"What?" Mira asked, frowning slightly, "Do I know you?"

"He's the guy that brought Angie in, Mira! Yeah, where'd you go, man? I wanted to thank you," Francis began, smiling at the tall, dark-haired lean man with the drooping mustache.

"You know me…" the man replied, the voice suddenly lower as Mira stood up, her pulse bounding in her neck visibly as she looked into his eyes and shook her head in disbelief.

"No!" she murmured, as Francis watched the exchange between them.

"Please listen to me, Mira," he replied, pleading with her.

Mira backed up into the archway of the door to Angie's room; "Haven't you done enough already?"

"Yes, in the context that you are referring to, yeah, I have."

They looked at each other in silence then, as Francis was lost in the midst of the staring contest.

"Would someone like to fill me in, here?" Francis asked, putting his hands on his hips.

"Francis, meet a new reincarnation of my former husband, the man that left Role for the taking, turning his back on his so-called friend," Mira answered, as Michael's jaw clenched tightly together.

Francis couldn't believe his eyes. He stared at the man in amazement as he studied the new face but it didn't stop him from quickly retaining his composure and pushing him up against the wall. Although Francis was by far, the smaller man, his adrenaline was so pumped that Michael was taken back by the shove and hold.

"You sorry, son of a bitch! I can't believe that you would just come in here and tell us your identify after doing what you did to Rollie!"

Mira just stood there, her shock and realization that Michael had changed his face again and then, the fact that he had brought Angie in and risked exposure nagged at her. Although she didn't trust him, she wondered what his agenda really was in coming back now.

"Mira, Francis, I need to talk with you about Rollie. I need your help. We can find him. I need backup," Michael said, with concerted effort, not trying to struggle in Francis's hold.

"Why now? Why not three or four months ago? What have you been doing besides getting a face lift, Michael?" Mira asked, her anger exploding.

"I had to do something, it was more important at the time than going after Rollie. You have to believe me there."

"Always saving your own neck!" Mira retorted, her arms folded across her chest as her cheeks turned red and hot with indignation.

"Believe what you will, Mira. But, are you interested in getting Rollie back?" Michael responded, her words cutting him deeply. He had thought he could withstand the blame and anger, but it still affected him. His throat was tight and dry as he looked at the two police detectives who were growing more agitated by the moment.

Doctor Shelton walked into Angela Tyler's room, walking past what looked like a showdown in the hallway. She walked over to the sleeping woman in the bed and looked over to the monitor.

"Mrs. Tyler?"

Angie's eyes opened and focused on Dr. Shelton. She smiled slightly as the physician pulled a chair up beside the bed. Angie knew this was not good news and she braced herself.

"Mrs. Tyler, I have to be totally honest with you. Your pressure is not coming down as nicely as we would like. The Magnesium Sulfate has controlled your eclampsia and for that, we should be very happy as we almost had to deliver your baby now. The convulsions have been controlled. The protein in your system is coming down slightly but not as much as we would like. You are having some very strong contractions by monitor. We have to stop that or else the baby will come too soon and possibly endanger its life. But, you will have to stay on bed rest here, you cannot go home. And, we have been noticing on the fetal monitor that the baby is having periods of bradycardia- that is a prolonged time of a slow heartbeat. We are concerned that this will continue. You should be prepared for an emergency delivery, possibly a cesarean section if need be, do you understand?"

Angie's eyes again filled with tears, "Will my baby die?"

"Not if we can help it, we will monitor you and the baby very closely. I think if we keep the visitors down to a minimum and not stress you anymore, your pressure will go down, and the baby's heart rate will increase. I have to be honest, we are concerned for your health as well. The chances of complications to you right now are high. Now, where is your husband so that I can talk to him?"

Angie looked at her and finally admitted that he was not there, missing, gone and her resolve to be calm was broken as she tensed and began to sob. Mira rushed into the room then, the first time she had come inside and the two friends looked at each other. Dr. Shelton was immediately ordering a tranquilizer for Angie as Mira talked to Angie in a soothing voice. From the hallway, Francis and Michael stood helpless as Dr. Shelton walked into the hallway with the nurse;

"It was something about her husband- I had no idea he was missing! This is not going to be easy. With her emotional state, I need to go ahead and hold a operating room in case we have to take the baby."

"Tell Mira, I will be back. I need to contact someone who can probably get me a lead on the place where Rollie was taken. Francis, trust me now. I want Rollie back as much as you do!" Michael told him as Francis looked beyond him to the women inside the room.

"Do whatever it is you need to do. Just don't disappear on us and leave that woman alone for the rest of her life, you hear me? There isn't a hiding place on this Earth that will keep me from finding you, you hear?" Francis said, his words like venom striking as Michael nodded and walked off rapidly down the hall.

The dreaming came again as Rollie could hear the song-line clearly. It was stronger than ever as he could feel Angie's pain. Her face, if only I could remember her face! he thought, with struggled determination for a color and a projection that wasn't just brilliant white.

The sounds from the others in the room increased as he suddenly felt hands grab at him, pulling him to his weakened feet and dragging him out. He was smiling for it usually meant a shower and food.

