Rollie looked around the room after he called out her name. Dingo stood between his son and Taia. The small, fragile woman had suddenly sat down on the sofa as Guillarmo realized that Angie had left the room as well.
 
 

Dingo sighed; "She left, son…think she got upset when you told Taia how much it mattered to you, about if Bastion had been yours…"
 
 

Taia put her hand on her forehead as she realized that once again, she had done nothing but stir up bad feelings.
 
 

Rollie looked dumbstruck. All the explanations in the world, neatly tied together in a bundle laid open in minutes before them. His father, Angie’s father, her mother, Guillarmo, all tied together and now- now Taia and his father and Martel and the jewel. That damn piece of rock!
 
 

"I’m going after her!" he suddenly announced, as both Guillarmo and Dingo rushed to stop him.
 
 

"Rollie, wait! I need your help about Bastion!" Dingo called out.
 
 

"Let Angie have some space!" Guillarmo added, behind Dingo.
 
 

"You should go to her," Taia said, softly, finally looking up at Rollie, seeing the hurt in his eyes, seeing how upset he was about Loubar. How could she ever look the same to him ever again? She rubbed her eyes, tears starting to form as she thought about her son with her father.
 
 

"I can’t believe I didn’t see her leave! I've got to get out of here!" Rollie said, storming out.
 
 

"This is a mess," Dingo warned, putting his hand on Taia’s shoulder.
 
 

"If you had just surrendered the stone, Dingo- none of this would be happening now!" Guillarmo said, his voice in a hiss.
 
 

"I did surrender the stone, to Michael, you just don’t believe me!" Dingo retorted, with anger.
 
 

The incestuous group looked at each other accusingly but said little else for the moment.

"Oh Aidan!" Angie cried out, sweeping her little boy up into her arms and swinging him around as he giggled.
 
 

Sarah smiled warmly as she watched Angie kiss her son all over his little neck and face.
 
 

"He missed you!" she told Angie as Aidan made a sudden pucker and gave Angie a gooey cookie-caked kiss back. Angie smiled, inhaling his sweet little breath as she held him tightly against her.
 
 

"Mama…" he began, squirming and getting fussy as Angie realized she had hugged him too tightly.
 
 

"Oh sweetie, sorry, I missed you so!" she told him, thinking he had grown two inches and gained weight as well. It had only been a week! She touched his soft curls on his head and put him on her hip, slightly bouncing him as he giggled.
 
 

Those eyes of his suddenly sparkled and she came back to earth, for Rollie’s eyes were looking at her now and she sobered slightly.
 
 

"Sarah, you have his things ready? I need to hurry and get back to the loft, I have another plane to catch in a little bit…some things I need to get done…" Angie said, as Sarah was caught by surprise.
 
 

"You going out again and taking Aidan?" Sarah asked, her face showing her confusion.
 
 

"Yep, my mother’s ill. Sudden thing, you know…don’t worry! We’ll be fine, won’t we Aidan?" Angie replied, and then smiled at Aidan who was busy pulling on Angie’s necklace.
 
 

"Okay….come on, let me get his things. They’re right inside…" Sarah replied, still a little taken back.

Rollie’s cab ride to Sarah and Francis’s was delayed by rush hour traffic and then, construction. It had been an hour since he had left the safehouse insurance office and all the truths that had suddenly been laid open before him. He now thought of nothing but Angie. Had he been so insensitive? Yes…he told himself. Why had he gotten so caught up in this mess again? Angie, he knew, wanted nothing more to do with it. What had she said to him, under the pier in California? ‘Your name is Rollie Tyler and you have this incredible son who just told me on the phone that he missed his daddy a whole lot!’ Her words resounded in his mind, the memory of her face in the twilight when she had found him there, reeling in his shock about his own father. Their vacation to California was to get away from all of this craziness. California had started out wildly enough, insanely, Rollie thought further as he told himself, you have got to slow down, get yourself together and protect your family from everything else!
 
 

With a screech of tires, the cab arrived. He paid the driver a hefty tip anyway, as he jumped out, rushing up the steps to knock on the door.
 
 

The door opened and Sarah looked at him, surprised;
 
 

"Rollie! You two get your signals crossed or something?"
 
 

"What?"
 
 

"Angie’s already picked up Aidan…I think you were suppose to meet her at the airport, not here?"
 
 

"Sarah," Rollie touched Sarah’s shoulder firmly as Sarah frowned, confused now by the look of desperation in Rollie’s eyes, "What airport, where did Angie say she was going?"
 
 

"What? But…uh- she said that her mother was ill, that she was going to see her. Is everything alright, Rollie?"
 
 

"Yeah, sure…got to go, sorry!" Rollie answered, and turned back to see the cab pulling out of the driveway. He whistled so loudly that Sarah jumped. The cabdriver put his brakes on, seeing the man rushing toward him. He smiled, shrugging his shoulders. This guy was a man on a mission!
 

Angie had packed a fresh bag at the loft, retrieved fresh clothes for Aidan and was stuffing clothes in her suitcase as Bluey playfully barked at Aidan in the floor of bedroom. She already knew she wasn’t thinking straight, that she was angry, confused and wanted to just be someplace where she could think. She was not really angry with Rollie, just how he always had to help, and then, it always went down hill after that. She knew she was coldhearted, to not worry further about Bastion right now. She hated that! But she had her son to worry about. She wanted her son to grow up away from all of this mess! Her stomach grumbled slightly as she touched her abdomen and smiled at Aidan trying to touch Bluey as he would back up and bark and then move up to trick Aidan again.
 
