For one brief moment, Rollie Tyler wished that Angie or Callie was there. A friendly face who knew what was going on would be nice. The ones who already knew about him, or rather about Daniel having a twin, were watching with breathless anticipation. The others were watching them with a stunned look in their eyes. Oh well. He took a deep breath. "First I would like to thank all of you for coming." He felt a faint tremor run through his twin. The Aussie frowned slightly. He caught sight of the large Russian. "Boris, would you get Daniel some soup?" Soup should be okay, he thought, and it would be quick. The pot would already be simmering and ready. All Boris would have to do would be scoop it into a bowl. Everybody could wait that long and he really thought Daniel should eat something. He was right, it didn't take long for the big Russian to shove his way through the standing crowd and return with a bowl. Boris gently placed bowl, spoon and a glass of milk on the bar next to them. There he remained as if to stand guard over Daniel. Good, Rollie thought to himself. "Come on, Daniel, you eat that. You'll like it. Boris makes excellent soup." He encouraged his twin to sit on a bar stool and have a taste. That was all it took. One taste and Daniel Cooper was eating like a starving man. That taken care of, Rollie returned his attention to the other islanders. "I know you're confused and want to know what is going on. Well, it's a very long story, but I will try to make it quick. So you'll pardon me if I skim over a few of the details. Those can wait." Everyone seemed to be holding their breath, the tension in the room seemed to have multiplied a thousandfold. This was a lot harder than giving a sermon!

Rollie closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He reached out, feeling for the thrum of his songline. He reached up, looking for the power of his Lord to sustain him. Feeling calmer, he opened his eyes and looked out at the people watching them. These were friends. This was Hope Island. He could do this. "My name is Rollie Tyler. For these past months, you have known me as Daniel Cooper."

The room seemed to explode around them. He felt Daniel cringe and ignored the questions that it would be nearly impossible to sort anyway. He rubbed Daniel's back gently, waiting for the noise to subside. When it showed no signs of doing so, he sighed and turned until he caught the eye of the town's mayor. "Brian, would you mind?" He gestured somewhat helplessly at the confusion with his free hand.

Still feeling stunned himself, Brian Brewster straightened up and cleared his throat. "AY UP!" His voice boomed over the hubbud, cutting through it clearly. Silence followed and he nodded slightly to the man who had started it all.

"Thank you, Brian." Brown eyes surveyed the room with a gentle smile. "I know you all have a lot of questions, I think I will have answered most of them if you'll give me a chance to finish." He took another deep breath, ignoring the fact that he would give them new questions for the moment, and patted the shoulder his hand was now resting on. "On January 30th, 1998, Rollie Tyler died, or at least, so it appeared to the rest of the world, from injuries he sustained on January 16th when his home was destroyed in an explosion set by an international terrorist-arms dealer named Victor Loubar. Rollie--I was a special effects artist. I... used to help the police and other authorities occasionally with my, um, skills. I," He took a deep breath. He always hated talking about himself like this! "I apparently stopped Loubar one time too many and he had decided to kill me. Instead of dying, I was placed into the Federal Witness Protection Program."

Kevin Mitchum was nodding at those words. He understood all about that. He had helped protect a witness once on the mainland who had been transferred into the program because of his testimony. Of course, that didn't really explain this!

"Or what I thought was the Protection Program. I was badly injured in the explosion. I was, well, to be honest, I was ready to give up. My life was gone. I thought that others had also been killed or suffered irrevocable harm because of my ... insistence om helping the authorities. Then Daniel came." He smiled warmly down at his twin. Remembering those days, Daniel smiled sadly up at the Australian. If only they had known or just guessed at the truth. "He was a breath of fresh air. A brightness in the darkest of days, a warmth that I sorely needed." The islanders were nodding now, forgetting for a moment that the man they had known was Rollie Tyler.

