Michaela opened the clinic…She sat at the table with her files, but her thoughts revolved around this woman, Mrs. Blackmore. Michaela wanted her to leave, but she understood that Sully will think about her, and it will hurt him even more if she's far away. Why this woman so emphatically wants to meet with him, while for 20 years she never tried to know about him? Michaela tried to find an explanation for her coming, but could not find any reason. No… Then she imagined how painful it must be for Sully - he loved his mother so much, but she left him without a word…


Michaela sighed and returned to her work. She wrote only a few lines, and suddenly heard the doorbell ring. It was Loren Bray.


"Good morning, Loren. What's seems to be the trouble?"


"Not with me, Doctor Mike!" Loren answered, taking a breath,"Sully…seems, he's really sick…he's in my store, you'd better look at him… Michaela threw her pen on the table, didn't notice a big inkblot on her papers, and ran from the clinic… Sully sat on the chair near the counter, leaning to the wall, his eyes closed. When he heard Michaela's steps, he opened his eyes and sat up straight;


"Michaela! There's nothing wrong with me..."


"I don't think so, It's just a little dizziness..."


"I told you before: it was better for you to stay in bed!"


"I couldn't…Preston...I need to talk with him..." An attack of coughing did not allow him to continue…


Michaela took his hand and checked for a pulse, then touched his forehead:


"Sully, you're burning up! Let's go to the clinic. Loren, please help him to get up."


"I can do it myself!" Sully weakly objected. He stood up unsteadily, and Michaela helped him to go to the clinic. Brian met them on the porch…


"What's wrong with Pa?" He asked,very concerned.


"I don't know yet...Sully, can you sit down here, on the table? I need to examine you."


She got her stethoscope:


"Take a deep breath …once again…"


He flinched when the stethoscope touched his back.


"It's icy! Do you keep it in the cellar?"


Michaela packed the stethoscope. She looked very upset.


"Nothing wrong?" Sully asked. "Can I put on my shirt? It's too cold here…"


"You have pneumonia." Michaela sighed. "Brian, would you prepare the bed in the room upstairs? Sully, you must lay down there and rest, I'll stay with you."


"But Preston…you know him…"


"I'll ask Matthew to talk with Preston. You have no strength to go anywhere!"


"It's ready!" Brian yelled. They both helped Sully go upstairs and lay on the bed, in spite of his weak protests…


"Don't worry, Pa!" Brian said "Matthew will do it for you!"


"Don't think about it,"Michaela added."Just relax."


"Michaela, did you talk with her?" he suddenly asked.


"No." she lied, "Sully…we will discuss it afterwards."


Then Sully looked at his son.His eyes were bleary with fever.


"Brian… you told me about Ethan…you really forgave him?" he coughed again and Michaela declared:


"That's enough. Sully, you need your rest. Try to sleep, and I'll bring you the willow bark tea…Brian, you need to go home."


"But I want to stay here. Can I help you?"


"Well...all right, but first help Matthew feed the animals."


"Certainly,Ma! Pa, I'll be back soon!"


"See ya, Brian!" Sully managed a smile.


"I'll bring you some willow bark tea." Michaela said.


"Wait!" he caught her sleeve, "What do you think? Why did she do that??"


"It hurt him so much." Michaela thought. "He can't talk about anything except his mother."


"I don't know." she sighed "Sully you must not..."


He slowly turned his head to her and continued:


"When I was a kid I often dreamed that she would come back. There were many kids in the orphanage who told the others that their parents would bring them back home…It was the best dream of everyone there…And now she's here, it is not a dream …but I can't see her again...it's too late."


"Sully, please..."


"All these twenty years she was alive…she was somewhere around..." he raised his eyes to Michaela, "Sorry, there's no need to interrupt you..."


"No, Sully." she patted his hot hand, "What happens with you happens with me, you know this. But you need to keep your strength…you need to heal."


Sully silently nodded and closed his eyes - he had no more strength to talk. Somebody knocked on the clinic door. It was Loren again. "Doctor Mike, how is he doing? Is it serious?"


