"Where the hell you been?" she said, seething as Karen Mantooth, prosecuting attorney sighed deeply, seeing the two of them in the hall and waved them into the witness room.

Francis said nothing until Karen left them there, going in to start the proceedings. He was looking down at his shoes as Mira then took in his dark circles under his eyes and his red-rimmed eyes.

"You haven’t slept all night, have you?" she asked, calming down a bit.

"I was at the hospital all night with Sarah and the girls…Callie got sick. A high fever…we just got back. I’m sorry but there was nothing I could do, you know!" he replied, barking back at her.

"Okay…okay! Just give me a call, okay? Keeps me from wearing out the floor out there, you know?"

"Yeah, forgot the phone stuff, sorry."

"So, Callie, she okay?"

"Yeah, sure- the fever got down. She’s at home now with Sarah. Yeah, everything is going to be okay there."

Mira looked at Francis. He was lying, she knew it but right now, this case was more important than finding out what was making her partner tick.

Rollie was covered with banana baby food. Aidan had not only covered himself with it, but had taken Rollie for a dip as well. Not only was he spitting the food out, he had a real knack for projectile target practice on Rollie’s face, arms and chest.

"Angie, I could really take a spell here from this breakfast bonding with Aidan!" he yelled up the stairs at her.

"Be there in a minute…okay?" came her voice.

"She’s taking her sweet time, eh?" Rollie told Aidan, who blew banana bubbles at him and squealed so loud, it nearly burst Rollie’s eardrums.

"Man, what a set of lungs you’ve got there, mate! Take after your mum, you do!" Rollie told him, putting a finger in his ear and twisting it slightly.

"What’s that about taking after me?" Angie asked, rushing by them, grabbing the orange juice from the refrigerator and pouring a glass.

"Nothing….wow- I thought you were going to just go over to Sarah’s for some shopping or something. Didn’t know that a dress and heels was part of it?" Rollie commented, looking at her well-shaped legs in heels as she bent over the sink and lifted one leg, coyly, grinning at him.

"Mom things, like I told you," she replied, her eyebrows raised as he knew she was up to something…but what?

"Got that meeting today with Elena. Then, I have paper cues for the rest of the afternoon. We have dailies tonight with the first sequences I did yesterday. Come tonight, eh? See what your old hubby does for a living, okay?" Rollie told her, wiping his face with a dishtowel.

"I see what he does for a living…and not well!" Angie said, frowning as she took the little Teflon spoon from him and scooped up a small serving of bananas from the jar and swung it into Aidan’s mouth, holding the spoon then over his mouth for a second and then lightly scraping it across his lips. He swallowed!

"Hey, how’d you do that?" Rollie asked, amazed.

"Magic…" Angie replied and kissed Aidan on the top of the head. Aidan smiled and she smiled back at him. The two looked so much alike, it killed Rollie!

"Hey, I gotta get going here, so, good luck today. Give Elena a kiss for me, okay?" Angie asked, pulling Aidan up from the highchair and wiping his face off and his hands.

"Like this?" Rollie asked and gave her a peck.

"No, like this," and she smiled devilishly and licked the side of his face spattered with bananas still. She then kissed him on the lips letting him taste the baby food as her tongue lingered in his mouth.

"Oh my! I’ll be sure to do just that," he told her as she grinned and hurried off with Aidan to change him. Rollie walked over to the mirror, looking at his face and arms and then saw how splattered his shirt had become.

"Great, at one time, this face, this body…I was the Valentino of F/X!" he said, in his Sean Connery voice.

"Um, and now, the Mr. Mom of F/X!" Angie said, stopping at the door and sighing, "see ya later…I might make it to the dailies after all!"

Elena Serrano was pacing in her office. Yesterday, she had made a fool out of herself. Why had she not kept up with Rollie in the past two years? Everyone else knew but her. Her life had been so hellish over the years and now, she had finally made it to this position. She looked out the window and rehearsed what she was going to say when Rollie got there. She wanted it to sound like she was not in the least disappointed. She wanted him to think she had known all this time but in the back of her mind, she still knew she was in love with him.

Rollie reached the FBI headquarters at the Marchard Institute a little before eleven that morning. Having to drive out of the city and into Connecticut was already fraying his nerves. His movie commitments were lining up, stacked like mile-high pancakes and now, Elena Serrano was trying to catch his father in some sort of flimflam scheme. Didn’t she have serial killers and bombers to go after?

