Heavy raindrops slid from the awning above them after the downpour had stopped. Waiting on a little park bench for the storm to pass, they'd fallen into a time warp and drifted asleep.

Waiting........for an ending?

Gabi began to stir, and let out a small sigh as her eyes blinked open drowsily. It was the strangest feeling of contentment she had ever known....after all, she was waking up to the darkness of night instead of morning...the chaotic flashes of taillights instead of the sun......a place she'd never been instead of home.....

But Antonio's head was on her shoulder. And for once, she didn't hate the fact that this made her smile.

She didn't want to move, perchance to wake him....yet, she knew there was a certain danger in watching him sleep. Seeing someone who was always so alert to her, so heavy with mood..a whirlwind of passion and pain in such a peaceful state......

The fact that she wanted to stay like this for hours was only a confirmation of how hard she'd fallen for Antonio.

She thought of Ricardo, thousands of miles away....but wasn't the distance between them in the loft about the same, too? It wasn't just because of his stroke....there was more to it than that. And deep inside her quivering soul, she knew that Ricardo wasn't desperately anticipating her homecoming at all. She had a sinking feeling that he filled part of the black hole in her memory of the unexplained account of their journey.

But how?

Ricardo was miles away right now. If he did flutter across her mind, it was only with thoughts of whatever crazy story she could dream up about where in the galaxy they'd been...or how she could coddle him to make him forget. Yeah, Lucy definitely had a lot of splainin' to do.

"Riiiiiicky!!!! Waaaaaah!"

That was the kind of wife she was.

But there were no teary-eyed apologies for this. The emotions that were slamming in her heart couldn't be passed off as misjudgments, delusions....they never were. She wanted to be here....to feel his soft hair against her shoulder....the electrified place that only he had ever kissed...to feel the gentle rising and falling of his chest beside her.....to know that he could belong to her.

That she could be lost with him.

Her fingertips brushed lightly through his sable hair, still damp with water. She didn't want to think of him as a live wire she couldn't touch. Reaching out to him was like an uncontrollable reflex, a response to the deep bond they shared.

It was almost something predetermined.....an instinct...to love this sweet creature.

She watched him....sleeping there on her shoulder, feeling an enticing shudder as it occurred to her that it was the most beautiful, the most perfect time.....for her to..........

Gabi, are you out of your mind??

Rationale was useless....she had to seize this moment...to awaken him from his heartbroken dreams, his unspoken pain. She drifted towards him, her head tilting slowly to meet his lips. Maybe it was insane...for a woman who had done everything in her power to sever any feelings she had for this man to ambush him in his sleep like this...she didn't care. She wanted him to wake up entangled with her....his eyes wide with shock...powerless.....so he'd never forget their first kiss since--

Suddenly, his arm jerked up and smacked her right in the forehead. She jumped back as if she'd set off a fire alarm while he stumbled back into the world, his sleepy eyes fluttering open slowly.

Antonio: (mumbles)....wha....time is it....am I late for mass.......jus' call father o'brien........

He turned to her with his eyes half open, and an ethereal smile slid across his lips.

Antonio:........mmmmmm.........Gabi............Gabi???!

He jolted back and nearly fell off the park bench, a tad disoriented.

Antonio: ???....Oh...yeah....(runs his fingers through his hair) Uh.....guess I kinda...don't mind me, I'm a little out of it....I almost forgot that we were....here.

Gabi: (sighs) Hi.

Antonio: (shyly) Hey. Ahem....so, did I miss anything?

Gabi: (Reddening) Uh......you might say that. How's your head?

Antonio: What, this rock of a skull? Just fine.

Gabi: Good...I was getting scared you fell into a coma or something from the concussion I probably gave you when I whacked you with that sign. Actually, there was something I....wanted to give you....

She pressed her lips together and exhaled sadly...still overwhelmed by what she'd come so close to doing...and still wanted to. But that perfect little moment was gone.....but she'd wait for another one...she'd wait forever if she had to.

On second thought...she did need some sort of a fix until then. His eyes widened as she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him, his heart quickening against her.

