A few weeks later, Sean was working the phones in his makeshift office at the penthouse. His assistant, Ellie, was simultaneously typing on the computer and organizing files.

"Well give Mattison the 10th message when you see him, OK?" Sean said, slamming down the receiver.

"No luck?" Ellie said.

"The only way to get a hold of that guy seems to be to have an emergency that requires his attention," Sean said. He looked over at his busy assistant. "Ellie, thanks a lot for coming here. I know it's not easy to pick up your life at a moment's notice."

"Not a problem, sir," she said. "We can handle your pressing business better in person and you certainly need to be here right now."

"Thanks for understanding," Sean said.

Maren breezed into the room.

"Hi Dad, Hi Ell," she said.

"Hi baby, what you up to?" Sean said.

"Just needed to print something out," she walked over to the printer, picked something up and kept it out of her father's view.

"Sweetie, I asked you not to use the printer when we're working unless you absolutely had to," Sean said.

"I absolutely had to. And I wouldn't have to absolutely have to if I had my own printer here."

"I know it's rough to not have all your things around you, honey, it just can't be helped," Sean said.

"I have an idea," Ellie said. "Why don't you make a list of things you want from the house? When I go back for the weekend, I can pick them up."

"That would be great," Maren said brightly.

"I can't ask you to do that," Sean said.

"You didn't ask," Ellie said.

"Thank you very much. As usual, you go far beyond the call of duty." Maren started to make a move for the door. "Uh, young lady?"

"Yes, Daddy," Maren said.

"Uh oh, she's using 'Daddy'," Sean said. "Something's definitely up."

"Nothing really," Maren said.

"We could save a lot of time, honey, if you just showed that to me," Sean said. Maren sighed and handed over the paper. Sean perused it. "What is this?"

"I just made a friend online, that's all," she said. "He's helping me."

"Do you need help, baby?" Sean asked. Ellie silently got up from her desk and walked out of the room.

"No, he's just someone to talk to. There's been so much going on with Mom and with you and WSB … I just … I don't know, he's easy to talk to."

"You know you can always talk to me, Maren."

"I know that, Dad," she said.

"How did you meet him?"

"I was watching some clips online of the bank thing," she said.

"Honey, you really shouldn't do that. It was hard enough for you to live through it once," Sean said.

"I know, Dad. I can't help it. For some reason, I just keep getting drawn back to it."

"He doesn't know who you are, I hope," Sean said.

"No, my name is Ariel524 online. He doesn't know and I haven't said anything about me or Mom or that I was involved in any of it."

"Well, that's good. I'm still not crazy about it, though," he said.

"That's why I didn't want to say anything about it."

"Why did you print this out?"

"I don't know, there's something about his words. Listen to this: 'I think all those news people who talked about it 24-7 when it happened overdramatized it like it was some kind of movie or something. But it wasn't. But the music didn't rise and the lights didn't come up. There were real people involved and it's not going to be over for them just because the media has stopped talking about it."

Sean thought for a moment. "That is rather insightful."

"I thought so too," Maren reached up on her tiptoes and kissed her father on the cheek. "I wanted to show it to Mom."

"All right, you can talk to him, but you're not going to arrange any secret meetings or anything like that with this person," Sean said.

"I won't, Dad. I promise to tell you about all my secret meetings," she said playfully and bounded out of the room.

Ellie walked back in and resumed her work like nothing had happened. The phone rang, she deftly picked it up. "Sean Donely's office. … Yes, sir, he's right here." She turned to Sean. "It's Mattison."

"I'll take it here," Sean said. "Ellie, would you mind?..." Ellie handed him the phone and left the room again.

"Mattison, what's the latest?"

"No word on the Popovic front. You, of course, know what the Royal Family decided to do about Coulson."

"Yeah, banished to a small island off the coast of Australia. What a hardship," Sean said.

"Donely, I'd like a favor from you," Mattison said.

"Why do I feel like I'm not going to like this so much?"

"Probably because you're not. But I'm going to ask anyway."

"What is it?" Sean said, losing patience.

"I'd like to send Stanton there to work with you on this."

"Why?"

"He knows more about Popovic and his proclivities than anyone who we can trust."

"I don't like him."

"I figured. But as you know, you don't have to like someone to be able to work with them."

Sean harrumphed, thinking of the person he was talking to on the phone. "How very true that is."

"Also, he could be in trouble himself. Popovic isn't stupid, I'm sure he figured out how his last piece of information slipped away."

"So you're sending him to me and my family?"

"It's the last place Popovic would look for him, that's for sure."

Sean rolled his eyes. "Fine. But he gets out of line and I'm gonna pop him one."

"Again?" Mattison said with uncharacteristic humor.

"Yes, again."

Sean hung up the receiver. Ellie reappeared in the office and sat in her chair. "Ellie, can you get in touch with the rental office, see if there's another apartment available in this building?

"Right away," she said, picking up the phone, running a finger down a list of numbers on the desk and punching in the digits.

"Now how do I explain this to my wife and daughter?" Sean asked himself.

Later that night, the Donelys were sitting around the dinner table.

"Mom, you were right, Kelly's clam chowder is delicious," Maren said.

"Yeah, I forgot all about it," said Tiffany, who had become adept at making jokes about the gaps remaining in her memory.

"So you don't mind hanging around Port Charles for a while longer?" Sean asked

"I actually like it," Tiffany said genuinely. "It's reminding me of a lot of things I haven't thought of in a while."

"Like what, Mom," Maren said.

"Stuff about your father," Tiffany said. "Just little things."

"Anything you can tell me?" Maren wisecracked.

"Maybe when you're older," Tiffany winked.

Sean smiled despite the lingering worry that was nagging at him.

"You fell in love here," Maren said.

"That we did," Sean said.

"It feels right to be back," Tiffany said.

"Then I don't mind either," Maren said.

"That's my girl," Sean said and they continued to chow down on the hearty meal.