Carefully, he sat up rubbing his eyes and blinked. He felt like a ton of bricks had been dumped on top of his head. He bent over slightly, seeing Angie on her side in the floor next to him and smiled. Her right arm was bent under her face as a cushion with her left arm halfway up the side of the couch as if she had fallen asleep reaching for him. He stared at her small, left hand and touched the wedding band softly with his finger. He was still amazed everyday that she had married him and that they shared so much more then he could have ever realized. He carefully put her arm down by her side and stood up from the couch, being careful not to disturb her.

He touched his face then, and feeling a chin, smiled. There was hope, he thought with a grin and started for the steps to go upstairs to the bathroom. Once up there, he turned on the light and gave himself a good look. Though blotchy still, his face had returned to normal size, the swelling gone. The welts were almost gone, just irregular reddened areas now showed. He looked at his eyes and splashed cold water on his face.

"Man! What a night!" he said, grimacing as he thought of Nicholas Czewt and his little show last night. He turned on the shower and proceeded to get in and run the warm water over his head and stand there, still waking up.

"Can you pass me the soap?"

Rollie opened his eyes, a little startled as Angie stood in front of him, yawning. He stood to one side as she went under the water and groaned.

"Here you go," he told her, handing the bar to her as she started lathering up, "get your back for you?"

"Sure, hey- you’re face is looking good," she said, her eyes opened widely now as she looked up at him.

He nodded and got behind her, taking the bar from her and began to scrub her back.

"Umm, that feels good!" she said, pressing herself against the wall of the shower.

"Okay, okay- now you can repeat the favor," he told her, as they traded places.

She had to stand up on tiptoes to get to the top of his shoulders with the soap and she began to make swirl patterns with the soap as he smiled facing the wall; "Mmm, reminds me of the Japanese bathhouses…"

"Is this how those Geisha girls did it?" Angie asked, smiling behind him as she got up closer rubbing herself against him.

"Uh, no- they weren’t Geisha’s and by God, no! They did not do that…"

"What?"

"What you’re doing there…oh- don’t stop!" he told her as she started to pull away with a grin.

"Maybe you should do the front of me now," he said and turned around to face her.

"Hmm, let’s see," she said, slowly swirling the soap over his chest and abdomen, "you’re still under the influence of all that medication. I shouldn’t be doing this, huh?"

She had progressed her suds down now, and she looked up, seeing that Rollie was not answering her. She smiled and continued until he pulled her up, pressing her against him, sliding against her with impatient forcefulness. His mouth came down on hers, seeking her passion as she readily returned it.

"Oh, we got to get outta here," he said suddenly, breathless, "we’ll break this thing." He kissed her again, his hands sliding over her body with sensual roaming.

"Okay, we gotta get out," she said, coming up for air from his lips and she wriggled free from his embrace, grabbing a towel and throwing him one as well.

But Rollie didn’t dry off as he threw the towel to the floor and Angie let out a small cry of amazement as he grabbed her, and went crashing onto the bed. She had little time for worry of getting everything wet as her mind went crashing into a sea of desired longing. Rollie made love to her with a passionate force that was new to her and she responded with a side of her she hadn’t known existed before.

"Whew! You were amazing!" he told her, later that morning as the afterglow was dying. The realization that the day had started and was leaving them behind pressed on his mind now as she smiled, lying beside him.

"I have never felt this way, never…" she began, her eyes downcast, shyly as her cheeks flamed.

Rollie kissed the hot skin of her cheek, "Hey, look at me! I love you…and want you to know that you do things to me that I have never felt before either."

Her blue eyes looked up at him clearly and they looked at each other, face to face for a moment without saying anything. The phone rang suddenly and Rollie shouted for Bluey to make it on speaker.

"Where are you, Tyler? asked the impatient voice of Ben Poe.

Angie put her fingers to her lips to silence Rollie and she spoke up then to answer him; "Ben? Hi, it’s Angie. Rollie is on his way. He had a little problem with hives last night, spent some time in the ER, but he is much better and on his way, okay?"

"Great! Roddy is sulking in his trailer. We are behind schedule now by two hours. I could go on and on…."

"Oh, please don’t, Ben," Angie said, grinning as Rollie tiptoed over to pull on his clothes.

"Have a nice day," she added as she heard him put the phone down harshly.

"Oh! I hate it when people do that!" she told Rollie, grinning, "Okay- so you will be checking with me at lunch about what Mira has found out from Dr. Terzis?"

"Yeah, and I want my equipment back from him as soon as possible. If what you say is true, that the stuff that Frank brought back is no good- then, we may be back tonight for another round with Nicholas Czewt."

