The old-fashioned fountain pen scratched across the pages of a composition book. The page completed, there was a deep sigh. A soft voice said, "Well, Alan, I've done all I can. I should have told her before I know, but she's so young and she's had such a time of it."

The elderly woman lifted up an old style cashbox, opened it, put the notebook in it and locked it. She'd get it back to the bank in the morning. All of the notes Alan made before his death were there in the other box. She'd been far too frightened to keep them in the bar.

Maggie usually came in early on Tuesdays. Jess could handle the lunch crowd with her help. The missing notebook hadn't turned up. Perhaps she should look in the basement again. She wasn't feeling well enough to go digging around down there. Mel would be back from her trip in a day or two and she would sit down with her.

End Teaser

Maggie blinked as her eyes became accustomed to the dark interior of the bar. "Hey, anybody home?"

"I'm here, Maggie. Come on up. I'm just doing the books, " came the slightly muffled voice of the bar's owner.

Maggie climbed up the steps to the living quarters, wandered into the kitchen, grabbed a cup of coffee and followed the tapping of the computer keys into the second bedroom, now Mel's office.

"You remember that bank charge I asked you about?"

Maggie laughed, "Great minds. I finally ran down the keys your grandmother gave me and even remembered to bring them with me today." She opened the book bag she used as a purse and triumphantly shook the small key ring. "Adelaide was busy when I got back and then with everything else…"

Mel took them gingerly. "Well, this is certainly a safety deposit box key."

"Want me to go over there with you?"

"That's OK, Maggie, " Mel looked uncomfortable. "Cole is thinking about starting a business and I was going to take him over to the bank this morning."

"Oh? You two getting serious?"

"You are the world's most persistent matchmaker!"

"Well, you obviously care about each other. I saw you dancing together after that little fracas at the Art Museum.

Mel smiled, remembering Cole asking her to teach him to slow dance. Then remembering the shock of finding that at least some of Cole's former prisoners were on the loose again wiped the smile away as though it had never been. "The timing has been really bad, Maggie. He has his job..."

"About that job, Mel. You could let me in on the secret.

"What secret?"

"What he's really doing here. I don't buy the undercover deal. There are too many things he knows and too many other ones he doesn't quite get. It's not like I haven't kept quiet about things before, you know."

The silence was broken by the subject of their conversation arriving. "Am I interrupting, Mel?"

She shook her head, "No, did you get everything reconnected?"

"I will need to run another phone line and probably another circuit..."

Mel made a shushing motion and closed the Quickbooks program she'd been using. She picked up the keys Maggie'd given her. "No problem, Cole. I need to go over to the bank. Come with me? We can talk on the way, OK?"

Maggie watched them leave murmuring about young lovers and followed them down stairs. Time to get to work.

As they walked out the door, she heard Mel's voice, "Can you access the money Zin had?"

"Zin… What's that, I wonder?" Maggie filled the coffee pot and turned it on. Gail was off today so she needed to make sure everything was ready to handle the lunch crowd alone.

End - Act One

Mel settled herself behind the wheel of the SUV. "We still have to establish some sort of credit for you. How did your people handle that on Cirron?"

Cole rubbed his eyes. For some reason he was tired this morning. "Much as it here, from what I can tell, though educators and those caring for the young were rewarded more than they are here."

"Sounds reasonable to me, but it would never work here."

"Mel, I can create the record. The computer can give me access, and if you will help me determine the amounts that would be appropriate, I can take care of it when we get back to the Watchfire. I should have done it earlier…"

They pulled into the parking lot and Cole touched her arm, "Wait a moment, Mel." He took a small silvery rectangle from his pocket. "You need to keep this with you. I know you know how to use it, and if you are threatened, you need to protect yourself."

Mel stared at the device. Yes, she knew how to use it. She'd proven that the day they locked Zin in the vault, but... "Cole, I... what would happen if the person wasn't an alien?"

"I don't think it could hurt anyone, Mel. Should I come in with you?"

With a shiver, she tucked the collector in her purse. Then she smiled at him, the smile that made his stomach tighten. "Sure, Cole. It won't take long."

A few moments later, they were alone in a small room with a table for them to use to open the large, heavy metal box. There were two smaller boxes inside. One was a cash box, fairly new, the metal still bright. The other box was much older and appeared to be wrapped in a linen sheet.

