After Audrey Ross brought David West and Thellissandra over from Thellissandra's home world to meet with the others at the house of Carol Bishop, a strange woman interrupted their meeting. This woman turned out to be an FBI agent named Amanda Prescher, who also happened to be an older sister Thellissandra never knew existed.

  After Special Agent Prescher left, they began discussing the adventure modules that D. Erik Hendrix had given them.

  Suddenly David called out for something to write on - “I think I know why Elgarin is backing our company, and if I am right, I know how to at least slow him down if not stop him, but I need to write it down before I forget! And I am sorry for interrupting you, Carol but …”

  “I get it, this is important,” Carol replied.

  “It also is important that I get back home soon,” Sandra said. “Three days ago, I met a new Sister at the Temple, also named Thellissandra, who is getting her arm band and first braid today, and she asked me to be there.”

  “I read about this - it is an important event,” Audrey said. “Do they allow observers? I could take you back, stick around for a few minutes and then come back here?”

  “Or,” Malcolm offered, “I could go to your pce, make us dinner, and have it ready when you get back?”

  “Ah! That's what seemed different - you two are together!”. David excimed.

  “Oh yeah, guess there is that,’ Malcolm replied a little sheepishly

  “If you do go to my pce, be careful. Pickles scared off two of my st three boyfriends…”

  “Pickles?” Carol asked.

  “Her cat,” Malcolm answered.

  “Here, take my car then,” Audrey said, handing her keys to Malcolm, “and let’s get you home, Sandra.”

  David chimed in with: “Malcolm, could you drop me off at our pce and then I’ll find my own way back to the Temple after I get that code segment set up?”

  “Sure; I was pnning to grab some of the groceries we’d picked up yesterday anyway.”

  “And Liz and I will hold down the fort here and maybe do a little more reading,” Carol suggested, and her fiancé agreed.

  “It was great seeing you all,” David said. “Tomorrow is going to be crazy; hopefully in about two days we can all get together again?”

  The others agreed, and Audrey and Sandra left first in a haze of green energy, then David and Malcolm took Audrey’s car back to their pce.

  The others agreed, and Audrey and Sandra left first in a haze of green energy, then David and Malcolm took Audrey’s car back to their pce.

  As soon as they were on the road, David asked: “So what finally got you two together after all this time?”

  Malcolm grinned as he answered: “Her eyes. I always loved those blue eyes of hers, but somehow, when they turned green something in me snapped and I just could not hold back. And then I realized that, though I told myself I only had a slight crush on her Senior year, I have been in love with her since Junior year at least. But I got kind of tricked into taking a different girl to prom and let her slip away for eight years. I think part of why things never worked out with other girls was I was still kind of holding a fme for her. Maybe.”

  Dave smiled. “Sounds about right. Always felt she meant more to you than you let on, but never felt like pushing and honestly kind of forgot about her until you mentioned her being the detective on Uncle Mike’s case. Guess something good came out of his death. I think he’d appreciate it”

  The two young men went up to their apartment in companionable silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Once they were inside, David headed to his ptop, then stopped: “what happened to the table that was here?” He asked.

  “Oh. Now THAT is a bit of a story. Kind of embarrassing really. But we might have some website consulting work out of it. I’ll tell you the whole thing someday but right now I need to get stuff to make dinner and head out.”

  David hesitated as if he wanted to press the issue, but then just shrugged. “Yeah, what are you pnning to make?”

  “Probably a pael. Or maybe just a cioppino, but probably pael.”

  “Man, wish I could stick around for that,” David said.

  Malcolm just ughed “Sorry, dinner for two, or three if the cat gets uppity.”

  Dave ughed at this, “You kids have fun,” he said, and then fired up his ptop.

  “Hello, old friend,” he said as the screen came to life. “Time to work some of our old magic.”