"Hey there, sport!" Jessie threw her arms around him and hugged him as tightly as Reena had hugged her. "Miss me?"

He laughed as he pulled away. "Like bad gas!"

Releasing him, Jessie shook her head as she studied him. "You okay?"

He nodded. "I just wanted to come home. Auntie's got really boring without ghosts and fishing and-you." Daniel turned to Rick, who waited at the bottom of the stairs. "There's something Mom and Dad need to tell you."

"Can I have some tea first? And then, can we all sit down and *

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discuss where to go from here?"

Rick and Reena looked at each other as if to ask What happened to our daughter?

"Uh-sure, honey," Rick said, going to the kitchen to start the water.

Sitting next to Jessie on the top stair, Reena and Daniel replayed Daniel's version of Chris and the marijuana story.

"We were wrong, Jess. Totally wrong. I guess that Chris kid really is bad news. Daniel was adamant that we clear everything up with you the second we got home."

When she finished, Jessie mussed up Daniel's hair. "Thanks for finally getting that out in the open."

Reena put her arm around her shoulder. "We should have asked Daniel when you said. We never really gave you the chance to explain and we're really sorry. We jumped to conclusions based on your past behavior."

Jessie nodded. "It's not like my past behavior didn't merit present suspicion, Mom. Maybe we're all a little to blame."

"Jessie promised me two things, Mom: one, she wasn't doing drugs, and two, she wouldn't leave me here alone. She kept both promises."

"Circ.u.mstantial evidence is hard to ignore but I haven't smoked dope once in Oregon, and I'm not hanging out with bad influences.

Regardless of what you think of Tanner, he's not the one you have to trust. I am. Give me the chance to be trustworthy. Others have."

Reena nodded. "We are so very sorry we doubted you."

Rick returned to the porch and handed Jessie a cup of tea before kissing the top of her head. "We haven't really given you much of a chance to start over, have we? I guess we thought you'd eventually try to go home-"

"Dad, this is my home. That's what you weren't hearing. I love it here."

Rick and Reena stared at their daughter.

"Look, I know I was a pain in the a.s.s about moving here, but I've fallen in love with this crusty old place. It has lots of character, and I'm even beginning to like the inn. I'd like to show you how serious I am *

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about changing, I want to strike a deal with you."

"A deal?"

"What kind of a deal?"

"I want to cash in some of the bonds Grandma left me so I can go to Wales."

"You want to go see the humpback whales? They're right here on the coast."

Jessie shook her head. "To Wales. The country in Great Britain. I'd like to go for two weeks before school starts."

Reena leaned forward, spilling some of her tea. "School? School starts September sixth. That's in less than two weeks."

"High school starts then. I'm talking about college. I've applied to the University of Oregon, and since I've taken so many honors courses, I'm only three credits shy of my diploma. I can take those cre-"

"You've what?" her parents said simultaneously. They looked dumbfounded.

"I want to go to college. I've grown up a lot since we got here, and if you'd just give me a chance, you'd see that I am not the girl who left California. I want to attend the university. I applied."

Rick looked at Reena, who was speechless. "Is this a joke? Is there a punch line?" He shook his head in exasperation. "Have I been in a coma?"

"Look at her, Dad," Daniel suggested. "Really look at her. You don't even see her anymore."

Rick stared at his son, then at Jessie, then back to Daniel.

"Apparently, Jess isn't the only one who's grown up."

Jessie winked at Daniel. "You're my hero, but I still have to pay my dues. I'll even finish out rehab if it'll make you guys feel better, but I really want to go to Wales."

"And then you're going to go to college?" Rick asked. Reena just sat there with her mouth agape.

"Ceara's sparked my interest in history. I want to learn more. I've spoken with a professor, I got an application, and then I met with an advisor. I can late-register if you'll let me go."

Reena shook her head. "Let you go? Honey, of course we'll let you *

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go."

"Then it's a deal?"

Rick answered for his stunned wife. "You really will finish out at the rehab center?"

Jessie nodded. "Part of being grown up is doing the right thing. If it will make you see how I really mean to stay straight, I'll go. Once I finish, it's done and in the past. I can move forward with my life, drug- free, debt-free, obligation-free. That's what I want. I want the clean slate we came here for."

Reena started crying silently and threw her arms around her daughter's neck. "Oh Jess-"

"Will you let me go to Wales if I can get Ceara to come with me?"

"Of course it's a yes."

Hugging her mother, Jessie closed her eyes and thought about Cate trying to convince the Iceni guards to allow her an audience with Boudicca. What happened, how it all turned out, would remain a mystery until she could get herself to Wales. More than once she'd stood with the key to the room in her hand, tempting herself to enter, begging for a sign that told her it was safe to go.

But it wasn't. She knew as much.

Instead, she and Ceara had concocted a plan that would take them to the only place on the planet that held the answer: Wales.

"What happened?" Reena asked. "I mean, really. What happened to change you so much?"

"Life, Mom. Life happened."

And life kept happening.