"No way!" Angie told him, getting up and starting to dress, herself.

"Ange! I am one very pissed off psychic right now…that jerk put something in my stuff! He poisoned you as well. I can’t let him just get away with that, you know."

"Yeah, yeah- but look, tonight, I want to get back in there. I have a bone to pick with that Eckvara chick!"

"Angie!"

"Nope- I want to get in there."

"We will see."

"Yes, we will," she answered, firmly and shook her hair out, following him down the stairs.

"Right, on the set in 15 minutes here, gotta go!" he told her, his mind ticking away as she grinned and kissed him goodbye.

"Break a leg, sweetheart…" she said, trying to mimic the way he did James Cagney.

"Oh, don’t try and change," he told her, wincing at her impression.

"Get outta here!" she told him, and he nodded, grabbing his keys in his teeth and bounded out the door.

"Now," she said, still feeling the butterflies in her lower abdomen from this morning’s lovemaking, "I am starving!"

 ************************************************************

Dr. Terzis called Angie at noon. He had not talked with Mira yet. He had taken no calls from anyone that morning. He liked the young couple that worked in the movies and was frankly, intrigued by their dilemmas of late. He was excited as he talked with Angie.

"Mrs. Tyler! Oh good, you are home."

"Yes, Dr. Terzis. Do you have good news?"

"I believe I do. You see, I did find traces of the inert state of residue powder from Cannabinol – the Hashish Indica, I believe you remember that name?"

"Yes! Where did you find it?"

"On the outside of the mask. It’s quite interesting, because the mask should have protected Mr. Tyler if the oily residue was sprayed or rubbed on the outside of the mask. I believe you said though, that Mr. Tyler took it off, and began rubbing his face, and then complained of being hot."

"Yes, he was complaining of it being hot, he asked for water and rubbed his face in the towel as well."

"Exactly, the other place I found the residue was in the towel. Most labs would not recognize the inert state of Cannabinol because it is so decomposed. But then, I was once a researcher in India working on herbal cures and remedies for the Crown back in the early fifties."

"Oh, I knew you were British but had no idea you worked in India. That must have been fascinating!"

"Oh, it was ever so! But, hashish, sadly was never really recognized for its full potential in the United States or in England."

"Doctor, it’s an illegal drug, you know?"

"Yes, yes- but I am talking about the medicinal hashish. It did do wonderful things!"

"Hmmm, you’ll have to tell me about that sometime…" Angie said, trying to hurry up the conversation for she was sure the old Doctor could talk all day, "I need to call the police and Rollie about this right away!"

"But of course, my dear, " Dr. Terzis said, "and, you want your things back, I imagine?"

"Oh, yes, sorry- Rollie does need them back. We are still doing that movie, you know."

"Quite, so I will expect you then sometime this afternoon?"

"Sure thing, Doctor- I’ll be there."

"Cherrio," he told her then, and she hung up, grinning.

She had been running the video from last night at the Expo. She had run the slow motion down to frame by frame when Czewt came up and leaned over the booth next to Rollie as DeeDee was getting her fortune told. Angie watched closely and watched as Czewt’s hand started to move up to make the Gypsy curse sign. Rollie had been standing, putting the crystal ball away. He was facing Czewt, talking back to him and suddenly, Angie froze the frame and repeated it again and froze it a frame ahead now. There was a puff of what looked like smoke but the spray from the sleeve of Czewt looked almost projectile in nature, not smoke at all. She moved the frames forward and saw the spray move and then, bingo! It hit Rollie’s face. She saw him shiver slightly, more like a twitch in slow motion. There it was! When she ran the video in regular time, there was no spray seen, no projectile hitting Rollie’s face, and Rollie just looked like he shook his head after Czewt made the sign.

She called Rollie, excited. He was in the van, eating his lunch waiting for her call.

"Slow down, slow down," he told her, laughing as she told him the news from Terzis and what she had seen on the video.

"Okay, great. Call Mira and get her the tape and pick up my stuff. I guess you will need a report from Terzis for Mira about the substance he found and my medical records about the blood smears, and all. God, I hope this afternoon goes well here. We had about ten retakes this morning with Roddy and crew. Seems he didn’t like the dailies from the day before of his new profile. And, he has been walking wide circles around me."

"Well, that should be no skin off your back," she said, giggling.

"Will this picture never end?" Rollie asked, pleading to her as she continued to laugh.

"I miss you, come home soon," she said, still warm from the morning.

"I can’t stand it, Angie. We got to work together. You haven’t found another job yet already, have you?"

"What, in this little time, between talking to Terzis and doing the video search and well, you this morning? I haven’t had time to even call around yet?"

