Episodes

“You’re making a big deal out of nothing,” Jen protested as Steven all but marched her through the doors of Bay City University Hospital, and into the elevator.

“I know....

“Thank you....

“Leave?” Carl managed to make the otherwise neutral word sound like the most terrifying possibility in all creation. “This house? The children? You?”

“Not for good,” Rachel reassured quickly, desperately. “Only for....

“The pair of you certainly wasted no time moving on, now did you?” Felicia looked from Lucas to Alice as she noted, “At least Mrs. Harrison here waited until Spencer was neatly tucked away in his grave, albeit the body still warm. You, Luke, you haven’t even gotten a corpus to habeas, and yet here you two are, how cozy.”

“Fanny....

“Because,” Sarah told Grant as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I....

“Kirkland....

For a long, charged moment, Rachel and Jamie did nothing more than eye each other warily, both braced for a fight, neither one wanting it.

Finally....

“Dad....

“Is this the parent or guardian of Kirkland Frame? There’s been an accident….” The BCPD officer informed Grant without inflection, making it impossible to discern what precisely they were dealing with here.

“What....

With one final, frigid look Felicia’s way, Lorna called, “Jamie! Wait!” Rushing down the drive and slipping into the passenger seat a split-second before he pulled out.

Jamie looked at her in surprise. “What about –

“No plans for New Year’s Eve, my dear?” Carl asked Lila after Jasmine, Elizabeth and Cory had cleared the dinner table, and only the adults were left.

“Carl’s tone, and the look he exchanged....

“So much for warm and tropical....

Christmas in Bay City 2011….

“Are you and Victoria taking annual turns....

“Matthew!” Rachel exclaimed in delighted surprise when she opened the front door Christmas morning to find her middle son standing there. “You came,” she said softly, as if afraid anything louder would break the spell.

“I came to get Jasmine....

“Zeno!” Frankie called out in alarm as she stepped out of the car and, gesturing for Charlie and Lori Ann to keep back (not that they listened), ran towards the field directly adjacent to the farmhouse, where Zeno currently stood, fending off a dozen or so men and women holding up signs – with a presumably loaded shotgun aimed straight at the center of their demonstration.

“Too late....

“I beg your pardon....

“Morning,” Kevin opened the door to his office at nine AM sharp, surprised to find Lorna standing on the other side, shaking her wet umbrella dry, and looking like she might have been camped out since midnight prior to knocking.

“I need the unvarnished truth....

“What are you doing in here....

“My granddaughter is being baptized today.” Rachel informed Carl without looking up from the clay she’d spent the past few hours since dawn futilely attempting to beat into something vaguely recognizable.

“It grieves me to observe you so distraught....

“Go to Hell, Donna,” Lorna ordered, turning her back on the woman, heading back to Jamie and Devon… when the look on her husband’s face, not to mention Morgan and Felicia’s, forced Lorna to waver just a little. “What....

“Don’t get too comfortable....

“A squash?” Cass double-checked with Frankie. “We’re carving a squash instead of a turkey?”

“It’s a tradition around here....

“So is Mr. Moneybags, here, footing the bill for today?” Steven asked jokingly as he, Jamie and Kirkland stepped onto the racquetball court.

“What’s that supposed to mean....

“Yes?” Alice asked politely, having come down the stairs to find – as notified; except that she felt sure she must have heard wrong – Carl Hutchins standing in her foyer.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Harrison....

“What’s this?” Matt grunted....

“How did you manage to get yourself put in charge of my father’s will....

“Is there something you would like to say to me, son?”

Cory remained stubbornly....

“Well....

“I’m going to Mr. Harrison’s funeral,” Cory stood by the door, wearing his suit, his tie, and his most determined expression.

“Preposterous....

“What’s all this for?” Cass purred upon being woken up by Frankie nuzzling the back of his neck and playfully rolling a sleepy Cass over to curl up against her.

“To....

“You are taking this very well....

“Huh,” was all Charlie said after Frankie got through explaining exactly who Zeno was, complete with key details about reincarnation and souls being connected throughout eternity, the only part during which Charlie, Zeno and even Cass all managed to roll their eyes simultaneously.

“I know....

“Perfect!....

“Ms. Cory – I mean, Mrs… Fowler?” GQ stammered at the sight of Amanda standing outside his apartment door at close to midnight, looking for all the world like this was not a casual social call.

“May I come in, GQ?”

“What did you just say?” Cass couldn’t quite bring himself to repeat Zeno’s claim yet. All he did manage to do was sneak a quick peek at Felicia to make sure he’d just heard what he thought he’d heard. Judging by the shocked look on her face, indeed Cass had.

“You know her as....

“Welcome home,” Frankie threw herself into Cass’ arms the minute he walked through the door, kissing him as she professed, “I was starting to get worried. You weren’t answering your phone, and....

“Are you two out of your minds?” Grant took one look at the barely conscious Spencer and turned on Alice and Jamie with a vengeance. “What kind of doctors are you? Why isn’t he in a hospital? What have you been doing....

