"Um, Jennifer," Daniel said. "This isn't really a good time. Parker's getting what sleep he can before they start with a new round of checking his vitals, and I really need to do the same."

"I know there's never going to be a good time while Parker's sick," Jennifer said. "I wouldn't bother you unless I didn't have a choice."

"And you don't have a choice now because…"

"Things with JJ have gone from bad to worse. Please, Daniel, I know how stressed out you are, but I'm begging you...please just give me five minutes."

"All right." Daniel glanced at Elizabeth Harper as Jennifer entered the room. "Jennifer, this is Elizabeth Harper, the pediatric counselor on Parker's case. I was, uh, just finishing a consultation with her when you stopped by."

Elizabeth got up, saying, "We're done, actually." She left the room, closing the door behind her.

"I'm really sorry to have interrupted," Jennifer said. "Daniel, the last thing I want to do is add to your stress level, believe me. It's just - "

"How about you tell me what's going on with JJ?"

"Right. Um, I guess since you've been here with Parker, you didn't hear about what happened to Paige." Daniel shook his head. Jennifer sighed. "Daniel, Paige disappeared. Eve Donovan got a text, and the cops think she's been kidnapped."

Daniel sank back down into his seat. "Who would want to hurt Paige? They don't… do they suspect Dimera influence behind this?"

"Not as far as I know. Actually, Hope was at my house questioning JJ earlier tonight."

"Oh my God." Daniel rubbed the bridge of his nose. "The cops don't think JJ's involved in her disappearance, do they? And you, you have to know he wouldn't do something like that."

"No, no… it was a formality. They had to talk to anyone who was close to her, that's all. But he didn't take it well, Daniel, not at all." Jen's eyes widened. "He left, and I don't know where he went or what he's doing. I was hoping he'd just gone to see you."

Daniel shook his head. "Sorry." Jen bit her lip and he added, "I really am. Jennifer, it's not that I… that I don't care. You know I'd do anything for JJ, and Paige, she's like a daughter to me. But this on top of Parker's illness… it's a lot to process and I am just too beat to do it tonight."

Jen reddened. "I'm sorry. This whole thing was selfish of me right now. I didn't even ask you how Parker is."

"No, no. There's some crazy criminal running around and JJ's on the streets somewhere. I understand the fear, maybe more than I ever did before." He glanced at Parker. "Parker, he's exactly the same as he was. But that's gonna change soon, I'm sure. We've got a new specialist coming to take a look at him tomorrow."

"I'm sure the specialist will have good news for you," Jennifer said. "They have to. Look how sweet that little boy is."

"I hope so," Daniel said, slowly. "I...I just want this nightmare to end, Jennifer, just as I'm sure you want yours to."

Jennifer sighed. "I'll leave you alone now, Daniel. You've done more for JJ already than I could ever ask, and I'm grateful. I guess that has to be enough."

"Give me five minutes," Daniel said, his eyes starting to close. "I'll… I'll call JJ and see if he'll talk to me."

Jen kissed the top of his head before leaving the room.

Marissa's eyes widened as Hope continued searching the room. Her fingers throbbed from holding the knife so tightly as she slowly extended her arm and put the blade against her wrist. She wondered, idly, what it would be like to just cut her wrist and end everything that way. A voice in her head said that if she did, Jeff would win, but another voice said it didn't matter. Jeff had ruined her life anyway. There were no feelings either way; she was too exhausted for all that.

Marissa watched as her hand moved across her wrist. She was holding the knife hard enough to make a line across her skin but not hard enough to draw blood. Before she could try again, she felt a hand on her wrist.

"It's time to give me the knife, sweetheart," Hope said softly. "And then you can come out of that corner so we can talk."

Marissa hesitated. She meant to fight back, but somehow she ended up watching her fingers open so that the knife fell out of her hand. Nothing felt real to her as Hope took the knife and gave it to someone to bag, put her hand on her shoulder and led Marissa out of the corner. Marissa stared at the floor, her ears buzzing, as Hope gently told her she was going to have to cuff her for her own protection and then did it. She shook her head but didn't speak when Hope asked her if she had anything else dangerous on her. Then Hope took her over to Jeff's couch and asked the other detectives to give her a minute.

