"So, what did Mira really say about you being pregnant?" Rollie asked Angie from the bedroom. She was brushing her teeth in the bathroom and he was lying across the bed on his stomach. His long, lanky frame was hanging over both sides with his arms draping the floor and his head hanging over. He was tracing the hardwood floor grain with a finger, his mind wandering as he waited for her to come to bed.

"Nothing really, that you didn't hear too…" Angie said, her mouth full of paste as she spit in the sink, taking a sip of water and swishing before spitting it out, "if you are wondering if she mentioned her own pregnancy, she didn't."

Angie walked back into their bedroom and plopped down on the end of the bed, bouncing Rollie back to the current activity. He rolled back over on his back and turned himself lengthwise in the bed, looking up at the skylight. It had been raining most of the evening and he worried about the conditions on the Hudson. In two days, they would start shooting there. He also wondered what Michael was really up to…if Michael was free, then why all the mystery about the island and then, once again, involving himself near their shoot.

"Whatcha thinking? Angie asked, turning off the light and pulling down the covers on her side.

"Um, just about the shoot on the Hudson in a couple of days. We have to get our schedules straight with John."

"Yeah, and Michael being around there is par for the course, even if he is different. I still don't trust him, Rol."

"I know that… and I don't feel really secure about his agenda, myself. I mean, don't you think he would have told Mira?"

"Maybe he is still protecting her, like he told us before…"

"Maybe…Hey!" Rollie pulled off his boxers and crawled under the covers, "nice night here for the Tylers." She could see his grin in the dim lighting from outside, shining through the skylight and she smiled.

"You find out everything you need to know about, you know?" he said, his hand coming over across her, tracing the length of her sternum between her breasts. He moved closer and kissed her softly as she returned his kiss more deeply, turning her hips into his.

"You mean about sex? Can I have it?" she replied, chuckling softly, "Rollie, we've been doing just fine for the past three months. The doctor said just be normal, okay? By the time I get so big, you start rolling toward the center of the bed, you won't want me anyway."

He kissed the soft flesh of her lower abdomen and looked back up at her; "Oh, I will want you, Angie- it has nothing to do with size, sweetie."

She put her hand through his hair, pulling at the wavy curls that were starting to get longer on his neck. Just looking into his eyes sometimes was thrill enough, this close, this sharing, she thought as she was beginning to not remember a time when she didn't know every square inch of him. As he began to make love to her, it suddenly popped into her mind something that Lucinda has said to her in Costa Rica, something about seeing Rollie naked once.

"Hey," she said suddenly, breaking the moment as Rollie looked at her breathlessly, his expression turning to concern;

"Did I hurt you?"

"Oh, no! I just remembered something!"

"What?"

"Lucinda said something that time in the bungalow in Costa Rica, when she barged into the room and saw you standing there naked, that it wasn't the first time! I think I would like to hear about the first time!" Angie said, her curiosity now totally deflating Rollie's mood.

"Ah, Angie, love- I think now is a bad time, you know?" he replied, sighing as she moved back and he rolled over on his back, throwing his arms over his head.

"I'm sorry…I mean, it just popped up and I just had to ask. I didn't mean to.." Angie began, and lay back as well, realizing she had just spoiled everything.

"What is it that you want to know?" he said, rubbing his eyes and knowing what she really wanted to know.

"Well, explain this infamous first time, I'm curious."

Rollie looked over at her, turning his head from side to side on his pillow, "You're not going to take this well."

"What? Did you guys date? I never knew that?" Angie said, sitting straight up in the bed, shocked. How could she have missed that?

"No, we didn't date," Rollie said, looking at her bare back, "it was a long time ago, when we first met her. Remember?

"Yeah, she was pulling the wool over your eyes…" Angie said, making a face back at him.

"After that, when she was doing her first movie with us and Rick was always trying to hit on you, remember?"

"Vaguely," Angie said, but remembered it well. She believed that Rollie had shown some signs of jealousy during that time, "you got hot at Rick for making the eyes at me."

