Bob caught Gwyn in his arms.

He tapped her face softly, "Gwyn can you hear me?"

"I know CPR." Rodney said quickly.

Bob put his ear to her nose and his hand to her chest to check that she was breathing. She was.

"Gwyn! I'm coming!" Gene yelled, for some reason pausing to grab his sound equipment before racing over. "Is she all right?"

"She's breathing Gene," Bob said. "Let's give her a moment to wake up before we call anyone."

"I want to hold her," Gene said.

"Let's just give her a minute."

"I'm her boyfriend. I should be holding her," he insisted petulantly, rather than desperately.

Gene assumed a bracing position and Bob readied to reluctantly slide Gwyn's limp body into his arms. Gene looked to DeeDee, "This won't upset you will it?"

"Gene, why would it?!" DeeDee snapped.

Now Gwyn's sole physical support, he seemed to turn slightly here and there so everyone could get a good look. Gwyn's eyes fluttered and the small circle of friends sighed and smiled with relief.

"Gwyn, baby speak to me. It's your sugar man."

"Eww, does it have to be?" Natasha groaned.

"Here she is. She's coming around," Steve said.

Slowly Gwyn's eyes opened fully and seemed to focus. "Kablooey," she said softly.

"Well, the world did explode," Steve laughed.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Bob asked, standing over her and presenting two.

"Twelve," Gwyn said. "Oh no, that's just your friends waving at me. Hello. Two," she said, smiling past Bob's shoulders. "Oh, but now they're waving goodbye."

"What's she talking about?" DeeDee wondered, petting Gwyn's hand.

"Fading," Gwyn said.

"She's gonna faint again!" Gene said, worried his arms couldn't take it.

"No, they're fading. Where are you going?" She seemed to slump even more than she already was. "Help me up," she said weakly.

Gene and DeeDee helped her to her feet. She was steady, but blinked firmly several times in a row and stuck her finger in her ear as if to pop it. "Testing. Testing. Is anybody there?"

"We're all here," Gene said.

"I can't hear anyone," said Gwyn blankly.

"She's deaf!" Gene gasped.

"No, sweetie, I just can't...." A sad frown deepened with a heavy sigh. "No wonder I couldn't read anyone past Christmas lights."

"Oh no," Natasha said."You mean you can't hear your peeps?"

"They're gone. I've lost my psychic mojo."

"No mo' mojo?" Bob asked in an attempt to make her smile.

"Mojo no mo,'" Rodney said.

"Could be only temporary," Gwyn said, seeming to try to perk herself up. "It happened once before in college when I took a lacrosse stick to the face. That lasted eight months."

"Are you okay otherwise?" DeeDee asked. "How's your head?"

"It'll probably just be a bruise. I'm fine honestly. I just might get a little lonely."

"You've got me," Gene said, then looked at DeeDee to make sure she wasn't angry with him.

"Yes, Gene! It's fine," she laughed. "I'm with Bob now."

"You're a good man for stepping in, Bob," Gene said, squeezing his arm.

"Are you calm enough to drive, Gene, or do you want a cab home?" Steve asked.

"I can't believe you're asking me that," Gene said.

"We're still going to watch the play?" Rodney asked

"Sure," Steve said. "He's fine. Gwyn's fine. Gene just doesn't take cabs."

"I got a lip burn from dirty cab belt sliding across my mouth once," Gene said. "I'm lucky it didn't turn into a fungus."

"See you at home then," Steve said, handing Gene his keys.

The group said goodnight and hurried into the theatre, where thankfully they had only missed the overture as Maya had stalled to sip her honey backstage.

When the show was over, Bob tried to hurry DeeDee along to his surprise waiting on the street behind the theatre. There was only about twenty minutes left to his forty minute carriage ride and he knew begging would do him no good.

"Well, it wasn't Oklahoma on Ice," DeeDee said.

"Just the opposite! All Cleo Van Cleef could do was say no," Bob said, referring to Maya's co-star's role being a very prudish Nordic version of Ado Annie. "The ice floe fight was pretty good."

"It was good!"

"Too bad it happens at the bottom of the third."

Around a corner, he spotted the horse trainer, Elise, petting and speaking to her two harnessed horses. Bob called out to her. "Chop-chop!" she called back.

"What's this?" DeeDee asked.

"I thought we might have a romantic do-over of our first kiss."

They reached the carriage and DeeDee seemed hesitant. "It's a sweet idea Bob..." she said. She was distracted, examining the horses who most certainly gave the impression of being in good health and spirits.

"Trust me," Bob reassured DeeDee, "Elise cares more about them than she does about us."

He helped her climb into the light, open carriage. It bounced a little forgivingly, making it less of a test of strength than climbing into the giant Christmas Train sleigh had been. They snuggled up tight in the backseat.

"Shall we?" Elise called back.

Facing each other, Bob gently tilted DeeDee's chin upwards and said meaningfully, "Delighted," before kissing her sweetly.

"You got about fifteen minutes. Where do you want to go?"

"Oh, I don't know. Anywhere," Bob said and sang a little of his carriage song:

"Side to side, or back to forth
Take me anywhere you like as long as it's North..."

"I'm sure you played a great carriage driver, but you would've made a fine horse," DeeDee snickered.

"A horse costume does take two, you know."

"Next time we go to my parents for dinner, we should wear one," she snorted, resting her head on his shoulder.

"How many rooms can your father leave?" Bob laughed.

"He'll have to build an addition."

Swaying gently along together to the slow clopping of hooves on dry road, they held hands and smiled their own smiles, full of present happiness and future hopes. DeeDee shifted slightly to look at Bob again.

"What do you suppose Gwyn meant about your friends waving hello and goodbye to her?"

"Who knows?" Bob shrugged, having no recollection of Jonas and Crystal and the dreams that had guided him to this moment.

"Maybe if she gets her powers back, we should let her read us. What do you think?"

"Why not? Someday," Bob said.

"You are going to be around for all my somedays, aren't you?" DeeDee asked.

Bob nodded slowly. "Yes and all your everydays and your evers, and your ever afters."

DeeDee's sweet, happy eyes shone, recording and returning his promise. They told him she loved him, and though neither of them had said it just yet, Bob knew it was true because he loved her too. They were each other's side-person, after all. She let her head fall back and reached up to kiss him, after which Bob, with his heart full of joy and music, sang low,

"With a kiss from your Miss and tender sigh from your sir
Holding hands, making plans out of feather and fur."

The End.