Elena almost had to put her hands over her ears, as the high pitched terror cry of Aidan, chorused by the Gatti girls screaming at the top of their lungs, was still going on around them. As soon as Angie was released, she ran over to the officer that held Aidan at arm's length like some sort of creature.

"Give me my son!" she bellowed, taking him from the man’s hands, as Aidan gripped her neck, his crying so intense, he was choking and turning blue as he struggled for another breath.

The Gatti girls were let go and immediately ran to Rollie who had now come up beside Angie as she fought to calm Aidan, her own tears mixing with her son’s. Rollie, holding a little girl’s head against him on either side, glared at Elena as she swallowed hard and averted her eyes from him.

"Check the room. I want anything, a scrap of paper, a piece of chewing gum if it has something to do with that drug!" Elena instructed them, passing Rollie as she walked to the entrance of the room and looked inside.

Rollie had taken the girls back to the car. He had helped try to console Aidan by closing in around him and Angie, away from the flashing lights. Together, they got in the front seat of the car, Rollie trying to calm Rebecca and Ashley who had turned pale and quiet in the back seat.

"Rollie, this is insane. She must have bugged you somehow. She followed you to where Dingo and you were to meet. I can’t stand it! I just won’t have it!" Angie said, in a low, but angered voice as Rollie tried to hold on to her arm. She pushed him away, and then, after a moment, handed him Aidan who had started to settle down, his thumb in his mouth.

"Where are you going?" he asked her as she opened up the car door.

"To do what you won’t do!" she said, sternly and got out. She shut the door, mindful of the children but her walk toward Elena Serrano was anything but calm.

Rollie looked back at Rebecca, who had gotten over her fear, was holding onto Ashley who was still white.

"Rebecca, would you mind just holding onto Aidan there in your lap, sweetie- just for moment. I know you helped your mother with Ashley when she was a baby, huh?"

"Yeah," Rebecca replied in a small voice.

"I"ll just be a sec. I want to talk to those policemen about that surprise they gave us, okay? They played a bit too rough, didn’t they?"

"Ahuh, Daddy doesn’t do that!"

"You’re right, sweetheart. I want to tell them not to do that again, okay?"

He put Aidan in her lap and she smiled down at him as he raised his thumb up to her and then went back to sucking it again. She smiled up at Rollie and nodded her head; "He’s getting really big, Rollie!"

"He is, isn’t he. You’ll have to remind him of this when you get older just to embarrass him, okay?"

"Okay," she replied and Ashley now smiled as well, talking to Aidan in baby gibberish.

Rollie got out of the car but not quick enough to save either woman from the intense showdown that had already started.

Angie had approached Elena Serrano, her fists clenched and her anger rising in her throat. Elena, seeing her face, reacted like the well-trained agent she was- she used logic immediately as she had been trained to do.

"Now, look- Angie. I am sorry for this terrible mistake but Rollie knew that I was after his father- any accomplice of his father is committing a felony himself. I was under orders to apprehend…"

"Apprehend what? A woman with a baby and two little girls? Are you crazy? Are these agents crazy as well? You knew exactly what you were doing! You bugged Rollie. You followed us here. You took us down like common criminals, roughed up my child as well as Francis Gatti’s children! For the life of me, I don’t understand you! You want Rollie? Go ahead, take him! But you never…  NEVER…mess with me or my child again, you hear me?"

"What?" Elena looked from her angered face to Rollie’s who had approached them, hearing the last couple of sentences that Angie had said. His eyes bore into Elena's, the loss of respect and any feeling as a friend gone as well.

"You’d have to kill me first," Rollie said to Elena, taking Angie under his arm and pulling her over next to him; "what you did was so unnecessary and beyond any reasonable explanation. Going after my father is one thing. Go ahead, please! But, to do this to my family? I never want to see you again, is that clear?"

Elena looked at their faces. She had made a terrible mistake. She had only wanted to ….what? she asked herself as she watched them turned away from her and walk back to their car.

"A.D. Serrano? We found a couple of matchbooks here to local bars. You want us to follow up?" a first level agent asked her, showing her the matches in his hand.

"Yes, follow them up…" she replied, her voice weary and bitter. She had totally lost her objectivity in this case. Rollie Tyler had just told her that he never wanted to see her again and she realized that her job, this promotion, all the effort to get to this lofty place was nothing compared to what he had in that car.

Callie Gatti improved with continuous IV Dilantin and close monitoring of her post seizure state. Another EEG was done which showed no new focal damage. As Francis and Sarah stayed at her bedside, their hands together talking to her softly, encouragingly- they looked into each other’s eyes and saw the fear that they tried to hide from her.

