He closed his eyes and blinked. Angie…what she must think! He realized that by staying with Taia this night, he had probably only wedged her hurt and suspicions even deeper. He was torn. He loved Angie with all his soul but he felt a sense of duty and honor to Taia. She could be trying to keep him away from his son, on purpose- to not draw him into her fight with her father’s world. She was that brave. She had left him four years ago to evade her father and his connections; she chose that over staying with him. He also remembered now, with much more clarity how Angie had been those long days after Taia had left. She had never mentioned her, had kept him busy when he wished to do nothing more than follow Taia and what?
 
 

Rollie stood up slowly, not wanting to disturb the two in the bed. He walked out slowly, surveying the still sleeping house. His father snored heartily on the couch as he smiled. Maybe he should tie him up now to that couch so the man couldn’t leave while he took a shower. He realized that Vanduran and Lucinda would be want a better, clearer explanation of what was going on and he agreed. He wanted that as well. He crept closer to his own bedroom and opened the door, cringing slightly as the door creaked. He didn’t want to wake Angie. But she was not there…
 
 

"Angie?" he whispered and walked toward the bathroom door. It was empty as well. A slight panic ensued as he quickly looked toward the closet. Her things were still there, no- she hadn’t left. Still, could he blame her? He needed to find her and talk with her. He walked out of the bedroom, looking for her in the kitchen, the back porch….and as he took in the dawn, with the sun casting a almost mauve hue over the east and starting to project westwardly; the shadow of morning, he saw a lone figure standing on the bridge over the canal not far from the bungalow. He knew that lowered head, layered with hair of tarnished gold anywhere.
 
 

Splashing cold water over his face and realizing that he was even shaggier today, his hair almost untamable and chin and cheeks now covered with a thickened, detectable beard growing; he left the bungalow and walked toward the bridge. He could see she was deep in thought and he knew she was angry and confused. What she had said in the parking lot at the Anaheim precinct the night before had stung him but he realized that her insecurities were grounded in her own distrust of the one thing she kept such close reins on, her own heart. She had loved him forever and he had paraded his loves before her, his wanderings for happiness not wanton but still, a quest of his own denial with love right in front of him. That split second between girl and woman, after Loubar when she had finally told him her feelings and her hurt had been his awakening.
 
 

He walked up behind her, her thoughts oblivious to the outside world as his touch made her jump;
 
 

"Rollie?!" she exclaimed, her voice somewhat gravelly as she felt his arms wrap around her from behind, her hands coming over his as he held onto her. His hands were twice the size of hers as she felt the difference between their size now, not only in hands but as he towered over her. He was rocking slightly from side to side as she felt his chin rest on her shoulder, felt the stubble of his beard against her cheek and felt the heat of his presence against her.
 
 

"I’m a dolt."
 
 

"Yes, you are…"
 
 

"But, what you said last night…"
 
 

"Forgive me, Rollie…that was ugly and mean. You were fine, it was me…"
 
 

"I know that you had it rough, Angie…I only wish that you had told me long ago how you felt…"
 
 

"It probably wouldn’t have ever been a good time, Rol. I just never wanted to bring her up, you know, like it was a taboo subject. I couldn’t compete with her, still don’t think I can…"
 
 

"You’re wrong, Angie. I got over that pain four years ago…"
 
 

"But I didn’t know that, and well, I knew you had loved her so much…"
 
 

Rollie spun her around then, holding her face then in his hands. Angie’s face, his wife’s face, his child’s mother was what he dove into with the flood of love and experiences that spanned what seemed eternity. Had there ever been a time he hadn’t loved her? No…
 
 

"I love you, Angie."
 
 

Her eyes, the breath of his soul, grew misty and the usually sharp, brilliant blue iris’s were replaced with a soft, almost ocean green and blue hue. That was the mixture, the genetic combination of his and her eyes that made their son’s eyes so wonderfully hazel, so deep. He realized that Bastion’s eyes were lighter, the eyes were not his at all…he knew that with assurrance now.
 
 

"I love you too, Rollie. I wish I could take back what I said, I know I hurt you. Taia needs our help. Bastion was in trouble last night and when I held him in my arms last night, I realized what a pitiful and scary thing it would be if Aidan had been separated like that from us."
 
 

"But he was, and not long ago…" Rollie said with new meaning to her as he leaned into her face and kissed her softly.
 
 

Was it his kiss that she wanted so badly? She felt the encroaching and sharp rub of his beard against her skin stinging but his warmth, his taste and being with him now was the acceptance as she widened her receipt.
 
