Bluey barked as he entered, "Lights Bluey, it’s dark in here!" he told the little robot dog, as he stumbled over something as he walked inside. The lights came on then, in an instant and he looked down to see he had stepped on a half-eaten apple lying on the floor.

"Angie?"

There was no response and he walked over to the kitchen. Nothing seemed amiss and he looked around, calling her name again. There was no note on the table, nothing on the computer. It had not even been turned on. With a frown, he ran up the stairs thinking maybe she had taken a nap. The bed was empty, made from that morning. He peeked into the bathroom as well.

"Angie?"

He shouted for Bluey; "Phone, speaker- call out- Detective Sanchez…"

The telephone speaker came on, it dialed, and Mira answered, her voice sounding harassed and busy.

"Mira? It’s Rollie…you and Angie there? Are we on for tonight?"

"Rol? Uh- we were and then we hit a snag. Angie’s not here. I haven’t talked to her since we left the hospital."

"She’s not here either. The car is here. Maybe she went out for a ride.." but he leaned over the railing and saw her bike leaning against the post by the front door, "this is weird, Mira. I can’t find her. There was a half-eaten apple by the front door, but she should be here."

"A what? An apple? What? You think her wicked stepmother has poisoned her?" Mira replied, laughing but Rollie did not laugh, "Come on, Rollie- I’m sure she just stepped out for a moment- maybe she went rollerblading or something."

"I don’t like it! What’s this about a snag? Angie told me you had it wrapped up after what Terzis had for you at the hospital?" Rollie asked her, checking the answering machine at the same time.

"Get this, the captain wants more evidence. He wants to catch Czewt in the act of distributing the hashish," Mira told him, angrily.

"So, we just go and get the goods on him, tonight," Rollie told her, frowning as he found no messages on the machine.

"That’s just it! We went over to the Garden earlier and his booth is empty. The tents are gone!"

"What?" Rollie was starting to get a feeling that somehow, Czewt’s abrupt withdrawal from the Expo and Angie not being in the loft, were connected.

"I hear that mind of yours, Rollie. Angie is not in trouble. Come on, he didn’t know it was you- Rollie Tyler. And he certainly didn’t know who Angie was that evening…"

"I dunno, Czewt has got something more than distributing drugs going for him, Mira. Call it psychic power or magic…I can feel it just like when Mangela comes."

"What? Like a disturbance in the force?" she replied, flatly and then laughed at her comment from Star Wars, but Rollie was serious.

"Mira! Listen to me, something is not right here, okay?"

"Okay, Rol- sorry. Look, Frank is out now, tracking down a good lead on where Czewt has gone. He’s down at the Plaza where he has been staying, remember?"

"Yeah, hope he finds him."

"For all our sakes, and we get his whole operation under wraps. I am not going to let this man keep this thing up. Besides, we told the Canadians we would stop him here, in New York."

"You’d better get cracking then, Detective," Rollie said, sitting on the bed, and rubbing his eyes, "I’ll talk to you later. Call me when you find out what’s up and if you need me to help, okay?

"You know you’ll be the first one I call, Rol," she told him, "and hey, Angie will turn up, you got that new husband jitters thing going, that’s all."

"Yeah, maybe…talk to you later," and she hung up as he told Bluey to hang up as well.

Rollie stood up, walking over to the closet and opened the door. He half expected Angie to be inside. After all, it was the only place left. He ran his hand across her section of clothes, smiling. Not much here, he thought as he smelled her scent of lavender spray coming from something she had worn earlier that week. He touched the dress, closing his eyes for a moment and then shut the closet door with a bang.

He went back downstairs and checked for her blades. They too, were near the front door. Spying the apple, he picked it up, noting she had bitten it at least twice. He walked back to the kitchen with it and started to throw it in the trash when he saw the other apple, not touched in the garbage. Frowning, he pulled it out and found nothing wrong with it. Why had she thrown it away? He opened the refrigerator door and gasped.

Wedged into the refrigerator, the shelving for the lower half removed, was Angie. She was staring at him with lifeless eyes, her wrists slashed and blood starting to pour out of the bottom onto his shoes and the floor.

"Oh God!" he cried out, unable to move, his heart in his throat as he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t cry out anymore. He sank to his knees, his mouth trying to move but he was reeling back and forth, gasping for air.

His eyes filled with tears, he forced himself to look back into the refrigerator and was shocked again. Now he saw nothing but all the shelves in place and food on each shelf.

Rollie sat back on the floor and put his hand to his forehead. He stared at the opened refrigerator and tried to gather his wits. What the bloody hell was going on here? he asked himself.

The door to the loft opened with a resounding bang as it slid back and he tried to stand up, a little dazed. Angie was standing at the entrance with Dr. Terzis. He was guiding her forward as she saw Rollie standing in the kitchen.

"Oh Rollie!" she cried out, walking over to him and embracing him tightly as he was speechless. He put his hand through her hair and gripped the back of it against her neck tightly, his face coming down touching hers, as she felt his tears and looked up at him, startled.

