Donna had been sitting in the front room, watching TV, when the news came on. It showed another replay of the incident in Central Park a few nights earlier...she sighed. Everyone here had been so upset, seeing Connor involved in this--but they hadn't been able to do anything because of the trial. Now, however, they had the time.

Hmm. NT had said *she* couldn't do anything...but Donna thought maybe she herself could. She remembered hearing that one of the missing Connor's relatives worked for the FBI.

She walked to the phone and looked at the list of numbers of friends et all written on the pad beside it. There it was...And the address was there, too.

She concentrated...and a moment later she was no longer in Ariel Dawson's kitchen, but on the sidewalk leading up to another house in the same area of Tampa.

Taking a deep breath, she walked up to the door and knocked.

The door opened after much hustle and bustle from the inside. A young woman wearing faded blue jeans and a white shirt opened the door. Her hair was long, dark auburn, and her eyes deep brown. She carefully balanced a baby girl, on the verge of toddler-hood on her right hip and a baby boy the same age as the girl on her left hip. "Can... Can I help you?" she asked.

A toddler with dark skin and wild black hair ran up and clutched the woman's leg. He looked suspiciously at the girl on the door step. "Who dat?" he demanded, pointing at her.

Donna looked at the dark haired woman. "I...I'm here to help you, if I can that is. I'm looking for Anna DeCant? I'm a friend of NT Dawson's and I wanted to help find Connor..."

The woman narrowed her eyes and studied the girl carefully. She looked over her shoulder quickly then set the baby boy down. He giggled and chased the toddler into the living room. "You," the woman started, dodging the baby girl's attempts to pull hair. "You've found her. Um, why don't you come in?" She stepped to the side, allowing Donna to walk past her into the living room.

It was full of toys, the TV was on, playing Gulla Gulla Island. Another baby boy, identical to the first was sitting up in his playpen, watching with interest. The toddler sat in front of the TV, with the first baby boy in his lap. It was very cute. The girl in Anna's arms tugged at her sleeve. "Wan' dow'," she demanded. Anna set the baby on her feet, the little girl looked up, smiled and went to join her siblings in front of the television.

Anna put her hands on her hips. "That's rare," she mused. "All four of them." She smiled apologetically at Donna. "I'm sorry about the mess she said, but, as you can see..." She gestured to the kids on the floor. Then she introduced them. Tyrel was the toddler, Ethan was the baby on Tyrel's lap, Desiree (aka Dessy) was the girl, and the little boy in the play pen was Sebastian. "And I think I've already told you I'm Anna. Tyrel is two and a half, the triplets are seventeen months old. I'm sorry, but I don't think I got your name...?"

"Donna." she replied. "Donna Shelley. And like I said I want to help find Connor. I know he's in real trouble--I saw the news." she sighed. "I *should've* been able to search for him..but I want to help."

Anna drew a shaky breath. "Um, yes, I know. My husband is Connor's older brother. He's on his way to New York right now with his partner to try and figure this out. You said you should have been able to search for him.... Are you magical too?"

Donna nodded.

"I see," Anna murmured. "Wait just a minute, I'll let you talk to him." She went to the counter separating the living room and the kitchen. She picked up the phone and dialed quickly. "Kenyon?" she said after a short pause. "Yes, sweetheart... Where are you now? The airport? Well, the strangest thing just... Mmm Hmmm.... I was getting to that. There is a young girl here, she says her name is Donna Shelly and that she is a friend of NT's... Right... Well, she says she wants to help... Alright."

Anna walked over and handed the phone to Donna. "Don't worry," she said with a smile when she noted Donna's rather nervous expression. "He's a good guy."

Donna nodded and took the phone. "Thank you," she said quietly. Then into the phone, "Hello?"

"Hello, my wife tells me you want to help," said a man's voice on the other end. "How?"

"Any way I can. I can try to search for him, or anything else you need." Donna replied. "Now that he's shown up once...maybe I could find him now--though I couldn't before..." That still puzzled her. And why hadn't NT been able to find him either? she wondered.

There was a pause, then, "Search?" Kenyon asked. "You mean using magic?" Another pause, this time longer. "Donna, um, listen, if you can... Search like that, we could use your help, yes. Would it be alright if my partner came down to get you? To bring you back up to New York to help us?"

"I guess so." Donna replied, "I mean, I could transport myself there, if that'd be easier, but I'd have to know where to meet them and who I was supposed to meet." New York was a very big place after all.

