The door opened slowly and the metallic clanking sound grew as a maid pushed her service cart through the door with her.

"Oh!" she exclaimed with surprise. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know anyone was still in here. There wasn't a sign on the door..."

Frank waved a hand at her. "Forget about it," he said. "I didn't check in until nearly 5 this morning. I was so tired that I forgot to hang the 'Do Not Disturb' out, I guess."

She began to back out toward the door. "I'll come back later," she said.

Frank nodded. "That would be good. Give me 15 minutes to shower and change and I'll be out of your hair." He waited for her to shut and lock the door, then got out of bed and headed into the shower. Standing under the hot water, he mulled over the events of yesterday. He felt his cheeks grow warm as he realized how he'd reacted last night at the hospital. Had he really put handcuffs on Nancy? And walked out on his brother, who was obviously in some pain yet? Yes, he had. That was so unlike him. He ran a hand down his face. It had to be the combination of stress, exhaustion, and the sheer shock of seeing Nancy standing there at the airport that had caused it. Normally, he reacted to things with such a clear mind.

He turned off the water and grabbed a towel. Drying off quickly, he changed clothes, gathered his things, and checked out. Sitting in Nancy's car in the parking lot, he turned, reached into the backseat, and brought both the coloring book and Barbie doll into the front with him. Casually flipping through the pages, he marveled at the bright colors his child had used. Reds, yellows, pinks, and purples were prevalent. Very few marks went beyond the lines. 'Are four year olds normally this good at coloring?' he thought. 'Or is mine better than most?' He flipped through once more, then turned his attention to the doll.

"So you belong to my little girl?" he asked the doll. "Tell me, Barbie, what is she like? Is she smart? Pretty? Does she take after me or her mother?" Barbie smiled her pink plastic smile at him as if in answer.

His thoughts weren't quite as jumbled as they had been the night before, but he still felt quite unnerved. So many new phrases were beginning to run through his mind. Words like "my and mine were now being connected to words such as child, daughter, and little girl." The whole thought that somewhere out there was a small being that he was responsible for was nearly incomprehensible.

Then there was her mother. What was he supposed to do about her? Frank supposed that at some point he would have to sit down and talk with her, to see if he could find out why she left like she did. He just wasn't sure how to go about starting that particular conversation.

He started the ignition to his car. Well, there was one person he could talk to. Joe. Joe was pretty well trapped, lying there in that hospital, and he could ask him all the questions he wanted. And Joe would answer, because after holding out on Frank all week, Joe was probably feeling pretty guilty by now. And maybe he would even manage to apologize to Joe for walking out on him last night.

Frank ran his fingers nervously through his hair as he paused outside room 202 of Mercy General Hospital. Upon his arrival fifteen minutes ago, the nurse at the ICU desk informed him that Joe had been transferred to a semi private room as soon as the morning rounds had been finished. Despite the fact that Joe had been coherent the night before, Frank still felt a lot better now, knowing he had been moved into a regular room. It meant that the injuries really weren't as bad as Nancy had thought yesterday.

He stepped slowly in the room. Joe was sitting up, propped against a pillow, watching TV. "Hey," Frank said. He looked around the room, taking in the ivory wallpaper, dark blue curtains, and matching arm chairs situated one near each of the two beds. "Nice room," he commented.

Joe turned toward him.

"Oh, hey yourself," he said. He reached out for the remote and turned off the TV. "It'll do," he said. "I'd prefer a suite at a nice hotel though." Joe grinned at Frank. "After last night, I was halfway afraid you wouldn't return. I'm glad you're back though. You can help me out. I'm planning on springing myself from here. As soon as that doctor makes his rounds this afternoon, I'm history."

Frank winced at Joe's choice of words. "Sounds like you almost were history," he said, pulling a chair close to Joe's bed and sitting down in it. He stared thoughtfully at Joe for a moment. "Sorry about running off like that. I guess my mind went on overload. Way too much information and one too many surprises in a twenty-four hour period makes for a very cranky big brother." He offered Joe a weak smile.

Joe shrugged. "No, I should have told you what was going on from the beginning. Or at least, given you some warning. I was just afraid that if I did, you'd drop everything to come out here and it might scare her off. I didn't want to take the chance she'd run."

Frank nodded. "And I probably would have done just that."

"Listen, Frank, about Nancy. I think you should know..." Frank held up his hand and cut Joe off.

"Joe, I'm sorry. Right now I don't think I can handle thinking about her. If you don't mind, I'd like to concentrate on what happened to you. I'll deal with Nancy later when I've had a little more time to let my emotions wind down. Okay?"

"Fair enough," Joe responded.

"Okay," Frank said. He rifled in his pocket, pulling out a small notepad and a pen. Let's start with your accident. You told me a little about it last night. Do you think it had anything to do with my case?"

"Our case," Joe corrected. "Nancy and I have been working on this for over a week. Maybe that's not as long as you've been on it, but it's enough to make it our case."

"Ok," Frank amended. "Our case." He waited expectantly for Joe's answer.

"Maybe. It seems like a pretty big coincidence that I get ran off the road the day after Nancy intercepts a threatening phone call at my apartment." Joe's brow furrowed in anger as he thought back to the threat made toward Laurie. "Even though the threat wasn't exactly aimed at me."

"The caller threatened her?"

"No," Joe said. "Actually, the caller threatened that something would happen to Laurie if we didn't back off. That's why I took her to Bess. I wanted her somewhere safe." He watched intently as Frank jotted something down on the notepad.

