He turned toward the sound of her voice and stopped smiling. It was time she knew about the whole thing. He only hoped that he had picked the right time.

"I know you are out of your bed, Angela, I can hear your bare feet slapping across the floor!" Rollie remarked, chuckling.

"Hey, yeah well, I am a little flat-footed right now. I gained a little weight but I’m not an elephant!"

"Come ‘ere," he called to her and she walked over slowly, holding her incision line as he felt her approaching and wrapped his arms around her. He put his hand softly to her abdomen, the outline of her former pregnant shape slow to diminish at this point.

"Umm, about forty pounds, I’d say!" he comment, grinning as she swatted the top of his head playfully then regretted it as he jumped slightly.

"Oh Rollie, sorry…I forgot you couldn’t see…! Damn it! How stupid!" she said, pulling away from him.

"No, stop right here and let me hold you. I want to just hold you, okay?" he asked her and she relented, coming back into his arms.

"I will tell you about the ‘D’s and I might as well start from the beginning when Michael and I went over the Island…" and Rollie began to tell her the ordeal he had gone through. He did change the prospective once he began talking of the interrogations, Angie noticed. He began using himself in the third person instead of first and Angie eyes clouded with tears and her mind with filled with visions of horror.

After he finished, there was a silence and he felt Angie’s hand touch the top of his head, and then she held his head against her, as if he was a small boy; "You think Michael is alive and sent this Dr. Brabon, don’t you?"

"I do…Brabon said ‘David Grant’," Rollie replied softly.

"So, if he is alive and sent Brabon, to what? Help? What can he do? He told us it was permanent blindness, didn’t he?" Angie asked, shaking her head and glad that Rollie couldn’t see her face at this time.

"He didn’t say that, he asked if I had been exposed longer than 35 hours, that was it," Rollie replied and started to stand; "but, Michael doesn’t do anything without a purpose in mind."

Angie was tired. She was very tired. Michael had apparently saved her life in the loft by getting her to the hospital in time but she never knew what to expect from and now, his face changed again. Why had he brought Rollie into this madness?

"Rollie?"

"Yeah?"

"I’m scared…"

"I know you are, but we are here together, okay?"

"You’re not scared about all of this?"

"All of this? Are you talking about the blindness, your surgery, or Michael and his agenda?"

"Yep, all of it…and one more thing-"

"That would be…"

"Aidan…"

"Oh love, that little boy is our world now! You are going to be so great as a mum!"

Angie looked at Rollie, his face lit up as she stumbled slightly and groaned.

"Angie? Where ?" and Rollie reached out, touching her arm as she touched him and touched his hand.

"I’m okay, really- just tired. I need to lie down," she said, softly.

She gingerly got back in the bed as Rollie pulled the chair up to the side of the bed; "I’ve scared you with what I told you, about what happened to me in that place?"

Angie couldn’t look at him for a moment as she buried her face into her pillow, to muffle the crying she had begun. What were they going to do? Rollie was going to be blind forever, his whole livelihood gone without his sight!

She felt his hand rest on her back as he rubbed it softly and stroked her hair, "I want you to rest now, sweetie. You’ve had a rough deal, by far. I just want to tell you something before I go back to my room…"

"Rollie, please don’t leave!" she protested as she looked up, grabbing his hand as he smiled.

"Now, hey- if you don’t get your rest, then Aidan won’t get good ‘Wheaties’ in the morning, okay?"

"Yeah, alright…" she murmured, sniffing slightly.

"I want to thank you Angie," he went on, "for becoming my wife and my life. I know you think this is all sentimental slop but I mean it!"

"You do go on sometimes," she replied, and then giggled, "and I missed it for five months!"

He leaned over, and she kissed him, he eagerly kissing her back as he held on to that kiss, savoring it; " I dreamed of this kind of stuff, you know…"

There was a knock on the door and Mira was there, watching the two of them as she entered slowly and almost shyly.

"Hey Angie, Hi Rollie…" she said.

"Mira! Oh, I wish you could see Aidan," Angie remarked, smiling as Mira walked over to the couple and put her hand on Rollie’s shoulder. He touched her hand with his own and smiled.

"I hear he’s cute, so Aidan’s to be his name? Like the sound of that and I have already heard he’s a cutie with some hair compared to the rest of the baldies over in the NICU.

Angie beamed as Rollie chuckled; "Tylers have always been a hairy bunch."

