Julia is seen nervously approaching an open elevator when Mason walks up to her; Julia is startled.

"Mason!" Julia exclaims. Mason steps into the elevator, the door still open.

"Just telling the press the good news. Eden's holed up in her office. You'll want to know that the plane has been found."

Julia stands in the doorway of the elevator. "Well, I...I would've done that for her."

Mason responds to that with "Going up?" A skittish Julia steps away from the elevator. She says, her nervousness apparent. "Uh...wait!" She steps out of the doorway of the elevator. "Are you sure that this elevator is...is working correctly? With lights out all over the building and all...?"

Mason takes Julia by her arm and drags her into the elevator next to him, all the while trying to reassure her. "Julia, we can't have our VIPs getting stranded in elevators. The Capwell Hotel is equipped with emergency generators for just such an emergency." Mason presses a button and the doors close.

Inside the elevator, Julia, wearing a trenchcoat, stands against a wall and Mason, also dressed in a trenchcoat, is near the door as he attempts to make conversation. "So, how's your search for the perfect co-procreator coming?"

"You'll know when I start knitting little booties."

Mason admits, "I must say, my mind's been awash with possibilities since you told me about your project."

"I'm really flattered, Mason. And a little surprised that someone as egocentric as yourself would take such a personal interest in my personal quest."

Just then...the lights go out in the elevator...and it stops.

Julia looks around and then says, rather annoyed, "Mother Nature, one. Capwell, zero."

Mason says nothing. He walks to the emergency phone and picks it up. "Hello?" he says. The person on the other end, though not heard, is apparently rude, as Mason asks, "Well now, is that any way to answer an emergency line?" Mason gets straight to the point. "This happens to be Mason Capwell..." The caller is clearly surprised, since Mason responds with, "Right, Capwell, as in the corporate name on top of your paycheck. I seem to be...stuck...somewhere between the fourth and fifth floor..." Mason looks over his shoulder at Julia. "...with a terrified woman who's screaming and clawing the walls." Julia rolls her eyes.

Meanwhile, Mason continues, "Well, she was. She's catching her breath now." As he listens, Mason says, "I see. Well, go ahead. It's worth a try." His face shows his annoyance and he dryly tells the person on the other end, "Yes, I'll hold."

Julia anxiously asks Mason, "Well, are they gonna get us outta here?" Mason responds, again in his dry tone, "I'm not sure."

Music starts playing and the person on the other end is obviously back, since Mason replies, "Oh, yes. Yes, we hear it. That's of immense comfort to us." It appears that the person tells Mason that he and Julia cannot be rescued right away. "Well, when then?" Mason wonders. "I see." Mason counters. Then..."No, I...I suppose not. I don't guess you have any Chopin?" Mason continues to joke. "How about room service? No, never mind." Mason hastens to get off the phone. "Yes, well, keep in touch. It's been wonderful talking to you. Mmm hmm." Mason hangs up.

Julia is still anxious and tells Mason, "Well, that doesn't sound very promising at all!" Just then, Julia grips the back of Mason's coat. "Mason, please. I get a little crazy when I...I'm confined to small areas."

At a loss, Mason crosses the space of the elevator and can only tell Julia, "Julia, even the Capwell Hotel doesn't have a backup generator for its backup generator. We might as well make ourselves comfortable."

Julia is not pleased. "Comfortable? Comfortable? Shall we draw straws and see who crawls out and jumps down the shaft first?"

Mason is more relaxed and tries reason. "Calm down, Julia. Besides, it'll give us a chance to talk about your baby."

Julia is not ready to calm herself. "You want to hear clawing and shrieking?"

Mason acts like he hardly hears Julia as he says, "I think we might have been too hasty when we ruled me out as a candidate for the father of the little tyke."

Julia reiterates her stance. "Mason, you had no say in the decision. I'm the one who turned you down."

Mason forges on, in his persuasive mode. "Think what immense potential there is in the co-meeting of our genes, Julia. A coupling of our ambition, my inherent ability to maneuver a situation to our advantage, your fine upstanding sense of character and morals..." Julia stares at Mason, her arms crossed. At Mason's spiel, she rolls her eyes. Mason, however, is still not done. "Why, our son or daughter could be president of the world."

