She could not remember how long she had been in the near darkness…yet Callie wore a watch and when she pulled her sister’s limp arm up into the small glint of light she could see from above, it read nearly seven o’ clock. Callie hadn’t moved since the incredible, surprising explosion that had rousted them from the bell tower and sent them screaming in almost all directions. She remembered everyone getting down to the main floor as it started collapsing into the main sanctuary of the church, holding on to Callie's hand. Ashley had scattered to the opposite side of the sanctuary near the baptismal with Aidan.
 
 

The gigantic crash that resounded again, prompted Rebecca to move toward the baptismal closer to Ashley. Never had she seen such a sight as the roof caved in around them and the bell from the tower came crashing to the floor. It was then that the floor gave way beneath their feet. She remembered the sound of the bell, the sound deafening to her as the debris fell on top of her, her hand suddenly free of Callie's.
 
 

She thought she heard voices later but it was so dark and only several places that a small amount of light shown through. She had found Callie but she wouldn’t wake up and Rebecca quickly checked to see if she was breathing by putting her head on her chest and hearing her heart beating very slowly along with a stifled rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. Rebecca could see that Callie had a large lump on her head and some blood oozing from her scalp so she did the best she could, taking off her little, blue denim jacket and wrapping it around her sister’s head. She called out for Aidan and for Ashley but neither responded to her cries.
 
 

They had taken away her sanctuary. She was so frightened and now, Callie was worse off than she would have ever been at home, Rebecca thought with fear and guilt. She also thought about Aidan’s mother and father and how they would hate her. She wondered why she had ever thought this would help Callie. She wanted her mother and she longed for her father’s protective arms.

"What do we do now? We deliver our package as planned but we take a detour," the commanding operative told Rolph Mer. Mer, for his part, looked very pale. He couldn’t look at Angie Tyler and he wouldn’t look at Rollie Tyler. He sat back down as Angie glared at the man she had thought was dead.
 
 

"What the hell is going on?" she asked again, and Rollie, desperately wanting to stop the van and get answers, was forced to drive. His son had been found and he wanted that first and foremost.
 
 

"Michael Sanchez is dead. He’s been dead since, some time in the middle of his interrogation on Pollepel. He was taken around five years ago," said the man that they all knew as Michael Sanchez. I was brought in to replace him, plastic surgery, larynx surgery, and intensive briefing on his life and his connections. You see, I was his debriefer…"
 
 

"Wait!" Angie said, putting her hands up in the air, his unfathomable beginning of an explanation already making her nauseous, "you’re telling me that you killed Michael Sanchez, the REAL one over five years ago and we, meaning EVERYONE was duped into thinking you were him?"
 
 

"Yes, well, not everyone. There was one person who didn’t believe me…and well, she has made my life hell, since. The divorce was the culmination of her finding out about me. I…, well- it was a failing on my part. I let my guard down with her and she knew."
 
 

"Mira? You mean to tell me that she knew her husband was dead and played along with it?" Rollie asked, incredulously.
 
 

"She was IA, remember? She knew that her husband had disappeared. When I came back to continue Michael Sanchez’s dealings, which we needed to continue our operative needs, let’s just say- she knew soon enough. Michael Sanchez was not the same in that respect…and well, I’m not going into the whole thing but she was unmanageable and the directors wanted her terminated."
 
 

Angie lifted her eyebrows, folding her arms across her chest as Rolph Mer looked down at his lap and Dingo grunted in the back of the van, rubbing his eyes as the very angry Elena Serrano kicked and moaned underneath his seat.
 
 

"So, why did she come around?" Angie asked, thinking about how Loubar had tricked her with Rollie’s face, making love with her. Of course, if she had known Rollie intimately before Loubar’s scheme, she would have known the difference. How humiliated and angry Mira must have been!
 
 

"I spared her life, I told her what Michael had died for…by that time, I wanted to terminate my connections with the group." His face was solemn and his eyes appeared so deep, Angie literally felt she needed to stop looking at them directly, to keep from drowning in their power.
 
 

"You and she made a pact…keeping her safe and at the same time, doing the operation’s bidding…" Rollie interjected, his heart with his son, but his mind exploding with the illusion that had been played against them for over three years.
 
 

"Yeah, a pact…" he echoed, but his face betrayed his emotions.
 
 

"You fell in love with Michael Sanchez’s wife…didn’t you?" Angie asked, more of a statement than a question.
 
 

He looked back up at her with the full power of his deep, powerful eyes and stated simply; "yes."
 
 

"Did she fall in love with you?" Angie asked quickly, seeing that they had just past Francis’s house and would be at the demolition area in seconds.
 
 

"Not at first…she hated me."
 
 

"I don’t blame her," replied Angie, flatly and with the judgement of a woman who had been in her place as well.
 
 

"Look! I don’t know what the bloody hell is going on here- but you can bet that I want the whole story! I could choke it out of my father, who would spin me a long yarn, but from you! I trusted you, you bastard! Whoever the hell you are!" Rollie said, pulling the van up to the edge of the demolition area.
 
