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The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day at Whitney High. Ralph gathered his things as his students noisily left the classroom. Once alone, he sighed, shaking his head. He saw so much potential in these kids, if only they’d apply themselves. He figured if Tony and the others could do it...

Ralph closed his briefcase and left the classroom, headed down the path through the quad, heading for the faculty parking lot. Glancing up at the sky, he frowned at the dark clouds covering the sky.

Looks like rain, he thought, as he pulled his car keys from his pocket. Ralph walked up to the station wagon and slipped the key in the lock, turned, and opened the door. He sat and put the briefcase on the passenger seat. Ralph put the key in the ignition and paused, suddenly getting an odd sensation. He loosened and removed his tie, then unbuttoned his dress shirt to just past his chest, revealing that he wasn’t currently wearing the suit.

Ralph’s eyes widened, seeing that the black spot had appeared once again. "Oh no..." he groaned and pulled his door closed.

"Where are we going to in such a rush?"

He turned to the passenger seat and found Mona now sitting next to him. She tossed the briefcase into the back seat and snapped her fingers, locking all the doors.

Ralph shook his head. "Don’t you give up? What part of no don’t you understand?"

"Dear Ralph," Mona said, then gave a demure smile, "I will not give up until you are mine."

"Yeah, well, you’re going to be very busy for a long time to come, then!" he said, then tugged at the door. "So, what, you’re going to keep me locked up in here with you until I’ve gone insane or something? I think I’m already starting to go crazy from putting up with your little tortures!"

"I think you need to calm down, Ralph."

"Calm down? I think you need to leave me alone!" he argued.

"I wish you would not fight me." She reached for the mark on his chest, but Ralph turned away and grabbed her arm. "Why make this difficult?" she asked, pointing the index finger on the other hand, causing Ralph to release his grip.

"What was that?" he asked, surprised that he let go unwillingly.

"You are not wearing that special red suit," Mona stated.

Ralph’s breathing hitched, realizing the implications.

"Yes, dear Ralph." She snapped her fingers again. "Now, try to get away from me."

"What...?" Ralph began, then tried to move... and found he couldn’t. "No..."

Mona reached across for the spot again.

"No!" he yelled.

She touched her hand to his chest and Ralph fell silent. The look on his face showed he was trying to fight, but was losing. After a few moments, his head bowed.

Mona smirked. "Now the fun begins."

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Ralph awoke sometime later, still in the car, in the parking lot. He blinked his eyes, seemingly trying to focus. He moved both hands forward, to the steering wheel slowly until his fingers bumped into it. The wheel was warm. He frowned and began to turn to his right, sliding his right hand over the empty passenger seat. Can’t be night time... he thought.

He turned around in the driver’s seat and reach into the back, feeling around, on the seat, then moved to the floor. Finally, his fingers landed on what he’d been looking for. He grasped the black gym bag and tugged it to the front, where it landed unceremoniously on the passenger seat. Ralph felt for the zipper, then after finding it, opened the bag. He reached in and felt around again, until he pulled out a small silver item.

He held it up to his mouth, while running a thumb over it. He found the button and pushed it. "Bill? Bill, come in! I’m at the school, it’s an emergency! Bill, I don’t care if you’re in a meeting. Get over here as quick as you can!"

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Bill pulled into the parking lot, still griping about the story he had to come up with... since he had been in a meeting when Ralph decided to contact him. Because of the meeting, once he heard Ralph first say his name, he tucked the communicator away, only hearing up through that Ralph was still at the school.

Bill pulled the Diplomat up next to the station wagon and saw Ralph in the driver’s seat, head back. Bill got out and went over. He tapped on the window and watched as Ralph blinked, then felt along the door, looking for the window crank.

Ralph rolled the window down a little. "Bill?"

"Yeah, kid, it’s me. What’s so urgent to pull me outta a meeting? You said it was an emergency."

"Oh. Sorry about that, but..." He blinked his eyes again, and felt around for the door lock and pulled it up.

Bill opened the door. "Well, Ralph, what is it?"

He kept looking straight forward. "I can’t see, Bill. There’s nothing but black."

Bill waved his hand in front of the younger man’s eyes. His own widened when Ralph’s didn’t follow his hand. "Geez, kid, what happened?"

"Last thing I remember was finding that the black spot had come back..."

"Which you’d said means that Mona dame’s around somewhere."

"Yeah." Ralph frowned.

"Okay, kid, you’re coming with me. Need anything from the car?" Bill said.

"The gym bag on the passenger seat has the suit in it," Ralph replied.

"Right." Bill helped Ralph out of the station wagon. "Stay here while I grab the bag."

"Where can I go? I can’t see anything!" Ralph complained.

