Previously:

After giving birth to their son, Martine decided to move in with Tyson to raise their child together.

Charlie repaired his fractured friendship with Sonya, and the two became more determined than ever to track down Charlie's fugitive wife, Erin, and his kidnapped daughter.

Miles confessed the truth to Kerrigan about her accident, but Kerri still wanted nothing to do with her brother.

 

The Guthrie Home

Since the day Martine left to live with Tyson, the Guthrie home had never seemed emptier. It was just Charlie, alone with his thoughts, all day, every day. He couldn't go back to work. He'd tried, but he had no focus, no passion for the job. So he spent his time at home, combing through everything he knew about Erin, every conversation he could recall from the day they met if it might help him find her.

Sometimes he woke up suffocated, a self-oppressed prisoner in his own home. When he dragged himself out of the dark, it was only to visit Sonya -- to work over ideas and run theories past each other -- but they were no closer to knowing anything about Erin. And with each day that passed, the walls seemed to be closing in, smaller and smaller...

But today was brighter than normal. Charlie sat on the couch with little Brody in his lap, feeling more invigorated than he had in weeks.

"Are you sure you don't mind watching him?" Martine asked. She was wearing a champagne-colored gown, her body back to its near-flawless shape in the months following Brody's birth. "I'm sure Josie wouldn't mind taking care of him..."

"No, it's fine. I'm happy to have the company," Charlie said, finding that being Martine's babysitter wasn't even the slightest imposition.

"Thanks," she said.

Tyson LeBrock stood at her side in a dark suit. "He shouldn't be much trouble. He only cries in the middle of the night."

It was late afternoon, and soon Martine and Tyson planned to attend an party for Wonder magazine. Erin and Elisabeth's mother, Lucy, had been editor of the magazine for ages and was the one who gave Martine her first shot at writing for the publication. But Lucy recently resigned, and tonight's celebration was to welcome the magazine's new editor.

"I wonder if Lucy will be there," Charlie said.

"Maybe. But I doubt it. Nobody's heard much from her since..." Martine cut herself short before she finished the thought.

Charlie was sure Lucy's resignation had everything to do with Erin -- and now Elisabeth, too -- skipping town. If losing her daughters hadn't been enough to drive her over the edge, the surrounding scandal was sure to have done the trick in forcing her into hiding.

"If she happens to be there tonight, I'll let you know," Martine offered.

"Yeah..." Charlie said absently, lost in thought. With Abe overseas and Elisabeth and Erin tucked away wherever the hell they'd taken off to, the Emerys had effectively erased themselves from St. Laurent. Lucy might be the only one ... if she hadn't taken off already.

The only one with any answers, Charlie thought. He couldn't let her slip away, too.

 

Beau and Kerrigan's Apartment

The decision was made, but that didn't make it any easier for Kerrigan. Until this moment, it was as if her body refused to act under her command. She'd been working all day to gather the strength, to force herself to see what she'd been too blind to see before.

Her relationship with her brother wasn't the only bond that was broken. She couldn't stay with Beau. He knew what Miles did, and he didn't tell her. He kept her in the dark, just the same as Miles had for years now. He chose to lie to her, and that betrayal was too much to take. She had to leave.

She didn't want this. She knew it was the worst possible timing for their relationship to fall apart, the worst situation imaginable for the both of them. And for months, she'd been trying. She tried to forgive him for keeping things from her. For lying to her, because he decided it was what was best for her. But for every day she faked a smile, carried on, and acted like things were fine between them, the more the resentment built up inside of her.

They could never get married while things were like this between them. She could barely even talk to him. She felt trapped by even the thought of living under the same roof as him for another night.

She threw her things into her bags. She didn't stop to think about what she was taking or what she would need once she was gone. What she really needed was some air, some space to breathe.

She'd forced her way through their meeting with Jonothan Albion at the X-Limit earlier that morning, but she'd left work immediately after. She wasn't sure if she could go back. How could she continue working there every day like nothing was wrong?

He was supposed to be working until later that evening, so when she heard the door to their apartment open, her breath caught in her chest. He was home.

"Kerri?" he asked, walking into their disaster area of a bedroom. "What is all this?"

She didn't answer him. She didn't look up.

"Are you all right?" he asked, stepping closer to rest a hand on her shoulder. It was a struggle not to pull away from his touch. "Are you feeling okay? I've been trying to call you..."

"Stop," she whispered, escaping to the other side of the room. Her voice was ragged as she tried so hard to bottle it up and to not fall apart.

"Kerri, what's wrong?" he asked, his simple concern changing into something more urgent, more fearful now. He crossed the room to follow her.

