She blew dandelions at Aidan as he laughed and made a chain of daisies for him as they waited. She leaned her head back against the oak and looked up at its massive branches above them wondering how big the tree had been when Siobhan and Hunter had married in the very same church so many years before.

"Lifetimes ago…" she mumbled, touching her abdomen without conscious thought and then realizing how it looked to her son and smiled; "Aidan? Would you like a little brother or sister?"

Aidan, industriously intent on an entire acorn cap city seemed to ignore her as she shook her head and shut her eyes, thinking of a day in the future with another child. Her future was not how she had imagined it in what seemed like so long ago. If Loubar had not have come back and done what he had, would she and Rollie be together now? Evil and good played some sort of evolving game, one could not be without the other in order for life to progress, it seemed. She couldn’t imagine being anywhere but with Rollie and for that matter, anywhere but as his wife now. He had given up as much as she had of dreams they had both had for future endeavors and yet, she couldn’t remember that they mattered now as she smiled, reaching out and touching the unruly locks of her son’s head, bent in concentration. A sudden snap of a twig under foot made her open her eyes, blinking as she jumped to her feet.

"Rollie, I must tell you something!" Lucinda Scott greeted him as he climbed down from the van and stretched, surveying the old church in the near distance.

"What? Got something planned for our Captain Courageous?" he asked and immediately frowned for she had that look on her face that could only spell outrageous trouble ahead.

"Look," she told him, taking him by his arm and leading him toward the side of the church, away from the crew trailers and catering truck, "this is damn serious, okay?"

Rollie looked down at her, having almost tangled himself in her hoop skirt. She was already dressed for the wedding in a brilliant green satin dress, intricately latticed in the bodice with crème silk underlay. She looked radiant.

"Okay….you’re quite fetching today, Miss Lucinda," he added, laughing a bit as she put her hands on her hips, groaning.

"Oh! You’ve got to listen to me! This has to be PERFECT!"

Rollie looked at her and stopped laughing. He saw something in her eyes that he had never seen before.

"Luce?"

She hugged him, clinging to him desperately and then kissed him quickly; "I’m marrying Marvin today…in just a few minutes," she whispered in his ear.

Rollie pulled away from her, holding her at arms length; "WHAT?"

"He doesn’t know it. He’s being costumed right now for what he thinks is a member of the wedding party for the scene. At the last minute, John is going to fake a little sick scene and we’ll need a mark set-up for cameras and that’s when I’ve got Rob pushing Marvin into his place."

Rollie looked at her astonished, his mouth wide open. Her eyes showed a determination and something that he hadn’t noticed before, she was in love with him, she really was.

"Oh Luce, this is….bloody…"

"Crazy?"

"I was going to say, fantastic!" he finished as she jumped up and down, trying to contain her squeal.

"This Rector in this scene is the real thing, Rollie! It’s all going to be recorded on film and well, you and Angie are going to be there and it will be so wonderful!"

"Oh," Rollie said, frowning then at the mention of Angie, "Luce, Angie is back at the hotel. She’s been resting a bit with all that has gone on, you know…"

"Really? That’s strange! The Rector told me just a few moments ago she was right here," Lucinda said, shaking her head, "Yeah, there’s her rental car over there, silly man! See Aidan’s car seat?"

Rollie looked over at the church’s parking area and saw their rental car just as Lucinda had said.

"Well, I’ll be!" he said, chuckling, "You girls are always up to something!"

"Always, gotta keep you guys on your toes," Lucinda replied, batting her fan at his nose; "Oh, wish me luck, you big dumb Aussie!"

Rollie picked her up off the ground, her hoop popping up behind her as she giggled and kissed her soundly on the lips; "There you go, Sheila…luck to you and Cap!"

She flitted her fan in front of her face, a rosy hue rising in her cheeks as he released her; "My, my- no wonder Angie keeps you close at hand!"

Rollie smiled and swatted her in the rear hoop as she hiked up her skirts and headed back to find her place inside the church entrance. Marvin Vanduran was in for the surprise of his life!

Rollie looked around the set for Angie. Having seen her purse in the car and Aidan’s toys in the back seat, he figured she had taken a walk in wait for the crew. He knew his set-up was minimal for the scene, some fog bombs for the boggy night look outside the church as well as a dream like quality for the actual filming around the actors and he decided to get his sequence set. He whistled at Marvin Vanduran as he walked by in full Colonel uniform, saluting him as the Captain rolled his eyes.

"Get a grip, Tyler. I’m getting the hell back to New York where us good Yankees belong and soon!" he told him, gruffly as Rob Nesbitt tugged on his elbow and pushed him toward the church.
 
 

"Umm," Rollie said, tipping an invisible hat to him and under his breath, sang; ‘I’m getting married in the morning…ding dong the bells are going to ring…"

Preoccupation with his sequence kept Rollie on business as he heard the final call for marks. He jerked his head up, looking around the small crowd of crew outside the church. Angie was not in sight. She surely didn’t want to miss this! He could see Sanderlin grunting and groaning beside Nesbitt, figuring the director had accommodated Lucinda reluctantly. Waste of light and time was something that this director did not do, especially for the frivolous nature of surprise marriage on the set in the midst of his personal media hype of spooky things happening on set. He’d likely be out a couple hundreds of thousands just for slowing up production.

John Grant got sick on cue, just as Lucinda had told him he would and Rollie smiled inwardly, looking surprised as Vanduran turned and looked at him, exasperated. Rollie returned the look, scratching his head as cast and crew waited for the director’s next call.

"Get me someone, anyone! I need to mark this scene NOW!" he yelled as Lucinda acted her part in feigned worry and surprise.

"YOU, come here! You’re the right height and have the full costume regalia, stand in for Mr. Grant!" Sanderlin demanded, pointing suddenly to Vanduran.

Marvin Vanduran looked around, behind him and then realized that Sanderlin was pointing at him.

"ME?"

"YOU, get over here! I’m losing good light!" was the thunderous response.

"Don’t worry, Marvin, it will be just a walk up the aisle, a quick turn and just the run through of the scene for camera position, okay?" Lucinda added, trying not to look excited.

"Good grief!" Vanduran moaned, as several other extras around him voiced their wiliness to stand in for Sanderlin.

"Hey, I’m going, I’m going!" Marvin announced, a bit taken back at the crowd of extras that had readily jumped up for the opportunity. It might be fun, he thought then and maybe, just maybe, it would give Lucinda a hint of a future endeavor.

"Don’t screw this up, Colonel Sanders. I want this done in one take, okay?" Sanderlin warned him as Vanduran reddened and cleared his voice.

"I won’t, as long as I don’t have to say anything…" he replied, taking his place beside Lucinda in the entrance of the church.

"Just the ‘I-Do’, you can do that, can’t you?" Nesbitt retorted, snapping his fingers at the real Rector of Oak Grove Church, "You ready, Padre?"

