HANLEY HOME
SEVEN MONTHS AGO

Eric Hanley sits in the bushes outside his childhood home and presses a bowl to his lips. He flicks his lighter, igniting the pot inside the bowl and inhaling deeply. Once the light diminishes, he removes the bowl from his lips and exhales a long cloud of smoke.

He's almost done, and when he is...he'll have to face his unfortunate fate. Returning home. Even back when Eric had been kidnapped alongside his sister in London, he never wished to see his family's face again.

Not that he had much of a family to begin with. He had a father who despised him, a grandfather who despised everyone on the planet, and his mother, the only person who had ever truly cared about him...well, she was dead.

Eric had kept up with his family's life through the tabloids in London — marriages, secret siblings, and everything else that had become associated with the Hanley name for the past few years.

The only person Eric was actually looking forward to seeing was Darren Reynolds, the love of his life. Sure, things had been rocky between them in high school, before Eric was shipped off to boarding school. But he knew Darren loved him. He had to.

Eric was the first person he'd ever had sex with. Eric helped him realize that he was gay...he help him become who he is now. In a way, it was like Eric was Darren's mother. Or some other kind of parental figure. He was the only person who cared about Darren back then.

Darren's parents and that bastard uncle of his never did.

Most adults were miserable human beings.

That was Eric's experience, at least. What else would explain all of the men of Marquette Cove, hiding their sexual desires from their wives and families, giving into them behind closed doors with Eric?

There was one man in particular who helped to...deflower Eric, for lack of a better term. He was the worst of those miserable human beings, but at least he had been there for Eric in ways his own father never had.

In ways his mother had never been able to.

It is those thoughts that race through Eric's mind as he hears Dr. Victor Collins emerge from the mansion. Riley Schaefer, his father's personal attendant in a complete Benson sort of way, walks alongside him.

"Michael's starting to piss me off, is all I'm saying," Victor says. "How demanding can one man be?"

"It's a sensitive time," Riley says. "The will reading is coming up, and we can't afford any problems with Sean."

Sean? But he's dead...is there another Sean? A Sean Junior, maybe? Did that new wife of Michael's get knocked up already?

"Sean is in Paris," Victor says. "Just like Michael arranged. He's not coming back here."

"Well, just make sure of it. We didn't go through the process of faking his death to have it blow up in all of our faces."

"Agreed."

Eric grins and lights his bowl once more, inhaling more than just marijuana this time. He finds himself inhaling all sorts of possibilities that are ripe for blackmail.

And here Eric was, worried about telling the good doctor that someone paid him off to offer a cigarette to his daughter at the airport so they could kidnap her. But much like he capitalized on his own sister's kidnapping, Eric sees a way to benefit from this as well.

The good doctor doesn't need to know who took his daughter just yet.



THE PRESENT

Leslie Hanley steps away from her husband, and her other husband, not entirely sure what to feel. She feels disgust...surprise...and all sorts of other emotions she can barely contain.

"What did you just say?" Leslie says, staring at Sean as if he's just broken into her home and attempted to kill her.

"I said that I'm Elizabeth Hanley," Sean Moore says, staring at both Leslie and Michael as if they're insane. "What in the hell is wrong with you two?"

"This isn't happening," Michael Hanley says.

"Will someone explain to me what's going on?" Leslie says, turning to Michael and then to Victor, who still stands dumbfounded near the entrance to Michael's office. "Victor! Why is my husband with...why is Sean alive? And how is he alive?"

Leslie reaches out to touch Sean, tears forming in her eyes as he recoils. She rushes to the couch and sits down, burying her face in her hands. She doesn't know what's going on...she has no idea how any of this is even possible.

"Michael...this is all so..." Leslie clutches at her chest. "I can't breathe! Oh my God, I can't breathe!"

Michael hurries to his wife's side and sits down next to her, attempting to calm her down. She reacts almost as negatively as Sean reacted to her own touch.

"Michael, I'm sorry, I just..." Leslie stops herself as Sean hovers over them angrily.

"Michael, what in the hell is going on?" Sean says, grabbing at Leslie. "Why are you consoling her? What's going on...oh God..."

