Ari had fallen asleep on Jennifer's lap while Sonny was putting up the tree. "How's this?" he whispered, glancing at the sleeping baby.

"I think it needs to go a little more to the left. There. That's perfect."

Sonny sat down on the couch and picked up Ari. She didn't stir. "Do me a favor and take a photo for me to send Will," he said softly, taking the sleeping child over to the tree and standing next to it. "I know it's not decorated yet but when are we ever going to get such a perfect photo opportunity?"

"You don't think Will's going to make it home for Christmas?" Jen asked as Sonny handed her his phone.

"It's that button right there, the big round one," Sonny said. "And no. He's… his screenwriting is really taking off, you know? I can't fault him for moving to L.A. on what seems like a permanent basis. I mean, when does an opportunity like this come along?" He played with his wedding ring.

"You miss him, though," Jennifer said. "Why don't you fly to L.A. to surprise him?"

"I've tried that." Sonny's voice was thick with pain. "He's so busy that I'll barely get a chance to see him and I'll spend Christmas alone in a hotel room waiting for him to show up. If and when he does he'll be so exhausted he'll just collapse into bed and he'll probably have to work the next day so he'll be gone before I wake up. I'd rather stay right here with this little girl. I can deal with Will being gone much better than she can. Besides, I'm all she has left."

Jen shook her head. "You two are still married, aren't you?"

"Yeah. Of course." Sonny played with the ring. "In name, anyway." He swallowed hard, glancing at Ari. "Isn't she the sweetest little thing ever?" he asked, making himself smile. "You know Will and I… before he got this screenwriting job, we were going to adopt another child. I mean, not right away, but we'd talked about it. A little brother or sister for Ari. I guess that'll have to wait." Ari stirred in his arms and he said, "Hey. Good morning, sweetheart. Look, Aunt Jennifer's going to take our picture." He made himself smile too.

Sally was about to call JJ to find out where he'd gotten to when she heard him out in the hall on his phone. "Hey Paige," JJ was saying. "It's JJ. Um… I hope you don't mind me calling instead of texting but I couldn't go another minute without hearing your voice. I can't wait to see you this afternoon. I know you got a meeting or something and I have work but just text or call when you're free and I'll meet you at the coffee shop in the Square, the one where we met in the first place. I… I hope we can really start over, Paige. You don't know how much I needed your text the other night, how much I missed you. I'm probably saying too much so I'll shut up now. See you soon."

JJ came into the office. Sally looked him up and down. He still had that exhausted look in his eyes and he was moving slow, but he looked hopeful too - or was that her imagination? "So I guess you undid your screw-up from the other night," she said. "We back on as far as proving you didn't cheat on Paige?"

JJ could feel his face getting hot. Looking away from Sally, he said, "Yeah, I guess. I mean, if me and Paige get back together maybe it doesn't matter."

"Don't you think she should know the truth so some other crazy person doesn't get in your way with her? Besides, you should clear your name before some cop or other tries to use this as proof they had reason to mess with you."

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

"All right, JJ. You wanna tell me what happened the other night that made you think this is a lost cause?"

"Not really." JJ played with his backpack strap, aware Sally wasn't going to let this go too easily. "So what's up for today?" he asked, making himself smile.

"Nicole's got a source interview she wants you to tag along on. She'll be here in a few to explain; she had an early morning meeting or something." She gave JJ a worried look and said, "You know this thing with the cops isn't over, don't you?" JJ paled but he nodded. "I don't wanna scare you or anything," Sally said, "but this is gonna get worse before it gets better and you gotta be stronger than what you sounded like when you called me the other night. "

JJ's eyes narrowed. "Can you not worry? Please? I get enough of that from my mom without you pushing me too. I told you, I'm not backing off the story. "

"Oh, I know." Sally played with a pen, twisting it open and closed. "I'm not trying to dissuade you. I learned my lesson about that, believe me. I'm just saying, you were about to throw everything away after they made their first move, and you only seem halfway back to your usual self. That's just not gonna do. You can't let them in your head like that, JJ. You have to find a way to hold on no matter what they try to do to you."

JJ stared down at the ground, thinking. "Can you keep something to yourself?" he asked under his breath, glancing at the door to make sure it was closed. Sally nodded. Moving closer to her desk, he said, keeping his voice low, "My lawyer's been pushing me to see a shrink since this thing began and I'm… I kinda think maybe he's right."

JJ turned away from Sally, too embarrassed to look her in the eye. "I'd be nothing but proud of you if you did," she said softly. "Asking for help doesn't make you weak, JJ. It makes you even stronger and braver than you already are, cause I don't care what anyone says… it takes way more guts to admit you don't have it as together as you want than to go at it alone."

