Angie walked beside Rollie, worriedly. If Bastion had been covered in blood, then there was some real trouble that Dingo and Taia had gotten involved in today. Rollie’s whitened knuckles made it all the more real to her, and she wasn’t sure what she saw in her husband’s face. The possibility that Bastion was Rollie’s son was still there, in her mind. She didn’t know how he would react inside with the boy.
 
 

They were shown to a small conference room and then waited. Rollie winked at Angie as she followed his gaze to the mirror on the wall.
 
 

"I hate police stations," she grumbled, folding her arms across her chest.
 
 

He smiled back at her, knowing she had said that for effect and whoever was watching on the other side of the mirror. The door opened slowly and Bastion walked in, clutching a woman officer’s hand. He held the tattered picture of Rollie in his other hand.
 
 

"Papa," he said, looking at Rollie with no real enthusiasm but more as if the connection with the picture immediately made him comment.
 
 

"That still bothers me, Mr. Tyler, why does he keep on calling you papa?" Eisley asked, walking in with a frown etched across his forehead.
 
 

"I told you, I am a friend of the family, that’s all…" Rollie retorted but stooped down to Bastion, studying the splattered dried blood on his shirt.
 
 

"Hi Bastion, remember me?" Angie asked, stooping beside the boy and putting a hand through his unruly curls. His light hazel eyes looked at her distrustfully and he immediately went into Rollie’s arms. Rollie picked him up smiling as Angie rose and tried not to appear upset at Bastion’s snub. Looking at the two of them, she couldn’t help but be reminded of Rollie and Aidan.
 
 

"So, you are positively identifying this child then, as Bastion Wong. Is that correct?" Eisley asked, as Bastion put his hand over Rollie’s mouth and smiled.
 
 

"Whiskers!" the boy said, smiling as he rubbed his hand across Rollie’s cheek and giggled.
 
 

"Yeah, that’s them alright," Rollie replied, smiling at the boy. He realized he hadn’t shaved in over two days.
 
 

"Okay, charming…now that we have I.D., we’ll get social services here and let you know if Ms. Wong shows up to claim her kid. Anything else you might give us on Ms. Wong?"
 
 

"No, you have her address, where she works…" Rollie said, almost snapping as the woman officer took Bastion from his arms. Bastion didn’t actually protest for he liked the woman officer who had played with him all afternoon.
 
 

"Right, well, Mr. Tyler- sorry for pulling you out here for just this…but, hey, you could always check out Disneyland before you go back…" Eisley replied, his voice echoing the same regard that Rollie had shown him.
 
 

"Seems a bit dangerous there," Rollie told him, noting the blood on Bastion’s shirt.
 
 

"Curious, isn’t it?" Eisley asked, in an answer as Angie touched Rollie’s arm leading him out the door.
 
 

"If you don’t find her, I want notice. I would like to take custody of Bastion…" Rollie then blurted out as Angie held her breath and Eisley raised his eyebrows slightly.
 
 

"Umm, well- let’s cross that bridge if it comes, maybe let your wife get used to that notion…" Eisley replied, nodding at Angie, whose face could never have been used in a poker game for it betrayed her unsettled thoughts about Bastion.
 
 

Rollie glanced at her, his cheeks reddening slightly as she walked out the door ahead of him, her fists clenched tightly. Rollie knew that walk and he followed behind her, slowly. She stood at Eisley’s car waiting, staring into the dark interior, waiting for Eisley to come out and take them home. Rollie turned, noting that Eisley was not immediate in following and he put his hand delicately on her shoulder from behind.
 
 

"Ange, come on, he’s just a little boy!" Rollie said, in defense.
 
 

"He’s your son, Rollie. Can’t you see that?"
 
 

"No, Taia said he wasn’t and I believe her…"
 
 

"You would believe anything she said!"
 
 

"What’s that suppose to mean?"
 
 

"Why did you have to sleep with her? Why, hell, is all this happening to me?"
 
 

"Angela…it was four years ago and well, I was in love with her at the time," Rollie said, lowering his voice as he heard Eisley approach from behind them.
 
 

"Love was something you gave pretty freely, huh?" Angie retorted and instantly regretted it, seeing his face. That had hurt him, she could tell and she was about to say she was sorry when Eisley stepped up and opened his car door.
 
 

"Come on now, save the quarreling for the rest of the vacation," he told them as Angie got in first and Rollie sat as far from her on the other side of the back seat as possible.
 