"I'm afraid so…Much depends on him, I can help him just a little…"


"But after all he will recover?"


"I hope so." Michaela answered, "Sully is strong and healthy..."


The day passed, then night, then one more day. Sully woke for a short time, then lost consciousness, anyway, he was not getting better. He always was strong and healthy, but now his recovery was slower than usual. Michaela recalled Cloud Dancing's words:


"Disease appears, when the person has lost balance. It's necessary to heal the whole person." Certainly, they couldn't speak about any "balance" for the last several days. This woman was injurious to all of them, as much as she could…

"Ma, some woman is asking for you." Brian reported.


"Is this an urgent matter?" Michaela asked,"If not,give her my apologies…I can't leave Sully now."


"He's worse?" asked Brian with fear.


"I'm afraid so...His fever is dangerously high, and he's very weak.…I gave him all I can, but it helped just a little…"


"And … you have nothing to help him?!"


"Usually the crisis will be on the third or fourth day...It's up to him now… Brian, can you go downstairs and ask what this woman needs…And, please put the "Closed" sign on the door."


Brian returned very quickly.


"She told me she needs to talk with you,just for a few minutes…"


"Can you stay here with Sully? I'll be back very soon…"


"Certainly, Ma!"


Michaela ran downwards, and Brian sat on the chair near Sully's bed.

"What do you need Mrs. Blackmore?" asked Michaela dryly. Least of all things she wanted to see this woman, or to talk with her.


"Do you need a doctor so urgently? I hope Dr.Cook hasn't left yet."


"I don't need a doctor," Mrs. Blackmore answered."I need you, my son's wife. The townsfolk told me that he's very sick."


"He has pneumonia, and his condition is very bad." reported Michaela in an official tone."If that's all you want to know - sorry but I need to leave you and stay with Sully."


"How's he doing?" Mrs. Blackmore asked quietly.


"It's interesting for you? Really- the first time for more than twenty years?" Michaela felt furious.


Mrs. Blackmore looked imploringly. Mrs. Blackmore looked at Michaela. Michaela noticed, to her displeasure, that her eyes were the same bright blue as Sully's.


"I know how you hate me, Dr. Quinn, but I really didn't know he was alive…"


"I'm afraid I can't understand." Michaela said, "I can't believe you never tried to know about him…"


"I tried…" she spoke quickly and muddled, "I was kind of crazy, when I decided to drown myself. My elder son died…then my husband. I was in debt for my apartment for several months, and the landlady always threatened to evict us...Mr.Gardner - I gave French lessons for his children, told me that he would not be able to pay me all he promised and quit. I was in despair, and when some men followed me and suggested awful things…I can't repeat it, you understand… I neither thought about how suicide is a mortal sin, nor that Byron would be an orphan. I just wanted to stop it……One gentleman who walked along the bridge saved me… I don't remember this…I didn't remember even my own name. Charles sent me to a private clinic, and I was there more than a year until my memory returned. As soon as I became better, Charles took me away into England, farther from the memories, as my doctor advised. At my request he asked his friends in NY to look for Byron, and several months later they reported back to me." She took a breath."They told me he was dead. The landlady sent me a letter that this happened two months after my disappearance... Charles didn't allow me to go back to America, he was afraid that my disease would return. They hired some woman to take care of the grave." Mrs. Blackmore stopped fighting back tears.


"We have a daughter. I love her and my granddaughter with all my heart, but I always knew - what happened to my son is only my fault. I mourned for him every day all these 20 years…


A year ago Charles died from warmhearted fit. Before his death he told me that he had lied to me all this time. He never asked anyone about Byron,'cause he did not want to adopt him. He just gave this Mrs. Green some money and she wrote that letter.


"And what did you say to him?" Michaela murmured.


"Charles was very kind to me. I don't know what I'd say in any other case, but he told me that in his last minutes…so I said:'I forgive you…Rest in peace.' I could not let him go with SUCH a thing in his soul. The next week I bought the ticket to NY, but it was too late. Jane, my daughter sent me to the Springs Chateau for rest and recovery, and suddenly several days ago, I heard from Mr. Lodge about the man whose name is Byron Sully…. I thought: may be the Lord has forgiven me, and I'll see my son once again."


