Natalie's screams were the first thing Jessica noticed- before the hot slicing pain in her own stomach, before the total disorientation that came from lost time, and certainly before the fact that she was standing in front of makeshift prison and holding a bomb.

"Natalie?" Jessica asked confusedly. Everything was hazy and she didn't know why. "Natalie, what's going on?"

"Jess?" It was her sister's dubious tone of voice as much as the absurd situation she didn't remember getting herself into that made the world around her very, very clear to Jessica. Tess had taken over again.

She glanced down at her own stomach. It had been flat as a pancake when Nash had died; there had been no outward sign of the baby that was to be her only consolation. Now she looked ready to give birth. Worse, she felt ready to give birth. "Oh, God," she whispered under her breath.

Tess was many things, and none of those things were "maternal" or "responsible." Thanks to Tess, Jessica had contracted hepatitis and needed a liver transplant. There was no way Tess had carefully taken her prenatal vitamins and attended appointments with Dr. Joplin. It would be a miracle if Tess hadn't watched her pregnancy develop from the bottom of a bottle of wine.

The next contraction almost knocked Jessica off her feet. "No, baby," she whispered. "No."

"Jessica," Natalie interrupted. "You need to let us take you the hospital."

"Yeah," agreed Jessica dizzily. "I need to go to the hospital."

"Then unlock us!" demanded Jared, sharp and terse. Jessica startled at the sound of his voice. She hadn't entirely registered his presence.

"How?" Jessica asked. Natalie and Jared's answers sounded like meaningless buzzing in her ears, but Jessica managed to shove the door open before she felt herself fall to the floor in a semiconscious haze. She tried to object to Natalie's barked order that Jared should pick her up- she didn't want Jared's hands on her, even now, after what he'd done to Nash- but her voice wouldn't work.

She was only dimly aware of the trip to the hospital and being lifted to a bed where nurses hurried to hook her up to monitors as her mother, newly returned from a trip abroad, flew into the room.


Dr. Leah Joplin gritted her teeth as she reviewed her young patient's vital statistics. Starr Manning was in labor; there was no doubt about that. Starr should have delivered her baby through a scheduled c-section before things had ever gotten this far; there was no doubt about that, either. But Leah had set aside her better medical judgment out of fear and self preservation, and now Starr and the baby were going to be the worse for it.

Starr was all of sixteen years old, and on a bad day she looked about eleven. Starr herself had been born prematurely, and between that and a serious babyhood illness she had never quite grown the way her pediatricians had hoped. She wasn't unhealthy or disabled or even outside the healthy size range for girls her age. But her hips were narrow and her pre-pregnancy weight had been less than 100 pounds. The baby inside Starr, though, was determined to take after her tall father and grandparents. The little girl was going to weigh in at least eight pounds, and likely closer to nine. It would be a tight fit.

It wouldn't be at all difficult to fake the child's death.

"Is something wrong?" Starr's mother hovered attentively over her young daughter; the would-be adoptive mother, too, stood at rigid attention.

"Your psycho ex-husband is blackmailing me, that's what's wrong," Leah fantasized about saying. "He's going to ruin my son's life if I don't tell Starr her daughter is dead and hand the baby over to Todd. There's less room for something like that with a scheduled c-section so I didn't order one even though she needs it."

"Everything's just fine," Leah lied aloud. "My concern is for another patient. I don't like to divide my attention between two patients when two babies seem determined to come into the world at the same time. Of course, I'll stay with Starr and have a colleague cover Jessica if necessary."

"Jessica's in labor, too?" Starr's wan face lit with a dreamy, romantic look. "That's so nice, two cousins born on the same day." Then, just as quickly, sadness took over. "Not that they'll grow up together like that, but it's still nice."

"Of course I'll tell her everything about her birth family just as soon as she's old enough to understand," Marcie McBain rushed to soothe Starr. "Where she came from, that's never going to be a secret. I'll tell her every day how lucky she was to have you for a birth mother. How brave and generous you were, how much you changed my life by giving me this gift."

Leah stepped away, murmuring about checking on Jessica.

Really, she didn't want to hear about how much this little girl had sacrificed for nothing.


Jessica's integration after her first split into multiple personalities several years before had been gradual and difficult. It had been achieved only with the guidance of her family and her doctors. Some memories hadn't returned to her conscious mind until months or even years had passed.

Her second integration was nothing like her first.

With each push, a memory slammed, fully-formed, into her consciousness.

Tess- Jessica- had sabotaged Natalie's car and hadn't lifted a finger to stop Viki from getting in instead.

Tess- Jessica- had tried to poison Natalie and Jared.

Tess- Jessica- had hired a contractor to build a secret room and imprisoned first Natalie and then Jared.

Tess- Jessica- had blackmailed Tina into keeping her secret by threatening her cousin Sarah.

Tess- Jessica- had blackmailed Todd into keeping her secret because she knew Todd's own secret. Hidden upstairs in Todd's new house was…

"Oh, God, Marty!" Jessica screamed as she gave a final push.

The baby slid into the world. "It's a girl," Dr. Joplin announced. "Another beautiful girl for you, Jessica."

"She's not crying," Jessica said anxiously. "Why isn't she crying?"

