Cyrus Anderson sat next to his wife, Tina, in the hospital room where their daughter Kelli had been recently relocated. He took his wife's hands and knew that she was thinking the same thing he was. They were both grateful that Kelli had come out of the difficulties she was facing when she first arrived at the hospital.

"We're losing her, Dr. Anderson," Simon Holden said, attempting to stop Kelli from convulsing on her hospital bed. "I don't know what's happening!"

"Come on, Simon," Cyrus said, gazing at his daughter with a fearful look on his face. "We stopped the bleeding, there's no reason this should be happening."

Cyrus watched as Simon and two other doctors attempted to get Kelli into a stable condition.

"She's going to be fine, Tina," Cyrus reassured her.

"I pray that you're right, Cyrus," Tina said. "But this…this shouldn't have even happened. What the hell was Kelli doing in the park? During a drug deal? And why was Chris with her?"

"I don't know,' Cyrus said. "Maybe the gang members recognized Chris from when he used to hang out with them…I don't know."

Tina shook her head. "I knew I didn't like that boy. I was so afraid that Kelli would start dating him."

"He's trying to clean up his act, Tina," Cyrus reminded her. "He has."

"Obviously, he didn't do a well enough job," Tina snapped. "Look what happened to our little girl, Cyrus. This never would have happened to her if she would have stayed with Vincent."

"That boy's going down a wrong path," Cyrus said. "He shouldn't be living in that mansion with Michael Hanley and ignoring his responsibilities at home."

"Maybe something will happen between her and Blake," Tina suggested. "Preferably once we find his aunt and uncle, and he's not living under the same roof as Kelli."

Tina gripped her husband's hand tightly.

"She's going to wake up from this coma, isn't she?" Tina asked.

Cyrus sighed. "I hope so, honey. All we can do is pray."

Robert Bale hung up his cell phone as he entered the hospital waiting area where his son, Alec, was sitting with Julia Mitchell. Robert forced a smile and hurried toward his son while placing his phone into his inside jacket pocket. "Alec, how's Vince?"

"He's fine," Alec said. "He was out for a while, but now they're about ready to release him. They still need someone to release him."

"Well, Leslie is still at her rehab meeting so I couldn't reach her," Robert said. "And Akilah is in school…where you all should be. Why were you all cavorting around some abandoned church anyway, Alec?"

Alec tried coming up with a response that didn't involved a Vince doppelganger, but Julia saw that he wasn't exceptionally good at thinking on his feet. She stood and tried to get Robert's attention to spit out a satisfactory response, but she didn't need to. Someone else was ready to get Robert's attention before her.

"Robert, what's going on?"

Robert turned around to find Michael Hanley approaching him. Robert rolled his eyes and took a step forward to press a finger against Michael's chest.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Robert demanded.

"Vincent lives with me," Michael said. "I'm here to see what's happened with him."

"I can take care of it," Robert said. "I'm his legal guardian."

"Not anymore, his mother is home, remember?" Michael asked. "Gosh, Robert. You should see someone about that memory of yours while you're here."

"Go to hell, Michael," Robert said.

As Robert and Michael argued, Julia sat down next to Robert and sighed loudly.

"This should take a while," Alec said.

Julia narrowed her eyes at him. "Thanks, narrator."

"What did I do?" Alec demanded.

"Nice response to your dad," Julia said. "It's a wonder Vince didn't figure out you were seeing Jessica behind his back earlier."

Once again, Alec had no response, so he merely stood up and walked away from Julia to help himself to some coffee. Smirking, Julia leaned back in her chair and began wondering about Vince's condition again. When he was up to it, they were going to have to discuss everything that had really happened in that church.

"You know, maybe you should just do —" Robert stopped speaking when he saw Felicia sitting in a wheelchair at the other end of the hallway. "Felicia?"

"Excuse me?" Michael demanded. "That's a rather disgusting comment to make."

Robert frowned. "Huh? I don't…I don't have time for this. If you want to take Vince home, then by all means, do."

Robert brushed past Michael and started toward Felicia, wondering why she was at the hospital and why she was once again resting in a wheelchair.


BLOOD HOME

Ricard Branch stepped inside Quentin Blood's office and waited while he finished a phone call. The blinds had been drawn, as usual, which always made Ric feel uncomfortable. He felt even worse now that he had to break horrible news to Quentin about the botched drug deal he and Chris had.

Quentin finished his phone call and set the phone down.

"Hello, Ricard."

"Quentin," Ric said, his voice shaking. "I have something to —"

"Ah, yes," Quentin said. "The drug deal. How did everything go for you and Chris?"

"A little worse than expected."

"So Chris wasn't prepared to meet some of his old friends?"