Sean stops when he catches a glimpse of his reflection in one the windows. His ebony skin, facial features that are distinctively masculine...all of them add up to not being who he's supposed to be — Elizabeth Hanley.

"Oh God..." Sean says once more, just as his eyes slide back in his head and he faints from a sudden rush of dizziness.



MARQUETTE COVE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

"You didn't have to go through all of this trouble," Blake Thomas says, hurrying into the hospital with Eric at his side. "I mean...we only just met."

"Hey, I had a limo waiting for me," Eric says. "And your best friend just so happens to be my brother-in-law, so it only makes sense."

"I guess you're right." Blake nods and goes toward the nurses' desk, inquiring as to where Jessica Bale's hospital room is. He's directed to a room at the far end of the hallway.

Blake and Eric walk in stride toward the hospital room, nearly colliding with Vincent Moore as he emerges from Jessica's room.

"Blake! You came," Vince says, hugging his friend. "I didn't mean to bother you with all of this, but you're the first person I thought to call."

"Vince, you're my best friend. You never need a reason to call me."

Vince's thank you is unspoken, but given everything they've been through in the past couple of months, that means a lot. They've finally gotten past their problems, those that stemmed from the unexpected kiss they shared when Blake was lying in a hospital bed not too far from Jessica's room. It's as if they've come full circle.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Vince says, finally noticing Eric with Blake.

"Eric gave me a ride here," Blake says.

"Why would Eric...never mind. I don't have time for this."

"How's Jessica?"

"She'll be fine, but...there's something I need to tell you."

"I'll say!" Blake says. "How did all of this happen? How did Jessica get shot? Don't tell me Chris went on another shooting spree."

Vince wants to laugh at Blake's joke, but the truth is all the more frightening. "It was Alec. He shot Jessica."

"On purpose?"

"It might as well have been," Vince says. "He was...I don't know, he was crazed."

"Where is he now?"

"He's at the police station. Jessica wasn't the only...she survived, thank God. But his step-mother wasn't so lucky."

"Melissa?"

"He killed her."

"Oh my God," Blake says. "He actually..."

Blake's voice trails off as it becomes clear Vince isn't paying attention to him. He follows Vince's gaze, which is focused at the entrance to the hospital, where someone else is being wheeled in. Blake can't make out who the person is, but he recognizes Leslie, Michael, and Victor as they move along with the gurney.

"What's going on?" Vince says, approaching his mother.

"Vincent!" Leslie says. "Why are you here?"

"It's Jessica, she was...oh my..." Vince comes to a dead stop when he sees the man lying on the gurney. It's his father. "...Dad?"

Blake and Eric round up behind Vince, catching view of Sean Moore lying unconscious on a hospital gurney.

Inaudibly, Eric has his own stunning realization. "...Mom?"



"So, he's back in town."

Victor raises his head to find Eric standing in his doorway. He sighs heavily, not looking forward to the conversation that's about to occur.

"You're quite the eavesdropper."

"Your pet project's back in town, which means the game changes," Eric says. "You can stop searching for the perfect woman to occupy my mother's memories."

Victor frowns. He has no idea what Eric is getting at.

"When my mom left...I always knew something was wrong. I was at home the day she left for the airport, and she didn't even remember who I was. It was like she had amnesia," Eric says. "Now I know that you wiped out her memories."

"We've already discussed —"

"I know you still have them, down in that fucking lab of yours," Eric says. "It's how you were going to give me my mother back. But that would take too much time. I want my mother back now."

"What are you saying?"

"My father wants you to get rid of his big mistake. You're going to wipe his mind clean. And you also want to know where your daughter is...so, here's the plan. You give me my mother back, and I'll disappear. She and I will disappear."

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Victor can hardly fight the unsettling feeling that's churning in his stomach.

"Yes. I want you to make Sean my mother," Eric says. "Do that, and you'll get your daughter back."



"Yes honey," Leslie says. "Your father's home."

Vince, unaware of everything that's happened to his father recently, only knows what Michael has convinced him. That his father abandoned him. That he left Marquette Cove in order to start a new life away from his children and his wife.

And to that, Vince is incredibly unwelcoming.

"That's not my father," Vince says. "He just looks him."