"Sheesh, sorry, Ralph, I didn’t mean it like that." Bill reached across the driver’s seat and grabbed the bag from the passenger side. He grabbed the keys and left the station wagon, closing and locking the door after him. He then opened the passenger door of the Diplomat and steered Ralph into the seat, closed the door, then walked around to get in the driver’s side.

When Ralph heard the door slam, he turned slightly. "I wonder if this is permanent?"

"Don’t say that, kid. You’re gonna be just fine."

Ralph frowned. He had a sinking feeling that his loss of sight was only the beginning.

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Bill steered Ralph into his apartment, keeping one hand on the younger man’s shoulder, and dropped the black gym bag on the floor from his other hand.

"Bill, I know what your apartment looks like!" Ralph exclaimed, flinging both arms out at his sides and nearly hitting Bill.

"Which is good, kid, but you just about cold cocked me with your flailing arm." Bill pushed the offending arm down and caught a quick glance of Ralph’s eyes. "And I’m getting you a pair of my Aviators because your eyes are giving me the creeps!" He turned for the desk, right next to the door and began to rummage through things, looking for the sunglasses.

"What am I going to do, Bill? I’m no help like this! I don’t even think I’d still be able to teach--" Ralph began rattling off.

"Kid, wouldja knock it off? I’m guessing it ain’t permanent, just that dame’s way of getting to you." Bill straightened and turned to Ralph. "Here’s the glasses." He put the sunglasses on Ralph and nodded. "Much better."

"Gee, thanks, Uncle Bill."

"Good to hear your sarcasm is still intact."

"Any time." Ralph paused. "So now what? I wait her out... or wait for her next torture tactic?"

"Ralph, I’m gonna knock you into next Tuesday if you don’t stop it. Where’s your always positive attitude?"

"It’s gone until I can see my own hands in front of my face again." Ralph began to move forward, his arms out in front of him. "Where the hell’s your couch? Did you move it...?"

Bill watched the younger man nearly fall over the couch as he walked into it. Ralph caught himself and instead merely fell onto it. Bill sighed. "I’m getting the Counselor. Maybe she can wrangle you better than I’m doing." He went over to the phone and picked up the receiver as Ralph situated himself.

Bill dialed and turned back towards Ralph again as he waited for the phone to be answered. He watched as Ralph paused in his movement, then his head whip to one side. Bill set the receiver back down, having not gotten any answer, and moved somewhat slowly over to Ralph, who now hadn’t moved again.

"Uh, Ralph, you okay, there?" Bill asked. He reached out carefully and rested his hand on Ralph’s right shoulder. Bill’s eyes widened at the increasing blackness he saw and removed his hand, his vision returning to normal.

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Ralph, meanwhile, had a literal internal conflict going on...

"Hey, get up."

"What...?" Ralph asked. He blinked his eyes, but still had no vision.

"I said, get up."

Ralph lifted his head, trying to determine the direction the voice was coming from... and why it sounded like his voice.

A man who looked just like Ralph, but with black hair, moved toward him and grabbed the collar of his shirt, lifting the blond to his feet. "I told you to get up. When I tell you to do something, you do it!" He gave Ralph a shake.

"Wha-- why do you sound like me?" Ralph asked, gasping a little.

"Because I am you. The only difference is that I’m evil."

"And proud of it, too, apparently." Ralph was dropped by his twin and coughed. "Where are we? Last I remember, I was in Bill’s apartment and he’d just gone to the phone--"

"Shut up!" He whirled on Ralph, back handing him.

Ralph stumbled a few steps and raised a hand to his cheek. He hissed from the sting, but continued, "Where’s Bill? What did you do to him?"

His double smirked, despite Ralph’s being blinded. "I killed him," he lied.

"You-- what?!" Ralph froze. He really had no idea if his twin was telling the truth or not, but he hadn’t heard anything from Bill since the twin appeared. And he still didn’t know where he was, either.

"Shot him with his own gun," the twin said, proudly. He walked over to Ralph. "Bam!" He slapped his right hand against Ralph’s chest as hard as he could.

Ralph doubled over, cringing in pain and from having the wind knocked out of him. "You..." he gasped, sucking in air the best he could.

"And I had some fun with your wife, Pam--"

"NO!" Ralph swung a fist at his double. His hand hit something hard and he cried out in pain and cradled it, falling onto his knees.

The twin laughed, making the brick wall disappear from between them. "Not only are you blind and got a couple bruised ribs, but now you’ve got a broken hand, too."

Tears were now pouring from Ralph’s eyes. His double just laughed.

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Bill had already been worried when Ralph froze in mid-movement, but he was even more so now seeing tears streaming from the younger man’s eyes. Bill wished there was something, anything, that he could do...

