"You have got to be kidding me. Are you for real with this, Rick? You would really bring her back to Forrester after everything she did? You know what the press is going to do when they find out." Steffy was incredulous. It took everything she had not to strike him.

For his part, Rick stared her down and didn't flinch. "I am the CEO of this company, Steffy. You work for me. I don't have to explain myself to you."

"The hell you don't. I own 20% of Forrester Creations, Rick. So yeah, you do work for me. And I want to know why in the hell you thought it was a good idea to bring Ivy back."

"Quinn and Wyatt are... incapacitated at the moment. We needed somebody to head up the jewelry line, and Ivy already knows how to do that. It only makes good business sense. This company can't afford to spend time searching for somebody new, especially not after the damage your father and Caroline did to our reputation with the public."

"That was all RJ's doing and you know it. God, Rick, I knew you were a terrible CEO when you tried to use that nonsense to get rid of my dad, but this is diving headfirst into insanity. The woman is a terrorist!"

"She was cleared of any wrongdoing, Steffy. As far as the law and I are concerned, she's an innocent woman. And she is now the president of jewelry and accessories. If you don't like it, you more than welcome to go back to International. Or you can quit. I'm sure they would to hire you at LM."

Rick laughed and Steffy extended her palm at her side. She debated whether or not to slap Rick, but it ultimately wasn't worth it.

"The unemployment line is more appealing than working for that low rent fashion house, and if you continue down this road, then that's exactly where everyone at Forrester is going to end up. Watch yourself, Rick. You're officially on my bad side."

B&B

"I'll be honest: glowing recommendation from your old boss aside, your resume is a mess." Ivy glanced over the paperwork one final time before setting it on her new desk.

Before, when she'd been a freelance employee, Ivy didn't have an office of her own. She had to share studio space with Wyatt and his psychotic mother. So, when RJ convinced Rick to hire her, Ivy laid out her demands. One had been her own office, someplace away from everyone else, and Rick had stuck her in the basement where Thorne used to reside before he moved to International. She was actually fine with that.

Ivy very much needed her privacy. She also needed an assistant, someone who would be willing to go above and beyond for her, which was how she found herself interviewing Theresa Donovan.

"You have a criminal history, and there's something about a serial killer?" Ivy watched the young woman, someone her own age, just to see how she would react.

"I was under suspicion for a few weeks, but they eventually found out it was someone else. Still, my name was dragged through the mud for weeks and it's best to just disclose that from the beginning, I find."

"I am familiar with false charges, Ms. Donovan. But it seems like you're a dishonest, unscrupulous, conniving bitch."

"Well, fuck you, too." Theresa stood up but Ivy just watched her walk to the door.

"The job is yours."

Stopping, Theresa turned and looked at Ivy. Her right hand was on the doorknob. "What?"

"Those weren't insults, Ms. Donovan. They're the qualities I'm looking for in an assistant. You don't mind some unethical tasks here and there, do you?"

Theresa released the doorknob and walked back to her seat. "You pay me enough, and ethics won't be a problem, Miss Forrester."

"Ms. Forrester," Ivy corrected with a chuckle.

B&B

Celia Fitzgerald was nervous. It was crazy enough finding out that her late parents weren't her parents, but on top of that her biological father was richer than she imagined possible and she had brothers. Brothers!

She felt like the little orphan Annie. She wondered how Bill would feel if she called him Daddy Warbucks.

"Family dinner? This has never been a thing," one of the guys at the table complained. Celia only vaguely recognized him, but she knew RJ Logan the moment he walked in the door. It took all of her self-control to keep from fangirling. Famous people! Real life celebrities, and she was to be one of them.

"You brought an intern?" Asked a woman whom Celia was certain was Bill's wife. "Hi, sweetie. I'm Katie, Bill's wife and VP at Spencer. It's nice to meet you."

"Hi, I'm-" Celia started before Bill held up his hand to silence her. He smiled warmly and the young woman didn't even notice everyone else at the table exchange bewildered glances.

"Let me," he requested.

"Let you what, Bill? What did you do?" Katie asked her husband suspiciously.

"Nothing! It's just that, when I went to Pennsylvania, I had another reason to go besides Wyatt."