“Hey,” Kirkland said, meeting Grant outside Spencer’s door, having agreed as soon as Jamie proposed it to drive over and see his grandfather immediately. Now Jamie stood quietly behind his son, letting Kirk take the lead. “How – how is he?”

Though the door remained closed – Alice was in with Spencer now – Grant couldn’t help instinctively looking over his shoulder before sighing and answering honestly, “He’s....

"What should we do?" Cory repeated his sister's inane question to their father, more frustrated than mocking. “We should call for emergency assistance, that’s what we should do. Someone may be hurt.”

"And I told you....

“Would you put your mother in peril, son? Your sister? Me?....

“Are you kidding me?” Morgan...

“Zeno Tantalus,” Felicia repeated the unusual name, rolling it languidly around on her tongue. “You think this Zeno Tantalus is the key to Frankie’s missing years?”

Spencer was right. The spot they’d been ordered to for the exchange was optimal for those holding Kirkland.

Jamie and Grant pulled their cars....

Alice said, “When Spencer left the house this morning, he didn’t take his wallet or his passport. At first, I thought he’d decided to go on the run under another name. ”

“Spencer would never....

“Who has Kirkland....

“Try to get some sleep, Jamie, please....

“Okay,” Kirkland said, having driven out to meet Charlie where she said, in the bleachers of Bay City Latin’s currently deserted and dark football field, making sure they couldn’t be overheard or spied on. “I’m here.”

“Thanks....

“I know Jamie told you what went down between me and Kirkland,” Charlie filled in a stunned Cass and Frankie. “I just got back from seeing Kirk, he gave me the 411.”

“And everything is....

John looked from Allie, Donna, Sharlene, Steven, Sarah, Jen, GQ and Alice standing in a semi-circle around his son’s grave, then down at the grave itself. Gregory John Hudson 1991-2010. Sleep on now, and take your rest. Matthew 26:45.

He cleared his throat....

“I’m so glad you were able to find the time to see me,” Rachel thanked Jeanne, having shown up at Matt’s fiancée’s office without warning.

“Well, I....

"So what do you think she meant by that?" Grant asked Lila, "Saying I was the most awesome person she knew?"

"Ain't it bad enough....

"Hard to believe it's been a year since he died," Donna told John, dropping by the house to wish him luck on the day ahead.

John nodded....

"You're forbidding me, Mary Frances?"

"Yes....

"Am I interrupting?" Sarah asked Grant, looking over his shoulder and into the house, as if she expected to catch him in the middle of something much more important.

"No....

"It was a complicated, bold, yet ultimately, unsuccessful plan, conceived and heartlessly implemented by none other than Bay City's own... Spencer Harrison," Jeanne informed her viewers.

Watching at home, Lucas breathed a sigh of relief, while....

"Jazz around?" Matt asked Lila after tracking his ex-wife down to the Cory gym, but failing to find his daughter anywhere on the premises.

Lila shook her head, huffing and puffing in between power walks on the treadmill, "Sarah came to....

"You're looking well, Marley," Morgan drawled, walking slowly around her as if truly and professionally assessing the situation. "Beating an attempted murder rap....

"So how was tea and crumpets with Winthrop and Wife?" Grant asked Lila after she'd stopped by his home to make sure — in Lila's words — that Grant hadn't slipped back into any bad habits.

"What....

"Check up done already?" Jamie looked up in surprise at the sight of Lorna standing in his office doorway, holding a sleeping Devon against her shoulder, a good hour earlier than Jamie might have expected them.

"We actually haven't exactly....

"Why all the cloak and dagger, Sugar?" Lila asked Charlie once her former stepdaughter had slipped into the passenger seat of Lila's car, looking nervously over her shoulder as if she expected to be watched.

"I wanted....

"What are you doing here?" Donna strode into John's office at BCH without benefit of knocking or even a perfunctory greeting.

"It's a hospital....

"I need your help," Felicia said to Cass, looping her arm through his and taking him for a turn around the Cory pool.

"Done," Cass answered....

"You look tired," Grant observed to Kirkland, Sarah having silently backed out of the living room and into the adjacent study, softly closing the door behind her.

"Yeah, you look like crap....

"Two days old," Lorna looked down at Devon, making sure not to squeeze too tightly this time, no matter how badly she may have wanted to. "And you've already heard how your mom can pick a fight."

"Devon had....

"So," Matt couldn't help asking as he buttoned up his shirt. "Now that we have a basis for comparison, which would you say you prefer: KBAY Screening Room or news van?"

Slipping back into her own dress....

"You... and Kevin?" Morgan repeated, certain he couldn't possibly have understood her meaning.

"Got married....

"Senator Harrison!" A surprised Sarah exclaimed as she approached Clareview Sanitarium's main entrance with Michele and Bridget in tow, both girls studying Grant warily, unsure of where precisely he fit in among the adults who'd recently been whipping in and out of their lives at disturbing speed. "What are you doing here?"

"Just because I backed off on taking Bridget and Michele to see Marley myself doesn't mean I can't pop up here independently, does it?" Grant offered....

"What is that smell?" Rachel winced as she entered the kitchen, waving a hand back and forth in front of her face.