Antonio: What's this for?

Gabi: I don't mean to sound incredibly cheesy...but I just really need a hug.

Antonio: Well....just call me the Velveeta Guy, 'cause I'm not complaining.

An older couple appeared in the doorway of a fancy restaurant that the awning above them was attached to, conversing with heavy Italian accents.

Man: Holy pommodoro ! It's a crazy house in there!

Woman: Really, Pietro! I didn' a notice! Stupido! Now get back in that kitchen!

Man: Si, si, la donna is always right. That's a why the men rule de world, eh, Giuliana??

Woman: Si. You rule the world, and I rule this ristorante, capisce?? (pauses) Oh....Pietro, look.

The young couple embracing on the bench caught her sight....especially the brilliant sparkle of the young woman's wedding band.

Giuilana: Amore. Is there anything more beautiful, Pietro?

Pietro: Si....satisfied customers! Basta! Back to the kitchen!

Gabi: It's just that....with everything that's happened...coming here....ending up "married," being completely penniless....situations like this just make you......realize things....

Giuliana: Pietro, did you hear that? They just-a got married...they must be on their...how do you say....honey-moonwalker? With no money and place to go!

Pietro: .....Cara mia...are you thinking what I'm wondering?

Antonio: Realize....what things, Gabi?

Gabi pulled slowly from his arms and looked at him imploringly.

Gabi: That I never...stopped...I....still...I do.............

She approached them cautiously as if she was interrupting a great operetta.

Giuliana: Ahem...scusa me.....I know we don' know one another, eh? But I believe I can help you.

Gabi: (sighs) Oh....um, that's really sweet of you. ...but I'm not sure if anyone can help us.

Giuliana: Well, I don't mean to ears-drops, but I overhear you say you just got-a married, and you're down on your luck, no?

Antonio: Well, actually, we uh....

Giuliana: I'm Giuliana, and this is Pietro. This is Delirio's, our ristorante. Actually, it's a very popular ristorante....and tonight we are....how do you say this...shortcake of help? If you would both work for us tonight....all the tips would be yours.

Gabi: (shoots up) Are you serious?

Antonio: My God, we'll, we'll scrub pots and pans, anything!

Giuliana: And put two beautiful people where no one can see them? Mai! You wait on the tables, the customers will love you, you'll have money coming out of your eyeballs, eh?

Pietro: Giuliana! Let the kids think about it, no? Va, va, the kitchen!

Giuliana: We'll be inside, ragazzi. Per favore, I hope you will take us up on our offer, eh?

Antonio and Gabi looked at each other, their eyes lit up with hope.

Antonio: So....(sighs) I guess we're the sympathetic newlyweds again....

Gabi: (looks down shyly) I can live with that.

Antonio: (wrings his hands) I just wonder why no one ever notices that I don't have a ring on....

Gabi: (opens her purse) Oh.....um....actually....I have Ricardo's in here....I must've found it on the floor again today......you....do you want to wear it?

Antonio: I uh....I guess it's a good idea for appearance's sake, right?

He held out his hand, expecting her to give it to him, and without hesitation, she took hold of his wrist, and inverted it to slip it on him herself.

With a timid breath, she held his hand and slid the gold band on gingerly.......his mind flooding with bittersweet memories of doing this when he married her.....

....and...Ricardo.

Tingles rushed up his arm as she hoped he wouldn't catch on to how she was making a covert little ritual out of this....and how special it was for her.

Antonio: Well...ahem....now all I need from you is a crash course in waitering. I've got a bad feeling that someone's gonna wind up with something boiling in their lap tonight once I get in there.

Gabi: Hey, the Deep wasn't exactly Spago's, you know. I'll be winging it as much as you. Well....?

They approached the door.

Antonio: Um...maybe we, should...

His arm waved around clumsily for a moment.....and wrapped around her with a coy sweetness .....as they entered Delirio's Restaurant as husband and wife......

Maria was wringing the Monopoly iron in her hands nervously, as Ricardo hung up the phone over and over again in endless frustration.

