Sean disappeared behind the curtain, leaving Taylor, Isaac and Zac with the mysterious Kaera. Shortly, the waitress came to the table with the boys’ orders, which had been interrupted by everything that had happened since they’d ordered. Kaera ordered some tea, and told the boys that Sean would probably be a little while, so they might as well eat now.

Taylor’s appetite had quite left him, but since it was either eat or sit in an uncomfortable silence, he forced himself to eat the sandwich. Kaera just sat silently, sipping her tea and watching the three young men with an indeterminable look in her eye. After a few minutes passed, Isaac, who had been unable to take his eyes off Kaera’s fair, delicately featured profile, asked, “So, Kaera, does your mother own this place?” Trying to draw her out.

Kaera chuckled at the question and replied, “No, she doesn’t own this place. She’s just&ldots;” She seemed to be searching for the right word. “Well, let’s just say her opinion is highly respected in this neighborhood.”

Again, Taylor’s thoughts returned to the Mafia. He wasn’t really sure if the stories about New York were really true or not, and he had never heard of a woman being in charge of a Mafiosa family, but he couldn’t get that thought out of his head.

“What does she do?” Taylor asked, fishing for clues.

Kaera grinned back at him mysteriously. “She does what she needs to. Just like we all do.”

That answer was hardly satisfying to Taylor, but he doubted he was going to get anything more concrete from this young lady.

“So,” Kaera changed the subject, “How do you three know Sean?”

“He was showing us around the city.” Isaac answered quickly. “Taylor sat next him on the plane from Los Angeles, and he offered be our tour guide.”

“Sean the tour guide. And on a plane too.” Kaera gazed thoughtfully at the brothers. “I wonder what he wants with you three,” she said softly, mostly to herself.

“He doesn’t want anything from us.“ This woman obviously wasn’t too happy with Sean’s decisions, and Taylor suddenly felt a need to defend Sean. “He was just being friendly.”

Kaera sipped her tea with a thoughtful expression. She seemed young to Taylor, probably not much older than him, perhaps Isaac’s age, but there was something about her that seemed to belie her age. “Perhaps he was just being friendly. Perhaps he was.” She continued to be lost in thought. “So what is it that you want from Sean? Or do you accept invitations from strangers in every city you’re in.”

Taylor shifted in his seat, feeling suddenly under scrutiny. “We don’t want anything from him. We have no idea what’s going on here.”

Kaera ignored him, and turned to Zac. “What about you? What do you hope Sean can do for you? Or maybe you think there’s something one of his friends can do for you?”

“Me?” Zac jumped, unsure of what Kaera was getting at. “We just wanted to see the city.” Zac’s voice was kind of funny, almost fuzzy sounding. Taylor was getting more worried about his brothers. Whatever was going on around them, it was affecting them both strangely. Zac seemed to be having some sort of relapse into whatever was wrong with him before, and Isaac was completely out of his senses. All he could do was stare at Kaera as she sat there giving them the third degree.

She was fishing for something, Taylor was sure of it, and as uncomfortable as she made him, he would rather she focus her attention on him than his brothers. “What exactly do you think we want from Sean?”

“It’s an infinite universe,” Kaera stated with a shrug. “Who am I to guess what you want?”

Taylor was about to respond with a snide retort when Sean’s voice interrupted them. “Thank you Kaera, would you mind excusing us?” Everyone at the table jumped. Apparently, no one had noticed him approach.

Kaera stood, nodded once in their direction, and turned to leave. “I need to talk to you when you’re done here.” She said to Sean, then left without another word. Isaac’s gaze followed her out of the shop, Zac seemed completely withdrawn, and Taylor sat wondering if he was the only one there who was really worried about how to get out of this extraordinarily strange situation.

Sean sat down at the table wearing a frown. “I suppose I should apologize for Kaera. She’s usually thoroughly charming.” Taylor, who found that hard to believe, said nothing, while Isaac seemed oblivious to the subtle accusations she had made. “She’s beautiful.” He said shortly, and to which Sean nodded in agreement. “That she is, even when she’s not being charming.” He chuckled to himself slightly. Taylor just glanced at his brother in amazement. What was wrong with him? He wasn’t normally so flaky. Here they were sitting there surrounded by some sort of drug ring mafia family, and he was mooning over some strange girl.

Sean seemed about to speak when he looked over at Zac. A look of concern passed over his face, and he reached a hand out and touched Zac’s arm. “Zac?” He asked, carefully. Taylor looked his brother over and noticed how badly his hands were shaking. “Zac?” Sean shook Zac gently, as Taylor took Zac’s hand.

“Zac, what’s wrong?” Taylor asked his brother.

Isaac seemed to wake up from his contemplation of Kaera. “Oh, shit. I thought this had stopped,” he said as he stood up and walked around the table to kneel next to Zac. “Can you hear me Zac?”

