once brilliant eyes and has been replaced with the dull stare of pain and defeat. Her heart has been ripped opened, ravaged, not by anything physical but by words and actions."

"Echo's not dying," Egon stated, "she's just depressed. She'll pull out of this in a couple of days."

"No Egon," Verdie said shaking her head back and forth, "you don't see it."

"Echo is leading a sad, empty existence right now. Her life is filled with tragedy, blackness, anguish, loneliness, misery, and torment. When are you going to stop?"

"Stop what Verdie?" Egon asked. "I've done nothing to hurt my daughter."

Verdie released Egon's hand. He truly didn't see what he was doing to his daughter.

"Egon," Verdie said quietly, "at some point in time, if you don't stop what you are saying to Echo, she is going to take her life. To save any dignity that she thinks she has left."

"You're wrong Verdie," Egon said, "Echo would never kill herself."

Verdie turned away from him before she spoke, "I've lived through what Echo is going through right now. I know what she is feeling."

"Darkness can not drive out darkness; only light can do that," Verdie said.

"Hate Egon," she continued on turning her head over her shoulder to look at him, "can not drive out hate; only love can do that."

Verdie turned her head away from Egon and let out a breath.

"I'm sure you think you know what is best for your daughter," Verdie said, "I'm just an outsider looking in, but please think back and look upon Echo as your wife Eden and not as your daughter right now."

"Did you treat Eden the same way as you are treating Echo right now?"

Egon stood stock still. Suddenly he saw the gravity of his situation with his daughter. He realized that what he had thought he was doing was right, had not been correct all along.

He was angry, had been since Daniel had called Echo a whore, and that hatred had grown inside of Egon until he had started to lash out at the thing that he thought was the cause of it, Echo. Verdie's hand on his arm brought Egon back to the present. He looked up into her face. She half smiled at him before she spoke.

"Egon," she said, "forgiveness is for yourself, not the other person."

Ray and Nokomis' voices could now be heard shouting at the top of their lungs at each other. Verdie released Egon's arm.

"Go and apologize to Echo," Verdie said as she started for the hallway heading towards Daniel's old room, "I'll go and put out the fire with those two."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ray was frustrated at his daughter and he raised his voice, yelling at her.

"Just because your mother is in charge of the exhibit," Ray hollowed at Nokomis, "doesn't give you the right to take things that don't belong to you."

"As I told you before," Nokomis shouted back, "I didn't steal anything. It had my name on it, so therefore it belongs to me."

"Noko…," Ray trailed off as the bedroom door opened up on them.

"You guys might want to keep it down," Verdie said as she stood in the open doorway to the room, "I've got complaints coming in from Mars."

"I'm sorry Professor Tvardovsky," Ray said dropping his voice down, "It's just that…,"

"Teenagers don't understand," Verdie interrupted before Ray could say something derogative to Nokomis.

"Ray why don't you help me finish dinner while I have a talk with Nokomis," Verdie said as she stepped into the room.

"But…," Ray went to say before Verdie cut him off again.

"It's okay," Verdie said, "I won't undermine your authority. We'll just have a little girls chat. Right Nokomis?"

"Okay," Nokomis said uneasily.

"Good," Verdie said coming over and sitting down at the foot of the bed.

She beckoned for Nokomis to do the same before she turned and talked to Ray.

"There is a bag of rice sitting on the counter next to the rice cooker," Verdie said, "could you please start that for me? And then you can pick a vegetable that you would like to go with it."

"You are staying for dinner, correct?" Verdie asked.

Ray studied his daughter. Maybe it was good to talk to someone else about what she had done.

"Sure," Ray responded as he started towards the door, "We'll stay for dinner."

When Ray reached the opened door he paused before he exited the room.

"Don't think this matter is settled Nokomis," Ray said, "We'll finish our talk when we get home with your mother."

Nokomis watched as her father exited the room and closed the door.

"Hundan," Nokomis muttered under her breath.

Verdie knew that Nokomis was angry at her father and had probably called him a bad word in Mandarin but she didn't speak the language.

Verdie thought of how she could calm the young girl down and smiled. If Nokomis wanted to speak another language then two could play at that game.

"So Nokomis," Verdie said making her voice sound sweet, "Kholera v dupi (Pain in the ass), use garazd (is everything OK)?"

"Excuse me?' Nokomis said, "I don't understand you."

"That's the point isn't it?" Verdie asked. "You can use another language to swear behind people's backs and not get caught, right?"

"I…," Nokomis stammered realizing she had been caught.