From near the microwave, Allie gasped, breaking....

"Alright," Rachel told Carl calmly. "I've had a chance to sleep on it, and I am ready now to hear everything."

"I'm sorry, my dear, I'm afraid....

"Got a minute?"....

"You'd give up Kirkland?" Jamie spoke slowly, hearing the words as they came out of his mouth, but convinced he couldn't possibly have understood correctly.

"Yes," Grant said firmly, refusing to offer....

Jamie knocked briskly on the door to Kirkland's room in the Cory house, waiting until he'd received a sleepy, "What?....

"They're not actually going to the wedding, are they?" Frankie took care to keep her own car a respectable distance behind Grant and Marley as they all proceeded to circle the Cory Mansion for the second time.

"What? ....

"Thank you for the loaner of world's best bridesmaid and....

"What the hell?" Freshly out of Jeanne's shower, Matt stood wearing only a towel wrapped around his waist, disbelievingly reading the news about his own, apparently imminent, lawsuit off her iPad.

"Did you know....

"What?" Ensconced within a guest room in the Cory mansion, Lorna, hair and make-up already professionally done for the wedding, though waiting to put on her dress until the last possible minute in order to get a few more breaths of unrestricted, unquenched air, grabbed her insistently ringing cell-phone.

"You sound stressed....

"I hope you understand why I had to tell Frankie about your hiring me to investigate Lorna and Morgan's accident," Cass called over his shoulder to Lila, forging ahead and entering the rented storeroom where she'd sent all of Grant's campaign documents to be placed into deep storage.

"Way I heard it, she outsmarted you....

"Have a nice bachelor party," Lorna wished Jamie as she sat on their bed, watching through the mirror while he slipped on a sports jacket and headed for the door.

"It's not a bachelor party....

Jamie sat doubled-over in a living room chair, Lorna next to him, his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking.

"Marley?" he managed to retch. "You're sure ....

"Why?" A stunned Grant couldn't help asking Marley after she'd stumbled through an account of Lorna's earlier visit. "Why would you concede anything to Lorna?"

"She threatened to....

"How could you do it, Marley?" The calm in Lorna's tone somehow seemed even more menacing than if she'd chosen to scream her accusation. "How could you do that to me and Morgan? How could you do it to Jamie's daughter?"

"I don't know ....

The stand-off which, in reality, couldn't have lasted more than a minute, tops, felt like an eternity to both Lorna and Marley. They glared....

"Marley was driving the car that hit you and Morgan," Donna informed Lorna bluntly, unable and uninterested in dancing around or easing into the truth.

Lorna allowed one lip to twitch cynically. "And I should believe anything you say regarding anything because...."

"I'd like you to look into Marley's... accident," Rachel approached Carl. "Given her connection to Donna and Spencer....

"Oh, bother," Donna caught sight of the garage's broken window as she pulled up to the door and pushed the button to open it, only to be greeted by....

"Suicide?" Marley gaped at Donna from her hospital bed. "You think I was trying to commit suicide?"

Donna looked at Marley pitifully....

"Come on, Sarah," GQ sounded more exhausted than threatening. "I know you at least are there. I saw you come in. And I'm pretty sure you've got Allie holed up, too. Open the door. I just want to talk."

Sarah looked to Allie, gesturing frantically....

Cass stared glumly at the movie screen, body slouched in his theater seat.

"This sucks....

"Hi." Marley tentatively offered once Jamie opened his front door to find her there.

"Hi....

"Dr. Bauer."

"Ms. Boudreau....

"It was never my intention to have your mother take the blame for getting Alice Frame arrested," Rachel assured Jasmine. "She made that decision on her own."

"Why....

"Kirk?" Frankie rolled down the car's window and called out to her cousin as he was crossing the parking lot behind Bay City Latin's southern exit door.

"Hey, Frankie....

With Lorna in the passenger seat, Jamie pulled his car into the driveway of their house. He cut the engine and was already halfway turning to open the door so he could climb out and help Lorna do the same, when his cell-phone's chirp, indicating an incoming text, stopped him.

Jamie checked the message, hesitating....

Lucas turned his back on the woman who'd held his heart for most of his life, feeling his resolve crumble at the anguish in her eyes, the pain on her face, and the words that, if he were honest, sounded less paranoid and more truthful that he would like to admit.

"You know....

"The next time I'm in an accident," an exhausted Frankie leaned back in her chair after several hours of scouring the photos, records and data Cass downloaded onto his Flash drive from the auto body shop's computer. "I want these guys working on my car. They didn't leave so much as a stray hair."

"Nope," Cass agreed, rubbing his eyes with the palms of both hands. "This is one case you and I aren't going to crack simply by following up on leads the BCPD missed."

"I think this is absolutely wonderful," Donna trilled to a somewhat befuddled Matt and Jeanne. "The two of you are perfectly suited to each other. I'm just amazed it took you both so long to realize it!"

"You're... okay with this?" Matt double-checked.

Not needing Jamie to confirm, Lorna painfully shifted in the bed, craning her neck to hiss at Morgan, "Why the hell did you have to tell him?"

