"Oh Becca, please!" she was saying, "wake up!"

"What happened?" Rebecca asked, shaking her head slightly and pulled herself up, realizing that she had landed on top of the disgusting, smelly man that had threatened her and her sisters and Aidan at the top of the bell tower.

Her ribs hurt and she knew as she got off the man who looked like he was sleeping, that she might have broken something. She shook off the dust and dirt and took a deep breath and suddenly cried out, as she exhaled. She had felt a very sharp pain in her side and she held onto her right side, tears forming in her eyes. Something was broken after all, she thought wildly as she looked at Callie’s terrified eyes and then braced herself, smiling at her sister. She would not let Callie see that she hurt.

At the top of the stairs, she now could see Ashley, holding on to Aidan who was still crying and Ashley was yelling down to them to help her;

"Please Callie, I don’t know what to do with him, he just gets redder and redder!" she shouted down to them.

"I’m okay, Callie…go back upstairs, help Ashley!" Rebecca told her sister who smiled as Rebecca gave her a reassuring smile back again. Taking that as the real signal, Callie went back upstairs and hugged Aidan, kissing him on the cheek and talking baby talk to him, rubbing his light, golden-brown curls. Ashley sighed in relief as Aidan stopped crying and began to suck on his knuckles.

"He needs his bottle," Callie told Ashley who quickly rummaged through the diaper bag and pulled out a half-empty bottle of cold formula milk. She also saw a jar of baby food and pulled it out, handing it to Callie.

"I think we should just give him the baby food. The milk is old. Mommy doesn’t like us to drink milk out of our cups if it’s old, remember?" Callie told Ashley who nodded her head and threw the bottle back into the bag.

Rebecca, for her part, looked down at the man who had pulled her down as he fell. He was breathing, actually snoring very loudly. Even her father, whom her mother complained snored to wake up Long Island, didn’t snore this loudly. She wanted him out of their sanctuary, their hiding place. She pulled at his coat, trying to drag him but he was too heavy and her side hurt again, sharply with the effort. She called up to Callie and Ashley to help her.

The three sisters worked together, with Aidan sitting on the floor nearby, babbling and happy, having been fed. They all tugged and pulled and dragged the man toward the door of the church. After getting him through the threshold and then toward the steps, they had hoped, nature would take care of him or some police driving by would see him lying at the foot of the steps. With one last effort, they dragged him over the steps and lost control as he went rolling to the bottom and landed on the concrete sidewalk. He had not awakened, and seemed blissfully unaware that anything had transpired. His snoring continued and they smiled amongst themselves and went back inside. Rebecca took a long piece of wood from a pile of wall beams that had been pulled out from a sidewall that had collapsed. With some effort, they were able to shove it through the large handles on the back of the church doors all the way across so that no one could get in now.

"Just like a castle door!" Ashley remarked, as Callie admired their handiwork. Rebecca sat on the floor, next to Aidan, exhausted and inwardly, wanting to cry because her side hurt so bad. Aidan looked up at her, the greenish flecks in his brown eyes enhanced by his green shirt he wore. He babbled something and Rebecca smiled.

"That’s right, Aidan. Say it again; mama…" Rebecca coached him.

"mama…mama…" he continued and then babbled out a string of baby talk as Rebecca smiled and shook her head. Night was falling and she needed to feed her sisters. She looked at Callie who had joined them now. Ashley had run over to the ‘bathroom’.

"How are you feeling?"

"I feel okay…" Callie replied, nodding to her sister and smiling, "That medicine was good. I don’t feel like having a spell. I’m just hungry."

"Yeah, so am I. Let’s see what we are going to eat and just think, tomorrow- we can go home and show Mommy and Daddy that this medicine is the best," Rebecca told her with a reassuring grin.

Rollie turned the corner back to Francis Gatti’s house. They had come up empty on the first day. He parked the van and together, Angie and he got out. Mira Sanchez was waiting along with Tony Rizzo on the front porch as Rollie and Angie approached. They greeted each other with defeated expressions and all knew each had come up empty.

"I’m going inside to see Sarah," Angie told Rollie who was concerned that Francis would not want to see them.

"Angie, wait…"

"Wait? I’m going inside. Sarah and Francis are our friends…come with me and if Francis is mad, let him be mad. Let’s just get this out, okay?" Angie told him, as Mira raised her eyebrows and Tony grinned.

Angie walked inside as Rollie, knowing that Angie’s determination would not be stymied, followed.

Francis Gatti looked up from the sofa where he was sitting, his jaw clenching as he saw Rollie and Angie enter. Sarah was in the kitchen and he felt somewhat without his emotional protector now. He could see that both Angie and Rollie looked the same way that he and Sarah looked; tired and emotionally worn out. He jumped up then, out of reaction to the last time he had spoken to Rollie, feeling the anger there still but suddenly Angie was in front of him, her face, her eyes- telling him his anger was without basis.

