“Joe?”  The sound of his name made Joe turn sharply, and relief flooded him as he saw his stunned mother hurrying towards him.  He had just managed to catch the woman before she hit the ground when his mother showed up.

Laura was carrying a grocery bag but quickly put it down when she saw the unconscious woman cradled in her confused-looking son’s arms. “Gwynne?” she said, her shock growing, and then she looked at Joe and asked sharply, “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” he said honestly, looking at the unconscious woman, “She just turned around, looked at me and passed out.”

“Okay, let’s get her up to Gertrude’s apartment,” Laura said after satisfying herself that the other woman was at least breathing.  She picked up her grocery bag again, unlocked the lobby door and held it open for Joe, who carried Gwynne towards the elevator. Her mind was whirling with a ton of questions, beginning with what either of them was doing here, but decided they could wait.

Glancing at her concerned-looking son, Laura had a very good idea what had caused Gwynne to pass out.  Seeing Paul’s ghost would have been quite a shock….

“You know her?” Joe asked a few minutes later when he laid the woman down on the couch and looked at his mother.

“Yes,” Laura said as she hurried into the bathroom to get some smelling salts.  One thing that experience had bred into the Hardy family, was to keep a very well stocked first-aid kit, so she knew Gertrude would have smelling salts.  “She was your Uncle Paul’s girlfriend.”

Now it was Joe’s turn to be stunned as he stared down into the woman’s face and got a good look at her for the first time. Raven-black hair, porcelain skin, she was a very beautiful woman, and he could only imagine how stunning she must have been as a teenager.

“Uncle Paul had good taste,” he murmured as his mother came out of the bathroom in time to hear his remark.  She smiled sadly at her son for a moment, wondering if he saw the same similarity between Gwynne and Iola as she had.  But one look at his face, told her he didn’t.

“Yes, he did,” she finally commented, and then before she passed the salts beneath Gwynne’s nose, she said to Joe, “Sweetie I think it might be better if you gave us some privacy.  You look exhausted anyway, why don’t you go and lie down?”

Joe opened his mouth to say he was fine, but his mother silenced him with her soft explanation:  “Joe, sweetie…honey, you look too much like your uncle….I need to explain it to her….”

“Oh,” he said, suddenly getting a chilling comprehension of what had happened downstairs.  Of course, Paul’s girlfriend took one look at him and thought she was seeing a ghost!  “You’re right, I think I will go lie down…oops, I’d better call Frank first!”

Laura laughed, “Yeah you’d better.  Now get.”  They both knew that there was a phone Joe could use in the smaller guest room he’d be sleeping in.

Once she heard the room door close, the blond woman went about the task of rousing Gwynne.  Within moments, the brunette was mumbling and moving her head, and then her eyes flew open and she gasped.

“Easy, Gwynne,” Laura soothed as she waited for the other woman to focus on her, “It’s okay.”

“L-Laura?” Gwynne finally whispered, tears in her eyes.

Sighing, Laura nodded, “Yes…it’s me.”

“I-I saw him.”  The taller woman grabbed her arm tightly, her voice tinged with panic.  “I saw Paul!  He was downstairs, Laura…ohmygod, he’s not dead!”

“Shhh, Gwynne,” Laura tried to calm down the increasingly distressed woman.  “It wasn’t Paul.”

“B-but—” she tried to argue, but Laura shook her head.

“No, Gwynne. The blond boy you saw wasn’t Paul.”  She saw Gwynne fix intense brown eyes on her as she sighed and explained, “you saw my younger son, Joe.  He looks a lot like Paul.”

The dark-haired woman took a few moments to digest that as Laura sat down on the couch beside her.  Finally Gwynne closed her eyes, lay back against the cushions and sighed, “I thought I was seeing a ghost.”

Laura didn’t know what to say, but then after a moment she offered, “It is eerie….Sometimes, if I let myself…I can forget…and for a few moments, he is Paul.”

Gwynne opened her eyes and looked at the blond woman again. “Where is he?”

“Gone to lie down,” Laura said and then amended with a fond smile, “well, after he calls his older brother first.”

“Brother? You have two sons?”  For the first time it occurred to Gwynne that she really knew nothing about Laura’s family with Fenton.  She knew they had been married and had heard word about Laura being pregnant, but nothing after that.  She wondered if this other brother looked as much like Paul as this one did….

As if reading her mind, Laura gave a small laugh.  “Yeah, two sons. But Frank is nothing like Paul.  He’s the spitting image of Fenton.”

“Frank?” Gwynne said, trying to put together the little pieces Laura was giving her.  “The older one?”

“Yes,” Laura nodded her head and then glanced towards the hallway.  “It was Joe, you saw.”

“Joe?”  The dark-haired beauty looked at her sharply, and Laura saw something pass over her face that she couldn’t read. “Is that his name?”

“Yes,” Laura said slowly and then asked, “Is something wrong?”

“No,” Gwynne slowly sat up and then offered a wry smile, “well actually… I’m just a bit shocked at the coincidence.”

