Note: This is sort of a follow-up to my only other fan fiction, Murder X 2. If you

don't read that, you probably won't understand Lisa's role in the story. You also might want to notice how *subtle* I was with character names. Happy reading!

"Jesse!" Lisa burst through the door of the Travis residence. "Susan!" She

dropped her backpack on the couch and peeked in the kitchen. No one. The bedroom. Nope. "No one's home," she muttered. "Of all days."

Lisa sat down on the couch and unzipped her backpack. She pulled out the

program for the play the drama club was putting on: Romeo and Juliet. She opened it and looked at the first page.

Romeo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Doug Smith

Juliet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lisa Travis

Lord Capulet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wes Anderson

Lady Capulet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Delores Westin

Lord Montague . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Smith

Lady Montague . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Victoria Hall

Benvolio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Charlie Daniels

Mercutio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Scott Jones

Paris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Micheal Parker

Guard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Thomas Chenbaur

Lighting Director . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lee Peterson

Costume Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bill Harin

Prop Supervisor. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Patrick Jerrison

Directed by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mrs. Toni Anders

Lisa beamed at her name. A small smile crept across her face as she read the top line. She always had a little bit of a crush on Doug, ever since Steve introduced the two.

After weeks of reciting lines and practicing with Jesse and Susan, she had finally got the lead role in the Drama Club play. Being only freshman in high school, she was surprised she got the lead role; she was up against pretty tough competition.

Wes and Delores were friends of hers, but she wasn't really close to anyone else on the set. Victoria and Barry were your run-of-the-mill snobs, always thinking they were better than everyone else. She grinned, remembering the look on their faces when they found out they didn't get lead roles. Charlie was pretty funny and he was a really nice guy. Scott couldn't be any more different; he was a "tough guy" who got into fights constantly. Lee and Bill were geniuses. Not really nerds, just smart with lots of good ideas, which is why they preferred to be behind the scenes. Patrick was the quiet, new kid in school. He didn't really want to become involved, but his guidance counselor thought it would be good for him and gave him a task in the play. After that, he seemed really interested.

She looked over the edge of the couch at the answering machine. She saw that there were two messages and pressed play.

"Hey, Lisa. It's Jesse. Just called to tell you that me and Susan have late shifts and we won't be home until after midnight. Don't wait up. Bye," Jesse's voice played over the machine, with the familiar "hospital noise" behind him. Her shoulders slumped. She would have to leave them a note or tell them the next day.

"Hey, Jess. This is Steve. I called to invite you, Susan, and Lisa over for dinner. Dad's cooking that special spaghetti you like. Call me back. Later." A small smile crept across Lisa's face. She enjoyed going over to the beach house. Mark and Steve were always working on a case, and she grew to love helping them out when she could. She picked up the phone and called the Sloans.

"Mark Sloan," the doctor answered.

"Hey, Mark," Lisa said.

Mark smiled. "Hi there, Lisa. Haven't heard from you in a while. What's new?"

"Nothing much. Jesse and Susan have late shifts, I got a B on my Algebra test and got the lead in the school play. Your average Friday."

"You got the lead in the school play? That's great. Congratulations."

"Thanks, Mark."

"It's too bad Jesse and Susan have late shifts. We were going to have a picnic on the beach. Say, you aren't doing anything, are you?"

Lisa thought for a moment. "Nothing I can think of. And I guess that History

homework can wait another day."

"I'll send Steve to pick you up in an hour. How does that sound?"

"Sounds like fun. Tell Steve I said hi."

"Okay, hold on a second." Mark turned around and looked at his son, working on a case at the kitchen table. "Lisa says hi." Steve looked up from his work for the first time in a while.

"Tell her I said hi back," the detective said, stretching his long arms.

"Steve says hi back," Mark said into the receiver. He turned back to his son.

"Steve, are you almost done?"

"I'm not going to find anything more in this file tonight. I'm done for the night.

Why?"

"Can you go pick Lisa up at Jesse's place in an hour? Jesse and Susan can't come for dinner, and Lisa would be awfully lonely all by herself..."

Lisa grinned broadly. Mark was laying a guilt trip on his son.

"No problem, Dad." Steve stood up. "I just have to finish up a few things first."

"Steve'll be there in an hour," Mark assured the girl.

"Sounds good."

"See you later."

"Bye, Lisa." She slowly hung up the phone and smiled to herself. She was happy to have such good friends.

