Roz stood before the fountain in Banting's quad, dressed in flowing black robes, her mortar board slightly crooked, and a bouquet of flowers in her arms. Alex could barely believe that her baby girl was graduating from college. She clenched Gina's hand, but did not look at her, for she knew she was crying, and that to look would make the tears spread to her own face.

Paige thrust a camera into Alex's hands, and hoisted her son, adopted four years earlier, onto her hip and posed beside her daughter. Brian stood on the other side, flicking her tassel to make Roz laugh. Alex looked at the scene, the unlikelihood of it not lost on her, before finally pressing the button and capturing the moment forever. After several shots, they switched and a teary-eyed Gina clutched Roz's arm, while Alex, who was scowling ever so slightly to keep the tears at bay, placed her arm around the graduate's shoulders.

"Now, you, me, and Paige," instructed Roz, and they shuffled around again. Paige smiled at Alex, and she felt a tear finally escape, tracing a path down her cheek. She faced the camera bravely. It was their first picture together in over 20 years.

She stood by the sidelines after that, watching the never ending photo shoot, her eyes occasionally scanning the sea of black robed grads and their doting families. She saw him then, standing off in the distance, watching. His hair was closely cropped, and he was 17 years older than the last time she'd seen him, but this time she recognized him immediately. She looked back at Roz's very untraditional family, saw that Gina was reviewing pictures with Brian while Paige and Roz were busy talking with the boy, and then she walked over to Dylan Michalchuk.

He smiled and she felt a rush of emotions she couldn't name or even distinguish. She didn't know what to say, and so she said nothing. They stood there for a few moments, watching as Roz placed her mortar board on her little brother's head, and then descended into giggles.

"You've made Paige so happy," he finally said.

"Have I?" she asked. She was afraid to look at him, standing so close.

"Yeah," he said, and she didn't have to look to know that he was wearing that goofy grin of his.

She wiped another tear from her eye before it had a chance to fall.

"Dylan?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry," she said, in a voice barely louder than a whisper.

He hadn't expected an apology, ever, and had never thought how to react. "Look at her. You think you should apologize for something that created such a kid? Anyway, we were young, stupid and drunk. And high as kites, as I recall. I like Roz. If it were my place, I'd say I was even proud of her. Let's not waste time regretting that moment."

Alex nodded, but felt her stomach surge with guilt. "It was more than that. I… I put a roofie in our beers that night."

If the initial apology had come from left field, this admission had come from outer space.

"I always wondered if there was something more."

"I shouldn't have done that. I technically assaulted you. Every moment of my life I've regretted that."

They stood in silence for a long time, Dylan processing this new information, and Alex feeling guilt and shame eat at her.

"I don't know how I feel about that," said Dylan finally. "It was a long time ago. And I've grown very fond of Roz. I'm kind of inclined to say that her existence makes it…"

When he didn't continue, Alex looked up at him, needing to see the condemnation she'd directed towards herself the last 21 years, and afraid he wouldn't give it to her.

"Maybe it's forgivable, Alex. I don't remember much at all about that night. But I have had the chance to get to know Roz a little over the last seven years, and she's… well, she's a chip off of all three of our blocks, you know? There's so much of me, and you, and Paige in her."

They fell again into silence, but Alex spoke it as soon as Roz began to look about the quad, no doubt wondering where her mother had disappeared to.

"Does she know you're here?" she asked.

"No. I didn't want to crash the party."

"Well, you're a part of this craziness too. Might as well get some photographic evidence. And it would make Roz happy to have some pictures with you."

He looked back to his sister and the young woman he'd fathered unknowingly some 23 years earlier. "You're really ok with that?"

"I think I am."

He smiled, big and wide, and when Alex started walking back, his feet actually followed. He made his way to his sister, who looked at the two of them and smiled, and his daughter, whose own face, so breathtakingly similar, held a look of hope and yearning and a desire for resolution. He put his arm around her and stood before the cameras proudly.