"Oh God, Dr. Terzis! He’s got it in him too!" she cried out as the old doctor stepped forward not wishing at first to intrude but seeing Rollie’s condition, went straight to work.

"Come over here, Mr. Tyler," he told Rollie as he took him to the chair by the table. Angie could see the apples, the one she had started to eat, and the one in the trash that Rollie had obviously pulled out sitting on the kitchen counter-top.

She walked over to where Dr. Terzis had seated Rollie and watched as the man put a light into Rollie’s eyes, one at a time. Carefully, he took a swab, rubbed it against Rollie’s fingers, and then, took another swab to his lips. He pulled out a small bottle from his pocket, dipped each swab into it, and laid them down on the table. Rollie, still not saying anything, turned his head jerkily around as Angie came over beside him, putting her arm around his neck and holding his head then, against her.

The first swab, the one that Dr. Terzis had used on Rollie’s fingers was turning green. The second one, remained white. Angie then showed him the apples on the counter. Without touching them, Dr. Terzis swabbed each one. The one that Angie had thrown into the trash was fine, the swab remaining white. The one she had started to eat, the swab had turned as green as the one tested against Rollie’s fingers.

"What is going on?" Rollie asked, finally managing to get a sentence out.

"More Hashish resin, pure!" Dr. Terzis remarked, as Angie’s lips tightened and she sat next to Rollie, and touched his face with her hand.

"Rol, the apple that you touched and I ate, it had been penetrated with Hashish resin. Both you and I got a nasty dose of it absorbed through our skin as a result of touching and biting into it. The hallucinations I had were out of this world, but I knew- I knew something was wrong when I saw him."

"Saw who?" Rollie asked her, starting to feel a little better, his mind not so cloudy.

"My father! He was standing right next to me after I closed the refrigerator door earlier, after eating some of the apple. I knew then, and after hearing that strange sound- you know the one I told you about?"

"Yeah, the locusts, right?"

"That’s it, when I saw him, I just knew then, that I was hallucinating and that Czewt or that gypsy girl had been here, tainted the apples."

"She called me, and I told her that I would pick her up, not to move!" Dr. Terzis told him, "We went back to the lab and I performed the test that you just saw here on her lips. Straight hashish- Indica pure. No wonder the hallucinations are so strong!"

"I knew you would be coming back and I wanted Dr. Terzis to test the apples. He graciously brought me back here," Angie said, smiling at him.

"Well, you two and this Gypsy monster fascinate me, really!" Terzis said, his eyes brightening.

"Why the bloody hell is he doing this?" Rollie asked, standing and then quickly, held onto his chair as Angie stood and told him to sit again.

"That I cannot answer, Mr. Tyler, however- I will tell you this. He knows exactly how much to scare with and then, how much to do more harm with- he is a genius at that," Dr. Terzis commented, admiring the swabs on the table.

"You bag those things up, Dr. Terzis. I will be calling Detective Sanchez so that she can pick them up as evidence," Rollie told him, pointing at the swabs.

As the old Doctor began to bag the swabs, Angie turned to Rollie;

"You okay?" She asked him, putting her forehead to his.

"Yeah, okay now. What a horrible site I saw under the influence of this stuff!" Rollie told her, wincing as she looked into his eyes. He looked frightened and that scared her as well.

"What was it?"

"Blood everywhere….coming out of the refrigerator," he told her, leaving out the fact that she had been inside, seemingly dead with slashed wrists.

She made a face, but felt he had seen more. He was so shaken up. But she didn’t pursue it any longer as he kissed her lips softly and grasped her hand.

"Well, I am done here," Dr. Terzis announced, with pride, "happy to help out again, dear boy," he told Rollie, shaking his hand.

"Yeah, great, Doctor. Hey, we must owe you something for all this trouble, certainly…" Rollie began.

"No, no- nothing! I rather enjoy all this new intrigue and adventure you two have been having. Please keep me informed on as much as you find out?" and with that, he smiled and turned to leave.

Angie ran over and showed him out as he smiled at her.

"You will tell Detective Sanchez that I am available if she needs me further?" Dr. Terzis asked of her.

"Of course, sir. Thank you again for all your help, really!"

"The pleasure has been mine, my dear. Take care of your husband there, the effects will be wearing off fully in the next half-hour, just like your symptoms dissipated. The nature of the beast, you know?"

She nodded and he left; she closing the door and having Bluey turn on security.

Rollie had stood up and walked over beside her, looked down at her. He took her by the shoulders and told her firmly; "Don’t you ever go off and not leave me a note or something, Angela, you hear me?"

"Great! I am hallucinating about my father and you are standing here acting like him!" She pushed his hands off her shoulders and walked away from him, angry.

"Sorry, I didn’t mean it like an order or something- it just scared me, that’s all," he told her as she continued to keep her back to him. She walked up the stairs, ignoring him.

"Angie, please?"

He followed her up the stairs where she had grabbed her overnight bag. She was pulling out the drawers of the bureau and putting some of her clothes in the bag. He watched in utter amazement, dumbfounded.