"Stay there! Just leave me alone!" she said, backing against the wall now. So much for keeping it together...

"What's happened? Please, tell me what's the matter?"

At first, she was afraid to meet his eyes. She thought it would make her want to change her mind, but it didn't. What she saw, looking at him now, only reinforced her decision. It refueled the fire inside her. "I know everything now. Miles told me everything."

 

Highwind Crossings - Miles's Apartment

Josie had never seen Miles so down in the dumps as he was this week after his fight with his sister. When she'd stop by to see him, he would be holed up in the apartment by himself, only coming out for his shifts at work. She felt like he was becoming some strange old hermit, and she wasn't going to stand for it any longer.

"Miles, get up!" She entered his apartment and walked to where he was lying on the couch, grabbing a pillow and hitting him in the face with it.

"Hey!" he cried out, annoyed. "I wish I'd never given you a key."

"I'm sick of this! Get up! I'm bored, and you're supposed to be my friend. Entertain me!"

Miles simply changed the television to a music channel. "Is this better?"

She howled in frustration and dove to tackle him, the both of them falling to the floor. "Why won't you do anything fun?" she wailed.

"I don't feel very fun lately. I don't know," he said, shielding himself from her continued abuse.

"Your sister still won't talk to you?" Josie guessed. She only knew the vaguest details of the Miles/Kerrigan situation, that he had lied to her about something, but she was sure it wasn't anything malicious on his part. Miles was too much of a nice-guy to deliberately hurt anybody. If he wasn't such a pushover, maybe he wouldn't get himself into these types of situations.

Miles shook his head. "I don't think she's going to be forgiving me anytime soon."

"Then don't wreck yourself over it. You're going to have to sit back and give her some time until she's ready to hear you out."

"And what if that never happens?"

"I'm sure she'll come around eventually, at least enough to hear your side of things. When a woman says she needs some space, the worst possible thing you can do is keep hounding her. It'll only push her further away. Trust me, it's happened with Roddy more times than I can count, but he's finally started to get it, I think."

"So, I'm supposed to do nothing?"

"Exactly! Just give her some time to cool down and stop beating yourself up over it. At least you were finally honest with her. That has to count for something, even if she didn't like hearing it."

"I guess so..." he said.

"Now will you get up and leave the house, already? This is getting really pathetic."

"Where do you want to go?" he asked. She could see a marked improvement in his mood, though he was still a bit too morose for her liking.

A brilliant idea came to mind. "I want you to call that guy we met at the club the other week, because I'm sure you haven't yet, have you?"

"I tried!" Miles said, surprising her. "I talked to him a couple days after we met, but he said he was going to be out of town for a few days."

"You did not call him! Quit lying to me!"

"I did!" he promised. "He's supposed to be back this week, I think."

"Why didn't you tell me!" she said, angry that she hadn't heard of this development the moment it occurred.

"I didn't want you to get like this!" he said, indicating her wound-up state. "I didn't want to say anything, in case nothing came of it."

She climbed her way closer to him on the sofa. "Who is this guy, anyway? And what did he say when you talked to him?"

"I don't want to get my hopes up by talking about it too much. It was nothing. There's nothing to tell. Besides, what does it matter? He must've changed his mind about me or something."

"Well, did he actually seem interested when you called, or do you think he was just making excuses? It is possible he was telling the truth, you know? You said he'd be back in town this week, right? You should try calling him again!"

"Wouldn't that seem a bit desperate?"

"No! Not if you like him. Sometimes you have to take the initiative, Miles. You're calling him, okay?"

She could see him cracking and knew she'd won him over. Maybe one good date was what he needed to pull himself from his rut.

 

The Guthrie Home

Brody LeBrock drifted to sleep the moment his parents left for their event. Before he left, Tyson had told Charlie that Brody wouldn't be any trouble to babysit, but Charlie hadn't expected it to be this easy.

It was all a bit surreal to him, holding a child in his arms again after losing Summer. He'd almost forgotten how it felt. As he remembered his all-too-brief time with his own daughter -- before Erin took her away -- he regretted that he hadn't spent every second of his time with her. If he'd have known how precious their time together was...

Charlie replaced the sleeping child in the bed of his baby carrier, then sat at the couch watching him sleep, as he took out his phone.

"Hey! What's going on?" Sonya Cortes answered after a ring or two.

"I'm babysitting," he said with a chuckle.

Her laugh resounded over the line. "And how's that working out for you? Who the hell are you babysitting for?"