"Oh! You're my sister, then. Nice to meet you. Liam." The guy who had previously complained about having a family dinner waved at her.

"Welcome to the family or whatever. I don't know if we're related. I think so. Step cousins or whatever." RJ Logan raised his glass of soda to Celia, who blushed.

Katie sighed. "I guess that makes me the wicked stepmother. Only I'm not that evil."

Grumbling, Bill's smiled dropped. "That's one way to ruin a moment."

"Hi," Celia squeaked, her nerves frayed beyond recognition.

"Hey, Sis." Liam smiled at her sincerely. That alone did wonders to soothe her. "What's your name?"

"Celia Spencer," Bill answered for her.

"Celia Fitzgerald," she corrected. Suddenly, Bill looked annoyed with her and Celia wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

"We'll get that fixed," Bill assured everyone.

"Nothing wrong with not taking your father's name," RJ chimed in, looking right at Bill. "Some of us actively avoid it."

Grunting, Bill disagreed with his nephew. "This is a family matter. Why are you talking?"

"BILL!" Katie yelled at her husband. "This is my nephew. OUR nephew. Of course he's allowed to talk."

"I don't claim people who use the press to attack my family. He's lucky I'm letting him in my house."

RJ laughed. "Lucky? Please. The last thing I am is lucky. Eden almost killed me and you just stood there. How do you think I feel, having to see your face? I'm only here because Aunt Katie practically begged me to come, Bill."

"Then allow me to give you the ability to leave without any guilt."

"Nah, since my presence pisses you off so much, I think I'm gonna stay." RJ smiled and Celia wondered what the hell was going on with these people. "Uncle Bill."

"Don't you ever call me that."

"You two calm the hell down NOW!" Katie ordered, but they both ignored her.

Again, RJ laughed. "How do you feel about being called "Tio"? I think it fits."

Bill stood up and threw his chair against the wall. RJ threw his as well, though his didn't go very far when he threw it. It was Bill's turn to laugh.

"You wanna go? I will beat your old ass down," RJ threatened.

"Says the child who got beat up by a girl."

Then Katie stood up and slapped Bill. "That's enough. From the both of you. RJ, gather your things. I'm taking you home. And Bill? When I get back, you and I are having a talk."

"I would say this isn't normal," Liam said as he leaned in and whispered to Celia, "but it kinda is. Anyway, welcome to the family."

B&B

"You're still here? The deal was that you would be gone as soon as you got the job." RJ Logan burst into his loft and threw his coat to the floor and kicked his shoes off. "I need to buy new shit. Everything is too fucking tight. And who is this bitch?"

Theresa couldn't believe that it was her first day on the job and she was meeting fashion royalty. She did find it easy to believe that he was a cunt, however.

"I'm Theresa Donovan." She blinked as she answered.

"Why is it speaking to me, Ivy?" RJ pulled off his shirt and started to undo his pants. This was not how she thought he would act. "If you're going to bring stray dogs into my home, you had better make sure they're housebroken."

It took all of Theresa's self-control to not beat the little punk down.

"Theresa is my new assistant, RJ. You'd better be nice to her. You're gonna spend a lot of time together." Ivy nodded at her employee and stood up. "You'll be happy to know that we found a lovely retirement home for my mother and already moved her in. I'll need a few more days."

"No more days. I'm sick of the smell of Vegemite," RJ growled. "I'm already in a bad mood. You do not want to piss me off any more than I already am."

Putting a hand on RJ's back, Ivy guided her cousin to the kitchenette. "RJ, we're family."

Then she grabbed the back of RJ's neck and slammed his head into the counter. He collapsed and she delivered a painful looking series of kicks to his ribs.

From her perch, Theresa cheered. Ivy shot her a smile over her shoulder before turning her attention back to RJ.

"You forget yourself, you diminutive faggot. We are not partners. You work for me. No, I own you. If I want something done, you're gonna do it. Is that clear?"

"Y-yes." The gasping noises RJ made had Theresa smiling.

"Good boy." Ivy dealt another kick for emphasis, this time to RJ's face. And as he laying on his floor, writhing in pain and blood pouring from his nose, Ivy took back her seat next to Theresa. The woman's assistant pulled her tablet out of sleep mode.

