Two of a Kind

"We need to figure out what to do about all of this," said Sarah.

"Is not necessary," said Becca. "We just need get me English tutor."

"What?" I asked. Sarah nodded her head. Will and Chris were both confused too.

"Will, Honey, I have been trying to come up with way to tell you this for weeks," said Becca. "You were wrong, from the start. You were very wrong. You think that I want some other man. You think that I am stupid model and want Hollywood living. I told you when we met that I am just farm girl. Meeting Sarah, made me realize that I have to go after what I want. So I decided to quit modeling and just be Becca Temple. It is really what I want most. I want to live with my husband and have a baby."

"But what about your career as a super model?" asked Will. "What about all of those signed contracts and obligations. They'll sue us blind and..."

"Rebecca Miranova will handle all of those," said Bonnie. "Nothing has to change. Rebecca just hires an English tutor and speech therapist to explain why she's suddenly speaking really good English. She also hires a big mean looking former military guy as a her manager, whom she eventually falls in love with."

"So how does my ankle ruin any of that?" I asked. They all looked at me as if I was stupid. But that was what we did. Four months later we got back together for the holidays. We were all far happier than we could have expected. Chris and Sarah had welcomed their new daughter, Charah into the world. Becca was three months pregnant and looking radiant. And Bonnie and I were truly in love. It hadn't taken very long. Taking care of Stein had left me open to forgive myself and move on with my life. Shelly would have wanted me find someone to spend the rest of my life with.

Bonnie and I would probably have about the same amount of life left to live. We'd even considered the fact that in ten years or so when Bonnie began to age at a far more rapid rate, Becca could take her modeling career back if she wanted it. Becca swore that in ten years her ass would be way too fat from having kids to even think about it.

* * * * *

Epilog 2

At a secret government lab located a hundred feet underground in the Nevada desert, agent Dan Almond looked at a row of large tubes.

He turned and looked into the lab behind the clear lexan viewing port.

"Somehow, I'm not sure about this one," said Almond. "There's something that's just not right.

"What do you mean?" said Geno Highsmith. "This is exactly what the DSA was set up to handle. No one in the world has a clue of what goes on here."

"I don't give a flying fuck about what the Department of Scientific Affairs does," snapped Almond. "That bastard is a killer. He's a sociopath as well. Think about all of the people he killed with his fucking drugs. Think about all of the problems his designer steroids are causing."

"But he's a fucking genius," said Highsmith. "If this technology is out there, the American people should be in a position to lead or at least know enough about it to defend our interests against it."

"What do we do when your genius, escapes?" asked Almond.

"Won't happen," said Highsmith. "We pulled two slugs out of him that should have killed him. He died there on the ground after what your friend did to him. He died again on his way to the hospital. The whole world thinks he's dead. During the surgery to save his life, we implanted an RF chip in him. If he ever goes outside of the complex it will release a capsule of poison directly into his heart that will cause instant death."

"He's a genius, remember," spat Almond. "He'll figure a way out of your trap."

"Let's say he did get out," said Highsmith. "Then we'd just call you and let you shoot him down like a dog in the street. After all he's already dead legally. So you can't kill him twice. And this way we get the benefits of his science to help advance our military."

As Dan almond left the complex, he was thinking about how tired he was of all of the lies. But...he thought as he hugged his wife. Sometimes the lies protected us from bigger sins. The problem was deciding when the time to lie was. Dan felt really bad about lying to Clyde Waitt. The man had served his country faithfully and deserved to know the truth about the man whose greed had led to his wife's death. Dan hated lying to Chris Harris even worse. But Dan knew that right not the two men had something that Dan rarely ever enjoyed. They had the feeling that they'd done a good thing. They had closure. Telling them wouldn't do anything but make them realize that they'd failed and take all of those good feeling away from them. There was also the fact that if Chris Harris wanted Stein dead, he could do it. So Dan kept the knowledge that Stein had survived although he disagreed with it.

He saw no future in keeping Stein alive. The man would probably be there in Nevada creating monsters that eventually would have to be stopped. But until then Dan would enjoy his time with his wife.

The end.