JJ shrugged. "It's… it's not that I can't handle stuff on my own, or at least I could til the other night. But me and Paige, we might have a second chance and I almost blew it up right when she was coming around, all cause of the cops. I made like, the worst choices that night, and I don't get why I did half of what I did, not really, and not knowing's driving me nuts cause it could happen again." His arm started throbbing; he put his fingertips on it and said, slowly, "I was able to deal with Jeff just fine, okay, but I can't get the freaking cops and what they did to me out of my head and it's only gonna get worse."

"You know why that is? That's cause they treated you so bad that you can't even talk about it, and you didn't do a single thing to deserve it. Just like Alfie." JJ looked puzzled and Sally explained, "That's my brother. Was my brother. He… he's gone now. I wish you could have met him, JJ. You'd have liked him a whole lot. He was a lot like you, determined and strong and just a tiny bit mischievous. But someone couldn't see past the color of his skin to everything they were snuffing out when they put a bullet in his head." She blinked hard.

"What happened?" JJ asked.

"I'll tell you another time, after all this is over."

JJ's eyes narrowed. "It was a cop, wasn't it?" He set his jaw, not waiting for Sally's answer. "The bastards!"

"JJ, don't. It was a long time ago and it wasn't here, anyway. It has nothing to do with why this guy Jenkins has it in for you."

"Yeah, well," JJ said, "there's a bunch of reasons I'm gonna get him, and now you just gave me another one."

Nicole came in just then. "Hold that thought," she said. "Actually, don't, but keep it to yourself for the next few minutes. We have a meeting with a source in the DA's office to get to and I need you to break the usual pattern and follow my lead."

Chloe and Philip stood in the doorway, watching Daniel playing with Parker. He had the hospital set out again and Parker was taking the boy figure off the bed and making him walk.

"He wants to get out of here just as badly as we do," Philip said under his breath. Chloe nodded but said nothing as Philip squeezed her hand. "You all right?" he asked.

"I guess." Chloe sighed as she squeezed Philip's hand back. "I… I'm worried about how Daniel's gonna react to, you know, our news. I know, I know, that's stupid. The weeks and weeks of not knowing what was wrong with Parker and then not knowing what to do to fix it was the time to worry, not now when he's on the mend and we're… so are we."

Philip kissed the back of her neck. "I understand. Daniel doesn't exactly have a track record of being sensible when it comes to me. But think of this as a test of whether he really means it about putting Parker before petty conflicts. If he does, he'll handle this properly. And if not… well, you know I'm not going anywhere, and I'm not going to let our son suffer, either."

"What are you - " Chloe began, but just then Parker noticed them and said, "Mommy? Daddy Phil? Why you in the door?"

Daniel frowned but said nothing when he heard Parker's new name for Philip.

"We were giving you a few extra minutes just with Daddy," Chloe said. "We'll come in now." She felt an urge to drop Philip's hand as they moved towards Daniel, but she ignored it. "We have big news, actually."

Daniel raised his eyebrows. "You, um… I'm guessing the two of you worked through what Kayla told us?"

Chloe nodded. She couldn't help smiling broadly, and she was sure her face was glowing. "We, um, we did. And - " Daniel's phone buzzed. He reached into his pocket and pressed a button to shut it up. Chloe's smile faded and she asked, "Do you need to get that?"

"Nah. Just a voicemail reminder. I didn't wanna check it while I was alone with Parker."

Chloe glanced at Philip. "No, go ahead. Our news can wait, like 30 seconds."

"You sure?" Daniel asked. "It, uh, it seems pretty big."

"It is. That's why I want your undivided attention."

Daniel nodded. He took out his phone and pressed the voicemail icon. His expression became more and more concerned as he listened. Getting off the phone, he quickly sent JJ a text:

Sry I didn't get this til 2day. I will look in on Rory ASAP. R u ok? Text me!

Chloe could feel her smile fading as Daniel put his phone away. "You have to go, don't you?"

"Nah, I can wait." Daniel tried to smile. "JJ, um, JJ needs a favor but I… you were right, Philip, my son… my son has to come first."

"Tell you what," Philip said. "Go do what you have to do so that we don't have to rush through this. Parker could use some more play time anyway, and we really do want your full attention so…"

Daniel nodded. "I'll be back as soon as I can. I promise." He kissed the top of Parker's head and shook hands with Philip before leaving. Chloe's eyes narrowed as she watched him hurry down the hall.

Philip squeezed her shoulder. "Hey. This gives us more time to get ready to tell him."

"True." Chloe sighed. "Maybe I should get Nicole down here for the big announcement."

"What? What?" Parker asked.

Chloe smiled as she turned towards her son. "You gotta keep this a secret til after we tell Daddy, okay?" Parker nodded and Philip added, "That means don't tell anybody, no matter what."

Parker put his thumb in his mouth.

Chloe squeezed Philip's hand. "So here goes." She leaned forward and whispered, "How would you like to be in a wedding?"

Parker looked puzzled. "Who I gonna marry?"

Chloe couldn't help laughing. "You're not marrying anyone for a long time. I hope. No, silly, Daddy Phil and me are going to get married."