"So, what’s the news from the specialist?" Mira said, point blank and watched Angie’s face as it crumbled. Rollie’s expression did not change. He simply smiled and patted Angie’s hand;

"He’ll be back. After all, Michael sent him."

"Michael?" Mira’s voice cracked as she looked up at Angie and her hand tightened on Rollie’s shoulder, "He’s dead, Rollie…"

"Not from what I gather, Dr. Brabon was sent by him. He was a "D" . Apparently, was Michael’s debriefer when they brought him in to Pollepel."

"What do you mean, debriefer? Michael had a choice. He joined this CIA group," Mira retorted, angry now and hurt that Michael, if alive, had chosen not to contact her yet again.

"No one joins this group by choice, Mira, believe me," Rollie answered, strangely as his voice trailed off.

"Why blind you?" Mira asked, so confused and fed up with Michael’s relationship with this splinter group.

"Part of something to control, I imagine…I guess I was pure fodder to them. They gave up, maybe it was the dreaming…" Rollie said, more to himself as he sorted through his own pain.

"Dreaming?" Mira asked, shaking her head.

"Aborigine thought and psyche, it can help you overpower and at the same time, predict the future of things…Mangela taught me as a child. It was almost lost to me in there, but it came back strong when Angie joined me there," Rollie replied, smiling.

Angie, not realizing how true his explanation was until then, smiled as well. She had been able to talk to him through her dreams, and the baby…they both felt the baby.

"Okay…" Mira replied, raising her eyebrows, "whatever…"

Francis opened the door and was grinning from ear to ear; "So, here is where everyone is! I knew one room or the other! Hey, listen, it’s all over the TV and newspaper, you gotta hear this!" He picked up the TV selector and punched on the TV.

"…reports indicate that Toya, a lawyer from Miami Beach was taken into custody along with four other men for drug trafficking and illegal firearms. In other news…Canada has announced that there has been a major round up with the illegal hashish market there. There has been some speculation that the sudden round up of drug activity all over the world is the direct result of a major undercover operation that released its findings today. In a related story, the strange investigation of the death of a top CIA official in Washington, D.C. tonight, after this commercial…,"

"Whoa, a lot of activity all of the sudden!" Mira remarked, frowning at the TV.

Rollie, hearing the news, had a different prospective as Angie grasped his hand tightly; "these events are all things that Michael was involved in, doesn’t anyone see that? Toya was the high profile black market drug traffic boss we met in Costa Rica. The hashish market that the gypsy Czewt was kingpin of, was headquartered in Canada…and the other drug markets that Michael had been investigating all over the world- I think Michael has done something here! He’s definitely caused a domino effect with some sort of release of information," Rollie said with a surprised look on his face as Mira realized suddenly, the whole picture of events.

"The death of the a top CIA official…could that be the man that Michael said was his contact?" Rollie added, jumping ahead of them, his mind racing.

"This is just crazy! Why, for God’s sake, would something that Michael gave to him, cause his death and this chain reaction of sudden clean up operations all over the world?" Mira replied, putting a hand through her hair as Francis just shrugged his shoulders.

A nurse walked into the room, almost mortified by the number of people standing and sitting in the room. She looked over to Angie, seeing her patient looking so tired and in pain. She frowned;

"Okay, everyone out. Mrs. Tyler needs some rest and some pain relief. I want to see everyone leave!"

Mira started to protest but the nurse, who was three times Mira’s size and could have been her mother, put her hand on her hip and Mira backed off.

"I guess, we gotta go! I will talk to you guys in the morning, okay? Francis, you coming?" Mira asked, hooking her arm into his.

"Hey, I just got here!" Francis replied, his voice raising but taking another look at the nurse, he relented and waved at Angie and touched Rollie on the shoulder. They exited and left Rollie sitting beside Angie in her bed.

"My husband can’t exactly get back to his room by himself," Angie said, still holding Rollie’s hand, not wanting him to leave.

"I have a remedy for that! I am taking him with me, putting him in a wheelchair and carting him back to his room, end of story!" the nurse replied, gruffly as Rollie’s eyebrows raised and Angie looked at her shocked.

"I don’t want…" she started to protest.

"You need to rest and get some pain relief, you are going to need it, so no buts!" the woman replied to her and shot her IV with pain medication, which made Angie relax and release Rollie’s hand.

"I think I’m terrified now!" Rollie remarked, grimacing in jest as he felt the woman’s hands on his arm.

"Come on, Mr. Tyler- you haven’t seen anything yet," the nurse said back to him in a snort as she led him to the door, and got him into the wheelchair.