 

"Whew! Whoa…that was some kiss," she said, coming up for air as she felt his heart pounding against her cheek as she rested it against his chest.
 
 

His hands went through her short,wavy hair, she felt him holding her tightly against him and she smiled. She would never feel the insecurity of his love for her again. Rollie’s loyalties, his faith and his bond were what made him the endearing man she loved. She also realized that others cared and loved him for those qualities as well but his troth to her was the one that was the fiber of her existence now.
 
 

"I am a good kisser, aren’t I?" he commented, waiting for her quick barb to his own ego teaser.
 
 

"The best…and much more," she responded, seriously, not as he had expected. He realized she was somewhere deeper and he trembled slightly now, knowing how desperately she had fallen from her comfortable bond with him last night.
 
 

"Angela, you are the one and the only woman, who has made me the man I always wanted to be, do you realize that?"
 
 

"Now, stop!" she said, slightly punching him in the chest and pulling away from him, "don’t start that stuff, you’re sounding like Jack Nicholson…"
 
 

He grinned and lifted her up in his arms as she chuckled softly, looking back toward the bungalow. She could see Luce on the back porch, waving and realized that the private moments were over.
 
 

"Hey, let’s go tie Dingo up and get the whole truth!" she told him, mischievously.
 
 

"Oh, I already thought of that…" he replied, winking, "He’s not running out on us this time…"
 
 

"What?"

"Just in case, I’ve put several traps out to keep him contained in that bungalow…he should be finding the first one, right about now."
 
 

"Rollie!"
 
 

"That’s my name, sweetie…"
 
 

Angie smiled as he pulled on her hand, leading her back as she started to run to keep up with his bounding stride.
 
 

The inflection in his tone, the quality of it when he called her ‘sweetie’ was only with her, she realized and she knew that it held a private connection between them. That endearment in his voice was made for only her ears to pick up and hold in her heart.

Dingo Tyler had been out-maneuvered. He knew who his assailant had been as he finished removing the last bit of duct tape from his ankles and wriggled free. His son didn’t trust him for a moment and he grinned as he had very quickly then, left without waking the household. As he got into his car and tried to start the engine, he had grin through his cursing. The boy had taken his distributor cap, cheeky one, that one! He would have to call a cab.
 
 

But as his hand put down the receiver, the cab coming in about ten minutes, he realized that Lucinda was up and stirring and it only got worse as the front door opened and Rollie stood there, with Angie to boot. The conversation was at hand and his stalemate was over.
 
 

"Nice binding, son…" Dingo said, grinning as he sat down on the sofa, relaxed and pretended that he hadn’t planned to go anywhere.
 
 

"The family that binds together, stays together…" Rollie replied, and quickly pulled the distributor cap from behind one of Lucinda’s corn plants near the front door.
 
 

"Now, that’s mean, Rollie. I would never leave you here without telling you the whole story…"
 
 

"Yeah, right- start talking because Taia and Bastion will probably be up soon and she doesn’t need the aggravation, does she?" Rollie added, sitting across from him as Angie smiled. Lucinda had appeared, her face covered in a masque of clay.
 
 

"Hi, who invited Al Jolson?" Dingo asked, staring at her as she looked around and then smirked at him;
 
 

"Funny, real funny…" she said, cracking the masque slightly around her mouth, unable to keep from smiling.
 
 

"Look, might as well tell you that we think Alex Martel tried to get us yesterday at Disneyland. He or his boys were there, dressed as a clown. The one that knifed Taia outside the ride only gave her a grazing wound."
 
 

"It looked pretty bad last night!" Rollie remarked, remembering the blood and her fainting.
 
 

"She’s a bit anemic, yeah…well- still, the blade was small. It was meant only to distract her, not kill her. Now mine…" and Dingo stood up and pulled his shirt up, pulling off the dressing, "mine was meant for business. My sawbones said it was a big knife, serrated with an upbite. But I just had this small wedge of…"
 
 

"Fat?" Rollie offered, eyebrows raising with a look of mirth in his eyes.
 
 

"Love handle!" Angie corrected as Dingo smiled and tweaked her cheek.
 
 

"Yeah, my love handle got the brunt of the blade work…"
 
 

"Still, it’s ugly!" Lucinda commented, slightly touching his skin near the wound.
 
 

"That’s not ugly, now this is ugly!" Dingo replied, unzipping his pants but Rollie had stopped him quickly as Lucinda made a disappointed face.
 
