Greg stood in the library trying to decide what to do as he watched his wife go down to her parents' rooms. First he walked towards the steps to the living room, intending to join Reuben and Ruth up on the top floor. Then he changed his mind and walked back towards those to the family room where Alan and Cindy were spending time with Matt, Zackary, and their cousin Chris, and changed his mind again. He did this twice more before Alan came up the stairs.

"What's wrong, Dad?" Alan asked as he studied his father's face.

Greg studied his son in apprehension. "Mr. Abernathy didn't look well when they returned tonight. Susan is down checking on them. Mrs. Abernathy seems to think he may have had another small stroke."

"Oh," Alan said with a note of concern in his voice. "Should we be doing something?"

"That is what I'm trying to figure out. Susan has a nursing background. Of those in the family, she is probably the best equipped to assess the situation," Greg said, just as the main phone in the house rang.

Greg went to pick it up at the same moment it abruptly stopped. He listened for a moment or two then hung up.

"Who was that?" Alan asked.

"Apparently Susan talked her mother into calling her father's doctor. She's talking to him now," Greg explained.

Alan nodded. "Then, what do we do?"

"Wait," Greg said, trying not to look anxious.

"Well, come in and wait with us in the family room," Alan invited.

"Yes, of course," Greg said.

He did sit down with the rest of the family who were still awake in the family room, but his mind wasn't on the show they were watching. Reuben and Ruth came downstairs to join them in watching some late night TV, about the same time the boys drifted off to Zackary's room, leaving the adults on their own.

"How is he?" Greg asked as soon as Susan returned.

"Resting comfortably. He has the medicine with him he's supposed to take for things like this," Susan told him. "He took the pill immediately. I took his vital signs, relayed them to the doctor and he modified the dose for the injection he's supposed to give himself."

"Did you give it to him?" Greg asked.

"I did. Mom's supposed to, but she's too squeamish about things like this, and won't do it if Dad's not totally on board with it. He's back in bed and resting comfortably. I'm supposed to check his vitals again in another couple of hours. If we don't see what we expect to see, I'm supposed to call the doctor back right away," Susan explained.

"What happens then?" Alan asked as he listened to what Susan was saying.

"Greg told you what's happening?"

"He said your dad might have had another stroke?" Alan said.

"It looks like he did, but it also looks like it was a very minor one," Susan said. "As I've said, we've been able to do a preliminary treatment here. If that doesn't work, we take him to the local hospital ... tonight."

Greg nodded. "Then all we can do now is to wait?"

"Yes," Susan said. "I'm going downstairs to spend the time with Mom. I'll let you know," she promised and she disappeared back the way she came.

Greg watched her go before settling himself in the family room once again, and sitting down beside Ruth and Reuben on the sofa.

"Did I hear someone say something about having a stroke?" Reuben asked Greg as he joined them.

"Susan seems to think her father has had a minor one. She's been on the phone with his doctor and they're monitoring him now," Greg told him.

"Susan's father's had a stroke?" Ruth asked as her attention was captured by what they were saying.

"Possibly," Greg said. "He's had a series of very minor strokes since last August. Susan classifies them as mini-strokes. Apparently each one by themselves isn't very dangerous and generally speaking he's recovered from them well, but the affects do tend to be cumulative."

Ruth nodded. "That's what Papa died from, if you recall."

"I remember, while the children were in high school," Greg assured her. "It is never easy to see the health of one's parents decline in their later years."

"Indeed not," Reuben agreed.

They were still talking about their memories of similar situations from the past when they heard someone come in through the front door.

"Hello," Stephen's voice reached them from upstairs.

"We're down here, in the family room," Alan said, rising to greet the last couple to return home.

"Has your dad gone to bed?" Stephen asked.

"No, he's down here," Alan said and he invited Stephen and Jenny to join them.

"Hello Stephen," Greg said solemnly, rising when his brother-in-law stepped into the room.

"Hello. What's happened?" he asked more or less immediately when Greg stepped towards him.

"Susan and your mother fear your father may have had another mini-stroke. They're downstairs, sitting with him now," Greg told him.

"Why isn't he at the hospital?" Stephen demanded.

Greg shrugged. "I know they've been in communication with his doctor, and apparently he had some medication with him. Susan's monitoring him, but that's all I know."

"Why don't you go down and find out?" Jenny suggested.

Stephen nodded. "Are they in Mom's living room?"

"I think so," Greg said and he watched as Stephen disappeared down the stairs.

Greg sat back down on the sofa, thinking about how things were on Valentine's Day the previous year. A year ago, it was Susan who was in the hospital, and Melody who was ill. Back then, Mr. Abernathy had been one of those waiting to hear. Now the situation was essentially reversed. Mr. Abernathy might not be in the hospital, but they were still waiting to hear and worried about his condition. Susan was with him, taking care of her father, and Melody was sleeping, safely in her crib. Greg said a little prayer for their family, knowing from experience just how tenuous life could be.