Ric frowned. "In a word. They were a little less receptive of…Chris's new friend."

"What are you talking about?"

"Someone else ended up there we weren't expecting," Ric said. "Look, we didn't mean for it to happen! It just happened, and then there was a mess and all of this blood…all of this blood!"

"Ricard, maybe you'd better start at the beginning," Quentin said, glaring at him. "And I want to hear everything."


MARQUETTE COVE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

Detective Joel Kincaid sat down next to Chris Server and offered him a cup of coffee. Chris shook his head to decline the coffee, and so Joel sat it on the table in front of them. He removed a small spiral notebook from his jacket and prepared to write in it.

"Mind telling me what you and Kelli were doing in the park?" Joel asked.

"We were…taking a walk," Chris said. "We were taking a walk, that's all."

"I see…and how did this all happen?"

"Some gang members, some from my old gang the Vipers, they recognized me," Chris replied. "So they just —"

"Started shooting at you?"

"— started shooting…at me," Chris finished. "Yeah, that's pretty much it."

"Is this the first time this has happened?" Joel asked.

"Yes," Chris said.

"The first time you've run into members of this particular gang?" Joel continued.

"No."

"So this was an isolated incident? Did they have a reason to shoot?"

"I don't know," Chris said.

As Chris fumbled over his answer to Joel, failing to notice as his boyfriend, Blake Thomas, stood only a few feet away from the interrogation. He craned his neck to listen in, knowing that Chris was lying from the way he was talking.

"I'll find out what really happened," Blake muttered.

Simon Holden opened the door to Melissa Maddock's hospital room, where she was sitting up and staring out her window. He closed the door partially as he entered and walked toward her bed. Melissa turned to face Simon and forced a smile.

"Hello Simon," Melissa said.

"Melissa," Simon said. "How are you doing?"

"I'm feeling a little better," Melissa said. "But you didn't come in here to ask me that, did you?"

"No, I didn't," Simon said softly. "There's something I came to tell you."

"Something about me getting to leave here, I hope," Melissa said. "Or something about what happened to me when I blacked out…I really don't remember anything."

"That's what makes this news all the more horrible," Simon said.

"Horrible?" Melissa demanded. "What's going on, Simon? Tell me!"

Mark Zane stepped off the second floor elevator at the hospital and walked toward the receptionist's desk. He was arriving for his monthly check-up with his doctor, Simon Holden. As he approached the desk he found Tom King standing in front of the desk. To Mark's surprise, and Tom's eventual surprise, Mark actually recognized him.

"Tom King!" Mark cried.

Startled, Tom dropped the pieces of paper he was holding and turned around to find Mark standing next to him. Groaning, Tom bent over and picked up the fallen pieces. Mark tried helping him, but Tom snatched one of the pages away from him.

"Who the hell are you?" Tom demanded.

"I'm a big fan," Mark said. "I've been to all of your book readings at the library, don't you recognize me?"

Tom took a moment to register Mark's face. "Oh…the one with the questions."

"Yeah, that's me," Mark said. "Wow, imagine running into you here. What are you doing at the hospital?"

"I'm here to watch the people whose souls I've taken and placed in a fictional world by the name of St. Laurent, to make sure that they're not dying because they don't have their souls anymore and that no one suspects that I'm holding their souls prisoner in a ski resort and therefore allowing them all to exist in two places at once," Tom responded.

If Tom had really said that, Mark's reaction would have been one of shock and surprise. However, Tom didn't actually say that in response. He instead rolled his eyes and turned around to leave without saying a thing.

Mark stood next to the desk frowning, wondering why Tom was acting like such a jerk, until he found someone else to be fixated on. "Michael Hanley? What's he doing at the hospital?"

"Felicia, what's going on?" Robert demanded, approaching his wife. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, Robert," Felicia gasped, sitting up straight in her wheelchair. "How did you know I was here?"

"I didn't," Robert said. "I got a call about Vince being in the hospital…are you okay?"

Robert reached out to touch Felicia's hand, but she pulled it away from him. Felicia wiped tears away from her face as she prepared to tell Robert why she was really at the hospital.

"I'm here because of Melissa," Felicia said.

"Melissa?" Robert asked.

"We were both brought to the hospital after an altercation at her house…I don't really know what happened, I don't remember most of the night," Felicia explained.

Robert glared at Felicia. "An altercation and you don't remember, Felicia? Tell me you weren't drinking tonight."


BLOOD HOME

"This is quite the disaster you've found yourself in," Quentin snapped. "What do you think I should do about it?"

"Not cry over spilled milk?" Ric suggested.

"I don't find that funny."

"I'm sorry," Ric said. "I was —"

"Never there," Quentin said. "You were never there with Chris. He won't give you up."

