Missing Scenes from HERO TODAY, GONE TOMORROW
                         Susan Griffith (with help from Lynn Murray!)

   Captain Daniel Gregg stood at the window with his telescope trained on the beautiful woman sitting down among the rocks on the beach.  She had her chin in her hands and was gazing almost unseeingly out to sea.  Suddenly one hand swiped quickly across her eyes, and she straightened up, clenching both hands in her lap.  She must have come to a decision of some sort, he thought tenderly.  Then, to his surprise, she turned and looked up at HIM ... and beckoned.  Blast...she must have seen the sun glinting off the scope lens!  Another few minutes, and the sun would have passed the window, and he would have been safe!  Would he go to her?  With a dry chuckle, he dematerialized, appearing seconds later at her side.  Of course he would.  Wherever she led.  But he could never tell her that!
   "Mrs. Muir?"
   "I thought I saw you up there.  Surveying your territory and master of all you see?" Carolyn spoke lightly, but she wouldn't meet his eyes.
   "Don't I wish!" was his fervent comment, then he quickly added, "I happened to see you here.  I thought you would be celebrating with the Historical Society -- or should I say, commiserating with Miss Gover."
   She smiled faintly.  "I doubt Miss Gover is much interested in seeing me at present.  After all, I tore down her idol in front of all those people this morning!  Unintentionally, of course, but there it is."
   "How could you possibly be blamed for a rainstorm and an epitaph that was carved over one hundred years ago?"
   "Oh, nothing is logical, of course, Captain.  But she was so thrilled that I had found the gravestone in the first place...well, that YOU had found it...!"  Carolyn's mind went back to the night before, on the balcony outside her room.

   She had been going to get ready for bed but, hearing the Captain out on the balcony, had approached him.  She was still angry that he had put her in such an invidious situation by taking the medals from Miss Gover's home.
   "You talk about MY integrity...you have none at all!" she fumed.  "If you can't have things your own way, you'll do anything to sabotage me...even STEAL!"  
   "Madam, I am not a pirate!" he roared.  Then he took a breath and continued more calmly, "I fully intended to return the medals as soon
as I had proof that they were...fraudulent."
   "Are they?" Carolyn asked.
   He rolled his eyes and said somewhat disdainfully, "That is not the point!"
   "ARE they?" she demanded abruptly when he wouldn't answer her question directly.
   He sighed as he spoke.  "I'm afraid they're authentic."  Then, before she could say anything, he carried on, "That doesn't mean HE didn't steal them!"
   "Oh, Captain Gregg!" Carolyn burst out, furious anew at him.
   "Mrs. Muir," he spoke firmly.  "What would you say if I were to tell you that I have concrete proof that Figg died and is buried in this area?"
   "I'd say show it to me." her voice dripped with disbelief.
   "I haven't got it here." he said quietly.
   "That's what I thought.  Where is it?" she asked, still disbelieving.
   "I'll take you there." he moved behind her, and she was forced to turn to look at him.
   "Why can't you bring it here?"
   "I'm afraid that's impossible.  As I said, my evidence is concrete.  I have found Figg's gravestone.  Will you come with me, my dear?"
   Carolyn's eyes swept over him quickly, then scanned the dark night. There WAS a moon, hidden only occasionally by the clouds.  And the temperature was such that it was actually a nice night for a walk.  "How far?" she asked, a trifle suspiciously.
   "About a mile...just a bit down the road, then into the bush.  There's a sort of a road, but not navigable by one of those infernal machines ... you would have to walk."
   "And you will walk with me?"
   "Of course, my dear!  Of course, you would have to change into something more suitable for an evening stroll....the wind is a little chillier than here on the balcony."
   "All right, I'll come." she said abruptly, and turned and vanished into the room.
   A few minutes later, Carolyn was downstairs with her jacket on, letting herself out of the house.  The Captain joined her at the gate of Gull Cottage.  She had grabbed the lantern flashlight from the cupboard in the kitchen, but left it off as they made their way down the road.  "It's light enough right here with the moon." she excused herself to him, not wanting to admit the real reason.  She didn't want to admit it even to herself...that she wanted to enjoy walking in the moonlight again with someone important to her.  Yes, that was it.  He was important to her.  Nothing more.  How could there be more?  She had only known him a month....