Morgan stepped forward tentatively....

Ignoring both Felicia and Jamie's attempts to silence him, Lucas sternly advised Lorna, "I have a strong feeling Jamie didn't tell you everything that went on here over the past few months."

"I told her everything....

"What's this?" Alice wondered as she descended the stairs into the dining area to find a table set with freshly cut roses, sparkling crystal, gleaming china, crisp linen, and a baked crepe and red caviar breakfast waiting for her.

"You had to work Valentine's Day....

"On April 29, 2010, Ms. Fowler, did you, as the biological mother, sign papers giving up parental rights to the newborn now known as Hudson Lewis Bauer?" Mel asked Allie, reminding her that she was in a court of law and under oath.

"Yes," Allie said, nodding her head for good measure.

"Nice monkey suit," Cass smirked at Matt when they encountered each other at the Annual Bay City Latin School Father/Daughter Valentine's Day Dance.

"Same to you....

"The pet store is down at the other end of the mall," Lila huffed at Grant when he fell into step next to her. "So you can take that hangdog expression and go find yourself a nice big ol' doghouse to sulk in."

"Could I hire you as my decorator?" Grant tried with a hopeful grin.

"You were right," Grant told his father. "Carl wants this war. He's just using Lorna's accident as an excuse."

"You talked to Carl....

"I want the truth," Felicia fired at Cass before he'd even crossed the threshold of her home. "Did you know Lucas was alive months before he finally came to me?"

"Yes....

"Did you know that Donna has proclaimed herself your Guardian Angel?"....

"Am I going to require a drink for this conversation?"....

Lucas and Felicia left the courtroom on the heels of the rest, ignoring the curious looks shot their way, moving stiffly, unable to meet each other's eyes until they were out of the hallway, squirreled away in a quiet corner. And, even then, there was so much to be said that neither could somehow summon up the strength to begin.

Finally, Felicia stammered out, "Three years, Luke..."

"How could you?" Felicia tried to keep it together following Lucas' confession of having inadvertently isolated Lorna from her mother and sister by forcing Lorna to keep the secret of his being alive. "How could you do that to her? To us?"

"I was selfish....

"Hey," Morgan said softly, pulling a chair up to the side of Lorna's bed and straddling it backwards, resting his chin on his wrists. "Sorry I haven't been by to see you for a couple of days. It's been....

"Whatever you're selling," Sharlene refused to open the farmhouse door all the way and let Donna in. "We don't want any."

"Please ....

"Is it true," Kirkland wanted to know. "That sometimes people in a coma can hear what's going on around them?"

"It's a theory," Jamie admitted. "A little hard to prove....

"Objection, Your Honor!" This time, Stacey didn't settle merely for rising out of her chair. Instead, she....

"Well, since you put it that way, Chief Burrell," Donna looked over her shoulder, "Jeanne, would you be so kind as to run off a copy of the Harrison election tape for — "

"We'd prefer the original, Ms. Love."

"Mr. Fowler?" She got up from the defense table and approached Kevin across the aisle. This early in the morning, they were the only ones inside the courtroom, both setting out their materials in preparation. "I'm Stacey Winthrop. Dr. Winthrop's attorney...

"C-Cass?" A part of Frankie sincerely believed that merely saying his name would somehow prompt the apparition before her to disappear in a puff of smoke.

She said it anyway.

"I told you, Donna, I'm fine. Leave me alone," Marley stubbornly shoved away her mother's ministrations, despite Donna having walked in on Marley, moist-eyed and raw-nosed, in the Bay City University Hospital Ladies' Room.

"I will not....

"Victoria..." Donna exhaled in wonder. And a great deal of fear. "How..."

"Merry Christmas, Mom!" Charlie, with a squealing Lori Ann perched on her hip, the baby dressed in a red and green plaid party dress with matching hair ribbon, greeted Frankie, still in her bathrobe and more than a little bit groggy, as she descended the stairs. "Surprise!"

Charlie stepped aside to reveal....

"Wait." Jamie thrust out his arm to stop Abel, shoving aside the marriage license he'd been holding so that it fluttered back into Morgan's hands. "Just wait one second. Before....

Sharlene said, "If I had any answers for you, Frankie, don't you think I'd have used some of that good advice on myself, by now?"

"Sometimes....

"The baby isn't yours," Morgan said. "It's mine."

Jamie raised his fist....

"You and Lorna have been married for six years..." Felicia could only repeat in numb shock as she snuck her umpteenth peak at the marriage license Morgan held in his lap, before turning back towards the road.

"Yeah....

"Too late," Charlie snapped....

"Cass?" Frankie stared at her uncharacteristically silent husband through the prison glass. "Did you hear what I said?"

"Yeah....

"Damaged?" Grant repeated with a deliberate combination of surprise and innocence for Lila's benefit. "One of the rental cars? How? Who....

"What?" Felicia gasped, eyes blinking rapidly up at Morgan. "You and Lorna? When? Where? Why didn't either of you tell me?"

"Years ago....