 

"Let’s just imagine, shall we?" he asked Dingo who grinned again and sat down, shrugging his shoulders.
 
 

Anyway, we think of course, that Martel was after the boy and lost his opportunity with the Disney crowd that formed around Bastion as he came off the ride. The boy does have a set of lungs on him, mind you…."
 
 

"Why?" Angie asked, confused.
 
 

"To hurt Taia, expose her, get her to come back to him…" Dingo replied, as Marvin Vanduran walked into the living room. It looked suspiciously like a group session to him as he did a slight double take when Lucinda turned around and greeted him.
 
 

"Uh, wow!" he muttered as she grabbed his hand.
 
 

"Get used to it, Captain. This is just the beginning…" Rollie warned as Angie gave him an elbow in the side.
 
 

"Have I missed much?" he then asked, sitting down with Lucinda and staring at everyone.
 
 

"Taia is in the witness protection program, Captain. Her father is Alex Martel, does that name ring a bell?" Rollie asked him, knowing that Vanduran had not known about the incident four years before.
 
 

"Martel, hmmm, something…I did come across some files- FBI on an international terrorist, assassin. Out of China?"
 
 

"His last known hailing," Dingo replied, shaking his head.
 
 

"We faked Taia’s death during a movie. Faked a burial and everything so that she could get out from under him. Worked well, I think until recently. Martel dug up the grave in New York."
 
 

Vanduran looked at Rollie strangely and then he looked to Dingo with curiosity.
 
 

"What do you have to do with all of this, Mr. Tyler?"
 
 

"I’m a friend of Taia’s. Met her here in California…helped her out now and then and the boy, well, he’s like a son to me as well…." Dingo began as Rollie’s head jerked up suddenly and he looked at his father with a sideways glance. Dingo’s hazel eyes chalked up the situation that his son was thinking and snorted loudly;
 
 

"Now, don’t go there, son. Taia and me, we are friends, that’s it. The boy is not mine!"
 
 

"If Taia’s cover is blown out here, shouldn’t you call the program and get her resettled?" Vanduran asked, ignoring the sparks starting to develop around the room. Everyone was more curious at this point in the paternity of Bastion.
 
 

"Can’t do that, Captain…someone on the program is working for Martel, obviously. We need to get the boy safely to New York, with Taia and I following a couple days later. We asked Rollie and Angie to get him there, and hopefully, once there, we can contact the guy Taia trusts to come through and get Martel off her back."
 
 

"I gather, police have not been contacted…." Vanduran commented, pulling on his collar slightly.
 
 

"No way…present company excluded, old boy…but mucking this up further is a specialty of theirs…when Bastion was picked up and printed at the Anaheim station, his picture and Rollie’s were blasted across every internet line in the California law enforcement area. Martel has probably already picked up on that…we have to get Bastion back to New York as soon as possible now."
 
 

"I still think there has to be someone that you could call…follow channels or something. I don’t think I can listen to this anymore," Marvin said, shaking his head, "Lucinda, excuse me and for the rest of you, just a small warning…you draw this kind of people to you like a moth to a flame. It always goes hinky on you and then, I get to come in and pick up the pieces."
 
 

"Nice try, Marv…but I think we are still taking option A, mate," Dingo responded, winking at him as Vanduran frowned. What could he hope for with two Tylers in the room.
 
 

As he waved his hand at them, he walked away, leaving Lucinda with the important news to give everyone in the room.
 
 

"I’ve said yes to Marvin…"
 
 

Angie smiled and jumped up, hugging her as she stood, clay masque cracking to pieces now.
 
 

Rollie got the next hug and a shoulder of clay as he kissed Luce for luck, getting the crusty brown shavings on his face as well.
 
 

"Congrats…dearie, the man is a Doberman but still, I think you two will mellow each other out!" Dingo told her next, as she hugged him enthusiastically.
 
 

"What did we miss?" asked the soft voice as they stopped and saw Taia standing with Bastion behind them from the bedroom doorway.
 
 

"Just that I am getting married…." Luce said, calmly then, as she saw how white and painfully weak Taia appeared.
 
 

"Congratulations…." Taia responded, her eyes fluttering slightly as she looked to Rollie; "Rollie, do you mind? I need to speak to you…"
 
 

Rollie looked quickly at Angie who told him softly; "Go…I’ll watch Bastion."
 
 

He left the group then, still wanting the big answers from his father but as Taia looked so serious, he was concerned and followed her back into the bedroom.
 
