Kate had never been more glad to get back to Chicago. The moment she stepped out of the gate and back into the O'Hare terminal, she fell to her knees and kissed the ground. "No need to take it too seriously," Uncle Frank commented sarcastically behind her.

Kate ignored him. "Okay, is everybody here?" she asked, doing a personal scan of the group herself.

"As far as I can tell, Kate," Aunt Leslie told her, giving her the thumbs-up.

"All right, Peter, come with me, we're going to call home and see if Kevin's in," Kate told her husband, "The rest of you go down to the carousels. If our stuff doesn't come around by the time we're finished, forget about it, we'll get the airline to deliver it to us. Right now my priority is getting home."

"How?" Peter inquired as they rushed for the nearest phone bank, "With what this city took last night, it'll be miracle if the public transportation system is up and running, including the airport shuttles."

"Well if nothing else stands out for us, well just borrow one of the shuttles if we need to, "Kate told him with a crazed and devilish look in her eyes. Peter sighed; he didn't want to have to break the law any further.

They reached the phones. Kate dropped in the necessary fifty cents and dialed her home number. There was a long pause before the operator cut in and said, "Due to the storm, all service to the Chicago metro and outlying areas has been disconnected. Please hang up and try again when the.."

Kate hung up in disgust. "Can you believe it?" she complained, "The phones are dead AGAIN!"

Peter shrugged. "Well with our luck, what could we expect by now?" he posed.

"We'll just have to go to the house firsthand," Kate said, "It may take longer with the snow like you said, but it'll be worth it."

"But let's not steal, OK?" Peter asked as they rushed for the escalator to the baggage carousels and parking structure.

"Boy I'll tell ya, these automatic check-ins sure are convenient," Harry commented as he watched Sam enter the convicts' boarding information at the U.S. Airways desk, "Otherwise we'd be dealin' with some nosy customs guy. Did ya book Ritchie and Eddie in first class, Sammy?"

"I will if you give me a free minute, Harry!" Sam growled.

"Hey how come we're split up, Harry?" Marv inquired, noticing his placement way in the back of the plane.

"'Cause I ain't spending' three hours listenin' to you and Norby whine over how ya hate bein' up so high," Harry told him curtly.

"But I don't like sittin' with Norby!" Marv complained.

"Learn to live with it, dummy," Lenny told him firmly.

Harry checked the nearest clock. They still had about nine hours before they had to come back to the terminal and worry about getting through security. "I told ya guys that Eddie hired mercs, right?" he asked.

"And?" Sam asked as he finalized the seating arrangements.

"So I was thinking, when we get to Trinidad, we should use these guys and overthrow the government," Harry argued, "Start our own country and take over the world with it. These guys are genuine psychos, they'll do it if we ask 'em to."

"Don't you think you're trying to eat the whole cake instead of just one slice, Harry?" Lenny asked.

"Well I'm only sayin', opportunity awaits us, and there's no reason we shouldn't just sit back and hide out for the rest of our lives," Harry went on, "And with the four mil I just stole last night, it'll be a...."

"Mrs. McCallister, you forgot your luggage!" came the shout from a baggage master behind them. Harry stopped in mid-sentence. He and Marv exchanged glances. "MCCALLISTER!!???" they exclaimed simultaneously. They turned slowly to observe the McCallisters rushing for the exit. Harry broke into laughter. "It's perfect!" he shouted to no one, "It's the best thing we could have wished for!"

"Yeah," Marv agreed. Then he frowned. "What is, Harry?"

"OOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!" Harry threw up his hands in frustration at his partner's thickness, "All of ya, get your weapons ready and follow me!!" he yelled at his fellow felons and took off after the McCallisters.

Outside, Kate waved frantically at the passing airport shuttles. "Why is no one stopping!?" she asked out loud, glad deep down that they were in fact up and running.

"Because we're not at the right place, Aunt Kate," Sondra pointed out, "It was a little bit further down."

She pointed to where the shuttles were dropping people off. "Right, I forgot about that," Kate admitted. She ran toward the nearest two. "Drivers, take us next!" she screamed at them.

The crooks burst out of the terminal and strode over to the rest of the family. "'Scuse me," Harry called to them, "You the McCallisters?"

"Yeah, that's us," Peter turned around.

"The McCallisters that live at 671 Lincoln Boulevard?"

"Yes, what is it?"

Harry whipped out his gun. "Okay, all you McCallisters get yer hands in the air and we won't hurt ya--yet!" he barked.

Several of the McCallisters screamed at the sight of being held at gunpoint. Buzz in fact fainted. A few feet away from a shuttle that was actually stopping, Kate spun around at the shouting. "What do you think you're doing!?" she demanded to the crooks.

"Shut up and just do what we tell ya, sweetums!" Harry ordered her, "We've got lots of personal...who's still screamin'!" he bellowed, waving his gun wildly. Rod kicked Tracy to make her stop. "Much better," Harry said, "OK, all you McCallisters are comin' with us, so start walkin'!"

