SOMEWHERE IN CYBERSPACE:     TXJackE:          So, is this the lesbian chat room? GladJan:          Hardee har har TXJackE:          Olivia and Harv get you home OK? GladJan:          I’m here, aren’t I? TXJackE:          Guess so. Quite a scene today. You OK? GladJan:          Yeah, I guess. Kind of weird though TXJackE:          I’m starting to accept that weird is par for the course in this town GladJan:          And I’m regretting the day I ever heard the name Laura Sumner TXJackE:          Hang on, I’ve got email I need to check GladJan:          I’m not going anywhere. Not much action in the lesbian chat room tonight.

“Did you have any e-mail?” Karen asks as Michael steps away from the computer.

“Yeah, a few messages from friends in New York,” he replies, sitting down on the couch.

“You know, you could have asked Keith to stay the night.” She hands him a coffee mug.

Michael looks at her with a pained expression. “Not tonight,” he replies, taking a sip. “You haven’t said much since Laura showed up.”

“You’re changing the subject.”

“And you’re avoiding talking about Laura.”

“What’s there to say?” Karen asks. “First, I was asked to believe a dead woman never died. Then I was told to accept that one of my best friends had a new face. Now, that same friend’s back with her old face. It’s been a ridiculous roller coaster ride, and I’m tired of it. As far as I’m concerned, Laura can do whatever she wants, I just don’t want to have anything to do with it.”

“But you do have something to do with it,” Michael reminds her, holding one hand up in the air. “Yay high, red hair, lots of attitude. Remember her?”

“Meg’s old enough to make her own decisions. If she wants to be with her, I can’t stop her,” Karen says in defeat.

THE EWINGS’:

“So Meg’s over there now?” Gary asks. Sitting at the kitchen table, he eats from a plate of barbecue that Lilimae’s fixed for him.

“They all are. Meg, Daniel, Jason and Laura.” Lilimae nods, setting down a glass of milk for him.

“I can’t believe Laura looks like Laura again,” he says absently.

“None of us could. It was so strange,” she explains. “Just when we’d all gotten used to Laura’s new face, here she goes, changing back to the one we all know.”

“But how?”

“Plastic surgery. She says she went back to the man who did the work for her the first time and asked him to reverse it to make her look the way she used to. Even convinced him to come out of retirement and all,” Lilimae says excitedly.

“That’s a lot to swallow,” Gary says skeptically, chewing on a barbecue rib.

EN ROUTE TO THE SUMNER RANCH:

“I think I swallowed a chicken bone or something,” Greg grouses, rubbing his neck uncomfortably with one hand while the other remains on the wheel.

Paige turns to look at him from the passenger seat with a sigh. “That’s quite possible, the way you wolfed down all that food. I’ve never seen you eat like that.”

“What can I say, something about the suburbs and charcoal brings me back to my meager beginnings,” he replies.

“Or maybe you just wanted to keep busy so we didn’t have to talk about what happened there. About her,” she says bitterly.

“What about her?” he asks.

“Oh, come on.”

“‘Come on’ what? So she looks like Laura again. So what. It doesn’t change how I feel. She can make herself look like Julia Roberts and it still won’t change the fact that she left me all those years ago. I’m finished with her,” he claims.

“That simple, huh?”

“Yeah, that simple,” Greg replies firmly as she leans back into her seat. “For the kids’ sake, I’m glad she’s around, but as far as I’m concerned, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle before I ever have anything to do with Laura again.”

THE CUNNINGHAM COMPOUND:

“Whoa, slow down there,” Daniel says excitedly, a goofy grin on his face. “I’m an uncle?”

“Yeah,” Jason sighs, as he sits down in the chair across from Meg and Daniel, who are on the couch.

“But how? Why didn’t you say anything before now?”

“I only found out a few months ago myself,” Jason explains. “When I broke up with Heather, I had no idea she was pregnant. I didn’t see her for almost a year, and when she showed up again, she had my baby in her arms. I was trying to figure how to break the news to you and Dad when Mom showed up to plead her case.”

“I knew you’d cave, Mr. Tough Guy,” Daniel teases.

“Yeah, yeah. You would too if you saw the letter she wrote me. Remind me to show it to you sometime,” Jason says fondly. “Anyway, once Mom showed up, she told me she wanted to explore having plastic surgery done again to get the face back to go with her memories. I went with her to San Jose, and after a stop back in D.C., here we are.”

“So how long are you staying, Jason?” Meg asks her oldest brother.

“It’s going to take some getting used to, having you around,” he laughs. “I don’t know how long I’ll be here. I took a leave from my job back home, so maybe I can see what opportunities are out here.”

“That’s so cool,” Daniel says. “We could all spend some time getting to know each other as a family.”

“I like the sound of that,” Laura says, and they turn to see her coming down the stairs. “Sorry I took so long to get settled. I need to cleanse my face pretty intensely every night until the scars are all healed.”

“I can barely see any,” Meg comments, standing up to hug her. “All I know is I’m glad you’re back.”

“Me too, baby,” she says tearfully, looking over Meg’s shoulder at her boys. “Me too.”

                    AND NOW ...