 

The corner of the street was alive with spotlights, police vehicles rescue squads, and a crowd of people. Rollie stood up, his body shaking as he looked from Dingo who said nothing…he was their puppet at this moment in time; to both Rolph and the mysterious Michael Sanchez substitute.
 
 

"I need to find out where my son is right now. If you leave and take Elena, I will find you and you will stay dead, once and for all! I don’t have time to play games here! I want the whole, buggering truth! But Angie and I need our son more than this!" Rollie was undone, his voice lashing out at them as Angie came up to him, putting her arm around his waist. He stared at his father with a coldness that made Dingo tremble. He had never seen him like this, never! His boy looked at him with pure hatred.
 
 

"Go, we are not leaving…" the man told Rollie, firmly.
 
 

Rollie pointed his finger at Dingo and said with pressured speech; "YOU, don’t go anywhere either, you hear?"
 
 

Dingo nodded solemnly and looked down at the floor of the van.
 
 

There was a furious rapping on the van door and both operatives went to the back of the van, ready to hide if needed.
 
 

Rollie swung the door open and Mira stood with Francis and Sarah below. With a final look back at the trio in the back of the van, Rollie and Angie walked out, both of them stunned and shaken.
 
 

Angie looked at Mira and wondered if she knew that the man who had been posing as her husband was not dead. He acted as though he did not want her to see him when she had flagged down the van downtown. And for that matter, Angie realized that indeed, Mira must have fallen in love with him- for there was the baby…hers and his, the one she had lost.
 
 

"Rollie! It’s good news! They’ve got one of those fiberoptic scopes down inside the wreckage and they think they see something moving around!" Francis said, coming up to his side as they all walked closer to the demolished church. Stooping under the tied off area, they stood watching, the night air bringing a chill as Angie shivered and gripped Rollie’s hand. She held Sarah’s in her other hand.
 
 

"How is Ashley?" Angie asked, in the chaos and calamity as teams of rescue squads were working at a fierce pace, pulling rubble and debris carefully away from the center of what had been the sanctuary.
 
 

"They say she is in shock…she’s not speaking!" Sarah said, her composure falling and she wiped away tears as Francis came over and put his arm around her shoulders.
 
 

"Oh God, why?" Angie asked, and then, she realized that what she had just said, fell upon both Francis and Sarah with deepening guilt.
 
 

"I’m so sorry," Sarah said, her voice pitiful as Angie hugged her tightly.
 
 

"No, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that…" Angie replied, her face now covered in tears as well.
 
 

Rollie kept his hand on Angie’s shoulder and thought of the first time he had seen Aidan...his light! Why would God take his light away from him after all of this? He looked down at the girl-woman he had married, her life with his, this torturous path of love they had blindly begun together...
 
 

"Rollie? He’s okay, I know he’s okay!" she was telling him as he felt himself removed suddenly, almost as if he was an onlooker, not the victim in this tragedy.
 
 

"I love you, Angie…" he told her, his voice cracking, as she reached up and held onto him, "Aidan …he’s so small!"
 
 

"Hey Rol, this church- it’s St. Elmo’s…somehow, you know- the fire thing and the meaning of Aidan’s name, and well, it’s like a sign, you know?" Angie told him, her words strong and comforting to him.
 
 

"WE GOT SOMETHING!" yelled a rescue worker and a shrill whistle went up as Angie, Rollie, Francis, and Sarah all held their breath together.
 
 

Rollie wanted to run, to help, to dig; to do something. He started forward, his heart having palpitations as Angie followed. Francis and Sarah too, had begun to push through the rescue workers.
 
 

"Stay back! You can’t go further!" yelled a rescue worker, his safety strap hooked to a crane as were all the workers close at ground zero.
 
 

The parents were all halted there, at the edge of the foundation. Angie could see the oxygen being pumped into the crevices and small holes, from hoses surrounding the area. She muttered to herself over and over; "breath Aidan, breath, baby…"
 
 

The flexible fiberoptic scope was suddenly pulled back with rapid double hand motion and incredibly, the first man on the scope’s handling line, disappeared down into a hole that had been enlarged.
 
 

"Oh God!" Sarah cried out, as Francis held her tightly and closed his eyes for a second.
 
 

That rescue worker’s gloved hand reappeared again, pulling his body up with the use of his rescue line. There was yelling and directions for the crane’s power as well as his other arm appeared and encircled in that arm was a small head. It looked almost like a rag doll as the limp, small body was brought out. None of the parents could see the face but as the workers moved forward to receive the body; Sarah screamed.
 
 

A stretcher was brought to the edge of the foundation and the small body was immediately placed on it and resuscitation was begun. Sarah broke from Francis before he could move himself as Angie and Rollie followed. They both knew that the body was too large for Aidan.
 
 

Unwrapping the denim jacket from the small girl, Sarah cried out for her daughter, Callie. Francis put his hand to his mouth as Sarah rushed to her side. EMT’s literally had to force her back as they worked feverishly to assess her injuries. They were so caught up in Callie’s deliverance, they didn’t see that another child had been brought up from the debris.
 
