"No," Rodman said to Rafe, as calm and unflappable as ever, "we're not done, so you can go ahead and have a seat."

Rafe crossed his arms, but he pulled his chair out and sat back down.

"Now," Rodman said, "the photos and whoever leaked them are only one of my concerns, but since we went there… tell me, Detective Hernandez, what do you know about them?"

"I don't know much," Rafe said, leaning back in his chair. "In fact, I don't know anything that I didn't already tell Roman, so you might as well just read over his notes. I'll tell you one thing, though. If I did know who it was, I wouldn't turn them in, and not cause of loyalty to my fellow officers. Whoever leaked those photos helped save those girls' lives. I told Roman and I'm telling you: I wish I could take credit for doing it. I'm only glad that whoever did it went to the right source so that we were able to get to the scene on time. One girl was already half dead and who knows what Jeff Adkins would have done to the other one if this had gone on any longer. So maybe you should stop treating whoever leaked those photos as a public enemy and start treating them as a hero. Then they'll be glad to come forward."

"Nice speech. Bravo. You do realize, though, that you're sounding an awful lot like someone who's guilty."

"You can think that if you want. You probably did before I opened my mouth."

"No, not necessarily. But I wonder, Detective… why so defensive? Are you protecting yourself… or did Nicole Walker tell you who her source really was and swear you to secrecy?"

Rafe got up. "Do you have any more real questions for me? Cause if all you got is accusations, I got nothing more to say."

"It's to your advantage to cooperate with me," Rodman said, writing something on a pad of paper. "The more forthcoming you are, the less likely I am to conclude that you did something wrong. However, you can go for now. I think you've given me enough to start with."

Nicole and Sally were huddled around Nicole's desk when JJ came out of Miles' office. They looked up as he passed by.

"I'd ask how that went," Nicole said, putting some papers down, "but from that self-satisfied look I think I can guess."

JJ nodded. "I have Miles right where I want him." He glanced at the shredder on Nicole's desk. "What are you doing?"

"Not shredding evidence this time, I promise." Nicole tried to smile. "Actually, not shredding anything. This is for show in case Miles is still under the delusion that he can fire me."

JJ's eyes went to the shredder anyway. Nicole supposed that couldn't be helped. "Um," he said, "it's not anything you can't tear yourself away from for a minute then?"

"Funny," Nicole said, then realized from the puzzled look JJ gave her that he hadn't meant to make a pun. She turned off the shredder. "What's up?"

"Um, I kind of promised Miles I'd get an interview with someone else."

"And you're okay with doing that?" Sally piped up.

"Kind of." JJ swallowed. "I mean, I wanna make sure I don't mess it up but… like Nicole said before I'm a reporter now, so I'm gonna go ahead and give it my best shot. I probably have like three minutes before Miles comes storming in here demanding to know why I haven't left yet, but I was wondering… can you give me some tips real quick?"

"Of course." Nicole sat down on the edge of her desk. Smoothing out her skirt, she said, "Want to tell me who you're interviewing?"

"Yeah, um, it's… well it's Cole." JJ reddened, suddenly sure this was a really bad idea.

"Well," Nicole said brightly, "the good thing about talking to people in jail is they can't make too many excuses about why they can't talk to you." She opened a desk drawer and handed JJ a tiny tape recorder. "Use this. It's easier than taking notes and the guards won't worry about what you're doing as much. And remember your instincts. Don't back off of the hard questions even if he bristles. Basically do the same thing you did out there at the press conference, only, you know, with just a little less hostility." JJ bit his lip and Nicole said, "Hey, don't let what Roman said throw you off. You have the right instincts. Just tone it down a little, that's all. Anyway, once you're done with this interview you can forget about Cole for a while. It's not like he can come after you to give him a piece of his mind, right?" JJ smiled slightly and Nicole said, "Okay, go knock 'em dead before you awake the sleeping dragon in the back office."

JJ left. Sally said, "That's some kid."

"Told you he'd come out on top," Nicole agreed. She swung her purse over her shoulder. "Think you can hold down the fort here for a little bit?"