 

With Rollie gone and Angie talking again with Lucinda, already trying to make wedding plans, Dingo had the perfect opportunity to softly slip out of the living room. The taxi rolled up with perfect timing and as he left, he sighed to himself and knew that Rollie would never let him alone again until he explained everything. He had been avoiding the big show for sometime but he knew as he had told Elena that it was coming soon. But he had business to attend to and had to lay the plans in motion.

"Rollie…." Taia began, sitting down on the edge of the daybed and touched his hand.
 
 

Rollie grasped her small hand, smiling; "Quite a show last night…"
 
 

"Yes, I am sorry that I got you involved, but you were my only hope. Your father has been very kind to me, more than you will ever know."
 
 

"I can see that, guess that once you got rid of one Tyler man, you struck up with another…" he replied, winking.
 
 

"Rollie, it isn’t like that!"
 
 

"I know…joking, another ploy we both have in common when it gets a bit…"
 
 

"Uncomfortable?"
 
 

"Yeah…"
 
 

"Rollie, please- promise me you will take Bastion to New York. Here is the name and address of the person who will take care of him once you arrive…"
 
 

Rollie looked down at the piece of paper she had placed in his hand. It read simply ‘B. Geste, apt. 101, West 56^th.’
 
 

"I can trust this person…?" he asked, looking back up at her as her face finally showed some color.
 
 

"With your life, yes and Bastion’s…" she replied, her eyes darting to his mouth, a mouth that she had loved and still did. She slowly took her fingers and touched his lips softly, tracing the bottom lip as she closed her eyes and then put her hand back in her lap; "I never stopped loving you…"
 
 

Rollie’s mind went blank for a second, her touch so poignant and a flood of memory slipped in even though he tried to keep it far back in the hidden part of his mind where he kept other pain, other tragedy.
 
 

He lowered his head; what could he say to that?
 
 

"Taia…" was all that he could utter but she had leaned forward and without further hesitation, kissed him softly on the lips. He remembered those lips, her taste but it was different now. He responded only with the sorrow of a lost lover as if he was kissing a ghost and she knew then, she knew that she had become that to him.
 
 

"I’m sorry," she said as she pulled away from him, seeing the resolve, the love replaced by the resilience of friendship, of a bond between them that would never go away. It just would never rekindle to what she had held against hope in her heart.
 
 

"Taia…will you tell me?" he asked of her, straining that friendship now as she shook her head and drew back from him.
 
 

"What purpose would it serve? I have told you, Bastion is not your son…" she replied, a tear slithering down her face as she quickly wiped it away.
 
 

"Okay….alright, sorry- it’s just that he looks so much like my son, like Aidan," Rollie replied, a bit coaxing but she remained stoic at that point and stood up, slightly dizzy.
 
 

"You best get back to Angie and everyone," Taia told him as he stood over her, the ache on her part, the awkwardness on his.
 
 

"Yeah, right…" he said and he turned from her, putting the paper in his pocket. He opened the door and walked out. Angie was sitting on the floor with Bastion, looking at a magazine and pointing to pictures as the boy listened intently to her descriptions. She was a natural with children and they loved her.
 
 

"Rol…uh, bad news, I’m afraid…" she said, looking up at him and only imagining what Taia and he could have been talking about in the other room.
 
 

"Yeah, he’s gone, outta here, right?" Rollie responded, looking out the window.
 
 

"Yep."
 
 

"Angie, let’s go home."
 
 

"Way ahead of you, Rol…called the airport, got our tickets changed to this evening. Hey, this California... just isn’t us. We haven’t had a bit of luck since we got here," she told him, smiling.
 
 

"Maybe we’ve at least got some calls waiting," he added, thinking that their livelihoods depended on something soon.
 
 

"Yeah…" she said, almost in a cheer, upbeat and resumed her story telling with Bastion.

A cool breeze tweaked Angie’s nostrils as she sat on the banks of the Venice canal with Lucinda who had managed to twist production’s arm and get the day off. It would add a day to the end of the movie but she was feeling wonderfully resolved with going back to New York and being back with her best friends and Marvin.
 
 

"It is nice here," Angie remarked, smiling as Lucinda scoffed at her;
 
 

"Get real, you hate it!"
 
 

"Well, Venice is nice…"
 
 

"It’s a tourist trap and my house is listed on the Hollywood Famous and Dead tour, Angie…"
 
 

Angie laughed as Lucinda joined her but her face suddenly grew serious;
 
 

"You have the talk with Rollie about Taia?"
 
 

"Yeah, finally…"
 
 

"And?"
 