Zac just sat there, staring down at the table and shaking slightly.

“This has happened before?” Sean asked.

“Uh,” Isaac started, unsure whether to tell the truth.

“Yeah, but not in a while. And never this bad.” Taylor spoke up. He’d trusted Sean this far, and with everything else going on, he didn’t see the harm in being honest right now. Getting Zac help was more important than family secrets.

“We’d better get him back to the hotel. Now.” Sean stood up and looked around the shop.

 Sean surveyed the coffee shop. Pretty much everyone who had been there during the commotion was still there, and aside from the boys, there were no strangers around. They were too far from the hotel to think about taxis. If this had happened before, maybe the boys’ parents would know how to help him. He thought about getting help from Kaera, but time was an issue, and she must have known Zac was going into whatever kind of seizure was affecting him. He didn’t know if he had the time to convince her to help. “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!” Sean exclaimed quietly as he picked Zac up in his arms, knowing what his only alternative was.

“Look, right now, getting Zac help is first on the list.” Sean said to Taylor and Isaac, who both nodded in agreement. “As for everything that happened, and most importantly, what’s about to happen, we’re going to have to trust each other. I’ll trust you not to tell anyone about any of this until we can talk, and hopefully you’ll trust me to tell you the truth as soon as Zac’s been taken care of.”

Taylor looked at his brother with fear and concern in his eyes, then turned to Isaac. They two eldest Hanson brothers nodded to each other in agreement. Zac needed help, the rest would wait. “Okay.” Taylor said to Sean.

Sean nodded back, then turned towards the wall closest to them, and gazed at it, a look of intense concentration on his face. Suddenly, as Taylor tried to see what Sean was watching, the wall disappeared, and Taylor was looking into an elevator. Nothing had moved, there had been no doors opening. One second it was a wall; a few pictures hanging on tacks, and a light, old paint flaking off. The next second, there was a gap in the wall leading to a well-lit compartment. Oddly, Taylor realized he recognized the interior of the elevator. It was the one they took to their floor of suits at the Plaza.

Still holding Zac, Sean stepped calmly into the elevator, and turned to the other boys. “Follow me. Quickly.” Choosing not to think too much about it, Taylor followed Sean, with Isaac on his heels.

Both boys stepped in and turned around together, but instead of the coffee shop they just left, they saw only the closed doors of the Plaza elevator. Sean pushed the button to their floor, and with a smooth motion, the compartment began its ascent. Taylor looked at Isaac, puzzled, but Isaac just shrugged in return. He didn’t know what was going on either.

“Look,” Taylor said to Sean, worried, “I don’t know what’s going on, but Zac needs help. Where are we?” He knew where it looked like they were, but that was impossible. The Plaza was up on Central Park; they were down in SoHo.

Sean looked at Taylor as the elevator continued to climb. “I can’t explain now, Taylor, and I’m sorry. We’re in the Plaza, heading back to your suites. I know it makes no sense, and it should be impossible, but it’s not. We’re really here. Just please, once we get to your suite, understand that I can’t answer any questions, and it’s better if you don’t ask them. We’ll just say we were in the coffee shop, and he started shaking, so we took him back here. I swear I’ll explain the rest later.”

As he finished speaking, the elevator stopped and the doors opened. Sean stepped quickly into the hallway and called into the first, open, door in the hall. “Help me, please. Zac needs help.” He continued walking straight ahead to the door leading to the family’s main suite as the three security guards came from the first room and rushed to help him. Taylor and Isaac followed silently, their minds reeling.

“This can’t be the Plaza, Tay.” Isaac whispered.

“I know, but it sure looks like it, and those are the same guards that were there this morning. I don’t understand any of this.” Taylor whispered back. Suddenly, the door to the family’s suite opened and their father rushed out.

“Oh God,” Walker said as he took Zac from Sean’s arms and hurried inside. Sean followed him in, and Taylor and Isaac, still bemused, came in last. Taylor surveyed the room, unsure of what he’d find. The view out of the large window along the back wall was definitely Central Park, and his entire family was there, surrounding his brother. His mother was rummaging through a bag with a frantic look on her face.

“What happened?” Walker asked the boys as he laid Zac down on the couch.

Taylor noticed Sean watching him carefully as he answered his father. “We were in a restaurant down in SoHo when he suddenly got all quiet, then he started shaking. We took him right back here.” Taylor figured that was essentially the truth, even if it was leaving out some details. Taylor, however, was starting to doubt the details, so he saw no reason to betray his promise to Sean. Besides, his head was starting to swim.

Dianna pulled a prescription bottle from her bag and hurried to Zac. Taylor had no idea what was in it, but it seemed to work. In almost no time, Zac stopped shaking and was soon asleep on the couch