Rector Frame grimaced at the little man who looked like a weasel. It almost seemed blasphemous to him that the movie people were filming this awful movie that Hunter Eventyn had written, based on a loose history of his own family. He still would not understand the young actress’s wish to really get married and surprise the poor man walking down the aisle with her. Hollywood people were so strange!

"Tyler, cue on clapboard!" shouted Nesbitt as Rollie nodded and readied his remote for fog bomb releases. He still looked around the set, through the crowd for a glimpse of Angie.

The clapboard man stood behind Lucinda and Vanduran as the crew grew silent. Lucinda grabbed his hand and looked up at him.

"Piece of cake," she told him in a whisper. He nodded, not wanting to screw it up and embarrass her.

The shout of the clapboard man’s announcement of scene and mark take resounded in Marvin Vanduran’s ears even as the snap of the clapper made him jump in its proximity to his back.

"And…action!" Sanderlin said, his voice softer.

Rollie triggered his bombs, lights and set candles glowed on cue and Lucinda and Marvin Vanduran approached the front of the church to the sound of a single Irish tin flute, playing Cinnuint- an ancient Celtic melody. Marvin Vanduran looked at Lucinda, radiant in hushed movie-made dusk lighting as candles flickered from the posts along the aisles as they passed. They approached almost reverently, poised and Lucinda’s heart swelled as her eyes misted. Her hand held on to his offered arm tightly as they stopped finally in front of the Rector. There was almost silence as the flute softened ever so slightly and Rollie moved up from the rear of the church then, his last cue triggered then as the Rector began his oration of declared intent of marriage. Marvin Vanduran was entranced with the whole aura surrounding Lucinda and him. He forgot where he was, his eyes never leaving hers as their names were spoken and offered in marriage. Rollie could see the man had not even noticed that the Rector had said their real names, not the characters and he smiled, almost beaming as the scene continued, without a glitch.

Lucinda had said softly "I will…" and then Marvin was asked his vow by the actor that was playing the preacher and he was transformed, replying without trepidation and without a single stutter; his one line; "I will…" in response, his eyes focused on the tremble of Lucinda’s lower lip, the rise of color in it that he wanted to kiss so much. She was an extraordinary actress! As the Rector announced his final blessing, Lucinda leaned forward and got ready to cue him but at that moment, Marvin Vanduran needed not a single, blasted thing from any movie people to tell him what to do next and he softly and most ardently kissed her. Damn them all, he didn’t care if it messed up the scene.

There was not a sound. Marvin opened his eyes, Lucinda was crying.

"What…?" he whispered, his hand coming to rest on her cheek.

"CONGRATULATIONS! Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Vanduran!" the Rector announced loudly as the flute suddenly struck up the familiar Wedding March. Rollie stepped over and shook Vanduran’s stiff hand as the lights pulled back, the camera moved away and people began to clap.

"We did it, Marvin Vanduran, we did it!" Lucinda said, grabbing him around the neck and hugging him tightly.

"I don’t get it?" Vanduran said, still confused as John Grant came up and shook his hand as well. The well-known actor didn’t look at all ill.

"You just got married, Marvin….before God and Hollywood…." Lucinda told him in glee, the Rector holding out the official license, having just signed his official duty on paper.

"I? We?" He was totally done in and as he looked at Lucinda Scott, now Lucinda Scott Vanduran, she hugged him again, a familiar squeal escaping her lips for all to hear.

"Won’t you let me rest a moment?" Angie asked, breathing heavily as she crept along the overgrown bridal path that lead back from the south forest near the church toward the west, toward the river and to Eventyn.

"MOVE!"

Angie did as she was told. The handgun pushed into her back was the frightening reminder that she had no control. She clutched Aidan to her tighter then, sweat pouring from her brow as she continued along the path, branches pricking her skin as she protected her son.

It was growing near dusk. The sound of locusts was heavy in the forest as she continued her forced walk, burdened by Aidan’s weight and the nausea she felt in the pit of her stomach. She could only hope that Rollie had found what she had left at the oak tree. She could only hope that she could keep up her strength, save what she could by bargaining.

"I have to stop!" she cried out, suddenly sinking to her knees as she put Aidan on his feet and leaned over, not able to stop the nausea any longer.

"Hurry up! Finish your retching! We must get there soon!" and the gun was once again pushed into her back as she stood, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

Aidan suddenly disappeared from her side and Angie started to turn; "NO!"

"SHUT-UP! I’m carrying him now. You’re incredibly weak, Mrs. Tyler. I thought you better in shape!"

Angie muffled her anguish and moved forward, having been pushed by the gun again. She only hoped she could keep a level head as she heard her son ask;

"Why is Mommy crying, Missus Galgher?"

The real wedding scene went off without a hitch after a short break. Rollie reinitiated his sequences and shared a beer with Vanduran in post wedding celebration at the catering truck as Lucinda changed from costume.

The Captain’s face still smarted from the quick removal of the glued on muttonchops and moustache and he was back in his own clothes but he was still on an emotional high as he touched his beer bottle to Rollie’s and shook his head.

"How the hell did you keep this from me, Tyler?"

"Didn’t take much, I found out about five minutes before you," Rollie answered, grinning.

"I don’t believe it, damn it!"

"Well, get used to it. It’s all legit and filmed for posterity. I just am wondering what she has planned for the honeymoon, mate!"

Vanduran moaned and put down his beer; "I’d better stop now. Never know…I might need my stamina!"

Rollie winked and slapped his shoulder; "Speaking of which, I haven’t found my own wife since I came here. The car is still here. Frankly, I’m getting worried now," he told him as he put his own bottle down and looked around the milling crew.

"When is Stu planning on dropping the ball?" Vanduran asked, watching as Sanderlin walked by, barking out orders as the media wagons began to roll in for their nightly fix.

"Dunno, he wants to pull this whole thing together."

"Department of the Treasury, my ass! He’s going to steal my collar, you know it," Vanduran reminded him, slightly remorseful.

"Don’t think he’s really all that concerned about Sanderlin and Logitech, Cap. I think he has something else he’s up to his eyeballs in right now…"

"What’s that?" Vanduran asked, seeing that his new bride was descending the stairs of her trailer, and walking toward them.

"Gold fever…there’s a bit more to the puzzle," Rollie replied, and then smiled as Lucinda ran up and kissed her husband with renewed zeal.

"I’d like to help you out, Tyler," Vanduran said, chuckling, but his mind was not on business or gold at the moment as Rollie grinned.

"Have a nice evening, you two…" Rollie told them as they walked off, oblivious to anyone around them.

He finished pulling up his fog canisters and began to search for Angie. How could she have missed the wedding? Surely Lucinda had at least told her about her plans? He went back over to the rental car, still locked.

"Something’s not right…" he said as he made his way back toward the church. The Hollywood harassed Rector Frame was closing down the church and locking the door when Rollie came up to him, out of sorts.

"Sorry, Rector?"