"I don't have anything to say." Marissa refused to look at Hope and her voice was flat.

"That's fine. Then you can listen while I do some talking." Hope leaned forward. "You were lucky tonight, Marissa."

"Lucky?" Marissa laughed bitterly. "I get to go to jail and the guy who attacked me gets to decide whether to press charges. That's not luck. It's stupidity."

"I know you must have been beside yourself with pain and fear when you heard about what happened to Paige Larson," Hope went on as if Marissa hadn't said anything. "But sweetheart, this wasn't the way to handle it. Breaking into Jeff Adkin's apartment so that you can hurt yourself here doesn't accomplish anything."

"That wasn't exactly the plan."

"So what was the plan then?"

"Does it matter? It ends up the same, with me in jail and you thinking I'm stupid."

"Wrong on both counts." Hope's voice was very soft. "You're not going to jail, Marissa. I'm taking you in as a danger to yourself; you're going to the hospital."

Marissa looked up at her. "If you think doing me a favor will get me into your good graces - "

"I don't. I know you don't believe it, but I actually care about you. You were about to slit your wrist, Marissa. Even if the law didn't tell me I have to take that seriously, I'd still do something about it."

Marissa shrugged.

"You know who else cares about you?" Hope went on. "JJ Deveraux. He asked me earlier to check up on you, and it looks like we got to you just in time."

Marissa's eyes widened, but all she said was, "Can you just take me wherever you have to take me?" She didn't want to get JJ in trouble even though it sounded like he'd sent the cops here on purpose to get her. The thought hurt so much that she couldn't breathe and had to cough. JJ wouldn't have done that, would he? Even though he loved Paige, not her, he was her friend-wasn't he?

"Hopefully Dr. Evans will let us know she's at the hospital soon. In the meantime, while we're waiting to hear from her, is there anything you want to tell me about what happened tonight?"

You're not my mother, Marissa thought, but aloud she said, "I just wanted to find out where he took her. I thought, it's too late for me, you know, but maybe if I can help Paige it'll make up for what he did to me." She blinked hard. "Only when I came in here something came over me, okay, and the next thing I knew I'd slashed his bed all to pieces. Lucky for him he wasn't here, cause I have no idea what I'd have done to him, and I doubt I'd be sorry afterwards, either."

To Marissa's surprise, Hope simply nodded and said, "I understand."

Rafe came back into the room. "Marlena's on her way. She'll be at University Hospital in 10 minutes."

Hope helped Marissa get up. "Hey," Rafe said softly, "maybe this'll turn out to be a good thing for everybody. Marissa'll start gettin' the help she needs and in the meantime, Hope… I think your girl might have given us the perfect excuse for bringing Jeff Adkins into the station tonight. All we gotta do now is come ask him to ID some suspects and odds are he's in."

Hope gave Rafe a watery smile. "Thanks," she said, her voice flat. "In the meantime, see if Roman'll authorize some uniforms to look over this place as long as we're all in here." She squeezed Marissa's shoulder, but Marissa didn't look up from the ground as Hope led her away.

Horowitz's eyes widened. "What...what makes you think I have access to those photos?"

Nicole gave her an exasperated look. "It's a little late for the 'I know nothing' game. If anyone has those photos, it's you-and if not, you know how to get them."

"Maybe." Horowitz's voice was suddenly hard. "Mind telling me what you need them for?"

"I'm not going to put them on the air. Not unless you want me to." Nicole sipped her water. "You and I have a common acquaintance: JJ Deveraux. To you, he's a smart-mouthed kid who you wish could be given a thousand lashes for standing up to you, or at least locked up for years to come. To me, he's an intern who happens to go to school with almost everyone involved in this disaster."

Horowitz reddened. "Hey, I was trying to keep that kid out of trouble, even though he was pretty determined to get himself in it."

