"Aunt Iris, you have to stop matchmaking John and Poppy," Leigh said, pouring Iris a cup of coffee, "they're both happy being single," she added.

"Only because they've had bad experiences," Iris said, "he needs a mother for his son and Poppy would be the perfect choice. I seem to remember you and Rick weren't too keen on the idea either in the beginning."

"That's different," Leigh said, "neither of us had been through what Poppy has. Don't you think that she deserves the chance to live a little before she settles down."

"Child, I'm not going to be around for much longer," Iris said, "I'm spending more and more time away. What is going to happen to her when I'm gone?" She was worried that Poppy wouldn't be able to cope on her own, and that her branch of the family would die out.

"We'll take care of her," Leigh assured her.

"You mean that john will," Iris said, "I've seen the way that he looks at her."

"So have I," Leigh admitted, "he never looked at his wife like that."

"Reminds me of the way that I used to look at Joseph," she said, "I'll be able to look at him like that again soon." She would just slip into a zone and her heart would stop. It would be a painless death and she had to admit that she was looking forward to the day that happened. The past decade had been a huge struggle to keep going and not give into the temptation of joining her husband on the other side.

"John has a lot to worry about at the moment," Leigh said.

"Those people trying to get custody of his son," Iris said, "probably haven't got a decent bone in their bodies, that baby belongs with John." No Sinclair child had ever been raised outside of the family. Although, on more than one occasion she had wondered whether she had done the right thing in raising Poppy rather than sending her to live with William. Still that had never been a choice after Rose had been killed.

"He doesn't want to admit it, but he's worried," Leigh said.

"All the more reason why he and Poppy should get together," Iris said, "they'd be able to share each other's problems." Things tended to look better when you had someone to share the highs with as well as the lows.

"Maybe," Leigh admitted, "but pushing them together is not the answer. It's only going to make them more resistant to the idea."

"I really do appreciate you talking to me," David said, "most people tend to clam up as soon as you mention the name Sinclair."

"I can understand why," Henri said.

"You've actually spent time with one of them, haven't you," David said.

"That is an understatement," Henri replied, "she could barely take care of herself, then there was the way that she treated Brian, wouldn't let him out of her sight most of the time."

"Really," he said, is there anyway that I could get to talk to this Brian?"

"No," Henri replied firmly, "he's still hung up on her and it's been five months."

"So I take it that he doesn't know that you're here," David said.

"No, and I don't want him involved in this," Henri said.

"Pity," he said. Still, that didn't meant that he couldn't use the man's name.

"Look, personally I think that she's some sort of freak who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near normal people," Henri said, "I mean what sort of person thinks that it's totally normal to be naked in front of total strangers?"

"Sounds to me as if your friend had a lucky escape," David said, scribbling down notes. This was yet another example of how the Sinclairs thought that they could do what they wanted and get away with it.

"He doesn't see it that way, though," Henri said.

"Sometimes people don't always see things the way that we do," he said. It looked as if he might have found someone who might be willing to give him inside information not only about the Sinclairs, but Detective Ellison as well. He'd spent the past couple of hours finding out what he could about Ellison and it was turning out to be as interesting as the Sinclair family.

"Look, if there's anything that you can do to keep her away from Brian..." Henri began.

"I'm not sure what I can do at the moment," David admitted, "but I'm hoping to expose her and the others soon."

"You mean there are more of them?" Henri asked.

"There are a lot of them from what I've been able to find out so far," he replied, "and not just in the Sinclair family."

"I didn't know that," Henri said.

"Not only they are freaks, but they pervert the law as well."

Grace was up to something, Walter though, and he suspected that he wasn't going to lie it when he found out what it was. There were times when he wondered why he stayed married to her, and then he remembered the fact that she had given him a wonderful son, and that at one time he had loved her. However, these days he tried to stay out of her way as much as possible. For some reason Grace had gotten it into her head that John Sinclair had corrupted Rick, of course that was absolute nonsense, the man was as straight as they came. As far as he was concerned Grave was just upset because she'd made plans for Rick that Rick hadn't wanted to go along with. He had to admit that it would have been nice for his son to have followed him into the family business, but Rick was happy being a deputy in Deer Creek and he was very proud of the fact that his son was making a difference to people's lives. Things had gotten so bad between Rick and his mother that she had refused to go to his wedding. However, he'd gone and had been somewhat surprised at how welcome everyone had made him feel.

From time to time Rick would ask him to do something for him, and he was only too happy to, like finding a good lawyer for John and stopping that reporter from being able to print his story about the latest addition to the Sinclair clan. He hadn't met her yet, but he was looking forward to doing so. No doubt Grace would make some scathing remarks about the way that she dressed and acted, but he didn't care about those things as much as he once had. Spending time with his son had taught him that there were more important things in life than money and designer clothes. Grace, on the other hand, saw those things as being the only things worth having in life.

He hated lawyers, John thought the following morning, but in this case one was a necessary evil. Still, Rick was right had had to deal with his former in-laws and he would rather have someone deal with them on his behalf than face them himself. In the past they had made it quite clear that they didn't like him, why, he didn't know as he'd only met them once and that had been on his wedding day. So he might not be the sort of man that they'd wanted their daughter to marry, but she could have done a lot worse than him.

"Let's get straight to the point," he said, taking a seat opposite his lawyer, "what are their chances of winning?" He wanted to know how bad it could be before he decided what he was going to do about it.

"that depends," Andrew Taylor replied, "so far their lawyer is claiming that you've refused to allow them to see their grandson."

"they've never asked to see him," John said, "I've sent photos but they sent them back." Just how far was he supposed to have gone to get those people interested in their grandson.

"Who takes care of Joe while you're working?" Andrew asked.

"Leigh, my deputy's wife, then there's my parents," he replied, "I'm very careful about who I allow to take care of my son."

"Look, I'm not going to lie to you," Andrew said, "they have a hell of a lot of money to spend on trying to beat us."

"And I don't," john said, "I don't suppose the fact that their daughter just took off and left Joe with me is going to count for anything, is it?"

"Unfortunately not," Andrew replied, "they'll just say that she was suffering from depression and didn't know what she was doing."

"I'm not just going to hand my son over to those people," he growled. Hell, he'd take Joe and run for it before he let that happen.

"Don't worry I'm not going to make it easy for them," Andrew assured him, "but we are going to have to fight dirty."

"I don't have a problem with that," John said. Normally he would have played strictly by the rules, but as they weren't going to be playing fair he didn't see why he should have to either. "I'll do anything to keep my son," he added.

"You got time for a coffee?" Leigh asked, entering the sheriff's office in Wolf Lake.

"Sure," Poppy smiled, "Joe not with you?"

"He's with John's mom today," She replied, "and in case you're wondering John is fine."

"I wasn't," Poppy replied, "but it's nice to know that he's okay."

"Not entirely okay, though," Leigh said.

"What's wrong?" Poppy asked.

"His former in-laws are trying to get custody of Joe," she replied. It was something that Poppy needed to know in case she was called in to help.

"How do you want me to help out?" Poppy asked without hesitation.

"There's not a lot that you can do at the moment," Leigh admitted, "John's seeing a lawyer to find out what his best options are." She hoped that he had some otherwise all hell was going to break lose when those people came to get Joe.

"Well, as soon as you can think of something I can do to help let me know," Poppy said.

"Don't worry I will," she assured her. She'd seen the look of concern in Poppy's eyes when she'd mentioned that not everything was okay with John, but that didn't mean that Poppy would be interested in having a relationship with him.

"Iris came by yesterday," Poppy said, pouring two mugs of coffee.

"She said that she had," Leigh said, "I've told her that she has to stop trying to pair you and John up."

"Good," Poppy said, "because I'm perfectly happy on my own. I like not having to answer to anyone else."

"And you're still getting over that city boy," she said, "hearts take a while to mend after they've been broken."

"I don't want to talk about him," Poppy said, handing one of the mugs to her, "it wasn't true love or anything."

"Of course not," Leigh said. She was bound to deny that she still had any feelings for that boy, because he'd chosen not to be a part of her life once he'd realized just what exactly that would entail. He was obviously an idiot, otherwise he would have realized that the sacrifice was more than worth the rewards. She knew that if it came down to it John would die to protect Rick and her. In fact that was a promise that John had made to her on her and Rick's wedding day. "So what have you got planned for Saturday?" she added, changing the subject.

"I'm going over to the dinner," Poppy replied, "see what the food's like now it's under new management."

"But it's your birthday," Leigh reminded her.

"So?" Poppy asked.

"You're supposed to celebrate your birthday," she said.

"I haven't done that in a long time," Poppy said, "and all my birthday means is that I've been sheriff for another year."

"So I guess that means that you won't want the gifts we've got you?" Leigh asked.

"You've got me gifts?" Poppy asked, "haven't had any of those in a long time. People didn't think that they had to get me any."

"Well, we're not them," she said, "maybe we could come over and then go to the dinner with you."
"That'd be nice," Poppy smiled, "what time should I expect you?"

"About seven," Leigh replied.

Her daughter had made a terrible mistake when she'd marred that small town sheriff, Angela Roundtree thought, and then she'd compounded it by leaving her child with him. Well, that was a mistake that she was determined to rectify. She'd heard rumors about that man and she didn't want her grandson being raised by someone like that. Her lawyer had assured her that she would have very little trouble winning a custody case, after all, she was wealthy and had both the time and resources to devote to the care of her grandson, while his father left him with strangers while he went to work. The fact that her daughter had complained about the way that her ex-husband had treated her while they'd been married would go along way in persuading any judge that that man wasn't a fit person to raise a child. Of course, it might not be the truth, but since when had the truth really mattered. She even had witnesses willing to testify that John Sinclair was a very violent man. The most important of these was her friend Grace. She and Grace had been friends ever since Grace had left her first husband because he had been violent towards her.

Unfortunately, Grace had had to leave her children behind which was why she was so willing to help her gain custody of her grandson. The fact that her grandson would one day inherit the family trust fund did play a part in her decision, after all, that money was meant to stay in the family. A man like John Sinclair didn't deserve to have anything that belonged to her family.

"Grace," she smiled when her friend joined her at her table.

"He's hired a lawyer," Grace said, sitting down opposite her, "and Walter is footing the bill for him."

"I suppose that's the only way that he can afford one," Angela said.

"Don't worry, he's not going to win," Grace said, "with what I have on him he'll be lucky if he's allowed visitation."

"I don't know what I would do without your help," she said. Grace had given her so much help that she would never be able to thank her properly for it.

"That's what friends are for," Grace smiled, "and it's about time that someone stood up to that man. It's just a pity that an innocent child has to be caught up in the middle of this."

"My grandson is the reason why I'm doing this," Angela said, "he deserves the chance to have a decent life." Something that he would never get in his current surroundings.

His son looked as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, Bob Sinclair thought, and he probably did. Most of the time his son didn't tell him what his problems were, but he could usually find out from either Rick or Leigh. Only he knew exactly what the problem was this time.

"You're not going to lose him," he said, "so you don't need to worry about that."

"Dad, I've seen a lawyer and he's not too hopeful," John said.

"Son, you've faced some pretty bad situations before and have come through them," Bob said, "we're going to treat this just like one of them."

"And what if the worst happens?" John asked.

"You take your son and run like hell," he replied. They had plenty of friends who would hide John and his son if it came down to that.

"The fighting's going to get pretty dirty," John warned him, "I don't want anyone else getting hurt by this."

"Everyone around here knows the sort of man you are," Bob said, "so it doesn't matter what those people say about you, because we know the truth." Those people had no right to call themselves grandparents, because they didn't care about Joe at all, all they were interested in was punishing John for their daughter's actions. What sort of parents were they that they had raised a woman like that? His former daughter-in-law had had very few morals, at least in his opinion she hadn't. He'd tried talking John out of marrying her, but he son had thought that he'd known best. Still, John wasn't the first man to have fallen for a pretty face only to find out that that was all there was to the woman. "So do you think that this weather's going to be with us for much longer?" he added.

"Not sure," John replied, "Pressure's building, so we could be in for a change."

"Could use some rain," Bob said.

"I'll let you know about the weather when I know something for certain," John said.

"Or I could call Poppy over in Wolf Lake," he said, "she's supposed to be bang on when it comes to predicting the weather."

"Dad, I'm not going to ask her out," John said, "she's got her own problems to deal with without me adding to them."

"Did I say anything about you asking her out?" Bob asked.

"No, but..." John began.

"Son, if the two of you are meant to be together it'll happen on it's own," he said, "now shouldn't you be getting back to work?"

"Yeah," John replied.

"So get going," Bob smiled, "people aren't paying you to stand around watching clouds all day."