"Dr. Jesse Travis, phone call on line two." The obnoxious yet familiar voice

cackled over the intercom. Susan, knowing Jesse was asleep in the on-call room, walked in and flipped the light on.

"Five more minutes, Mom," Jesse mumbled, rolling over.

"Get up. You have a phone call," Susan said, pulling the covers off him. Jesse

groaned.

"I don't want to go to school today," he muttered. Susan smiled to herself and

shook him.

"C'mon, Jesse." The young doctor forced his eyes open and looked up at Susan.

"Hey there," he grinned. "Was I paged?" He sat up and yawned.

"Phone call on line two," Susan explained. Jesse sat up and yawned again. He gave Susan a kiss on the cheek before leaving to take the call.

"Dr. Travis," Jesse answered, rubbing his eyes.

"Hey, Jesse." He immediately recognized the voice as Lisa's.

"Hi, Lisa. Is everything all right?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'm over at the Sloan's. We ate dinner. I just thought I'd tell you now in

case you tried to call home and no one answers. You know, so you don't panic."

"That's fine. Me and Susan will be off in about two hours. Can I talk to Mark for a second?"

"Hold on." Jesse heard Lisa shout for Mark.

"Hello?" Mark picked up the phone.

"Hey, Mark. Thanks for letting Lisa have dinner over there."

"It was our pleasure. It was about time Steve took a break from that case

anyway."

All signs of sleepiness flew off the young doctor's face. "Can I help?"

Mark shook his head. "Nope. But I can tell you that the murder was in San

Diego, some big C.E.O. They brought LAPD in on it about three days ago. It's strictly confidential stuff. Technically, I'm not even telling you this."

"Telling me what?" Jesse asked, innocently.

"Exactly."

"I'll pick Lisa up as soon as our shift ends and thanks again, Mark."

"You're getting off pretty late. How about Lisa just spends the night here and you can pick her up in the morning."

"All right." Mark and Jesse hung up the phone. Mark gazed out the window. He saw Steve and Lisa out on the beach playing frisbee and grinned to himself. Steve didn't have any kids, but he was great with them. He dedicated a good deal of his free time at the local gym, spending time with the kids in the At-Risk program. His favorites were Doug and Maddie.

Mark opened the door and stepped out on the porch.

"Hey Dad!" Steve shouted. "Want to join us?" Lisa took the opportunity at hand and flung the frisbee at Steve with all the strength in her. Steve, fortunately, had great peripheral vision and snatched it out of the air easily. He flung it back at her.

"I think I'll sit this one out," Mark smiled. Lisa shielded her arms in front of her,

not expecting the disk to return. It hit her left arm and a bruise began to form

immediately. Lisa quickly lowered the arm to her side to hide it. She picked the frisbee up.

"Dr. Jesse Travis to pathology. Dr. Jesse Travis to pathology." The obnoxious,

yet familiar voice cackled over the intercom. Jesse groaned. He didn't want to face

Amanda after having one hour of sleep in the last sixteen. He sighed and headed off.

"What do you want?" Jesse asked, yawning.

"I hope you're having a nice evening, too," Amanda cracked sarcastically. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing. Just tired. What's up?"

"I need you to drop this off at Mark's Steve needs the autopsy report on John Leafer." She handed a manila folder to him. "Steve called and explained the situation."

What's the magic word?" Jesse asked, teasingly.

"Or else."

"That's two words," he muttered.

"This are the crime scene photos," Steve said, sliding the manila folder over to

Mark. "A few shots of the body and a shot of everything else." Mark pulled the first photo out. A man, in what looked to be an expensive suit, was tied to a chair, obviously dead. There was a gag in his mouth as well. The entire room was in chaos. Papers were scattered all over the place, including under the chair and all the file cabinets had drawers hanging open.

"The secretary came in and found him like this. She also said that someone called and made an appointment with Mr. Wells here. She said that she thought it was odd that it was a before hours appointment, but didn't really think much of it until she came in for work. She said that two masked men had Wells tied up and they began to tear the room apart looking for some file. I guess they got angry and killed Wells," Steve filled his father in. Lisa looked interested and a small smile crept across his face. More and more like Jesse every day, he thought.

The young girl picked up the photo and looked at it intently and asked, "Did he

leave a name?"

Steve shook his head. "You don't think he'd make it that easy, do you?"

"Something about the picture..." Lisa mumbled.

"Do you see something?" Mark asked eagerly. As much as he enjoyed solving

cases, it was good to see others solve them once in a while. Something dawned on her and she threw the Polaroid on the table triumphantly.