"I…" she started to say and then just reached out and hugged him. His arms then wrapped around her as he held onto her, his guard now completely destroyed as they cried together. Sarah came into the room, seeing her husband finally able to release the pent-up emotions he had carried around for those past few days. She came over to Rollie who put his arm around her shoulders and she leaned her head against him, watching with him as Angie made her peace with Francis.

As Angie pulled away from Francis, she reached her hand out and Rollie came over, taking it and she looked at Francis who wiped his eyes and looked up at Rollie whose resolve was broken as well.

"I looked all day, Francis. We are getting ready to go out again, to start over again now…we’re not going to stop until we find them," Rollie told him and looked down at the floor as he didn’t know what else to say.

Angie moved back, releasing Rollie’s hand and left him with Francis. Sarah and she moved back, into the kitchen and they hugged each other there, sharing their worries away from their husbands.

"I’m sorry Francis, sorry for everything. I didn’t mean for your girls to get involved with this stuff…" Rollie began but Francis shook his head and interrupted;

"Rol, forget it! I’ve been a real bastard, sorry…my girls, you know," he went on, his voice hoarse and choking up, "they’re my life- you have Aidan now and I forgot, you know, that your son is with them as well. I guess things are different now. It ain’t like the old days, huh- just you, me and Leo? I mean, this has really put some age on me and made me think about what I do. God, all those years you’ve been helping us with cases and the times you and me paid for it…"

"and Leo, he really did…" Rollie answered as Francis nodded.

"Mira is helping us now, she isn’t Leo but she’s …" Francis began and Mira interrupted him then as she walked inside the door with Tony Rizzo following;

"I’m not Leo, but what?"

"But, you’re pretty, damn ballsy yourself," Francis finished as Rollie turned around and smiled and she grinned widely and hugged her partner tightly, finishing with a slight pull to his earlobe as he winced.

"Thanks, Gatti…I’ll take that as a compliment"

Rollie was on edge that next morning. Tonight, he would go to Stefano’s with Dingo and hopefully, an end to this latest Dingo caper would be over. Serrano would have her collar and Dingo…what the bloody hell would happen to Dingo then? Would the organization pull him out? He secretly worried that they were close. He had not let on to Angie about his fear of being so close to what remained of that group. Dingo had told him that they were still very angry about his role in the disruption of the organization. He also wondered about why they had not apparently brought Dingo in with the mind games and the retinal implant like they had done to him.

He sat, thinking all these thoughts in the VR chamber, trying to relax but it wasn’t there…he wasn’t getting any solace here at all. After all they had been through with Loubar, this splinter organization, nothing gave him the total fear that remained now with Aidan missing. He ran the sequence then, watching Angie with Aidan around him…feeling the joy and love of those times as the projection engulfed him and warmed his soul. He didn’t hear Angie enter the chamber, just felt her arms encircle his neck from behind and they watched together then until the chamber went all white and there was nothing but silence.

"Guess we needed to have filmed more, huh?" he said, softly.

"We will, we will…" she told him, kissing the top of his head. She started for the door and he pulled her back, drawing her into his lap and held her tightly.

She kissed his cheek, then the other one and then traced his neck with smaller kisses as he responded by meeting her lips softly with his own. He looked into her eyes as she ran her hand through his hair and tried to remember a time when she had not been with him. It seemed almost impossible now.

"Let’s get back out there…" he whispered to her.

She nodded.

Dingo Tyler was waiting for his son’s call. He paced his small room at Marchard and was going over in his head, Serrano’s plan with Lindquist at Stefano’s that night. Somehow, he felt like his ass was still going to be waving in the breeze on this one. He wanted more reassurances from her that his freedom and safety were guaranteed. Unnerved, he called for Serrano so that he could go over their plans once more. He wanted to retrace the entire plan again. He also was concerned that the shadow boys hadn’t tried to contact him again. He didn’t trust them either, of course. The only person he trusted was Rollie.

"What do you want to see me about now?" Elena asked, coming into his room. It was similar to a small hotel room and used by the FBI for overnight accommodations for guests or agents having to stay for long periods of time at Marchard.

Dingo looked at the brassy, Latina woman and smiled; "Why, I need just one more time with this plan, love. I just need some reassurances, you know that I can do this thing without revealing my fears, eh?"

"Fears?" she barked out, coming over to him and turning her head to one side as he stood up, trying to show how nervous he was to her.

"Yeah, I got um, you know, sweetheart. I may not always show um, but they’re there…guess I’m not like my son, after all, eh?"

"Um, there are some similarities," she replied, calming down a bit, and he inwardly smiled, knowing she was melting just a hair.

Dingo looked into her eyes, dark and sparkling as Elena measured the depth of his soft, brown ones, herself. They were so like Rollie’s, so forcefully drawing her into his soul that she had to blink.

"You doing that crazy aborigine stuff that he does?" she snapped, coming back out of the slight trance she had been in for the moment.

"What? Nah, that stuff’s for dimwits, I’m just, well- you’re a beautiful woman, Assistant Director Serrano…I wish that I could call you by your given name, Elena?"