 

How much had he heard? Angie wondered but the far worst situation was the look on Rollie’s face in the car. He would not look at her. She had been so careful, she told herself, balling her fists up and looking out the window. So many years of not betraying her jealousy and once married, trying to not let Taia come up in conversation. She knew he had loved her desperately, passionately and she couldn’t fight that….she had never loved anyone but Rollie like that. How could he love someone else if he had loved Taia like that?
 
 

"STOP!" Rollie shouted out as Eisley had started to pull out of the station.
 
 

"WHAT?" Eisley put his foot on the break in startled reaction.
 
 

"There! It’s Suzie!" Rollie replied, pointed out the window.
 
 

Angie immediately followed Rollie’s gaze and saw Dingo’s BMW with Taia getting out of the car. Dingo followed, slowly behind her.
 
 

"Now, this is the Twilight Zone for sure!" Eisley remarked, pulling up beside the BMW. Rollie jumped out before Eisley had truly stopped the car. Angie and Eisley walked up toward the couple slowly as Rollie caught them before entering the building.
 
 

"Where have you been? Do you know what your child has been through?" Rollie asked, grasping Taia’s arm. She winced slightly and he realized by her facial expression, that she was in pain.
 
 

Dingo saw the policeman and Angie closing in and he loudly exclaimed;
 
 

"Well, isn’t this a small world? Can you believe it? I became the first, Pirates of the Caribbean ‘man over board’ since inception? Got myself knocked right over by this idiot behind Bastion and me. The guy was a real lout! Found out later, he’d had a seizure, bit his tongue and was spraying blood all over the boat!"
 
 

"What?"
 
 

"Yeah, in the water…think I hit my head on something…but I got out of there. Couldn’t find Bastion anywhere…Suzie here, she was so distraught, blamed me, if you want to know the God’s honest truth but then we heard they’d taken a boy they’d found to the security office. Quite a mix-up and by the time they figured out that the boy had been taken by the police, well…it took forever to do all the paperwork at Disneyland- you know, that risk management stuff!"
 
 

Dingo’s eye’s twinkled as his yarn grew long enough to crochet an afghan and Taia remained quiet as she glanced at Angie. Angie quietly seethed. She knew something had happened and it probably had something to do with Taia being made by her father’s organization. That had been the reason for all the cloak and dagger to begin with and with her begging Rollie to take Bastion back to New York. She still hadn’t figured how Dingo fit into this all yet.
 
 

"Okay, okay…hey, you Bastion Wong’s mother?" Eisley asked, frowning. He was tired and his stomach was growling.
 
 

"Yes…is he alright?" Taia asked, her face showing her worry.
 
 

"Yeah…inside…I need some I.D. and stuff, see the desk sergeant inside…" Eisley began but Taia was already running inside, stiffly somewhat, but still running.
 
 

"Mystery solved…another Disneyland warm and fuzzy story. I imagine you have season passes until the year 2050?" Eisley asked Dingo, scratching his head.
 
 

"Offered and refused, sir. It was after all, an act of God…" Dingo replied, smiling and acting merciful as Rollie rolled his eyes away from Eisley.
 
 

"Think these people can give you a ride home, Tyler?" Eisley asked, wanting to get as far away from this crazy bunch as possible.
 
 

Dingo nodded and winked at Rollie; "No problem, Captain. I think we can drop them off on the way home."
 
 

"Good, I need a drink and some food!" the Captain replied in a grunt as he turned away from them and headed inside the station.
 
 

"I best go in and help Taia," Dingo then said, under his breath as his smile left his face and he groaned slightly.
 
 

"What?" Rollie’s face was as dark as his father’s was.
 
 

"We’ve both been wounded and stitched, boy. Let’s talk about it in the car, eh?"
 
 

Angie stood, shaking her head then. She would not take another step toward father and son. Instead, she walked back over to the BMW and leaned against the side of the car.
 
 

"I’ll go in and help her," Rollie told Dingo in bitter dismay, leaving Dingo alone in the parking lot. Dingo trudged slowly back toward the car, seeing Angie waiting and by the look in his daughter-in-law’s eyes, he was toast. But if he was toast, then his son was an ember as he watched her eyes leave his, and look to Rollie as he helped Taia and Bastion out of the station.
 
 

"Best get in the car, Angela. You can scream all the way back on the freeway, eh?" he told her as he got inside, gripping the wheel.
 