"Yeah, well so am I. Between you and me, you're not the only one who thinks your fellow cops could be doing a better job. So before my intern gets himself a get-into-jail forever card, let's give him something better to do than get underfoot. If you give me the photos, I can put him to work seeing if he recognizes anything." Horowitz frowned and Nicole said, "We're not going to steal your investigation from you. I don't make promises to cops, but this time I'll make an exception. Anything we find out about where Paige Larson is goes straight to Rafe Hernandez, he sends you to be a hero, and we all win."

Horowitz's eyes narrowed. "You're sure you can trust this kid? He seemed like a big bundle of impulsive behavior to me."

"I can handle him. Come on, Linda, you don't have a lot of time to waste, and last I heard you don't think the case is going anywhere. We can help you, and quite frankly, we're better off working together." Nicole leaned forward. "I told you. My intern isn't the type to give up easily, and he's going to throw himself right into the middle of the investigation. Chances are he'll find Paige...but do you really want a 19-year-old kid going after this guy his way? You said you wanted to keep him out of trouble. Here's your chance."

Horowitz thought for a second. "All right," she said. "But this never came from me, understand?"

"Like I said at the beginning, you can trust me to keep your identity hidden."

Horowitz picked up her phone. "This link's only good for the next 24 hours, and you'll have to put in a password to access it." She showed Nicole something on her phone. "Think you can remember that? I don't want it floating around."

Nicole glanced at it and nodded.

"Got it boss," Rafe said. He was on the phone with Roman while a couple of uniforms were searching Jeff's apartment. "I know we don't have a warrant, but don't you think the girl's breaking in here gave us cause to search? Okay, look, how about we leave what we find right here, use it in interrogation, then come back later with a warrant to collect it? Yeah, I'll tell them."

"Detective Hernandez," one of the uniforms called.

Rafe came over to the computer. The uniform gestured towards the screen. Rafe glanced at it. It was a full page article about how Eve Donovan had won a huge lawsuit against Jennifer Deveraux; there was a big picture of Eve with her arm around Paige juxtaposed with a photo of Jennifer with JJ and Abigail. "He was reading up on the victim. Good. Photograph this screen and see if you can find anything else."

"Already ahead of you." The uniform pressed a couple of buttons on the keyboard to switch the screen. Rafe's eyes widened. "Story ideas," he read aloud. "1. Change some grades and expose the scandal of football players getting away with bad grades. 2. Call the cops on one of those stupid keggers then cover the story." He sighed. "He obviously was trying to get Nicole's attention with manufactured stories, but he was smart enough not to write down anything about what he actually did."

"Or he erased it. We need to get a tech in here to check out previous versions of this file."

"Can't. Not yet anyway." Rafe sighed. "But you can go ahead and screenshot this too. As far as I'm concerned, this was in plain sight when we got here."

JJ hit his phone against his palm, checking it for messages. Nothing. Not Marissa, and not Nicole, either.

He sat down at the computer again, trying to think. What he had texted to Nicole earlier was starting to sink in. "Paige's the bait," he said slowly. "It's me he wants to get to." That gave him the beginnings of an idea; he stared into space as he thought about it.

JJ stood in front of Jeff, glaring at him. Jeff laughed, nervously. "What do you think you're playing at, coming here, Deveraux?" he growled. " You'd better hope for Paige's sake you didn't bring any cops with you."

"No cops, man. I swear." JJ moved towards Jeff, but Jeff pulled out his knife. "Relax, dude," JJ said. "As much as I want to beat the crap out of you right now, that's not what I came here for. See, you won. You wanted to get to me through Paige and you did it." He raised his hands slowly into the air. "I give up, dude. You can have me." Behind him, Paige whimpered. JJ's eyes got hard and he said, "All you gotta do is let Paige go."

JJ's phone rang, interrupting his train of thought. He grabbed it without looking at it. "Marissa? Where are you?"

"Whoa, take a breath, JJ." Daniel's voice sounded tired. "It's me, Daniel."

"Oh my God." JJ didn't know how much more he could take. "Daniel...what happened with Parker?"

"Nothing yet. I got a new doctor coming to look at him in the morning. But I don't want to talk about Parker. JJ, I called to talk about you."

