Part 2

Twenty minutes later Bo was walking up to Daniel and Chloe's door when he realized it was still kind of early. They may still be sleeping. He looked at his watch and was relieved to find that it was after nine so he knocked. After a minute the door swung open and Chloe stood there.

"Bo!" Her face showed utter shock. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm looking for Carly. Is she here?" Bo tried to see past Chloe into the apartment just in case Carly was there.

"No, she isn't here." Chloe said shaking her head. Neither of them saw Daniel and Melanie coming out of the baby's room.

"Do you know where she is?"

"No I don't."

"Please tell me if you do. I have to find her."

"Why!?" came Melanie's voice as she appeared behind Chloe.

Bo didn't know what to say to Melanie. It was clear she was angry at him and he didn't know if she knew about the baby. "Melanie…" he began when she cut him off.

"No! You don't just get to come in here looking for my mom and acting like nothing has happened." Bo opened his mouth to speak, but Melanie continued as though she didn't notice. "You've been so wrapped up in Hope and her craziness that you have been totally oblivious to the fact that you have totally neglected my mom. Or do you even care that she has been feeling ignored, lonely, and taken for granted? Do you care that this little stunt you pulled with Hope has completely devastated her?"

"Of course I care. I love your mother."

"You love her so much that you didn't even bother to tell her what you were doing. No note, no phone call, no nothing. She had to hear it on the radio. She cried for hours." Bo's heart sank at that statement. "Let me ask you something Bo. With all that is going on with your nut job wife and you being so focused on her, when was the last time you told my mom that you loved her?"

Bo opened his mouth to reply then closed it again when he couldn't answer. It had been a long time since he had expressed his love for Carly. True they hadn't stopped making love all this time, but he had not told her he loved her during all of the drama.

Melanie's voice cut across his thoughts, "That's what I thought. After everything my mother went through with Lawrence, she DESERVES to be treated as the most important person in the world by the man who claims to love her. But instead you push her to the side for the woman who tried to kill you, more than once. I have stood aside and kept my mouth shut for months about the way you have been treating my mom because she loves you and I thought maybe when you guys were alone you concentrated just on her. But you didn't. She told me that even when you were alone at home all you did was talk about and worry about Hope. Hell, even when she nearly DIED and was in the hospital, you came to see her for like a minute and tried to leave to go help Hope."

"She wanted to talk about it!"

"Did it even occur to you that she offered to talk about it just so you would stay with her for more than a minute? I'm not going to stand back and let you keep on hurting her."

Just then Daniel, who had been standing to the side with Chloe watching the encounter between his daughter and Bo spoke up, "Melanie? Do you know where your mother is?"

"Yes, I know where she is." came Melanie's short reply. "But I'm not telling anyone where she is because she doesn't want to be found." Melanie looked pointedly at Bo with her last statement. "But…" Melanie trailed off.

"But what?" Daniel asked. Melanie turned to him, no longer acknowledging Bo's presence.

"I'm getting really worried about her."

"Why?" Daniel looked searchingly at his daughter.

Bo stood back, listening thinking maybe he could get a clue about where his princess was.

"That first day when mom heard the news, she was crushed. I went to the Salem Inn and when I got there she cried for hours. Then she asked if anyone else knew she was there. I told her that you guys and Justin and Adrienne knew."

Daniel interrupted, "But she isn't at the Salem Inn anymore."

"I know. When she found out that people knew where she was, she checked out and went somewhere else, and I am not telling anyone where that is. But what worries me is that after that night at the Inn and her leaving there…" She trailed off again.

"What, Melanie?"

"She's shutting down. She isn't crying anymore. But she isn't laughing or angry or anything either. She's not showing any emotion at all. And now she's barely speaking, she won't eat, and I don't think she is sleeping either. It like she's lost without him."

Bo was becoming more and more concerned as Melanie described the way Carly was acting to her father. He had to find her. He would be so lost without Carly. He had to make her understand that he loves her. Melanie turned and noticed that Bo was still there and not caring if she was rude or not, she shut the door in his face. Bo understood why Melanie was so mad at him. He was mad at himself. He walked back down and got into his car to wait. Melanie may not want to tell him where Carly was, but he would lay down odds that she wouldn't leave her mother alone on Christmas Eve. So he would wait and let Melanie show him where his princess was hiding.

A couple of hours later, Melanie finally appeared from the building. About damn time, Bo thought. He was getting impatient and more than a little antsy. With 20 years of police and private investigative work behind him, Bo had no problem following Melanie without her seeing him. He carefully kept his distance as he followed her through the streets of Salem towards the docks. He watched as she parked and made her way onto the ferry to the island that sat in the middle of the river, and he knew where she was headed.

He waited for the ferry to go and return. He boarded the ferry, keeping his head down, trying to keep people from recognizing him; thankfully there were only the few people who worked on the boat. He couldn't believe Carly would think of hiding out here. Yes the place held memories, good memories, the way her lips had felt on his and the passion they hadn't been able to contain, and bad memories; him holding her limp body in his arms. He was brought out of his thoughts when he felt the ferry land in the island.

He got off the boat and quickly turned left and made his way up the old overgrown path. When the old lighthouse came into view he slowed down so he wouldn't alert Melanie and Carly with his footsteps. He crept up to the window and looked in. He saw Carly lying on the bed with her back to the window and door. He may not be able see her face, but he knew it was her. Melanie also had her back to the window and from her gestures it looked like she was talking to Carly. But from what he could see Carly wasn't answering. In fact, Carly wasn't moving at all.

After watching for a while he could see that Melanie was giving up trying to communicate with her mother. He saw Melanie walk over to the bed and lean over and kiss her mother on the cheek. Then he ducked just as Melanie turned around and crawled just around the corner so she wouldn't see him when she left. A couple of minutes later he saw her trudging back down the path back towards the ferry as snow began to fall. He looked at his watch. One o'clock. He knew the last ferry would run from the island back to Salem at 1:30. He walked around to the only door and let himself in.

Carly didn't move at the cold blast of air that swept through the room when the door opened. Bo looked around and saw that someone, most likely Melanie, had decorated the room for Christmas. There was something of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree on the table and some garland and tinsel strung around the room. Bo slipped his shoes and jacket off at the door and quietly crossed the short distance from the door to the bed. Bo slid into the bed and gently wrapped his arms around Carly. Her body, which normally relaxed when in his embrace, tensed up and she pulled away from him and jumped out of the bed.

She spun around and he flinched at the cold fury in those emerald eyes. Carly was not prone to fits of temper so he knew that the anger he saw had built up over the last 6 days or maybe over the last few weeks. He also knew that the rage was superficial and masked the pain she was feeling. She didn't speak as he climbed out of the bed she had so recently vacated; she just stared at him with the ferocity of a caged lion. The silence between them seemed to stretch on for hours and Bo knew he would have to speak first. He reached his hand out toward her and she stepped back as though his touch would burn her.

"Carly, please talk to me. Please." He pleaded.

"Go away" she said in almost a whisper turning her back to him.