"Tell me about the phone call," Frank said. As Joe related the events leading up to, surrounding, and after the mysterious call Nancy had taken, Frank took detailed notes. He questioned Joe carefully on every aspect of the case, starting with Nancy's research through their trip to the cemetary, finally winding up with Joe's visit with Clarissa Carter.

"I had the feeling that Clarissa was afraid to speak to me," Joe was saying. "But at the same time, it was like this really big secret that she had to get off her chest. I think she felt relieved by the time she finished talking. But I don't think we'd ever get her to tell her story a second time. Or even admit that she'd ever told it to me to begin with."

"Start at the beginning, and tell me exactly what was said," Frank instructed. Joe marveled at how easily Frank had went from being unsure and uncomfortable over the current situation to being Mr. In Control by slipping so quickly into the impersonal role of interrogator.

"I met her at the local McDonald's. She wanted to be somewhere where there was a lot of people, so I thought that would help her feel safe. She was waiting for me. Said she'd been there for an hour, trying to work her nerve up to talk to me about the baby. Her story is similiar to Jennifer Price's. When she was 16, she got pregnant. The boy she'd been with denied any part in creating the baby; her family was understandably upset; and her some of her so-called friends had turned on her. So Clarissa decided to take off. She thought she could find somewhere better to have her baby, somewhere that she didn't feel like a cast-off." Joe looked at Frank. "Those are her words, not mine."

He continued. "She found that life as a runaway was extremely hard, and after a couple of weeks on the streets, she ended up in a shelter on the outskirts of Los Angeles. It was there that she met Allen, a counselor that volunteered a few hours a week. She said he was quite charming; someone you could easily talk to. At the time she'd been toying with the idea of aborting the baby. Allen talked her into having it. He found her a place to stay with another girl who'd been through the same thing, and when the time came, even went through delivery with her. When the hospital released them, he took her back to the shelter. She said he kept the baby and left her with $2,000 - to get back on her feet with. He also left her with instructions to report the baby missing."

"Did he give her a reason for doing that? She could have legally given the baby up for adoption."

"He told her that the baby's father could show up later, and cause all kinds of trouble for the adoptive parents. Even if he didn't claim responsiblity now, he might later if he changed his mind. And with current DNA testing, he could prove that the baby belonged to him. By doing it "under the table" as he called it, the boy who fathered the baby could never find it. Then he gave her the money and she never saw either Allen or her baby boy again."

"So basically, he bought her baby," Frank said.

"Yeah," Joe replied. "Basically. That thought didn't occur to her until later. She was afraid to tell anyone what had really happened. Instead, she went back to her family, and tried to get back into her life again. She's currently enrolled in community college now, married, and has a new baby on the way. Hence the not planning to ever talk about this again. She's afraid that if this ever got out, she could go to jail for accepting the money. And that her husband would leave her and take their child with him."

"Did she give a description of Allen?" Frank wanted to know.

"Yes. He's tall, slim, has short red hair, green eyes, and was in his late twenties or early thirties. She wasn't sure on the age."

"That fits," Frank murmured.

"How?" Joe asked.

"The Allen Thompson that I met in New York fits that description. I placed him in his late thirties, but I could've been a little off on that."

"Or Clarissa could have been off," Joe pointed out. "After all, she was only 16 at the time. And a couple of years have passed since then."

Frank nodded. Lost in thought, he unconsciuosly tapped his pencil on his notepad.

"Care to share?" Joe asked.

"Hmmm?"

"You're lost in thought. Care to share with me?"

"I was just thinking that I'm going to have to work with Nancy on this, aren't I? You said that the other girl, Darla, claimed that Jennifer had met with someone at Find the Children. And Clarissa said that Allen was volunteering to be a counselor for runaways. I'm betting this Allen came from Find the Children, either as a worker or a volunteer. And Nancy's our best bet of finding out exactly who Allen is." Frank sighed. "Can my life get any more complicated?"

"It won't be so bad. You used to love working with, remember?"

"Remember? How could I forget. That's the problem, Joe. Every time I look at her, I'm going to drown in memories. And I haven't even begun to deal with what she's done. I'm not sure I know how to."

Joe grimaced from pain as he leaned forward and took Frank's hand. "I'll help. That's what brothers are for."

"What did I do to deserve you? You're still willing to help me even though last night I was about ready to kill you for keeping her a secret from me."

Joe leaned back into the pillows. "What can I say? I'm a really cool guy!"

Frank laughed at Joe. "I don't understand why she did it, Joe? It couldn't have been the pregnancy, could it? Girls get pregnant all the time nowadays. It's not a good thing, but it happens. And she had me. I wouldn't have walked out on her like so many guys do. I already wanted to marry her. If only she'd said something to me." He met Joe's eyes. "I don't understand why she told you, but not me?"

Joe averted his eyes to the window. "About that..." he began.

"Yeah?" Frank replied.

"She and I had a long discussion about that exact topic last week."

"And?"

Joe closed his eyes. There was a moment of silence before he reopened his eyes and met Frank's gaze. "Sit back, Frank. I've got quite a story to share with you and you may not like all of it. It's probably not my place to share the entire thing with you, but I'm going to do it anyway."

"Ok," Frank said.

"And one more thing." Joe paused. "I want you to remember that all the secrets I've kept; I've done so because I thought I was doing what was best for first you, then for both you and Nancy."