Cole looked uneasy, "I think it would be better to take these things home, Mel. There are things here…"

Mel took the cashbox and put it in her tote bag. Cole quickly slid the older container in his coat and they left the bank trying to appear relaxed, all the while feeling as though they were carrying dynamite.

The bar was busy when they got back. Cole immediately took the packages upstairs, locked them in the war room and hurried back to help. For the next few hours, mixing and serving drinks took all of their attention. At last, Gail bid a cheery good night to the last drinker and locked the door behind him.

"My poor tired feet!" exclaimed Maggie. "Seems to me that nights used to be shorter."

They took care of the worst of the night's mess and loaded the dishwasher. Gail left promising to get in as soon as her class finished, and Maggie stopped at the door. "Mel, what was in the bank box?"

"I didn't have time to open it. See you tomorrow." She all but pushed the older woman out the door and leaned against it for a moment.

Cole hesitated for a moment, then came over to her. Gently he stroked her throat. "Do you really want to open them tonight?"

"We have to. I need to know what she was hiding, what she knew. I'd like to know how much she really did know about aliens..." Mel was almost in tears, "I need to know who I am!"

They carried the boxes out into the kitchen and set them gently on the table. Mel took out the keys and unlocked the newer one first.

A heavy expandable envelope held a scrapbook filled with newspaper clippings some so old that they were yellow and brittle. There were old leather folders with handwritten pages in them. The ink was faded and hard to read. A newer one had notebooks with notes dated starting in the 1940's.

The older box was made of wood, the lid beautifully carved. The inside of the box was lined with thin sheets of copper. It was filled with parchment and carefully rolled sheets that looked like papyrus. Hesitantly, Mel reached for one of the parchments. "Can you read any of this?"

Cole ran his hand over the top of the page. "Some of this is coded into the skin. It could be an older form of the language used on Cirron…"

Carefully he lifted several more pages. "These go back many generations. I believe they might belong to the Guardians."

"The ones you said set up the bloodlines?"

Cole looked at the parchment again and nodded. "Some of these are very fragile, Mel. I think it would be best to scan them, then replace them and take them back to the bank."

Reluctantly, Mel agreed. They took the boxes and their contents into the War Room. Cole patted her arm, "You need sleep, Mel. I will see how much of this I can scan in tonight."

"All right, but... can we keep Gran's notebooks a little longer? They won't fall apart if we handle them carefully."

Cole picked up a couple of the black ad white speckled books. The leather bound ones were older, but there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the way they were placed in the boxes. An envelope fell out of one of the newer notebooks.

The address was a P.O. Box. There was a short note, "Mom, Elaine is dead and I have to go to ground. I'll write when I can. Put Dad's papers somewhere safe. I love you." There was no signature. The postmark was from Brighton in the UK.

Mel's hands shook as she carefully put the letter back in the envelope. "Cole... My father, he might be alive?"

"I don't know, Mel. What happened to him?"

"Gran said there'd been a boating accident. Elaine was his second wife, Kate's mother."

"Kate?"

"My half sister. I really don't know anything about her. She didn't want to come here, after Dad died. I thought she was running a bookstore..."

"But, she's part of your family?"

Blushes colored Mel's face, "She didn't want to come here, I couldn't leave the Watchfire and go there."

"Why didn't you see her while we were in London?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Cole. She has her own life and I have mine."

"OK, Mel."

Embarrassed, Mel took one of the notebooks and left the War Room. Cole heard her slam her bedroom door.

End Act Two

Her bedroom was dark but putting on a light wouldn't help. Was everything she believed to be true... wrong?

She'd adored her father. When he said his law firm was sending him to England, she had been angry and hurt that he would even consider leaving her behind. Grandmother Adelaide was wonderful to her, but she missed talking to him, going for walks by the lake, learning the history of the city and how important the rule of law was.

The law was always important to him. That made it important to her, too. She wanted to be a cop as a youngster and the officers who hung out around the bar had teased her about it. Going to law school had been a cherished dream until David left and her world suddenly changed.

At first, there had been letters and cards, even a couple of video tapes of London and Stonehenge. Then gradually they slowed and stopped. He'd met someone. She was wonderful and David was going to get married again. He hoped she would understand.