"We're not with them," Uncle Frank told him sycophantically, "We're just along for the ride."

"All right then, Sammy, Lenny, take wise guy here and his homies with ya," Harry said, shoving Frank and his family toward his compatriots, "The rest of ya McCallisters are ridin' with us!"

He hauled Buzz to his feet and together with a crowbar-wielding Marv forced the McCallisters into the parking garage toward their van. "I demand to know what this is all about!" Peter asked him, "We haven't done anything to hurt you, whoever you are!"

"That's what you think, bub," Harry snorted, "Yer family's caused Marv and me more grief than four years of Catholic school, and offin' ya ain't gonna mean nuttin' to us!"

"Yeah," Marv added, waving his crowbar around in an attempt to look dangerous, "We've taken lots of flak, but we've still sprung back!" "You'd better hope yer kid shows," Harry said, forcing the McCallisters at gunpoint into the back of the van, "'Cause if he don't, yer all dead meat." "What do you want with Kevin!?" Kate shouted, "If you've hurt one hair on his head...!"

Harry laughed. "Toots, we ain't just gonna hurt the hairs on his head when we get through with him, we're gonna rip his whole head right off!" he said, slamming the van door behind him. He handed his gun to his partner. "Keep an eye on 'em while I drive, Marv; plug 'em if they make any sudden moves," he instructed him.

"Right Harry," Marv climbed into the front passenger seat and pointed the gun with mock authoritativeness at the McCallisters, who looked back at him with a mixture of fear and contempt. "Just sit tight, folks," the burglar said with his big idiotic smile, "We's gonna bond with each other nice and good before Santa arrives tonight."

Andie slumped through her front door. After the heartbreaking night she'd just gone through, aggravated by a lack of sleep she'd had since Blaine's cowardice had become apparent, all she wanted to do now was collapse and sleep of the remains of what had started out as so cheerful a holiday. "That you, sweetheart?" came her father's voice from the kitchen.

"Yeah, it's me," Andie went in and kissed him, "How's your day been going? Tell me they gave us a paycheck for the holidays."

"Uh.," the expression on Jack's face told his daughter that she probably didn't want to here the rest, but she pressed on nonetheless. "You quit, didn't you?" she asked.

"Andie, it's just not the kind of thing I want to do with my life, even for a few weeks," Jack said in self defense, "And besides, I had another dream last night where your mother told me to drop it. I think that's proof that she's...."

"Oh come on Dad, wake up to reality for once in your life!" Andie couldn't stop herself from blowing up at him, "We can't just sit around here waiting forever while you drag your feet from one job to the next without the slightest intention of keeping any of them, all the while hanging your hopes on the utterly wrong belief that Mom will be back! I trusted you that you'd be able to actually put your mind to it for once, but I guess I'm just once again a terrible judge of people!"

There was a stony silence as father and daughter stared each other down with respective glances of shock and displeasure. Then Andie recollected herself. "I'm sorry," she said softly, "I just couldn't help myself, Dad. Everything's just gone to pot lately for me. And now Blaine's gone too."

"What, is he dead?" Jack asked, concerned.

"I guess you could say that," Andie sighed, sliding down into a chair, "At least the Blaine I knew that would stand up for me over anything. The one in his place now's just a spineless jellyfish he lets his parents walk all over me without lifting a finger. And I can't live being walked all over by people who think they're superior to me just because they have more money. And I'll have to cancel the fundraiser. I won 't nearly enough funds."

She slumped her head on the table, trying to ignore the rising guilt over having given back to Ferris the money he'd swindled for her the other day for just the purpose she'd had in mind when she'd set out to help the poor.

"Why does everything have to come crashing down so swiftly?" she muttered, "It takes so long to build everyone up right, but one or two little mistakes can ruin it whether their your fault or not."

"Well, I don't think you should worry too much about all that," Jack said, putting a hand on her shoulder, "You did the best you could, and that's what you should be proud of. You can't always control fate or other people."

"I know," Andie conceded. She gave him a loving glance. "The bright spot is, we still have each other," she said, "And that makes us the richest people in town no matter what anyone else says."

"I know," Jack gave her a full hug. "So, I guess now we'll be watching the Christmas Eve Vatican mass tonight now that things are dead between you and Blaine?" he asked her.

"No, I'll still go to the dance," Andie told him, "Like I've said before, I'm not going to let them push me down and be able to gloat over me. I'm going to get right up and make them know they've still lost. And speaking of that," she checked her watch, "I'd better get a move on if I want to get ready. "With the roads the ways they are, I'm going to have to drive slow with the roads being as bad as they are."

"Okay then, I'll leave the light on for you," Jack said as she went upstairs to get dressed. He smiled to himself. She was right: they may have been dirt broke, but together they were wealthier than Mayor Daley had ever been.