"And," Verdie went on as Nokomis searched for what to say, "when your teachers or anyone else asks, you can tell them something else. Just like I can tell you I said, "How was your day today?"."

"But that's really not what I said," Verdie went on. "Only I know the truth, but you had better watch yourself Nokomis because one day you are going to say something and someone is going to know what you have said to them."

"Then," Verdie finished, "you will have to face up to what you have done."

Nokomis dropped her head to the floor. What Verdie had said to her just now was true. She had seen it first hand when she had called Caesar Rutledge, from the CDC, a useless arrogant old man. Caesar's partner Richard Forrest had recognized what she had said. Richard had called her a bai mu translating into stupid.

"So," Verdie went on, "your father and mother love you Nokomis. And despite their out pouring of love and effort to teach you right from wrong, all they see is a wayward daughter, who is willfully pursuing courses of tragic consequences."

"Only Daddy loves me," Nokomis shot back. "My mom…," she trailed off.

How could Nokomis tell Verdie that her mother didn't want her? How could she tell Verdie that Melody didn't want to be pregnant right now either? How could she tell Verdie that Melody yelled at her father at night, about how it was his fault that she was now going to have two children when she wanted none in the first place?

"It doesn't matter," Nokomis said becoming angry. "They're both demanding of me. Threatening me and making me feel like my feelings don't matter."

"I have no desire to live at home anymore," Nokomis finished.

Verdie turned her head towards the young girl. She had finally hit the root of Nokomis' problem. It was her mother.

"So," Verdie said gently, "Where would you go?"

"I'd go and live with Jin," Nokomis said.

"Jin," Verdie said rolling the name around in her mouth, "So is Jin the person that you have been seeing every other month?"

"Yes," Nokomis replied.

"Is he kind to you?"

"Yes," Nokomis replied again, "and he doesn't care about my smallpox scars either."

"Oh," Verdie said surprised.

Verdie knew that Nokomis was embarrassed about the dime sized white scarring up and down her legs and arms. Nokomis was especially self-conscious of the ones left on her face.

Verdie knew that the last time that Nokomis had been home her doctor had done a series of subcision and fat transfers on the most prominent scars on Nokomis' face, but still the young girl had a long ways to go to be completely free of her smallpox scars.

"Well," Verdie continued on, "that's good to hear. I know that you are insecure about your scars. I'm glad to see that you have met someone who looks on a person's inner beauty and not their outward appearance."

"Nokomis," Verdie said as she reached out and placed a hand on the young girl's arm, "just remember that no matter what happens your parents love you, even in the toughest times like now."

Verdie gave Nokomis' arm a squeeze before she released it and stood up to leave.

"Professor Tvardovsky," Nokomis called out just as Verdie reached the bedroom door, "can I ask you a question?"

"What is it?" Verdie asked stopping and turning around to face the teenage girl.

"Is it possible to go back in time?" Nokomis asked timidly.

Verdie frowned.

"Are you going to make fun of my hobby too?" Verdie asked as she crossed her arms and leaned up against the door.

"Oh No!" Nokomis shot out. "Nothing like that. I'm generally interested to see if time-travel is possible."

Verdie studied Nokomis' face. The girl held nothing there but curiosity. She wasn't about to criticize Verdie like her colleagues had done at work. This girl was truly interested in time travel.

"Well," Verdie said as she unfolded her arms and came away from the door, "it depends upon who you ask."

"According to Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity that he developed in 1915, the short answer is yes," Verdie continued. "But it's a heavily qualified yes."

"How?" Asked Nokomis.

"Well," Verdie said looking for the best way to explain what she knew in layman's terms, "let's start with relativity."

"Relativity describes the physical fabric of the universe in terms of a 4-dimensional space-time, which includes three spatial dimensions, along with one time dimension."

"Is this three spatial dimensions something like up/down, left/right, and front/back?" Nokomis asked.

"Yes," Verdie said smiling.

This was where she usually lost anyone who didn't know anything about science.

"So," Verdie went on, "under this theory, which has been proven correct over the last century, gravity is a result of the bending of this space-time in response to the presence of matter."

"So," Nokomis said trying to wrap her mind around what she was being told, "are you telling me that in other words, given a certain arrangement of matter, the actual fabric of the universe can be modified in tangible ways?"

"That's one way to put it," Verdie said.

"One of the amazing consequences of relativity is that movement can result in a difference in the way time passes, Verdie stated. "This is a process known as time dilation."

"Time dilation?" Nokomis asked, "What's that?"

Verdie fluttered her lips together, "That takes a bit more explaining than I think you would understand Nokomis."