"I want to fight this," Alice finally said, following a pause that felt interminable to both Spencer and Kevin. "But, I do not want it to be at the expense of Jen, Steven and the rest. If my defending myself makes it more difficult for them, I won't do it."

"It's not a question of ....

"Congratulations," Grant magnanimously stretched forward his hand to shake Chase's. "I'm sure you'll do a wonderful job as our new mayor."

"Thank you," Chase ushered Grant and a jittery Sarah into his office. "I must say....

"Think this'll be like with the president in 2000?" Kirkland kept asking anyone within earshot, his eyes darting from one 60-inch flat screen television to the next, despite the fact that every local station was reporting Grant and Chase Hamilton in a dead heat.

"Still too early to tell,"....

"I never really thought about what would happen when it was all over,"....

"This is preposterous,"....

Waking up first, Sarah curled up against Steven's back, sleepily reaching her arm around, stroking his chest and moving her hand downward, only to have a suddenly alert Steven recoil from her touch and spring out of bed.

"What's the matter?"....

"So, I'll see you at the wedding, then?" Amanda flashed a brilliant smile Lila's way as they crossed in the second floor Cory hall the morning of Alice and Spencer's nuptials. "You are going with Kevin, right? Him being your man, and all?"

"Actually," Lila's smile was no less brilliant....

Among the over 150 people in attendance at Spencer and Alice's wedding, were both her siblings, Russ and Pat, assorted....

Donna's stomach lurched at the sight of Spencer, Lucas and Carl waiting for her in the shadows outside of John's house. So naturally, she did the only thing one could under the circumstances....

"Fine," Marley held out her hand, gritting her teeth and hating herself as she did so. "I'll take your money. But, only for GQ's sake."

"And Perry's," he prompted....

"Smile, Donna," Marley instructed her mother, sliding a linen napkin over her skirt and picking up a TOPS menu. "The public is watching, and we wouldn't want them to get the wrong idea now, would we?"

"Perhaps if I'd been given....

"May I presume that all went well with Kirkland earlier?" Donna asked Grant once he'd finally arrived to join her and Marley at Tops.

"Other than the fact....

"He isn't home, Jamie," Lorna indicated the rental car they'd parked down the street from the run-down Bakersfield bungalow with Frame scribbled in pencil over the mail-slot. "Let's just go back. I told you last night; this is pointless."

"He's here." Jamie pointed to the nearest window. "I saw the shades shut as soon as we started up the walk."

"Please," GQ reached out to lightly nudge the Bauers' front door open an inch further. "I just want to see Hudson, and to talk to you and Dr. Bauer. I don't blame you for anything that's happened. I know it was all Allie's doing. You're just as much... I'm not here to... Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do yet. I just want to see... my son."

Mindy hesitated. But she was no longer blocking the entrance. "Rick's at work," she said. "I — Come in. I'm sorry. I just wasn't sure how..."

"Because Gregory wasn't Hudson's real father," Allie said, and although, a second earlier it had seemed as if all the assembled mourners waiting for their cars on the sidewalk were busily engaged in their own individual conversations, as soon as the words were out of Allie's mouth, it were as if an off switch had been flipped, and she made her confession into total silence.

"You can turn around now," Lorna instructed Jamie as he stood on the balcony of their San Diego hotel suite, already wearing his own tuxedo for the evening ahead, but under strict orders not to peek until Lorna pronounced herself officially ready.

"Wow,....

"I don't mean to rush you," Donna hovered outside John's ajar bedroom door, reluctant to intrude as he sat on the bed, staring into space as though utterly lost regarding what he should be doing next. "But....

"My condolences to you, Dr. Hudson," Carl stretched forth a hand to shake John's, who took it perfunctorily, the same way he'd accepted every other generic commiseration as he sat beside Sharlene on either side of their son's casket. "I regret to say....

"Save your breath, Donna," Marley informed her mother coldly. "It doesn't matter what your arrangement might be, I know I don't want it."

"Did you or did you not....

"Are the two of you done huffing and puffing and threatening to blow my house down?"....

"Sarah?" Marley pulled into the parking lot adjacent to Bay City U's dormitories, and softly tapped the slumbering girl on the shoulder. "We're here."

"Oh, wow," Sarah laughed self-consciously, stirring from her repose in the passenger seat of Marley's car. "Sorry for....

"Why won't Allie let me help her?"....

"Come on, Amanda." Kevin held out his hand to her. "Let me take you home. There's nothing more either of us can do here tonight."

She was sitting on a metal chair in the police station's waiting area, furiously texting back and forth with....

"Let the record show,"....

"Mr. Harrison..."

Chase Hamilton did not stand up when Grant entered his office. It was an old power-play gambit Grant was familiar with. As was Grant's response ....

"What happened in there?" Amanda leapt on Kevin the moment he stepped out of the interrogation room with the kids and Hamilton. Jamie may have been less forward, but he was just as curious.

Kevin beckoned them both over into a corner....

Sarah glanced briefly from GQ as he was urging the rest of them to hightail it out of there, over to Allie, planted stubbornly on the bed, arms crossed, quietly but intractably insisting that she wasn't going to abandon Gregory, not even now, she'd given him her word — and made up her mind on the spot.