"Frame, yes?" the Rector asked, slightly tired from all the commotion of the day.

"I was wondering if you had seen my wife and boy? Apparently they got here early, maybe walking nearby. Angie Tyler? I seemed to have misplaced her…" Rollie started, a bit sheepish.

"Ah, Mrs. Tyler- why yes! She was here before the movie people. She had a look at the Eventyn papers inside. It gave her quite a start, I think. Mr. Hunter was quite taken with the two of you, as your wife said…" he answered, sighing.

"What? What start are you talking about?"

"Why, the situation about Hunter, of course," replied the Rector, good naturedly, "quite a stir if it came out…"

"What do you mean?" Rollie asked, confused.

"Maybe it’s best if she told you, Mr. Tyler. I know with Hunter dying so suddenly that all the answers didn’t get addressed and well…"

"I really didn’t get to know him, Rector. He seemed to always give us a piece of puzzle, but you know, never an end piece…" Rollie replied, shaking his head.

"Well, I imagine since I let your wife see the papers that it’s alright. After all, you have a right… I mean, what with an heir showing up just before Hunter died."

Rollie looked at the man, totally blown away.

"I don’t understand, Rector, please! Who are you talking about?"

"Step over there!" Megan Gallagher commanded Angie to move to one side of her. She held Aidan in her arms tightly as Angie obeyed her, afraid for her son who was strangely quiet in his former nanny’s arms.

Angie could see they were within five hundred yards of the house, somewhere around the lower meadow where Hunter had taken his fall from his horse. The moon was full and coming up over the river behind them.

"What do you want? Please!" Angie begged but Mrs. Gallagher was beyond reasoning. She didn’t seem to focus on Angie but some inner voice that she would sometimes answer.

"Right, what I would want is for you to go away, right now, then!" the older woman told her, waving the gun at her.

"What? I want my son, Mrs. Gallagher, please!"

The woman clutched Aidan tighter in her arms; "NO! You will not have him. He’ll be going with me now. You and your devil’s spawn will go down there where you belong!"

Angie shuddered. She knew that the woman was totally deranged. It made no sense to her. Her fear was overwhelming but her son’s life was all that mattered.

"GIVE me my son!" she demanded, reaching out her arms.

"Like hell, I will!" the woman replied, shrieking; "You’re going to pay for your sins now, in you go!"

"What? NO!" Angie cried out, and tried to rush forward, the gun possibly to wrestle from her but suddenly there was nothing below her feet and she fell, horribly sliding down into a dark recess, far below the surface of the ground where she had just stood. She cried out in pain, hitting the wet pool of water and murky bottom. She fought for consciousness, for keeping herself alive.

Rollie stood back, having taken in the news from the Rector. It was starting to make sense in some small region of his mind, that Megan Gallagher had laid claim to the Eventyn estate for some reason by some distant ancestral relationship that remained unclear to him. Who was lying? Hunter Eventyn or Megan Gallagher in her claim?

"Do you mean to tell me, then- Rector, that Siobhan Eventyn’s child, the one with Hunter was taken from the plantation and raised by the friend, this Irish indentured servant who escaped? This…Ginny Gallagher?" Rollie asked, mystified.

"I’m telling you that from what was written in the family Bible by Siobhan was clear…that she had two children, one by her husband, Hunter Eventyn and one, unfortunately by the man who held her captive in the Eventyn plantation for over two years. And, that she apparently gave her son by Hunter to the girl to keep safe while she had the second," the Rector told him firmly, shaking his head.

"And, so, it was really not Hunter’s child that he found when he got home from the northern prison then, it was this Chenault’s child by Siobhan- he never knew…" Rollie said, his voice gone soft.

"Yes! Hunter was never told. What was left of the slaves and servants did not seem to know either and with Siobhan having disappeared, he granted heir apparent on his only surviving family member- his son or so he thought."

"But what about Chenault?"

"He disappeared, per the records. Hunter, our Hunter- knew so much more, Mr. Tyler! When he got the letter from Mrs. Gallagher with the torn page from the Bible, he told me to take all the papers and hold on to them. He literally became obsessed with righting some terrible wrong here."

"So, Hunter was never really an Eventyn…at all- he was generations past of Chenault…all the Hunters, save the first…." Rollie said, in awe.

"Yes, there it is, the terrible curse on this family and the reason why the mother, Siobhan has plagued all the generations. Her dishonor lived on in that house."

"Rector, you believe it? I mean, about her ghost?"

The Rector looked at Rollie in amazement; "of course, Mr. Tyler. Her spirit has never rested. She is doomed much like your movie title, what? Will-O’-The-Wisp! To stay roaming between heaven and hell, restless and revengeful is a powerful state.

"Why would Hunter draw us all into this? Why get these movie people here, make a mockery of his family in this horror film?" Rollie asked, bewildered.

"He seemed doomed as were his fathers before him to do her bidding, Mr. Tyler. I knew his father, as well. There were other attempts but this one, with you and your wife here, has set up some sort of catalyst, I can see that now…it will stop soon….Siobhan will get her final resolution…"

"What have we to do with all of this?" Rollie asked, dumbfounded, sitting on the steps now of the church, "this is insane!"

"I don’t know, Mr. Tyler. I’m just a simple Rector of a church that has served those sorrowful people for generations. Like you said, Hunter was a man of rhyme and contradiction."

"Well, I won’t keep you any longer, rector. I need to find Angie," Rollie said, seeing Rector Frame’s exhausted expression on his face.

"She’s probably walking, Mr. Tyler with your son. He’s quite a beautiful child, your son!" Frame complemented as Rollie took it as a beaming father would.

"Thank you, Rector. He gets all his looks from his mother," Rollie replied and shook his hand.

The Rector left then, Rollie almost completely alone in the churchyard now as a few crewmembers were packing, most having gone back on the road to the primary location at Seven Pines. The nagging feeling in Rollie’s mind wouldn’t go away as he shook his head again and looked toward the cemetery and woods beyond it. He walked toward the gate, the night beginning to fall and tripped slightly, over a gigantic exposed root from an ancient oak that sheltered the church and part of the cemetery.

"What’s this?" he said out loud, leaning down upon closer inspection of the root, found a strange formation of what looked like acorn caps. From the full moon rising, he could make out the arrangement and smiled but then frowned in worry. It spelled ‘Aidan’. They had been here, he knew that. He called out for Angie and Aidan to no avail and came back to the tree, his anxiety growing. Looking in the root system near Aidan’s name, he spied something slightly glowing in a exposed natural hole near the base. It was Angie’s soul stone and the chain had been pulled apart as if jerked from her neck in a quick motion.

"Angie.." he cried out, looking around the field near the church, the woods that fringed it were dark and forbidding. He knew she and Aidan had not gone willingly.