"Try me."

"Alright," Verdie replied. "The definition of time dilation is the phenomenon when two objects moving relative to each other experience different rates of time flow. I told you it's beyond your understanding."

"No," Nokomis stated, "just give me a minute."

Verdie watched as Nokomis' eyebrows scrunched together as she tried to comprehend what she had just been told.

"Professor Tvardovsky are you talking about how a G.P.S. works?" Nokomis finally asked at last.

"Excuse me?" Verdie questioned the young girl back.

"You know a G.P.S. or global positioning system. It is actually a constellation of twenty-seven Earth-orbiting satellites. Each of these satellites circle the globe and make two complete rotations every day. The orbits are arranged so that at any time there are at least four satellites visible in the sky," Nokomis said.

"A G.P.S.'s job is to locate four or more of these satellites, figure out the distance to each, and use this information to figure out where you are."

"The G.P.S. does this by analyzing high-frequency, low-power radio signals from the satellites. These radio waves travel at the speed of light and the G.P.S. receiver can figure out how far the signal has traveled by timing how long it took to get the signal."

"Now," Nokomis went on, "there is a length of delay for the satellite and G.P.S.'s receiver between getting the signal and actually passing it along."

"Both 'clocks' need to be synchronized down to the nanosecond. This requires an atomic clock on each of the satellites."

"But on the G.P.S.'s end, the 'clock' is quartz, which constantly resets every time it gets a signal. But errors do pop up from time to time like when the radio signals bounce off large objects such as sky scrapers."

"Exactly!" Verdie said getting excited. "G.P.S.'s have to adjust for time dilation. They have to be programmed to compensate for the time differences based on their speeds and gravitational influences."

"Alright I'm following you so far," Nokomis said, "Please go on."

"Okay," Verdie said, "So there are many theories of how this works. Some down to earth and some farfetched."

"Stephen Hawking believes that if a spaceship is built that can fly faster than the speed of light that a day on board would be equivalent to a year on Earth."

"That's because Einstein believed," Nokomis interrupted, "that as objects accelerate through space, time slows down around them."

"Yes Nokomis," Verdie replied, "that's correct."

"Which means," Verdie went on, "that Hawking's theory only applies to moving forwards through time."

"What about moving backwards?" Nokomis asked.

Verdie shook her head sadly.

"Impossible," Verdie said. "A theoretical bridge proposed under Einstein's general-relativity theory has never been proven to exist yet."

"Bridge?" Nokomis asked.

"Sorry," Verdie replied. "Einstein, working at Princeton with Nathan Rosen in the 1930's, discovered that a black hole might have a bridge between two regions of space. A phenomenon known as an 'Einstein-Rosen bridge'," Verdie explained.

"Are you referring to wormholes?" Nokomis asked.

"Yes I am," Verdie replied.

"So these 'bridges' or wormholes, theoretically connect two different points in space?" Nokomis asked trying to grasp what she was being told.

"Yes," Verdie answered back, "theoretically they create a shortcut that could reduce travel time and distance."

"And if Einstein-Rosen bridges do exist they would be incredibly unstable."

"Unstable?" Nokomis asked. "Aren't wormholes like a door? You just step through to the past like you would walk into another room."

"No," Verdie said shaking her head. "Like I said before you can't travel back in time only forwards. And according to astrophysics, wormholes may exist in quantum foam only."

"Quantum Foam?" Nokomis questioned.

"Quantum Foam," Verdie went on to explain, "is a concept in quantum mechanics to describe what space-time 'looks like' in scales of centimeters, the smallest environment in the universe."

"According to Hawking's theory, these tiny 'bridges' blink in and out of existence, momentarily linking separate places and time."

Verdie watched as Nokomis frowned.

"I'm sorry Nokomis," Verdie said, "it's a hard concept to understand at your age."

"No," Nokomis replied, "just give me a minute to wrap my head around it."

Verdie watched Nokomis as she sat in silence trying to understand what was being said to her. Finally Nokomis broke the silence.

"So," Nokomis spoke, "if I understand what you have just said to me, these 'bridges' or wormholes are tiny in existence."

"Correct," Verdie said.

"And," Nokomis went on, "as such they can only exist for a short period of time much like a game of 'chutes and ladders'."

"I'm sorry," Verdie said as the door to the bedroom opened up and Egon stood in the doorway.

Nokomis didn't miss a beat as she went on.

"Professor Tvardovsky 'chutes and ladders' is a game based on an ancient Indian board game called 'snakes and ladders'."