"Well..." Kenyon started but he was cut off.

A woman's voice came across next. Full of fire and energy. "Donna? Honey? Hi, this is Kenyon's partner, Dejah. I've read about you on the Telegraph..." Slight pause, but it picked up again before Donna had a chance to jump in. "You know, sweetie, it doesn't take very much for me to get from here to there and back again and I know where I'm going. I don't want to risk you getting lost in NYC, so it wouldn't be any trouble at all for me to come back down, kay? At least help you find the place we're at... or going to be at."

"Dejah..." Donna paused. Why did that name sound familiar..."Dejah O'Donnell? I remember hearing your name too." she replied. "And if you're sure it's all right. I...I don't want to put anyone out."

Dejah laughed. "Don't worry sweets, if you were going to put me out, I'd let you know. Just hold on."

There was a long silence on the other end. Donna startled when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to face a startling red-haired woman with bright eyes and big smile. She was wearing a white halter-like top with large sleeves and low cut neckline over dark blue jeans. Donna put the phone down slowly. The woman extended her hand. "Dejah O'Donnell. I take it that since you were the one with the phone, you must have been talking to me, and that means you must be Donna."

Donna shook Dejah's hand tentatively. "Yes, um..."

Dejah put her hand on her hip. "Not exactly what you expected was it?"

"Well..."

"No worries," Dejah said, smiling. "I do tend to look more professional when I have to, but I just got off the plane, I wanted to be comfortable." She looked over her shoulder and knelt down. One of the triplets, Dessy, was trying to climb up her leg. "Hey there, darling, can't stay long, just picking someone up... And no, it's not you." She tussled the baby's fine hair. Dessy looked up, grinned and cooed bubbles.

"Come on Love," Anna said, taking the baby. "Time for lunch. Thank you, Dejah."

"Not a problem, Anna," Dejah said. She turned to Donna. "Ready?"

Donna nodded. "Yes."

"Alright, then." Dejah took her hand and stepped forward.

Donna looked around. "Where are we?" It wasn't like anything she had ever seen before. It was like she was walking on a road made of silver cutting through a void.

"This is what I use to travel from one place to the next," Dejah explained. "I'd like you to meet a friend of mine, Donna, Raven, Raven, Donna."

Donna looked around, but didn't see anyone until a tall, curved figure walked down the path.

The figure turned into a woman, dressed in black, with dark hair and piercing eyes. The woman smiled and inclined her head. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Donna." Raven said.

"The trip will be short, it's called ghost travel," Dejah said. "Raven is here to make sure we don't get lost. It's the safest magical travel around."

Donna nodded, not sure what to say, she was just taking in the weirdness around them. "I...I don't remember it being like this when I...go somewhere." she said. "I mean I don't see anything in between." she shrugged. Obviously Dejah and her...friend...knew a *lot* more about magic than she did. "So what do we do...just walk? How does this work?"

Dejah smiled. "Actually, there are a lot of ways to travel magically. This happens to be safe because you have a ghost to guide you so you don't get lost and end up in the middle of the Pacific or, worse, face first into a wall. To be brutally honest honey, travel magic is not my specialty, this is the only way I *can* travel. Don't get me wrong, I've traveled other ways with other mages..." She rolled her eyes. "I learned my lesson," she said with a wry smile. "So to answer you question, yes, we just walk."

She put her arm comfortably around Donna's shoulders and walked. Raven walked with them.

"Now, you wondered how this worked?" Dejah asked after a minute. Donna nodded. "Well..."

"It's mostly my doing," Raven jumped in. "All Dejah does is call for me to open the portal and I do - if I can and I usually can. There are roads like this all over your world and they are connected to where I live in the Spirit Realm. This is..."

"Like a limbo dimension," Dejah said. "It's not a world in and of itself, per se, but it's not a direct part of any other world either. It's a cross roads of many."

"Ghosts know the roads instinctively," Raven explained. "I'm able to choose the right one to get you where you need to go."

"If you enter this without Raven... Well..." Dejah started. She stopped, making sure Donna was close by.

Raven smiled and nodded, then faded away. The world changed and many silver roads came into view. So many crossing each other and running off into the void that it became a headache just to look at them all. "This is what you get if you don't have a ghost guide," Dejah said.

The millions of roads faded again and Raven reappeared.