"Time to go make sure Daniel Jonas knows who's helping JJ make something of himself?"

"Not exactly, though I am heading to the hospital. As far as Miles is concerned, I'm getting his trashy interview myself. But actually, both of Parker's parents texted me, so it's time I got the latest on what's going on with their kid."

Marlena knocked on Paige's door before coming into her room. "I have a special delivery." Marlena held up a phone in a plastic bag. "Hope told me you were looking for this."

"Oh my gosh, my phone. Thanks." Paige took the phone eagerly. Her eyes narrowed and she said, "But I'm sure you didn't come here just to give me this."

"You're right." Marlena closed the door. "I want to talk to you about a couple of things-is this a good time?"

Paige put the phone down on her night table a little harder than she needed to. "It's not like I'm going anywhere anytime soon."

"Well, the good news is that Dr. Gilroy and Dr. Brady have been looking at your blood work, and everything looks all right. If your stomach remains settled and your injuries continue to heal, I imagine you'll be released within the next day or two."

"Great." Paige's voice was flat.

"In the meantime, Paige, tomorrow I'd like for you to talk to a social worker to make sure that you have adequate support before I agree to your discharge."

"Support? What are you talking about?"

"When someone experiences the kind of violent crime you've experienced, sometimes they don't realize how it's affected them until they've tried to return to ordinary life. The social worker will go over with you things like where you plan to live and - "

"I'm going back to the dorms, okay? There's nothing to discuss!"

Marlena looked surprised.

"Sorry," Paige said. "It's just that my mom was already trying to convince me to move back home because of what happened to me. Her and her brand-new boyfriend." A bitter note crept into her voice. "She always says I'm all she has. But the the second something happens to me, what does she do? She finds some guy to take advantage of and jumps into bed with him. It's not like she even needed him to make her feel less alone, not when she's made a new best friend out of the girl my boyfriend got drunk and cheated on me with."

"It sounds like there's a lot of bad feelings between you and your mom, for reasons that are quite understandable. But I wonder, Paige, if perhaps your anger is amplified by what happened to you, by how powerless Jeff Adkins made you feel, and the fact that in your mind, your mother didn't do enough to help get you out of that situation."

Paige crossed her arms. "I shouldn't talk about my mom like that, I guess. I mean, she's my mom, and she can't help it. It's not like she could have done anything anyway except bother the cops and get in the way of finding me."

"But you wish she'd at least done that."

Paige shrugged. "What good would that have done?" She sighed. "Anyway, I don't want to talk about her anymore. You'll end up hating her and she's really not that bad. Besides, it's not fair, cause you might have to deal with her, like a lot."

"What do you mean?"

Paige swallowed. "I shouldn't tell you this. It's not my business who my mom dates. But she showed up here yesterday with Eric, as in your son, and even though he kept saying they're just friends I could tell she was working on doing with him what she's done with every guy my whole life, and that's sleep with him until he gets a clue and throws her away." Marlena's eyes widened. Paige said, "Anyway, now that I've made everything super awkward for you, I guess I can't talk about what Hope told me to talk to you about."

"Which is what?" Marlena asked, pushing her hair behind her ear.

"Never mind. Just tell me one thing. What does the social worker have to check out in order to sign off on me going home?"

When JJ got to the jail, the guard was letting the DA into the holding area. "Wait right here, son," the guard told him, gesturing towards a tiny waiting room just outside the holding cells. "The DA has business with your friend; when she's done, you get a few minutes."

"Yes sir." JJ was purposely deferential so that he wouldn't raise the guard's suspicions. The guard turned his back as he sat down; he stood up again and flattened himself against a wall. The guard opened the chain-link fence separating the holding area from the waiting room. "Follow me," he said. He went into the holding area first, followed by the DA. JJ sneaked in behind her as the gate was closing.

The guard let the DA into Cole's cell. "I'll be right outside; just call me when you're done." JJ hid against the wall again so the guard wouldn't see him as he passed.