Ricardo: Dry leads! It's all just not enough to track 'em down! I got all my best contacts over in NYC on the case....detectives....private investigators.....dammit! They tore apart the phone records at JFK and found two consecutive calls to Sunset Beach--one made to you and Ben's, and one to AJ Deschanel's suite at the Inn. That had to be them.

Maria: But no calls to the loft?

Ricardo: (sighs) No. If they figured out I had anything to do with it...or worse yet, if they're doin' their favorite little cover-up routine to make sure I don't find out where they are...this would be the last place they'd call. It's...really hittin' me hard now, Maria. What I did......

Maria: What you're trying to fix, Ricardo! Remember that, sweetie, OK?

Ricardo: As much as I.....think I deserved a little bit of payback......I'm worried about those two lunkheads. Who knows what kinda trouble they coulda gotten into! But even if they...(grimaces) even if they're makin' red hot wild passionate love in some abandoned warehouse right now--

Maria: Ricardo!

Ricardo: No, I mean it, Maria, even if my dastardly little plan backfired and threw 'em right into each others arms...I want 'em both home. As nauseous as it makes me...I hope they're together, that they didn't get separated somehow...

Maria: I know, honey, I know...I hope to God they're not both alone.

Ricardo: (sighs) I know what alone is, Maria. I've been there, done that, bought the damn T-shirt. You gotta believe me...I wouldn't even wish that on the those two...not even the ones who put me through it.

Maria: (takes his hand) You know I believe you.

Ricardo: What, after I lied to ya' point blank and did everything just as damned bad or worse that I set out to avenge myself for? You're pretty incredible, you know that?

Maria held his eyes with hers for a moment with a nostalgic smile, and almost a sigh of relief....

Ricardo was still in there afterall.

Maria: Well, now that you've finally come around...you are too, brother of mine. We'll find them, Ricardo.

Ricardo: But....what if....they don't want to be found?

Maria: You mean.....no, I don't.....do you?

Ricardo: Maria......what if I....set' em free? What if they ain't comin' back...?

Antonio stood in front of the full-length mirror in the lobby of the restaurant, pleating the tuxedo jacket nervously. Giuliana had appointed herself wardrobe coordinator for their big night as Delirio's waiters, but he never guessed it would be this....formal.

At least, this was what dressed-up used to look like....before his all his formal attire was starch white and almost reached the floor, of course. God, he hadn't worn a tux since Ben and Maria's wedding...it was like stepping into another time....that infamous five years in which so much had changed.

But yet so little.

Yeah, he felt pretty strange....amused by his appearance the way a 5-year old ring-bearer would be. He smoothed his hair and put on his best British drawl.

Antonio: Ahem...the name is Bond. Antonio Bond. I like my holy water shaken, nawt stirred.

Nah....that was all wrong.

He moved his hand into the light and touched the gold ring pensively...then looked back at his sorrowful reflection.

Antonio: Ahem......do you....Antonio, take Gabriella to be your lawfully wedded wife?

His lips quivered into a smile.

Antonio: I do.

......so, by the power vested in me, I now pronounce myself......(Sighs) a complete moron.

He shook his head in disgust with himself as he turned around....and froze at what he saw.

An electrifying silence held them as she walked towards him, words failing them......except those of the hummina-hummina variety.

Her eyes drank him in between hot drags of breath. It occurred to her that she'd never seen him in a tuxedo before. Now those are vestments I could get used to.

He gazed at her like a rose in the middle of winter....his lover of February ides...her long dress sparkling and deep red, his face quickly becoming the same hue. He tugged on his bowtie to release the stifling heat from his neck and left it all lopsided and crooked in his oblivion.

Antonio: I.......wow........(nervously) what....what're you thinking?

Gabi: How proud I am of you.

Antonio: Me??? You.....my God, look at you. You look absolutely....incredible--beautiful.....very, pretty.

Gabi: Really? I dunno.... I feel like a big red tomato.

Antonio: ... Hey, I-I like tomatoes....

He cringed inside at his stammering choice of words.