He parked the car, looking up at the old granite fortress and wondered why the FBI had decided to house themselves here, out in the country. He also wondered why Serrano had taken a desk job. It wasn’t her style or in her blood to stay confined in a building, pushing paper.

He smiled to himself, remembering Angie’s jealousy from the day before. She had been so fired up about Elena. What was there to compare? Sometimes he wondered why women were so threatened by each other. Still remembering her kiss that morning, he realized she had marked him, reminding him that he was her property. And they think that men are still in the Stone Age, he told himself, smiling as he walked toward the entrance.

"Not going in there, are you?" came a voice from out of the blue. It was that voice, the rattle-trap, cagey sound of his father’s accent catching his attention and he swung around, seeing Dingo standing behind a clump of trees near the walkway to the front steps.

"Are you out of your mind?" Rollie asked, hissing and walked over to him, looking around for cameras and people that might be observing them.

"Not a bit, my boy. Find it clears me brain to just watch the hens here once in a while. You know, fox looking at the hen house?" Dingo said, grinning as he slapped his son on the back and hugged him tightly.

"Where have you been? And before you answer that, what the bloody hell are you doing now with this drug stuff?" Rollie asked, as Dingo pulled him further into the brush as a couple walked by, immersed in their own conversation.

"Been here- been there- you know, taken on a few odd jobs now and then. Ever since my wedding, I’ve been taking a low profile of things. Still smarts, you know. That buggar, Sanchez- he put me through the ringer on that."

"Umm, well- you don’t have to worry about him, pops," Rollie said as Dingo grinned from ear to ear. Rollie rarely called him anything but Dingo and ‘pops’ was something he used to call him when he was little.

"Why’s that?"

"He’s dead…"

"Oh well, live by the sword, die by the sword, I always say," Dingo began and Rollie rolled his eyes.

"Stop the pulpit beat and tell me what’s going on here?"

"That samba dish inside there has been tailing me for over a year now- Serrano, that’s the agent. Got me in the crosshairs once but I got away. They just don’t understand. There’s not a thing wrong with what I am selling now, really Rol! This stuff is good, really! It has changed a lot of people’s lives. They are getting out and doing things they haven’t done for years. That blasted FDA crap is just that, crap! And the bloody FBI can go to shit as well!"

"Look, I was invited here today to talk about you and this drug stuff you got going on…I don’t want them to see you here. They probably have someone looking at the loft right now. It isn’t safe, you need to turn yourself in, Dingo."

"I haven’t done anything wrong, Rol and I’ll be dipped in shit if I’m going to let these bastards have a go at me. Look, meet me tonight, late- at the Rasputin Motel, in Queens. I’m going by the name, Johnson- Harry Johnson."

"Great name! I gotta go…by the way," Rollie said, as Dingo turned to leave, "you’re a grandfather, old man."

Dingo’s eyes watered slightly and he smiled in a shocked, but warming expression; "It’s a boy, ain’t it?"

"Yep."

"You name him after me?"

"What? Are you kidding? My name was bad enough…I wouldn’t do that to my own son."

"Roland Ignatius Tyler is a great name!"

"Yeah, so is Reginald Harcourt Tyler. Sounds like you should have a million bucks!"

"Soon, my boy- soon!" Dingo replied, chuckling as Rollie looked over his shoulder, hearing voices.

"Okay, I’ll meet you at that flea bag motel tonight- late. I have to work late so it won’t be until after eleven."

"Great, hey- bring a picture of my grandson, Rol."

"Yeah, okay…"

"What’s his name, really- Rollie?"

"Aidan, it’s Aidan…" Rollie said, walking away from him.

"What kind of sissy name is that?" Dingo said, holding his nose.

"You’d better not behave like that around Angie. She’ll make short work of you." Rollie warned him, and then put a finger to his lips.

"Ah, the fair Angela. Still fair and round, Rollie?"

"She’s just fine, now go!" Rollie warned and Dingo smiled widely, winking at him.

Elena was tapping her feet under her desk. Rollie was ten minutes late. She put her hands through her long, jet-black hair and rolled her chair around to the window, peering out and sighing. Why had she waited so long?

"Elena?"

"Oh, yeah- hey Rollie!" she said, startled and turned around, to see him standing in front of her desk, handsome as ever.

"Have a seat, you want something to drink?"

"Nope, I’m fine."

"Good, good- well, why don’t we just get to the point of this…" she began.

