"Wh y are the babies crying?" Tracy turned, weakly.

Richard shut his eyes  as if praying for strength. "They saw me pull the spike out of your leg."

"Come here, girls, come here." Danny brought them forward. Tracy rubbed their little hands , and then choked and turned away. She shook her head as Richard handed her another cloth diaper. 

"I'm sorry, I passed out." 

"Momma, Richy got the icky stick." Megan sobbed. 

"Momma 's blooding."Melia added tearfully.

"I 'm okay, darlings, okay?" She started to sit up and swayed dizzily.

Richard knelt beside her. "Don't move yet, babe."

"We should try and get down to that spot..." 

"I think when it's time l will carry you." He said firmly.

''You'll be carrying the things. H-how much stuff do we still h-have?"

Richard looked around at their meager belongings, and then back at her pale face. His eyes searched hers. For a few seconds all he could think was that they were going to die, all of them. And then his natural determination checked in once again. He couldn't harbor those thoughts for long. He zipped the orange back pack up and lifted the screaming baby back into place. When this operation was complete, he bent and lifted Tracy.

"Maybe you should take the kids first and then come back for me." Her voice was so weak, he had to look to see if she was going to pass out again. He lowered her to the ground and scooped up the twins.

Without a word he began walking along the ridge to the open space. His order to not move wasn 't met with resistance. He went back for Tracy.

''What we need is a splint, so you can't accidentally move it and cause it to open again." He said examining his own bandaging critically.

"First things first."She gasped as he lifted her.

"I kinda wanted to carry you over the threshold today." He grinned, and looked into her blue eyes with the first semblance of surety he'd felt in hours.

"Okay." She said, though gritted teeth.

"We'll say this is it." He announced and when they got back to the children, he didn't let her down, but as she turned to look into his eyes in confusion, he brushed her lips gently with his and then parted them and kissed her slowly, like he might have on their wedding night, forcefully putting their predicament away for that moment and letting the magic of Tracy wash through him. "I love you." 

"I love you too."

Tracy pointed to the diaper bag that was still strapped to the baby. "C- can you get me the diaper bag and the kid?"

Richard retrieved both items and knelt beside her as Tracy changed the wet sleeper, and diaper into warm dry clothes, blessing God for waterproof plastic. Danny had been carrying the orange back pack and his 72-hour kit, but the smaller bag was lost. The large duffel that Richard had been carrying was gone now, but the two smaller duffels that they'd both had over their other stuff were intact. Tracy was thrilled to see the one that contained all the snacks she'd prepared for the family in case the stores weren 't open, or they couldn 't get in to the condo right off. There wasn 't enough food there to sustain them for more than a few days if they were very careful. Very very careful. And the children came first. It was that easy. The children came first.

Tracy nursed the baby, and she fell asleep. The diaper bag also held a small contingent of blankets, and she was able to wrap the baby and nestle her against the rock and her side comfortably, and then pull the twins close, comforting them. Melia fell asleep eventually and she cuddled her next to Kylie. 

Richard finally came back with his tag along six year old companion behind him. Tracy looked up at them expectantly.

"There's a lot of debris on the beach." Tracy's eyes pierced his knowingly. "Yeah?"

"I think if Danny and I work hard, we can gather enough heavier sticks and jute vines to lash a raft together. We can line it with palm fronds, it should stay afloat. There's a ton of that stuff on the water already." His eyes left hers to scan the surrounding ocean, pointedly ignoring the side of the island where the ocean wasn't.

Tracy felt her breath leave her. She forced herself to take a deeper breath. "So, you think that if the ocean returns, it will completely wash over the top of this little atoll?" she spoke bluntly and with all the feigned confidence she didn't feel.

Richard rubbed his chin thoughtfully,  eyeing the boy who was watching him intently. ''Yeah. I think that much back build is gonna wash right over the top of this little thing, and we're all going for one heck of a ride."

Tracy nodded. "What can I do to help?"

"Sit there." Richard ordered. "Danny and I can handle this."

Tracy stared intently through the thick clouds that parted and dimmed her vision of the back build.  "Hey, Richard," she called when he and Danny made their final trip up to the top and were patiently lashing the fronds and sticks to the raft. He looked up at her. Tracy pointed. "I think there's another island not far away."

He straightened up holding a hand to cover his eyes against the glare of misty white fog. "Yeah?"

"Too far to walk to it before...?"

His eyes darted to hers incredulously. "Yes." 

"Okay then."

His eyes darted to hers again to see if she was joking and was relieved to see her look down at the sleeping baby with a hidden grin.

