Abigail and the children were still staying with Joanie and Chachi when Jack arrived home two days later. He read the note Abigail had left for him and rushed right over to his friends' house.

"Daddy! Daddy!" cried Jackson and Julie, running to meet him. He picked one child up in each arm, then went to meet his wife.

"Abby!" His voice was soft with concern as he set the children down and reached for her. "Are you all right?"

"Oh, Jack, I was so scared." Abigail's voice shook as she clung to him.

"There, there," Jack said, rubbing her back. "I'm here now. Everything's going to be all right."

"So how did the lobbying go?" Abigail asked her husband on the way home.

Jack sighed and shook his head. "It all comes down to budgeting, as always. Some people think it's more important for kids to learn Chinese basket weaving than for them to be physically fit. More importantly, how have you been over the past couple of days?"

"It hasn't happened again, thank goodness, but I've been terrified that it might ever since."

"You're going back to the doctor as quickly as you can get an appointment," Jack told her. As soon as she was inside the house, Abigail called Dr. Gordon's office. His nurse told her that the doctor could see her the following morning.

"It sounds as if what happened to you was what we call a petit mal seizure," Dr. Gordon told Abigail. "It may. or may not, be related to your history of acute encephalitis leading to long term coma. I'll have to schedule an EEG and a cat scan to know more about its origin and, therefore, how best to treat it."

"The cat scan showed a lesion in your temporal lobe," Dr. Gordon told Abigail.

"What's a lesion? Is that the same thing as a tumor?" asked Abigail. Jack's hand tightened in hers.

"To determine the exact nature of the lesion, a biopsy will be necessary," said Dr. Gordon.

"You mean...brain surgery?" Abigail went pale and began to shake. Jack's arm went around her protectively.

"It's a relatively minor procedure, and can be performed under local anesthesia," Dr. Gordon told her. "A small hole will be drilled into your skull, and a needle will be inserted to retrieve a small amount of the lesion so that it can be examined. The entire process should take no more than a couple of hours at most. Afterwards, we'll keep you in the hospital overnight just to make sure that you don't have any complications. If all goes well, you should be able to go home the following day."

"You mean I'm going to be awake?" Abigail was horrified.

"We'll give you a sedative to help you to relax beforehand," said Dr. Gordon.

"Can Jack stay with me?"

"Not during the actual procedure, but you'll be able to see him right afterwards."

"What are we going to tell the children?" Abigail asked on their way to Beryl's to pick Jackson and Julie up.

"We'll just tell them that you have to stay in the hospital for a couple of days, but that you're going to be just fine, and that you'll be home again really soon."

After dinner, Jack and Abigail sat on the sofa with Jackson and Julie.

"Listen, kids," Jack began. "Your Mommy has to stay in the hospital for a couple of days, but everything's going to be just fine, and she'll come right back home to us."

"Why? Is she sick?" asked Jackson.

"No," his father told him. "Remember the time she fell asleep for a little while and you couldn't wake her back up? Well, since that happened, they just have to make sure that her brain is all right."

"Oh," said Jackson. He didn't mention the subject for the rest of the night, but later, after Jack and Abigail had gone to bed, Abigail was awakened by a tiny hand tugging at her pajamas.

"I want to sleep with you tonight, Mommy," said Jackson.

"All right, sweetheart," Abigail said. She picked the little boy up and settled him in bed between herself and Jack, and he was asleep within minutes.