"About me?" JJ squeezed the phone. "I'm fine, man, honestly."

l"Are you?" Daniel sighed. "Come on, man. I know about Paige, and that the cops were hassling you. I know I'm spread thin with Parker's illness, but I am still here for you. So don't, JJ, don't put up a heroic front. Your mom said you ran off all upset-where are you?"

"I'm safe, for now." JJ's eyes narrowed. "But when I find out where Jeff took Paige - "

"Wait, Jeff? JJ, what's going on?"

JJ was quiet for a second. " I… I don't know where to begin but I don't have much time…" He took a deep breath. "Paige's in trouble and it's cause of me."

"What do you mean, JJ?" Daniel's voice was soft. "What happened to her, it has zero to do with you. You know that, right?"

"That's not exactly true. I mean, I didn't take her… but Daniel, the guy who did… he hates my guts. It's a long story, but basically he went nuts cause Nicole chose me over him for her internship. He… he's been robbing people, man, and now he grabbed Paige, and I can't… I can't let him do that, Daniel."

"And you told all this to Hope?"

"She wouldn't listen, man. She says they have to do things a certain way, and the clock's ticking for Paige…" JJ blinked back tears. "I can't just sit here and wait for them to get around to saving Paige. I gotta do it myself."

"I know the feeling," Daniel mumbled.

"Yeah. Well, the thing is, man… I don't know exactly how to pull this off. As long as you're on the phone, could you do me a favor and help me come up with a plan?"

Daniel rubbed the top of his nose. I don't have the energy I need for this, he thought. "First things first," he said aloud. "You someplace safe for now?"

"I… uhm, I'm at your apartment. Nicole said to stay here while she did something real quick. Is that okay? Cause I can get out if you need - "

"No, that's fine. Just do me a favor...don't let anyone else in until Nicole gets back. Not Rory, or Bev, or this Marissa person-by the way, who is she?"

"Just a friend, that's all."

"Just a friend. A friend who you're worried about?"

"I kinda sent her on a mission. She, uh… she's scouting out Jeff's place to try to find out where he took Paige."

"And you think she might be in trouble. Okay, JJ, I can't help you with this. Not with that part of it, anyway. What's done is done… you gotta let someone know that she's in trouble, get the cops to watch out for her without implicating yourself. Cause if the worst happened and Jeff came back there for any reason…"

"Yeah. I don't even wanna think about it."

"I bet you don't. So make this right, man, okay?"

"Yeah. Okay." JJ's voice was flat.

"As for the rest of it… look, man, Nicole has a lot of resources at her disposal. She can help you find information… but then after that, I want you to promise me that you're gonna let the cops in on it."

JJ said nothing, just stared at the floor.

"I get the temptation to go after Paige yourself, more than you know," Daniel's voice was soft. "I just don't want to see you going off without backup and getting yourself - "

"In a situation I can't handle. I know. Did you think about that before you and Nicole went after Dr. Chyka?"

Now Daniel was quiet for a second. "All right. I see your mind's made up, so I won't try to change it. Just… just think things through before you do anything. And JJ, if you need anything… if you wanna run an idea past me, if you think I can help somehow, just know… I'm here for you. Deal?"

"Deal." JJ's voice was flat.

"I'm beat, man," Daniel said. "But when this is all over… just let me know you're all right." He hung up.

JJ sunk down into the couch and looked at the chat tab again. His eyes widened and he reread to make sure he had understood right. "Girl arrested at Adkins' apartment," he read aloud, slowly. "You think our fellow cops could put as much energy into finding the Adkins kid and the girl he kidnapped? I mean, if that girl had killed him she'd have done everyone a favor."

JJ sank deeper into the couch. Oh my God, what have I done? he thought. He tried to call Marissa, but he got her voicemail. He hung up and put his head in his hands, wondering how many more people's lives he was going to screw up before this thing was done.

At the hospital, Maxine said Hope could put Marissa into an empty exam room until Marlena got there. Marlena came in just as Hope was sitting Marissa in a chair. "You can take off the handcuffs," she told Hope. "I'll take responsibility for whatever happens now."

Marissa stared at the floor while Hope freed her hands. Hope left the room and Marissa hugged herself, but didn't look up.