"The game consists of a square board made up of one hundred squares with ladders and chutes on certain squares."

"To play you roll a single die and advance your token the rolled number of spaces on the board, with the goal being to get to the hundredth square."

"But at any given time a ladder can come up advancing you forward or a chute, sending you back to the beginning of the game."

"Now I understand you," Verdie replied as she looked towards Egon.

"So," Nokomis went on, "you're telling me that Hawking thinks that 'bridges' or wormholes would be too small and too brief for a human to travel through them."

"Yes," Verdie said turning her head towards Nokomis surprised that the young girl understood.

"But," Egon interrupted, "scientists think that one day they might be able to learn how to capture, stabilize, and enlarge an Einstein-Rosen bridge."

Verdie smiled as she looked back towards her fiancé. Even though he didn't believe in time-travel personally, Egon would at least listen and engage in conversation with her about the subject.

"I'm sorry for interrupting Verdie," Egon said before he turned towards Nokomis.

"Nokomis do you mind giving Verdie and me a moment alone?"

"Not at all Uncle Egon," Nokomis replied as she got up from the bed and walked towards the door.

Egon moved to one side to let her pass as he continued. "Your father's in the kitchen. "I'm sure he can use your help."

"Sure," Nokomis replied as she left the bedroom.

"So," Egon asked, "you were discussing time-travel with Nokomis?"

"Yes," Verdie replied as Egon closed the door to the bedroom. "And you know what? That eighteen year old gets it! How is that possible for a high school dropout?"

"She might be a high school dropout," Egon replied, "but Nokomis isn't dumb."

"Her father has twelve degrees. If she just puts her mind to it just think of what she could accomplish!"

Verdie nodded her head in agreement as Egon pulled out an envelope from the inside of his jacket's pocket.

"What do you make of this?" Egon asked Verdie handing her the envelope.

"What is it?" Verdie asked taking the envelope from him.

She noticed that it had her name written on it and she turned it over, ripping the envelope open. Verdie could see Echo's handwriting on the piece of paper inside as she unfolded it and read out loud.

Dearest Verdie,

Verdie turned up one corner of her mouth. Echo never called her that name. Echo called her either just plain professor or Professor Tvardovsky. Verdie had a feeling that Echo was struggling with her becoming the young woman's step-mother. Verdie read on.

I have tried to come to terms with the loss of Emrick, Daniel's leaving me, Doctor D'Artagnan's ongoing accusations and lies about me, and my own father deserting me when I need him the most.

Verdie shot an 'I told you so' glance towards Egon before she turned back to the letter and continued reading.

I have done nothing wrong. I don't understand why after four years that Daniel and I have been together that he doesn't know what kind of person I am by now? I don't understand why he has started believing what Doctor D'Artagnan and the press have to say about me.

It is too bad that this letter is just a piece of paper. It would be great if it could speak, to prove my innocence to Daniel and to my father, but alas I have no other choice.

Daniel has refused to answer my calls even when I have proof that Emrick isn't Doctor D'Artagnan's child.

Verdie paused. She had been the one to take Echo to the doctor's office to have the court ordered paternity test done. Both Daniel and Doctor D'Artagnan had been ordered to provide a sample also and the results had been received with questions.

The paternity test required a DNA sample from the inside cheek of each party. Verdie had spent fifteen minutes with Echo as she filled out paperwork and the doctor took Echo's sample.

The results usually came back within ten working days but Egon, impatient to have the matter cleared up quickly, had opted to obtain the results faster at an incurred extra cost.

The results had proven that Daniel wasn't the father of Echo's child and even though the results were supposed to be kept confidential Doctor D'Artagnan had leaked the information to the press. But he had failed to provide the press with one important document. The document that proved that he wasn't the father of Echo's child either.

That's when the courts ordered an ABO blood group typing test done and much like the DNA test it had left everyone with more questions.

Verdie knew that there are four major blood groups determined by the presence or absence of two antigens on the surface of red blood cells. The courts wanted proof of who was the father of Echo's child and had ordered all parties involved to give a blood sample and have it tested.

Much like eye color, blood types are inherited and passed genetically from one's parents to their child.

Echo's parents both had the blood type B+ so it was given that Echo was also B+. Daniel's and Doctor D'Artagnan's blood types were both AB- thus once again proving that they were not the father of Emrick.

But Emrick's blood type, from samples that the hospital had saved when he was born, had shown that his blood type was O+.