Julia finally counters, "Mason, I am not interested in hatching a mover and a shaker."

Mason pushes, "You can't mean that, Julia. Ambition is the cornerstone of the American way. Whoever has the most when he dies, wins."

"You and I both know a lot of ambitious people," Julia responds, "including every member of your family. Can you name one of us who's happy?"

Mason gives the matter some thought. "My grandfather's third cousin, Maude, was said to have been a merry old soul. At least, that was what her psychiatrist claimed."

Julia uses Mason's answer to point out the obvious. "You see? It'll never work." Julia fidgets and unties her coat. "I need air."

Mason says, "I can understand your not wanting your child to grow up to be like you, Julia. Always hooking up with the wrong job, the wrong man..."

Julia, who has since shed her coat and thrown it on the floor, interjects with, "The wrong hotel..." She flaps her suit jacket to fan herself.

Mason ignores the jab to ask, "But whyever wouldn't you want your baby to grow up with intelligence and wit? Modest good looks? A connoisseur's palate for wine?"

As Julia continues to flap her jacket, she asks Mason, "And where does that get you?"

Mason seems to answer a bit slowly. "Stuck in an elevator, I guess."

Julia sighs and tries to explain her dreams for her prospective child to Mason. "Mason, I just want my child to grow up kind, compassionate, sensitive, with a capacity to love and be loved by other people."

Mason nods. "That's a beautiful thought. And I have to admit that those are qualities that are not quite hanging like ripe apples from my family tree."

Julia makes an admission. "I will admit there are times when I believe that deep, deep, very deep down inside you, those qualities exist."

Mason seems to grow pensive. "At one time, maybe. But if they're still intact, I fear they're buried deeper than anyone would care to look."

Mason and Julia have moved around and now sit on the floor, leaning against opposite walls. Mason points out to Julia, "There's one thing we have in common."

Julia smiles and says, "Oh, dear. Do I want to hear this?"

Mason responds with, "A lack of luck in love."

"Yeah, that's true," Julia admits. "If it wasn't for an absentee father, if I hadn't fallen in love with such hopeless specimen..."

"Falling in love..." Mason's voice lowers. "I used to avoid it like the plague. I thought it was the plague."

Julia softly asks, "Until Mary?"

Mason seems far away. "No one else. Probably never will be again."

Julia tries to lighten the mood. "You know, you and I should start a social club. No dancing, no hayrides, no meetings...except in elevators."

Mason still seems to be lost in the past, however. "You know, when you were talking earlier about compassion, sensitivity, and all that sentimental garbage...if you'd asked me two years ago, I would've sworn that I didn't have any of those traits. But somehow Mary found them...or maybe she gave them to me."

Julia looks at Mason sympathetically. Mason looks at her and reminds her, "Mary and I were going to have a child."

Smiling sadly, Julia nods and replies, "Yeah, I know."

Mason continues, "That's why I never even thought about it before and all of a sudden, it seemed so...natural. The next step. I suppose I behaved like every expectant father since the dawn of time. I used to think about having a boy and not doing the things with him that my father had done with me."

Julia is visibly touched. She asks, "What about if it was a girl?"

An emotional Mason ponders what would've been. "Ohhh, well, I knew that she'd be as...beautiful, gentle...good as her mother. Of course, she'd worship her father like Kelly and Eden worship Dad." Mason's eyes seem overly bright. "Mary and I would watch her grow up into a woman..." Mason pauses. Looking very sad, he looks ahead, his voice only showing the slightest of quivers. "As Mary would say, it wasn't meant to be."

Moving away from her seat at the opposite wall, Julia slides over next to Mason and puts a hand on his arm, offering comfort. Softly she replies, with sadness in her voice, "I'm sorry, Mason."

The dark seems to have let Mason and Julia drop their inhibitions. Mason confides, "You know, all the things you want for your child...Mary wanted those same things for our child. We both did."

The moment turns awkward when suddenly, the lights in the elevator come back on and the elevator moves. Mason and Julia try to lighten up as they stand and grab their coats, as Mason says, "Well! Saved in the nick of time. I hope I wasn't too disgustingly maudlin."

Julia denies this and shakes her head. "No. No, not at all. You were very human."

Mason responds, "I'll try not to let it happen again."

End