"Do you know how much trouble you're in?" the DA asked Cole. "Right now, my bosses want me to come down hard on you. Kidnapping, attempted murder… and if that wasn't bad enough, right now your girlfriend is busy telling the police everything you did to her."

"Bev knows I love her. She wouldn't - "

"So you did do something."

Cole was quiet. The DA said, "Look, someone has to answer for what was done to these girls. I know Jeff Adkins was the mastermind, but he's dead, so it's all going to fall on your shoulders. Unless…"

"Unless what?"

The DA smiled. "How much do you love that girlfriend of yours? I'm guessing not too much considering you nearly killed her."

"That was an accident! Look, I was the one was all freaked out that we'd go to jail if we did this thing, but when Bev got shot, none of that mattered anymore. I never meant to hurt her. That was all Jeff, and now because he went and got himself killed - "

"After you nearly killed her and things got crazy."

"It's not my fault! Jeff came up with this idea, Jeff gave the orders, and Jeff kidnapped Paige. And the robberies, that was all him. All I did was tell him who, when and where. But then when Rory got away from him, he snapped… and he got worse and worse. How was I supposed to know it was going to end up like this?"

"So it sounds like you weren't all that involved. Unfortunately, we can't prosecute a dead man, so you're getting punished for what both of you did. However, I do have some authority when it comes to these charges." The DA moved a little closer.

Cole backed up a step. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that we're more interested in answers than we are in you. Paige Larson's confirmed that you barely even interacted with her, that it was mainly Jeff. And we only have Bev Walters' word for it that she wasn't a willing participant. You were there, Cole, and you know exactly what happened. You can give us the answers we want. And most importantly, you can clear up exactly what your girlfriend did and why so that maybe we can punish her too. Don't you think that since she helped Jeff too, she should get some of the blame?"

"Of course she should." Cole's eyes were wide.

"So," the DA said. "let's make sure she does. You…" she took out a pen. "...tell me all about Bev's role in these crimes as well as make a full confession to your part in it and maybe we can drop some of these charges." Cole bit his lip and the DA said, "I'll give you some time to think about it. After all, it's a big decision. You can stay loyal to your girlfriend and spend the rest of your life behind bars or you can turn on her and serve maybe a year in jail."

(JJ's eyes widened and he crossed his arms as he listened.)

"Um - "

"Don't answer right now. Think about it for an hour. I'll be back and if you give me a statement, you're looking at just one charge: false imprisonment." The DA turned and called, "Guard! I'm done here."

JJ practically ran to get to the gate. He hid in a corner as the guard opened it, grabbing onto it so it wouldn't close all the way. His arm throbbed so badly he was barely able to move but somehow He slid into the waiting room and closed the gate again.

JJ sat down, rubbing his sore arm as he tried to catch his breath.

The guard returned with the DA. "He's all yours, son," the guard said. He glanced at JJ, a puzzled look on his face. "Five minutes, and don't try anything funny."

Elizabeth was filling out paperwork in her office when Daniel knocked on the door. "Dr. Jonas," she said evenly, not looking up.

"Uh, is this a bad time?" Daniel asked.

"That depends." Elizabeth pushed the papers aside. "Is this really a good time for you, or are you planning on cutting yourself off again so that you can focus on everyone other than yourself?"

"Where's Daniel?" Nicole asked Chloe, sliding into a seat across from her at the hospital cafeteria.

"Good to see you too," Chloe replied.

"Come on, you know I didn't mean it that way. It's just that he texted me earlier, and I had a work thing, and you know how that goes… anyway, I figured you and Daniel wanted to both give me the news at once so you wouldn't have to repeat yourselves."

"Oh. No. I didn't even know he texted you. Although… I'm not surprised." Nicole gave Chloe a puzzled look and she said, "Just between you and me, I don't think Daniel can keep up this charade much longer. It's obvious both you guys are into each other."