Thinking that the test had been wrong, the courts had yet again ordered another test. This time a HLA test. HLA stood for human leukocyte antigen and detects genetic markers on white blood cells. The test is used to provide evidence of tissue typing to aid in paternity testing and this test had come back with no link to Daniel or Doctor D'Artagnan as being the father. That's when Egon had yelled at Echo and had called her a liar.

Echo had retreated to her room in tears and Verdie had held her as she cried into Verdie's shoulder telling her she had slept with no one but Daniel. Echo didn't understand why the tests were coming back the way they were, but when Verdie suggested that Echo go for the lie detector test she had politely declined.

Verdie sighed and went on reading the letter.

Loving Daniel is really hard for me right now. I really have done nothing wrong to try and hurt him. I know I should have told Daniel about Emrick when we were done with the concert in Cleveland, but I was upset with the press and just wanted to be home.

Now I'm afraid to love whom I choose to love for fear of them leaving me someday.

I'm so sorry Verdie that I have gotten off on a tangent with Daniel and have missed why I am writing this letter to you.

Verdie you have been trying to help me these past weeks work through my grief and I thank you immensely.

Only you have understood me as I take a journey through the darkest recesses of my mind, hoping to find the one truth that I've been searching for, why my mother was taken away from me. But I've no answer to give you.

My life has been a constant struggle and the only person that I could look to for support has abandoned me.

As a child I was taught to look to my mentors. My uncles, aunts, and parents for answers. But where am I supposed to turn for answers when my mentors are busy with other things?

Uncle Ray is worried about Nokomis and Aunt Melody, heavy with child. Uncle Peter is having marital issues with Aunt Dana, who has moved out and is living with her parents, because Oscar has left home. Uncle Winston has lost his wife to an earthquake and is still in denial that Aunt Iris is gone.

And then there is the case of my biological father.

Verdie looked up to see Egon's lips pressed together in a frown. She knew that he hated being called anything other than 'father' and she quickly went on reading aloud.

Whereas you have comforted me every day since Emrick's death, my father has turned his back on me.

Verdie, life has lost its flavor to me. Everything that has ever brought me joy in this life is gone. My companions are now pain and despair. I've lost my dignity due to Daniel, Doctor D'Artagnan, and my father.

Daniel and my father were the only things that I had fought for in my life. Now they have been ripped from me and I sit here writing to you with my heart shattered. I am left with only coldness as I contemplate what choices are left for me.

I sit here writing in more confusion now then when I started this letter. I can not blame anyone but myself. I'm the one who has kept the secret of Emrick to only Grace, Paul, and my self's knowledge, but I wish I hadn't. If I hadn't deceived you Father do you think that you would have treated me different?

But my deception has led me down the path that I am on now. I awake each and every morning finding no escape from the darkness that I have laid upon me.

The coldness that I now feel is caused by me and me alone. I have caused myself to be alone. Alone and afraid of life. A life that has only coldness and hatred given to me now.

I seek peace, I want freedom. I want to be loved. I want my mother's arms around me again telling me she loves me. I want Emrick by my side so I can raise him up to be a wonderful human being. I want Daniel by my side to never leave me again. I want my father to love me, even though I'm hated by him right now.

And Verdie I want you with me. Helping me through my trials, but alas I alone have to face the path that I have made for myself to travel down. I will have to stare into the mirror and look long at my cold, hard face that has hidden the truth from those I love.

I would have been proud to call you my mother Verdie.

Doctor Echo Eddington Spengler

January 16, 2016

Verdie finished and looked up at Egon.

"I don't understand," Egon stated as Verdie stood still.

Egon pulled another envelope out of his jacket's pocket and showed it to Verdie.

"Echo didn't write anything like that to me in my letter," Egon said.

Verdie took the envelope from Egon and pulled the letter out, opening it up. Egon was right; Echo hadn't written her feelings to her father. Echo spoke of being proud to be his daughter and hoped one day that he would find it in his heart to forgive her for what she had done to make him disappointed in her.

"IA ne rozumi iu!" Verdie cursed in Ukrainian shoving both letters at Egon as she bolted for the closed bedroom door.

"What?" Egon asked as he followed Verdie out of the room.

"Echo!" Verdie hollowed as she ran to the stairs leading to Echo's room.

"She's not there," Egon called after Verdie as she took the steps two at a time.

Verdie was greeted to a tidy room, bed made, with a black and white stuffed horse sitting in the middle. She rushed to the bed and picked up the horse in disbelief.

Verdie had brought this horse to the hospital when she found out about Echo having her first child. It had been for Emrick, but it also had been a peace offering from her to Echo. They hadn't been getting along after Egon had announced his engagement to her.