"The secretary's lying," she declared. "She might have done it herself, but I'm

betting she had accomplices."

Steve was about to make a remark, but Mark held up his hand. "Wait, I want to hear this," Mark said.

She picked up the photograph and held it out, one bandaged finger on Wells body. "The secretary said that they tied up Wells and then ransacked the place?"

"Yeah. So?" Steve asked. He didn't see how the order of events affected

anything.

"If Wells was tied up in the chair and couldn't move, how did the papers get

underneath? The place was messed up before Wells got there." Steve took the picture from her and, skeptically, looked it over. A grin formed on his face.

"Lisa, in two minutes with one photograph, you've been able to make a break in

the case that has had two precincts scratching their heads. I owe you." Steve stood up. "I'm going to call it in."

"You're welcome," she called as Steve left the room.

Mark leaned over towards Lisa and said, "You've helped more today than Jesse

has in all the years I've known him." Lisa giggled, knowing exactly what Mark was

talking about. Even though he was an ER doctor, the connections in serial killings he thought up were so irrelevant that it made you wonder where he got the ideas from.

"I should consider that a high compliment from the world's greatest detective,"

Lisa smiled, yawning. Mark would wonder later how she did both at the same time.

"Just called it in," Steve announced, reentering the kitchen. "Good timing. The

office was about to close." Lisa yawned again and it became contagious. First Steve, then Mark. Suddenly, they all burst out laughing, looking peculiarly absurd.

A short time later, Lisa fell asleep on Steve's couch. Mark had already gone

upstairs and gone to bed, due to surgery early the next morning. Steve turned off the light in the kitchen and walked into the living room where he could see Lisa curled up, her knees nearly all the way to her chest.

"That can't be comfy," Steve commented quietly to no one in particular. He opened his closet and pulled out a heavy blanket. Carefully, so as not to wake her, he draped the blanket over her still form. He saw a small smile curve her lips as her muscles relaxed and she stretched the full length of the couch. "Goodnight," he whispered and turned off the light.

Two months later...

Kennedy High School Drama Club

Proudly Presents:

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet

STARRING:

DOUG SMITH as ROMEO MONTAGUE

and

LISA TRAVIS as JULIET CAPULET

Amanda read the banner and beamed. Romeo and Juliet had always been her

favorite piece of Shakepeare. She fell in love with it when she read it in eighth grade and had her own personal copy.

It was opening night and everyone was a little jittery. After a light fell during the

dress rehearsal, a few of the actors believed the play was cursed. Everyone else just laughed it off. Lisa thought it would be stupid for Steve to investigate and find out whether it was intentional or not, so she kept her mouth shut about it.

"Hurry up," Steve said, giving Amanda a little push. "It's going to start soon."

Amanda, Steve, Mark, Jesse and Susan navigated their way through the dark and found seats just as the curtain went up.

The first scene was an argument between the servants of each house. Susan, never having read the play before, but was familiar with it, was quickly absorbed into it. The audience was very complimentary, applauding and laughing at the right

scenes. Finally, came the dramatic Act V, scene iii.

Romeo/Doug looked down affectionately at the "deceased" Juliet/Lisa. Romeo produced a small bottle with a skull and crossbones on it. Quickly, he unscrewed

the lid and drank the clear liquid. "O true apocarthy, thy drugs are quick. And... and..." Doug seemed a little disoriented as he brought a hand to his temple. "And with..." Lisa cracked open one eye and looked up at Doug. "And with this..." Doug squeezed his eyes shut and passed out. Lisa sat up, not caring about the play anymore.

"Doug? Doug, are you all right?" she asked, concerned. She saw Mark and Steve rise from their seats. Perhaps she had watched too many cop shows, but she took Doug's pulse. Faint, but thankfully there.

"Call 911," she said to Patrick, who was waiting in the wings. He nodded and fled to find a phone. "Doug? Doug, can you hear me?" She could see Jesse, Mark, and Steve coming up the aisle while Amanda stayed at their seats and called 911 on her cell phone.

"What happened?" Jesse asked, now kneeling next to them on the stage. The

audience began to get up and talk to one another.

"What happened?" and "Is he dead?" and questions of the like filled the room.

Steve took charge of the situation.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please remain calm and in your seats. An ambulance will be here and we don't want anyone to get in the way." He flipped his badge open to show the audience that he was a cop, so that he might have influence over them.