Michaela stood silently looking at Mrs. Blackmore. How could she hate this poor woman so much! Now she felt only sympathy for her, nothing else.


"Can I see him…just for a minute?" Mrs. Blackmore asked.


"Yes, certainly." Michaela answered without any doubt.

He still remembered this turn and dirty stairway, and narrow corridor with a lot of doors. He saw it so clearly, as if he still was 10 years old. The landlady, Mrs. Green, as usual, stood on the stairway and always asked his mother, when she was passing by:


"Mrs. Sully, I don't want to remind you again, but you have a debt…"


"I'll pay you out." answered mother quietly.


Byron looked furiously at this fat and noisy woman. He heard many times what she said about his mother without her. That's true, she became so different since father died…as if she died with him. Byron tried to do all the chores his father did. But somewhere deep in his heart he felt - she would never believe a 10 year old kid could protect and support her.

"Lunch is ready!" he reports, when mother returns home.


"Thank you, Byron." she says in an indifferent tone, not even looking in the kitchen…She doesn't smile and doesn't wonder anymore, doesn't talk with him in the evenings, doesn't ask him about his school day … She didn't even notice that he left school a month ago…

"I'll try to find out what is wrong." she told him that day,Mr.Gardner hadn't paid for a whole month already.


For the first time she looked in the mirror. Then she put on her shawl and left.


She did not come home that day, nor the following day. Instead of her, the policeman came, holding her handbag and wet, torn shawl….


He talked with Mr. and Mrs. Green in the corridor for a long time. Byron stood indoors, silently looking; they were obviously talking about him, but he couldn't understand the words, their voices sound as if far away. Then he heard Mrs. Green yelling:


"Four months! She was in debt for four months! I knew! And now she's drowned herself …this insane woman!"


"The following that he remembered - his own shout:


"You have no right to speak of my Ma like this! She couldn't drown HERSELF, she couldn't leave me!!!!


Byron with wonder saw the drops of blood, dropping from his fingers to the floor…he had broken the door glass, without even having noticed.


"He tried to hit me!" Mrs. Green yelled, "You're as mad as your mother!! The best place for you is jail!"


"Shut up!" her husband suddenly broke in.


The next door neighbor, Mrs. Malkovitch came from her room to see what happened. She was a widow with two children, the younger was 8 months.. She sometimes asked Byron to look after them for a while.


"Are you crazy? What are you talking about?! This is outrageous! So much grief for the boy!"


"He wanted to hit me!" squalled Mrs. Green,"He's a criminal!"


"Shut up, Edna!" repeated Mr. Green.


Byron still stood there frozen as if he wasn't aware of what had happened.


Mrs. Malkovitch hugged him around the shoulders and he followed her into her room.


"Does it hurt?" she asked, bandaging his hand. Byron shook his head.


"You're a good boy!" she said,"I want you to know - your Ma didn't want to leave you, she loved you, and she loves you now , where she is, in Heaven."


He looked at her with wonder - his ma couldn't be there if she'd drowned herself…


"Your ma is in Heaven!" said Mrs. Malkovitch firmly."Trust me…"


Byron silently looked at her. His eyes were dry…he couldn't cry, couldn't speak with anyone. He just wanted all of them to leave him alone with his grief.


"Will you stay here for the night?" she asked.


"No," he finally answered, "Thank you."


The Greens continued to brawl. Mrs. Green yelled that all property of the Sully family belongs to her.Her husband yelled in response: "Can you ever think about anything else but money?


Byron didn't want to wait until they sent him away - he decided to leave himself. Mother's wedding ring hung on his neck on a thin chain. There were only 2 things he took from home - this ring and the book of his "namesake's" poems. This was mother's favourite book, and somewhere between its pages was the photographs of the lucky family - father, mother and two tots… Going to the streets, he at first went to the bridge, trying to look through the darkness…He couldn't believe he would never see her again…