"Will he go to jail?"

"Probably. But I'll deal with him once that happens," Quentin said. "I have other plans for Chris…plans that will evade you for now."

Ric opened his mouth to respond, but Quentin raised his hand to silence him. He waved Ric out of the room and picked up his phone to make another call. Sighing, Ric rose to his feet and started toward the door. As he left, he hoped that he hadn't put Chris into an even bigger mess.


MARQUETTE COVE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

"Here we go, Vincent," Michael said, helping Vince keep his balance as he left his hospital room. Vince took Michael's hand walked toward a row of chairs outside the room, where they both sat down.

"Is my mom here?" Vince asked.

"She's still at her meeting," Michael replied. "But I'm sure she'll stop by the mansion to see you later. Akilah as well, once she's out of school."

"Thank you, Michael," Vince said. "It means a lot to me that you're here now."

"Of course I am," Michael said. "You're like a son to me, Vincent."

Michael rested his hand on Vince's shoulder.

"I'm glad I have so many people who care about me this year," Vince said. "Last Christmas was…all I could think about was the things I'd lost. My mother, my father…everything."

"Don't worry, Vincent," Michael said. "You won't have to be alone for Christmas anymore. You'll always have a place in my family."

As Vince thanked Michael once more, they were interrupted as Mark approached them and crossed his arms.

"Mr. Hanley, is Vince bothering you?" Mark asked, only half-joking.

"Do I know you?" Michael demanded.

"Michael, this Mark," Vince said, rolling his eyes. "He's the editor of the school paper."

"Yes, I am," Mark said. "And someone has a Christmas article due, don't they?"

"Someone is quite aware of that," Vince insisted. "Do you want something?"

"Just checking up on my favorite writer," Mark said, through a fake laugh.

"Get lost, Mark," Vince said, rising to his feet. "I want to go check on Kelli, Michael. I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

As Tina rested her head on her husband's shoulder, she was interrupted as someone opened the door to the hospital room to get her attention. She glanced up and saw Kimberly Black, one of the nurses at the hospital, standing in the doorway. "Mrs. Anderson, you have a phone call from someone named Morris."

"Oh my God," Tina gasped, turning to Cyrus. "Morris called me back, honey."

"Well, go see what he wants," Cyrus said.

Tina stood up and followed Kimberly out of the room. When they reached Kimberly's desk and Tina picked up the phone, all she heard was a dial tone. Tina tried to see if Morris was on another line, but she had no such luck.

"Where's my son?" Tina demanded.

"I'm sorry, he must have hung up," Kimberly said.

"Did he say anything?"

"He said something about coming home for Christmas, that's about it."

"Oh, thank God," Tina said, breathing a sigh of relief. "That's great news. Thank you, Kimberly."

"Just come out and tell me, Simon," Melissa said. "I think I can take it. Just tell me what happened to me at my house? Did I black out? Were there complications with the baby?"

"That's what I'm here to talk to you about," Simon said. "I'm here to talk to you about your child."

"What's wrong?" Melissa demanded.

"Melissa…I'm afraid your child didn't make it," Simon said. "Your little boy…he died during your blackout. You had a miscarriage."

As Simon continued speaking to Melissa, Felicia and Robert were outside still talking to one another. Robert was becoming increasingly frustrated with the story Felicia was spinning for him.

"Were you drinking, Felicia?" Robert demanded. "Is that what happened? You got drunk and decided to harass my girlfriend?"

"Your girlfriend? Have you forgotten you're married to me still?"

"You're the one who wanted the divorce," Robert reminded her. "And besides, I've already done it once. Why not keep doing it with Melissa again? And again, and again?"

"You're disgusting," Felicia spat.

"Takes one to know one," Robert said, just as they heard Melissa screaming inside her hospital room. Robert quickly hurried toward the door to see what was wrong, as Felicia found her thoughts turning toward the last piece of news she had received in the hospital and how she had reacted.

"Maybe we need to speak alone," Victor said. "I have something important to tell you."

Felicia took Valerie's hand. "No…I want Valerie here. She's family…I mean, she's just like family. She's a close friend."

"Okay," Victor said reluctantly. "I'm afraid that after running some tests…I've come to a conclusion that there was damage done to your uterus during the fall. It was in part due to your previous accident, but this most recent one has done more damage."

"What are you saying, Dr. Collins?" Valerie asked.

"I'm saying that Felicia has done irreparable damage to her uterus," Victor explained. "Felicia…I'm afraid you will be unable to have children. Not just in the near future, but anytime."

"No!" Felicia cried, turning to face Valerie. She embraced her sister and began to sob as Valerie stared off into space with a stern look on her face.

Felicia sighed. "This can't be good."