Daniel crossed his arms. "I came here to talk to you about Parker, not - "

"Yes, I'm aware of that." Elizabeth took her glasses off. Her eyes were very blue as she stared at Daniel. "I will do everything I can to help your son, Dr. Jonas, but first, we need to get something straight. Sit, please."

Daniel cocked his head, giving Elizabeth a puzzled look.

"Or stand. Whatever. I don't care about that. What I do care about is that you understand that what I do is just as important as what you do in the OR. I want to help, Dr. Jonas, but I can't do that if you won't give me the same respect that you give anyone else you're consulting with. Just because I work with intangibles doesn't mean I don't count."

"I never said that."

"No. You just decided you had something better to do in the middle of our consultation."

Daniel glared at her. "The person who interrupted, that was my ex, and she was worried because her son was in trouble. "

"I see. So you were worried about your ex-stepson?"

"Do me a favor and keep the word ex out of it." Daniel sighed. "JJ and I have had a rough road," he said slowly. "He, um, he was so afraid that I was trying to take his father's place that he fought letting me into his life with everything he had. But that's all past history and the truth is, I would never tell him this cause I don't want to reignite those feelings, but as far as I'm concerned, JJ... "

"He's like a son to you," Elizabeth said softly. "And you're still worried about him on top of your fears for Parker. I can see it in your eyes."

Daniel shook his head. "Yeah. But I don't wanna talk about that right now. I came here to talk about Parker, and it's beyond me how we ended up going down this road instead."

"Because it's all connected." Elizabeth sighed. "I can't help Parker without helping his parents, including you. From the second we met, you started building your wall higher and higher to make sure I didn't get in. Last night, though, you started to let me in, and that scares the hell out of you."

"Elizabeth - "

"The way you use your concerns about other people to push me away," Elizabeth went on, raising her voice slightly, "makes me worry that you're doing it to the people you supposedly care about too. Including Parker. And your stepson."

"Cut the crap!" Daniel said. "This isn't about me and you… at least not professionally. I don't know what your fascination with me is, but this… this is inappropriate. I came to you today for one reason and one reason only, and that is because of my son."

Elizabeth's eyes widened. "I don't know what you think this is about, but I can assure you it's not because I have any non-professional interest in you whatsoever. You're a good looking man and you're probably used to women falling all over you because of it. But those walls you have up are very unattractive, and even if there wasn't this thing called ethics, I wouldn't waste my energy trying to knock them down for any reason other than because I don't think they serve you or your son. So it's up to you. You can keep finding new and inventive ways to defend yourself from whatever it is that scares you so much, or you can let me in, and maybe even begin being fully present with the people who care about you."

Daniel glared at her. "Look," he said quietly. "You have made it abundantly clear what you think about me, and I've tried to make it equally clear that you are way off base. But none of that matters right now. Parker, he's having surgery and I'm not sure he understands or is okay with it. So how about we table whatever this is and we make him… we make him our priority right now. Okay?"

Nicole stared at Chloe. "Daniel's made it more than clear that anything between us is a one-way street. I've gone down enough dead ends as it is. I'm not…"

Chloe waved that away. "You know Daniel. When he says no, half the time he really means he wants you to keep pushing so that he drops his defenses."

Nicole was quiet, thinking. Finally, she said, "How about we fix my love life later? What's going on with Parker?"

"You're right. What was I thinking?" Chloe sipped her coffee. "Parker's the same. No, that's not true. Parker's… well, Victor flew in this top heart doctor from Switzerland or somewhere and he wants to implant this… this thing in Parker's heart."

"That sounds very scientific. Please tell me he used at least one word that it'll take you an hour to pronounce while giving you some specifics."

"He explained, and so did Daniel, but my brain wouldn't process it. All I heard was that my angel has to have surgery." Chloe blinked hard. "Daniel says this is a lot better than a transplant, and my dad says he never heard of a pacemaker that works better than a new heart but he's not any sort of cardiologist, never mind one of the best ones in the whole world. So I guess this is the right thing to do."

"I'm sorry." Nicole reached for Chloe's hand. "How long a surgery is it?"

