It was all happening too fast-she could no longer see Logan or Keith, and only after frantically scanning the water did she spot Ben's head, a speck among the debris.

She heard Ben's high-pitched cries, and saw him fighting to keep his head above water. She rose again and hobbled forward, immune to the pain, trying desperately to keep him in view.

And then, like a dream come to life, she saw a dark, sleek head moving purposefully toward her son.

Zeus.

She heard Ben calling for the dog, and her heart suddenly filled.

She hobbled and fell, rose again and scrambled forward, then fell once more. At last she began to crawl, trying to see what was happening. She used the branches to drag herself forward. Zeus and Ben were getting smaller as they were carried downstream, but Zeus was getting ever closer.

Then, all at once, their two figures merged, and Zeus suddenly turned, heading for her side of the creek, Ben behind him, holding Zeus's tail.

"Kick, baby! Kick!" she screamed.

She hobbled and hopped and thrashed her way forward, trying and failing to keep up with the current. Ben and Zeus were getting farther away with every passing second. She strained to keep sight of them-they'd reached the center of the creek… no, past the center.

She kept going, fighting with every remaining shred of strength to keep them in sight, pushing forward, instinct taking over. Instead of pain, she felt her heart beating with every step.

Only a third of the way to the edge of the creek… the current getting slower… now a quarter…

She kept going, clawing at branches and pulling herself forward. They were lost in the foliage, and it took a few agonizing moments, but she found them again.

Almost there… allowing the relief to seep in… only a little bit farther…

Please God… just a little more…

Then they were there. Ben's feet hit first and he let go. Zeus surged forward and then reached ground as well. Beth lunged toward them as both Zeus and Ben staggered from the water.

Zeus collapsed as soon as he hit dry land. Ben crumpled a moment later. By the time Beth reached them, Zeus was on his feet, his legs trembling from exhaustion, drenched and coughing.

Beth went to the ground beside her son and sat hi began to cough in time with Zeus. u^ ^ he

"Are you okay?" she cried.

"I'm okay," he panted. He coughed again and wiped th from his face. "I was scared, but I had the picture in my pocket. Thibault said it would keep me safe." He swiped at his nose. "Where's Dad? And Thibault?"

At his words, they both began to cry.

Epilogue

Two Months Later

Beth glanced in the rearview mirror and smiled at the sight of Zeus standing in the bed of the truck, his nose to the wind Ben sat beside her, rangier since his recent growth spurt but still not quite tall enough to rest his elbow comfortably out the window.

It was the first warm spell they'd had after weeks of miserably cold weather, and Christmas was coming soon, less than a couple of weeks away: The heat and storms of October had already become a distant memory. The floods had made national news. Downtown Hampton had flooded like many other towns in the region; in all, six people had lost their lives.

Despite the nightmare they had all endured, Beth realized that she felt a kind of… peace for the first time in recent memory. Since the funeral, she'd grappled with the extraordinary events that had led to that fateful day. She knew that many people in wondered about the choices she'd made. Occasionally, she heard whispers, but for the most part, she ignored them. If Logan had taught her anything, it was that sometimes her faith in herself and her instincts was all she had.

Thankfully, Nana continued to improve; in the days and weeks after "the accident" as she referred to it, Beth had leaned on her for her special brand of wisdom and her unfaltering support. These days, she sang regularly with the choir, found time to train the dogs, and was using both hands, limping only occasionally when tired. There had actually been a moment a couple of weeks back when both of them were walking exactly the same way. It was two days after Beth had had her cast removed-she'd broken four bones in her foot and had been in a cast for five weeks-and Nana had ribbed her about it, enjoying the idea of someone else being the invalid.

Ben had changed markedly since then, in some ways that Beth worried about and in others that made her proud. Surviving the ordeal had given Ben a newfound confidence that he carried with him to school. Or at least she liked to think so. Sometimes she wondered whether it was because of the photo he'd carried in his pocket. The lamination was scuffed and worn and beginning to separate, but he wouldn't part with it, carrying it with him everywhere. In time, she assumed he'd grow out of it, but who knew? It was Logan 's legacy to Ben, and as such it held special meaning for him.

The loss had been hard on Ben, of course. While he rarely spoke openly about it, she knew he blamed himself in some way. And he still had occasional nightmares, in which he called out sometimes for Keith and sometimes for Logan. When Beth shook him awake, the dream was always the same. He was floundering in the river, about to go under, when he saw Zeus coming toward him. In his dreams, though, he grabbed for the tail, only to find that he couldn't grasp it. He would reach and fail again and again, only to realize that Zeus no longer had a tail, and he would watch himself-as if from someplace else-flailing as he sank slowly under the water.

When she reached the cemetery, Beth pulled into her usual spot. She carried two vases of flowers. First, as she always had when coming to this place, she went to the spot where Drake had been buried and took a moment to remember him before pulling a few weeds around the headstone and setting the flowers nearby.