 

"Gotta hurry! Bluey; speaker phone!" Angie commanded as Bluey suddenly left Aidan and complied; "LaGuardia…umm, Air France, yeah- get me Air France!"
 
 

Within a few minutes, she had booked a flight for Aidan and herself to Paris. From there, she would transfer and fly into Madrid. She had now decided where and what she would do. She was going to Toledo to see her mother. Even with her mother’s condition as it was, she wanted something, some sort of evidence that everything that Guillarmo had told her was true. There was so much more to her mother…so much that she wanted to know and tell her. Would she understand any of it? Probably not, but she wanted to see her again, to just go to her and hold her.

Rollie made it to the loft and looked around. Empty….and he sighed, looking down at Bluey who was wagging his tail and almost hopping about, as Rollie commanded him in an anxious voice;
 
 

"Bluey, redial- last call placed from here, now!"
 
 

The speaker phone came alive and the woman on the other end of the line politely said; "AirFrance…"

Paris…beautiful, the city of lights aglow as Angie watched from her window on the plane. Everything had proceeded smoothly. She had made the flight just in time…and now, in less than another hour, she would transfer to an Iberian flight and be in Madrid before daybreak. She yawned, suddenly thinking of Rollie again as she looked down at Aidan who was sleeping soundly. He would be so incredibly angry with her! She would call him…she would! Would he be at the loft? Or would he still be helping Taia and Dingo get Bastion back?
 
 

I guess I have really done it now, she thought, as she took a brush to her unruly hair and got ready for landing. I took our son and just left…without telling him! She shook her head. I’m not mad at Rollie, I’m not! I’m mad at them…no, I am mad at him too! But why? Oh God! What have I done?

Rollie Tyler was down to the last bit of money he had now, as he grabbed the new credit card he hadn’t even activated. The card had arrived and he had just simply put it in his wallet. They were strapped enough at the moment, he had thought at the time and they didn’t need to get further in debt. Now, without hesitation, he called in and activated it.
 
 

Arriving back at the ticket counter, he gave the woman the new card, and she swiped it through.
 
 

"Yes sir, you now have a ticket," she told him with a smile as he blushed slightly. She had already swiped four other cards for him with a denial on all of them. Angie must have used the remaining amounts on the other cards to get her tickets.
 
 

"How soon will I be in Madrid?" he asked, impatiently then as he heard the groans from people who had been waiting behind him.
 
 

"Sir, on the SST, you will be there in 4 hours…."
 
 

"Bloody great!" he replied, turning around, taking his ticket and heading for his gate. With any luck, he’d be waiting for Angie at the airport in Madrid.

"Have you been able to reach them?" asked Dingo as Guillarmo got off the phone.
 
 

"No, nothing…"
 
 

"A fine mess…"
 
 

"Yes and we have no one to blame except ourselves…."
 
 

"Well, we can always make some sort of arrangements to change all of that," commented the voice of the man who had entered the safehouse.
 
 

Taia stood up, gasped and came toward the man, her fists flailing against his chest.
 
 

"Temper, my dear! Don’t worry, your little bastard is fine…it’s time to do some business and ah, Montgreviejo, lose the gun. After all, we’re all friends here, right?"
 
 

Alex Martel stood before them, a smile on his face, as he grabbed his daughter’s hands together and firmly pushed her toward the sofa as she winced in pain.
 
 

"Oh, and don’t get any ideas, Guillarmo… I believe you have had a taste of the E/M phaser before, am I right?" he added, reaching into his pocket and showing them all that the pulsator weapon he waved before them was ready for firing.

Angie put her jacket on, the cabin chilly as she snuggled next to Aidan. Only a short time before, she had held another child in her arms, his trust in her and his heart. She put a hand to her trembling mouth to stifle the small cry that escaped her lips. This had been stupid! What had she done? She had acted on pure emotions and immature ones at that! But maybe, just maybe it was the hormonally imbalance that was causing all of this. She looked down at her abdomen and touched it softly;
 
 

"Great, just great…I don’t believe this!" she muttered as she wiped the tear that had run down her cheek.
 
 

Within the hour, they were landing and she looked out the window, the dawn breaking and she touched the window. It had been what? Three years at least, since she had been here. It had been here, in Spain, that Rollie and she had finally culminated their love for each other. It was here, where Loubar had met his death. It was here that she had finally been reunited with her mother. Now, the details had been filled in with even more horrible truths that she couldn’t quite grasp yet. She wondered if she had chosen Spain and going to see her mother as a way out or as a way in…?
 
 

Aidan was cranky as she gathered him in her arms and they walked out, onto the enclosed ramp that led inside to the main terminal.
 
 

"Come on sweetie, let’s go get something to eat, huh?" she told Aidan, as she switched him to her other hip. She walked toward the main terminal section, leaving the gate area. Her mind was oblivious to everything around her as she held onto Aidan, feeling his little heart beating against her as she kissed the soft flesh of the nape of his neck.
 
 

"Mind if I have some of that?"
 
 

She jerked her head, looking up, startled. The voice was Rollie’s!