"I don't know." Chloe sniffed. "There are all these details we still need to find out, like exactly when it's happening and how long will it take and when can we see him after. Daniel should be sitting with me in that damn Dr. Kirsch's office making sure we know exactly what's going on, but as usual he's somewhere other than with me or with Parker."

"You're sure he's not squeezing a few extra hugs out of Parker while he still can?"

Chloe shook her head. "Philip's in there, and I doubt Daniel even wants to breathe the same air as him."

Nicole tried to smile. "I'm glad Philip's here. Yay!" She took a sip of water. "So you really think I have a chance with Daniel?"

Marlena pushed her hair behind her ear. She and Paige looked at each other and Paige said, "Well? What does she need to know?

"Sorry," Marlena said. "I was just thinking about - "

"About your son and my mom." Paige scowled.

"Well, yes, but not in the way you think. You see, Paige, this does create a conflict of interest for me. Even though I'm treating you, not your mother, your issues with her relationship with Eric might come up in therapy, and there's no possible way I can be objective."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," Paige said flatly, "because I'm done talking about her. She can date whoever she wants. It's her life, right?"

Marlena raised her eyebrows. "I'm curious, Paige," she said, after a while, "what was it you wanted to talk to me about before the issue of your mother's love life came up?"

Paige shook her head. "There's no point to bringing it up now, is there? I mean, you have to get busy finding me a new therapist and getting the social worker in here and everything so I might as well lighten your load by keeping it to myself."

Marlena sighed. "I'm sorry, Paige," she said softly. "It's not my intention to trigger feelings of abandonment in you; I merely want to make sure that you get the best treatment possible, and unfortunately I cannot continue to be the person to provide it. But I'll tell you what. If you'd like, we can talk more about how this makes you feel."

"No, I understand." Paige stared into space. "Just do me a favor, Dr. Evans. Whoever you get to replace you, make sure it's a woman. I mean, the only woman who's disappointed me is my mother. On the male side there's too many black marks. Men take what they want from you and then they leave."

"I see." Marlena waited for Paige to say something else, but she didn't; she just crossed her arms and kept staring. "When you say men, are you talking about Jeff?"

"It doesn't matter." Paige's voice was flat. "The point is, I don't want to talk to a man."

Marlena patted her shoulder. "It'll take time to trust whoever takes over your case, but I'm sure that I can find someone that you will feel comfortable working with. Once you leave the hospital, my recommendation will be for you to attend outpatient therapy twice a week, but first let's get you the right doctor for your needs."

"Whatever."

Marlena nodded. She got up, then turned in the doorway. "Oh, Paige?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't want you to worry about what you told me about Eric. Even though you're no longer my patient after today, everything you've said is still confidential."

Marlena left. Paige watched the door close as she picked up her phone. She saw a missed call from T and squeezed her eyes shut.

Paige stared at her phone, thinking about calling T.

T came into the hospital room holding a basketball jersey. "I came as soon as I heard," he said. "It's a good thing that Jeff's already dead because if he'd ever dare show his face in the club - "

Paige giggled. "Wall of Shame?"

"Hey, don't laugh. I may not look like much but when someone hurts you the way he did…" T made a face. "Anyway, enough about him. I brought you something." He handed her the jersey.

"A basketball jersey?"

"Yep. I know most guys bring flowers, but I wanted to be a little more original. Besides, since he made you miss the game, I thought I'd bring a little piece of it to you."

"Aww, that's sweet."

T sat down next to Paige. He reached for her hand as she took the jersey from him. Paige could see in his eyes that he wanted to kiss her, but he was too scared. He squeezed her hand instead.

Paige sighed. "T, there's something I have to tell you."

"You don't like this team?"

"No, no, the jersey's fine." Paige looked away from T. "I don't know exactly how to say this."

"You're getting back together with JJ. I knew it."

"No, not that either. Just stop guessing and listen." Paige swallowed hard. "This… this is really hard, and confusing…"

"Just tell me. I want you to tell me everything."