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"I'm going to bed, Greg," Ruth announced, long before Susan came back. "Are you coming, Reuben?"

"Not just yet. I think I'll sit with Greg a bit longer," Reuben said.

"What about you, Alan? Do you and Cindy need to turn in?" Greg asked.

"Not just yet," Alan said after consulting with his wife.

"Well, he may not need to, but Chris and I do," Jenny announced.

"I think Zackary probably should too," Greg said and he joined her to check on the boys in the children's wing. "Should we tell them, do you think?"

"Not just yet. If they end up sending Dick to the hospital, we definitely should, but not now," Jenny said.

Greg nodded, and between the two of them, persuaded all three teenaged boys, the last of the children still up, to go to bed.

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Stephen was back in the family room when Greg returned.

"Is there any news?" Greg asked.

"Not really. Susan says he's stable. The symptoms Mom noticed while they were at the restaurant were transient, short lived, and so mild, it was only Mom who noticed them. She's going to bed, and she suggests we do too," Stephen said. "I just came to tell you that."

"Thank you," Greg said. "Jenny has already gone to bed."

"Yes, I saw her. Thank you. She dropped by the apartment on her way to our room. I'm going to turn in. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Greg told him. "What about you, Reuben? Are you going to turn in?"

"I should. Ruth may be waiting for me," Reuben said.

"Cindy is probably waiting for me too," Alan told him. "Goodnight, Dad. We'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight," Greg said to them both, and he followed Stephen down the stairs, in the direction of the Abernathy's guest apartment.

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Susan was completely unsurprised when her husband rapped softly on her parents' living room door.

"Hello," she said as she opened it.

"Hello. Stephen says your father is stable?" Greg related.

"He is. Physically he seems completely recovered from whatever it was Mom noticed while they were out. She's gone to bed. I will too in another two hours. I just want to check his vitals one more time," Susan explained.

"Did the doctor ask you to?"

"No. We've given Dad the medicine and watched him for the required hour. He suggests checking on him in the morning would be good enough," Susan related.

"And you don't agree," Greg said.

Susan shrugged. "The thing is, Ingene Pharma developed one of the medicines they asked us to give him, and the doctor's right. Most adverse events were seen within the first hour of administering the medication, so that is what our package insert says. What it doesn't say is there was a low incident of events within the first three hours. Our statisticians determined it wasn't statistically significant. The FDA felt the same way, so our literature doesn't mention it. But I processed some of those adverse events, Greg ... way back when, while we were still in clinical trials with this medication. It was rare, but it did happen ... so I'm going to wait. I'll feel much better about this if, two hours from now, he's still stable."

Greg studied his wife. This was her field so he couldn't argue with her. Instead his role was to support her judgment.

"Would you like me to stay with you? It's eleven now. If you plan to stay here another two hours, it will be one o'clock before you turn in. I could keep you company, if you wish," Greg offered.

Susan tried not to sigh. "I would like you to. On the other hand, we have a house full of company, and if I stay up that late, I'm not going to feel like getting up on time in the morning. Maybe one of us should go to bed so we can be good hosts?"

Greg cocked his head. "I tell you what. I'll split the difference with you. I'll stay until mid-night, then go to bed."

"Thank you," Susan said and they settled themselves in the tiny living room to wait.

"I thought Melody's birthday party went well today," Susan remarked, in an effort to start a conversation about something else.

"It did. I believe she quite enjoyed it, though it was a bit overwhelming for her at times," Greg said. "I think she will get good use out of the play equipment we bought her."

"I do too. She was already using her feet more, just this evening, trying to keep up with the other children."

"Do you plan to leave it in the cottage?" Greg asked.

"For now. I think once it's warmer out, I'd like to move it to the deck outside the children's wing instead of the nursery. We could set up benches around the perimeter so we could watch them, maybe even add a little table out there so we're comfortable," Susan suggested.

"Would you rather have it there instead of in our back yard?" Greg asked.

Susan cocked her deck. "You know we don't have a back yard in the traditional sense. We have a wonderful pool deck with a cement patio surround, and below that, further from the house, we have a rather formal garden space. There is some lawn space there we could use, but I think for Melody, it's too far from the house."

"What about for Jessie's play structure, when it comes?" Greg asked.

"We could put hers there ... but I think we should keep them together, so the girls can actually play together," Susan said.

"In that case, the deck is a very good solution. We don't currently use it very often as it is," Greg commented.

"I think putting their play structures there will change that," Susan predicted.

"Undoubtedly," Greg said.