Henri really shouldn't be talking to that guy, Blair thought, because he was one of those sleaze ball reporters who had tried to get Jim to tell them about Poppy. Of course, Jim had refused because she was family. This was something that Jim needed to know about in case that guy started sniffing around trying to get a story about him. There was a real danger that he would find something out that he wasn't supposed to. He and Jim had been very careful to make sure that they covered up all traces of Jim's abilities, but the people around them weren't blind, they had to at least suspect that there was something more than a little strange about the way that Jim was able to solve so many crimes. It would probably be a good idea to let Poppy know about that guy as well so that she would be prepared in case he started to ask questions in Wolf Lake.

He had to admit that he was looking forward to seeing Poppy again. From what little Jim had told him she seemed to be doing great. Still, she deserved to be after everything that she had been through in the past. During the trial he'd been really impressed by the way that she had kept calm even when the defense lawyers had accused her of lying about everything. If that had been Jim up there on the stand he could have lost his temper after the first five minutes. However, Poppy had probably learned the hard way that getting upset didn't do any good and in most case it just made things worse. With any luck when he saw her he would be able to suggest that she talked to someone about what she'd been forced to endure, because he strongly suspected that what had come out at the trial had only been the tip of the iceberg.

The wind was really starting to pick up now, Poppy thought, and the air pressure was dropping rapidly. It looked as if they were in for one hell of a storm. In the distance she could see a huge anvil shaped cloud, it would probably be a good idea to let some of the other sheriff's know that they were going to be in for some rough weather soon. When it came to forecasting what the weather was going to do she was usually right on the money. All the other sheriffs had an extra gift or skill that they could use to help each other out, so it was only right that she let them know what the weather was going to do. For some reason she had a really bad feeling about that cloud, she was pretty sure that she'd seen one like it before, but for the life of her she couldn't remember where or when. Not that it really mattered.

"Fern, it's Poppy, weather's going to get rough," she said, after dialling the number for the sheriff's office in Moose Valley, "don't think that you're going to get hit by the worst of it though, unless the wind changes. I'll let you know if anything else happens." She then put the phone down. Word would soon spread around all the other sheriffs, because Fern was a huge gossip. You couldn't tell her anything and expect her to keep it a secret. From the direction that the wind was blowing they were going to be hit by the tail end of the storm. Even inside her office she could tell that the temperature outside had dropped, and it was likely to drop even further before it was over. She was going to keep a very close eye on the weather, because nature could be very unpredictable. Her unease grew as the cloud grew larger and a tendril started downwards towards the ground. This was not good, she thought, as the heaven's opened up and instead of rain hail the size of golf balls started to rain down. What was even worse was that she now had a pretty good idea of where the storm was heading, Cascade.

"I knew that the heat wave wasn't going to last much longer," Blair said, joining Jim at his desk, "but it would have been nice to have gotten to the beach."

"Can't be helped, Chief," Jim said, reaching for his phone as soon as it rang, "Ellison, hey Poppy. Yeah, it's just started to hit us. I'm pretty sure that there's nothing to worry about, but I appreciate the call. We've got the weekend off, that's nice to know, we'll see you Saturday." He then put the phone down.

"What's nothing to worry about?" Blair asked.

"This weather," he replied, "Poppy thinks that its going to get pretty rough before it's over." It certainly wasn't going to be any picnic trying to get around the city in this weather though, most people had probably expected the heat wave to continue until at least the end of the week.

"She could be right," Blair said, "living out there she'd probably more in tune with nature than you are."

"Could be," Jim admitted, "she's said that we can stay with her when we go over there."

"She's living in a proper house, right?" Blair asked.

"That's probably the first change that John made sure happened," he replied.

"I saw H talking to that reporter," Blair said, "the one whose trying to write a story about Poppy."

"You think that I should talk to him?" he asked. It wasn't good news, because Henri hadn't liked Poppy and he certainly wouldn't put it past Henri to try and cause some sort of problem for her, and that was the last thing that he wanted to happen.

"I don't think that it would do any good," Blair replied, "but we should probably keep an eye on him."

"I will," Jim said.

"Poppy's sent out a warning," Rick said, "the weather's going to get a lot worse before it gets better."

"We're going to have a lot of cleaning up to do afterwards," John said. If Poppy thought that it was bad enough to send out a warning there was good reason to be worried.

"I've never seen anything like this," Rick admitted, "have you seen the size of that hail?"

"Hit the alarm now," he said. Hail was not a normal part of any storm that he'd been through before and it would be much better to err on the side of caution rather than regret not having done something after the fact.

"What is it?" Rick asked, activating the alarm system.

"I'm not sure," John admitted, "but it's not good." Hopefully, people would take notice of the sirens and take shelter. Everyone knew that he could hit the alarms unless there was something seriously wrong.

"So what do we do now?" Rick asked.

"Wait," he replied. That was the only thing that they could do.

"Shouldn't we be doing something or than just wait," Rick said.

"Not until we know how bad it is," John replied. They were going to be a lot safer staying in the station than going out there and trying to do something that probably that wouldn't make any difference to the situation.

"You want a coffee?" Rick asked.

"Sure," he replied, looking out of the window. The hail stones were the size of grapefruits now. He could see the dents that they were making in his patrol car. He'd only had it a couple of months, it was a replacement for the one that had been totalled the day they'd arrested all those assholes in Wolf Lake. It had been delivered before he'd had a chance to order a new one.

Gathering both strength and speed as it bore down on the city, the vortex first cut a swathe through the countryside, ripping up trees and huge chunks of the freeway. Then it moved onto bigger targets. Howling winds drowned out the screams of it's victims as it picked them up and tossed them around like paper dolls. There was no malice in it's actions, no judgement, just nature at it's worst. As quickly as it had descended on the city it left, leaving a trail of broken buildings and lives in it's wake. Eventually, it blew itself out some way off in the distance.

"I can't answer you all at once," Poppy snapped, as questions were fired at her from the crowd which had gathered outside of the sheriff's office. "So far Deer Creek and Moose Valley have called in, they've both got some minor damage, but no casualties reported yet," she said, "Highway patrol says that Cascade's been hit pretty hard. Those people are going to need help." She could only hope that her family had gotten to safety in time.

"Sheriff, tell us what to do and we'll do it," Frank Young, owner of the general store said.

"I need anyone who had either rescue or medical training here in fifteen minutes," she replied, "Frank, could you organise the supplies we're going to need."

"Sure," he replied.

"Good," Poppy smiled, "now everyone spread the word." This would be where she found out whether people had accepted her authority as Sheriff or not, but the fact that Frank had asked what they could do to help was a good sign. Before, people would have just kept asking her question and then not done anything to help."

"Sheriff, I lived in Kansas for a while," Frank said, as the crowd faded away, "ran into a few tornadoes during my time there. Don't reckon it's going to be easy to get into the city using the freeway."

"We're going to have to get there," Poppy said, "could be a while before other help arrives." There was no telling how long it would take the state authorities to get their act together and do something.

"I'll take care of things in town while you're gone," he said, "man the radio so we know what's going on."

"Thanks," she said. With any luck all the other sheriffs would be making plans to get to Cascade as well. One of their own could be in trouble and there were going to be some very frightened people there. she had never had to deal with anything like this before, but she was going to do her damnedest to make sure that things didn't descend into utter chaos.

"Taggart, Brown, Rafe, Sandburg, Elision," Captain Simon Banks said doing a head count. It looked as if most of his department had made it through relatively intact, and he had Sandburg to thank for that. In a matter of literally seconds all hell had broken loose and it had been a desperate scramble for safety. How the hell the kid had know that the stairwell would give them the most protection was beyond him, but he was damned grateful that he had known. Now he was going to have to deal with a situation that had probably never even entered the heads of the city's emergency planners.

"And you said that there was nothing to worry about," Blair said, looking at Jim.

"So I was wrong," Jim replied.

"Listen up, we have no idea how bad it is out there," Simon said, "Joel, you're going to be our control centre. Everyone reports to Joel is that clear." He was going to be busy trying to organise everyone else and he could trust his friend to stay calm and do the right things. They were all going to need to keep calm if they were going to help the citizens of Cascade. As it was there were probably going to be a lot of people panicking and he wouldn't put it past some of the criminal elements in the city to try and take advantage of the situation.

"I've got to call my mom," Henri said.

"The phone lines are probably down," Blair said, "power as well."

"I still have to find out whether she's okay or not," Henri said.

"Brown, we have to help the people here first before anyone else," Simon said. It was a harsh thing to say, because he was worried about Daryl, but they weren't going to be much use to anyone if they didn't go about things the right way. He knew that it could be a while before the Mayor or the Governor would be able to call in outside help so until he saw that help arriving they were going to be on their own.

"Some guy called Frank answered at Poppy's station," Rick said, "she's heading towards Cascade with a rescue party." Shortly he and John would do the same, in fact all the sheriffs would.

"Any word from Jim yet?" John asked.

"No, and I'm not expecting any," he replied, "there are phone lines down everywhere. Highway patrol's reporting that it's virtually impossible to get into downtown Cascade. There were buildings down, the powers off and they've got reports of fires breaking out."

"You know what to do," John said.

"Yeah," Rick replied. They'd gone through major disaster plans a thousand times and now they were having to put those plans into operation. The only thing that he was grateful for was that his family and friends were safe. As long as he knew that they were okay he'd be able to handle anything that the city decided to throw at him.

"Before you ask, I think that she's going to be fine," John said, "Iris trained her to be the best."

"And what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," he said. However, he wasn't sure just how true that saying was. Poppy seemed to be doing okay, but he wasn't entirely sure that she was ready to handle the sort of pressure she would be under when she reached Cascade and started helping people. Maybe if she'd had a deputy he would have felt more confident.

"So much for you saying that there was nothing to worry about," Blair said, helping Jim to clear an exit out of the building, "I told you that she was more in tune with nature." But Jim had thought that he'd known better.

"Chief, how many times am I going to have to say I'm sorry?" Jim asked.

"And?" he prompted.

"Thank you for saving all our sorry butts," Jim said, "especially mine. If you hadn't dragged me out of the way when that window went..."

"You would have done the same for me," Blair said. He could hardly have left his best friend to be cut to pieces by flying glass just because he'd been too stubborn to heed the warning Poppy had given him.

"I would have," Jim replied, "and the next time she tells me something I'll listen, but who could have predicted that it would turn out to be a tornado."

"No one I guess," he admitted.

"So how did you know to get everyone in the stairwell?" Jim asked.

"National Geographic channel," Blair replied, "maybe you won't complain in future when I want to watch something on it." It was a standing joke between the two of them that Jim didn't like to watch documentaries but usually ended up doing so. "How bad do you think it's going to be out there?" he added as he and Jim finally got the exit cleared.

"Pretty bad," Jim admitted, "Chief, I don't want you wandering off, is that clear?"

"Sure," Blair replied. He was going to stick pretty close to Jim. They didn't know how many people might be hurt and it was probably going to be some time before help from the outside got to them. "You think your cell phone will work?" There were at least a dozen other sentinels that they could call on to help them, that was if Jim was willing to ask for help.

"What did you have in mind, Chief?" Jim asked.

"Getting in touch with the Sinclairs," he replied, "they could give us a lot of help."

"I'm not getting a signal," Jim said, "maybe you should talk to Joel about it, see if the radios are still working."

It wasn't an easy way to get to the city, Poppy thought, but then she doubted that any way would be easy under the circumstances. So far she'd only seen a few people who had been brave enough to have ventured outside. She knew that things were only going to get a lot worse once they reached the downtown area. In the distance she could see the bare skeletons of buildings, some with flames coming out of them. It wasn't going to be possible to save everyone and she was going to have to make some very hard choices that people might question later on. Her grandmother had told her while she'd been growing up that they weren't super beings, just people that nature had decided to give an advantage to. Well, she got the feeling that her advantage wasn't going to be much use when it came to saving people. Sure, she'd be able to find people who were trapped, but there was no way that she would be able to shift any of that rubble without heavy lifting gear, and somehow she got the feeling that it was going to be in short supply at the moment.

"We're not going to be able to save everyone," she said. Today she was going to find out the hard way whether her grandmother had trained her to be the best or not. Still, she was just one person and the only thing that she could do was her best, but what if that wasn't good enough and someone died because she wasn't up to the task ahead of her. For years people had been telling her that she wasn't as good a sheriff as her grandmother had been, what if they had been right?