Angie groped around for something solid and found some structure of wooden beams packed with earthen walls. She had fallen into some sort of tunnel and realized with some determination that perhaps this was the same tunnel that Vanduran had fallen into after Mrs. Gallagher had hit him over the head. She remembered something of that memory when Rollie had come in with his swollen eye very early that morning. Hearing the rats scurrying by made her cringe slightly but not shake her resolve. She reached around her waist for the PDA and groaned, realizing she had left it in the car.

"Okay, I don’t have a way to contact Rollie and a crazy woman has my son and I can’t see a damn thing, so Siobhan, if there was ever a time to show up, I suggest you do it!" she remarked, grunting as she pulled herself up and hugged the dirt wall. Nothing, of course happened and she wondered about the possibility of climbing up the hole she fell into. Feeling her way back toward the pool of water, she reached out, looking up, hoping for stars or moonlight. There was nothing. She reached around with her hands for something to throw and finally felt what seemed like a rock. Throwing it up with force, she heard it hit something metal and she leaned over, falling slightly as her hands came to rest against what felt like concrete. After going around in a 360 degree fashion, she came the conclusion that she had been dropped into a drainage pipe of modern construction that probably had intersected with an old tunnel. There was no way she could climb up the shaft of the pipe, there were no footings and no ladder. And to top it off, it seems Mrs. Gallagher had solved any thought of light by covering the top with something.

"Okay, back to plan B, let’s go back into Injun Jim’s tunnel here and get out some other way. If Vanduran found it, so can I," she said, rubbing her hands against her jeans, still wet from mud. She forced herself to concentrate on the task at hand and not think of what was happening with Aidan. For the simple reason that she knew Rollie was on her wavelength now, she began to make her way into the deep recess of the tunnel slowly, feeling her way through.

Rollie was pulling out shelves in the van, grabbing gear and equipment. He tried Stu Westburn’s motel room but there was no answer. The Captain was secluded away with Lucinda somewhere in secrecy. No one knew where they had gone. His only hope now was the son of the woman he suspected had taken Angie. He stopped his forage of equipment and sat still for a moment, closing his eyes. "Where are you?" he asked out loud, his eyes still shut, his breathing slowed. He held her stone in his hand, the other around his neck gently moved by the pulsation in the hollow of his throat. Flashes of Angie, her face and her scent surrounded him, and he relived the carousel of memories that twirled around him as he groaned in helplessness. There were so many memories of pain and pleasure that he knew he couldn’t control his emotions or try to force a dreaming.

"TYLER?"

Rollie jumped, dropping Angie’s stone and it rolled along the van’s floor toward a stack of papers Angie had lying next to Ambler’s desk. Rollie looked up, batting his wet lashes in surprise as Stu Westburn stood looking down at him, concerned.

"Been looking for you," Rollie told him, clearing his voice and wiping at his eyes quickly, "Mrs. Gallagher has taken Angie and my son. We need to find her!"

Stu started to ask the F/X man if he was sure but after seeing how emotionally distraught Rollie was when he came in, he decided to just nod his head; "I think we need to start with someone close to her, yeah?"

"My thoughts, exactly. Where you been, anyway?" Rollie asked, getting up from his chair and going over to the stone. It had finally come to rest on the map of the Eventyn Plantation brochure that Angie had picked up on the first visit. He picked up the stone as well as the brochure.

"Oh, clearing up a few things with my division chief, actually- trying to smooth things over on my apparent mismanagement of this case," Stu said, jerkily, "I’ve been ordered to wrap it up now. The gold will have to wait on its own time."

Rollie didn’t even seem to care about Stu’s comment and Stu realized that he was ashamed for even mentioning the gold now. Angie Tyler and her child had been taken by one of his suspects in his assigned case and he had botched it.

"Let’s get Judd Tolsen now!" Rollie said, with new determination, moving up rapidly to the front of the van and turning the ignition on.

"Rollie! Better let me handle this!" Stu warned coming up to Tyler’s side.

"Nope, I’ve let you handle this too long, always wait and see, Stu. My wife and child are missing, see? You might as well get used to it or get out of my van because I’m going to get the son of a bitch with or without your help, got it?"

"I’ve got it, yeah," Stu replied and sat down in the passenger seat, grabbing the dash board for his life as Rollie pulled out of the parking lot with a screech of tires, sending sand and gravel out in a spray behind them.

Angie tried some sounding exercises, to determine depth and echo. Her own voice did nothing but fall flat and dull. No echo, no feel of space continuation. She found that the tunnel was winding around, level, not going up or down in elevation. She decided she was going around in circles. This couldn’t have been the same tunnel Vanduran had been in, she decided. The air was thin and extremely musty as she coughed, the tears starting to flow as she felt her resolve and strength leaving her. No matter how much she tried to tell herself to keep it together, she could see nothing but Aidan’s face in Mrs. Gallagher’s arms. No wonder he had been so quiet! She had drugged him sometime on the trail as she had kept her walking in front of her.

"I’ll kill you with my bare hands!" she yelled out, renewing her determination to get out of her entombment as she focused on anger to the point that she was actually striking the sides of the dirt walls with her fists as she made her way along, her skin tearing and bleeding.

"Oh God, Rollie! She has our son!" Angie cried out, stopping as she flailed her fist one more time against the dirt wall, her lungs choking on the little air she breathed in and her tears. Her balance suddenly was shaken as her arm disappeared into the loosened dirt that she had forcefully struck. She found herself falling literally into the wall and beyond…

Stu had managed to persuade Rollie that he should at least be the one to knock on Judd Tolsen’s door at his trailer back at the Seven Pines location. Judd would allow him entrance, no doubt, being a co-conspirator in helping spook the set. Rollie stood behind him, his fists clinched tightly as he had his own plan of action once he got inside.

No one answered but the lights were on. It was almost seven in the evening and it was possible that Tolsen had gone somewhere for dinner.

"Look, Stu, I can’t wait! I have this feeling…something about this map of the plantation. It’s a hunch but since Vanduran was knocked down into a tunnel of sorts on the plantation by whom we assume was Mrs. Gallagher, it might be the same place she took Angie and Aidan?" Rollie voiced, slapping the map into the Treasury Agent’s hand.

"This is an old dry well, Rollie. The plantation foundation historians believe there was a tunnel that once ran down to the James river from the house for protection during Indian raids in the late 1600’s, early 1700’s. Later, I think, they used it for smuggling stuff. But I checked that out. It was sunk in the forties, due to some kid falling into it. They blasted down the whole thing," Stu explained, shaking his head.

"What if it didn’t all collapse?"

"What if, what if? I’m sick of it all, Tyler. There isn’t any tunnel to the house anymore, there aren’t any ghosts and there isn’t any damn gold!"

Rollie looked hard at Stu as they sat in the van;

"You know mate, it seems when the tough gets going…"

"Yeah, yeah- the going gets tough…tell me about it. I’ve already gotten this lecture, man."

"You saw the bloody ghost yourself, remember that!" Rollie warned him, his finger pushed firmly into Stu’s chest.