But now the horse was more than a stuffed animal. Much like Verdie's old stuffed black and white dog that had once belonged to her son Luka, this horse held the memory of Emrick attached to it. And just as Verdie would never part with her son's dog, Echo wouldn't part with her son's horse until…

Verdie clutched the horse to her chest and ran back down the stairs again.

"Echo!" Verdie called out more fervently as she hit the hallway and went for the door to the basement.

"Verdie," Egon called after her, "I checked there already."

"Egon," Ray called out as his head appeared out of the door that led to the kitchen, "What's the matter?"

"Echo left a bunch of letters," Egon said crossing to his friend, "but now Verdie's gone…," he trailed off.

"A little loopy," Ray offered.

Egon shrugged his shoulders as he pulled out the envelope with Ray's name on it from his jacket's pocket, "I guess," he replied as he handed Ray the envelope.

"What did Verdie's letter say?" Ray asked as he took the envelope out of Egon's hands and opened it up.

"Just stuff about missing Daniel, Emrick, and how she's sorry for everything in her life," Egon said. "Echo went so far as to tell Verdie that she would be proud to call her mother."

Verdie appeared back at the top of the stairs leading up from the basement as Ray read his letter from his niece.

"Echo!" Verdie hollowed again through the house.

"Verdie," Egon questioned as she darted into the bathroom and rummaged around inside the medicine cabinet. "What's wrong?"

"They're gone," Verdie said in disbelief as she pushed past Egon's frame as he stood in the doorway to the bathroom.

Egon watched as Verdie brushed past Ray, who stood in the kitchen's doorway reading Echo's letter, and opened up the cabinet next to the sink.

"She took them all," Verdie muttered to herself as she slammed the door to the cupboard shut.

"Oh shit!" Ray said looking up from Echo's letter to him.

Ray looked Verdie in the face as she placed the stuffed horse on the counter and raced past him heading for the back door.

"Echo!" She shouted as she opened up the door and grabbed her winter boots.

Ray wasn't far behind as he dropped Echo's letter onto the floor and headed out the door after Verdie.

"Echo!" Ray shouted as he exited the house.

"Raymond!" Egon shouted as he rushed to the back door just as Ray rounded the corner of the house, "What's going on?"

But Egon got no answer and he shut the back door against the cold.

"Has everyone gone completely insane around here," Egon said as he came up to Nokomis, standing in the doorway to the kitchen, reading the letter that Echo had written to her father.

"Ta made," Nokomis said before she shoved the letter into Egon's chest and disappeared out the back door also.

Egon pulled the letter away from his chest to read what Echo had written to her uncle. Egon thought that everyone had gone insane as his eyes were pulled to the end of Ray's letter first. There under Echo's name was a post scriptum.

It was a quote from Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent American feminist, novelist, and a lecturer for social reform. She was a utopian feminist during a time when her accomplishments were exceptional for women, and she served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle. Her best remembered work was a short story called "The Yellow Wallpaper" which Eden had loved immensely. Echo had picked up the story from her mother, read it, and fell in love with it also.

Eden's favorite saying from Ms. Gilman had been:

"A house does not need a wife any more than it needs a husband."

This had helped Egon and Eden to treat each other as equals, and not to treat each other rudely.

Egon frowned as he read the last part of Echo's letter.

"When all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one."

"Verdie's right. Echo's is going to kill herself," Egon said as he dropped the letter and headed out the back door.

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"Father where's Daniel?"

"Shush," Ray said pulling Echo's cold body towards him, "he's not here Echo."

"And it's your Uncle Ray."

"Ray," Echo said briefly opening her eyes before she closed them again.

Echo was tired, her body was heavy, cold, and all she wanted to do was sleep, but Ray wasn't allowing her to do so.

"Yes Ray," Echo's uncle went on, "come on stay with me. Who's your aunt?"

"Aunt?" Echo questioned.

"Yes," Ray went on trying to keep Echo awake, "your Aunt Melody she works where?"

"I…," Echo trailed off trying to sleep.

"Oh no you don't!" Ray said shifting positions with Echo on his lap.

"You stay with me," Ray said shaking his niece awake, "You're not going to die on my watch."

Ray stopped shaking his niece when she moaned out loud and he pulled her back to his chest to keep her warm.

"Come on," Ray muttered under his breath, "Hurry up."

Ray had left Egon's house and had gone into the backyard hoping to find Echo there. Her suicide note was her way of saying goodbye to those she loved.