Sarah....

The Bay City Police officer on the other end of the phone was still waiting patiently for John's answer. Sharlene was still behind him, hammering on John's back with her fists now, demanding that he tell her everything.

John turned around..."

"I didn't mean to upset you with what I said," Lucas came up quietly behind Felicia, who'd been sitting for the past several hours, staring blankly out the window, not moving, not speaking.

"And I never mean to ....

The last time Gregory managed to open his eyes, he smiled when he saw that Allie was still there, as promised, lying next to him on the bed, stroking his arm so that he could feel her even while barely conscious.

He looked at her silently for a long moment, and then he told her, "Today..."

"I'll scream," Donna warned Carl as they stood outside the Hudson house, his hand clamped firmly over her wrist. "John is right inside, he'll— "

"Scream, then." Carl suggested....

Grant said, "If you don't want me running for Mayor, just say the word. As much as I've come to realize I want back in that game, as much as I'd like to leave some kind of legacy that Kirkland can be proud of, I won't sacrifice the people I love to do it. Not this time."

"Wow. I didn't realize that hope and change had....

"Lorna wants to take Lori Ann away from me?" Frankie struggled over the words as if each were a block with sharp corners that didn't quite fit the contours of her mouth.

"She has this ridiculous notion that....

"See what happens when we skip the rib joint for something more swanky," Lila lectured Grant the morning after their less than successful double-date dinner out. "You nearly drown drooling over Amanda's humping your leg — "

"I didn't...

"I'll take care of Donna," Carl swore to Felicia over the phone. And then, after a pause, almost solicitously, he asked, "What did she say to you?"

"She never....

Felicia looked at her daughter oddly. "Lori Ann already has a father. Two of them, as a matter of fact. Dean and Cass."

"One of whom hasn't seen her since....

Frankie wasn't precisely sure what she expected the 4^th of July at Bay City's maximum-security prison to be like. All she knew was she wasn't prepared for how simultaneously normal and bizarre it turned out to be.

On the one hand, there was the green lawn, the families with picnic baskets, the flags, the balloons, the music. On the other hand....

"I thought we were past all of this," Grant thundered, his outrage rising to new levels, or, at the very least, decibels.

"Past what?" Marley disappeared....

"So it really doesn't bother you?" Amanda followed Jamie around as he set up a series of folding beach chairs adjacent the Cory pool in preparation for their 4^th of July celebration.

"I married twin sisters. It would be a bit....

"We don't know anything about where Allie and Gregory might be," Sarah repeated to Jamie, though a little less emphatic now that he'd explained to her and Steven just what sort of legal and medical trouble the two might be facing.

"What about you?"....

"How long?" Charlie asked Frankie the moment her mother stepped through the front door.

Frankie hesitated, unsure....

"What are you doing here, sweetie?" Despite having come over expressly to speak with Felicia, the moment Lorna caught sight of Lori Ann sitting on the floor in the middle of ....

This time around, Lorna made sure to call and double-check for herself exactly what time Cass' allocution — and Lucas' release — were scheduled for.

She arrived a half-hour late deliberately....

"It's a committee!" Gregory exclaimed, not sure whether to be touched or horrified when Allie lead the entire group into his hospital room and calmly explained that not just Sarah and Steven, but GQ and Jen, too, would be helping....

"I am really getting sick of you people," Chase Hamilton looked over Cass' head to also address....

"No," Carl told Rachel.

"Why not?" She shot back. "You wanted revenge so badly you were willing to break your word to me. Now I'm giving you permission, I am asking you....

Cass admitted to Felicia, "I thought you'd be furious with me. Lucas is sitting in jail right now because of something I did."

"Lucas is sitting in jail because....

Felicia didn't call Cass as promised until the next morning, and, once she did, her tone was surprisingly....

"So exactly how long are you and the boys planning to be partying in Cooperstown?" Lorna perched on the lid of Jamie's suitcase as it sat atop the bed, ostensibly helping him to close it, then somehow forgetting to move from the comfortable spot between his arms....

"You said you would do anything you had to," Frankie reminded Cass, "To make sure you'd never lose me again."

"I know what I said." He snarled, "And I don't appreciate....

"You're not helping," Jamie told Lorna mock-sternly as he struggled to fit his key into the guesthouse lock.

"Really....

"The girls were on their best behavior, " Felicia reported to Frankie and Cass as soon as they arrived home. "Charlie must have watched ....

"Is it cool for you to have girls in your room," Lorna joked as Jamie unlocked the door to his balcony. "Or will you get in trouble with your Mommy?"

"I'll risk it." He pulled her inside with a quick glance down the three-story, seemingly smooth wall. "How the hell did you get up here?"

Cass sent Felicia on ahead to the church so she could help Frankie get everything ready for Lori Ann's christening, promising to catch up as soon as he crossed all the T's and dotted the I's of Lucas' paperwork.

By the time he arrived ....

