You think he got what he wanted and took off," Erin said, correctly reading Annabelle's mind. "He didn't. We're going to get married. He loves me. He said so. He showed me he did. Something took him away, and nobody believes me, and nobody is looking for him, and what if they do awful things to him?" Erin's voice had grown louder and more strident. "I've got to find him! He needs me!" She tore the covers off and threw her legs over the opposite side of the bed. Before either Annabelle or her mother could react, Erin was out the door.

"Erin! Come back!" Annabelle flew down the hall after her sister, but was too late to stop the two large, burly men under Dr. Duncan's quiet direction from grabbing Erin's arms and legs and carrying her back to her room.

"Let me go! Let me go! I have to find him! I have to find him! Let me go!" Erin kicked and screamed and fought, using teeth and nails and feet.

The two men carried her as though she weighed nothing. They ignored her cries and the hysterical bucking of her body as she hung from her arms and legs between them.

"Get her in bed and wait there for me." After giving these directions, the pixie-like doctor turned to the Tinker women. "You'll have to leave while we get her sedated." She gestured toward the waiting area and started off down the hall.

Annabelle followed her. "Doctor, what happened? She was so calm."

Dr. Duncan stopped and turned. "What did she do, exactly?"

"She was telling me what happened to her boyfriend."

"What did she say? Her exact words if you can remember them."

Annabelle struggled to bring the picture to her memory: Erin lying in the bed, animated and funny, but worried about Lucas. "She said they--" A warmth flashed over her cheeks. She felt she was betraying a confidence, yet the doctor had to have the information she needed to treat Erin. "They had sex in his car by the lake."

"They what?"

The vehemence in the doctor's voice, the edge of disapproval, bothered Annabelle. It hadn't occurred to her that a doctor, especially one as young as Dr. Duncan, would be a prude. After all, this was a college town, filled to overflowing with young, healthy people, some free of parental supervision for the first time and surrounded by a double pheromone cocktail.

"Of all the stupid--" The doctor's whispered words jerked her back to the present.

"Excuse me?" she asked, confused by the change in the doctor's attitude from shock to irritation.

Dr. Duncan clamped her lips together. "I'm sorry. Please, go on."

"When," she paused, glancing into the doctor's eyes. "Well, Erin said he, ah..."

"Ejaculated," the doctor helpfully offered the clinical word.

"Yes. Well, when he did, Erin says he vanished."

The doctor stared at her for a long time. Annabelle stared back, waiting for a question. A comment.

Something?

Dr. Duncan stared. And stared. She couldn't be sure, but Annabelle though she saw a twinkle of humor in the doctor's green eyes.