"She's breathing and she has a pulse," one of the assistants called out. "Some babies don't cry."

"Straight to the NICU, anyway," Dr. Joplin ordered. "Everything that can be done will be done."

Jessica sank back against her pillow. Her worst fears had come true. Her mental weakness had killed her own baby. "Why wasn't she crying?" she asked the universe. Her own breath was shallow and swift.

"You heard the doctor. Babies don't always cry right away," Viki soothed. "Making yourself sick will do nothing to help her, especially if she's back here in five minutes ready to be fed."

Jessica nodded and tried desperately to control her own thoughts.

"You called out Marty's name," Viki said kindly. "I know you miss her. Were you thinking of calling the baby Margaret?"

Jessica groaned as humiliation reasserted itself. "No. No, I- Tess- I- I locked Natalie in a room in the basement for months."

"That was Tess. That was not you," said Viki hastily. "Of course you will have to have treatment to reintegrate properly-"

"That's not what I mean! Uncle Todd knew. Uncle Todd knew all about it. It wasn't just Tina- I heard you yelling at Tina. But Todd kept quiet because Tess was blackmailing him."

Viki looked skyward. "Do I even want to know?"

"Marty's alive, Mom. Todd is keeping her prisoner in that house he bought when Blair threw him out. Except she doesn't know that he's keeping her prisoner, because she has amnesia and she thinks she's in love with him. He's going to rape her all over again if he hasn't already. Mom, we have to get her out of there!"


Everything that could go wrong with Starr's delivery did. When Starr, sobbing and exhausted, finally delivered the little girl, there had been a prolonged period of oxygen deprivation that frightened Leah beyond words.

For the second time that day, she and her team rushed from the room with a baby girl who didn't cry.

The doctors in the NICU were miracle workers. By the time Leah arrived with Baby Manning, Baby Brennan was wriggling and crying just as a newborn should.

Baby Manning never cried.

Todd Manning would get one part of his wish; Starr would be told that her daughter was dead. Unfortunately for Todd, it would be the truth.

Out of the corner of her tear-filled eyes- there was nothing on this earth worse than a stillborn baby, and the experience never got easier- Leah saw a tall, lanky man dressed in standard green scrubs enter the room. A chill ran down her spine. She knew that he was no doctor.

"Where's my granddaughter?" Todd demanded. "That her?" He pointed at Jessica Brennan's daughter. "Looks like a Lord. I can see Viki in her."

"No." Leah's gaze drifted uncomfortably to the fair-haired little girl who had never opened her eyes. Todd followed her glance.

"You better not be saying that kid is mine. I came here to tell you that I changed my mind. I came here to tell you to let Starr have her kid. But if Starr doesn't get her kid, I promise you that that druggie son of yours-"

Leah had no choice. Schuyler was teaching high school biology and doing better than he'd done in a long time. Leah could not trade his life for anything in the world; he was her only child and she loved him to distraction. Besides, she rationalized meanly, Jessica Brennan hadn't even bothered with most of her prenatal appointments. Who was to say whether she would take proper care of an infant? Starr, though… Starr had done everything right, and Marcie McBain was ready to be a mother.

"Starr's daughter is fine," Leah said smoothly. It was what should have been. "I'll bring her in to meet her mother if that's what you want."

"It's what I want," ordered Todd.


Jessica's father had taken her mother's place at her bedside while Viki made appropriate calls regarding her black sheep rapist of a brother.

"The police are on their way over there by now," Clint promised. "Try not to worry too much about Natalie. Focus on your new baby."

"I've thought of her name," Jessica told him shyly. It had come to her with no explanation. "Chloe."

Clint smiled his approval. "Chloe Brennan. It passes the Supreme Court test. You know, when you name a baby you have to imagine her as a Supreme Court justice."

"Bree and Chloe Brennan," Jessica tried. She would never see Nash again, but at least she had his little girls.


Viki was just returning to Jessica's room when a familiar figure stood in her way. "Hey, Sis," said Todd. "You and me, becoming grandparents on the same day. How about that?"

Viki slapped him.

Then she called hospital security and told them that this man was wanted by the Llanview Police Department.

She had excused Todd's behavior more times than she could count. But what he had done this time- to Marty, to Natalie, to Jessica- was beyond forgiveness.


Over and over, Starr looked toward the door.

"I'm sure they'll be back with the baby soon," Blair told her. "You were so sick when you were born that it seemed like forever, but you came back to me."

"That's not what I was thinking of," Starr admitted. She sighed heavily. "I know you aren't going to like this, but I called Dad and told him I was in labor."

"You did what?"

"I know," said Starr. "I just wanted to hear his voice. I thought he'd come down. I'm surprised he hasn't."

"So am I," said Blair. "Maybe I'd better go look around and see if he's out there."

When Blair opened the door, it was to Dr. Leah Joplin, carrying a tiny, perfect baby.

Thirty seconds later, her ex-husband was led past the door in handcuffs.

To be continued.

Note: This is a fic that I've had an idea for since forever. Still, I'm not sure that I want to write it… not only is OLTL apparently dead again, but even if it has another Lazarus moment, almost all of the characters featured here will be long gone. We'll see.