   They walked in silence for the first while -- a very comfortable silence.  Carolyn didn't feel the need to rush in with words.  She was just unwinding from the stressful day -- a day that had begun over 24 hours earlier with the Captain's outburst at the meeting of the Historical Society in Miss Gover's home.  So much for the quietness she had expected to find in Schooner Bay, Carolyn mused.  It seemed that since the day they had arrived and she had met the Captain, her life had been on a series of emotional ups and downs.  It was very unsettling, and she didn't like the feeling.  She wanted to be in control, and so many times in the past month she and the Captain had had "words" over one thing or another.  He really WAS overbearing, egotistical, chauvinistic, arrogant ...  She glanced at him as he strode along at her side, matching his larger steps to her smaller ones so she wasn't having to rush.  He returned her look with a devilish grin and she looked away quickly, adding to her mental list of his attributes "charming, suave, almost overwhelmingly magnificent..."  No one had the right to look so...so...
   "We have to turn up here, madam, and you may require the flashlight for your footing as I cannot assist you." the mellow tones broke into her reverie, and Carolyn jumped a bit, then nodded, and pressed the button on the flashlight.
   She followed him through the bush, then stepped out into a deserted clearing with a dilapidated house in the yard.  "Who lives here?" she asked, almost in a whisper.
   "No one, now.  It used to be the Figg home.  But the family moved into town 75 years ago."
   Carolyn shone the flashlight around the clearing.  "You say Figg is buried here?"
   "Yes, right over there." he pointed, and she obediently moved the flashlight there, catching a gravestone in the beam.
   "Fido?"  She was exasperated again.  "Oh, come on, Captain!  This is...Captain?  Captain!  Captain Gregg, where are you?"  Oh, where had he gone?  Her heart began thumping, even though she knew it was ridiculous to be afraid.  Somehow standing in a graveyard, even a pet graveyard, was spooky.  And that blasted owl didn't help. 
   Suddenly she sensed something behind her, and she whirled quickly, her heart in her throat.  With a gasp of relief, her eyes met Captain Gregg's.  "Oh!"  They were so close, almost touching, and the flutter in her chest made it hard to breathe.  She couldn't tear her gaze away from his.  "Captain Gregg, you startled me!  For a moment," she continued on recklessly, without thinking, "I thought you were a..."  Then she caught herself, and laughed breathlessly.  "Never mind..."
   He smiled down at her confusion, watching the blush spread over her face.  She was so very exquisite in the moonlight.  They MUST go walking more often!
   But Carolyn had turned back to the gravestones.  "If this is your idea of a joke, I don't think it's very funny.  There's nothing buried here but cats and dogs!"
   "And one rat!" he said grimly.  "And there is his tombstone."
   Shining the light over in the corner, Carolyn exclaimed, "It IS here!  Oh, Captain, I don't know what to say!"
   He sounded smug and nonchalant.  "An apology might be fitting."
   "I DO apologize!  This proves he didn't die at sea!"
   "Not only THAT, but they considered him so low they stowed him away among the animals."
   "That's rather sad, isn't it?" Carolyn went closer to Figg's tombstone.
   "Yes, sad for the cats and dogs that are buried next to him!"
   "It's always sad when a legend is destroyed."  Carolyn crouched down in front of the gravestone.  "There's something else written here."
   "Don't read it!" the Captain jumped in.  "It's probably obscene!"
   Carolyn ignored him and scraped away the scrub in front of the stone.  "It's an epitaph!  ‘When duty called, he did not hesitate.'
It's the same phrase that was on his portrait!  Do you know what that means?" she was excited.
   "Yes," he spoke dryly.  "That Figg carved his own tombstone."
   "Oh, Captain, why don't you give up?" Carolyn was clearly exasperated by this point.  "Even if he didn't die at sea, this proves he obviously was buried as a hero!"