Gabi: Oh....let me....um, fix your....(reaches for his tie)

Antonio: Oh. Oh!! Yeah....I uh....think it kinda spun around or something when I saw..... you know.....saw you......

A spontaneous giggle took her over as she straightened it, heat radiating through her cheeks as their laughing eyes met.

They locked on each other for a heartbeat or two.....

Gabi: Ahem......well, Siegfried?

Antonio: Roy?

Gabi: I guess we're on.

As they made their grand entrance, Pietro and Giuliana watched in delight as they went to work.

Pietro: Antonio, Gabriella! Andate, show them your magic tonight!

The restaurant was a whirlwind of life. The bustle of regulars watched them curiously, knowing they'd never seen them before. Gabi breezed by Antonio, holding a platter twice her size like it was nothing.

Antonio: (raises an eyebrow) Showoff.

Gabi smiled at him slyly as she passed him.......knowing that waitressing was a lot harder when you couldn't let someone out of your sight....

--The man slung his suit jacket over his shoulder and crept into the men's dressing room of the restaurant. A man's coat....damp with rain, lay neatly on a chair. He reached in the pocket and pulled out the metallic gem.

The disk.

Man: Bingo........--

As the night went on.....the bills left on the tables went from 20's...to 50's.....people were dazzled by this vibrant pair...... and the tips began to fly. Old women pinched Antonio's face, gents with polished hair were serenading Gabi with Dean Martin tunes.

And every time they brushed by each other.....the flirting got a little braver...

Antonio: Hey, be careful, that's hot.

Gabi: Enough about you, Antonio.....get over to table 14...

Antonio: (laughs) What??

And a little more........

Gabi: Oops! Gotta run, someone needs me over there.

Antonio: Didn't know I could be in two places at once.

And even more......

Antonio: That table over there wants dessert.

Gabi: They read my mind....

They couldn't believe the uninhibited little innuendoes that were flying between them, the reckless smiles that flashed across their faces as they heard the unthinkable. And as the money added up.....and added up........they knew they were home free.......but didn't want this night to ever be over.

The man in the suit sat at a table alone, the silverware arranged perfectly in front of his tightly folded hands. Now it was time for phase two.....

Tying up loose ends....and making sure secrets die.

After only a few hours....Gabi and Antonio, the toast of New York City, well, at least in this little restaurant....were retired to a booth with a heaping plate of spaghetti in front of them....and a stack of bills.

Gabi: (Counting them) Oh my God....I don't believe it....450....475.....500.....Antonio!! We did it!

Antonio: I know...I'm still in shock. It's over, Gabi....

Gabi: Yeah......over.....

Pietro: You kids were amazing!! Bravissimi !!

Giuliana: We wish you could stay here forever! That's it! We hold you hostages, eh??

Antonio and Gabi laughed heartily, twisting spaghetti.....and suddenly, realized in mid-slurp that they were adjoined by the same piece....and nervously bit it in half, inches apart.

Giuliana: Oh!!! Romanza!! They even do that little thing from....what is it?? The puppy dogs??

Pietro: Si! Ecco, er...Lady and'a the Tramp! Aww....don' mind us, ragazzi.....you don't have to sneak it, eh? You see...you're married now. One heart, no? E voi, you never, never have to be apart again. Come on now, give each other a kiss!

The clash of forks against the plates as they froze solid, looking like deer caught in the headlights, swallowing hard. Busted. But beyond the initial horror of Pietro's request came the realization that it really wasn't a charade at all....

And how desperately they both wanted it to be real.

Gabi stared into his frightened eyes...reassuring him.....placing her hands over the nervous shrugging of her shoulders...knowing that this was the perfect moment.....

To reunite.

Charged by her shy lead, he closed his eyes and sealed the space between his mouth and hers quickly, a momentary sensation, as if a tiny peck was all he could give. But the kiss grew..rocked them, with the magical innocence of a first kiss and the hunger of loss all twisted into one. They fell back to each others' lips, what seemed like again and again....as everyone else in the room, enthralled by the sight, disappeared.

They stopped in a heavy haze, their eyes cemented together as the people around them started to applaud.