"Don’t," he said, sternly, "I will try to be on my best behavior in the future and not get overprotective, okay? And, if I have my way- we will be done with this nasty picture in a couple more weeks. Then, together, we will do our next picture."

"Rol, I gotta do something. I don’t like being without a movie."

"I know, but hey, you could get that stuff you always wanted to do, done. You know, finish your apartment moving. Really sever the tie there, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess. Okay, gotta run then, Rol. I have to talk to Mira and go get your stuff."

"That’s my girl!"

"Rollie? You know, I really am missing you."

"I’ll have to do something about that when I get home," he said, sternly and heard her laugh. He hoped that it would always be like this as he hung up but knew, that life and marriage were an evolving thing with flows and ebbs, "Okay, going to go now…"

"I’m outta here," Angie replied, and hung up. She jumped up and called Mira whom she finally reached. After telling her the news from Dr. Terzis and about the video, Mira wanted to meet her and go with her to the hospital. Angie grinned after getting off the phone with her. Wait until Dr. Terzis met Mira! She thought to herself. She wanted to see that exchange and it would be free of charge!

Mira was impressed with Terzis. Her determination and zeal entertained him.

"Detective Sanchez, I must say, you are an extraordinarily fine listener with great deductive reasoning!" he told her, smiling as they stood in his lab.

"Well, thank you Doctor Terzis," Mira said, smiling at him. Angie watched the exchange with her mouth open. Mira was almost coy around him and Dr. Terzis was charming and flattering to her. Angie could have sworn the two were flirting with each other.

"Detective…" Dr. Terzis began.

"Oh, call me Mira, Dr. Terzis," she said with a smile again.

"Then, you must call me Hormoz," he replied, gratuitously, "you are on a quest, I see that now. I am fascinated with your plans of obtaining this slippery devil and his hashish business. You are like Jason, with your ship, the Argo- going after the Golden Fleece, no doubt."

"Oooh, Hormoz," she said, flattered, "you use Greek mythological symbology for my work! How wonderful and what a nice compliment."

"Mira, aren’t we all, but argonauts in search of our fleece?" Dr. Terzis spouted out, as Angie rolled her eyes in silence behind them.

"Indeed, Hormoz, indeed!" Mira replied, putting her hand to her heart.

"Okay, I can see we have had a stimulating, intellectual conversation here, but we really do need to get going, right Mira?" Angie asked, nudging her gently.

"Sadly, yes- we must go, but I will call again on you soon, Hormoz," Mira told him, as he took her hand in his and patted it gently.

"The pleasure will be mine," he told her, and then bowed to Angie, "and again, Mrs. Tyler, do give my regards to Mr. Tyler."

"I will," Angie said, and smiled. The two women walked out of the lab, Angie with the box of Rollie’s equipment and Mira with the proof she needed to bust Czewt that night.

"Okay, I am going to present this to Captain Vanduran and you and Rollie may not even have to show up tonight. I will call you and let you know!" Mira told Angie outside in the parking lot.

"Okay, I know Rollie will be disappointed if he doesn’t get to go tonight," Angie said, smiling as she shifted her weight with the box in her arms.

"We will see," Mira told her, " see you later and thanks!"

Angie drove Rollie’s car home. It was amazing that now, he let her drive it everywhere. Before they were romantically involved, his car had been strictly limited in access to her. She did remember however, how he had let Danni take it for a spin. Angie gripped the steering wheel, remembering Danni. Sometimes, her jealousy crept up on her and her imagination about Rollie being with other women got the best of her. She wondered if she was being childish about it or if she should just ask him. She had never been as experienced as she was sure the other women in his life had been. She wondered sometimes if she pleased him enough. Maybe she would ask him to rank her on a scale along with all the bimbos and find out where he placed her, she thought, and then shivered- maybe not!

She walked inside the loft and instantly she heard it, the sound of locusts buzzing in her ears. She looked around wildly, her heart pounding as she called for Bluey. He barked, coming up wagging his little tail and she smiled. The sound had gone away. She breathed a sigh of relief and put the box down. There was no way that Eckvara or Czewt would know who she was or where she lived. That would be impossible! She shook it off and walked into the kitchen. On the table, she noticed an apple. She was hungry but got a sinking feeling with the locust buzzing earlier that this apple, which she didn’t remember putting there was a poisoned one. She thought of Snow White and laughed, thinking to herself, you are losing it!

"I can waste one apple," she said and threw it in the trash, shrugging her shoulders. Instead, she reached into the refrigerator and grabbed her water. She took out another apple from the bin and bit into it, smiling. This is ridiculous, she told herself, trying to shake the feeling from her mind. She shut the refrigerator door and almost ran into …

"Papa!"