He was taken on a rapid, swerving ride back to his room. He could hear people backing out of the way, things being moved rapidly and then, a sudden jerk as he was backed into a room.

"Back to your little bed, safe and sound," she told him, pulling him less than gently from the wheelchair.

As he sat on his bed, he smiled at the direction of her voice;

"You’re a real charmer, nurse…"

"Everyone tells me that," she replied, snapping and before she shut the door, added; "you get some rest too, Mr. Tyler. You and your wife need as much as you can get now. Heaven knows, it will be the last for some time, say eighteen years?" She laughed then and Rollie thought she sounded like Cruella de Ville as he laid back and did what she told him to do.

Angie woke, feeling much stronger and rested. She could see the sun outside her window and heard the bustle of the daily routine outside her room. She was going to get to feed Aidan today and looked forward to it as well as being anxious. Rollie rejoined her as they were taken over to the NICU where Aidan was still being kept.

Once again, the sound of all the monitors and number of incubators and people hovering over the tiny patients was somewhat nerve wracking as they were led through the sea of tiny lives being administered to and finally, to their own baby’s side.

Two chairs were brought to them, one for Rollie and a rocker for Angie. As she waiting in anticipation, Rollie could hear how excited she was from her voice; her joys and fears so mixed in the timbre of it as he held onto her hand.

"Here you go, Mrs. Tyler. I believe ‘little man’ has been requesting you!" the nurse told her as she handed Angie her little bundle.

"Oh my, there you are!" Angie told her son as she smiled, stroking his little arm that rose up and touched his own face. His rosebud of a mouth was beginning to make sucking motions as both his hands clenched and went to his face.

"I would say you have a very hungry son, there," The nurse remarked, laughing.

"Okay, so what do I do?" Angie said, rolling her eyes, helplessly and looking at the nurse for guidance.

Rollie had reached over and very gently touched his son’s forehead. The tiny fingers grabbed his finger quickly as his finger suddenly felt the warm and very powerful suck of his son’s mouth drawing his finger into it.

"Whoa, he’s as powerful as a Hoover! Eh?" he remarked, chuckling as he pulled it out and Aidan began to make small sounds of protest and irritability.

"Better get that sugar tit out, Mum- you’re in for a surprise!" Rollie added as Angie looked around mortified, the nurse just laughing.

"Rollie Tyler!" she said in a hushed, embarrassed tone.

He made a face and wished with all his heart he could see this, his Angie with his son as she fed him for the first time. He could hear the nurse and Angie talking, but he was dreaming it in his mind…Angie was undoing her gown top, the nurse assisting with a blanket around her as she gently coaxed Angie to move her son up toward her breast, gently guiding his mouth to her…

"Oh! Oh ouch!" he heard Angie exclaim as his dreaming picture was dashed and he leaned forward, his hand on her arm.

"That’s right, Mrs. Tyler…oh, is he hungry or what?" the nurse exclaimed as Angie looked up at her with clenched teeth and a strange, painful smile on her face.

"He’s hungry and I’m going to faint!" she replied, grimacing as Aidan had taken hold of his source of nourishment with enthusiasm and the sound of his sucking could be heard by Rollie as well.

"He’s my son!" Rollie remarked as Angie felt Rollie’s face close to her side and she leaned her face next to his.

"Yes, definitely your son," she replied, as she winced again but the nursing was causing some other interesting things to happen in her body as well.

The nurse looked down at her and smiled; "You having contractions, Mrs. Tyler?"

"Yeah, how’d you know?" Angie asked, surprised.

"That’s a common occurrence when you breastfeed, your uterus contracts in response. Apparently, it is nature’s way as well, to help the uterus return to it’s pre-pregnant size as well."

"Oh goody," Angie said, tightening her jaw, "I get pain up and down!"

"Oh sweetie! Is it really bad?" Rollie asked as Angie smiled then and told him, lying; "No Rollie, it’s a piece of cake."

"It will get better, Mrs. Tyler. By the time, you go to your other breast, you’ll be more comfortable…believe me," the nurse replied.

"My other breast!" Angie said, rolling her eyes, for she had truly forgotten that she would be nursing Aidan from both for some strange reason.

By the time Aidan had fallen asleep on her other breast, she had relaxed and her head was leaning back against her rocker. The nurse had instructed Rollie on holding Aidan over his shoulder slightly and rubbing his back and burping him gently. Feeling his tiny, full son in his arms was such a reward to Rollie as he gently swirled his hand over the tiny back and heard the bubbles and burps that erupted from the tiny mouth.

