Part 2

by Chris

Gail goes to the hospital, where Matt teases her about Lucas driving her around. (His Lucas imitation is hilarious IMO!!!) She doesn't think it's funny at all, and Matt apologizes. She asks him for her mother's files, and he promises to go looking. When he goes away, Gail clutches the key and sees the boy from her first vision. The melody from the music box is playing. He waves her to follow and walks into a room. Gail follows and finds her mother. A nurse is just telling her that she's pregnant, but Christine Emory doesn't seem happy about the news at all.

Matt has found Christine Emory's file and says that she's been treated for domestic violence 5 times. He seems reluctant to tell anything more, so Gail asks if that is all that's in the file. Finally Matt relents and tells her that her mother had been pregnant when she died in the fire. Gail grabs her bag and runs out.

Ben is discussing civet cat licences with Lucas when Gail appears. Ben leaves them alone. Gail says all she wants is to know who killed her parents. "You got the what and when, all you need is the who? That's it?" Lucas asks. "That's it. Simple." Gail answers. But Lucas won't let her be. "Not quite. You're skippin' the why. Unless you don't wanna know it." She says of course she does. He suggests maybe she wants to play God, change the outcome of the story. She says everybody would if they could, but... "But they're not the parents you thought they were." Lucas says. He starts scribbling something on a notepad and says, "I think you like your visions. I think you like to watch." Then he gives her the note - her old address, she snorts. "The past isn't dead. Hell, it's not even the past," Lucas tells her and watches her leave.

Gail goes to the address. The house looks new. She clutches the key and sees Gage leave her house. Christine calls him back saying, "I forgot to pay" then kisses him, and he leaves. Gail is shocked. Just then her father, Peter Emory, drives up. He calls for Gail, and she says, "I'm right here", but of course he can't hear her. The little Gail comes around the corner, and he says she is dirty, although she is not. He says her mother was too busy inside to take care of her. He then burns her arm with a cigarette. Gail cries out.

Matt got some lunch when he witnesses Gail almost being run over by a car. She seems distracted and says she saw her parents. He takes her to his office, where she tells him about her happy childhood. Then she tells him what she saw at her old address. She rolls up her sleeve and shows him a burn mark from her father's cigarette. She is crying and calls her father a "bastard". Just then Selena walks up and asks if she finally saw the true nature of Lucas Buck. Gail answers she wasn't talking about him, but Selena ignores Matt's plea to leave and tells her she saw her driving around in the Buckmobile, "and truly I don't mind, but part of me me likes to tell the little lambs before the slaughter." Gail leaves.

Next we see Gail carrying cardboard boxes into her car. Lucas' voice suddenly asks, "Goin' somewhere?" They start bickering, and finally Gail asks him, "Is it that you want me or you want to just see me suffer?" Lucas answers, "Little bit of both, I suspect. Kinda how you feel about me. You wanna hurt me a little bit, but sometimes you might just stay awake at night thinkin' about what it would be like..." Gail: "I don't think any such thing! Don't flatter yourself." Lucas then asks her about the "almighty pursuit of the truth", and how she chucked that awefully fast. "There ain't no runnin' from the truth," he says. That finally makes her stop. "Then waht do I do?" Gail asks. His answer: "Face it."

Gail sees her mother packing her things at the Guardian. When her father asks where she goes so early, she says she promised Gail to watch the fireworks with her. Peter accuses her of sneaking out without saying anything. He grabs her and says he knows where she's going and throws the music box on the floor. Christine tells him to go out of her way. He shoves her hard and she hits her head on a bookshelf, gliding to the floor unconscious. Peter sits down and pours himself a drink while the music box is playing.

Gail wakes up when she hears Caleb whistle the melody from the musicbox. She calls him, and asks him about the melody. He says Gage used to whistle it around the house, and that it's called "Beautiful dreamer". Gail notices that he behaves strange, but when she asks him he only says, "I thought I was in your family too" and leaves on his bike.

Gail is at the Guardian's ruins. She finds the music box and reads one of the letters. She finds that it is from Gage. He tells Christine to leave early and that he will lay a fire so they can live together without Peter interfering. Gail sees him in the next room pour gasoline or something similar over stacks of papers and tries to stop him, but he doesn't hear her and lights it. Peter, drunk, notices the smoke and tries to get out, but the door is locked. Christine has awoken and they shout and try to get out, to no avail. Everything goes up in flames.

The scene shifts, and Gail sees her little brother again. He says they are both free now. Gail is sad that they'll never be together, and says that she would've been a wonderful sister. The boy tells her, "But you already are." Then he vanishes, and Gail wakes up in her bed at home.

Outside her room, we see Lucas walk up the corridor and trying to get in. She hears him and asks, "Is that you?" Lucas: "You knew I was comin'" Gail: "Yes. I'm not ready." Lucas: "Then I'll wait. Are you satisfied with my end of it?" Gail: "Yes. You didn't do it." Lucas closes his eyes, and then does that little business with his mouth that's already caused big discussions here and elsewhere. Gail continues, "I'm sorry that I suspected you." He says, "Don't be. You had the right idea, just the wrong motif. And the wrong man." Gail says, "Gage did it out of jealousy." But Lucas says: "No. Love set that building on fire." Gail looks off and says, "Love." THE END... of this episode.

Well that's it... okay not quite. In my next e-mail I'll include a scene from the script that was never filmed... but still counts among my favourite AG scenes!!!

PART 3

1. August 2002