"Sounds good to me…" Rollie replied, waiting for the latest escapade of his father to unfold.

"The drug is called Rhus Toxiconum…in small doses, it is a homeopathic drug that health stores and homeopathic doctors dole out in pellet form. I think that it is made from Poison Oak, actually. People take it for aches and pains, joint kind of stuff."

"Sounds legal to me…" Rollie commented but Elena was up from her chair and walked in front of her desk, pacing back and forth. She was wearing a sarong skirt and a cream, silk blouse, loosely clinging to her chest as she began to tell him what the FBI and FDA were concerned about.

"The amount of the drug that your father and other’s are dispensing is much larger. It can be lethal in this dosage."

"And what are they claiming it does in this form?" Rollie asked, watching her walk in front of her, flinging her head back every now and then, smelling her perfume. If he didn’t know any better, he would think she was trying to get him to notice her in more than just a professional demeanor.

"They claim it can cure neurological disorders like catatonia and epilepsy. That it does something to the brain’s electrical system, hell- who cares, it doesn’t work, okay?" she said, bending over, putting her arms on his chair arms in front of him.

Was she aware of what she was doing? Yes, he answered himself, as he could not help notice her opened blouse as she bent over him, seeing her exposed in that manner.

"How long have you been trailing my father selling this stuff?" he asked, clearing his throat slightly.

"Um, about a year and a half, actually. He is not a large enough dealer to tap yet, but we think he will lead us to the big boys. We know he will make contact with you, Rollie. I want you to help him."

"What?"

"You heard me, we don’t want your father, we want the kingpin of this operation. There have been two deaths in the past month alone. You get your father to cooperate with us, hell- you cooperate with us, and we will drop all charges against him in exchange for a finger pointing deal."

"No."

"What?"

"I said no, Elena." Rollie told her firmly, standing up as she stayed close to his chest, looking at him, her eyes staring deeply into his.

"Rollie, this is not a game or a simple flimflam operation. Everyday this drug goes into the city, more people will die. Your father, whether he means it or not, could be held as a murderer as well."

"Then, I suggest, you go out and catch him, Elena. Put him behind bars. God knows, he could use some protective services."

"This is not what I expected!" she replied, angrily as she put her hands on her hips and glared at him.

"Sorry…I won’t betray my father. I won’t help him either. You’ve tracked him here, you find him. I have done enough for the FBI, the police, Interpol, everyone. I am not going to risk my life ever again or my family’s. We have been through the proverbial ringer with little in return."

Rollie was inching back away from her, his anger apparent to her now. She should have done some more homework on just what Tyler F/X had been doing for the past two years. Rollie seemed almost bitter to her now.

"Okay, fine," she said, backing off, changing directions, "I respect your wishes. It’s just that I was hoping to spare you and your father this publicity and humiliation."

"Elena, there is nothing you can say to me to get me to change my mind. Everything changed the day you introduced Victor Loubar to me. My whole life changed after that. All the people that were hurt and killed…" his voice began to trail off and she picked up on that immediately.

"He raped Angie, didn’t he?" Elena said, putting a hand on Rollie’s shoulder, "I remember that now- from the reports. Now I get it, you have been taking care of her ever since because of that. You blame me in that respect for Loubar’s knowledge of you and then hurting your friend. Rollie, being devoted to your friend is one thing, but marrying her because it made you feel better, is another."

"WHAT?" Rollie looked at her, shaking his head, "what the bloody hell are you talking about?"

He looked down at her, confused and angry as Elena bit her lip, putting her hand to his face, almost in a consoling manner.

"I still love you, Rollie. In fact, that is why I went to your loft the other day…"

"Elena, I don’t even want to talk about this. I’m out of here. You need to take a reality check here."

"I have, Rollie…why don’t you?"

He left then, pushing her hand away as he pushed by a secretary who was carrying supplies. He didn’t know what to think anymore. Angie was right about Elena. What hurt the most was that she had tried to use his father as a bargaining chip.

He had made it to his car, was backing out in a jerking, tire squealing mode, when he stopped suddenly. He looked for bugs on the inside of the car. Finding nothing out of place, he got out and looked around the undercarriage of his frame and tail pipe. Elena watched him from her window, cursing herself for her admission and for not handling the situation right. She saw him bend down and pull a Siemens foil tag from the muffler, throwing it to the ground and crushing it with his heel. He looked up at her office window and got back in his car, speeding off.