Giuliana: (raises a glass) To Antonio e Gabriella! One heart, and much love forever! Salute !

The clanging of glasses resounded as the crowd of onlookers dispersed....and they were still sitting there, motionless, knowing that they'd reached a place there was no turning back from. Antonio took a deep breath...as if to draw his soul back from the lips of the dark- haired woman beside him.

Antonio: Gab--

Gabi: Ant--

Both: Go ahead. OK. You.

They knew the same thought was pounding in the core of them. To bring the fiery journey they'd just started to a standstill was like being pushed back underwater....to the dark place where they both denied themselves the sun.

Gabi: Um.....why don't we just...step outside for a minute...?

Antonio: Yeah....it's awfully hot in here!

They glanced around nervously as they slid out of the booth, as if it was a forsaken thing for a husband and wife to disappear together.

They stumbled backwards into the moonlit alley with a tender clumsiness...Antonio half carrying her as they kissed passionately, their hands sweeping through each other's hair as they drank their sweet elixir with breathless abandon, sighing heavily into each embrace.

Gabi: (between kisses)*........Antonio........?

Antonio: * Hmm???

Gabi: * We're kissing.

Antonio:*......I know.....

Gabi: *....Why....why aren't we....* saying...... "What are we doing?"

Antonio:* Oh......sorry.......what are we doing?

Gabi: * No, no, you didn't have to say it...*....I know why....why I want this...........I love you.........

Antonio: *I love you....God, I love you like crazy too.......no...no, wait, you don't...have to say that.....because you...think it's what I want to hear, Gabi.....*

Gabi: *No....*... I needed to hear myself say it.....and I don't want to leave this city without showing you how much.......

Antonio: *I.....I think I've heard something like that before.....only.....it sounds a lot less..*..catastrophic....that way.....

Gabi: *......but now...time won't run out on us, Antonio....every kiss doesn't have to be the last...........*

Antonio: * No....I can't do this....we'll go home....you'll go back to the loft....I'll go back to the rectory....

Gabi: * Never.....

Antonio: * All alone.....dreaming about this for the rest of my life....thinking about this....* while Sister Bertrille brings me stale Vienna fingers.....

Gabi: Antonio...?

Antonio: Hmmm?

Gabi: Shut up.

Antonio: Done.

Then, there were no breathless dialogues between kisses....only silence. No weakness, only strength. No confusion....only answers to every question.

No sting of temptation from being in a place where nobody knew them......

Only the need to escape the sunny little down due west of this alley where everybody did.

Her guardian fell to the path beneath her neck he had blazed once upon a dream...as her shoulders trembled from the rush. An alarming thought surged through him as Ricardo flashed through his mind.....he was wearing his ring....clinging to his wife like twisting ivy.....and loving every millisecond.

But her reaction to this hidden erogenous zone that he'd unlocked long ago revealed to him that there were parts of Gabi that only he would ever understand......and there were no regrets.

And the priest had shaken from him like extra skin and rose into the wind, as if he never had much permanence...

She turned to him in a frenzy and startled fumbling with the buttons on his tuxedo shirt, barely able to undo them while staring into his gaping eyes at the same time. Just like she did when she showed him the depths of her love the last time, her final farewell in the darkness, she kissed the small hollow beneath his neck to his chest, charged by the shockwaves of his heart against her lips, the way he writhed with the thrill without contrition.....without shame.

Antonio: You.......drive me......completely....insane......

Gabi locked eyes with him, knowing she could be committed right about now too. Her next words were laced with fire, she spoke them in a whisper only he could hear.

Gabi: Make love to me.

Antonio: Here???

Gabi: What? Oh, no! Not..oh God, no!

They snapped out of their haze for a second and looked at their shabby surroundings, then their frazzled clothes, realizing they hadn't been too fussy up until now.

Gabi: Um....on second thought.....when have we ever been hung up on location, anyway.....?

Antonio: (nervous) No, no, no...you...we, deserve someplace absolutely perfect....something Five Star......cello music.... candlelight.....Oh, man....I sound like a guy from some corny romance novel...I think I'm a little rusty at this, Gabi....