Ralph suddenly moved again. Immediately, he doubled over, favoring his right hand, and crying openly.

"Ralph?" Bill said, carefully. He moved back, making sure to not get too close just yet incase Ralph decided to swing out.

Ralph lifted his head, the tears still coming. "Bill...?" he asked, his voice cracking.

As tough as Bill was, it broke his heart to see Ralph like this... and to hear him so upset. "Kid, what happened?" He sat next to Ralph and was immediately clung to. "Take it easy, Ralph," Bill said, "take it easy."

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Pam walked down the hall, angry she’d been stuck in court all afternoon, unable to help out Ralph and Bill. She stopped and knocked on the door to the hospital room, then waited. "Bill?"

"Come in, Counselor."

Pam opened the door and stepped inside, closing the door after her. She found Bill seated, his feet propped up, resting on the end of the bed, styrofoam cup filled with coffee in his hands. Pam passed him and moved around to the other side of the bed.

"Ralph’s still out from the sedative. Had to set his hand. They taped his ribs, too," Bill explained.

Pam had an idea of how everything happened. "So, what did you tell the doctor?"

Bill shrugged. "Well, told the doc that because Ralph had temporary blindness caused by seeing an extremely bright flash directly, he got frustrated and punched a wall."

Pam winced, knowing it wasn’t the truth, but since they didn’t know what really happened, it was bad enough. "And the ribs?"

"He tripped and hit the couch, knocking the wind out of him," Bill said. He made a face, "Bad excuse, that one, but it worked."

"They’re not going to think he’s a threat to himself, are they?" she asked.

Bill shook his head. "No. The doc checked out his eyes, too, and said the blindness was temporary. Something about the retinas I didn’t understand."

"Could you two keep it down?" came a groggy voice.

Pam turned back to Ralph, while Bill got up and set his coffee on the table. "Ralph..." Pam began.

His eyes blinked, but he kept looking straight ahead. "Evil twin... he suckered me..." He winced, trying to take in a full breath of air.

"Bill?" Pam said, turning a glance on him.

"The kid never left my sight. I was trying to call you and he was trying to situate on the couch, then he just froze," Bill explained.

"Don’t know where," Ralph mumbled. "Punched brick wall... hit in the ribs..."

"You punched a brick wall? Why?" Pam asked.

"Thought he hurt you," Ralph said, weakly, turning his head slightly toward her. His eyes blinked a few times... then met hers.

"Ralph... you’re staring into my eyes," she said, surprised.

"Little blurry... not black," he said, a hint of a smile appearing for a moment.

"That’s progress," Bill commented.

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Mona clicked off her monitor, seeing the results from the hospital. She was pleased with the mental anguish inflicted on Ralph, and even more pleased with what his evil twin did. She made a mental note to bring him back sometime to help her out.

She thought it was best to let Ralph have his sight back, hence giving him temporary blindness. Mona wanted to make sure that he’d be able to see the next time she decided to "visit" him. For now, she had some plans to make...

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After a few days of recuperating in the hospital and though his hand was still wrapped up, Ralph was released and sent home. He’d already explained to Bill and Pam what he thought had happened to him.

Ready to come home, Bill offered to help out, which Ralph accepted, knowing how worried the agent had been, even though Ralph really didn’t need any help. Once back at the house, Pam went to prepare supper while Bill hung around.

"Ya need anything, kid?" Bill asked, as Ralph settled himself in one of the soft chairs.

Ralph shook his head. "No, Bill, but thank you."

"Uh, listen, kid... Ralph..." Bill stammered, sitting on the couch.

Ralph gave a slight smile, knowing how tough this was for Bill. "Bill, don’t, please." He waved his good hand. "I feel better. Well..." He pointed at his broken right hand. "This’ll take some getting used to--"

"But...?" Bill said.

Ralph sighed and ran his left hand through his hair. "I’m not so sure about..." he tapped the side of his head, "up here."

"You’ve been through alot, Ralph. That’s understandable." Bill paused a moment, then added, "I made it through Korea and I’m okay."

Ralph blinked, then broke out a wide grin. "I don’t know about that, Bill. I think that’s debatable."

"Very funny, kid," Bill grumbled.

Pam came out from the kitchen. "Supper’s ready, guys."

"Thanks, hon," Ralph said, standing. He stopped next to her and kissed her cheek.

"What was that for?" she asked.

"For being you."

"Not the mushy stuff..." Bill groaned as he followed, headed for the dining room.

"Well, I already thanked you, Bill..." Ralph began, then he grinned, a gleam in his eyes, "unless you wanted the same type of thank you..."

Bill’s eyes widened and Ralph started laughing. "That’s disgusting, kid, you know that..." He continued to grumble as they sat at the dining room table.