After Ray had searched Egon's backyard he had come up empty handed. That's when he had seen the man, dressed all in white, standing on the far side of the enclosed, in ground swimming pool.

Because of the Plexiglas the man wasn't clear to see but Ray thought he looked familiar. He watched as the man turned and walked away, down the trail, which led into Grover Cleveland Park.

"Hey!" Ray had shouted as he made his way around the pool and to the end of the landing.

Ray looked around for the man and saw him off in the distance, walking along a forest trail at the bottom of the snowy hill.

"Wait up!" Ray called out as he slid down the snowy trail to land on his buttocks at the bottom.

The man stopped for a moment, looked back to see that Ray was following, turned, and continued on down the trail heading for the pond.

"Hey mister," Ray called out as he hurried after the man in white down the trail.

The snow was ankle deep on the trail and Ray thought that he wouldn't be able to go much further when he saw an opening in the trees and heard a few voices. The man in white disappeared around a tree up ahead and Ray cautiously approached the tree and peered out around it.

To his surprise there was a snow covered baseball field and Ray stepped out from the trail. The snow was packed here as families had recently played in the snow, having snow ball fights, building snowmen, and pulling their children around the field on sleds.

Only one family remained and they were preparing to leave for the night, pulling their children on two sleds behind them as they left the field. Ray looked for the man in white and spotted him standing behind a tall chain-link fence behind home plate. The man beckoned for Ray to join him, before he turned and walked away into the forest again.

Ray casually walked across the outfield heading towards third base so that he could go around the chain-link fence to follow the man. The walking was easier here as people had packed the snow down from walking on the trail to the baseball field. Soon Ray found himself walking along Pine Brook Creek that ran through the park.

Ray stopped right before a bridge and looked to his right. In front of him was a pond formed by a dam to hold back the waters of Pine Brook Creek. The pond was frozen solid and there were a number of people taking their skates off at the Pond House to his right or coming up to a ramp that led down to the pond so that they could go home for the night.

Ray looked for the man in white and finally found him standing on top of the dam to Ray's left. As he started across the bridge to cross Pine Brook Creek the man in white turned around and jumped off of the dam. Ray quickened his pace until he too stood on top of the dam, but when he looked down to find the man he wasn't to be seen. All Ray saw was the water falling over the man-made concrete dam and down into the creek below.

"Damn it," Ray cursed to himself about to give up when he saw something caught in the water.

A dark brown, oblong bottle had been caught in the constant rotation of the falling water unable to break free. Ray carefully slid down the snow covered grass to the top of the wall that led down to the creek below. He jumped down to the ground, avoiding the water, and reached out to grab the bottle from under the waterfall.

As Ray pulled the bottle towards him he could see it was a prescription bottle. Slowly he turned the bottle around to see the wet label on the front and his heart leaped into his throat.

The bottle read Miss Echo Spengler, Cymbalta 60mg, swallow one capsule whole, do not chew or crush, once daily.

"Echo!" Ray called out standing up to look back over the frozen pond.

All he received were looks from the people left at the pond.

Ray himself had been on Cymbalta and the side effects had been nightmares for him, but there was also the possibility of suicidal thoughts as a side effect.

As Ray looked out over the pond he could see the man in white standing next to Pine Brook Creek on the concrete wall that Ray had been sitting on moments before. Pine Brook Creek had been confined to a concrete chute 'of sorts' after the town had made improvements to the park to stop the creek from flooding the lower part of the town.

The man in white was only a few feet away from him and Ray immediately recognized him as Doctor David Stantz, Ray's father.

"Papa?" Ray questioned timidly as he pocketed the bottle and hauled himself back up to the top of the wall.

David pointed down into the water of the creek, but when Ray approached his father he vanished. Ray looked to his right. Before him sat an opening for a water drainage system. The wire mesh, that stopped people and animals from going inside, had been removed and lay in the water of the creek, half buried in its depths.

Ray hadn't seen it when he had been on the other side and he had missed it when he was fixed on his father by the dam. Ray knew that Echo hated tight spaces, yet he also knew without a doubt that his niece was inside, alone.

"Daniel," Echo called out as she started to tremble in Ray's arms.

"It's okay," Ray said stroking her head with one hand, "we'll be out of here soon."

Before Ray had crawled into the concrete pipe he had called Egon on his cell phone and had told him what was happening and where he was at. Egon had informed Ray that he would call the police and meet him at Pine Brook Pond.

Ray's hope was to find Echo and drag her back out to wait for her father, kicking and screaming if he had to. But when he had found her that plan hadn't worked.