"Good thought though." He softened his words. "l think after this... ordeal, we'll try to sail there. Maybe it's inhabited."

"Maybe there's cann ibals."Danny said mysteriously.

"Maybe there's dinosaurs."Richard pondered. "Like Jurassic Park." 

"Maybe it is Jurassic park!"Danny scanned the landscape excitedly.

Tracy's brows raised again. "Maybe not."

"That should do it, Danny Boy."Richard finished the lashing and patted Danny on the back, sitting back on his haunches. They eyed the contraption with a mingled sense of accomplishment and fear. Would they really have to use this thing? Would the force of the waves cover the entire island? Would it lift them up and over the cliffs and rocks and carry them out to sea? Or would it dash them to pieces running down the sides of the cliffs first?

Richard sat next to Tracy, leaning against the rock. He looked at her bandaged leg where the blood was seeping through. "I thought you said cayenne would staunch the flow?"

"I think it did quite a bit. I've never used it on that big of a cut before. I 've seen it stop a smaller cut dead in it's tracks. I don't know. Maybe this one hit something.... It's a bleeder." She handed him a granola bar and a handful of pills. "Take these too." 

''There's freaking' ten pills here!" he blinked in amusement. "What is it?"

"Herbs." She stated calmly. She handed some to Danny who made a face, but was obviously used to his mother's herbs. 

Richard tossed five of the pills into the back of his throat, swallowed and then took a  drink. "Water is going to be a bigger problem." 

Tracy nodded. "Yeah. I don't have a three day supply of water." 

Danny took the last of his pills and started munching his second granola bar. "Hey, why don't you let me bandage some of those cuts on your legs? They look pretty bad."

Richard looked down at himself, at the torn off pants, the long runnels of blood and the already puckering bruises. He couldn 't even feel them. "I think they're okay." He examined one that had just quit bleeding and the blood was pretty thick running down his leg. Tracy bent over the same cut and with an alcohol swab began to clean him up.

"Don 't waste the stuff, baby."He lifted her chin. "l'm okay." 

Tracy's eyes filled with tears. She closed them and turned her face away, but Richard pulled her close and the flood gates opened again. He felt the quiet sobs trembling through her and finally began to whisper in her ear.

''This isn 't your fault.''

''I know. I think I know."

"You couldn 't have done anything differently."

"Not come? Not married ...."

"Don't say it, baby. Don't. It's not true. It's just that you're so strong. You'll have bigger tests maybe, to prove yourself."

"You 're saying God did this? God wants me to die here? Watch my children die here? Watch ...."

"We're not going to die here.'' Richard stated calmly. "I can feel it. We're not going to die here."

 "What chance do we have of l iving through a tidal wave Richard? With four little children and a stupid little atoll, and freaky trees out there ready to cut us to ribbons?"

"What chance did Jonah have in the belly of a whale?" he shot back, still holding her close to avoid letting on to Danny how scared his momma was.

She started to pull away, not wanting to think logically or have her concerns thrown back at her.

But Richard held her tightly, pressing her to his chest and stroking her hair.

"Listen to me, honey. We have to trust. It isn 't our time right now. I believe that. We're going to get through this. We really are."

"I didn't even call for help, Richard . They won't be looking for us."

"You don 't think that Austin will be looking for us when he doesn 't hear from us by tonight?  And Zack? Zack will be calling my cell phone."

"He'll think you're being a newly wed, and have it turned off.'' 

"You're hoping, but you don't know... you can 't know."

"Oh yes, l can know. I wish I could help you see that too. But this isn't the first time I've just known something. I'll tell you now, baby, I have known things that were impossible and they happened anyway. God can do it. It may not be what you envision, but he can and will do it."

He sat back to look into her tear filled eyes. Her face as pale as the fog and the mist rolling in from around them. He gathered all the fortitude and conviction he could muster. "I wanted to marry you from the first night I saw you as Raine's girlfriend in Park City. I l istened to your voice, and felt of your spirit, and just knew. I was thinking I was going to die too. l thought my life was over when you married Raine and had his babies. I thought it was the end. I never realized that His plan was bigger than me. So, yeah, I do know what it's like to face the impossible and then have him work in my life."

"You feel that now?" she whispered.

Richard nodded. "It's not our time, baby.Not our time.I feel it. I'm not just blowing smoke in your ear. I know it's going to be okay. We're going to have to go as far as we can, do as much as we can. But in the end, he'll be there, and he'Il lift us....''

Then he fastened his lips to hers. Caught off guard Tracy pushed away, but Richard held her to him. "I love you," he whispered. "The world might seem bleak and frosty, and impossible, but we have this..."