"A.D. Serrano will do," she replied, on guard to his womanizing ways but still, she felt his magnetism and it was very strong. What the hell was wrong with her? She loved Rollie, not his father…he was older and full of bull.

"Right-o, Elena…take me through this plan again, I just want to hit my marks, you know?"

She bristled slightly, as he used her first name anyway and then went on to tell him once more, the set-up at Stefano’s;

"You will be tapped, with a small receiver in your ear. I am sure they will check you for wire, no problem there…if they try to check you out for closer inspection, I suggest you hold your breath and cough-or try yawning to dislodge the unit while they aren’t looking, okay?"

He nodded, smiling and sat down on the bed as she continued to stand and go over the step by step meet inside the restaurant, what to say, what to get them to say and then the exchange. Once they met with Rollie this afternoon, they would go over the conversation again… and then the pull-out would began and Lindquist would be bagged as he left.

"Tell me about the ear thingy again, dearie. I don’t quite get the holding breath and yawning stuff…" he asked, putting on a confused, serious face.

Elena sighed, reached down and put her thumb in his ear; "There, feel that pressure, now hold your breath and cough, feel that? Now yawn…"

Of course, Dingo knew exactly what she was trying to instruct him to do but having her this near to him was what he really wanted.

Elena could smell the spicy cologne he wore and realized it was similar to what Rollie sometimes wore and she again, looked directly into his eyes, stopping her instruction for a second. Before she knew what was hitting her, his mouth had covered her own in a smothered kiss.

"Hey!" she got out, breaking away from him and smacked his face in indignant rage.

"Sorry, I got carried away…" he replied, appearing hurt and confused.

"You’ll be just fine, Dingo Tyler. Maybe some solitude will help your troubles there…something by your own device?" she suggested, glaring at him and made a loose fist with her hand as she left the room.

"Rosie is fine but Elena is divine…" he replied, chuckling as he laid back on the bed and smiled.

Midway through their scanning that day, Rollie called Marchard to talk with Dingo and Serrano. He would meet them at the loft, go over the plan and then, get it over with…Lindquist was surely going to try to pull something, why else would he want him there? He had inserted the tracer chip that morning along his left hip crest, under his skin with a quick jab from the sharp introducer. Angie had been able to read him loud and clear by Ambler. This day would end on a good note, he told himself.

They had gone two blocks around the Gatti house again and were ready to start the abandoned section, starting with St. Elmo’s at the corner. They could see an ambulance parked there, and paramedics rolling a stretcher by as they passed. Rollie stopped the van with a jerk, as Angie, stood up from the back and raced up front to see what the commotion was about.

Rollie frowned, seeing that it was only a wino that was somewhat delirious as they slid the stretcher up into the back of the ambulance. As they began to shut the doors, the man was crying out in pain and cursing;

"Damn girl pushed Sam the Man out of his house!"

Rollie got back into the van, his adrenaline returning to normal as Angie climbed up inside slowly and took a deep breath. They were both so punchy that every flashing light was getting them to react.

They started back on scanning mode, passing a large crane and some other demolition equipment. A wrecking ball suspended in mid air was passed as well as people suddenly dotted the abandoned neighborhood in a flurry of activity.

"Looks like they are finally setting up to finish demolishing this area…" Rollie commented, as Angie nodded and recalibrated the scanner for all the interference and number of people that were being picked up now on monitor.

"What a nightmare! Glad at least, ‘Mr. Sam the Man’ got kicked out by his old lady this morning…at least he isn’t in one of those buildings asleep when the wrecking ball comes swinging in, saying hello!" Angie replied, shaking her head.

Rebecca Gatti had just replaited her long, dark brown, hair back in the single braid down her back. She had just finished cleaning up Callie’s hair and Ashley’s. Aidan had received a comb to his wild curls as well and a change of diapers. All in all, the night had been quiet and they had peanut butter crackers for breakfast and were all full. Aidan had finished all the baby food they had in the diaper bag. Ashley had giggled, giving him a fingertip of peanut butter, which he greedily sucked on and giggled back at her. But his face made a funny expression as he desperately tried to get the gooey stuff from the roof of his mouth.

"Ashley, no! He can’t have peanut butter yet! Look at him!" Rebecca cried out, chastising her sister. She reached inside with her own finger as Aidan firmly sank his two baby teeth into it as she swept the top of his mouth out to get the remaining peanut butter out.

"Ouch! Taking care of babies hurts!" she exclaimed, and held onto her side as well, forgetting that she couldn’t breath deeply and let it out. It wouldn’t be much longer, she told herself.

There was a startling sound then, like an explosion not far from the church. It shocked and scared all of them as Rebecca got up from the front of the church and ran back toward the bell tower steps. All the windows on the first floor had been boarded. She made her way up and caught her breath in tearful little jerks of respiration. All around the street were men with big cranes and tractors. They were tearing up the houses. She smiled then, seeing the saw horses around the church. At least, they weren’t going to tear down this church. That was against the law and the Bible, she told herself.