The ambulance screeched into the parking lot and three paramedics got out. The gurney was wheeled up the aisle and Doug was loaded onto the gurney.

"Take him to Community General," Jesse demanded. "I'm going with you." The female paramedic nodded.

"Yes, Dr. Travis," she said, obviously knowing him. Lisa stood up.

"I'm going..."

"No, Lisa. Stay here. Susan will take you home," Jesse argued.

"But-"

"No," Jesse repeated firmly. "I'll see you at home." Lisa shot a pleading look to Steve, a you-owe-me-from-before look. He shrugged it off, unable to help her. Susan walked up to her and took her by the arm.

"Lets go home, honey. Doug will be all right," Susan said, leading her off-stage.

"Jesse will tell us what happened when he gets home." Lisa could see uncertainty in the young nurse's eyes.

"All right."

Three hours later, Lisa was laying on the couch staring at the ceiling. It was almost 11:30, but she couldn't make herself go to sleep. With a sudden rush of adrenaline, she realized how much she truly cared about Doug. They were pretty good friends, but she hadn't thought her feelings were outside a simple crush.

"I have to find out," she mumbled. Being as quiet as she could she threw her

jacket on and slipped out the door. She was relieved to find her bus pass in her pocket, her ticket to Community General.

"That was a close one," Jesse said, sitting on the autopsy table in Amanda's

pathology lab.

"Amanda, I need you to have a tox screen run on Doug's blood and whatever was in that bottle he drank from," Mark said. "And-" Steve came in the door and the three doctors turned to look at him.

"He fell asleep," Steve explained. "Probably the best thing for him."

"I want to know what it was that made his blood pressure to drop so suddenly. If we didn't get him to Community General as fast as we did, he might not have..." Jesse lowered his eyes to the ground, unable to continue.

"Who would have done this?" Amanda asked.

"We know the means," Mark said, going into detective mode. "But we need

opportunity and motive."

"And a suspect couldn't hurt," Jesse said dryly. "We also need to find out who

had..." Lisa opened the door.

"Where's Doug?" she demanded.

"I thought I told you to stay at home," Jesse said, anger rising in his voice.

"I want to see Doug," she said through clenched teeth.

"Lisa, you are in so much trouble..." Steve put a hand on his arm and Jesse looked back at Lisa. Her eyes were filled with fear and anger, two emotions that seemed to go hand-in-hand.

"He's sleeping right now," Mark explained. "But he's going to be fine." Lisa

nodded, obviously relieved.

"Can you help us with a few things?" Steve asked.

"Thought you'd never ask," Lisa muttered. On the inside, she was furious What right did Steve have to question her? Was she a suspect? But then she realized that he was just doing his job and she jammed her hands deep into her pockets.

"Do you know any reason that anyone would want to poison Doug?"

"He was poisoned?"

"That's what it looked like. You say he didn't seem to be acting any different at all until after he drank from the bottle?" Lisa shook her head.

"Back to my original question: Do you know anyone who would want to poison

Doug?"

"That wasn't your original question."

"Lisa..."

"All right, all right. I don't know. Maybe it was Barry. He as pretty ticked that

Doug got Romeo. But I don't think that he would actually poison him..."

"Barry. What a stupid name," Steve remarked under his breath. "Anyone else?"

Lisa thought a moment. "I wouldn't put it past Scott, though. He's that Italian kid from, let's just say, 'the wrong side of the tracks.' He didn't have anything against Doug as far as I know."

"Who had access to the bottle before the play?" Mark interjected.

"Everyone. It was in the prop room. Patrick was the last to handle it, though. He wouldn't have known the difference between whatever the poison was and water; they were both clear."

"That narrows it down," Amanda said sarcastically.

"So anyone could have switched the bottles and we have no one with motive,

means and opportunity," Mark said, exasperated.

"And it must have been difficult trying to find a poison that was lethal and could be passed off as water at first glance," Jesse put in. The trio of doctors and the homicide detective went over the facts and became so engrossed in conversation that Lisa was able to slip out unnoticed.

She walked up to the nurse's station.

"Could you tell me what room Doug Smith was checked into?" she asked the

nurse on duty.

The nurse gave her an annoyed look and set her magazine down. She pressed a few keys on the computer.

"214. Right down the hall," she said tiredly.

"Thanks." Lisa turned around and started down the hall. She saw the numbers

"214" above the white door. "This is it," she mumbled. Tentatively, she pushed the door open. Slowly, she walked into the room to see Doug hooked up to dozens of machines and an IV was imbedded in his arm. He was asleep and looked as handsome as ever. With that blonde hair and...