It was probably safe to come out now, Long thought, and to resume his digging around for information on both the Sinclairs and that detective. With all the chaos that was going on nobody was going to think twice if he offered to help out. Hell, they'd be grateful for an extra pair of hands and it would hopefully give him the chance to see what those freaks were capable of first hand. At a time like this the least of their worries would be keeping up the pretence that they were normal. Hopefully, he'd get solid proof that they were different and should be treated as such. The authorities would have no choice but to act to protect the rest of the population because who knew what they would do given half the chance. He wasn't a bigot, but he did believe that they shouldn't be allowed to just walk around without people knowing who and what they were. He already had some ideas how to mark them out from the general population. They'd probably have some objections, but they wouldn't have any choice in the matter.

His career was really going to take off once he got his story published, and then he would search out others who were different and expose them. So what if they got hurt in the process, they weren't real people with feelings and rights. No, they were freaks who had to learn that they couldn't pretend that they were normal. All those people who had put him down in the past would now have to treat him with a great deal more respect, because he would have the power to point the finger and say that they were different. He was going to become a very powerful man and no one was going to be able to stand up to him.

A few gusts of wind and some people thought that the world was coming to an end, Angela thought, that was precisely the sort of attitude that she didn't want her grandson being raised with. None of her blood relatives was going to end up working as a sheriff in a small town, and that was precisely what was going to happen to her grandson if she lost the custody case. However, she really couldn't see that happening. Her lawyer had assured her that they had more than enough dirt on John Sinclair to make sure that the judge ruled in her favor, and if he was allowed some sort of visitation she would make it impossible for him to have it. After all, she had money to throw at the problem, while he would be scrabbling around in the dirt for pennies with which to pay his lawyer. Perhaps something would be made of the fact that neither she or her husband had ever seen their grandson, but she had a perfectly good explanation for that, John Sinclair had stopped them from seeing him. Of course, he hadn't but the judge wasn't to know that and she came from the right sort of background so he was bound to believe her word over that man's. Besides, her daughter, with a little more persuasion would be willing to stand up in court and tell everyone what a cruel and vicious man John Sinclair really was. Naturally, her husband didn't agree that she was going about things in the best way, but if he'd had his way they wouldn't be suing for custody of their grandson. Thank god Grace was on her side, because she didn't know what she would do without her best friends help and support. It was Grace who had told her how John Sinclair had corrupted her son. Well, she wasn't about to let that happen to her grandson. Already she'd hired a nanny to take care of him, because she would be much too busy to take care of the day to day care of him, but she would be the one making decisions about his life. He wouldn't turn out to be an ungrateful brat like her daughter had done. Her daughter had been given all the advantages in life and just look what she'd gone and done with them. Ultimately though, her daughter had come to her senses and realised that she had done a terrible thing in abandoning her child like that, there was absolutely no question at all of her daughter being a stable enough person to raise a child, her actions had certainly proved that.

He had to admit that he wasn't sure whether it was a good thing or not that Poppy would be the first of them to arrive in Cascade, John thought, because she was probably going to be overwhelmed by what she found. The last thing that he wanted to happen was for her to buckle under the pressure of what she had to do. Another concern was that that city boy might try and use the situation to get her to go back to him. All it would take was one moment of weakness and she would be prepared to leave Wolf Lake to go and live with him. He couldn't let that happen, because her town needed her and he needed her. Not that he would admit that he did to anyone, because they were likely to make the wrong assumption about his admission. She was a Sinclair and they were supposed to stick together as a family. Only another Sinclair could understand what it was like to be responsible for so many people's lives. By sending out a warning Poppy had made sure that they'd had time to take care of their own people. Fortunately, their towns were used to the Sheriff telling them to do something. Cascade wasn't a small town though, it was a city, and too big an area for one man to patrol on his own. Not that he was putting Ellison down, because the man was doing the best job that he could given the circumstances. However, circumstances had just taken a huge turn for the worst. He had Rick had made sure that they were both well armed just in case anyone decided to give them trouble.

So far, he hadn't seen any sign of rescue attempts being made and that worried him. By now there should have been some sort of official response to the disaster that had befallen the city. It was entirely possible that the emergency services had been hit so hard that they weren't capable of helping anyone. In that case he would have to take charge of the situation until someone else was able to.

"The radios are out," Joel said, "so for the time being we're on our own." Making contact with the outside was high on his list of priorities, but like everything else it was going to take time to accomplish.

"They could be already on their way," Blair said, "Poppy called Jim to let him know that the weather was going to get bad, but I don't think that she was expecting it to be as bad as it was."

"I don't think that anyone did," he admitted. What had started as a vicious storm had turned into a nightmare. He was still collating a list of all the officers who were either dead or missing, and so far it wasn't good news. Not everyone had been able to get to safety in time and some of the injuries that his fellow officers had suffered were horrific.

"We've cleared an exit," Blair said, "Jim and I are going to help people outside."

"I need Jim in here," Joel said, "he had medical training." There was no telling when they would be able to get the injured to a hospital, and that was if any of the hospitals were still standing. At the moment the only thing that he was certain of was that there was going to be a huge death toll.

"I'll tell him," Blair said, "then see what supplies I can find."

"Be careful when you go outside," Joel said, "we don't know which buildings are safe." He had serious doubts about the safety of their building, but they didn't have any choice but to stay put for the time being.

She could still be of some use despite her age, Iris thought, but it would have been nice if they'd included her in their plans. However, someone had to keep an eye on things while all the others were out of their towns. Besides, she was more than capable of organising supplies and whatever extra help they might need. In her youth she would have relished the sort of challenge that the others would be facing in Cascade, but with age had come wisdom and she knew that charging to the rescue could end up causing as many problems as it solved. There was nothing even remotely fun about digging dead people out of collapsed buildings or just being seconds too late to save someone.

"A few more days that's all I'm asking for," she said aloud to herself, "Joseph I know that you're waiting for me but I can't leave at the moment. Poppy still needs me." If anyone heard her talking to herself they would think that she had finally lost the last of her marbles. Well, she hadn't and talking to Joseph often helped her to sort things out in her mind. Besides, she knew that he was watching her from the other side. As soon as this disaster and Poppy's birthday had passed she would move on. She didn't see dying as being the end of the journey just a change of direction. It would be so good to see her husband again, and the rest of her family, then one day a long time in the future she would see Poppy again.

"Well, look who's decided to show up," Henri said as a jeep pulled up close to them.

"Be nice to her," Rafe said, "we're going to need their help." H wouldn't be doing anyone any favors by upsetting Poppy or any of the other Sinclairs who might have come with her.

"And what good is a freak going to do us?" Henri asked.

"I'm not a freak," Poppy said, getting out of the jeep, "and I can find survivors better than any machine or animal you've got."

"Poppy," Rafe said, "there's a control centre been set up on the first floor."

"Thanks," she said, "the others are on their way."

"Just what we need more freaks," Henri said.

"For the last time I'm not a freak," Poppy said firmly, "and if you don't like us then I suggest that you stay the hell away from us."

"She didn't have to come," he reminded Henri, "but I'm glad that you did."

"I'm here to work, nothing else," she said, "now I have my people to organise."

"Sure," Rafe said, watching her as she headed into the station. "I wouldn't try talking to any of the others like that because you're likely to end up on the floor if you do."

"They don't scare me," Henri said, "and I have no intention of going anywhere near them when they arrive."

"You'd better not," he warned him. He would be more than willing to act as a liaison between the PD and the Sinclairs, but he seriously doubted that he would be allowed to do that. "And they should scare you," he added.

"You're not going to get involved with her again, are you?" Henri asked.

"I'm not sure," he admitted. He'd like to, but now wasn't the right time for them to talk about some sort of reconciliation. She might not even want to take him back, and no doubt Henri would try to throw some sort of spanner in the works for them.

"Brian, she's just going to take you for a ride again," Henri said, "we both know how it turned out last time, she dumped you."

"That was your fault," Rafe said. And his, he should have kept his mouth shut about what Poppy was, because then they might still have been together. Instead, he had spent the past five months missing the most important thing in his life.

He had to admit that he was grateful for the help, Jim thought, as one of the men Poppy had brought with her took over tending to the injured officer in front of him. He'd done his best, but some of the injuries that he'd been faced with had been beyond his skill on knowledge. He couldn't help thinking that it could have been him laying there if Blair hadn't dragged him into that stairwell.

"It's good to see you," he said, turning round to see Poppy standing there.

"Are you and Blair okay?" she asked.

"We're both fine," Jim assured her, "and you?"

"I'm doing okay," Poppy replied, "we didn't suffer any serious damage in town. The others are probably on their way right now. So where do you want me, because Captain Taggart said that I'm working with you."

"You have any experience of search and rescue?" he asked. It was a pretty stupid thing to ask, considering the fact that she was a sentinel, but he needed to know that she was going to be able to handle herself once they were digging bodies out.

"Plenty," she replied, "Jim, you don't have to worry about me doing anything stupid out there. And yes I do have my gun with me."

"Okay," he said, "but I want to make one thing clear, I'm in charge."

"It's your city so that goes without saying," Poppy said, "I'm here to help not to take-over. Maybe if I'd done a better job of warning you..."

"This is not your fault," he assured her, "nobody else even predicted that it might get close to being this, and you couldn't have done a better job of warning me."

"I called Fern and Jon," Poppy said, "I think that they were spread the word around to everyone else."

"You ready to go out there?" he asked.

"Yeah," she replied.

He'd been prepared for the worst, Rick thought, and this was worse than he'd imagined it would be. Everything that he and John had trained for fell way short of what they would be facing. How were they supposed to save people when there were going to be so many of them.

"This is..." he began.

"One at a time," John said, "that's the only way we're going to be able to get through this."

"Some people are going to object to that," Rick said. But John was right, they could only save one person at a time. Eventually those ones would add up to a lot of people, but he couldn't help but think about those people that they weren't going to be able to save. "What if you locate survivors and other people dig them out," he added. They would probably be able to save more people that way.

"It's a good idea," john replied, "we could try it, see how it works out, but Poppy doesn't have a deputy to help her."

"According to Iris she doesn't need one," he said. However, he hadn't been able to persuade Iris to tell him how that was possible, because it was a piece of information that could really come in useful.

"But she's never been under this much stress before," John said.

"She survived everything that they threw at her in Wolf Lake," Rick said, That proved that she was tough, but he didn't know how many dead bodies she'd seen before.

"Because she didn't have any other choice," John reminded him, "she had to have her breaking point and I don't want to be the one who forces her to reach it."

"I don't suppose that that city boy is going to keep his distance," he said.

"He gets too close to her and he's going to have me to deal with," John growled, "she's here to work nothing else."

"John, you can't afford to get into a fight with him over this," Rick said. Everything that John did could have serious consequences. From now on John had to be the perfect person. How they were going to be able to hide what he was from the police officers here was something that he hadn't quite worked out yet, but he was going to have to think of something.

"They just keep turning up," Joel said as yet another jeep pulled up in front of the station, "and I have no idea who most of them are."

"That's not the important thing," Simon said. These people had come to help without being asked.

"We're running out of room to put all the survivors they've found," Joel said, "I don't know how they're doing it, but I'm grateful that they are."

"So am I," he said. However, they were going to have to be careful, because someone was bound to work out what was going on and then some very awkward questions would be asked.

"Rafe said that she had enhanced senses or something..." Joel began.

"This has to stay strictly between the two of us," Simon said, "what Rafe said is true. Sheriff Sinclair does have enhanced senses and I think that some of the others might at well." He was pretty sure that they did, but he couldn't say that.

"Why keep it a secret?" Joel asked.

"You took her statement about how she was treated in Wolf Lake," he replied, "can you imagine what the military would do to her if they found out."

"The poor kid wouldn't stand a chance," Joel said.

"Exactly," Simon said, "she's not breaking any laws and at the moment we really need her help."

"You can trust me not to say anything," Joel assured him.

She was the only one small enough to crawl in there and save those children, Poppy thought, looking at what had once been a kindergarten, but Jim would kill her if she suggested going in there which was why she wasn't going to tell him. What was left of the building was pretty stable so it wouldn't be that big a risk for her to go in there and save lives. Besides, by the time that they were able to get more people to the site it would be too late. After checking to make sure that Jim was distracted she started to crawl through a gap in the rubble. She knew that it wasn't going to be easy to reach them, but she had to try, because there was no way that she could just stand by and do nothing while those heartbeats grew fainter and fainter until eventually they stopped altogether.

"I know," she said, when she heard Jim shouting at her to get the hell out of there. "Sorry Cuz, but you're too big to do this, guess this is one time when my size counts in my favor." she added. He could shout all he wanted to, but she wasn't going to come out until she'd done what she had to. "It'll be too late," wriggling her way through whatever gaps she could find in front of her. She couldn't afford to move too much rubble out of the way in case it started to collapse on top of her and the children she was trying to save.