"I’ve lost it, Tyler…the whole thing…"

"Maybe if you had something real to lose, Stu…my wife and child ARE my life, not gold, not suspects, not cases."

Stu sniffed back his slightly running nose, not wanting to let this man see how close he was to losing it; "you know Tyler, I kinda had a thing for Angie…"

"Yeah, Stu, I know…" Rollie replied, somewhat in a hurry and not what Stu expected him to say as he suddenly jumped out of the driver’s seat and made his way down the steps of the van.

Stu stood up, clearing his throat again and looked in the direction that Rollie was headed. Tolsen had returned home.

When she had finished screaming and falling, she found she was still standing, although at a slant and she straightened up, feeling her way around. Strangely enough, her feet were covered in clutter and every time she moved, she heard brittle crunching beneath them. Stooping, she fanned her hands out in order to feel her way around and find out what she was stepping on. Her hand felt something smooth and concave, like a large rock and she fumbled over it, realizing as she picked it up that it was not extremely heavy. Her hands touched the surface in exploration and suddenly, her fingers disappeared into a crevice. She instantly pulled her right hand back and then gently, felt again the outside edge of the crevice. Moreover, another circular crevice was not far away, the same level and approximately an inch or so over. As she moved her fingers down, she felt a sharp ridge and then gasped, throwing it down. She had felt a ridge of protrusions, even or so and what it made her realize was that she had been holding a human skull. She had come down and felt the row of teeth still held in the jaw.

"Oh God, oh God," she cried out, "I want to see where I am, help me!" she screamed and then stumbled as she moved in pure terror, falling against what she knew was the remains of a human being. She screamed again and rolled herself up, with her knees to her chest, her arms hugging her legs as she shook in shock.

"You must take the torch…" a voice said soothingly in the dark near her.

"What? Is someone there, help me!" she cried out, trying to stand and feel around her.

"Light the torch, you know how, there…" the voice said again and Angie reached out, feeling the surface of wood, a stake of some kind perched into the rock. As she felt it further up, her hands came upon material of some sort with an oily feel. As she drew her hand back to her nose, she realized that it was indeed, an oil residue. It was a torch!

"Oh God, what do I have?" she said, suddenly feeling in her pockets. Usually, she carried a book of matches for doing small soldering jobs on equipment. She was always losing lighters. She was careful with the matches, always leaving them in her jean pockets instead of laying them down. Aidan was an adventurous boy. She washed more matchbooks than she used them. She fumbled, crying out as she felt nothing but resumed, telling herself not to panic. She finally reached with her thumb into the small watch pocket of her jeans as she searched her deep pocket again. Her thumb hit paydirt.

Carefully, she opened the matchbook and felt for matches. There was a least a row, if not more and she began to pull them out, striking the back cover and realizing with horror that this book had been washed. They were not lighting.

"I can’t do this anymore! Oh damn it! This is useless, help me!" she stammered out as she clenched her teeth and pulled the last match from the book and instead of using the back of the book, ran the match against the rough handle of torch wood. The blue flame ignited, appeared and wobbly turned to a light yellow as she laughed hysterically and gingerly moved it to the oil soaked cloth.

"Don’t you fail me, you hear!" she told the torch, knowing with some comic relief that it probably would. The torch lit up in a wild burst of flame and Angie held it tightly, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Oh yeah, this is much better," she said, her heart leaping into her throat. She found herself in a recessed alcove, a dozen or more displaced skeletons at her feet and as she pushed past the mass of bones near her feet saw the object that all the skeletons seem to reach their bony arms towards; a chest of wood, fractured, the lead braces bent outward from the cave in and the ton of dirt and rock that had fallen. She stepped closer, almost gingerly to see what was amassed within the chest and lying around the edges. They were gold coins!

"Whoa! Look at this!" she whispered to no one, forgetting her voice guide as she reached down and picked up a coin. It was an old liberty head gold piece.

"MINE!" The rattle of sound rushed by her and through her, chilling her to the bone as she dropped the coin and looked around startled.

"TOLSEN!" Rollie shouted, as Stu jumped out of the van behind him, catching up to see that Judd had turned around at the call of his name. He was holding his trailer key in his hand.

"Tyler," Judd said, calmly and returned to opening his door, "you have some new creepy gear for me to get abused with?"

"Actually," Rollie began and roughly slapped the top of Tolsen’s shoulder, pushing him inside the trailer.

"Actually," Stu interrupted, pulling his badge from his pocket and getting in between Rollie and Tolsen; "you’re under arrest for illegal laundering of monies between Logitech Corporation and Quantum Productions."

"What?" Tolsen’s face fell from one of annoyance with Rollie to one of startled surprise directed at Stu; "Look! I was hired to act in this movie, that’s all! I did what the director told me to do along with YOU, Stu. I don’t know about any illegal laundering of money? What’s that about?"

"Where’s your mother, Tolsen?" Rollie interjected as Stu put his hand to Rollie’s chest to warn him to back off.

"Back off, Tyler!" Stu warned him, and then began to handcuff Judd, beginning an oration of rights. Judd was starting to realize that Rollie Tyler had a different quarrel with him than that of Stu.

"I didn’t do it, Rollie! I didn’t do that stuff to your wife. My mother got out of hand, you gotta understand! I haven’t seen her since I told her I wouldn’t have anything to do with her the other day. She went over the top when she whacked that cop fiancé of Lucinda’s the other day, and told me that she was going to clean up loose ends. I didn’t have anything to do with it, I swear!"

"You realize anything you may say may be used against you?" Stu told Judd as Rollie looked at the treasury agent in anger.

"What about Angie’s rights, Aidan’s rights?" he asked, as Judd looked up surprised.

"Look, Stu- okay, obviously I did some things here that were ah, less than ethical for shooting a movie, okay- but I draw the line at killing people and setting fire to things just to get some kooky inheritance. My mother is obsessed, crazy!"

"My name is Agent Westburn, Tolsen!" Stu warned as Rollie put his hands together almost in a praying gesture before dropping his arms and leaned toward Tolsen in a more non-threatening posture.

"Judd, your mother has taken my wife and child! I think she has done something to Angie. Think, will you? Do you know where this old tunnel system is at the plantation?" Rollie asked, his voice somewhat strained.

Stu shook his head and shut his mouth. Rollie Tyler was not going to stop questioning Tolsen even if there were a dozen agents in the room.

"Rollie, I’ve called back-up. We’re rounding up everyone tonight. Sanderlin is coming down tonight," Stu said, in exasperation. He hadn’t gathered everything he wanted for the charges but there really was sufficient evidence to start with.

Rollie didn’t seem to even hear him. His eyes had never left Tolsen’s as he watched the young actor swallow hard, weighing his fate.

"Look, all I know is that she had some old blueprints, researched the plantation’s historical papers and yeah, she knew where the old tunnels were located. Maybe you should search her room?" Judd asked, shaking his head.