"Lisa?" Doug's eyes were opened a crack. "Is that you?"

"It's me," she smiled, sitting down in a nearby chair. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Like all my energy has been drained... slowly..." He began to laugh, but it was short lived as he brought a hand to his temple.

"How about you get some rest?" she offered. "We don't want our Romeo to miss all the performances." She grinned and he grinned back.

Mrs. Anderson had the play put off for the rest of the week. With the understudy for Doug out with the flu, they really had no choice. Doug returned to school the next week and the play was back on.

"There never was a tale of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo," the

Prince finished. The lights dimmed and the curtain went down. Nothing out of the

ordinary happened. The audience clapped and cheered to the point where they had four curtain calls.

"We did it!" Lisa shouted, giving Doug a big hug. "We actually made it through

the entire play without anything going wrong." Doug gave her an odd look through a

smile.

"Glad to see you're so elated," he grinned. She rolled her eyes and went back to her dressing room to change, as did the other actors and actresses. She opened the door and found a horrid sight. The entire place was trashed. The costumes from the scenes other than the last one were all torn and everything was in a jumble on the floor. It didn't look like the intruder was looking for anything, just wanted to trash the place.

"Who..." she murmured. She quickly found her clothes, which were thankfully

untouched, and put them on. Gotta tell Steve, she thought. This definitely not an

accident. She went to leave when a figure filled the doorway.

"Pat?" she said. "What are you doing here?" she asked nervously.

"Don't play stupid," he said angrily, pulling a switchblade out of his pocket.

"Listen, Pat. I swear I won't tell anyone if you were the one who..."

"Had the light fall during rehearsal, switched the water with poison, trashed your room?"

"You did all those things? But why?"

"Come on, you're smart," he said, opening the switchblade. Lisa backed up until she was against the wall. He pressed it against her throat. "Think about it. Patrick Jerrison." He pronounced each syllable in his last name carefully.

"Jerrison? Jerris.. son. Jerry's son. Oh my God..." It was Jerry's son. Son of the psycho that had killed nearly a dozen twelve year old girls from all over L.A. Now, he was back for revenge. A small trickle of blood dripped down her throat. A small one, mind you, but it hurt just the same...

"Please, no," she pleaded. "Don't hurt me."

He snorted. "Yeah, like you didn't hurt my father. You testified in court against

him and he got the death sentence because of you." He spat the last word out at her.

"I didn't mean to. Really," she stammered. She had to think fast if she was going to get out alive. "But why did you poison Doug? What did he ever do to you?"

Patrick, if that was his real name, made a face. "Don't start that crap with me,

bitch!" he swore. "I can see you two making goo-goo eyes at each other. I thought that if I killed him, it would kill you from the inside. But he survived. I guess I'll have to kill you from the outside..." The blade dug deeper into her skin as she heard a sound from the door.

"What the hell is going on here?" Doug stood at the door, a bewildered expression on his face. Lisa took her chance with Patrick off-guard and gave him a push into the mirror. She took off and Doug followed.

"Don't think you can get away!" They heard Patrick's voice as Lisa ran up onto

the catwalk backstage, Doug at her heels. They stood at the other end of the catwalk in silence, waiting for whatever was to come.

"What the hell is going on?" Doug repeated in a whisper.

"Patrick did it all. He had the light dropped during rehearsal and switched the

water with poison."

"Why?"

"I'll explain later. Right now, we have to get Steve and-" She was abruptly cut off with a sharp pain in her neck. She felt a hand clamp over her mouth and Doug fell to the ground.

"Patrick..." she hissed, once the hand was off her mouth.

"The one and only," the familiar voice answered.

"What do you want?" Doug asked through gritted teeth as he picked himself up.

"I want her to die," Patrick grinned. "But I'm not going to use the switchblade. I thought up something a lot more creative." In one swift motion, he took the butt end of the knife and knocked Lisa out with it. She slumped down into his arms.

"Now comes the fun part," he grinned. He laid her down on the ground all the

while keeping the knife pointed at Doug. With his feet, he slid Lisa under the bottom railing of the catwalk inch by inch...

"Where is she?" Jesse asked impatiently. He looked at his watch. "She should have changed by now."

"I'll go check her dressing room," Susan said, leaving the Jesse, Steve, Amanda, and Mark at their seats. Moments later, Susan returned a worried expression on her face.