"Where are you going? Are you leaving because I scolded you?" he asked, putting his hands out to grab her as she moved to the closet.

She pushed away from him and looked at him sternly, "I am going back to my apartment tonight. I am just unnerved with being in this place. I am scared that the next thing I touch or eat will be poisoned with that stuff. I don’t understand how they got in here. I just want to feel safe, okay?"

"Ange, listen to me…okay, I can see how you must feel. I am here now, and you will be safe. We will throw out all the food. We’ll get Mira to check the whole place out."

"No, I just need some space, Rol. I want to go someplace I feel safe tonight. Please, don’t say anything more."

"But Ange, the apartment, you have got to understand- it is almost empty! The lease is up in what, less than a week?"

"I know! It’s still home to me. I can’t explain it, Rollie. Just let me go, okay?"

Rollie let out a deep breath and very slowly, very softly told her;

"Angie, when I couldn’t find you here tonight, when I looked everywhere for you and then, when I saw you in there, the blood everywhere, your eyes…" Rollie’s voice had cracked, as he clenched his jaw tightly and she could see his eyes, his total grief expressed with what he had seen.

"You saw me, what? Dead?" she asked him, realizing why he had been so shocked and speechless when she and Dr. Terzis had walked into the loft and found him in the kitchen.

He nodded, putting his arms out, up- showing her how he had seen her wrists slashed and she came over to him, and hugged him, dropping her bag.

"I’m sorry," she told him.

"I don’t want to come across as this overprotective jerk, you know," he told her, as she smiled then.

"Well, you know- you do! But I guess, you always have, Rollie," she continued, smiling.

"Do you still want to go?" he asked her.

"Yes!" she told him firmly.

"Then, I will come too. I’ll get them to sweep this place clean, okay?"

"Fine, and yeah- come on. It will be a first. Rollie Tyler spending the night in my little bed. I dreamed about it for some time, you know," she told him, and ran her hand through his tousled hair.

"Really?"

"Yes, since I was eleven years old," she told him, blushing.

"No!"

"Yes, now get some stuff and come on. I want outta here for tonight, at least. This place gives me the creeps."

"Okay, I’ll be down in a sec," he told her and she grabbed her bag and left him in the bedroom.

By the time they reached her old apartment, it was almost nine in the evening. They had packed some food and other essentials. Mira had been called and would assist with a sweep there that evening. She would call with the results. She didn’t ask why they had gone to Angie’s old apartment. She still had not heard from Frank as well.

"Bloody awful, the place looks so empty," Rollie said, upon entering the apartment.

"Yeah, most of my stuff is in the loft now, except the furniture and my old computer," she told him, shutting the door. She opened the window, taking a deep breath in as she looked down the twenty stories to the ground.

"Feel safe yet?" he asked her, looking out the window.

"Umm, it’s coming."

"Great, I’ll check out the rest of the place," Rollie told her and left her there standing by her window.

She missed the place. She missed her own place, where she felt so comfortable and private at times. Being married was like opening up everything to be exposed.

"You know, with all the hash we are getting in our systems, you would think we would be much more mellow, eh?" Rollie asked her, peeking back around from her bedroom at her.

"Yeah," she grinned, and went over to him, as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

"Life is always an adventure with you, Rollie!" she told him, pulling away from him as he rolled his eyes.

"But hey," he told her, "isn’t that what keeps the juices going?"

"I could use a drying out, thank you," she told him, firmly.

"Oh," he said, a look of hurt in his face, as he released her. She looked at him, putting out her lower lip in a pout to him.

"Come on, let’s get into my little bed," she told him, smiling.

"Oh, so that we can fulfill your childhood dreams?" Rollie asked her, grinning.

"No, so we can get some sleep, Mr. Tyler," she told him, punching him in the stomach with her fist.

Later that night, curled up together in bed, she smiled. She felt safe here. She felt like no one was trying to get her, poison her, bug her place, break in, or rob her. She felt like good old Angela Ramirez, in her own apartment, save one thing- Rollie Tyler slept next to her.

"I love you so much, Rollie," she whispered in the middle of the night, looking up at the ceiling, seeing the lights from the city dance across it.

"Hmm?" she heard him turn in his sleep, "dreaming again," he muttered and promptly began to snore slightly.

Yeah, the same dream I have been having for over thirteen years, she thought, looking up at the same ceiling and saying the same thing to thin air for all that time -until now.

She had just fallen asleep when the phone rang. Startled, she jumped up as did Rollie. Grabbing it, she answered, her voice groggy and semi-confused.

"Angie?"

"Yeah?"

"It’s Mira. I think you and Rollie should come down to the Plaza now."

"What?"

"Get Rollie, meet me down at the Plaza Hotel. We got some work to do right now!"

She handed the phone to Rollie, getting up, stumbling as she went for her clothes. Rollie got up too, finding his pants and slipping them on, yawning.

"Did she tell you anything more?" Angie said, wearily.

"No, just get there- damn it, and just when I thought all of this was going to go away!" he told her, grabbing his shirt and following her out of the bedroom door.