Kellie pulled up to the hotel on the outskirts of Pittsburgh the next day. It was late morning, and she was ready for lunch. At one level, she was looking forward to seeing April and having lunch -- or dinner, as the locals called the noontime meal (the evening meal was supper, Kellie had learned) -- with her daughter. But she had been planning to spend as much of the day as she could not only with April, but with the Greenes, and especially Dakota. Now Dakota was having to travel all the way to Pittsburgh, and the rest of the Greenes weren’t going to be here at all -- all for some special “birthday surprise” for Dakota on which Kellie wasn’t in.

On entering the lobby, April rose from a chair and waved to her mother. The two women hugged.

“How are you, girl?” Kellie asked.

April smiled at the inside joke, referring to their quick nicknames for each other in her mother’s Elevator Woman career. “I’m great, woman. How’re you?”

Kellie sighed and chuckled, a mix of emotions all washing across her face at once. “I’m really glad to see someone I love, and really confused about why we’re not out west with the Greenes,” she said.

April gestured over her shoulder in the direction of the hotel dining room. “Let’s get some lunch, and then we’ll go up to Dakota’s room and I’ll explain.”

On hearing Dakota’s name Kellie looked around. “Is he here already?”

April tugged her mother’s sleeve. “No. He won’t get here until after lunchtime, but we’ll need that time to get his surprise ready -- including your part of it.”

“My part of it?” Kellie said. “Well, at least there’s some purpose to this, but I can’t figure it out. The Greenes don’t have any family history in Pennsylvania or the Appalachians, and Dakota’s had nothing major here, either.”

“You’re here,” April said. “For him, that’s enough.”

Kellie looked a bit sad, and frowned in a way that April knew meant she was losing patience. “But why am I here, April?”

April squared up her shoulders and looked her mother in the eyes. “Mom, do you trust me?”

Kellie smiled. To the young woman who had been her superheroing partner and now carried on her name, that was an easy answer. “With my life,” Kellie said.

April smiled back. “Then let’s enjoy our lunch, and I’ll explain after.”

The lunch was pleasant for both Kellie and April. The loneliness of the last few days was eased for Kellie, and she realized how much she had missed the chances to talk with April. They were, after all, more than mother and daughter. They had been partners in peril, and always would share a bond forged in battle, whether the battle was against criminals, supervillains, fires or natural disasters.

Once they finished, April stood up. As she did, her cell comp buzzed. She smiled as she read the text message. “Dakota’s in at the airport. He’s hailing a cab to get here.”

“A cab? Why aren’t we picking him up?” Kellie asked.

April started walking out of the dining room. “I’ll show you,” she said.

April guided Kellie to the elevator and hit the 12 button. As they always did when together alone in an elevator, they looked at each other and giggled at the action. It was another of their little inside jokes.

They got to the 12th floor. They walked to room 123. “This is the room,” she said. She used a cardkey to unlock the door, and entered ahead of Kellie.

The room actually was a two-room suite. The outer “living room” space was where they entered. The door to the bedroom was closed.

April pointed to a cushioned chair as she picked up an electronics device from the desk. “Have a seat, Mom,” she said.

Kellie sat down.

April pulled the desk chair in front of her mother. She patted the device, which Kellie now could see was a holovid card, in her hand. “Mom, this surprise for Dakota also is a surprise for you, and what you choose to do with it will have a direct impact on how well it works for Dakota. All of us are in on it -- all of the Greenes, Grandma and Grandpa -- even Dad.”

Kellie looked stunned at that last word. “Your dad? But, April, he died almost a year ago.”

“Actually, it was his idea,” April said. She held out the holovid card. “He left this with me for you. I’ll let him tell you about it.”

Kellie looked at the card as she took it, then looked at April, then back to the card. She activated the card, and it projected an image that she immediately recognized as Gill. She instantly paused it.

“What are you doing?” asked April.

“I just want a moment to look at his face again,” Kellie said, smiling a faraway smile. She studied Gill’s image. It was made just a few years before he died; his hair was a little less gray and thin than it had been at the end, and he had fewer wrinkles. She hit play.

Gill smiled at her. “Hi, Kellie,” he said. “If you’re seeing this, … well, there’s no easy way to say this. If you’re seeing this, we’re apart, and that almost certainly means I’m dead. But this gives me the chance to send you one last message of love, and, I hope, to get you on a better path that will let you reach the love you want.