"Give us an address," Rollie snapped back at him, still not taking his gaze from him.

"The Madison Hotel, room 526…I think. Look, she’s been into this stuff since I was a kid, Tyler. There wasn’t a day that went by that she wasn’t reminding me about ‘my inheritance’ and how our family had been robbed. Frankly, when this movie came along, I left Tennessee and her, hoping she would get over it but she got worse. She followed me here, set up residence at the hotel and even got a job herself as your nanny. I did the spook gags with Sanderlin for the money, that’s it! My mother had this crazy obsession with getting close to your family, not me! She had some new ranting about the fact that you were interfering with my inheritance. She never explained it and to tell the truth, I never asked her about it. I saw her a couple of times, sometimes, she had your son with her and it was always the same; the Eventyn inheritance. I could care less about some damn falling down house! I always wanted to just act and have some money, okay?"

"Okay, okay…Tyler- did you get what you need here?" Stu asked, hearing the sounds of car doors outside. There were police as well as unmarked cars pulling up.

"Just one more thing, Tolsen! Did you help plant that bloody Mescaline in my hotel room?" Rollie asked, the memory of Angie unconscious and how they had reacted to the drug surfacing; changing his posture to a more threatening one.

Judd shut his eyes and then lowered his head; "I didn’t know about it, NO! I knew only after she had done it, when she came to the set looking for me. Yes, I was the one that brought it in and I did use it on the set, in the catering coffee for the spook show, that's it! She had overheard that police captain talking to you about her and getting information about us. I was floored! She was totally irrational. I didn’t want anything more to do with her, okay?"

Rollie backed away. He looked first at Stu then back to Judd as the door suddenly banged open and several agents burst inside.

"I’m going to her hotel room, Westburn," Rollie told Stu in a warning more than anything else.

"You go with me or not at all," Stu replied sharply, "I’ve worked too long on this case to let an amateur ruin my crime scenes."

"Amateur?" Rollie repeated, indignant but then backed up and walked out of the trailer to go back to his van. He was through with all of them, the police Gods and Federal agent Gods, "I just wanted to make a bloody movie and a living!" he said, under his breath, and with that he swung into his seat and turned on the engine.

Angie knew and felt the horror of the spirit that had invaded her collapsing tomb. She also realized that she was standing in the recess where the depraved Union officer and his men had died. Her torch wobbled in her clenched fist as she trembled, casting its light around enough to see the remains of rotting clothing, buttons, uniform insignias intertwined with bone or lying against the ground. Obviously, they had stolen this gold, probably from the plantation and somehow, the tunnel had collapsed around them, killing them all. Although the cold penetration of the presence of his spirit was still there, she swallowed hard and forced herself to look carefully for his remains. Somehow, she had a feeling that she needed to find what was left of his skeleton.

"Give it back to me!"

The walls and ground around her began to shake as she jumped back further into the wall behind the broken chest of gold. That voice she knew as well…Siobhan’s!

A horrible sound emitted through the dirt walls and splintered wood beams. Dirt poured down from the fractured ceiling as Angie coughed. The sound was not of the earth falling but of the clash of entities that she could not fathom. Once again, she found herself sinking to her knees, forced to watch the unthinkable as the battle against evil and good raged before her eyes.

She saw the phantom men, pulled up from their remains, their spirits once again reprising their parts, rushing, pulling the heavy chest through the tunnels. She saw Siobhan, her face bruised and swollen, her dress torn as the officer that had held her captive dragged her along at times ahead of his men. She saw him holding her, choking her as he pushed her into a recess of the tunnel, begging for her life as he chained her arms behind her back. She screamed her husband’s name as her captor pushed her to the ground, his boot on her throat. The looks on his men’s faces were reduced to animalistic ones, horrified, exhilarated and a few, afraid. He held above her for her to see, a dangling pendant, the cameo that had been taken from her, letting her see it as she felt the breath leave her body, felt the life leave her. His face was totally etched in a madman’s euphoria.

Angie had almost stopped breathing, the battle to not pass out almost lost again in the midst of the supernatural forces around her. Totally beyond comprehension, she was reduced to her own primal urge to save herself, her unborn child as she screamed herself. She fell to the ground, a giant crack ripping apart the ground near her. As her visual field was now held to the ground with the sight and sounds of chaos above and around her; she was left to stare straight in front of her. She lay directly in front of the remains of a skeleton that had been left intact compared to the crushing injuries of the others, one that still bore the manacles of iron.

"Siobhan…" she moaned, reaching out toward it and as she moved forward, on her belly she heard her guide’s voice amid the haunting whirl of cries and anguish;

"Return it to me…please help me…!"

Angie only knew of one thing now that had tortured Siobhan at her death, and beyond. The truth about the child of rape left as heir to Eventyn had been exposed when she read the papers at the church. No, it was the vision of her assailant with her one possession of love still held above her in conquest that was the reason that Siobhan still remained. The possession of that pendant by her rapist, her debaucher, had stripped her morality, the sanctity of her marriage to Hunter and she remained to see that returned. The pendant must be somewhere on the ground, possibly still in the hand of her killer.

Am I going to die here? Angie thought bizarrely, as she thought of everything she had been through to end up alone, buried alive in the former tomb of something so horribly displayed to her by elements she still couldn’t comprehend.

But it was Rollie’s voice and image that came to her in a split second, not Siobhan’s; the same words he had spoken to her so long ago; pleading for life and her love; "…you know what people do for love…."

She grunted then, fear removed as she raised herself up to her knees, telling herself it was all a dream, not reality- to ignore the earth falling apart around her, to not listen to the horrifying sounds or feel the chill of death.

The torch was blazing on the floor beside her and she picked it up, stepping over the smoldering crack in the earth as she stepped gingerly beyond Siobhan’s remains, firmly on her feet now.

"Where are you, you bastard?" she yelled out, hyperventilating, her air almost completely gone.

A growl of anger seized her ears, something she could not ignore but she surveyed the recesses near Siobhan’s fallen skeleton. He would have been near, she knew. Seeing something catch the light of the reflected torch in the wall, she pushed against the force that had come up to block her. It was as though the image of the spirit of Siobhan’s captor had suddenly taken his fist and hit her squarely in the stomach. And then it hit her again, lower, against her lower abdomen and she crumpled.

No! Not my child! she thought in fear, suddenly feeling the pain.

"Resist him, you are the stronger. He can not win. He knows… he knows you carry a child of mine own blood…!"

"Siobhan?" Angie cried out, hearing her guiding voice and not understanding, "I don’t know what to do! I can’t get past him!" She rocked on her knees again, shutting her eyes as the horrible hiss of a wind started and stirred around her. The cold was invading her.