After hearing that the possibility for more seizures, on a regular basis might occur, Francis was beginning to wonder if early retirement was an option in his case. He was five years from twenty years with the force. Sarah, was thinking about the cost of around the clock care. She was also wondering how they would pay for it all. She might go back to work, she thought, as she closed her eyes and remembered when Francis had proposed to her right after high school. He had told her it would be a "kick" to get married… for him to go to the police academy while she worked at Bigalows as a floor manager. Dreams, she thought hopes and aspirations…

Sarah stroked Callie’s forehead with the back of her hand softly. Francis kissed Sarah on her cheek, grateful that Rollie and Angie had the other girls safely at his loft for the night. At least, they had been spared from all this stress.

"Okay, is this a great bed or what?" Rollie asked, pulling down the covers of the guestroom bed as the girls watched him carefully.

"It’s a big bed!" Ashley remarked, jumping on it and standing up. She began to bounce up and down as Rebecca grabbed at her, shouting.

"Stop it! You’re not suppose to jump on the bed!"

"Why not? Mommy and Daddy aren’t here?" Ashley said, challenging her sister.

"Hey! No stunts on this old bed. You might end up as sandwich meat in the middle of the thing. It could swallow you up and we wouldn’t find you for days!" Rollie warned her as she immediately sat down at his tone, her face reliving the earlier hours of voices just like that.

Rollie immediately realized his mistake and sat down on the bed beside her; "sorry, Ashley- I’m cross as a bear, huh? I am tired, milady and want to go to sleep. As your knight, will you let me have that honor?"

Ashley perked up as Rebecca came over and leaned her body in toward Rollie’s, as Ashley took up the role of princess.

"Yes, you can sleep now, Sir Rollie!" she told him, giggling as he smiled and kissed her, helping her into the bedcovers.

Rebecca, older and wiser got in the bed beside her sister and as Rollie bent over to kiss her goodnight, she put her arms around his neck; "I’m going to marry you when I grow up," she said, kissing him on the cheek.

"You are? Well, I’m flattered, Rebecca…can’t wait for that!" he said, touching her nose and he stood up, turning the light off in the room. As he crept toward the door, both girls in unison said: "leave the door open six inches!"

He turned around and grinned. Grabbing a ruler from his bench, he came back and showed them that he had indeed given them every bit of six inches. They smiled and he turned around to see Angie watching him from the couch, one eyebrow raised as she smiled at him.

He tiptoed over, turning the light off in the living area. Only the lights from the skylights above the loft and the small light over the stove in the kitchen were on now. Rollie sank down on the couch beside Angie, making a silent "whew" to her as she put her head against his chest.

"Everyone wants to marry you," she whispered, as he shook his head, his fingers running through her hair softly as he kissed her forehead.

"I love you, Angie. I’m so sorry for tonight. You were right in your element there with Elena. For a moment, I thought you were going to belt her!" he said, his whisper deeper as he held her closer.

"I came very close to it, but, um- I thought about the girls and you and I guess, well- I just decided to grow up and let my words do the punching for me."

"Mmm, some uppercut you gave her, sweetie. I think you knocked her out."

"Good! Are there anymore girlfriends left now?"

"Umm, let me think?"

"Hey!"

Rollie kissed her on the lips, her response like lightening to him. He slowly pushed her down on the couch, pressing her against him. He really didn’t feel the small hand patting him on the back.

"I have to go to the bathroom…" said the small voice, louder now having repeated herself.

Rollie and Angie both sat bolt upright, Angie pushing her shirt down in a flash, as Rollie sat still; "Oh, hey there Ashley, sure thing…ah- Angie will help you out in that department…okay?"

Angie smiled and got up, taking Ashley’s hand and taking her to the new bathroom on the first floor by her office. Rollie sat for a moment, breathing in deeply and then stood slowly. He wondered how Francis did it, maintain any kind of relationship with Sarah with three little girls around. Then again, hearing Aidan start to cry upstairs, he told himself, he’d better get used to disruption and chaos.

As he started to climb the stairs, he noticed the telephone booth in the corner of the loft move slightly and he shifted his direction and came back down slowly, pensively.

As he got closer, holding his breath, he grabbed his Brooks Robinson signature baseball bat and stood waiting… it wasn’t long and his swing was perfectly executed as it met the target midchest, dropping it to the ground in a thud.

Ashley’s blood curdling scream echoed in the loft as Rebecca came out of the guestroom and screamed as well. Aidan continued to scream from upstairs as only Angie raced over, falling to her knees at the target and yelled up at Rollie, ready to swing again;

"STOP Rollie! It’s Dingo!"