"She's not in her dressig room, but the entire room has been ransacked," she said worriedly. Jesse shot a look to Steve.

"I'll be right back," Steve said, feeling in his pocket for his gun.

"You don't want to do this," Doug said, slowly coming towards Patrick. "Please don't do this."

"What do you care anyway? I ain't gonna hurt you." He scooted Lisa closer to the edge and she began to come to.

"She's my friend," he said. "I don't want you to hurt her."

"Yeah, just friends. I'll bet," Patrick sneered. When he saw the look on Doug's

face, he realized he had obviously hit a nerve. "Oh, I'm sorry your secret had to get out." With one last swift kick, Lisa was over the edge, but conscious enough to grab hold of the side. Patrick didn't seem to notice and began to run in the other direction.

"Help, Doug," Lisa pleaded, struggling to keep hold. Doug knelt down and took

her wrists.

"Try and swing up with your legs," he commanded.

"Can't... slipping," Lisa mumbled, beginning to fall. Steve came up behind them.

"What the hell..."

"Help me out here," Doug said. Steve made a move, but it was too late. Lisa

tumbled into the dark where it was badly lit and neither male could see her.

"Lisa!" Doug shouted. He turned to Steve. "Find Patrick. He's the one who's

been sabotaging the play." With a nod, he was off. Doug raced down the steps into the backstage area, praying to God that Lisa would be all right.

Lisa opened her eyes and saw white. All white. Suddenly, the white was divided into rectangles by tan lines and looked like holes had been gouged in them. Her brain made the connection and realized she was staring at the hospital ceiling.

"Jesse?" she whispered weakly. She brought a hand to her neck and felt a

bandage. Slowly and painfully, she rolled her head to the side and saw a sleeping figure in the chair next to the bed.

"Doug?" The boy woke up suddenly and smiled at her.

"Hey, Lisa. Welcome back," he said, clearly relieved.

"What happened?"

"Well, when Patrick found us, he knocked you off the catwalk and you fell into the Capulet orchard setting. If it hadn't been there..." Doug swallowed. "Steve

caught him and Jesse brought you in about three hours ago. He was here until about ten minutes ago, when there was an emergency in ER."

"Is everyone else okay?" Lisa asked, still trying to take it all in. Doug nodded and slipped his hand into hers. "That's good," she murmured, beginning to feel drowsy. She closed her eyes and leaned back into the pillows.

"Why don't you get some rest and I'll let Jesse know that you're awake, all right?" Lisa barely had the strength left in her to nod. She opened her eyes for a moment and looked up at Doug. Something strange clicked in both of them as Doug lowered his head towards her. Lisa felt his lips press against hers. She almost drew back, but decided not to and returned the kiss. When she opened her eyes, she saw Steve standing in the doorway, a dopey smile on his face. She felt a flush creep up the back of her neck as Doug turned around to see what she was staring at.

Steve had one thing to say. "It's about damn time."

Mark, Amanda, Steve, Susan and Jesse sat out on the Sloan porch and looked out on the ocean. Doug and Lisa sat down near the shore. They were sitting next to each other, Lisa leaning aginst Doug's chest with Doug's chin atop her light brown head of hair.

"That's so cute," Amanda said. "Isn't that cute, Mark?"

"Yes, very cute," Mark agreed.

"I have never felt more like a father," Jesse stated flatly.

"Don't worry, Jess. Doug's a good kid," Steve assured him.

"Yeah, I know, but..."

"Welcome to the club, my friend," Mark interjected. Susan and Amanda giggled.

"And I feel like a mother," Susan added. "When I was a kid and I was caught

doing something bad, my mom would always say, 'Susan, I hope you have kids just like you when you grow up.' But I lucked out. I got Lisa instead."

"What do you mean, 'lucked out?'" Jesse asked. "Do you know about that little

midnight bus ride she took?"

"I heard that!" Lisa shouted from the beach.

"Busted!" Amanda chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess Lisa is a good kid, though," Jesse admitted.

"You guess?!" Lisa's voice came back.

Deliberately being loud, Jesse shouted, "But she's completely nuts!"

"And proud of it!" was the reply.

"That's a pretty sunset," Lisa murmured as she felt Doug's arms come around her.

"Beautiful," Doug answered, but he wasn't looking at the sunset. He was looking at Lisa. He sighed happily. "Gorgeous," he added quietly.

"Are we still talking about the sunset?" she asked.

"What sunset?"