"Well," Marlena said. "I heard you had quite a night, Marissa."

Marissa lifted her head to glare at Marlena. "Go ahead," she said, blinking back tears. "Tell me how much I suck at being your patient."

"Excuse me?"

Marissa shook her head. "I was on the medication you gave me for what, three hours, and look what I did. I guess I should be grateful that Detective Brady didn't ask you to come to the jailhouse to check me out, but really, I'm not."

"Okay. What do you feel?"

Marissa shook her head. "Nothing, I guess."

They were quiet for a second. Then Marlena said, softly, "It must have been quite a shock for you when you found out that a girl in your dorm had been kidnapped. Do you remember hearing that news?"

"I'll never forget it," Marissa said, "just like I'll never forget what he did to me." She got up, pacing back and forth. "It plays in my mind over and over and over and over. His breath in my ear, his hand on my mouth, me on the bed being tied up… just over and over and over… I can't stop remembering."

"I see." Marlena's voice was very soft. "You suffered a terrible ordeal at this boy's hands. I wonder, Marissa, what flashed through your mind when you heard about this other girl who may also be his victim?"

Marissa shook her head. "That could have been me. I don't know why it wasn't, but I guess I was just practice for him."

"Do you remember going to his apartment?"

"I know you want me to say no so that I can get off the hook for what I did, but honestly I remember every second of it. I remember the way that knife felt in my hand, how it made me feel powerful again for the first time, how I just wished he would walk in there so I could do to him what I did to his bed."

"I see. And do you remember what you were thinking when you put the knife to your own wrist?"

"It was… it was all like dreaming by then." Marissa's voice was soft, near tears. "It was… it was hopeless, and it was like I was watching myself drown, watching myself decide it wasn't worth it anymore." She glanced at Marlena. "And I'm saying too much, aren't I?"

"Not at all. Go on, Marissa."

Marissa shook her head. "If I'd done to Jeff what I'd done to his bed, there's no way Detective Brady could have gotten away with putting me here instead of in jail. I feel like I should feel bad or something, but I don't. I just feel...nothing." She glanced over her shoulder at Marlena. "Do you think I belong in jail?"

"No," Marlena said. "In my professional opinion, jail is the last place you belong. However, I am going to recommend you stay here in the hospital for a few days. I suspect your body is having a negative reaction to the medication I put you on on top of the shock of hearing about Paige Larson, and that may be making your symptoms worse. But that should stabilize within a couple of days, and if it doesn't, we'll switch the medication."

Marissa bit her lip. "What about the re-enactment tomorrow?"

"I don't think that's a good idea. Now, I'm going to prescribe a mild sedative so you can sleep tonight, and then we'll re-evaluate tomorrow. Come with me and I'll get you set up in your room."

"No." Marissa backed away from Marlena. "No, I have to do this tomorrow, he has Paige and the cops are never going to catch him, this is the only way I'll ever get anything like justice."

"You've done enough," Marlena told her. "You gave the police your attacker's name. Now you're just going to have to trust them...and me." She moved closer to Marissa. Marissa backed up until she was against the wall. She hugged herself, sobbing. Marlena said, softly, "It's time for you to get some rest, Marissa, and in the morning I want to try something with you that will help you get what you want." She held out her hand. "Come on, now." Marissa rocked back and forth, calming herself, then slowly reached up and let Marlena take her hand to help her up.

Daphne walked down the hall, sliding a missing person flyer she'd made under everyone's door in her dorm. She hesitated in front of Marissa's door. She knew the girl who lived here had been robbed and tied up; maybe it would upset her too much to see this. On the other hand, she was going to know eventually, and maybe she'd be motivated to help. She slid the flyer under the door and turned a corner.

"Want some help?" a voice said behind her. Daphne flinched. She turned to see Jeff standing there.

"What do you want?" Daphne demanded.

"I came as soon as I heard, you know, to see if it was true. What are those flyers?"

"You mean you came to see if you could write a story about what you did to Paige," Daphne snapped.

Jeff's mouth dropped open. "Is that what people are saying? We must travel in different circles, cause I've heard at least five people say they're sure JJ Deveraux is behind this. Here, let me help you distribute those flyers." Jeff held his hand out.