Susan nodded and their conversation about the children's play equipment died. There didn't seem to be anything more to say on the subject. Greg seemed to think so too, so he changed the subject more or less right away.

"Is this a good time do you think, to talk about Rosemary's idea about the Roman road?" Greg asked.

"You are talking about our dream about going up the road? The one we've had repeatedly since August," Susan checked.

"Yes, that one. The one with the signpost and the mysterious messenger and the cavernous building none of us can quite recall," Greg said.

"Does Rosemary know you were talking about that?" Susan asked curiously.

"No. She knows only that we were talking in a historic sense about ancient roads, specifically those coming from London. She suggested that depending on the date, most roads of that sort would have originally have been built by the Romans," Greg said.

"That is probably true," Susan remarked. "Is that significant?"

"Any context we can add to what we can remember usually is significant," Greg reminded her.

"Did Reuben think it was?" Susan asked.

"I'm not sure. Probably more significant was what Rosemary shared with us about something she dreams," Greg said.

"And what is that?"

"She has nightmares about being in a cave when the lights went out ... and of how dangerous that can be," Greg shared. "She also specifically mentioned the dangers of poisonous gasses and their association with caves ... something I believe she remembers from our last life, and what they did to me."

"That could be. But the thing about the dark ... Hum," Susan said thoughtfully.

"Does that mean something to you?"

"Maybe. Did she relate that somehow to a Roman road?" Susan asked curiously.

"Not at all. We were simply comparing hobbies. One of Neil's hobbies, as you know, is spelunking, something Rosemary doesn't particularly enjoy because of this recurring dream. I mentioned dreams specifically, and she commented they are a tie to the past, and shared that this was once one of her hobbies ..."

"The idea of past lives," Susan confirmed.

"More specifically about dreams, but the concept of past lives does relate to them, yes," Greg said.

"Did she come out and say that?" Susan wondered.

"Not exactly. Rosemary shared that she has an interest in dreams in a metaphysical sense, that she believes they are windows into the past. Then she shared something of a recurring dream of hers about being lost in the dark in a cave. Apparently she has been attempting to share her passion for metaphysical things with Neil, and suggested that he too has recurring dreams. I never knew that before," Greg shared.

Susan cocked her head. "He lived in the same household with you, didn't he?"

"He did, however Madeline chose not to involve me significantly in his care. He was already twelve by the time we married, and as devoted to Roger as he was, Neil and I were never close," Greg related.

"You were the competitor for his mother's attention," Susan realized.

"To a very great degree, yes," Greg said.

Susan nodded. "You said Neil went to Hebrew School."

"He did. Madeline began sending him before we became involved. Roger initially agreed. I encouraged it as a friend from the time I met her, as I felt Neil could only benefit from such training. Alan was still in high school at the time, and he and I were very involved at Temple in those days, much like Elliot is with Aaron and Jake now," Greg related.

Susan nodded, trying to picture her husband's life as it was then.

"When did Madeline begin working for you?" Susan wondered.

"She first became my assistant on a production we were working on in 1983. By the time Alan graduated from high school, Richard and I had formed our professional alliance and decided we needed a full time secretary. I was familiar with Madeline's work and saw her regularly at Temple, so we eventually hired her. That was approximately two years later."

"So in 1985," Susan said.

"Yes."

"And you were married in 1987 ..." There was no accusation in Susan's voice but she saw her husband flinch at the implication.

"As you have probably guessed, Madeline and I became involved within a year of the time we hired her," Greg said.

"So about 1986 ..." Susan said thoughtfully.

"What are you trying to figure out?" Greg asked.

"How old Neil was when you began to have direct contact with him," Susan said.

"You could have just asked," Greg pointed out.

"Sorry," Susan said. "So Neil was what ... ten or eleven at the time, when you started seeing Madeline?"

"About that," Greg agreed.

Susan cocked her head. "I wonder ..."

"What is it, Susan?"

"After witnessing Jake's bar mitzvah last month, I think I understand a bit better what an important event that is for a young man raised in a Jewish household," Susan said.

"It is," Greg agreed.

"For Neil to refuse ... was he rebelling do you think? Reacting to you?" Susan suggested.

"Or reacting to his mother's relationship with me. Madeline and I had the same guess," Greg said. "Roger more or less agreed. It was his feeling Neil would come around, when the steps typically taken as part of a young man's bar mitzvah became something he wished to do for himself, rather than to please either us or him. He suspected that wouldn't happen until Madeline's and my relationship became irrelevant to him."

"Like it is now?" Susan suggested.

Greg looked at her in surprise. From the expression on his face, he was visibly shocked, shaken by her suggestion.

"Could that be true?" Susan wondered again. "From what Rosemary has said, Neil has been going to Temple with her more or less regularly since Chanukah this past December. He might be doing it for her, but it might also be possible he is doing it for himself."