There was a sound, a jarring noise coming from somewhere in the recess and Angie looked through the whirlwind that had formed around her as if a gateway had opened. She could see that the object that had reflected in the torch light had become clearer; a small oval stone, encased in gold framework and as its chain twirled again around and around, tightening and then releasing, it faced her! It was the cameo pendant and the chain was entwined around the bony fingers of a skeletal hand that had protruded through the caved in wall.

"Take it now!" Siobhan told her weakly, as if her spirit was being absorbed by the whirlwind that surrounded her; his power trying to take everything again.

Angie cried out in fright and pain but she knew that her salvation was her own mind, her love for Rollie, Aidan and yes, her unborn child. She wasn’t about to lose all of that because of some evil that hadn’t gotten its due yet. She thought of Loubar then, his supreme smile of satisfaction when he had revealed who he was in the loft after he had hit her. His power over her had almost destroyed her. She transferred that, her memories echoing inside her mind as her hand reached out through that gateway until it grew and her shoulder pushed through even as the whirlwind intensified; rattling her teeth as it whipped against her face and she struggled to push her head through.

There was suddenly a light, bright and warm, calming to her as her fingers stretched forward and she touched the pendant. She felt no more pain or fear even as the evil howled in desperation around her. As she pulled the pendant away from the skeletal fingers, they crumbled. There was a sound as if the physical world was sucked away by a huge vacuum and Angie shut her eyes.

A hand reached out from the light as Angie opened her eyes for she thought she had died. The hand was warm as it touched her face, her cheek and she surrendered to the embrace that engulfed her.

It was morning. Angie woke, her eyes blinking slightly as she turned to see a mass of dark brown, wavy hair close to her face.

She moved her leg slowly until it found the warmth of another leg beside her and she turned slightly, taking her hand and moving it up across the chest, the swirl of soft hair and her grasp tightened as she felt the heart beating soundly, strongly.

"Hey…you awake?" Rollie asked, turning then and facing her.

"Yes…did you sleep at all?" she answered with a question.

"Couldn’t…I wanted to watch you all night. It was worth the loss of a little sleep."

Angie smiled softly, almost shyly and Rollie moved his face closer to hers, his lips seeking hers softly.

"Aidan?"

"He’s here, sweetie, over beside me. He complained it got too hot between us last night…"

Angie raised her head and leaned over Rollie to see Aidan peacefully asleep, his hands cupped together against his little chest.

"Think he’ll remember much of what happened?" Angie asked, her head coming back to rest against her pillow.

"He told me he went on a walk with you and Mrs. Gallagher, that’s all he remembers…oh, and that you spelt his name with acorn caps…" Rollie replied, smiling as he kissed her nose and then her lips again.

"It’s over then…" Angie said, sighing and she raised her arms up over her head, looking at the ceiling.

"Yeah…remind me to send a nice little bottle of cognac to Charles for helping me find that dry well entrance…." Rollie told her, flipping on his back and staring up at the ceiling as well.

"You never even got past the plantation…" Angie marveled, smiling

"Nope, but I was pumping the pedal as hard as I could to get to that blasted woman’s room and find something to find you, anything!"

"You said you heard something, a voice?"

"Ah, well, maybe my own…sorta peculiar, though…I kept going over and over in my head about how I could talk to you right then and there…you know, maybe use my x-ray vision to find you…" Rollie said, chuckling.

"You didn’t actually say anything to me, did you?" Angie asked, thinking back to what she had heard or what she thought she had heard.

"Nah…you know I don’t believe in that mumbo-jumbo stuff…" he said, shaking his head.

"Yep, you used plain old deductive Tyler reasoning…" Angie told him, watching the sunlight as it began to dance across the ceiling from the gape in the curtains.

"Yep, it’s amazing what people will do for love…" he replied, but he said it with a softness that made her turn her head, her eyes meeting his with such clarity and a depth that only the two of them could understand the power of their bond.

The warmth of his lips parting her own, the feel of him against her, entwined with her was something that she would never forget as she tightened her fingers around the curls of his hair that rested against the nape of his neck.

EPILOGUE
 
 

"Am I glad to be back in New York City!" exclaimed Lucinda, sinking into the loft’s couch as Angie and Rollie sat across from her on the loveseat.

"How’s the decorating coming?" Angie asked, drawing her feet up as she nuzzled into Rollie’s shoulder as he put his arm around her.

"GAD, that man has no taste! It’s taken me over two months to just get some decent things put in that place! And his color schemes are awful. Brown and beige and ugh, orange!" Lucinda replied, making a face.

"Sounds like the early eighties!" Rollie commented, leaning his head back and smiling.

"Yeah…well, I think Marvin lost his virginity about that time, it’s transfixed itself in the furniture and era of the time!" Lucinda replied, giggling.

"So, how ‘bout the premiere? Are you going with Marvin or John Grant?" Angie asked, grinning as she leaned forward as best she could.

"What’s left of Quantum wants me to appear with John for media but you know what I told that bunch of crooks, don’t you?" she snorted.

"Well, it’s going to be big…and in a way, we have good ‘ole Gary Sanderlin for that! The tourism to that plantation is going to be astronomical!" Rollie said, rubbing Angie’s back as she moaned.

"You look sooooo BIG, does it hurt?" Lucinda asked, frowning as she tenderly touched Angie’s very much expanded abdomen.

"Um, not so bad…my back, yeah! But hey, why don’t you experience it for yourself, sister. You’re in between movies now!" Angie told her, rubbing herself like a Buddha for luck, sticking her tongue out wickedly.

"No way! This body is insured for…" Lucinda began but Marvin Vanduran interrupted her as he approached the living area, having just come in.

"My personal use…" he snapped like the Captain he was.

"So, hey- heard from Stu Westburn lately, Cap?" Rollie asked, as Vanduran looked positively uncomfortable staring at Angie as she continued to make swirling patterns with her hands across her very pregnant abdomen.

"Uh, in fact, Tyler- yes I have. He told me that the indictments have all gone through but that, as you can guess, Sanderlin came out of it, smelling like at least a week old rose in brackish water. He’s out on bond and well, will be sitting there beside my wife tonight at the premiere."

Rollie laughed, as Angie put her feet up on the coffee table and sighed; "and Judd…and his mother?"

"Oh, there is something on that. As you know, I have kept in touch with the FBI in Richmond and well, seems that Judd got off on a reduced sentence for his part in the corruption stuff. As for Mrs. Gallagher, she is in the prison ward of the state mental facility outside of Richmond. The sentence was thirty-five years for kidnapping and attempted second degree murder…" Vanduran began to explain.

"I don’t know if she really thought she was going to kill someone…" Angie interrupted but the look on all of her friends’ faces and Rollie’s made her quickly stop, "okay, okay…she was one sick woman with some bizarre ideas. Still, she gave Aidan to Charles before she barricaded herself up on the third floor of Eventyn that night."

"That, we can be thankful for…" Rollie agreed, but shivered slightly and put his hand on the nape of Angie’s neck.