"Martine's baby. It's not bad actually. He's a good kid." Charlie smiled as Brody stirred in his sleep, reaching a hand up to grab at something in his mind's eye. Whatever it was that babies dreamed of, Charlie supposed. "So, I had this theory I wanted to run by you about the investigation. Do you have a minute?"

"Of course! Shoot," Sonya said, sounding intrigued by the development. Other than her interrogation of Abe and a few talks with Jasper about the police department's continued search, there wasn't much to report on tracking Erin down.

"Well, Martine and Tyson are going to this event for Wonder magazine this evening. Erin's mom's the editor."

"Yeah, I remember..."

"But not anymore, apparently. Lucy stepped down and quit her job. The party they're going to tonight is for the magazine's new regime. I'm worried Lucy might be cutting her ties, moving away if she hasn't already."

"Do you think she could know where Erin or Elisabeth have gone? Have you talked to her since Erin left?"

"No," Charlie said, feeling a bit ashamed of himself. "I haven't been able to face her, and I'm sure she hasn't wanted to see me."

"Charlie..."

"But I want to see her now," he decided. "I've got to talk to her before she disappears like the rest of her family. They've never been all that close, but there's a chance she could know something about Erin. Maybe Elisabeth has kept in touch with her, to reassure her that everything is okay, at least."

"Maybe," Sonya concurred. "It couldn't hurt to try."

"I don't know what else we can do."

"Do you want me to come with you?" she asked.

Charlie wasn't looking forward to facing Lucy alone. A part of her must hold him responsible for Erin's breakdown, for not taking better care of her daughter or recognizing the severity of her fragile emotional state. "I think I should go alone," he said. "It might be easier to get her to open up that way."

"I hope so," Sonya said. "Just don't push her too hard. You don't want her to close you out. Keep the focus on Erin and Summer. She has to see that you only want to help them and bring them home."

Bringing his family home was exactly what Charlie was aiming for. It was what he wanted, what he needed more than anything in the world. If Lucy Emery knew anything, Charlie was going to get it out of her, one way or another.

 

Beau and Kerrigan's Apartment

"I know what happened to me. Finally, I know," Kerri watched Beau's expression shift from confusion to a grim understanding of what she was saying and what it meant. While he struggled for words, she sank back to the floor, cramming a pile of loose belongings into her suitcase.

"Don't do this," he said after recollecting himself and realizing what was she was doing. He dropped to the floor beside her. "Please. Don't let this change anything, everything you've worked so hard for in putting your life back together."

"You lied to me!" she snapped, whipping to face him. "That's changed everything! You knew how much it meant to me to know. You knew how hard I've been searching for answers."

"I never lied to you!" he said, protesting the semantics. "I only wanted you to hear it from Miles, so I gave him the chance to tell you himself. When the time was right..."

"And when was the 'right time,' Beau? How could there ever be a right time for a thing like this? Don't you see? I don't want you to make my decisions for me -- what I should or shouldn't hear -- and that's all you ever do!"

She closed her bags, tried to drag them to the door. Beau took her shoulders, turning her back to him. "I can't help wanting what's best for you. I love you, and I didn't want to see you get hurt, that's all! Can't you understand? I don't want to see you hurting like this."

"But you don't always know what's best for me. That's not for you to decide," she said, brushing away her tears, as she slipped away from him. "You've only made it that much worse for me."

She picked up her bags from the floor, searching for a quick escape.

"Wait! You can't do this, Kerri." There was a desperation in his voice now, as if he was only beginning to see what was about to happen. She was sure that, until now, he thought she'd just back down. That he'd get his way, as he always did, and she would stay. But that wasn't going to happen...

"I can't stay here."

"No..." he took her by the hand, holding her back. "No! You can't just leave! Where do you think you're going to go?"

"I don't know," she said quietly, shaking her head.

"You were just going to leave? Without telling me anything?"

"I don't know!"

"You can't leave," he repeated, crying now himself. "We're getting married ... we're having a baby together! You can't just change your mind and take that away from me!" He attempted to keep her close, pulling her to him in an awkward and crushing hug. "Just tell me what you want me to do."

"Let me go!" She broke free of him, shutting herself down emotionally before she could be affected by his sad pleas.

"You can't do this!" he said, shouting at her now. "Do you think you can do this without me? You need me!"

She ignored him and charged out the door, charged down the stairs from their apartment before he could stop her, but she could still hear him spouting off somewhere behind her. She picked up the pace and climbed into her car.

She could see him at the top of the stairs, looking down at her, daring her to do what she intended. But even after she pulled away from the building, driving off in a blur of tears, his angry words still kept her company as they rang in her ears.