She took his hand to her mouth and kissed the back of it, wishing she could siphon all his self-doubt through the gentle gesture.

Gabi: ...You've been a perfect gentleman since the first day I met you....

Antonio: (shly) I'm....I'm gonna go inside and get our things.....don't go away....or, fade away, or turn into my 4th grade Math teacher like you have the habit of doing in my dreams.....I'll be right back!!

Gabi: I'll be right here waiting for you.

Antonio: (in the doorway) Now I know why you amaze me. You can even make Richard Marx lyrics sound good...

As he disappeared through the door with a sly grin, she laughed...then sighed affectionately.....pondering inside why she was completely without guilt. After all....it was make believe....a married woman and a priest preparing to commit the ultimate sin. Alright, and maybe make the most beautiful, exquisite love either of them had ever imagined.

The way they'd chosen to spend the last seconds of their lives.

She relished in his scent, on her skin, still near, the scent she'd wasted precious oxygen inside the sealed cavern to take in as heavily as possible. She had never told him how moved she'd been by their first consummation...it was a page ripped hastily out of a book, extinguished, hushed, feelings left unresolved as they went their seperate ways to the church and Ricardo. But it was so much more than something basely carnal, at best. She knew deep inside that her real betrayal had happened long before she had ever touched Antonio. He was something beautiful and sweet behind a bakery window. Her eyes had touched him, loved him. They were inevitable.

Inevitable...

With that thought....a sudden impact consumed her, a heavy hand over her mouth, encased in a leather glove, the cufflinked arm of a suit around her neck, pulling her to a hidden place behind the alley wall.

She let out a muffled shriek...realizing that she was in a lot more trouble than a routine mugging....the smooth, seamless gun her attacker held on her loaded without a sound, his breath on her face like sterilized hospital air...she'd seen him inside Delirio's. His voice was as monotone as they come, without a single shred of emotion.

Agent: Do exactly as I say, or I'll make you a widow before you get a chance to say goodbye.

Loud music and noise resounded from inside the restaurant...and suddenly, like the plot of a horrible nightmare, Antonio reappeared in the back door, his dusky eyes glancing around the empty alley curiously.

Agent: Do we have a deal?

The man released his hand from her mouth, and she was strangled by silence instead....her eyes clenching shut as the barrel of the attacker's gun pointed in Antonio's unknowing direction...his back turned to them...a thought worse than death. Her angel rendered instantly helpless.

Antonio: Gabi?......

Agent: I said...do we have a deal?

Gabi: (whispering) Please.....I'll go with you...just take me and leave him alone.

Agent: Not quite. Maybe if you just confess to being your husband's little accomplice, you won't have a fate quite as grave.

Gabi: Accomplice in what? Bussing tables? (he tightens his grip) Agh...

Agent: As if you didn't already know...your husband stole something very important from the FBI...but you see, now that I have it back....you're both quite unnecessary now, aren't you?

Gabi: Please....we didn't steal anything...I swear to you...we've been framed...

Antonio looked around the alley, half-smirking at the thought that she was hiding on him...but he was gripped by a horrible intuition that something was wrong.....

Antonio:.....Gabi?.....

She held in a sob as her Antonio's would-be assassin clenched her tighter, her eyes spilling over....

Agent: (harshly) Call him over here.

A fit of shaking threatening to overwhelm her, she turned to the agent with a hellish sneer.

Gabi: Go to hell.

Agent: And cut in front of him in line? I wouldn't dream of it.

Rocked by a sudden unknown power, Gabi thrust back and slammed him against the brick wall, twisting out of his grip and bounding towards Antonio.

The agent aimed at the tuxedo-clad priest she was lunging for. Plucky little thing...she pay for that move by watching him die.

Gabi: Antonio, look out!!!!!

Antonio spun around to her scream as the pistol went off with a low bang, the bullet moving like a hummingbird flitting by. With everything she had, she shoved him, then snapped forward with a heart-wrenching twist as they both fell to the ground. Antonio, in a complete terror, pulled up her wilted frame that had toppled onto him, almost in disbelief until he saw the streak of crimson across his tuxedo shirt.