"What? You have got to be kidding. I did not!" he replied, sitting up himself now, beside her, wrapping his arms around his knees that he had brought up in front of his chest.

"Whatever, please continue- it was during that first movie, what was the title of that one?" Angie asked, smiling.

"You want to hear this or not?" Rollie answered back, snapping as she shut her mouth and saluted him.

"Okay, I really didn't want to get into this."

"So I see!"

"Continue?"

"Please…"

"Okay, okay…"

"I'm not going anywhere," Angie said, batting her eyes.

Rollie looked over at her. He hated to talk about his past sexual experiences with her. She had never really asked about the other women more than a casual comment now and then but this was suppose to have been kept quiet. He should have known better with Lucinda's mouth.

"It was after the wrap party. I was feeling no pain," Rollie said, sheepishly as Angie tried to remember where she had been- oh yes, she had gone home and cried in her pillow. She remembered it now, because Rollie had seemed so gaga over Lucinda and she just couldn't tell him how she felt about him because she knew he would laugh at her.

"I went over to Lucinda's trailer, she had said something earlier that evening about having a party that night there. I guess I was feeling particularly, uh.."

"Full of vim and vigor?" Angie asked, sarcastically.

"Yeah, something like that, and I knocked and she said 'come on' and I did and she was back in the bedroom and all I could see was her leg on the bed, she was pulling off her stockings, slowly…"

"Oh…" Angie's response was short and rather tight.

"She said, 'get out of those clothes already, I want you so bad' and I was so surprised, mind you, pleasantly surprised and I did as she told me."

"Rollie!"

"It gets worse…"

"Worse or better?" Angie said, frowning as she resting her chin in her hands, almost pouting.

"I stepped forward, buck naked, standing near the doorframe of the bedroom and she said; "get your sexy body in here right now!"

"Hmm, didn't know she was the demanding type. I am starting to see a whole new Lucinda right now…" Angie said, dropping her hands from her chin and biting her lip.

"Hey, so I started to just pounce into the room when the door to the bathroom opens right beside me and Rick runs into me buck naked as well!"

"Oh my God!"

Angie started laughing hysterically as Rollie mimicked her laughter but without the smile.

"Needless to say, Lucinda- sees the two of us bouncing into each other and looks at us both head to toe. I was mortified, Rick was pissed, and Lucinda was laughing so hard she nearly choked."

Angie had fallen back on the bed, still laughing as the tears streamed down her face and Rollie bristled slightly as she tried to control herself.

"So, so- there you were, the full Monty and what?" Angie said, trying to calm down.

"Lucinda told me that even though I seemed eager to join the guest list that evening, that she was already otherwise- engaged in some anticipated conversation with Rick."

"To put it nicely…" Angie said, grinning, "Oh, poor Rollie. It must have been horrible!"

"Well, it was…and bloody hell, now she has gone and told everyone!"

"I don't think so, Rollie. I think she was a good enough friend to just let it go, sorta speak."

"Yeah, well- I will never live it down," he replied, and sank on the bed beside her as she reached over and hugged him.

"Hey…" she began softly, "thanks for telling me, really. I didn't mean for it to spoil our …"

He put his hand over her mouth and then substituted it with his mouth as she gladly accepted the replacement. He was ardent with his desire, almost as if proving something to her and she was glad that Rick had been there that day, that Lucinda had chosen him instead of Rollie.

The move to the Hudson River location went off without a hitch. Rollie and Angie had the van packed and on their way at daybreak two days later. The fall air was cool and the leaves were turning colors splendidly as they passed Yonkers and headed toward the river's edge near Bannerman's Island, known for centuries as Pollepol.

Angie had pulled up some research, knowing it was the area where the original Flying Dutchman had run amok in the treacherous currents near the island. She also knew that the island, now uninhabited since the fire in 1969 had been closed to all due to unstable Castle battlements and walls and the still unexploded shells from the arsenal buried on the island as well as in deep arsenal, still supposedly full of gunpowder, shells and weaponry.