"Still, there’s some more news that came out of Mrs. Gallagher’s sick and twisted delusions….Stu did some study of all the paperwork the woman kept over the years and passed down in her family. You know, the woman is still trying to claim she is heir to the Eventyn estate…." Marvin continued, his voice suddenly animated.

"What’s that? You find out why she thought me and Angie had something to do with all that? I still don’t understand that bizarre train of thought of hers!" Rollie asked as he leaned back, resting his head on the back of the loveseat.

"Stu was going to call you himself, but well, thought you were still a bit torqued by his claim on the gold from the dry well," Vanduran added, with a twinkle in his eye.

"What a guy! I don’t care and never did a bit about that bloody gold! I told him then and well, since it was Angie who really found it finally, I would think he’d be more worried about what she thought of him," Rollie said, yawning.

"He can have it, Rol. I really don’t want to think about all the people that suffered over that money. I couldn’t live with it. It was blood money. A lot of people suffered over it," Angie said, her eyes downcast as she moved back against him, relaxing then.

"Greedy Gus, bloody Federal God!" Rollie said, under his breath.

"Um, that’s Rollie’s new word for Federal agents…now the police…that’s different!" Angie said, grinning as Vanduran blanched.

"That would be, Police Gods, I guess…." Vanduran surmised as Lucinda laughed and said;

"That’s what you say every night, Marvin…what a God you are!"

"Okay, that’s enough, woman of GAB," Marvin told his wife of seven months in warning; "anyway," he continued, focusing on Rollie again, "the interesting thing he found out is that there is indeed, another heir. Mrs. Gallagher had done her homework and well, that person, Rollie, is YOU."

"Come off it! I’ve had about enough of this bull!" Rollie said, rolling his eyes.

Angie was strangely quiet, in fact, she seemed to be in deep thought.

"Seems she had researched extensively back into Siobhan’s family, the O’Bralley’s. I can’t believe it! That crazy woman did a lot of deep digging…and well, it was found that your mother was a descendent of Siobhan O’Bralley Eventyn.

"My mother!"

"Yes, her maiden name, Tyler…what was her name?"

Rollie was stung with a sudden memory of his mother, her laughter, her wit and charm and still, he couldn’t think…he was just a boy when she had died, hardly in his teens. He hadn’t paid attention to things like a mother’s maiden name! Dingo never told him much.

"Dunno, Cap…this is embarrassing and hardly possible!" Rollie blurted out. Angie had taken his hand then, still not saying a word.

"Your mother’s maiden name was Braley and as such with many Irish that had been shipped over to Australia during the famines and such, the name had changed with time, the Irish of it dropped in spelling as well as sound. Your mother was a direct descendant from Siobhan’s family, her sister in fact…" Vanduran announced, and as such, being a descendant of O’Bralley makes you an heir as well, Tyler!"

"Bloody hell!" Rollie said in shock.

"That’s what she meant!" Angie suddenly said, her mouth opening in surprise and acknowledgement. Rollie looked at her with surprise as well for he knew that she was talking about Siobhan, or the ghost of Siobhan.

"What? Who?" Vanduran asked, sternly.

"Oh, nothing…just something from that night…" Angie explained as Lucinda took the ball and ran with it;

"You know, Angie…you never did tell me what happened in that tunnel that night. I know you were sorta out of it when Rollie got you out of there…"

Rollie shot Lucinda a warning glance. Since he and Charles had gotten out to the dry well, and literally clawed their way through the exposed tunnel walls to the brilliant light that made it easy to find Angie, he hadn’t really wanted Angie to talk to other people about what she had gone through or what he had seen himself. He didn’t know how they would take it and for that matter, he didn’t know still how he was taking it. Angie had stayed pretty much quiet on the matter and he didn’t press her.

Siobhan’s words came back to Angie in that moment; "he knows you carry a child of mine own blood…." And she smiled then, looking back at Lucinda as she touched her abdomen for the baby had moved.

"I’ll tell you when you are pregnant, Luce…right about where I am right now…" Angie said, and suddenly made a face, shifting on the couch, uncomfortably.

"Then, I’ll have to wait a long time!" Lucinda said, moaning as Marvin Vanduran looked at his wife with a raised brow.

"You know…you aren’t getting any younger, my dear…"
 
 

After the Vandurans had left, readying themselves for the huge media event of that evening, Rollie was putting on his tux and humming to himself. Aidan was fascinated with the new babysitter, a poor teenager who had been scrutinized to the nth degree for references and family background. The Tylers, the girl thought, were a very weird couple indeed and very overprotective!

Angie had just walked into the bedroom, her hands behind her, bracing her back as she stood in front of Rollie who was sitting on the edge of the bed, trying to polish his shoes.

"Uh, Rol…would you mind if we don’t make the premiere tonight?" Angie asked, biting her lip slightly.

Rollie looked up at his wife. Sometimes he had to blink twice seeing her like this, so pregnant and so unlike his Angie…Manny’s daughter, his assistant…his lover…his wife. Everyday was new to him now as he thanked heaven above for the right to see her grow like this and to carry their child.

"You constipated?" he asked, making a funny face.

Angie gave him the Angie look, the one he actually loved to see as she tried to cross her arms in front of her, not exactly able to at the moment.

"NO! It’s just that I thought you might want to do something else tonight instead…" she said, gritting her teeth.

"How ‘bout mad, passionate sex then?" he asked, looking up at the abdomen that took up his entire field of vision.

"How about this, daddy!" she told him then with a groan and lifted her long gown up, exposing her wet legs.

"Bloody hell! Angela, what’s the matter with you?" he asked, jumping up and turning around in a circle like a mad man.

"Nothing, nothing that can’t be fixed. Get your coat, and stop that running around. You act like you’ve never been through this before!" she ordered him as she touched his arm and then touched his face.

"This time, I get to see it…the whole wonderful show…" he told her, his eyes focused on hers as he smiled and kissed her quickly.

"That’s good, wanna change places?" Angie asked, leading him out the doorway.

"You know…I saw that light again, when she was born…" Angie said, tired but completely happy.

"Oh! That one…" Rollie replied, sitting in a chair beside her bed with his chin resting on the bed, holding her hand as he looked up at her.

"What did you really see, Rollie?"

"I saw…the most amazing sight, sweetie…you standing there and a beautiful woman releasing your hand all in bright light with this other amazing light, a hand reaching out, the man from that portrait…he was there and he was leading her away from everything…it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen…"

Rollie’s voice was almost in a whisper and he felt Angie’s hand rest on the top of his head, stroking the top of his hair as he heard her release the smallest cry;

"I just saw you, Rollie…" Angie replied, a tear rolling down her cheek.

He looked up at her, raising his head and leaned over, kissing her warm cheek and forehead.

"Think Siobhan will grow up thinking we’re crazy?" he asked, grinning that Tyler smile at her.

"I hope so…" Angie replied and kissed the most incredible man; not the fact that he was the best F/X man in the world, but that he was the father of her two children.