Daphne sighed and pressed a flyer into it. "Put this in your scrapbook."

"Come on, Daphne, why would I do anything to Paige? I mean, she and I were hitting it off, weren't we? Any day now, she probably would have asked me out."

"I dunno. Maybe you were jealous that she talked to other guys. Or maybe, you thought it would make a good front page story for whatever sleazy outfit is willing to take you on."

Jeff's eyes flashed. "I can't believe you're falling for whatever lies JJ is spreading. Look, it's obvious it was him. You saw how he was after the last time I talked to Paige. He's been hanging around that girl who his friend attacked, too… probably he just wanted to get the details from her so he could pull off this kidnapping. I'm telling you, JJ is obsessed with Paige. That's all he talks about in class."

"Oh, really?" Daphne's tone was neutral.

"He thinks he's going to get back with her. I bet her blowing him off the other day pushed him over the edge. Think, Daphne… think about how easy it would have been for him to get her to go with him. Plus, everyone knows they broke up because her mom won some lawsuit against his mom. It would be the perfect revenge."

Daphne bit her lip but said nothing.

"Anyway," Jeff said, "I hope they find her before it's too late. If you give me some of these flyers, I'll help get the word out, okay?"

Daphne nodded. Jeff took a pile of flyers and walked off.

Bev couldn't believe her hands were really free. She pulled them slowly around into her lap and rubbed her wrists. She had red rope marks in both wrists from being bound so tightly to the bed post, but there was no time to worry about that.

"Paige?" she whispered, but she got no answer. Oh well. Once she untied her, she could worry about waking Paige up. She started to tiptoe towards Paige's side of the bed.

Just then she heard footsteps, so she hurried back, sitting down and putting her hands behind the bed post as if she were still tied up. Cole grinned at her as he came in.

"What do you want?" Bev snapped.

Cole laughed bitterly. "You think you'd learn by now to watch how you talk to me. No matter though. I was going to kiss you good night, but I guess I'll just gag you. Open your mouth."

"And what if I - mmph." Cole stuffed the gag back into Bev's mouth. As he dropped his hand, she suddenly grabbed his wrist and twisted it. Pulling the gag out of her mouth and throwing it away, she said, "It's payback time." Adrenalin rushed through her system as Cole pulled away from her. She got up now, ready to fight, her eyes blazing.

Cole reached for his gun. Bev knew she couldn't win against him, not long-term, but she did know a thing or two about fighting. She grabbed his wrist again. The gun clattered to the floor. Cole lunged at Bev, trying to push her onto the bed. Bev sidestepped him and dived for the gun. She picked it up and pointed it at Cole, her hand shaking.

JJ lifted his head slowly as his phone rang. This time he looked to see who it was before answering. "Nicole," he said, his voice flat with exhaustion. "What's up? Uh… okay. Yeah, I'll do that."

He sat up all the way and moved the mouse to wake up the computer and navigate to the site Nicole was telling him. His screen said, "SECURE EMAIL" in large, bold letters that made him nervous. He bit his lip. "Okay," he said into the phone. "I'm at the login screen." He typed as he listened, entering the ID and password Nicole was giving him, torn between being honored that she trusted him and scared of what he would find once he got in.

"I'm in," he said while he waited for the email to load. The little hourglass on his screen seemed to stay there forever, then suddenly, the email loaded. He stared at the screen, open mouthed. There was Paige, larger than life, a silk scarf stuffed in her mouth. Her eyes were wide with fear and JJ felt like they were calling to him, telling him to help her.

"And you can see the photos?" Nicole asked.

"Yeah." JJ kept his voice tightly controlled. "So, uh, what's the plan now?"

"Step 1: Tell me you're okay with looking at these and mean it."

JJ looked away from the photos, then back at them. "We're wasting time. What do you need me to do?"

"Well… The cops have been staring at these until their eyes bleed, which I'm not sure took all that long...anyway, they can't make out where Paige is being held from the background. And to tell you the truth, I'm not doing much better. But I thought, Jeff probably took her somewhere that's both out of the way and familiar to college kids. So maybe you can see something in the background I can't."