What the hell was she playing at, John thought, when he heard Jim shouting Poppy's name. From the sound of it she'd gone and done something that Jim didn't approve of. Well, he'd expected her to do her job, but not if it meant her putting her life at risk. Still, they'd all wondered about her mental state, and now it looked as if she'd decided that she was expendable, when she wasn't. They couldn't afford to lose anyone at the moment, because they were all needed for the rescue effort.

"Where is she?" he demanded.

"She went in there," Jim replied, pointing to a gap in the rubble, "I've told her to get out, but she won't."

"Why the hell did you let her go in there in the first place?" John snapped. Ellison should have known to keep a close eye on her, but he hadn't.

"I only turned my back on her for a minute," Jim replied, "she didn't tell me what she was planning to do because I would have stopped her."

"She'll get out of there even if I have to drag her out myself," he said. Although, he was going to have to move some rubble before he would be able to fit through the gap. "Give me a hand to move some of that rubble," he added.

"We can't," Jim said, "the whole lot could come down on top of her if we try."

"There has to be a way," John said, "because there's no way that she's going to be able to get them out by herself." Poppy obviously hadn't thought this through, otherwise she would have realised that before going in there. Whatever they were going to do they would have to do it fast, because the rubble was starting to shift and there was a very real possibility that Poppy could end up being crushed to death along with the children that she was trying to save.

"I know that," Jim said, "but it's going to collapse if we start climbing around on top of it."

"Then we're going to have to be damned careful," John said. They did have an advantage over other rescue teams in that they were able to pinpoint almost exactly not only where Poppy but the children were. With a great deal of luck they would be able to make some sort of gap above the children so that Poppy would be able to hand them up to them once she had reached them.

While it was fascinating watching them work it wasn't his main purpose for doing so, Long thought, he was gathering more evidence for his expose on them. Already he had more than enough proof to back up any claims that he made, but he could see that he would have to be careful about how he phrased things because they were rescuing a lot of people, and he didn't want them to elicit support from the public because of their actions. What he really needed was for one of their rescue efforts to go terribly wrong so that people would blame them. That might not be so easy to manage though, these people weren't stupid, if he tried to do anything too overt they would try and stop him. He wasn't afraid to admit that he was more than a little afraid of them and what they might do to him once they found out what he was up to. Everyone else who had gone up against them had ended up in jail, and it was entirely possible that he could end up there as well but if he did it would only be more proof that they were breaking the law when they felt like it. Now would be a really good time for him to act, he thought as he saw a child being handed up through a gap in the rubble. He was doing this for the right reasons he told himself as he started to kick an exposed metal beam. Hopefully it was connected to something that would bring everything crashing down. There was nothing like a tragedy involving children to make people turn against others. In the big scheme of things sacrificing the lives of a few children was work it. He would dedicate his Pulitzer to all the children who had died in this terrible tragedy. Backing away rapidly as the rubble started to collapse he had to contain his delight as the rescuers on top of it scrambled out of the way.

"Poppy," Rafe shouted as the cloud of dust started to settle. He'd watched from a distance as she'd gone in there, but he hadn't seen her come out so that meant that she was trapped in there. Rushing forward he joined the others in digging into the rubble with his bare hands. The sooner that they got her out of there the better it would be for her, because she might not be getting any air. As it was she could already be dead, no, she couldn't be because Jim wouldn't be digging as fast as he was if she had been. They needed more people to help them dig if they were going to reach her in time. "Henri, dig," he shouted when he saw his friend stood doing nothing.

"Give it up, she's dead," Henri said.

"She's not dead," he snapped, How could his friend be so heartless as to say that. "You have to help me," he added. Every pair of hands could mean the difference between life and death.

"She shouldn't have gone in there in the first place," Henri said, "now she's gone and got all those kids killed.

"We don't know that for certain," Rafe said, "Poppy would never do anything that would get anyone hurt, not even by accident."

"Think what you will," Henri said, "but it's a lost cause." He then walked away.

"You son of a bitch," he shouted. That was it, Henri had proved once and for all that he wasn't really his friend, because if he had been then he would have started digging when he'd asked him to.

"Can you hear anything?" Blair asked anxiously.

"It's pretty faint, Chief," Jim replied.

"We're not going to make it in time, are we?" he asked. There had to be half a building on top of her. He wasn't an expert when it came to collapsed buildings, but he seriously doubted that anyone would be able to last under there for long.

"Chief, we're going to get her out," Jim assured him, "so keep digging."

"I'm doing the best that I can," Blair said. What they needed was proper lifting equipment and there was no way that they would be able to get it here in time. Looking around he could see that there were only two people not helping to dig, one was that sleaze bag reporter and the other was H. He wouldn't want to be in H's shoes when this was over and Jim and the Sinclairs caught up with him and demanded to know why he hadn't helped to dig Poppy out. They were all supposed to be pulling together, and that reporter would no doubt report what had happened her. It was probably too late to remind Jim and the others to be careful about using their senses in front of other people. Still, with all the confusion that there was they might get lucky and no one would think too much about how they'd been found and rescued. If anything the fact that they had helped to rescue so many people would work in their favor if anyone did put two and two together and come up with four. They were going to need all the good will that they could get if what Jim and others were was made public.

"I can see a hand," Rick shouted. Please let them all be alive, he thought, even though it was going to take a miracle for that to be the case. Reaching down he carefully touched the hand and jumped back in shock when it moved. "Hang on in there," he added. She was alive, but there was no way of telling how badly injured she was or what state those kids were going to be in. Laying down on the rubble he started to clear smaller pieces away from around the hand. The important thing now was to make sure that whoever was down there got fresh air reaching them. "It's okay, we're coming," he added when the fingers moved again. John would be glad that she was still alive, but someone was going to have to tell Iris what had happened and he didn't want to have to be the one who did that. As it was there were going to be a lot of questions asked, such as why the hell she had gone in there without letting anyone know what she was planning to do. Perhaps this was one of those times when the need to protect override any concerns that you might have for your own life. He'd seen John risk his life when it came to rescuing people, but not since Joe had been born. Although, he had seen the look of total helplessness in John's eyes when he had been unable to save someone. That was probably the hardest part of the job as far as John was concerned. Still, all the sheriffs that he'd come across took their job very seriously. Even Fern, who at times could be a little overpowering softened when she was faced with a victim of crime. He was surprised that she wasn't here helping to dig Poppy out, but then there were rescue sites all over the city. To be honest he would be glad when this was over and he could go home, or at least call Leigh and reassure her that both he and John were physically fine, emotionally he wasn't too sure about. This whole situation was going to take it's toll on everyone, and John still had that damned custody case to deal with. What those people thought that they were playing at trying to take Joe away from his friend he didn't know, but he knew exactly the sort of life Joe would have if those people won because he'd lived it. If it hadn't been for his dad he probably wouldn't have ended up being such a well balanced person. He really thanked god that his dad was such a great guy who'd backed him up in every fight that he'd had with his mother. He could imagine how those people would treat Joe when he started to show signs of being a sheriff, they would take him to every doctor that they could find trying to find a cure for what he was, and when they couldn't find a cure they would put him on so many drugs that Joe wouldn't be able to functions. They'd already run into problems with some of the kids in Deer Creeks who had one or more enhanced senses. Fortunately, they now had a doctor in town who was prepared to accept that there was nothing wrong with having enhanced senses, but before that he'd only been too willing to hand out pills like they were candy.

She couldn't let them take her up first, Poppy thought, struggling as she was pulled up into fresh air, because she was supposed to save all the children.

"No," she screamed as bright light hit her eyes. She could feel herself starting to lose control of her senses and that scared the hell out of her more than anything else that she'd been through in her life so far. The last time that she'd had one of her lapses it had taken Brian to bring her out of, but she didn't have a deputy anymore. She was going to go into one of her lapses and never come out of it. Her grandmother had trained her well, but nothing had prepared her for this. "Help me," she added.

"It's okay, we've got you," John said, "and don't you dare zone on me, your works not done."

"It hurts," Poppy said, allowing him to pull her the rest of the way through the gap. She was doing her best to stay alert, but it wasn't easy, her skin hurt, she couldn't smell anything and the only thing that her hearing was properly focused on were the heartbeats of those children.

"It's going to be okay," John assured her, "and don't worry about those kids I'll get them out," he added, handing her to Jim.

"Be careful," she said.

"I will be," he replied.

"We need to get her somewhere quiet and dark," Blair said, following Jim.

"Chief, there's nowhere like that around here," Jim replied. so they were just going to have to make do with what they had available and hope that it would be enough to help her.

"I think that we should get Rafe," Blair said, "because I'm not sure that if she zones I'll be able to bring her out of it."

"John is not going to be happy if wee do that," he said. Rafe had already betrayed her trust once so how could they be sure that he wouldn't betray her again.

"We might not have any choice," Blair said, "and I'm pretty sure that John would want us to do everything that we can to help her."

"If this goes wrong it's going to be on your head," Jim warned him. Although, he would step in if John decided to get too rough with Blair.

"Trust me, this is not going to go wrong," Blair assured him.

"For your sake I hope that it doesn't," he said. Because as soon as Poppy was okay he intended to ask her what the hell she thought taking a risk like that. Admittedly, it had paid off and those children were being rescued but that didn't excuse for one moment the fact that she had disregarded her own safety and put other people's lives at risk as well. He could understand why she had done it though, and if he had been small enough to fit through that gap then he probably would have done exactly the same things.

"Just make sure that you avoid that sleaze ball reporter," Blair said.

"I think it's a bit too late for that, Chief," Jim said. He'd seen the guy hanging around, but he'd been busy doing other things to have been able to keep a close eye on him.

"He was talking to H earlier," Blair said, "and we both know how he feels about Poppy."

"I'll talk to him," Jim said. Maybe throw him up against the nearest wall that was still standing and remind him that Poppy was related to him, and that he didn't like it when people screwed around with his family.

"Try not to leave any visible marks," Blair grinned, "because you don't want to give him anymore reasons to talk to that reporter."

"I doubt that he needs a reason," he said. Some people would cause trouble even if they had no good reason to and Henri was one of them.

There was something wrong with Poppy, Iris thought, she didn't know what, just that she had the overwhelming feeling that she might have condemned her granddaughter to death by insisting that she didn't need a deputy. What if she'd been wrong? That city boy wasn't who she would have chosen to act as Poppy's deputy, but you didn't always get to chose. Fate had a nasty way of throwing you a curve ball now and then when you least expected it. If he really was her deputy then there were going to be a lot of problems ahead for them. That boy was not going to want to move to Wolf Lake, but there was no way that Poppy would be able to cope with life in the big city. Then there was John to consider, he might deny it to everyone, but he was interested in Poppy. There could end up being one hell of a mess with Poppy right in the middle of it.

"Joseph, I could use some advice about now," she said, "because I have no idea what to do." Joseph would probably tell her to leave things alone and they would work themselves out, only there might not be enough time for that to happen. She hated feeling helpless, always had done, and it wasn't something that she'd gotten used to with age. The older you got the wiser you were supposed to be, only that wasn't always the case. Most of the time she was confused as hell, and it wasn't as if she could get to Cascade to see whether her feeling about Poppy was right or not. She hoped that she was wrong, though, because she didn't want her granddaughter to suffer anymore pain.

"Tell me how to help her," Brian said. Whatever it took he was willing to do it.

"You don't do anything unless I can't bring her out if it," Blair said, "and even then you do exactly as I say."

"I know that telling Henri was wrong," he said, "but he said that he knew before that." His best friend had not only tricked him, but had driven a huge wedge between him and Poppy that he might never be able to fix.

"Wrong! He's been talking to some reporter," Blair snapped, "do you have any idea what could happen if what she, Jim and the others are is made public."

"The reporter doesn't have any proof, does he?" Brian asked. He'd kept putting the phone down on him when he'd called, but that didn't seem to be stopping him.

"The proof is right in front of him," Blair replied, "all he has to do is watch Jim and the Sinclairs working and he'll figure it out."

"Shit!" he exclaimed. Henri had probably told him everything as well. How could his friend have done this to him? Didn't Henri realise how many other people could end up getting hurt? While Poppy might never want to have anything to do with him, he would never do anything that would deliberately hurt her.

"Yeah," Blair said, "Jim's not happy and that is nothing compared to how the Sinclairs are going to feel when they find out."

"I'm going to stay well clear of them when that happens," he said. That Sheriff had made it pretty clear that he didn't like him, and he was probably just waiting for the right time to take him down a dark alley.

So a miracle had taken place, that didn't mean that he was going to change his mind about her, Henri thought. That fact that she had found those kids underneath all that rubble proved that she was a freak, and she wasn't the only one. Everywhere that he looked there were freaks and there wasn't a damned thing that he could do about it at the moment. But as soon as that reporter had his story published he would be rid of all of them.