"Okay. Here goes." Paige took a deep breath. "Jeff did more than just tie me up, okay? He… he kissed me and did other things, too. The cops say I didn't want it, but I don't know. I mean, he got me drunk and I was really lightheaded, but I… I kissed him back so - "

T got up, turning his back to her.

"I gotta go, Paige, I'm sorry. I… Sonny asked me to cover a shift…" He ran out of the room.

Paige opened her eyes. She shook her head. So much for that, she thought. Tears welled up in her eyes as she put the phone back on her nightstand.

Eric had taken Eve to the hospital while the EMTs took Jill in the ambulance, but a doctor had met them at the doorway to Jill's room and said, "I'm sorry, I need to talk to your daughter alone."

"She's not - " Eve began.

"We'll let you know when she can have visitors." The doctor turned around and left.

Eric squeezed Eve's shoulder as she glared at the doctor's back. "As you know, I'm not generally in favor of misconceptions, but perhaps this is for the best. If they think we're Jill's parents, at least they will give us information about her condition at some point."

Eve shrugged. "I just hope she doesn't give them any other ideas. Eric, the reason I didn't want to take Jill in at first is because that girl just lies, lies, lies. For all I knew she didn't have any baby at all."

Eric frowned, but all he said was, "I take it your initial encounters with her weren't very pleasant, then."

"You could say that," Eve agreed.

Eric put his arm around her. "Your sister said as much. She told me she was concerned about your relationship with Jill, which I chalked up to her tendency to think the worst of others. But is something going on?"

Eve bit her lip, her eyes widening. "Let's get out of this hallway," she said. "Any doctor or nurse or who knows who else could walk right past our conversation and I'd rather all of Salem doesn't know."

"Of course." Eric turned and said to the nurse on duty at the station, "We're just going to the waiting area. Please have the obstetrician get us as soon as she's finished Jill's exam." The nurse nodded and Eric took Eve's hand as they went across the hall to the waiting room.

As soon as Hope came back from interviewing Bev, Rodman asked her to come in. She sat down at the table and looked him directly in the eye. "What can I do for you?"

Rodman smiled slightly. "As you know, we're trying to find out exactly what happened in this investigation as well as catch whoever is sharing info with the press before sensitive information gets into the wrong hands."

"So I've heard."

"Let's start there, Detective Brady. I just got an earful from your partner about why we should let this one go. So I'm wondering...do you understand why we're here?"

Hope tightened her jaw. "Of course."

"Excellent. So then I assume you're going to cooperate."

"I'm here, aren't I?"

Rodman locked eyes with Hope. "All right. The first thing I need to know from you is whether you'd say Rafe Hernandez is the kind of officer who usually plays by the rules."

Cole jumped up as JJ came around the corner towards his cell. "What do you want?" he asked. "Come to gloat because I'm on the side of the bars where you belong?" His eyes flashed.

"You know what the difference between you and me is, man?" JJ kept his voice even. "I was sorry about everything I did, but you… you're only sorry you got caught."

"If Jeff hadn't got in the way, I would have given myself up to save Bev's life. I'm only in here because they've got it all wrong. It was all Jeff's idea, okay, so why don't you go bug his family about what he did and leave me alone?"

"Whatever." JJ shrugged. "Here's the thing, Cole. We only have five minutes or so before that guard kicks me out of here."

"So?"

"So I bet you lay awake all last night thinking about how much you'd love to rub in my face what you and Jeff did to Paige, didn't you? Here's your chance. I'm right in front of you. So go for it."

"I told you," Cole said, "it was all Jeff. Do you think you're important enough to me to do anything to your loser girlfriend? If I'd known I'd have to suffer through you being on my ass like this while I sit in jail, I'd never have even started with Jeff."

"Save it. You're wasting time." JJ pulled out the tape recorder. "Real quick, now, how about you tell the whole world what you want everyone to know about what you did?"

"So what's going on?" Eric asked Eve as they sat down.

Eve looked at him, her eyes wide. "You promise you won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you?"

"Of course."