"Don't. Please, Dad, don't," Lorna begged Lucas. But whether he couldn't hear her plea over the general din of the courtroom, or had simply chosen to ignore it, either way, Lucas ....

With the tornado that was Jamie's jubilant family finally gone, that left only Felicia and Lorna still holding vigil inside the police station's waiting area.

"It's been hours," Felicia lamented. "We know ....

Mike Bauer was long out the door, but Cass and Frankie's argument continued, sotto voice, so as not to wake up either Charlie or Lori Ann.

"Jamie doesn't deserve your loyalty," Cass insisted. "The first thing he did after...

"I suppose I should get used to this," Jamie sounded like he was trying to convince himself along with Alice as they sat across the table in the prison's visiting area. "Something happening...

Without a word, barely looking at each other, really, Lorna and Lucas walked out of the courthouse and into the park across the street. They both instinctively...

Felicia picked up her phone. The voice on the other end sighed and said, "I'm afraid I could really use a drink, right now."

She promised Spencer...

Cass shifted his gaze slowly from the laptop to Frankie and asked, "Are you accusing me of something, Mary Frances?"

"No," she said quickly. Too quickly....

Lucas asked Jamie, "Are you going to tell the police about my involvement with Cecile's death?"

"You said it yourself, I don't have any proof. Carl would never...

"Not now, Lorna," Carl hissed upon spying her visage over the black and white security monitor.

On any other occasion, he'd be delighted to have his former protegee drop by for a visit to Carl Hutchins' secluded home away from home. It had been much too long. He believed....

"What got Matt running out of here in such a hurry?"

Donna looked up from where she was sitting on her bed to encounter ....

"I realize this is a most inopportune time," Carl began, prompting a mirthless laugh from Rachel.

"That's one way of putting it."

"But I'm afraid it's simply essential ....

"Happy birthday, sweetheart!" Her father's voice over the phone brought Lorna up short, forcing her to face just how far she'd veered off course in the past 24 hours, from driving back to Bay City alone, to ....

Mike Bauer assessed Jamie, currently sitting across from him in a hotel-room chair, with a practiced eye. He waited for an explanation.

When none proved forthcoming, Mike decided to lead his witness a bit by prompting, "Have you suddenly realized yourself to be guilty?"

"Here," Jamie all but flung in Kevin's face the document agreeing to Kirkland's moving in with Marley in exchange for Grant dropping his custody suit. "I'd recommend ...."

Marley wondered if she were dead.

Because all the alleged symptoms were there....

Sleep when the baby sleeps.

It's what the parenting books told Frankie. It's what other moms told Frankie. It's what Cass told Frankie.

What no one told her....

"What do you think?" Grant proudly showed Kirkland around his new room, complete with loft bed, state-of-the-art home entertainment center, extreme sports silhouettes stenciled in black on the walls and a retro-style vending machine packed with enough soda and snacks to feed a small army ....

The idea of her son being thought capable of murder was so ridiculous to Rachel that she was tempted to laugh, literally laugh; that's how absurd, how preposterous it sounded to her.

But one glimpse of Jamie's face when he was brought in for his bail hearing was enough to....

"She wasn't even acting like herself," Matt told Marley as they walked through the Love house, checking whether the contractors had made it livable enough for her and ....

Grant glanced at the name that flashed through his cell phone's caller ID and blinked in surprise. "Burrell must be making good time."

He readied his eardrums for yet more threats from....

Chase Hamilton may not have actually licked his lips in anticipation at Detective Chiang's news. But that was about the only thing he didn't do, between the leaping...

"Well, good," Kevin shook hands first with Allie and Gregory, then with Rick and Mindy. "I'm very, very glad this looks...

Donna looked from Marley to Matt to the third figure hovering in the background and, summoning as much dignity as possible ....

Deciding that Amanda might feel less threatened if....

"Fanny?" Lucas took one look at Felicia's ashen face as she stumbled through the door, and broke out into a cold sweat. "Where have you been?" He looked down at her shoes. The rounded toes of Felicia's $1000 violet Gucci boots were both stained with....

"So is this how it's going to be from now on?" Jamie mused. "You're just going to glare and give me the cold shoulder every time you see me?"

Lorna studied the ceiling with such incredible concentration one would have thought the meaning of life was inscribed upon it.

"And now....

"What the hell do you want?" Matt shot at a wary Jamie from the doorway of Donna's house.

"Hello to you, too,"....

"I can't believe our luck," Grant told Spencer over breakfast at the Harbor Club. "Jamie's ex-wife getting murdered right before the judge is set to make her decision about Kirkland. If that doesn't say — "

Carl looked Rachel in the eye and, voice steely, informed her, "I did not ....

"Don't those reporters have anything better to do than to camp out in front of my house like vultures?"....

"The police are here to see you, Donna," Marley told her mother, looking as confused as Donna felt, in light of the startling request.

"Me?" Donna peered....

Marley sat rigidly on her chair in the waiting area of the Bay City Police Station, eyes nervously darting around the bullpen in anticipation of....

Grant's first instinct upon finding Cecile's strangled body....

"Here to welcome me to the neighborhood?"....