“What coincidence?” Laura demanded, watching her carefully as an uneasy feeling passed over her.

“Your son’s name is Joe…Joseph, right?” the other woman asked and Laura nodded.  “Well, sometimes when Paul and I talked about the future, we’d play the baby names game.  You know the one ‘if we had a baby what would we name it’?”

Laura nodded, her unease turning into something colder, as Gwynne finished, with her own glance towards the hallway where Joe was, “And we both agreed, that if we ever had a son, we’d call him Joseph…”

* * *

“Hey, big brother,” Joe said as he lay on the bed and heard his brother’s greeting on the other end of the phone, “I’m at Auntie’s.”

[Thank goodness!] Frank said, sounding very relieved [We were just starting to get worried about you!].

“Sorry,” Joe apologized, “but there was an accident on the highway and traffic was backed up like you wouldn’t believe!”

[Oh, I’d believe, little brother] Frank said, his voice sounding much calmer now [and before I forget, tell Mom to turn the phones back on! Aunt Gertrude turns the ringers off before she goes away and Dad hasn’t been able to get through!].

“Geez, I completely forgot about that!” Joe said as he immediately took the phone away from his ear for a moment to switch the ringer back on this one, anyway.  “Good thing you mentioned it!”

[When are you coming back?] Frank asked, and Joe shrugged, although there was no way his brother could have seen him.

“I don’t know.”  Honestly, he didn’t.  “Probably a day or two anyway.  I thought I’d wait and drive back with Mom.”

[Good idea] Frank agreed. [Hey is Mom there?  Dad wants to talk to her]

“She is, but we’ve got a guest right now, can I get her to call him back in a little while?” Joe could already imagine the surprised look that would be on his brother’s face as he’d probably just looked at the time and wondered who would be visiting so late!

[At this hour?] Joe stifled a snicker.

“Yes.”

[Who?] Frank asked bluntly, a trace of concern in his voice.

“You’re never going to believe me…” Joe teased.

[Try me, kiddo] Frank challenged.

Joe sucked in a breath and blurted out, “Uncle Paul’s girlfriend! The lady who wrote that article that got Mom all upset!”

After a pause, Frank just said [No way!].

“Yes way,” Joe laughed, “and it gets better!”

[How?]

“Well Gwynne Smart took one look at me, and literally landed in my arms!”

[What?] Frank’s voice was incredulous.

“Oh yeah, apparently she thought I was Uncle Paul back from the grave!” Joe lowered his voice so his mother wouldn’t overhear, and then he heard the sound of an appreciative whistle coming from his brother before Frank said anything else.

[Wow. I gotta hand it to you, little brother, you just have a way with the women!]

“Yeah but having them pass out as soon as they see me, is not exactly the effect I’m going for!” Joe chuckled.  “Anyway, I better go. I’ll tell Mom about the other phones and get her to call Dad after Gwynne leaves.”

[Okay, kiddo, and you take care.  So help me…if I have to come out there to get you—]

Joe cut him off.  “And I love you too, big brother.”  And then he hung up the phone and opened the door just a crack to see if Gwynne was still here.

She was.

* * *

“Can I meet him again?” Gwynne asked out of the blue.  She and Laura had been sitting in an awkward silence for the past few moments.

“Meet who?” Laura asked, although she already knew the answer.

Tactfully, the other woman said, “Your son.”

The blond-haired woman chewed on the idea for a little while and then shrugged, seeing no harm in it.  “Okay, I’ll see if he’s still awake.” Getting up off the couch, Laura went down the hall and Gwynne heard her knock on a door and then say something.

A moment, later, she was back…and she wasn’t alone.  Standing a bit nervously behind her, was Paul…not Paul, Gwynne reminded herself, Joe.

Then he looked at her and she felt her heart hammer as his piercing blue eyes held her gaze.

Electric sapphire….

“Hi,” said Joe, feeling very self-conscious, as he could feel this strange woman’s gaze roam over him before finally settling on his face.  “I’m Joe.”

Beside him, he felt his mother’s comforting presence as he offered his hand to shake.  After a brief hesitation, Gwynne shook it, her hand trembling at the contact. 

And then Gwynne had to leave. The air in the apartment had suddenly gotten too heavy to breathe.  She was off the couch and out the door without even so much as a word, leaving a very stunned Joe and Laura in her wake.

“Mom?” Joe said quietly, after a few moments, “What’d I do?”

Laura wrapped an arm around her handsome young son’s waist and shook her head.  “Nothing, sweetie…you did absolutely nothing.  Now come on, and help me put these groceries away.”  She turned him towards the kitchen.  “And I have a couple of questions to ask you, young man!”

Joe groaned but let himself be led anyway….

* * *

Gwynne fled the building, jumped in her car, turned it on and then leaned against the steering wheel and cried.

Ohmygod, she sobbed, ohmygod… it’s like losing Paul, all over again…

After about ten minutes, the beautiful brunette pulled herself together and drove home.  She’d drop by again in the morning; there was no way she couldn’t….

Gwynne needed to see him again….