"Hey Jim," he grinned, only to find himself being slammed up against the nearest wall.

"Don't hey me," Jim growled, "Poppy's my family, and you don't fuck with my family because it pisses me off."

"She's a freak," Henri said, "what she is isn't natural."

"And how would you know that?" Jim demanded, "you haven't liked her since she came back with Rafe."

"She changed him," he said, "now all he wants to do is run around after her." It just wasn't natural to do that. Hell, he'd never chase around after any woman no matter how pretty she was.

"That's up to him, not you," Jim said, "but she doesn't need him."

"Maybe you could trying telling Brian that," he said, "because every conversation ends up being about her." He'd gotten so tired of it that he had talked to that reporter so that she would be out of the picture once and for all. Only that reporter seemed to think that Jim was a freak as well and he knew that wasn't the case.

"You don't go anywhere near her for any reason is that clear?" Jim said, "and you'd better tell that reporter that there's nothing different about Poppy."

"Why should I?" H asked.

"Because if you don't having me on your back is going to be the least of your problems," Jim replied.

"That reporter isn't going to believe me if I suddenly say that I lied," he said, "He's got all sorts of proof that she's a freak." He hadn't seen the proof but it obviously existed.

"And stop calling her a freak," Jim said, letting go off him.

"What else would you call her?" Henri asked.

"You could try using her name," Jim suggested.

Even he could see that this wasn't working, Brian thought, Poppy was lapsing in and out of consciousness. She could die if Blair didn't do something and soon, but he didn't seem to be doing anything at the moment except for talking to her. He should never have betrayed her, because then he would have been able to help her without having to wait for Blair to say that it was all right for him to.

"I can help her better than you can," he said.

"Jim's not going to be happy if I give up before I've tried everything," Blair said, "and then there are the Sinclairs to consider."

"Well, they're going to be even less happy if she dies," Brian said.

"She's not going to die," Blair assured him.

"Then why isn't she waking up?" he asked.

"I don't know," Blair admitted, "she probably had her senses fully extended and they overloaded when she was pulled out."

"So what do we do to fix it?" Brian asked.

"Keep all outside stimulus to a minimum and let her heal in her own time," Blair replied, "and before you ask I have no idea how long that is going to take."

"So we have to wait?" he said.

"Yeah," Blair replied, "she's breathing okay so she should be fine."

"Maybe we should get her to a hospital," Brian suggested. That was if there was one still standing.

"They'd want to pump her full of drugs, and that could do her some serious damage," Blair said, "I'm the expert on this, okay."

"You were going to teach me how to help her," he reminded him. But that had been before he had betrayed her. Now he was lucky even to be allowed anywhere near her. "I thought that if Henri knew he would understand just how important she is to me," he added. Only things hadn't turned out the way that he'd intended.

"Thanks," John said when Simon handed him a bottle of water.

"It's you and the others that I should be thanking," he said, "there are a lot of people still alive because of your efforts."

"We're just doing the best that we can," John said, taking a huge drink of the water, "and it's Poppy that you should be thanking. She gave us the heads up on this thing so that we could get ready for it. Only no one figured that it was going to be this bad."

"I have never seen anything like this," Simon admitted, "the windows in the Bullpen just went. If it hadn't been for Sandburg we would have lost most of the department including Jim." The kid deserved an award for what he'd done.

"You city folk have forgotten that nature can't be tamed or predicted," John said, "every sheriff has plans for when disaster hits, but you'd have to go back to when Aunt Iris was a newly wed to find anything similar happening to one of out towns."

"I don't think that a tornado coming through downtown Cascade was anything someone could have predicted," Simon said. However, it was something that the city's emergency planners were going to have to take into consideration from now on.

"As soon as FEMA arrive we'll be on our way," John said, "This had probably got a lot of people in our towns pretty rattled, Aunt Iris is the only sheriff on duty and she's not exactly a young woman any more."

"You'll probably get a lot of press coverage for what you've done here," he said.

"Can't be avoided," John said, "should be able to deny some of the more fantastic rescue stories though."

"I wouldn't count on that," Simon said, "there's been a reporter watching everything that you've done." Now was probably not the right time to tell him that one of his detectives had been feeding information to that reporter.

"There's no need to worry too much about him," John said, "he's been snooping around our towns, but people aren't telling him anything. They know that they've on to a good thing having us protecting them."

"The people of Wolf Lake didn't," Simon reminded him.

"They took advantage of the situation, and Poppy was too young to fight back and restore order," John said, "we could have done more to help her, but Iris was convinced that she was doing fine."

"See, the danger that man has dragged our son into," Grace said as a news report showed the devastation in Cascade.

"Grace, Rick is fine," Walter assured her, "if anything he's safer with John than he would be with us." John would make sure that nothing happened to Rick.

"You don't understand what they're like," she snapped, "always spying on people, it's not natural, they should be locked away from normal people."

"What have you done?" he demanded. She'd done something and he intended to not only find out what it was but hopefully put a stop to it as well.

"Nothing," Grace replied innocently, "at least nothing that I shouldn't have done a long time ago."

"You talked to that reporter, didn't you?" Walter asked, "how could you do that? Don't you know the sort of danger that you've put John Sinclair in?"

"At least he'll be away from our son," she replied, "then all we have to do is get rid of that girl and..."

"You stupid bitch," he snapped, "if they go after John they'll go after Rick as well." Their son could end up in some government facility because of what she'd done.

"They won't because he'd normal and you wouldn't let them," Grace said.

"There might not be anything that I can do to stop them," he admitted. He had a certain amount of influence but it wouldn't be enough to protect his son if the military decided to take an interest in the Sinclairs and their abilities. Besides, Rick wouldn't leave John to whatever fate someone else had decided for him.

"You have to protect Richard," Grace said, "he's our son."

"Well, you should have thought about that before talking to that reporter," Walter said, "and I have never understood why you hate John Sinclair." The man had never been anything but civil to Grace, although he strongly suspected that at times he would have liked to have cut her completely out of Rick's life.

"He's dangerous," Grace replied, "freaks like that shouldn't be allowed to live."

"He's a lot better person than you've ever been," he said, "I think that it would be a good idea if you moved out. My lawyers will contact you in a few days about arranging a settlement."

"You're divorcing me!" Grace exclaimed, "I'll take you to the cleaners."

"I don't think so," he replied, "I know all about your indiscretions, and unlike you I have real friends." There was little point in staying married after she had put Rick in danger. She wasn't even sorry for what she'd done.

"You're not going to get rid of me that easily," Grace promised him as she stormed from the room.

"Something wrong?" Rick asked when he caught Jim staring at him again. It was starting to get on his nerves, but he figured that he was just doing it to make sure that he was okay. "You keep staring at me," he added.

"You remind me of someone," Jim replied.

"Who?" he asked.

"My brother," Jim replied, "you even smell like him, no offense intended."

"It's okay, John uses scent to work out who belongs to what family," Rick said, "but I'm pretty sure that my parents would have told me if I was adopted or anything."

"The resemblance is amazing," Jim said.

"We could be distant cousins or something," he suggested, "a lot of Sinclairs look alike because they're descended from the same ancestor. John's mom is working on a family tree, so far she's gone back five generations, and still has some way to go yet. The thing is going to be huge." They were going to have a full record of every branch of family. It would be a simple matter of getting in touch with those branches of the family that they'd lost touch with and let them know that they were there to help them if they needed help.

"She a sheriff as well?" Jim asked.

"No, a high school history teacher," Rick replied, "John's dad is the owner of the local hardware store. Not every Sinclair ends up being a sheriff, only those who choose to be."

"Poppy didn't have a choice," Jim reminded him.

"Things aren't always going to work out," he said, "but she's doing great now, and if she wanted to quit she could. I don't think that she's going to do that though." Poppy seemed to be really happy with the way that her life was going. It was just a shame that John wouldn't let her help him with the problem that he was having with his former in-laws. Still, john would probably be called a hero for everything that he'd done here and that had to count for something with any judge that heard the custody case.

It was like being buried in mud, Poppy thought, struggling to regain control of her senses and turn them up to a normal level. Something had gone very wrong and she didn't know what. The last thing that she had been aware of was of being pulled out of the rubble, then everything had gone crazy. If she couldn't find her way back then she was going to stay like this until she died and it was not a fate that she wanted to suffer. Supposing her grandmother had been wrong she did need a deputy in order to survive. Brian had decided that he didn't want to be her deputy when he'd betrayed her like that, so what was she going to do? The first thing that she had to do was to find her way back to the real world otherwise nothing else would matter. There were people out there counting on her to help them and she couldn't let them down.

Gradually she became aware of the fact that she was hearing voices, faintly at first but growing louder as she focused on the task in hand. Cautiously she opened her eyes to find two blurred shapes looking down at her.

"I..." she began.

"It's okay, you're safe," Blair said.

"The children?" Poppy asked.

"They've just finished rescuing the last of them," he replied, "you did a great job. Now I want you to get some rest."

"People need me," she said, trying to sit up and failing miserably.

"Jim and the others have everything under control," Blair assured her, "and no trying to pull the 'I'm invulnerable act' because it's not going to work with me."

"I zoned," Poppy said. Well, there was nothing like stating the obvious, she thought.

"It was a major one," he said, "you had us both pretty freaked out."

"Us?" she asked.

"Rafe was with me," Blair admitted, "but you came back by yourself so I guess that means you don't need a guide after all."

"I guess not," she said. John would certainly be pleased about that, not that she thought it was important what he either approved or disapproved of. However, he was a fellow sheriff and had gone to a great deal of trouble on her behalf during the past five months.

Finally, they were starting to get outside help, Jim thought, when he saw the National Guard arriving, but that didn't mean that his and the others job had finished yet. However, they were going to have to be more careful about the methods that they used to find people under the rubble. Although, he suspected that it was already too late in the day for them to start worrying about that. He hadn't seem that reporter for some time so presumably he had slunk off down some dark alley to write down what he'd seen. They could let what they were become public knowledge like this. The fact that he was a sentinel could be used against him, every case that he had ever worked on could be reviewed, even though he had done nothing wrong. He supposed that he'd always known that one day his secret would come out, but he would have liked to have at least had a say in how that happened, now his name was going to be splashed all over the papers and there wasn't a damned thing that he could do about it.

"That reporter..." he began, looking at John.

"Is not going to get any of his stories published," John assured him, "other people have tried outing us in the past and it's never happened. We don't let it happen."

"We should have been more careful," Jim said. There were more than enough witnesses to prove anything that reporter claimed.

"You really think that people will admit to seeing something strange?" John asked, "of course they won't. Even if they do we're better trained than most people for this sort of situation."

"What would you do if he got his story published?" Jim asked. They couldn't control every newspaper that reporter might go to.

"After the work we've done here most people wouldn't give a damn if we had two heads and green spots," John replied, "and if anyone tries to cause a fuss our towns will back us up. You city people worry too much, guess that's what happens when you're isolated from the rest of us."

"Walter is divorcing me," Grace said, her eyes filling up with crocodile tears, "and it's all that dreadful ma's fault." It hadn't been, but her friend didn't know that and there was no reason to tell her.

"Grace, I am so sorry," Angela said, "but we both know that man had some sort of hold over certain people."

"I always thought that Walter was immune to it," she said, taking out a handkerchief from her handbag and dabbing away a few stray tears before they had a chance to ruin her makeup. "My first husband was exactly the same," she added, "that's why I left him, now it's gone and happened again." And this time she didn't have another husband lined up. Walter would no doubt be very difficult about the amount of money that he would be willing to give her as a settlement, but she knew where some of the skeletons in his closet were buried so she would be able to use them as leverage.

"Perhaps I could try talking to him," Angela suggested, "show him some of the proof that I have against that man."

"No," she said sharply, "I mean it wouldn't do any good. Walter has made his mind up and I don't think that anything is going to change it." Still, Walter had been very easily deceived in the past by her, but this was different. He was supposed to use his influence to make sure that Richard wasn't publicly exposed as being in any way connected with that Sinclair man. Instead, he had said that there wasn't anything that he could do. Well, they were just going to have to see about that, she wasn't without contacts of her own. If she could save Richard then he would have to see sense about John Sinclair and start living his life the way that she wanted him to.

She'd had the exact same problem with her other sons, although Stephen might have been made into something halfway acceptable if she'd been allowed to see him after her divorce from William, but she hadn't. William had made quite sure that she hadn't been able to have any sort of contact with the boys once she'd left him. Naturally, Walter hadn't believed any of those dreadful lies that had been told about her. Of course they had been lies, because if she had hit James as hard as it had been claimed she would have left marks and that was something that she had always been very careful not to do. The fact that she had said that she was expecting his child had had Walter rushing her down the aisle as soon as her divorce had become final. Richard however didn't look anything like Walter, but then he wasn't Walter's son.