"When They proposed that I assume Daniel's identity I was stunned. Daniel was a ministorial student. I was not. Daniel had friends and family. I--I thought that my family and friends were gone or better off without me. Eventually, I was convinced. Mostly by the fact that Daniel needed a way to slip from his father's dictates if he was to find a life with the woman he loved." Rollie and Daniel closed their eyes as they both remembered Kate's fate, their hearts aching. "I learned how to be Daniel. I studied his life and I studied to become a minister. We were ordained on the same day. The time neared for us to make the, um, exchange. Sadly, Kate--Kate died before they could have that happiness. Daniel..." Rollie paused, looking uncertainly at his twin. The American nodded slightly. "In his grief, he had a fight with his father and fled, eventually ending up in Las Vegas. He got drunk and married Stella. When he woke up and found himself sharing his bed with a stranger, Daniel remembered the plans that had been laid. He called the men who were 'protecting' me. They came and somehow got Stella out of the room. I took Daniel's place and they took him away to... somewhere, somewhere that no one would be able to find him or discover the truth." Rollie looked around the room. So far the story, while hard, was believable. He was about to take a right hand turn into the Twilight Zone. He just hoped the islanders could believe him-them. "Somehow, They--the--the men who were suppose to be protecting me, helping Daniel, made me... They made me believe I was Daniel Cooper. They gave me his memories, burying my own. They made me think and act totally as if I was Daniel Cooper. Rollie Tyler was well and truly dead." He felt an arm around his waist and smiled sadly. He leaned over and hugged Daniel tightly, rubbing his back.

"We're not entirely sure why They did this. We have a few guesses which I will explain in a bit." He looked around the silent room. Every person was hanging on his every word, their eyes fully focused on him. No one else saw the four people who slipped inside. Angie nodded ever so slightly to Rollie. He looked over at Boris and caught a flicker of sick fear lurking in the back of the large Russian's eyes. Boris knew what Rollie was talking about. He understood. It was a fear that the man had lived with for most of his life. "And so Daniel Cooper came to Hope Island, seeking a new life, a place in the world that was his, out of the shadow of his father. Except it wasn't really Daniel. It was me. However, by that time, I was completely him. I thought like him. I acted like him. I was, to every degree, Daniel Cooper." He looked around and caught Alex's shocked blue eyes. "Remember that, while I was the man who lived here, the man you really know is Daniel." Alex followed his gaze to the man who was Daniel Cooper. Rollie squeezed his twin's shoulder gently. The minister looked up. He followed his twin's glance to a beautiful redhead. Brown eyes met blue and something electric seemed to pass between the man and woman. The only other person to feel it smiled ever so slightly.

"We suspect that was the way things were to remain. However, something unexpected happened. The night of the storm, when I, um, took my tumble down the embankment... Something was jarred lose. I started to remember things as I slept, things which slipped away with the light of day. Then... Then Callie invited a friend to visit Hope Island for Christmas and the memories crashed all the way through to the surface, washing away the controls that were placed in my mind. I remembered. I remembered who I was and what was done. I remembered everything that happened before and after." He chuckled ever so slightly. "Let me tell you. It's very confusing to think of yourself as two people. But that is what I did. I remembered Rollie Tyler and I remembered Daniel Cooper. ... Because Callie's friend, Christie Culhain, was my partner, Angie Ramirez."

Angie came forward to join him at the bar. She hugged him. Rollie hesitated only a second, before bending down to claim her mouth with his. There, in front of most of the island, Rollie Tyler openly proclaimed his love for Angie Ramirez by kissing her deeply. Feeling breathless, they pulled apart. The lithe blonde wrapped an arm around his waist and smiled at him warmly. It was so wonderful just knowing Rollie was alive! She wanted to shout their love out to the world. She wanted to dance on the rooftop. Angie glanced at Daniel and sobered. Rollie was going to be very unhappy with what she found on the jazz disk that Dingo and Mangela had stolen. Her smile turned to a predatory grin. In fact, he was going to be mad -- very, very mad! They were in for a lot of Trouble and had earned every single ounce of it.

"Last night, the men who did all this brought Daniel to Hope Island. Our suspicions are that they were going to switch us. We think they're using Victor Loubar in some scheme and that I may be their means for getting him back in line if he gets out of their control." Rollie paused and the silence stretched across the room as the islanders absorbed his news.

"Why didn't they complete the switch? Why did they leave both of you here?" Nub blurted out before he could stop himself. His open face was full of worry and concern.

"Well, they weren't the only visitors we received last night." Rollie pointed to the two men standing with Callie. "Last night, Dingo Tyler and Mangela interfered with Their plans, saving Daniel and myself from Their hands."

The islanders began to buzz with the information they had just heard. An undercurrent of anger was building in the room. Rollie felt it and, as Daniel stirred restlessly, he knew his twin felt it too. Hugging both Daniel and Angie, he waited for the questions that were sure to come.