Echo had heard him coming. She had wanted to die alone. She wanted to go and live with her mother and Emrick. Not wanting to be found she had pulled herself further into the pipe until she had fallen down into some kind of holding basin.

When Ray had reached the opening he could see Echo barely treading water and he didn't hesitate to lower himself down onto a ledge and pull the young woman out of the cold water.

Echo's lips were blue and he had pulled her to his chest holding her, trying to warm her up, but he knew that she needed help.

Echo had been half awake and Ray kept her talking so she wouldn't fall asleep on him. He had learned that before Echo had crawled into the pipe she had taken an almost full bottle of Cymbalta, roughly around thirty pills, along with a bottle of aspirin, and some leftover brandy that Daniel had left behind.

"I didn't swallow the Cymbalta either," Echo told Ray, "I chewed them so that I could feel their effect sooner."

"I know how you feel," Ray said as he stopped stroking Echo's head. "I know what it's like to be afraid of your own mind."

Ray's heart jumped for joy as he heard the distance sound of a siren.

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Wrapped up in a blanket, with Nokomis by his side, Ray watched as a group of rescue workers pulled Echo's cold, stiff body from the hole that they had just made, into the ground, to reach the pair.

After Ray had heard the siren he had been surprised when a dog's face had appeared above him barking excitedly. Moments later voices could be heard and eventually a man's face appeared alongside the dog.

"Hey buddy," the man called down to him from above, "are you guys okay?"

"No," Ray hollered back, "Echo here has taken a combination of aspirin, anti-depressant prescription medication, and alcohol in an attempt to kill herself. She needs help."

"I'm on it," the man said as he backed out of the pipe with his dog.

As Ray waited he could feel himself starting to turn cold and he kept Echo talking, along with himself, in order to stay awake. Neither one of them could afford to fall asleep at this point.

Ray eventually felt the concrete from the top of the roof give way and fall down upon him and Echo. He placed himself over Echo's body, the best he could, as ropes were tossed down into the newly constructed hole. Rescue workers repelled down to the ledge, where he sat with Echo, and he was reluctant to be the first one saved.

"She goes first," Ray pleaded with the rescue workers, but in the end he had been outvoted.

Ray turned his head to see Verdie coming over to where he was.

"Thank you Raymond," Verdie said stopping in front of the older man as he sat in the back of the opened ambulance.

Ray smiled at Verdie, "It was nothing," he said. "You know I would do anything to help Egon out."

"Yeah," Verdie replied, "I know."

"Now what?" Nokomis asked.

"Now," Verdie said turning back to see her future husband standing by his daughter's side as rescue workers placed her on a gurney, "Egon has to pick up the broken pieces of his life and start over again."

"He has to look forward with hope and not backwards with regret. If he doesn't," Verdie finished, "guilt will become his only friend."

"Tragedy," Nokomis said quietly, "can lead on to better things."

Verdie turned around to face Nokomis.

"That's true," Verdie replied.

"So where are they taking my cousin?" Nokomis asked.

"Egon's having her sent to Mountainside Hospital in Montclair for right now," Verdie replied. "When she is stable Echo is going to be put under the care of Doctor Charlie Levine and transferred to Parkview Medical Hospital in New York City."

Ray sucked in a breath. He had been admitted to Parkview Medical Hospital three times in his life and he had hated every minute of it. He wondered if Echo would be alright in the decision that her father had made for her.

"So," Verdie said changing the subject, "How are you two doing?"

"Well," Ray said, "I've learned that parenting is basically just listening to yourself talk because nobody else is."

"But," Nokomis interrupted, "we are working on it."

"That's good to hear," Verdie said as Egon called out her name.

Ray and Nokomis watched as Verdie excused herself, turned around, and hurried over to Egon's side. The pair watched as Echo's gurney was loaded up into the back of another ambulance and Egon climbed in behind his daughter. Verdie opened up the passenger side door and got in before the ambulance turned on its siren and lights and pulled slowly away from Grover Cleveland Park.

"Daddy," Nokomis said as the ambulance drove out of sight.

"Yes," Ray answered.

"Do you think that there comes a point in life when someone has to realize that they'll never be good enough for some people?" Nokomis asked.

"What are you talking about?" Ray questioned his daughter looking her way.

"Daniel and Echo," Nokomis replied looking to her father.

"I don't know," Ray stated.

"I wonder," Nokomis thought out loud, turning her head back to look out of the ambulance "if Echo is questioning herself right now about not being good enough for Daniel."

"I think the big question here really is," Ray said interrupting his daughter, "if that is Echo's problem or Daniel's?"