"Iris, I'll find a way to get into downtown," William said, "as soon as I know anything I will call you." He then put the phone down. Iris had every reason to be worried about Poppy, he'd seen the television pictures of what the downtown area looked like. Although, how he was supposed to find poppy in all that chaos he didn't know, but his best chance would be to find Jimmy, because his son would no doubt be in the thick of it. He was worried that if Jimmy got hurt nobody would bother to contact him.

After trying his son's cell phone number and not getting any reply he decided that the best course of action would be to go downtown and look for him. No doubt the workers down there would be grateful to receive some coffee and food. There were a number of Sinclairs helping in the rescue effort so checking up on them for Iris was the least that he could do. Iris had no doubt been given strict instructions to stay behind because of her age, but nobody was going to tell William Ellison that he was too old to go looking for his son.

"Sally," he called.

"Yes Mr. Ellison," Sally said, entering his study.

"I'm going to need a lot of coffee and sandwiches," he said, "they're for Jimmy and his friends. See if you can't fond some old clothes as well." People might appreciate a change of clothes and they would hopefully help him to get past whoever was stopping people from going into the downtown area.

"I don't think that you should try getting up," Brian said. She could have all sorts of internal injuries that they wouldn't know about until she had been checked out by a doctor.

"I'm fine," Poppy said, "and you have no right to tell me what I should or shouldn't do."

"Blair is not going to be happy when he finds out that you got up," he said. Neither were Jim and the Sinclairs.

"Don't worry I'll tell him that it was all my idea," she said, "but I can't just lay here while there are people needing my help."

"Poppy, you've rescued more people than anyone else," Brian said, "you're allowed to have a break."

"Well, it's my job to save people," she said, "and yours is to go away and leave me alone, because you're not wanted here."

"You zoned," he reminded her, "it scared the hell out of me. Blair wasn't sure whether he'd be able to bring you out of it or not."

"If you'd been a real deputy you wouldn't have been scared," Poppy said, "but you didn't want the job."

"I made a mistake," he admitted. But it was too late for him to do anything about it, because she'd replaced him with John Sinclair. "You've got him now though, haven't you?" he added.

"If you're talking about John, he's my friend, not my deputy," she said.

"I thought that..." he began. He'd seen the way that John Sinclair kept looking at her and it more than just a friendly look.

"Thought what?" she asked.

"Nothing," he replied, "I've really missed you."

"H was glad that I was gone, wasn't he?" she asked.

"Yes," Brian replied, "but only because he doesn't understand what we had." He hadn't at the time either. "I've told him not to talk to that reporter," he added. Not that it seemed to have done much good, because H was intent on hurting Poppy.

"He wouldn't have anything to tell him if you hadn't told him what I was," she said, "there are other people's lives at stake as well as mine."

"His," he said.

"He has a name, it's John," Poppy said, "that reporter is making things difficult for all of us."

"And that's my fault?" Brian asked.

"No, it's mine for ever trusting you with my secret," she replied, "now if you'll excuse me I have a job to do."

"I still love you," he said as she began walking away from him. His heart sank into the pit of his stomach when she kept on walking without giving him a backwards glance.

This was the one phone call that he had thought that he would never make, Walter thought, dialling a Cascade number, but the man had a right to know that Grace had put his eldest son's life in danger. However, it was going to be hard to convince him that he hadn't been involved in what she'd done. For the past thirty years he'd barely given a thought to Grace's first family, and perhaps he should have done. Not that Grace had wanted to have anything to do with them once her divorce had become final. Still, Rick was a half brother to William Ellison's sons and they should have arranged something so that he would have some sort of contact with the men who carried some of the same genes as him.

"I'd like to talk to Mr. Ellison please," he said when the phone at the other end was answered by a woman, "Could you tell him that it's Walter Green and that it is very important that I speak to him. It concerns his eldest son James." If the man was any sort of a father he would at least listen to what he had to say before dismissing it totally out of hand. "Mr. Ellison, please don't put the phone down," he added, "I think that you should know that Grace has been talking to a reporter about your son James, she's also put our son in danger and there's nothing that I can do to protect him." Grace had just assumed that he would be able to fix what she had done, like he always had done in the past, only that wasn't possible this time. "If it's any consolation I'm divorcing her and she won't get a cent." He was going to take away the two things that Grace loved above all else, money and power. By this time tomorrow the only way that Grace would be able to buy anything would be if someone else gave her the money to buy it. No doubt she would try and hire some slick lawyer to make sure that she got a decent settlement out of him, but he knew where all her skeletons were buried and he wasn't afraid to expose them. "He's helping with the rescue effort in downtown Cascade, you can't miss Rick he'll be with John Sinclair. I'd be grateful if you could do that." He then put the phone down. Well, William Ellison wasn't the hard hearted ogre that Grace had painted him as. If anything the man had been civil to him considering the circumstances. Of course, Grace might try and claim that they were ganging up on her, but if they did then she had certainly deserved it.

Today was going to be the beginning of his award winning career, Long thought. Although, his story was only being published because it was related to the disaster that had struck Cascade. Still, that didn't really matter as long as people got to read what he had to say about the Sinclair family. The fact that one of them had caused the deaths of several children who they were supposed to be saving was bound to inflame anger against them. It wouldn't be long before his name was on that Pulitzer prize and the world would be watching out for more freaks. What happened to the people that he exposed was none of his concern. They got what they deserved as far as he was concerned and the world would be a lot better place once they were locked away from it. The only disappointment was that he didn't have any photos to go with his story, but plenty had been taken of the downtown area so one of them would have to do for the time being. First thing in the morning he would do his best to get hold of a photo of her, preferably in her uniform and smiling. It was always better when you could put a face to the name, and her face was about to become one of the best known in the country along with all the other Sinclairs.

The people that he had interviewed had asked him not to mention their names in the story that he was writing and he had given them his word that he wouldn't. However, none of them had asked him to put that agreement down in writing. It wasn't as if he had forced them to talk to him, and if they didn't have anything to hide then they wouldn't mind seeing their name in print. Besides, they were the people who could backup his story, and they also had as much to lose by those freaks walking around free as anyone else did, more in some cases.

She was going to end up killing herself, or at least do some serious damage to her health if she didn't get some rest soon, John thought. A part from the time she'd spent being brought out of a zone out Poppy had worked as hard if not harder than the rest of them. He didn't know what she was trying to prove, but he wished that she had listened to that city boy when he'd told her to rest. However, it was pretty obvious that she had Iris's stubborn streak running through her. At any other time that would have been a good thing, but their job here was nearly over and Iris was not going to be too happy when she found out that not only had Poppy zoned, but that he maybe hadn't kept such a close eye on her as he should have done, but other things had been on his mind. Poppy had been Ellison's responsibility just as much as she had been his. However, the poor guy had spent some of his time trying to avoid Fern. Not that he could blame him, Fern was pretty determined to find herself a man and Ellison was the best prospect she'd had in years.
He had to admit that he liked Ellison, the man was nothing but professional when it came to his job, and he'd been good to Poppy when she had escaped to the city. He knew that she mentioned some contact with her family here and that was a good thing because she was going to need all the support that she could get when it was time for Iris to pass. That could be any time soon from the way that everyone had been talking recently, however, they had been very careful to keep it from Poppy, because no one was sure how she would react to losing Iris again, only for good this time. She wouldn't be on her own though, because the rest of the family would rally round her, something that they should have done a long time ago and would have done if he'd gotten his way.

"It's okay, you can let him through," Jim said when he saw his father standing on the other side of the cordon. He was the last person he had expected to see here.

"Jimmy," William smiled, "I've brought coffee and sandwiches for you and your friends."

"You didn't have to do that," he said. However, it was a nice thought.

"I wanted to," William said, "how are you all doing?"

"Not too badly considering," he replied, "things are starting to get a little easier now that the National Guard are here." However, that didn't mean that they could stop doing what they had been doing.

"Iris called, she's worried about Poppy," William said, "and Deputy Green's father called, I said that I would check on his son for him."

"Rick's fine," Jim assured him, "but Poppy zoned." Not that he expected his father to understand what that meant. "Now she's pushing herself harder than anyone else," he added.

"She probably gets it from Iris," William said, "now that is one stubborn woman."

"She got trapped saving some kids," Jim said, "we got them out eventually."

"Has she seen a doctor?" William asked.

"No," he replied, "I checked her out, she just had some cuts and bruises." If it had been anything more serious than that he would have gotten her to a doctor straight away.

"Perhaps I should talk to her," William suggested, "see if I can't get her to have some coffee or something, because I don't suppose she's eaten recently."

"She hasn't," Jim replied. But then nobody else has eaten either, the only thing that he'd had was water.

"Well, I'll make sure that she has something to eat and try to persuade her to come home with me," William said, "Sally's already preparing the guest rooms for anyone who wants to stay with us. I hope that includes you and Blair."

"It will," he said. He had no idea what state the loft was in and by the time that they finished here all he would want to do would be to have a shower and crawl into bed.

"Now if you could point me in the direction of Poppy I'll see what I can do," William said.

"I wouldn't hold out much hope of getting her to quit," Jim said. She hadn't listened to Blair and he could be damned persuasive when he wanted to be.

This was not good, Leigh though when she saw the news. At any other time she would have rushed back to tell Rick and John what she had seen, but they were in Cascade and she couldn't really couldn't contact them while they were in the middle of a rescue operation. It had always been one of her biggest fears that someone would tell a reporter about the Sinclairs and now it looked as if that had gone and happened. Probably the last thing that she should do was panic, but she didn't know what she was supposed to do. There was nothing to stop the authorities from coming and taking her and Joe away. Once someone had Joe John would do whatever they wanted in order to protect his son. Of course, the town would stand up for them but with no sheriffs around it wasn't going to be much of a fight.

There was one person at the top of her list of people she hated who would be only too willing to talk to a reporter about John and the other Sinclairs, and that was Rick's mom. Grace had never liked John, but she had never said why. She seriously doubted that Rick's dad knew why either. There had always been something about Grace that she had never liked, and it wasn't just the way that woman looked down on both her and her family. If Grace had spoken to that reporter who had been snooping around town then she had to have known that she would be putting Rick in danger as well. Maybe this was his mother's way of punishing him for not doing as she wanted. When she and Rick finally had children she would allow them to choose their own path through life. She was going to have to break the news to John's parents, that was if they hadn't already seen the news. They were bound to be as worried as she was about what was going to happen. She didn't even have a gun to protect both herself and Joe with, not that she was sure that she could have used one even if the situation had warranted it.

"Yes," Iris said when a man wearing a military uniform entered the sheriff's office in Deer Creek. "What can I do for you son?"

"Are you Iris Sinclair?" he asked.

"I am," she replied, "and who might you be?"

"Mamn, I'm with the army and I'm afraid that I've got to ask you to come with me," he said.

"Now why would I want to do that?" she asked, "I'm on duty until the others get back." She took her duty very seriously even though some people thought that she was too old to do it.

"Mamn, you don't have any choice," he said, "I've been authorised to use force if I have to."

"Can I at least know the reason why I'm supposed to go with you," she said. She hadn't done anything wrong and she certainly hadn't broken any laws.

"National security, Mamn, it's for your own protection," he replied, "General Adams said that you would know what it was about."

"Well, the General is just going to have to wait until I'm ready to leave," Iris said, "so why don't you take a seat." If Samuel Adams had decided that she needed to be taken into protective custody then it had to be serious. He was a Sinclair by blood, a third cousin or something, she had never been entirely sure what the exact family relationship was, but she knew that he was a good man and not someone who would act before thinking first.

"He said that you have to go now, before the reporters show up," he said.

"I suppose that I'd better get a few things together then," Iris said. Not that she was entirely happy about the situation, but there wasn't a great deal that she could do about it at the moment. However, when she found out who had spoken to the press she was really going to let them have it.

"Simon, we have a serious problem," Blair said, "the press have shown up and are asking questions about Jim and the Sinclairs." The thing that he had dreaded most since he'd started working with Jim had happened and he couldn't see any way of stopping it.

"For the time being there is no comment," Simon said.

"That's not going to help," he said, "it's only going to be a matter of time before someone talks to them." Jim was not going to be happy when he found out about this.

"Round them all up and keep them out of sight until I tell you otherwise," Simon said.

"what are you going to do?" Blair asked.

"Work out what the hell I'm going to tell the Chief and the Mayor," Simon replied, "if I'm lucky I might just be able to keep my job when this is over."

"I'm really sorry that this had to happen now," he said, "or at all. But we've had a good run." Things were never going to be the same from now on. People would look at Jim differently, but hopefully the press attention would die down after a while.