"Hey, did you know that the Indians considered Pollepol a forbidden place, full of spirits?" Angie asked, looked at her computer from the back of the van as Rollie drove.

"Nope, sounds like our kind of location, huh?" he replied, grinning.

"Hey, and the Dutch had problems there too, with the currents and thought that there were goblins and other creatures that lived on it!"

"Great! There goes the neighborhood!" Rollie added, trying to think why Michael was so interested in the place.

"Oh, and during the Revolutionary War, Washington tried to stop the British there but it didn't work. They put these big wooden spikes in the river for the ships to run into but they still made it up on the island. Great stuff!"

"I'm starting to get a funny feeling!" Rollie said, laughing.

"What, NO! An adventure! Oh Rollie, I have been so bored lately. This is going to be great!" Angie said, her mind filling with all the lore she was digging up on the Internet about the place.

"Oh, seems that the daughter of the original owner of the Bannerman's Castle is a member of that Trust that Michael talked about- Jane Bannerman. Goodness, she must be pretty old, huh?" Angie added, as Rollie began to follow the signs for the movie set that had been put up by the crew the night before.

"Anyhow, says here that the Castle was really something until the fire and all. Hey, with all that fire power underneath it and all, how we going to shoot around it?"

"Very carefully," Rollie said, turning into a large gate that had been put up with fencing for an impound area for the movie crew.

"Good, I can't wait," Angie replied, putting on her pull-over sweater and coming up to the front of the van, "I think this is going to be so neat!"

"Well, I hope you enjoy it from your monitor, darlin' because you are not going over to that island, you hear?" Rollie warned her.

"What? Hey, I am the principal F/X artist here on this movie! I go where I have to go!" she replied, frowning and looking at him, her anger starting to rise.

"Angie, I don't want to risk anything, a fall, a shell going off, anything that might harm you and the baby!" Rollie retorted, standing up, taking her by both arms.

"Do I look like an idiot? Is it printed across my forehead?"

"No, Angie, come on!"

"That's it, Rollie. I am not going to talk about this any further. We agreed that this was my film as principal. I am not backing down due to this pregnancy or being a woman, you hear?"

"Angie, listen to me…please. They have this place restricted for a reason."

"But, it's okay for the macho crowd to traipse around there, is that it?"

"Oh, damn it, Angie, why do you have to be so stubborn?"

"I have always been this way."

"You weren't my wife always and pregnant…"

"And you weren't my husband and a bit stuffy yourself!"

"HEY! You guys coming out of there or what?" shouted a man's voice from outside the van.

Rollie looked out and saw John Latham peering in at the front door.

"Yeah, we're coming out now," Rollie answered, looking at Angie who remained unmoved by his words, "Look, we'll talk about this more outside after we do the storyboard meeting, okay?"

"I am not changing my mind!"

"Okay, like I said, we can talk later," he replied, and walked out the door as she gathered her clipboard and pencil and left the van meeting the crisp morning air and taking a deep breath.

"Wonderful, I knew this would happen," she said, under her breath, the realization that Rollie was pulling his protection routine on her due to her pregnancy- a stumbling block in their relationship as far as she was concerned.

David Grant watched the couple, Rollie going ahead as Angie walked out of the van a couple of seconds later. From his vantagepoint up in the parapet of the north tower, he could see an amazing view of the area surround Pollepel. He gathered his things and slowly walked down the curving stairs to the ground floor, disappearing into the brush and pulling the canoe out of the craggy hill, where he had hidden it. He was stiff with cold from being down underground and he welcomed the sun as it shone on the river. He paddled the canoe in rapid strokes making his way upriver about a thousand yards beyond the movie location. He made it to shore and stored the canoe under a decaying pier behind a cairn of rock. He got into his car and pulled out, heading back to Yonkers, his mind preoccupied with what he had found below the Castle.