"Dude, she could have been our sister,"....

"Congratulations." Jamie looked around Alice's new office at Bay City Hospital. "I guess this means you've decided....

Something is definitely not right...

"I am so sorry, Alice." Jamie realized that a language hadn't yet been invented that would convey precisely how very sorry he was. "You are the last person I would....

"Luke," he repeated. Then admitted, "Nobody has called me Luke for a very long time."

"Jamie told me everything," Marley informed Cecile coolly. She pulled out her...."

Jamie lifted his hand to reveal a small vial. He placed it on his desk with a firm thud....

"Ready to concede?"...."

"You've been a bad boy ....

""You want me to drug Frankie?" Jamie asked ...."

Judge Ellen Landregan was starting to get a headache, not to mention some nasty eyestrain, from watching ....

"You..." Felicia looked from Cass to Frankie, overwhelmed. "You two would be willing to adopt Lori Ann..."

"That was cool," Cory told Rachel, Carl and the others as they returned home from their medically themed Thanksgiving.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it,"....

"I brought you some turkey," Lorna offered Lucas a foil container. "Want me to pop it in the microwave?"

Her father's face suggested....

Bay City Thanksgiving 1991....

Bay City Thanksgiving 2009....

"What's all this?"....

Looking back, there had been faint warning bells going off in Lorna's head as soon as Jamie lifted her up and ....

"Aren't you two cute," Cecile cooed at Frankie and Cass. "The Bonnie and Clyde of suburbia. As if either of you could so much as issue a convincing death threat, much less....

"What the hell is this?" Jamie slapped away the sheet of paper Kevin was attempting to hand him.

Kevin didn't budge....

Alice watched with mix of satisfaction and relief as Jamie finished his cup of coffee and placed it next to the empty plate on her table. It had been a bittersweet reunion....

Carl told Rachel, "I went to see Jenna's child at the hospital, earlier."

"Did you?"....

Cecile," Frankie said.

"Of course," Cass replied with a sigh. Because even though Tony the Tuna may have threatened him, Christy Carson may have poisoned him, and Rex Allingham once actually took over Cass' life for a period of months, the only person who ....

Carl took a long moment to compose himself. And then an even longer moment to accept that he was doing so.

Finally, every muscle in his body stretched to the breaking point...

Donna asked Rachel, "Are you going to let Carl come after me?"

"Carl made it very clear that he isn't .....

Rachel said, "I don't see how making Donna's life miserable will ultimately do anybody any earthly good." "It will keep me entertained,".....

Cass' body remained in the doorway to his home. His soul, however .....

The noise didn't all die down immediately. First one machine slowly ground to a halt, then another let out a regretful last wheeze. The doctor with the defibrillator shuffled back. A nurse moved aside .....

Dean may not have known the meaning of OR emergency medical terms like "vent setting pressure," "erythromycin" and "endo-tracheal," but "no heartbeat" .....

"You're Jenna's mother," Matt repeated, theoretically comprehending the meaning of every word in the sentence, yet unable to make them fit together. "I don't understand."

Dean told Jenna, "You aren't being fair."

He leaned over his wife's hospital bed and.....

Walking swiftly, so as to get as far away from Cass' house as possible and avoid the risk of being overheard, Frankie hissed into her cell-phone .....

After an hour of waiting and still getting no answer about Jenna's condition, Felicia looked ready to explode. She'd given up .....

It wasn't until after he'd caught up to them that Dean Frame even realized he'd flagged down Carl and Rachel's car.

Dean was breathing heavily ....

"Frankie?" Cass still clutched Lila's wrist. Charlie was standing just a few feet away, wiping the tears off her face with both hands. But Cass only had eyes for a single person. "Frankie?" .....

It wasn't until the next morning, when the three of them were sitting on a plane bound for Chicago, jetting off to prove Lucas' true identity, that Rachel thought to ask him....

"Lucas?" Rachel's identification turned into a question by the last syllable. 

Next to her, Carl had a different guess.  He snarled .... 

The entire time that she was bullying Steven into getting her Carl's e-mail, the entire time that she was sifting through it note by note, searching for clues to his intentions, Rachel had never stopped to consider...

"Did you get rid of them?" Matt asked Donna as soon as she returned to the bedroom after shooing Cass and Lila out the door.  

"Well .....

Kirkland had spent twenty minutes cooling his heels in Jamie's office while simultaneously stoking the fire of his righteous indignation. He'd come intending ....

"You've got a visitor," Allie followed Kirkland through the institutionally white doors of the Bay City University Computer Lab. As expected, Steven was on site....

"Kirkland...."

Prior to his return, Grant had hired a small army of private detectives to prepare dossiers on everyone he expected to deal with in Bay City. He'd also ....

Amanda hesitated for only a moment. And then she informed Mr. Kevin Fowler, Esquire, that James Frame wasn't currently available. But, she added.....

Jamie smiled. And took a broad step to the side. The better to let Donna see exactly who was heading down the dimly lit street and towards her front porch.

Bay City, Illinois, Easter 2009

The man in the doorway had been presumed dead for exactly a decade.