"Susan ... are you suggesting, I drove him away from the Lord?"

"I didn't mean to suggest that. It is probably your relationship with his mother that did that. He probably had a hard time reconciling your faith and devotion to God, with what happened between you and his mother. Then when he lost Roger in the wake of that, that probably drove him away too," Susan hypothesized.

"And a hand full of years after that, Madeline became ill," Greg recalled. "God's curse for what we had done?"

"I don't know that, but its possible Neil thought that," Susan said.

"So again, he would have blamed me," he said.

"Possibly," Susan said. "How much later after she was diagnosed did the two of you disappear?"

"Approximately four years. She was diagnosed the same year Neil graduated from high school," Greg related.

Susan nodded. "So he was in his last year in college when he lost the both of you."

"Yes. He graduated from UCLA in June, following the crash ... roughly 2 months later. He'd already applied to go to graduate school, and we knew he'd been accepted," Greg said.

"I remember you telling me that in the days following the crash," Susan said. "That was nearly seven years ago, Greg. He's had a lot of time to think about things since then, to come to grips with Madeline's loss, and yours too. Then when you came back, you were married to me, but also felt the loss of his mother. You saw to it Neil received the airline compensation for Madeline's loss. You've gone out of your way to renew your contact with him, and to include him as a member of your family at family events. He's seen your faith in action like the rest of the family has."

"Very true," Greg agreed.

"Now, through us, he has again met Rosemary," Susan said.

"I suppose in a sense, it was through me he originally met her at Temple, all those many years ago," Greg mused.

"Why is that?" Susan asked.

"He wanted to quit Hebrew School two years before Madeline and I became involved. I was quite active in Temple in those days, and given I knew him through Madeline, I made it a point of offering him encouragement where I could. It was the reason I was at the school when Cathy first brought Rosemary to class. I knew Cathy from the studio and may have introduced them as part of that conversation," Greg said.

Susan cocked her head. "And Neil decided not to quit."

"Yes."

"After meeting Rosemary."

It was Greg's turn to cock his head. "That point never occurred to me before. He stayed because of her ... not because of anything I or Madeline or Roger said."

"More than likely," Susan said.

Greg sat thinking of that particular sequence of events which so affected Neil's life. His face took on a look of shock and awe.

"What is it?" Susan asked gently.

"If I had never been involved with Madeline, it is unlikely Rosemary and Neil would have ever met," Greg said.

"Since they were enrolled at the same school, they could have. And if as you suspect, one of the reasons Neil wanted to quit was because of you and Madeline, that might still have taken place," Susan said.

Slowly, Greg nodded. "But it did. And now, years later, Neil has once again met her through me. Because I was married to his mother, a connection of sorts between him and I was created. Madeline was lost so I could meet you. Through you and I, Neil's acquaintance with Rosemary has been restored."

Susan arched her brow. "As we've always said, the Lord works in mysterious ways. He can take the things we do and make them work according to His plan."

Slowly, Greg nodded. "I never realized just how thorough that plan is. I've never seen His hand at work the way we generally do, stretching back past the time I met you."

"His purpose seems to have been to bring Neil and Rosemary together," Susan observed.

Greg stared at her. "Their meeting is truly that important?"

"Apparently," Susan agreed. "Has Rosemary said anything to you to suggest why that might be?"

"Nothing. She did however comment that she believes Neil's interest in spelunking and her interest in the past as revealed through dreams, steams from the same thing: an instinctive memory of a dark and dangerous place. Neil, she believes, is dealing with it by confronting those sorts of places head on, while she is focusing her efforts on trying to understand where that memory comes from," Greg shared.

Susan arched her brow. "Their piece of the puzzle? We all remember a narrow stairway leading down to a dark and dangerous-feeling place."

"We do," Greg agreed. "You know, this may turn out to be a bigger clue to the mystery than either Reuben or I supposed."

"I think you're right. Something to concentrate on this year, aside from the movie?"

"More than likely," Greg agreed, "and perhaps for years beyond that."

"Probably," Susan told him. "In the meantime though, it's time to check on my dad. Thank you for staying with me."

Greg looked in surprise at the clock. It read 12:45, much later than he supposed.

Susan smiled at him before quietly opening the bedroom door and going in with their blood pressure cuff to check on her father. It didn't take her very long, but she took a few minutes more to record the readings before accompanying her husband up the stairs.

"How is he?" Greg asked as they left the senior Abernathy's rooms.

"The same; there's been no change, so he should be alright until morning. Tomorrow however, Mom and Dad should go home. His doctor is going to want to see him right away on Monday," Susan said.

"Just tell me what I can do to help, Susan," Greg said.

Susan smiled a grateful smile. "Don't worry, I will," she promised, and she took her husband directly to bed.

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