   "What?  Out here?"
   "Well, why not?  It's his home." she argued.
   The Captain threw up his hands in disgust.  "Oh, what is the world coming to, that it can glorify a man who is a sot, a coward and a poltroon!"
   Carolyn firmly said, "Captain, if you can't act like an adult, you can at least have a little respect for the DEAD!"  Then she realized that she was speaking to a ghost, and for a moment she paused.  Catching sight of a faint twinkle in his eyes, she smiled wryly.  "You know what I mean!" she muttered crossly, trying not to blush.
   "Yes, my dear.  I'm glad to know that you intend in the future to treat me with some respect!  After all, I seem to merit it, in your eyes!  But I would far rather that the respect came from something I DID, not something I AM."
   "Shall we go, Captain?" she said, pointedly, and he led the way home without a word, vanishing the minute they were inside the gate of Gull Cottage. 
   Carolyn tossed her head, "Spoiled!  Arrogant!  Pouty!  Some charmer!" and she marched up to her room.

  Now here they were, on the beach in the early afternoon.  It was a beautiful day.  Carolyn was still smarting over the things Elvira Gover had said to her this morning, after having been revived from her faint by one of the other ladies in the Historical Society.  She would not be forgiving Carolyn any time soon.  Yet, as the Captain had said, it was hardly HER fault that it had rained and cleared away the rest of the now infamous epitaph on Horatio Figg's headstone!  The Society had outvoted Miss Gover and were back to square one as to who would be a REAL hero to honour in Schooner Bay.  This time, a committee was struck, and Carolyn was planning to stay well out of all negotiations.  If they asked her to write an article about it, of course she WOULD, but she had no intentions of offering her opinion.  She had the perfect excuse too -- being a newcomer to Schooner Bay, she could scarcely know the history and the people.  But still, Miss Gover's words stung.  Carolyn knew the rest of the Society discounted anything the older woman said, but to be termed a "queer, outlandish busy body of a writer-type person who couldn't keep her inquisitive and foreign nose out of community affairs" did not sit well.
   Suddenly Carolyn realized the Captain had been sitting patiently beside her for the last 10 minutes or so while she had been wrapped in her reverie.  His eyes had not left her the entire time as he watched her expressive face.  She looked at him, smiling wryly, "I've just been going over the last few days in my mind.  It's still such a muddle."
   "Yes."
   "You were right all along, Captain Gregg.  I'm sorry I ever doubted you.  I should have known..." her green eyes locked on to his blue ones apologetically.  "Really, I think I DID know, but Miss Gover was so convincing...why am I trying to explain?  I honestly don't have any idea why I would have believed Miss Gover over you!  You've never lied before.  You are probably the most egotistical, arrogant male I've ever encountered, but," here she dropped her eyes for a moment to avoid the thunderclouds she sensed coming, "but I think it's deservedly so...I have never heard of you as being anything other than courageous, adventurous...quite the opposite of Horatio Figg!"  She peeped up at him, and smiled widely, relieved to see acceptance in his eyes.  "Thank you for exposing him."
   "You're quite welcome, my dear.  I...think we work well together.  At times."
   "Times such as ones when I listen to you?" she asked, clearly amused.  "And take your word for things as an expert on dying?"
   "Of course." he said, quite smugly.  Then his eyes warmed.  "And some day when YOU are right, I shall be heartglad to listen to you."
   "Thank you.  I think.  I do hope you're not saying I'm a failure at living as you think Claymore is!"
   "Certainly not!" he seemed thunderstruck that she had turned his words about Claymore upon herself.  "You must know how I..." he stopped, then spoke abruptly, looking away and across the sea.  "The children will be arriving home from school shortly -- do you wish to meet them?" he
   "Yes, I should."  She got up.
   "Until later, then, madam." he bowed courteously, then vanished from her sight.
   Carolyn sighed.  She wasn't sure who had gotten the best of this encounter.  But maybe it didn't matter after all...they had mended their fences once again, and were on speaking terms once more.