Instead, he was placed back in the four-foot square room as he yelled and kicked and screamed. He hadn't been in this place for months, or at least that is what he had connected with time now. In here, he could do no dreaming. It was as if there was a shield against the mental projections; a shield that surrounded him from all sides. There was no hope now, just the light and he wished for his death as a solution for the endless nightmare.

Angie, sedated and calm, slept for the rest of the day. Mira stayed in the room now as Francis headed back to the station. Mira told Angie nothing about seeing Michael or what he had told them in the hallway. She would never trust him again. By evening, Angie's blood pressure was down and Dr. Shelton returned with the news that her protein spillage had stopped and that the uterine irritability that was causing contractions had also stopped. The Magnesium was continued for precaution into the night as were the sedatives.

Mira was going to stay through the night and Angie would, from time to time say a few words bringing Mira to her feet to stand beside the bed, talking to her and comforting her as best she could. Angie's hand touching hers made her tear up as she thought of Michael again and fate's cruel hand in all of this as she thought of her own loss.

By morning, Dr. Shelton had removed the IV, Angie was feeling much better, and the swelling had gone down in her ankles and feet. Her blood pressure was normal and Angie was cautiously told she had to remain on bed rest at home completely or risk another eclamptic seizure and more contractions.

Smiling, Angie was taken from the room in a wheelchair and Mira drove her home.

"So, you have this toxemia of pregnancy, thing?" Mira asked, wondering about why Angie was suffering from it.

"Yeah, apparently, I was very lucky not to have to have that C-section that Dr. Shelton talked about on the first night. I got to thinking about Rollie and how he would never get to see this baby, hold it or anything and I knew I couldn't lose it then. I needed to keep everything under control!" Angie replied, smiling slightly as they drove toward the loft.

"Hey," Mira said, "almost there…and that nice bed waiting for you."

Angie gave her a frown, as Mira knew that the complete bed rest was going to be hard for such an active, even very pregnant woman like Angie.

"And guess who has volunteered to stay with you until eight tonight? Your friend, Tony! Yep, wanted to be here when we arrived, I hope you don't mind? I gotta get back to the precinct for a while," Mira told her, smiling.

"No, go ahead. Tony is good to me, that won't be a problem," Angie replied, looking down at her gigantic abdomen and sighing;

"I want Rollie to see his baby come into this world!"

"We all do, honey," Mira replied, with an infrequent endearment added to her response as Angie smiled.

Once home and settled, Mira left Angie in the capable hands of Tony who fussed over her like a mother hen. He had made himself at home and was downstairs working at the kitchen table, which was close to the staircase to the bedroom. He had turned the stereo system on, liking the music as he worked to help him concentrate.

Angie could hear him turn on the stereo and could hear the music as it filled the loft. It had been a long time since she had listened to anything. She didn't give herself any time for that luxury. She was dozing slightly when she suddenly felt a deadening silence in her mind, not from the music for it continued in the loft. No, this was the feeling part of her brain where she sensed Rollie's lifeline. Mangela would call it his song-line but whatever it was, it had become deafening still. She sat up in the bed, her respirations increased as she felt a contraction. She looked up at the clock and marked the time.

Music pricked up her ears as she held her breath now; "all alone…I didn't like the feeling…all alone I sat and cried…all alone, I had to find some meaning…In the center of the pain I felt inside…" she heard the song being sung from the speakers that had been built into the wall of the bedroom.

She was restless, swinging her legs out of the bed, and resting them on the floor as she sat on the edge of the bed. She knew this song, its haunting melody and sadness prevailing; "all alone, I came into this world…all alone, I will someday die…Solid stone is just sand and water, baby…Sand and water, and a million years gone by…"

She was nauseated, the feeling of doom and the connection from Rollie gone…dying, dead… She put a hand to her mouth, covering her cry as the tears began to flow. She wanted to call out to Tony to shut off the music but the singing continued; "I will see you in the light of a thousand suns… I will hear you in the sound of the waves…I will know you when I come, as we all will come…Through the doors beyond the grave…"

She stood up, making it slowly toward the door, she didn't want to hear this, she didn't want to give up, but Rollie was gone. She knew it now.

"Oh God, Tony! Turn off the radio, please!" she cried out from the top of the stairs but the music continued; "All alone I heal this heart of sorrow…All alone, I raise this child…Flesh and bone, he's just bursting towards tomorrow…And his laughter fills my world and wears your smile…"

Angie sank to the floor at the top of the landing, Tony couldn't hear her for the music and she was doomed to hear the song being sung so sadly, so much to her at that moment, the aching would not stop.

As the final refrain of music continued, she felt the contractions begin again; "All alone, I came into this world…All alone, I will someday die…Solid stone is just sand and water, baby…Sand and water, and a million years gone by…"

Tony heard her crying gasps as the song ended then and he ran up the stairs finding her in a heap at the top of the landing. He scooped her up, carrying her back to her bed, not understanding her dilemma or her overwrought words that she kept repeating over and over;

"He's gone…Oh God, he's gone…"