“First off, Kellie, let me say this: You have been the best wife and mother a man could ask for. I’ve never come in second, and I’ve never doubted your devotion to me. You never gave me reason to. I’m recording this the evening before our 25th wedding anniversary, and I don’t know how far ahead of when you’re seeing it that is -- for obvious reasons.” Gill chuckled.

Kellie smiled. “It’s good to hear his laugh again,” she said.

“Kellie, your love has been the best thing in my life,“ Gill said. “And, this may sound strange, but I’m glad you love Dakota Greene the way you do. The lesson you learned from your love of him, to make sure you say often to those you love that you love them, has benefited me for all these years. I could read your love of me in your eyes, and you knew that, but you said it to me every day anyway. That’s been a huge blessing, and one I wouldn’t have without Dakota.

“But, darling, if you’re seeing this, it means that, not only am I gone, but that Dakota is still single, that he still has at least some interest in you, and that the feeling is mutual. Kellie, you probably don’t need my blessing, but you have my blessing to go to him and work to build a life together. You see, I love you, and, if I can’t be there to love you myself, then I want you to be with someone else who will love you as completely and truly as I do. And we both know who that someone is: Dakota Greene.

“But, I also know you,” Gill continued. “You can’t allow yourself to love Dakota now because his 25 years in suspended animation have made him so much younger than you. You’ve probably pointed out by now that you’ll be 75 when he’s physically 50, right?”

Kellie chuckled. “He got that right.”

“That’s why I approached April, the one person who understands the Elevator tech even better than your grandfather, on the night Dakota left to reconnect with the Greenes, right after you got him home,” Gill said. “That, and your comment to me that night about how it galled you that Dr. Dekker had won, with your love grown cold, like she said. I asked her to see if she could find a way to exploit the tech to help solve your problem. If you’re seeing this, the odds are she’s got that solution.”

Gill sighed. “So, now the ball’s in your court,” he said. “April will explain the rest. Je t’aime toujours, mon coeur. Be happy, and that will give me all the peace I could ask.”

The video froze as it ended. A single tear ran down Kellie’s cheek. “Je t’aime, mon coeur,” she said.

Kellie heard a sniffling sound behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see April wiping her cheeks.

“I never actually watched that before,” she said.

“You’ve been working on an Elevator tech project for 10 years?” Kellie said.

“Off and on,” April said. “I’ll admit, the pace of my work picked up when Dad died. We called this the kind of plan you would come up with: a contingency plan to try to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in a sideways way.”

Kellie recalled her thoughts during her sleeplessness the night before last. “So, I’m willing to at least check it out. What is this plan?”

April walked back to the bedroom. “The holovid was step one. Here’s step two.” She opened the door.

Kellie stopped short when she got to the doorway. She stared at what was laying atop the bed. It was a dress, pink with a few other elements. Beside it were a white plastic bracelet, and  a mask that matched the color of the dress itself.

“It’s … my Elevator Girl dress,” Kellie said, “the one that I wore on both my first dates with Dakota -- first as Elevator Girl, then our first date with me as Kellie.”

“Well, it’s a good copy, anyway.” April said.

“It’s a spectacular copy,” Kellie said. “The original was destroyed while I was fighting one of Dekker’s ice monsters, right after that first date as Kellie. How in the world did you do this?”

“Grandma Gemma made this,” April said. “She helped with the original, and she was the only person in on the secret who knew what the dress looked like. She and Grandpa Stam send their love and good wishes to both you and Dakota, by the way.”

Kellie held up the dress. “It’s a really exact replica,” she said. “It’s even the same size.” She looked at April. “Was this the big surprise, to wear this dress again? But I’m not built like I was at 14 anymore. My boobs and butt will be too big for this, and if I shrink into it, the dress will be too long.”

April picked up the bracelet. “But you have this,” she said. “Try it on.”

Kellie frowned. “April, I know I still needed to wear the Elevator Girl bracelet to use the powers then, but I don’t now. Why would I --”

“This isn’t an Elevator bracelet,” April said, “although it is based in Great-Grandpa’s tech. Put it on, please. You said you trust me.”

Kellie took the bracelet and put it on.

April reached over and pressed the down button for a moment.

Kellie felt an odd sensation, something like what she felt when she changed sizes, but different, as if the energy was being used in a different way. “April , what --”

Kellie froze at the sound of her voice. She looked down at her hands, but before she could observe them, April had grabbed one and was hauling her into the bathroom.

April gestured toward the mirror over the sink.

Kellie looked, then gasped, eyes wide.