 

"Mommy! Daddy!" screamed the little voice, hoarse and crying behind them. Francis ran to the edge of foundation as another stretcher was rolled forward and Rebecca Gatti was placed on it. She was gasping for air, her tears of pain mixed with her joy of reunion with her parents. EMT’s began their work on Rebecca as well, Francis standing with Rebecca as Sarah stayed with Callie. With all of their daughters accounted for, they were lost in the moment of joy and worry of that night.
 
 

Rollie looked back desperately at the hole where the rescue worker had returned. He knew he was holding his breath, waiting….Angie was silent, stiff at his side. They stood waiting and waiting…and finally- the worker appeared again. He was shaking his head and waving for the crane and tractors to assist with more debris removal.
 
 

"Oh no…no!" Angie said, shaking her head, "where is he?"
 
 

Another half hour had gone by. The ambulances with the Gatti girls had left the scene and with them, Francis and Sarah. Francis had touched Rollie’s shoulder in parting as Sarah seemed totally oblivious to anything else around her. Mira stood on the sidelines with Rollie and Angie.
 
 

It seemed a ton of debris had been removed and still, no sign of Aidan. The basement of St. Elmo’s had been almost completely shelled out. A special team of dogs was let loose in an effort to locate Aidan as the middle of the night loomed over the rescue site. Rollie and Angie sat on the ground, huddled together in blankets, not speaking, just watching for any sign as the excavation continued and their hopes diminished.
 
 

From the van, Dingo Tyler watched and waited. He looked back at Rolph Mer and then to the man that had started this personal vendetta. Dingo knew he had lost Rollie forever and he wiped his eyes, sighing as he opened the van door and stepped out in the night’s air. He had betrayed his son.
 
 

"Where could he be?" Angie asked, breaking the silence and standing up, her stomach in knots.
 
 

Rollie stood up and looked around the scene of almost a hundred people still working, still digging for their son. Several of the dogs had circled something off to the side and would leave and then go back to it. Their whining increased and finally, the third dog began to dig at the edge of the hard object.
 
 

A whistle went up and then another as the concentration centered on that area. Angie and Rollie moved forward. They pushed past the foundation and past the arms that told them to wait. Rollie could see that they were digging and removing the dirt and debris from the top of something.
 
 

Angie heard it first, before the first rescue worker, before Rollie and his songline; it was Aidan’s voice, his cry and his terror that she felt down to the depth of her backbone.
 
 

"HE’s there!" she cried out and stood there as Rollie half jumped into the depth of the basement shell against the warnings of the rescue workers. She watched as he pushed along side the swell of workers that had surrounded the unearthed baptismal, upside down, appearing as a oval dome. Its limestone surface was cracked but not shattered and Angie watched in awe at the wondrous work of all those men and Rollie together as they heaved the heavy baptismal over, setting it upright.
 
 

The spotlight from the top of the crane showered down over the rescue worker’s backs, their helmets alight with reflection and Rollie’s debris whitened hair…as Angie could see the particles of light debris scattering around, playing a light dance in the air. Rollie’s head bent down, and he went to his knees. As he struggled back up, wearily, he brought his son up in his arms. Angie could see Aidan’s fists clenched tightly together, could hear his screams and yet, it was the most wondrous sound she had ever heard at that moment. No one moved against Rollie as he was helped up the side of the basement with a rescue cinch and harness, holding his son to him for dear life. EMT’s waited at the surface as Angie looked down, waiting as she watched the two most important loves of her life come toward her. Rollie was dripping with perspiration, his jaw clenched tightly as he held on to Aidan and they looked up together, father and son, seeing her.
 
 

"There’s your mummy, there she is…!" Rollie was telling Aidan, out of breath and gasping for air. He was looking up at an incredible sight, his angel and the mother of his son outlined in a glow of radiant light that came from behind her. Her smile and her arms went wide as he reached the surfaced and reunited the three of them. Aidan was telling her over and over her name…and her heart soared hearing that word for the first time from his lips.
 
 

"Guess we best give him up, sweetie," Rollie told her as the EMT’s reached out but Angie moved forward, lying Aidan down on the stretcher herself, holding his little hand as his protests to the invasive assessment began.
 
 

Perched on the edge of the demolition area, Dingo watched the scene in silence and then turned, walking back to the van. Once inside, he gave the operatives the news and sat back down in the rear of the van. Elena Serrano had stopped struggling and lay exhausted underneath his seat.
 
 

Mira Sanchez came over and hugged Rollie tightly and then touched Angie’s shoulder softly and hugged her as well. Angie would ride in the ambulance with Aidan to the hospital and Rollie decided that truths needed to all be faced that night as he nodded to Angie and told her that he would follow in the van.
 
 

"Mira, how about coming down to the hospital in the van with me…" he asked, smiling and she turned her head in that strange tilt of surprise that she did and said;
 
 

"Why not? Francis and Sarah will be there and hey, I want to be in on the big party."
 
 

"Um, I’m sure we’ll be having that," he told her, winking and they headed toward the van. He would give that liar, that deceiver his due…and he took a deep breath, wondering what the consequences would be once Mira stepped up into the van and saw for herself.