She felt betrayed. Her grandmother tried to get her to go along to the wedding but she claimed she had finals and couldn't go. Maggie stayed with her and the bar was busy enough that she almost forgot how angry she was with her father. Maggie wouldn't let her pour drinks but bussing the tables and drawing more of the caricatures was more than enough to keep her busy.

Her grandmother's friend, Jonas Carr, one of the best attorneys in the state, tried to encourage her to take the LSAT's, but she was not responsive to the idea. Then, as Jonas' wife became more and more ill, his drinking escalated. Maggie would make him take a cab home, but nothing seemed to help. Defending Cole started him back to work in the profession he loved.

Mel had boyfriends. Men were always around, but they had problems and she spent far too much time trying to help them. Was that part of her attraction to Cole?

And then there was the terrifying information that she was not completely human herself.

It was hard to understand the people of Earth at times. He would have been in touch with a sister, even a half sister. Of course, he hadn't heard anything about this, Kate either. Perhaps, it was as Mel said. They had different lives.

The slight man he'd followed from the bar a few days ago still bothered him. The video tape clearly showed the blue heat signature that indicated one of the aliens but then it disappeared from the screen. He had to fine tune the program. He also had to find out how they were hiding the characteristic temperatures caused by taking on human bodies..

Perhaps there was another method he could use to identify them. The only ones he was relatively certain of were the Enexians and even there, a lot of perfectly normal humans wore sunglasses. He wore them himself, to eliminate the glare on a bright day.

In a small, cheap hotel room, Sudor was sharpening a new knife. He hummed to himself. This would complete the pattern and he could take on another persona. Another name he'd noticed was Manson. An homage to that one was really overdue. He needed to find out more about the killer. After all, one wished to be as exact as possible. Otherwise the homage was imperfect.

There was a knock at his door. He stopped working on the knife. Silence was important. He must not be stopped before he finished.

"Sudor, I know you're in there. Open up. Haag wants to talk with you."

No! They couldn't have found him. Stay silent. They would go away.

"Sudor, it's Vax. I know you're there. I can smell you. Open the door or I break it down."

The Enexian was certainly capable of doing it. Holding the knife out of sight, behind his back, Sudor opened the door.

"If Haag thinks he can stop me, he's very, very wrong!"

"You are going to get yourself caught by the Tracker."

"Not as easily as you did," he said contemptuously.

Vax stepped inside, shoving the smaller man backwards. "You got caught too. And you didn't get either of the females. Zin isn't going to be happy."

Sudor suddenly exploded. The knife stabbed deeply into Vax's abdomen and upward through the diaphragm into his heart."

"Would it surprise you to know I don't care?" he hissed, stepping back to avoid the blood and other things spilling out of the Enixian."

The body died, and minutes later, the alien essence faded, too.

"Nothing is going to stop me. Not you, not Haag and not the Tracker. I will make him pay and then I'll go back to London and get the other girl, too."

Carefully, he packed the few things he's carried with him. Fingerprints were wiped off and he left the hotel by a back door. The Visa card he'd used was tossed into a trash can. Now, he needed to find a quiet place to spend the afternoon, then...

End of Act Three

Mel poured another cup of coffee, hoping the strong brew would help her focus. Through the long night she'd been reading Adelaide's notes telling how her great grandparents met. Adelaide had some of the posters from the "Colombian Exposition" in her bedroom. The room had remained pretty much as she'd left it. It was at the extreme back of the apartment, down the hall from her room and the room Cole was using.

Holding the notebook, Mel opened the door, half expecting her grandmother to remind her that a lady always knocks. Reconciling that version of her Grandmother with the Tequila Tuesday person Jess and Maggie knew was never going to be easy. Feeling terribly lost and alone, she sat there, trying not to cry.

There was a quiet tapping at the door. When she didn't answer, Cole called her name softly. "Mel..."

"Go away, Cole. I can't talk to you now."

"Mel, I'm sorry."

That was the last straw. She threw the notebook at the door and started crying in spite of herself.

Cole caught the notebook, which made her cry harder, and brought it back to her. He tentatively touched her throat but she pushed his hand away. Where their hands touched, a soft, golden light began to grow.