"I've found a few condos in your price range, but there's also a mansion that just hit the market. It's costs six million, but is secluded, even by LA standards. I guess some Scientologist used to live there before he got excommunicated and stopped getting acting gigs."

B&B

Hope Logan ran around her Venice villa, throwing things into her luggage. She couldn't stay in Los Angeles, not for long, but she needed to go back. Too many things had happened for her to stay away.

RJ had nearly died and someone leaked a sex tape of his. Wyatt, her ex-husband, he and Quinn had been attacked and out in a coma: nobody seemed to know why. Ridge and Caroline were outed as racists and Maya was outed as trans.

She didn't know what she could do for any of them, but Hope needed to do something. It was time to go home.

B&B

"Hurry it up, Kevin. We need to be on our plane in an hour. We bugged Fascinella's office, so we need out of Mexico as soon as possible." Noah sat on the phone and watched as Maya nervously watched the door. They were supposed to fly to Genoa City and meet Kevin there. He was to explain everything in person, not over the phone. It was too insecure.

"Noah, you guys can't take the plane. Fascinella's people found the bug before I could get all the info. The Mexican government, lucky for you, is as unsecured as it is corrupt. They flagged your tickets. You and Maya are on a no fly list. If you're gonna get out of Mexico, you need to sneak out."

After getting Maya's attention and waving her over, Noah put the phone on speaker.

"Are you saying we need to cross the border hiding in the back of someone's truck? Kevin, we have almost no cash. I used my debit card to pay for this trip."

"You two are idiots," Kevin told them.

"Excuse you!" Maya took the phone from Noah. "We'll worry about getting out of Mexico without being caught, but what did you find, Kevin? Did you get anything at all?"

It took a few seconds for Kevin to answer her. "Yeah, I did. Just a list of patient transfers from some place in New York called Crichton-Clark. Noah, man, Courtney was on that list like you thought. She's out there somewhere."

Maya looked at Noah but said nothing. They'd agreed to not tell Kevin about their suspicions about who Eden really was.

"Do you have anything else about Courtney?" Maya asked. Noah couldn't breathe. He wanted to be proven wrong. He didn't want it to have been Courtney, the woman he was going to marry, who was responsible for almost killing RJ.

"There was another name on that list. I've never met her, but I'm pretty sure the two of you have. She transferred to Fascinella the same week as Courtney."

"Who was she, Kevin? Because Noah and I don't have that many people in common."

There was silence on the other end of the line for just enough time to make Noah want to vomit. He squatted down on the filthy floor of their motel room. He had rented a nice place in Mexico City, but Maya insisted he draw out some cash and they crash in this hovel in one of the nearby villages immediately after the visit to Fascinella. That had probably been a good idea. It was probably why they were still alive.

Noah hugged his knees and waited for Kevin's answer.

"I'm sure you've heard that Ivy Forrester is back at Forrester Creations."

Maya and Noah looked at each other. He was confused, but there was dread in her eyes.

"No, we hadn't. She's supposed to be dead, and is wanted for murder," Maya responded, her voice shaking as much as her hand. "Kevin, was Ivy the other person? This can't be a coincidence if it was her."

"All I know is that her name is on the transfer list."

After hanging up the call without saying goodbye, Maya threw the phone against the wall. "Noah, we need to leave. Now."

"Where are we going?"

She offered him a hand and pulled the man to his feet. "Anywhere but here. Fascinella is dangerous, but values discretion. I don't know if you ever actually met Ivy, but I have. Noah, the woman blew up a hotel and killed a whole lot of people, including a little girl, while trying to takeover a mob town. It was all over the newspapers."

"Why would Forrester take her back? And how is she connected to Courtney?" Noah never had met much of RJ's family on the Forrester side. Just Ridge and... and Steffy.

"First, we need to get out of here, Noah. And we can't bring our phones. GPS tracking and all that jazz. You can really learn a lot from the paranoid inmates at prison. And, once we're back in the US, we'll figure out what to do. After all, we only have two real leads."

"And what are those?" Noah looked into Maya's eyes. He so grateful she was helping him. He wouldn't have been able to even get this far by himself.

She was still holding his hand.

"Noah, when we get back to America, we can either question Ivy or we can look into this Crichton-Clark place. But, for now, we need to leave."