 

Angie walked around the car and got in the front seat with Dingo. She didn’t turn around as Taia got in with Bastion and Rollie. She didn’t know the extent of injury Dingo and Taia had suffered but the ride back was quiet, without incident. Bastion had quickly fallen asleep in his mother’s lap. Rollie looked at Taia frequently, gauging her silence to the uncomfortable situation that was brewing in the car and the back of Angie’s head, sitting stiffly in the seat in front of them.
 
 

At last, within a mile of Lucinda’s house, Dingo finally spoke;
 
 

"Son, mind if I ask your friend, Lucinda, if we can hold up for the night there as well. I don’t mind sleeping on the couch and well, it would be the safest since we’ve been made…."
 
 

"Um, best ask Luce that, and how do you know you weren’t followed to the precinct?"
 
 

"I know…look…I know you want explanations…I know you want to just tie me up somewhere and bash the truth from me, boy," Dingo began but Rollie interrupted him.
 
 

"Ohhh, you don’t know the half of it! But don’t get me started! You’re not getting out of my sight again until I do hear it!"
 
 

"Yeah, well…as I was saying, all will be told son, just need some rest first," Dingo replied, making a pained expression as Rollie turned and realized that Taia had not fallen asleep but had passed out. He saw blood started to saturate her jacket.
 
 

"She’s bleeding like a sieve!" Rollie yelled out, waking Dingo from his painful stupor.
 
 

Angie turned at this and looked back, seeing Rollie pull up her jacket and noting the darkening stain on the side of her shirt and jacket.
 
 

"We’re here! Angie, take the boy inside, Rollie, think you can manage Taia?" Dingo announced, barking out orders suddenly with all kidding and conning aside.
 
 

Angie didn’t protest, she took Bastion’s hand after Rollie jumped out and together they walked up on the porch and inside the house. Rollie came around and opened the passenger seat door on Taia’s side, pulling her out gently and scooping her up effortlessly into his arms. Dingo followed, grabbing a bag from the trunk of the car.
 
 

Marvin Vanduran was enjoying a peaceful night with Lucinda beside him. Finally, he was having the first calm night since Rollie and Angie had come into town. They had made love, dined and were sitting on her back porch, watching the canal and the lights when the commotion inside disrupted his comfortable milieu.
 
 

"Oh my God!" shouted Lucinda, jumping up as she saw Rollie with a woman in his arms and Angie, with a small boy.
 
 

"What the hell is going on, Tyler?" Vanduran barked as he recognized Dingo Tyler behind his son.
 
 

"Bit of a mess, I’m afraid, Captain Vanduran," Dingo remarked, his wound smarting as Angie looked up at Lucinda with widened, distraught eyes.
 
 

"Luce, can we use the spare room?"
 
 

"Uh, yeah…sure…what’s wrong with her, oh MY GOD, it’s Taia!" Lucinda said, her voice rising as she opened up her spare room. It was cluttered with junk and the small day bed in the room had boxes and clothes lying on it.
 
 

Angie pulled the boxes off the bed as Lucinda scurried to pull the clothes off and pull down the coverlet. Dingo held Bastion, outside the bedroom, and together, they walked out to the back porch. He saw Vanduran’s curiosity invading the room and he quickly yelled out for the Captain;
 
 

"Hey, Captain, can you help me out here?" he asked, exhausted.
 
 

Marvin Vanduran knew something was up, he knew that Rollie’s father was diverting his attention but he came, seeing the frightened child standing with Dingo on the porch.
 
 

"Bastion, this is Marvin….he’s going to tell you a story, lad. He’s very good at it too," Dingo promised the boy as Marvin opened his mouth in amazement. Dingo vanished, leaving him out there with a four year old boy, with a blood stained shirt on, clutching a picture of Rollie Tyler.

"Roll her over on her side, pull the bandage off, let’s see what’s wrong here," Dingo ordered, as Rollie and Angie worked together with Taia, pulling her shirt up as Lucinda ran for towels and water. She brought back her first aid kit as well, and was not really surprised anymore. This reminded her of New York and all the things she had left behind with Tyler F/X.
 
 

"I see it, a bleeder there, Lucinda….have a curling iron, my dear?" Dingo asked, holding the bleeding wound with pressue from the towel that Luce had brought in just then.
 