"It's been longer than I expected," Simon admitted, "and there's no denying that they've done a damned good job here today. A lot of people own them their lives."

"Maybe we could use that," Blair suggested, "point out the fact that they help people, put themselves in danger to protect their communities." With the shit hitting the fan so suddenly it was going to be a struggle to try and defuse some of it.

"Whatever you do keep Jim away from the press," Simon warned him, "the last thing we need are reporters making complaints about his behavior."

"Trust me, he is not going to want to talk to them," he said.

"Go away," Poppy growled. She had a job to do and she couldn't do it if she was interrupted. There were people still trapped and it was her job to save them.

"How does it feel to have killed children?" A man asked from behind her, "Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she replied, turning only to find herself face to face with a reporter and camera crew. She hadn't killed anyone, Blair would have told her if she had.

"Are you denying that you are responsible for the deaths of children you were supposed to be rescuing?" the reporter asked, shoving a microphone in her face.

"I saved them," Poppy said, "they were trapped and I saved them." Why would she want to hurt anyone let alone children. Everything that she had done both here and before had been to protect people. It was a job that she had done to the best of her ability, but perhaps it hadn't been good enough if people were accusing her of hurting children.

"Is it true that you have special abilities?" the reporter asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Poppy said, backing away from him, "I'm just trying to do my job." They were stopping her from doing that and now she would never be able to save the people who were trapped.

"You have to talk to us," he said, "it's better for you if you do."

"Just go away and leave me alone," she said. She didn't have to talk to them and she didn't want to. There had been nothing in her training that had dealt with handling reporters. She wasn't supposed to say anything to anyone unless it was in a courtroom. John and the other were not going to be happy if she talked to this reporter and accidentally told him something that she wasn't supposed to. Above all else she had to keep the secret of what they were. She had to admit that she was really afraid of what would happen if a lot of people found out about them. It had been constantly drummed into her that she would be taken away and locked up if anyone ever found out about her. Now that looked likely to happen.

"Get away from her," William snapped, "you have no right to be here." Poppy looked absolutely terrified, but he supposed that was hardly surprising considering the fact that there was a reporter after her. "If you don't go away I'm going to inform the police," he added, pushing past the camera man.

"We were just asking her a few questions," the reporter replied.

"Not anymore, you're not," he said, swiftly ushering Poppy away.

"They said that I killed someone," Poppy said, "I didn't did I?"

"Of course not," William assured her, "they were just trying to get a story." He was going to have to call some of the people that he knew in the hope that they would be able to stop any stories being broadcast about Poppy and the Sinclairs.

"But what if I did kill someone?" she asked, "I was just trying to..."

"You didn't kill anyone," he said, "you couldn't hurt anyone even if you wanted to." They were all going to have to keep a close eye on her to make sure that nobody else said anything like that around her.

"I'm not a very good sheriff, am I?" Poppy asked, "Sheriff's aren't supposed to get scared and I'm scared most of the time."

"Everyone gets scared at some point in their life," he said.

"Even you?" she asked.

"Even me," he replied, "but that is going to be our little secret."

"Okay," Poppy said.

"you don't have to worry about anything," William said, "I'm going to take you home with me. Sally's going to feed you and then you can have a hot shower." She would probably feel much better once she'd eaten something and gotten some rest.

"I have people to rescue," she said, "they need my help."

"There are plenty of other people to help them," he said, "Jimmy and the others are going to my house as well." It would hopefully deter those reporters from asking her anymore questions if she was surrounded by people who cared about her. "Your grandmother called because she was worried about you. It seems that she had good reason to be." He didn't know what Jimmy had been playing at letting her be on her own when it was obvious that she needed help.

"This is ridiculous," John said, "we have work to do." Their job here wasn't finished yet.

"Do you want to run the gauntlet of reporters that are out there?" Blair asked, "I thought not," he added, seeing the look on John's face.

"I'm going to kill that damned reporter when I get my hands on him," he growled. Everyone in the family had been put at risk by that man.

"No, you're not," Rick said, "because you have Joe to think about."

"They'll never let me keep custody of him now," John said. He was going to lose his son and there wasn't a thing that he could do about it.

"You don't know that," Rick said, "when your former in-laws find out about this they might decide that they don't want him anymore."

"Are you saying that my son isn't good enough for them?" John demanded.

"Cool it," Blair said, "fighting with your guide isn't going to solve anything. If we're going to get through this we're going to have to stick together."

"All I meant is that once they realise that he could turn out to be like you it's going to be an embarrassment to them," Rick said, "the only reason they want him is so that they can parade him around in front of their friends at the country club."

"I suppose that you're right," John admitted somewhat reluctantly, "we can't stay here though." t would only be a matter of time before one of those reporters was able to get past the cordon and start harassing them. Dealing with the press was not one of his favorite pastimes.

"My dad's willing to give us all a bed for the night," Jim said, "it might be a bit cramped, but it's better than here."

"And he won't mind?" John asked. He wasn't going to stay anywhere that he wasn't wanted.

"He wouldn't have offered if he'd minded," Jim replied, "there'll be plenty of hot food and water."

"Your dad's house it is then," John said. He'd be able to call his parents from there and let them know what was going on. He hoped to god that no reporters decided to try and interview his parents because they were likely to end up being shot by his dad.

"I'm going to have to call Leigh, she'll be going frantic by now," Rick said.

"Has anyone seen Poppy?" John asked.

"She's with my dad," Jim replied, "don't worry, he's going to take good care of her."

No matter what he said it wasn't going to make the situation any better, Simon thought, if anything it would be pointed out to him that he had been lying for the past three years. He could end up being fired when he admitted that he had known about Jim's senses all along and hadn't told anyone about them. Still, not only was Jim the best detective that he had ever worked with, he was also his friend. More than once Jim had not only saved his life but Daryl's as well. His friend didn't deserve to be exposed like this, but then neither did anyone else. Perhaps it would be better if he just came clean with both the Chief and the Mayor, then they would be the ones who would have to deal with the press. He was still going to have to say something to those journalists thought, and now was as good a time as any to tell them that he had nothing to say at the moment.

"I have no comment," he growled as a barrage of camera flashes went off in front of him.

"Is it true that Detective Ellison has special abilities?" a reporter shouted.

"I have no comment to make at this time," Simon said, "and could I remind you all that this is a disaster zone, we need access to the site."

"I've seen them do it," a reporter said.

"There is nothing to see here," he said. That was all they needed, a reporter who had seen what Jim and the others could do.

"What about the nursery children who died, is that in any way connected with Detective Ellison's abilities?" another reporter asked.

"As far as I'm aware none of the rescued children have died," Simon replied, "and they were rescued by a sheriff from Wolf Lake."

"So none of them have died?" they asked.

"Not that I'm aware of, no," Simon replied, "now I suggest that you clear the area for emergency vehicles." He'd also like to suggest a lot of other things, some that were probably physically impossible and illegal in some states.

If what they were saying on the news was true there was no way that she wanted custody of her grandson now, Angela thought, and her daughter had a lot of explaining to do, such as why she had married a man like that. Socially she could become a laughing stock if people found out that she was even remotely related to those sort of people. Grace had to have known about this, so how could her best friend had let her devote so much time and money trying to get custody of her grandson. And to think that she had spent hours listening to Grace going on about her son, and this was how she repaid her. Well, from now on Grace wouldn't be getting anymore invitations to dinner from her, and she would soon spread the word amongst their friends about the sort of woman that Grace really was. Doors that had previously been open to Grace would now be firmly slammed in her face.

Her husband was not going to be at all happy when he found out how much money she had spent on lawyers, but he was going to be even more upset when he discovered how Grace had betrayed their friendship. They'd both done their best to make Grace a part of their social circle when she had first married Walter. Now it was clearly obvious that she had been using them all these years. Naturally, their support and friendship would go to Walter. The poor man had probably had to put up with a great deal from Grace over the years, and had finally had enough. She certainly couldn't blame him for wanting to divorce someone like Grace. She knew more than a few of Grace's secrets and she was prepared to tell everything that she knew to Walter's lawyers.

"Where are you going?" Henri asked. He'd thought that Brian wouldn't want to be anywhere near her now that he'd exposed what she was to that reporter.

"As far away from you as possible," Brian replied.

"But..." he began, "you're going with her, aren't you?"

"I might," Brian replied, "but what I do is nothing to do with you. As far as I'm concerned you can find yourself a new partner to work with."

"She's sunk her claws back into you, hasn't she?" Henri said, "how could you let yourself get hooked like that again." Brian had seemed to be getting more like his old self again and now he'd gone back to being her lap dog.

"Poppy doesn't want anything to do with me because of you," Brian snapped, "I had something great and you helped me to screw that up."

"She's a freak," he said, "how could anything with her be good? She got those kids killed."

"If you'd bothered to stay around you would have known that we got them all out safely," Brian said, "the next time that you need my help it's not going to be there."

"Brian, I was just trying to..." Henri began. He had never seen his friend like this before, it was just a pity that she was the cause of it.

"Why don't you want me to be happy?" Brian asked, "I've never stood in your way when you've met someone, have I?"

"I do want you to be happy," he replied, "but you can do a lot better for yourself than her. She is going nowhere fast. At one time you would have seen that straight away."

"I don't care if she stays being a sheriff for the rest of her life," Brian said, "and no matter what you say or do I'm always going to love her."

"So that's it, you're throwing away our friendship for her?" Henri asked.

"You threw it away the moment you told people what she was," Brian replied, "I hope that you have a really lousy life." He then walked away leaving Henri standing there.

"You're going to end up regretting this," Henri shouted. How could Brian be so stupid as it give it all up for someone who didn't want him anymore.

"Jimmy, I think that she's having some sort of breakdown," William said, "she keeps asking if she killed someone. Of course I told her that she hasn't."

"Where did she get that idea from?" Jim asked.

"When I found her some reporter was questioning her," William replied, "I soon put a stop to that, but she seems to have fixated on the idea."

"I'll talk to her," he said. She was only going to get worse when she realises that there were more reporters waiting to question them. "Maybe you should go home, we'll see you there," he added.

"I'm not going anywhere without you and Poppy," William said.

"Dad, there are a lot of reporters out there and I don't want you getting caught up in this," Jim said.

"Son, I'm already caught up in this," William replied, "I'm not just going to abandon you to those people."

"This could get pretty bad," he warned him, "by now the military could be on their way to pick us up." If that happened then he was prepared to sacrifice himself to make sure that Blair got a chance to get away.

"Nonsense," William said, "they don't just grab American citizens for no reason, especially not in front of reporters."

"Dad, things like that do happen," Jim said, "when we arrested the doctor in Wolf Lake he had the medical records for all the Sinclairs he'd treated over the years along with the records kept by his predecessors. John thinks that he was going to sell them to the military."

"I see," William said, "I'm still staying because you're my son and Iris would kill me if anything happened to Poppy. She had a bad feeling about this."

"And you believed her?" Jim asked.

"You don't ignore Iris when she is telling you something like that," William replied, "and if I'd listened to my gut feeling years ago Poppy wouldn't have grown up in Wolf Lake. she would have had the chance to live a normal life in Cascade."

"Normal doesn't really apply to us," he said.

"You were given a gift and I'm sorry that I never encouraged you to use it when you were younger," William said, "I was trying to protect you."

"It's okay," Jim assured him.

"Poppy," Rick said softly, "it's okay no one is going to hurt you." She was absolutely terrified and he couldn't blame her. "I want you to listen to me," he added, "we got all those kids out alive. We couldn't have done that without you risking your own life."

"I didn't kill anyone?" Poppy asked.

"No you didn't," he replied, "You'd know whether I was lying to you to." He'd learned a long time ago that there was no point in even trying to lie to John about anything because he would know instantly.

"They said that I did, though," Poppy said, "and if it wasn't for me those reporters wouldn't be out there."

"You really think that you're that important?" Rick asked, "there are always going to be reporters sniffing around. It's just that in this case someone talked to them." All they could try and do was limit the damage that had been done, but things were never going to be the same again.

"It was Henri, Brian's friend," she said, "Brian tried to stop him, so it is my fault."

"It's not," he assured her, "you can't control other people's actions, and you've done a great job here." She'd proved to them all that she could handle the stress of a major disaster.

"I was scared all the time," Poppy admitted, "and I zoned."

"You pushed yourself too hard that's why," Rick said, "but we're all very proud of you. Especially, John." They were going to have to keep a close eye on her in the future, because it wasn't good for her to think that everything was her fault. Still, until five months ago she'd been constantly told that everything was her fault. He wasn't a shrink, but you couldn't just wipe out years of abuse by telling someone that it was over.

"He's proud of me?" she asked.