"No," she said, "I don't want this, any of it!"

Mel ran from the room and Cole heard her door slam again. His arm tingled where they'd touched. Oh, Mel, he thought. How can I help you accept the idea of your inheritance?"

He picked up the notebook and began to skim through it.

April 12, 1948

I'm glad my parents insisted on my keeping a journal. With father gone, there really is no one to talk to. There are so many changes since the war and all of us trying so hard to pretend that we can revert to the way things were before.

The bar is doing fairly well these days. The lawyers come in during the day, for lunch and the cops come in after their shifts or during them for burgers and beer. A couple of nights ago, this tall red headed man came in and sat there drinking coffee and staring at me through most of the evening.

There was something about him. I felt so strongly that I'd known him forever. His name is Alan Hughes. He asked me out to dinner Sunday and I accepted. Is he the one?

May 20, 1948

We're going to get married. Mother approves of him, says he's like her father, the English Professor. He wants to take my last name. I told him that wasn't done but he simply laughed and said that we'd be the first, then.

I do love him.

August 20, 1948

We're going to have a child. I can't stop humming to myself. Alan is happy, but a little worried about me. All of the women in my family have their children easily. I told him I was in no danger.

November 11, 1948

Alan says we're going on a trip. There are things he needs to get from his home. I'm excited. I really want to see where he grew up. He never really talks about it. So many of the soldiers who came back don't want to talk about the past.

November 21, 1948

The world has turned upside down. I don't even know where to start. We arrived at this hot, sleepy little town in Arizona and took a room at a hotel that had seen better days. Alan left me here, said to stay put and he'd explain everything when he got back.

It was early evening when he got back and he hurried me out to the car and we drove off without another word. He looked so grim. I thought I'd done something, but he wouldn't answer me. We drove all night. Finally, around noon, he stopped the car. "Adelaide," he said, "there are things I have to tell you. Please listen to all of what I have to say before you decide to leave me."

"Leave you...? Why would I leave you?"

"Adelaide, I belong to a race of Aliens, people from another world, who have come here for many thousands of years, fostering your people and trying to protect you, Guardians, if you like, from alien enemies who could destroy your beautiful little world."

I sat there, too surprised to speak. He reached out to touch my throat, a loving gesture, one that filled me with joy... but I was too numb to respond.

"I took the form of a soldier or airman, I think he was called. He was reporting to someone about a 'flying saucer'. I followed him back to his base. I borrowed clothing and created an identity card. I stayed hidden until I could find out what they'd done with my vessel.

"I knew one of the Guardian bloodlines was in the Midwest. I hitchhiked to Chicago and spent several days in the library. Once I was certain of the area, I visited each of the businesses, looking for the people who had been bred to guard the weapon. I saw your mother shopping and followed her back to the Watchfire. When I saw you, I loved you, not only because you were unmistakably one of the Guardians, but because you were bright, beautiful and gave me hope that your world could be saved."

Cole stopped reading. There was the proof that Mel was part of the great plan devised to protect Earth and her developing population. The prisoners certainly knew Zin had a plan, though he doubted that all of them knew what it was. They had to be stopped. Mel needed him, too. How was he to do both?

The time had passed so quickly... He could hear Maggie and Gail getting ready to open the bar for lunch. He needed to finish blocking the way to the vault. He would have to examine it further to be sure he could get in to make an end to Zin and his schemes once and for all. Perhaps working on that and letting Mel cool off, if that was the correct expression, would be best, right now.

Gail and Maggie looked up as he came down the stairs.

"Where's Mel? asked Maggie.

"She... has a headache. I need to finish cleaning up the basement, Maggie. Call me if it gets busy and I'll come back up." He quickly took off down the basement stairs.

The afternoon was busy, Gail rang upstairs a couple of times but there was no answer. Gail decided to let her boss sleep. When Mel still hadn't come down, Gail looked at the older barmaid. "Should we check on her?"

"We aren't likely to be too busy tonight. Mel has this habit of collecting men with problems," said Maggie. "I'd better go up and see if I can give her a shoulder to cry on."

Maggie made a triple martini and climbed the stairs to the apartment. She could hear things breaking in Mel's bedroom.