 

"A what? Yeah, sure, WHY?" Lucinda asked but then, seeing Dingo’s expression, ran out of the room and brought back one, handing it to Dingo like a scrub nurse to a surgeon.
 
 

"Well, plug it in!" he said, impatiently as she fumbled slightly and plugged it in, holding her breath in puzzlement.
 
 

"What are you going to do?" Angie asked, blinking slightly as Rollie looked at her for the first time since their fight at Eisley’s car.
 
 

"He’s going to cauterize her wound, touch the bleeder with the iron," Rollie told her as she looked at both men, a little horrified. But then, she sighed, realizing that the Tylers were masters of ingenuity. She did wonder where they had used this trick before…it couldn’t have been in the bush, they didn’t carry curling irons in their knapsacks!
 
 

Once the iron was hot, Dingo readied himself. Rollie held on to Taia’s shoulders as Dingo told Angie to hold on to Taia’s ankles. Lucinda would quickly douse the wound once cauterized with the bottled water she had brought into the room.
 
 

Taia was stirring and Rollie was talking to her softly, touching her head tenderly as Angie watched, gritting her teeth. His stroke was familiar, as he had often done to her. She wondered why her jealousy was rearing its ugly head now, in the midst of this?
 
 

"Rollie! What’s happening? Bastion? Oh Rollie!" Taia moaned, as he prepared her, his face coming down as he hushed her with his lips close to her ear;
 
 

"It’s okay, sweetie, lie still…" he told her
 
 

Dingo removed the towel and the pressure as the bleeder began to spurt out, Lucinda ducking the blood as she then quickly moved in to Taia’s hips as Dingo took the iron and pressed it against the wound, holding it for several seconds. Taia’s screams were muffled with Rollie’s quick action with the sheets of the bed, letting Taia clench the linen in her teeth as the burn seared the bleeder. Motioning for the water as he removed the curling iron, he quickly doused the scorched flesh with it, soothing the burn. The smell of Taia’s burning flesh filled all their nostrils as Angie grew slightly nauseated, along with Dingo. He had never gotten over this smell….he knew it well.
 
 

"She’s passed out again," Rollie commented, stroking Taia’s forehead softly.
 
 

"Good, the bleeding has stopped. Would have thought my wound would have been the sucker to go again….no telling," Dingo replied, rubbing his back where his wound now burned with raw shooters traveling up his back.
 
 

"We’ll redress it now, good girl, Lucinda…lovely aid kit, you have here, love…" Dingo added, smiling at her as she hugged him, missing him from New York for some time.
 
 

Angie stood up, she surveyed the teamwork and decided it was time that she left. She walked out of the room, unnoticed as she made her way out to where Vanduran sat with Bastion on the porch.
 
 

"What the hell is going on in there?" he asked her as she sat down beside him and saw Lucinda’s untouched drink on the table.
 
 

"You mind?" she asked, picking it up and swirling it around in the glass.
 
 

"Help yourself, looks like you need it…" he answered, reading her face with his policeman’s eyes.
 
 

Angie downed it in one swallow, wiping her lips slightly as the slow burn of the whiskey went down her throat.
 
 

She closed her eyes and Bastion crawled up in her lap, surprising her and making her stiffen, slightly. But his face, that hair and those eyes…she hugged him and rocked him slightly as Vanduran sighed.
 
 

"Will someone explain this all to me in the morning?"
 
 

"Yeah, sure…when someone explains it to me first," she replied as he poured himself another drink and poured her one as well.

Angie put Bastion to sleep beside his mother, his limp, little body instantly curling up beside hers. She touched his head slightly, smiling. Her smile stopped as she looked to Rollie who sat asleep at the head of the day bed, his hand resting on Taia’s arm that had draped across his thigh.
 
 

She stepped out of the room then, shutting the door behind her, without looking back. She tiptoed slowly through the living room, seeing that Dingo had taken the couch and was snoring slightly in his sleep. Lucinda had gone to bed, taking a somewhat disgruntled Vanduran with her. The bungalow was quiet…everyone safe and secure ….everyone but her.
 
 

Angie undressed slowly, getting into the waterbed and closing her eyes tightly as her head hit the pillow. Her fears, her jealousy, her love were all twisted inside her and she wiped the tears that were filling her eyes with her forearm as she laid it over her face.
 
 

This is stupid, she told herself…Rollie is just helping her, just feeling sorry for her…just…stupid….he had called her ‘sweetie’…damn it…go to sleep Angie…