"I mean it. Nobody can know, especially my daughter." Eric turned and looked at Eve, and she couldn't tell if he was confused or suspicious. "I'm sorry," Eve said, softening her tone. "It's just that things between Paige and me are the worst they've ever been. It just seems like the bond between us is like a frayed rope and one wrong word could snap it for good."

"Ssh." Eric pulled Eve towards him and let her put her head on his chest. "Of course I won't share anything you tell me with anyone, including Paige, unless you want me to. But I wish you could trust your relationship with her more. No matter how frayed the bond is, it can't break, Eve, no matter what. She is your daughter, your flesh and blood. No matter what, she can't stop loving you any more than you could ever stop loving her."

"Oh, I don't know about that. Look at Jill, wandering the streets and getting into trouble. If that girl is to be believed she hasn't even spoken to her mother in over two years, and if Paige were to shut me out like that, Eric, I don't know what I'd do."

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

"All right. Well, you know how much I love Paige, and how scared I was for her when she was dating JJ Deveraux. And like I told you before, Jennifer is just a little bit blind when it comes to her son. As far as she's concerned, he can do no wrong and she refuses to see how much trouble he's into. And I understand that he's not a malicious boy, that he just acts out of pain, believe me I do, but I couldn't let him drag my Paige down with him. You see, Paige's just so sweet and she has such a big heart and so she wanted to believe the best about that boy… so I had to try to open up her eyes."

"I don't understand what any of that has to do with Jill."

"I'm trying, Eric, but it's hard to explain. Oh, I might as well just say it, I guess. I told a little lie, Eric, when we first met." Eric had a look on his face that was either puzzled or angry; Eve couldn't tell which, but it was too late now. "You see, I didn't just send Jill to that party to try to help her see what life had to offer. I invited her partially because, well, I was kind of hoping she and JJ would hit it off, and as much as it would break Paige's heart if they did, I thought that would finally open her eyes."

"Wait, are you saying you asked Jill to break up JJ and Paige?"

"Of course not, Eric! I would never deliberately hurt Paige, you know that. I just… well, I hoped she would catch JJ's eye so that Paige would see for once and for all just what kind of boy she was dating.." Eric frowned and Eve said, "I know what this must sound like to you, but Eric, you have to believe that I didn't mean for anything like what happened to happen. I never thought that boy would actually go all the way with Jill. I thought he might be tempted enough to flirt with her once he had some alcohol in him, and that would help Paige see the kind of mistake she was making." Eric didn't answer and Eve said, "Please, Eric, if you're going to leave just do it, don't sit here staring at me and making me think I have a chance when really you don't think I'm any different than Nicole."

Eve reached for Eric's hand, but he pulled away. "What you did was wrong, Eve. You deliberately put temptation in JJ Deveraux's path, and that's something that God tells us explicitly never to do, especially not to someone who struggles daily to rise above evil and make something out of what's left of his life."

"You're right. And believe me, there's not a day that goes by that I don't regret what I did to that boy. I never thought he would slip up that badly, never, and I certainly didn't think he would take it so hard that Paige refused to take him back afterwards. Boys like that move from one girl to another with lightning speed; why he's so fixated on her I will never understand. But anyway, I was just trying to protect my daughter, Eric, you have to understand that! I wasn't trying to hurt anyone, and, and I told you myself, not like that Nicole Walker forcing Jennifer to be the bearer of bad news."

"Stop talking about Nicole! This is a completely different situation. Eve, you - "

Just then, Jill's doctor walked into the room. "Excuse me. Mrs. Larson, Jill's asking for you."

Eve stood up, pushing her hair behind her ear. She glanced at Eric, but she couldn't read the expression on his face-was he thinking, or angry? She turned back towards the doctor. "Is everything all right?"

"I'll explain more once we get to her room."

"Can Eric - "

"She asked just for you."

Eve looked at Eric. He looked away, but he said, "I"ll pray for both of you."

Eve's shoulders shook, but she didn't have time for all that. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and marched down the hall, following the doctor.