She knocked, "OK, Mel, it's your delivery service with a large martini and a listening ear. Come on out to the kitchen."

Mel opened her door. Her face was streaked with tears and dust. Her eyes looked as though she'd been rubbing them for a week. "Thanks, Maggie."

Maggie settled her at the table and put together a sandwich and started a fresh pot of coffee. "OK, young lady. What's the story? Was there something in Adelaide's things that upset you? Or did you and your boyfriend have a fight?"

"Both... neither... He's not my boyfriend!" She drank more than half of the martini without a pause. "He's never going to be a 'boyfriend'. All because of his damn job."

Maggie stepped back, Mel simply didn't swear. "So, his job is keeping you two apart? I don't get it, Mel. Why?"

Mel glared at her, the effect spoiled by eyes a little bleary from lack of sleep and more alcohol than she usually drank in an entire evening. The cumulative effect of her grandmother's notebooks, the off again- on again relationship with Cole and the worry about the returned aliens had her on the thin edge of panic.

The intercom came on just then. Gail's voice sounded a little strained. "Mel? Maggie? Is anybody up there? That weird little man is back. Can somebody come down?"

"I'm on my way, Gail." Maggie hesitated for a minute. "Mel, go wash your face. I'll call Cole. He said he'd be in the basement. This guy makes me nervous, too."

She headed for the bar leaving Mel sitting there with her drink and a half eaten sandwich.

Mel was muttering to herself,"If he's an alien, I can take care of it. I did it before. I'll just prove to him that I can handle being Cirronian..."

Maggie's comment had made perfect sense. Cleanup and then take care of the alien problem.

The bar was quiet except for the jukebox. Gail had some soft rock running on it and was staying at the end of the bar, as far away as possible from the pale man drinking there.

Maggie signaled Gail to go back to the kitchen. Then she buzzed the storeroom in the basement. "Yes, Mel?"

"I could use your help moving some things in the kitchen, Cole."

"Maggie? Sorry, I thought you were Mel. I'll be right up."

The solitary drinker looked up, "Where's the other girl, the owner? I have a business proposition for her."

"She's not working tonight, I'm afraid. I can take your card and give it to her in the morning."

The sound of a door opening from the basement startled him. He stood up, "Perhaps another time..." He put down a $20 and started toward the entrance, just as Cole came into the room.

Cole waited a moment then followed him out.

Maggie breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed behind them. Mel came downstairs, still a little the worse for wear, "Where did they go?"

"I don't know, but the little guy was moving pretty fast."

Mel grabbed her coat and purse. "I'll be back."

"Don't be silly, Mel. Let Cole handle him."

"I'm not being silly. I can handle them, too." She opened the purse to make sure her collector was there.

The chill wind blowing outside sobered her up rather quickly. Which way had they gone? There was a ... feeling, just a shade of a touch, almost like an itch in her mind. She turned toward it. Slowly at first, than as the feeling grew stronger, she began to run. There! Behind the chainlink fence across the back of a vacant lot was a flash of light, the reflection off of a knife... "Cole!"

She heard them grappling and then a grunt of pain. She was closer now, and could see Cole fighting someone. Like a shadow, the man seemed to dissapear into their surroundings. Was it the man she'd seen in the bar? Then she realized she was seeing the shape of a Dessarian.

There was no gate in the fence and climbing it in heels wasn't possible. Mel hurriedly piled a couple of crates and threw herself over the fence, landing hard enough to send a shock up her legs.

Something raced by her but all of her attention was focused on the dark shirt showing in the faint glow of the lone street light. A darker stain was spreading over it. "Cole?" She knelt beside him. He was breathing, but she could feel his strength ebbing.

"Go back, Mel..."

"No!" Carefully, she pulled the shirt away from the deep slash in his side. Guided only by her instincts, she placed one hand on either side of the wound and brought them together letting the skin touch. It really didn't surprise her to see a soft golden glow spreading from her hands over Cole's body. She stayed still, not knowing what else to do, until the light faded.

"Cole?"

His voice was soft, "Yes, Mel. Thank you."

She was grateful for the darkness. At least, he couldn't see her blush.

When he felt he could walk, they headed back to the Watchfire. Tomorrow... They could sort it out, tomorrow.

Episode Three, The Firewatchers