"Yeah," Rick replied, "even Fern thought that you crawling through that rubble was a pretty brave thing to do." So Fern had said that she stupid, but then Fern hadn't gone in there to try and get those kids out.

"You're not welcome here," John said.

"Tough," Brian said, "whether you like it or not Poppy needs me." Besides, he really didn't have anywhere else to go at the moment. "I'm her deputy," he added.

"Now you want the job," John said, "it's too late to change your mind."

"Are you sure about that?" he asked, "she zoned and I helped to bring her out of it." Although, she hadn't exactly been filled wish gratitude for his part in that, but he would prove to her that he was sincere about wanting to be her deputy.

"You help her once and you think that gives you the right to be here," John said, "it doesn't work that way. Being a deputy is an important job and I don't think that you have what it takes."

"I deserve a chance," Brian said.

"You had one and blew it," John reminded him, "she doesn't want you near her."

"But what if she changed her mind and wanted me?" he asked, "that would make things pretty awkward for you, wouldn't it." You had to be blind not to see the way that he looked at Poppy.

"She's my friend and I don't want to see her get hurt again," John growled, "you've already hurt her once, what makes you think that I'm going to give you the chance to do it again?"

"I know that I've screwed up, but I won't do it again," Brian assured him. If he was given a second chance then he would do everything that he could to make sure that Poppy was happy. If that meant his just being her deputy then he was prepared to accept that as being her choice.

She was really starting to get worried now, Leigh thought, when she saw who else was being loaded into the back of the army truck. It looked as if they were rounding up everyone related to the Sinclairs. No one had told her where they were being taken or why. Sure, she and Rick had talked about what to do if something like this happened, and that was to do as you were told until you had the chance to escape. Well, escape didn't look very likely at the moment and she had Joe to think about. Making sure that nothing happened to him was her main priority. She supposed that she was lucky that she'd been allowed to pack a bag for him as wherever they were going they were likely to be there for some time. Hopefully, Rick would already be waiting for them at their destination. If he wasn't then she would stay as close as she could to John's parents.

"Iris," she said, breathing a sigh of relief. If anyone knew what was going on it would be Iris.

"We're just going for a little trip," Iris assured her, "away from all those reporters."

"We're going to be allowed to go home again, aren't we?" she asked. Her whole life was in Deer Creek.

"As soon as it's safe we will be," Iris replied, "there's nothing to worry about I know the man who arranged this."

"I hope that you're right about that," Leigh said. It was all very cloak and dagger and she wasn't sure how many people in town would start asking questions if they were away for any length of time.

"In all the time that you've known me have I ever been wrong?" Iris asked.

"No," she replied. Iris had never done anything to put any of the sheriffs or deputies in danger, but she didn't like being forced to leave her home without being a good reason first.

"Then trust me now," Iris said.

He didn't like this at all, Jim thought, as they were all ushered onto a waiting bus. Neither did any of the others from the look if it. Still, it would probably be better to go along with things for the time, because they were outgunned and had their guides to think about. He wasn't about to do anything that would put Blair in danger. However, his dad seemed to be right about Poppy, he'd heard what Rick Green had said to her, but it was going to take a lot more than a few words to convince her that she hadn't done anything wrong. Now there was going to be a battle between Rafe and John Sinclair for her affections, and he knew who his money was on. John would be a lot better for her than Rafe would ever be and he could trust John not to do anything to hurt her, he couldn't say the same about Rafe.

"You get a chance to run for it Chief, you take it," he said.

"Jim, I'm not leaving you behind," Blair said, "we're partners."

"I don't know how this is going to work out," Jim said, "but it's been great working together." He couldn't have wished for a better partner than the one he'd gotten in Blair.

"It's not over yet," Blair said, "they might just want to ask us some questions, and we've had enough practise at dodging the truth to pull it off."

"And if it's more than asking questions?" Jim asked. The only person whose lab rat he wanted to be was Blair's. If anyone else tried carrying out tests on him then they would soon find out just how uncooperative he could be.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Blair replied, "and the others will probably come up with their own way of not co-operating."

"I bet they will," he said. After all, they had been living under the threat of this happening a lot longer than he had.

"You know what, I pity the person who pisses John off," Blair grinned, "because he will tear them limb from limb."

"Rafe's already done that," Jim said. The surprising thing was that Rafe was still in one piece and breathing. However, John was smart enough not to do anything that would ruin his chances with Poppy.

As long as she stayed close to either Jim or John she would be safe, Poppy thought when the bus finally reached it's destination. She hadn't really paid that much attention to the journey, because she suspected that it was only going to be a one way one. They weren't going to let them go now that they had them. This was what she'd been thought to be afraid of, people out there knew that she was a freak and they could do whatever they wanted to her. Maybe it would be better for everyone if she sacrificed herself rather than let them get hurt. If she said that she was the only one they might leave everyone else along, it would certainly be worth taking the risk, because finally she would be doing something that really mattered. No doubt her grandmother would have something to say about what she was planning to do, but this was something that she needed to do.

At the back of the mind there was still the thought that she was a nobody, someone who didn't matter. She might have a new life now but old nightmares kept intruding on it. It was always worse in the middle of the night when she woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Sometimes she thought that she heard Doc and the others creeping around downstairs. However she couldn't tell anyone that though, because they would think that she was losing it and maybe she was. Other people didn't seem to have the problems that she had. She'd tried so hard to carry on like normal, putting a brave face on for the outside world. More than once she'd thought about ending it all, but then Wolf Lake would have been left without a Sheriff. Why did life have to be so complicated for her especially when other people had it so easy. To make matters worse Brian wanted to be a part of her life again. She did need a deputy, but she wasn't sure whether she could trust him or not. Then there was John to consider, he was her friend, had done a great deal to help her, but he wasn't going to be happy if Brian was working with her.

"I suppose that things could be worse," William said, getting off the bus and looking around at his surroundings. There didn't seem to be any barbed wire or armed guards to prevent them from leaving if they wanted to. However, he was going to reserve some judgement until he knew exactly what was going on. Still, it couldn't be too bad, because Jimmy and the others had been allowed to keep their guns.

"This reminds me of the country club," he said, "I wonder if they have a phone that I can use, because Sally is going to be wondering where we've got to."

"Is Sally your wife?" Rick asked.

"My housekeeper," he replied, "but we've been together for a long time. She helped me to raise Jimmy and his brother." It was remarkable how much this young man reminded him of Stephen. However, that was hardly surprising considering the fact that they had the same mother, but it would probably be better if he kept that particular fact to himself.

"John's my brother," Rick said, "and my best friend. We've been a full-time team for nearly twenty years now."

"My brother was a deputy," William said proudly. He had never told his brother just how proud of him he had been, and that he should have done more to help him and Iris.

"James was a good man," Rick said, "but I don't think that it's going to be much longer before Iris joins him."

"She's dying?" William asked.

"Not in the sense that you mean," Rick replied, "but it's getting harder for her to stay with us. There comes a time when every sheriff just goes. Iris has held on longer than anyone else."

"Does Poppy know about this?" he asked.

"No, and Iris doesn't want her to know," Rick said, "the only reason why she's stayed here so long is Poppy. She wants to make sure that she's settled, that she has someone to care for her."

"Well, Poppy has Jimmy and me," William said, "we'll keep a close eye on her, help her with whatever she needs." Poppy certainly wouldn't want for anything while he had anything to do with it.

He hadn't realise that there were this many of them Adams thought, at least not in the part of the country. He was in the fortunate position where he could arrange mass gatherings like this and call them debriefings. Whatever information that he was able to gather would for the most part remain a secret. However, he wasn't sure whether he would be able to keep them here for the next few days once they realised that there weren't any security measures around the perimeter except for ones that were designed to keep the press out. Still, if they wanted to leave before he'd planted a cover story in the press there was very little that he could do about it. Perhaps the fact that he could put them in touch with other families like theirs would help. It was information that he would have given them anyway, but it might just convince them that they weren't going to be harmed.

"Welcome to Serenity," he said, "I know that you must all be somewhat confused as to why you've been brought here, but I can assure you that no one will harmed or subjected to any testing without their permission.

"so what is this place?" John growled.

"Somewhere secure to keep the press away from both you and your families," Adams replied, "They caught me on the hop this time." It was something that he wouldn't allow to happen again. "It's my hope that we'll be able to trade information and that you might want to make contact with some of the other gifted families out there."

"We don't know anything," John said, "you've got the wrong people."

"I don't think so," Adams said, "my brother was gifted like all of you are, and you are not alone in this world." Once he'd started looking he'd come across literally hundreds of people who had enhanced senses and other gifts. Most of those people came from large families which had spread out over several communities. "You are free to leave any time that you want to, but those reporters will still be waiting for you," he added.

"Not tests at all," John said.

"Except for a simple blood test," Adams replied, "I'm trying to come up with a screening process to stop anyone whose gifted from being diagnosed as mentally ill." That had happened too often for his liking.

This really wasn't such a bad place to be, Iris thought, there was plenty of room and she had both her family and friends around her. However, that didn't meant that she had to like being here. Captivity wasn't good for sheriffs it tended to play havoc with their senses. Besides, nobody was too happy about being forced to leave the rescue efforts in Cascade. Still, there was no way that any reporters would be able to get to them here and that was definitely a good thing. She didn't know how to deal with reporters, because there had never been any need for her to talk to them back in wolf Lake.

Poppy didn't look at all well. She had been very worried about how her granddaughter would cope with the stress of rescuing people and it looked as if those worries had turned out to be well founded. She'd given Poppy five months to try and work through the problems that she had and she'd seemed to be doing well. However, it was obvious that Poppy was not happy and her granddaughter deserved some happiness. Perhaps it was time to admit that Poppy needed some sort of professional help to deal with her problems. First though, she was going to have to convince her that there was no shame in admitting that she needed help and that wasn't going to be easy. No sheriff likes admitting that they couldn't cope with things, but something had to be done if Poppy was to remain being a sheriff. It might even be a good idea for Poppy to take some time off. John and the other had had a chance to experience life before taking on the role of sheriff.

"See, there's daddy," Leigh said, handing Joe to John, "he'd been fine, but he's going to need changing soon."

"You have any problems?" John asked.

"Apart from being herded onto a bus, no," she replied, "and I haven't let him out of my sight once." John had entrusted Joe to her and she'd taken that responsibility very seriously. "So is that the city guy?" she added, looking at the man who was focusing intently on Poppy.

"That's him," he replied, "seems to think that he deserves a second chance as her deputy. Personally, I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him."

"That far," Leigh joked. Well, she could see why Poppy had fallen in love, or what Poppy had thought was love with the man, he was seriously cute. However, there was just something about him that made her uneasy.

"You don't get second chances," John growled, "she's not his."

"so that would make her yours," she smiled, "you might want to drop the caveman act before approaching her."

"She's not anybody's," he said, "she's a person not a thing."

"John, everyone has seen the way that your eyes light up when her name's mentioned," Leigh said, "it's okay to admit that you're interested in her."

"She's not well enough to decide what to do about my being interested in her," he said, "she's not coping with the stress."

"Today has been rough on all of you," she said, "but we'll get her through this." Just as long as no one went and put their foot in it that was.

"I don't think that I can do it anymore," Poppy said, "I've tried and all I want to do is die."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Iris said, "but we can get you some help."

"Will that make me normal?" she asked.

"You are normal," Iris assured her, "and you're not the first of us to get depressed."

"You don't understand I don't want to be a sheriff any more," Poppy said, "it's not what I want to be." Other people had lives and she wanted one as well.

"Nothing is going to make your gift go away," Iris said, "but if you don't like your job them we'll find you another one."

"And you wouldn't be disappointed?" she asked. Her entire life she had been told how important that it was to carry on the family tradition, but she didn't want to.

"Not everyone is cut out to be a sheriff," Iris admitted, "perhaps if you had a vacation, did something else for a while you might feel differently about things."

"Maybe," Poppy said, "but what if I didn't? Who would protect Wolf Lake then?"

"We'd find someone," Iris replied, "I know that it must be hard for you to deal with some of the terrible things that happened to you there."

"Life was supposed to get easier, but it hasn't," she said, "everything that's happened is my fault."

"Everything covers a lot of ground," Iris said, "do you want to be more specific?"

"The reporters turning up," she replied, "it was Brian's friend who told them and now..."

"Being here isn't so bad," Iris said, "and you're not to blame for what someone else has or hasn't done."

"They used to threaten me with something like this when I wouldn't do what they wanted," Poppy said, "that happened alot."

"You should never have been left there," Iris said, "John wanted to get you out of there, but I was so sure that you were happy. Well, now it's time that you were happy for real. All you have to do it tell me what you want and I'll arrange it."

"To stop being afraid all the time," Poppy replied, blinking back tears

END