"He just told me, Ange that he wants to nurse for at least two years," Rollie joked with Angie as she sat up in her chair and looked up at the nurse in alarm.

"Uh, we’ll have a family conference about that, okay," Angie said, tersely and then smiled. She felt much better since nursing, her breasts didn’t ache from the fullness anymore.

They left their son, sleeping soundly then and once returned to Angie’s room, were startled to see Dr. Brabon waiting inside.

"There you people are, always making me wait or find you!" he said abruptly.

As Angie took to her bed and Rollie sat, the nurse adjusting his IV as well, hanging a new IV bag of amino acids, the Doctor sat across from him. Angie could tell that he was formulating something in his mind.

"Mr. Tyler, you want to see, correct?" Brabon stated more than asked.

"Yes, of course but I know…"

"You know nothing!"

"Okay…then what?"

"I say that I can operate on you and give you sight, would you undergo this procedure?" Brabon was direct and blunt.

"You doing it?"

"Yes…"

"I don’t know you …really…"

"You don’t want to know me, Mr. Tyler- you want your sight back. That is what you should be concerned with, correct?"

"Yes, yes- I want my sight back." Rollie was firm and Angie watched the exchange between the two of them, frowning.

"Good, that is settled. Tomorrow, with the cooperation of this institution of lower learning…I will operate on your eyes and hopefully- the implants will work."

Rollie heard the contempt in his voice for the hospital with his superior attitude but he also knew that Michael had trusted this man when he sent him. But being a debriefer as well, would he trust him? He had never given in to the debriefers.

"Implants?" Angie asked, curiously for she had never heard of such an operation.

"Yes, retinal implants, Mrs. Tyler. They are not on the AMA or FDA’s list of approval. They are only in test phases in Europe but they are already in use and have been in my field of work for some time. Let us say that in the past ten years, there have been many work related operations and at least one employee that you know who has had the operation himself."

"Michael!" Rollie said, in a hushed voice as Angie took in a breath and held it for a second longer than she normally did. Her fear with all these shadowy people surrounding Rollie, heightened. They were the people that had taken him away for almost five months. They had caused all of her pain and Rollie’s.

"Rollie, no! Don’t do this. This man, or Doctor, or whatever he is, he works for them…he is one of them that took you and did those horrible things to you!" she warned as she grasped his shoulder.

"Correction, Mrs. Tyler…I formally worked for them. I have come here under considerable risk, you see. I am in a similar position as David Grant or "Michael" as you call him. And yes, horrible as it was, it was for a purpose that you would not understand."

"Try me," she said as Rollie interrupted her and inhaled deeply;

"Do it, Brabon. Give me my bloody sight back! You owe me that!" he said, his voice demanding.

Brabon stood up, looking down at Rollie, whose gaze was searching for the sound of his reply.

"We will set this up for tomorrow. It will be unorthodox and radical. Be prepared…"

"I’ll be there." Rollie replied, flatly.

"Rollie?" Angie was beside herself, trying to sit up as Rollie took his arm and held her back as gently as he could.

"I’d suggest Brabon, that you leave now."

Brabon looked at the struggling wife of Tyler’s, her protests falling on deaf ears as he smiled then, and left them.

Angie sank back on the bed, her anger and frustration getting the best of her as she rolled over, her back to Rollie. She wanted to scream at all of them and what they had done to her.

"Angie? I’m sorry, really- it’s just that I want my sight back, do you understand that?"

"I understand only that the man works for the same place that did this to you, do you understand that?" Angie replied, her voice muffled as she buried her face in her pillow.

"It’s my only hope…"

"It’s also what could have and can still destroy you…"

"I’ll take that chance, Ange…"

"You’ll be taking it without me, because I am going home tomorrow."

"Angie, please! Sweetie, I need to know you’ll be with me, tomorrow."

"No, not on this Rollie. I won’t be a party to this insane plan."

"Angie, don’t shut me out!"

"You shut yourself out when you agreed with him. Go on back to your room, Rollie. I don’t want to talk to you anymore," Angie replied coldly as her overwhelming desire was to hold him forever and never let him out of her sight again. But she would not and could not tell him she agreed with what he planned to do. Her distrust of Michael, even though he had saved her life and had gone back for Rollie was tempered with how he had talked to her, reacted to her and to Mira. She knew that this man had no morals left, that the ends never justified the means…