JJ scrolled down to the second photo, which was taken from behind. This picture was very dark, but he thought he could make out something about the pole Paige's hands were tied to. It looked like there was another pole coming sideways out of the bottom. Something like… "She's tied to a bed," he said slowly, thinking aloud. "But where? It's gotta be some out of the way place."

He scrolled from one photo to the other, up and down, up and down. A memory was starting to come to him.

"Dude!" Rory had said. "Did you hear about the haunted house on the edge of town? That would, like, be a totally awesome place to spend Halloween."

"What haunted house?"

"It used to be a motel, like back when our parents were kids… but some lady was murdered there… and I've heard her ghost wanders the rooms, trying to get justice or whatever. So, like, the place closed down but it's still standing."

"I need to make a call," JJ said. "I have an idea but I have to check something out first."

"Call me back in five minutes," Nicole told him. "And JJ, I know this is unusual for me, but once we get a location, we're giving it to Rafe."

"Won't he want to know where we got it from?"

"Probably, but let me handle that. But I'm going to go out on a limb and risk you throwing back in my face every time I haven't listened to what I'm about to tell you."

"What?" Irritation crept into JJ's voice.

"This isn't the time for heroics, okay? Once we figure out where Paige is, we're going to let the cops handle it."

"Got it," JJ said in a voice that made Nicole doubt he was going to listen, but she let him go so he could investigate his lead.

Jen was wandering aimlessly through Horton Town Square, not sure where she was going or if there was any point to going anywhere. As far as she knew, JJ hadn't come home, since Abigail hadn't called or texted. She hadn't heard from JJ since his text saying he was safe and not to worry. She read it again now, trying to reassure herself and failing to do so.

She saw Nicole come out of the Brady Pub and turned, walking quickly towards her. "Nicole," she said. "Just who I wanted to see right now."

Nicole didn't smile. "I'm in a hurry, Jennifer. Impactful news stories like the low customer numbers at the frozen yogurt place don't wait for anyone."

"Let me ask you just one question then." Jennifer crossed her arms and glared at Nicole. "Are you even thinking about my son's safety?"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. I know all about the ideas you're putting into JJ's head. I saw Rafe earlier, and he told me that JJ thinks he's going to catch the person who's been terrorizing Salem U all on his own. Now, there's only one person who is reckless enough and has an inflated enough ego to think they know better than the police how to solve crimes, and that's you. So before my son gets into a situation he's not equipped to handle, stop and think. It's not just your own life you're putting at risk for the sake of the story. It's JJ's too."

"You're right," Nicole said quietly. "I didn't know what I was getting into with JJ. Your son is pretty determined to find out what he wants to know and incredibly loyal to the people he cares about, to the point that he doesn't even recognize danger if a friend is in trouble. Thanks to him, I've had to hold back my natural tendency to jump head first into the fire and worry about whether my clothes are fireproof later. Jennifer, I've taken on a role that is so incredibly uncharacteristic of me, for his sake. I've tried to be the voice of reason holding him back."

"You, the voice of reason?" Jen laughed. "Was that what you were being when you hired him without bothering to tell me?"

"I'm sorry, Jennifer, but I didn't think I needed a signed permission slip before I hired your 19-year-old son." Jennifer scowled and Nicole said, "I didn't tell JJ not to tell you. If I were doing the work he's doing at his age… well, I can only wish I had someone I could brag about it to. But if you're the last to know what your son is up to, maybe you should stop attacking me and start looking in the mirror." Nicole's phone beeped. "Excuse me," she said. "I don't have any more time for being insulted and falsely accused of causing trouble today. I'm too busy trying to make sure your son doesn't get himself killed." Jen's lower lip trembled and Nicole said, "Look, I like you, Jennifer, and I like your son. But I'm not going to harbor the delusion that you're my friend, or that you're ever going to get that I'm trying to be yours. I'm heading over to Daniel's to check up on JJ now. Maybe you should come with me so you can talk to him yourself and see whatever adventurous spirit you haven't managed to crush yet comes from him, not from me." Nicole walked off without waiting for another word.