Antonio: No.....Gabi, no........!!

She looked up at him like the light of a freight train, not knowing if it was the agony....or the realization that she was lost. Clinging to him, it wasn't the unbearable pain that made her slowly start to black out....she knew that. It was the sight of her shoulder, the place that Antonio cherished...covered in blood. The frightened words began to form, "Help me..." but they shifted, changed as she felt his tortured heartbeat against her...if she knew he was safe, she could die right now...with nary the strength to bat an eyelash, she whispered faintly to him.....

Gabi: Run...........

His eyes turned to stone as she began to grasp at his face weakly with both hands, stroking beneath his chin...the way she always used to.

Gabi: Go.......

.........

......I love you, Siegfried.....

He cradled her as her eyes flickered out...wanting to die as the slow realization washed over him that her shoulder was right in line with his heart. She had pushed him in just the right way...but it felt like the bullet had torn through him anyway. He fought not to cry, to ease her slow decent into the dark gently.

Antonio: Hey....hey, Gabi...don't go to sleep on me now...come on, Roy....I need you...I don't have any magic without you, Gabi....you're everything...it's you...

...I love you!

Tears pushing at the back of his eyes, he ripped the sleeve off the tux jacket and began to wrap it around her shoulder....and realized that the bullet had only grazed her. The painful slash across the skin was bleeding a lot, but she wouldn't die...

Antonio: .....Don't worry, don't worry, you're gonna be alright, Gabi....I know it hurts...but you can fight it...c'mon...take my hand and fight this....show me your eyes...I promise you it's gonna be alright...

That was when he felt the barrel of the gun at the back of his neck.

Antonio realized that he hadn't even given a thought to where the bullet came from, but now the source was upon him. And was this.....the way it was going to end?....

Agent: Get up.

Antonio geared into mentor mode, trying to evoke sympathy any way he could.

Antonio: I...I have to get her to the hospital. Please.....let me help her.

Agent: You said it yourself....the little bitch will live.

As Antonio desperately tried to control his rage, the sleekly dressed attacker stepped before him, into his sight.

Antonio: Who are you?...

Agent: Nobody. At least, you'll never know. I was sent to erase you both....permanently.

Antonio: (looking down)....Why?

The Agent flashed the disk.

Agent: For the little piece of forbidden information in your coat pocket. And now, whatever you know will die with you.

Antonio: .....No!....I didn't..it's not--someone must've....

How was it possible?? No one had gotten that close to him except--

His mind flashed to an embrace just hours ago. The way the blond woman slyly slid her arms around him.

My God. Vonda Caven wasn't a supermodel. She was a spy.

Antonio: Please....it was passed off on me....we're innocent, I swear to you!--

As he clutched Gabi in his arms, he felt a horrible swipe across his face as the agent cracked him with the handle of the gun. Stunned by the hot sear across his temple, he withered to the ground, still embracing her....struggling to keep unconsciousness at bay.

Agent: United in death.

The sound that Antonio heard next ignited his dimming mind. It was a clicking sound, almost inaudible, but it tore into his brain like wildfire as the agent snapped the metal cuffs that joined his hand with Gabi's.....the cuffs that joined his hand with Gabi's.....at L.A.X......the airport that Ricardo sent him to...to find Gabi......where he sent her to find him......the guards that chased them......the convicts....the needles........the prisoners Ricardo told them of.....Gabi and Antonio Torres.

A nauseating dread gripped him as he fell out of the world....into the silent place where Gabi already was.....dreaming of the same thing.....the forgotten story of their disappearance.....it was a disappearance...the man in the loft had made it so.

That look in Ricardo's eyes as she shut the door was satisfaction. He had just lit the sparking wick that shot them clear of the beach and into the darkness....where their only light was each other....

Goodbye, Gabi. Godspeed, Antonio.

Good riddance to you, goodbye............................

...............

To Be Continued.....

On to the final chapter....