Two weeks later, Ceara and Jessie were on a tourist boat to the Isle of Anglesey. Rick and Reena had been so thrilled Jessie wanted to go to college they'd decided not to press her into finishing out her rehab stint, and instead paid her for the work she'd been doing at the inn.

In Wales, Ceara had cried for happiness, sadness, for memories of a time that had no resemblance to her own. It took her a day just to ride the rollercoaster of emotions that went with a homecoming such as *

258 *259.

this. When she was finally over the emotional tilt of it all, she changed into her tour guide hat and explained all of the landmarks and history she knew by heart. If it were possible, she was even more animated than ever, and she and Jessie grew closer than either had ever imagined.

Together, they had traveled to where the village of Fennel had once stood. Now, of course, it was a growing urban area. Still, seeing the land through Ceara's eyes was uplifting and exciting. Jessie had never had a better time, and had been frequented by a number of Cate's memories within her. Every night, Jessie had gone to bed hoping that Cate would visit her in the Dreamworld. She went to sleep longing for any vision that would tell her they'd made it out safely. Every morning, Jessie was disappointed not to have seen her. She so wanted to know that Cate had made it.

Through it all, it was this trip to the Isle that Jessie had waited for, and as the boat neared sh.o.r.e, her heart beat faster. She remembered Cate's fear when they first came to Mona; how everyone on the island was preparing for a most devastating attack. She remembered the pain, the anguish, the overall desperation of the Druids, as the Romans poured off the boats and onto the sh.o.r.es. She remembered, just as everyone had asked, and many memories continued to flow into her; yet the one she most wished to see wasn't one of them.

After freshening up in their hotel room on the Isle, Ceara ordered a taxi, and soon they were on their way to the Standing Stones. Jessie had tried to prepare herself for the distinct possibility that they had not made it out, or that Cate had forgotten to bury the ankh. There were more reasons why the ankh wouldn't be there than why it would. It was such a long shot, and yet, long shots were something Jessie was only now beginning to believe in.

"Nervous?" Ceara asked, patting Jessie's leg. "If it is not there-"

"A part of me just knows they survived. I feel it in my bones."

"Or soul."

Jessie grinned. "Yeah. There, too."

"You've not been able to access anything that would let you know they made it?"

Jessie shook her head. "Not a d.a.m.n thing, and it's not for lack of *

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trying. I can't find her no matter how hard I look."

"That happens sometimes, my dear. Memories aren't always accessible or available just because we want them to be."

"I wish they were. I need to know."

When they finally reached the Standing Stones, it was nearly dusk, but Jessie could easily distinguish the rock Cate had pointed out to her.

After two thousand years, there it stood, just like the image in Jessie's mind. "That's the one."

"You sure?"

Jessie nodded. "I've memorized every single feature of it. I could see it blindfolded." Taking out her backpack, Jessie waited for Ceara to pay the cab. Then they walked across the length of two football fields to the Standing Stones.

When they came into view, Jessie stopped. "I can't believe they're still standing. After all these years-it's unreal."

Ceara sighed and brushed a tear away. "Some things just don't change." She reached out a trembling hand and touched the stone. "My G.o.d, it feels alive, like it contains all the memories of the ages." She knelt down and began a chant in a language Jessie had never heard.

When she finished, Jessie pulled a folded military shovel from her backpack and unfolded it. "You keep watch. She said it was an arm's length, so it'll take awhile."

Jessie dug for almost an hour, each shovelful weighing heavily on her heart. Just before darkness set in, she struck something solid.

Dropping to their hands and knees, they both used their bare hands.

"What? What is it?" Ceara asked, tossing handfuls of dirt to the side of the hole.

"It feels like a box." Jessie strained to pull the small box from the hole. "Ceara, it's here! Something's here!"

"You're not fooling with an old woman's ticker, are you?"

Jessie shook her head. "It's made of some kind of metal. Thank G.o.d, she had the foresight to use metal." Slowly pulling the box out, Jessie held it up for Ceara to see.

It was a small metal box, no more than four inches to a side, and nondescript except for the latch holding it closed. "She did it," Jessie *

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whispered, lightly touching the box. "My G.o.d, she did it."

"If you don't open that box in the next five seconds, my heart is going to burst."

With trembling hands, Jessie lifted the latch. Inside, lay the ankh Cate had shown her in the Dreamworld. Gently cradling it in her palm, she started crying. "They made it. They really made it."

Ceara stared down into Jessie's hand. "It is beautiful."

"We did it, Ceara."

"You did it, my dear." When Ceara reached out to touch the ankh, she, too, started crying.

"Wait. There's more," Jessie said, as she pulled out a necklace in the shape of a Celtic knot.

A small yelp escaped from Ceara's mouth. "That's-that's-"

Jessie gently took Ceara's palm and placed the knot inside it. "It's yours, isn't it?"

"It's the necklace I gave to Lachlan not long before I left." Ceara stroked the necklace softly, tears falling from her cheeks.

"They must have told him."

Ceara held the necklace to her chest and wept. "Oh, Jessie, he made it. My son made it. You saved his life."

"I had lots of help, Ceara."