 

"And, nothing…it’s over, it was stupid that I just never told him how I felt, that’s all…"
 
 

"Maybe, and maybe not…"
 
 

"Look, never leave Vanduran out of what you feel, Luce, okay?"
 
 

"Hey, so serious!"

"Yeah, well…I’m giving you matronly advice."
 
 

"Oh, you old hag, married so long and giving me a lecture about relationships…"
 
 

"That’s right!"
 
 

"Damn straight!"
 
 

They both laughed and hugged each other. A rollerblader passed them, in nothing but a bikini and they both cracked up again.
 
 

"Imagine me like that in New York!" Angie remarked.
 
 

From the back porch of the bungalow, Rollie and Marvin Vanduran watched the two women on the knoll of the canal bank.
 
 

"Great, she’s telling her about me, probably in bed…!" remarked Vanduran, taking a gulp of his coffee and sitting down.
 
 

"No, more likely, they’re comparing stories about me being stupid," Rollie replied, shaking his head.
 
 

"We’re so insecure…" Vanduran feigned as Rollie laid back in the chaise lounge and smiled.

Angie was in the guest bedroom, starting to pack when there was a knock on the door. She knew that Rollie was out with Vanduran and Lucinda, down at the Marina. They were bringing back lunch for everyone.
 
 

"Come in…" she said, knowing it could only be Taia and she bit her lip, wondering what would come of this.
 
 

"Angie…I must talk to you about something…"
 
 

Angie regarded the small, lovely Oriental woman with trepidation. With all that had been said that morning between Rollie and she, it still came down to this.
 
 

"Sure," she croaked out, and put another sweater in the suitcase, keeping herself busy as Taia sat stood near her, almost nervously.
 
 

"I spoke to Rollie this morning and if he hasn’t told you, it was about getting Bastion to my friend in New York."
 
 

"Yeah, I know. Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of him, really!" Angie then had to look up, knowing that Taia would need that reassurance. She met Taia’s soft brown eyes and stopped packing. Taia’s eyes were bloodshot and watery.
 
 

"Look, I’m sorry- maybe it’s not been said out loud but really, I mean, I don’t have anything against you, Taia," Angie said, hoping that is what she wanted to hear.
 
 

"No…I know you think of me as a threat, but Angie, that is not the case and that isn’t why I have come to you…"
 
 

"Oh?" Angie was curious.
 
 

"I may not be able to say this to anyone else but I knew, that I could tell you…"
 
 

"What? Tell me what?"
 
 

"You, of all people, would understand me. Understand the way I feel, that Bastion’s father…"
 
 

Angie put her hand up in the air, she didn’t want to hear about Rollie being Bastion’s father.
 
 

"Don’t Taia…I don’t want to hear that Rollie…"
 
 

"NO! LISTEN to me! I thought you would understand me, seeing as he did the same thing to you…" Taia was pleading with her, having touched her arm as Angie looked at her face, felt her tremble and she was remembering Bastion’s little face as he looked up at her the night before, so trusting and then, today, while she read to him in the living room.
 
 

"The eyes…" Angie said, almost in a trance, "his eyes…they have always confused me. I know those eyes…I thought they were Rollie’s…"
 
 

"No, they are his father’s eyes and mine."
 
 

Angie couldn’t grasp what Taia was struggling to tell her, her voice sounding as if it was some distance away, not right there in front of her….
 
 

"He came to me, here in California…said he had to see me…I was so overwhelmed, so in need of him and his love. It was wonderful…he promised me so much and he was so real…"
 
 

REAL? No! Angie’s mind was collapsing as doors began to shut, a series of them, each getting louder and louder. Oh God, no!
 
 

"When he took off the mask…" and Angie could hear Taia’s muffled crying and the unison of their wounded spirits suddenly merged as Angie took Taia into her arms, the comfort of only one other that could have experience the man’s revenge. But Taia would be reminded everyday as the sweet eyes of her child looked up to her, needing her love.
 
 

"Loubar…he went to you first, knowing Rollie loved you, tried to destroy what Rollie and you had…"
 
 

"Rollie didn’t know, I didn’t tell anyone when I found out I had become pregnant. I left the confines of the protection program. Loubar had broken my cover. That’s when Dingo came and helped me…"
 
 

"Dingo? But why Dingo, he’s just an old con artist!"
 
 

Taia broke from Angie’s arms and looked at her, swallowing her tears as she realized that Angie didn’t know a thing about the man that was Rollie’s father.
 
 

"He’s much more than that, Angie…much more!"