"YOU ARE!" Parker shouted, so loud his heart monitor beeped.

Philip and Chloe exchanged glances, sighing. "Keep it calm," Philip told Parker. "We don't want you to have to stay in this hospital a minute longer than necessary. But I take it that you're as happy as we are about this."

Parker nodded, grinning. Philip picked him up and put him on his lap. "You know what that means, big guy?"

"It means Mommy wears a fancy dress and then you kiss."

"That too. Mommy and me want to show everyone that we love each other and that we love you too. You see, Parker, what this really means is that you and Mommy and me, we're going to be a family." Philip embraced Parker, hoping his son (stepson, a voice said in his head but he ignored it) didn't see the two tears rolling down his cheeks.

Rory's eyes opened, then closed again, then opened again. He saw Aiden was sitting in the chair by his bed and blinking didn't get rid of him. "Mr. Jennings?" he mumbled, his voice hoarse.

"That's right," Aiden said.

Rory tried to sit up. His head was pounding and he lay back down again. "Am I dead?" he asked. "No, I can't be cause you don't have headaches in heaven. Unless… am I in the other place?"

Aiden shook his head. "I'm happy to tell you that you're still very much alive, and I hope that you're as glad about that as I am. Dr. Brady can explain your condition far better than I can, but for now, just know that you're one lucky guy, cause someone found you and brought you to the hospital just in time." Rory's eyes widened but he said nothing. Aiden went on, "I don't want you to worry about your case. I got a continuance this morning. That means that the judge gave us an extension til you're out of the hospital. All you gotta do is get better and then show up. I'll take care of the rest."

Rory nodded. "That why you came by?" he asked. "To tell me that?"

"Not exactly." Aiden was quiet for a second. "Last couple of times I saw you, seemed like you were starting to straighten out your act. What happened that made the bottom of a bottle seem like a good idea all of a sudden?"

Rory frowned. "Kurt happened," he said. "He had some brandy or something. It's all kinda fuzzy. I remember getting some letter I needed to show you, from school or something, but the rest's gone." He automatically reached into his jeans pockets, but he was wearing a hospital gown and didn't know where his pants were. "And so's the letter too," he said, trying to laugh. Aiden looked upset and Rory said, "You… you gonna cut me loose, dude?"

"Absolutely not. You might not remember, but I made you a promise last time we talked. I take my promises seriously, my friend, and I take you seriously too. Next time you get some bad news, you walk away from Kurt and his endless supply of booze and drugs and you call me, you understand?"

Rory blinked hard. "You must have the wrong room. It's JJ who gets the second chances and the cool dude dropping everything for him, not me."

"Yeah, well, it's time someone gave you one too." Aiden smiled slightly, then let the smile fade. "Drop the class clown act, Rory, all right? Another two minutes and they'd have had to take you to the morgue. Now I know that scares you as much as it scares me, so let's not joke around here. You almost died and the night before you could have ended up in jail all over again, plus you might have lost your best friend thanks to things you did that I'm guessing you don't remember. So I hope you believe in wake up calls cause this is yours. Am I making sense?"

Rory's eyes were very wide and he swallowed hard, but he said, "JJ'll come around. He always does."

Before Aiden could respond, there was a knock on the door and then Daniel came in. Rory's eyes got even wider and he said, "I must still be in that coma. No way I get two cool dudes doing anything but kicking me out of somewhere."

Daniel glanced at him, looking as concerned as Aiden did. "Nah, the only one I'm kicking out of here right now's your lawyer, so we can talk one on one." He glanced at Aiden. "Sorry about that."

"Not a problem. I have another client I gotta see while I'm here anyway." Aiden got up. He patted Rory's shoulder. "I'm not going any further than a phone call away. You need me, you call." He walked off.

As Aiden walked down the hall to the elevator, someone came out of a conference room and followed him down the hall, making sure to keep their distance.

Mrs. Hunter wrung her hands together. "Are you sure there IS a way for me to help my daughter?"

Marlena glanced at her. "I very rarely conclude that anyone, especially a young person, is beyond hope. You and Marissa's relationship may not be where you want it to be right now, and certainly Marissa is not nearly as ready to leave the hospital as we had hoped before Thanksgiving, but that doesn't mean that your relationship must remain estranged. What makes you feel that it's impossible?"

Mrs. Hunter sighed. "All those years of taking her to doctors, trying to find out what was wrong with her, trying as best I can to help her… and for what? Even before her attack she was barely talking to me. I'd call and she'd answer me in monosyllables then make an excuse to hang up. I can't help thinking that she wasn't just running away from Pigeon Falls. She was running away from me, from her own mother who has never had anything but her best interests in mind. And now, when the worst has happened, when everything I feared for her has come true... " She shook her head. "Last night it just seemed I was making her worse, pushing her closer to another breakdown. It's as if I'm making my daughter worse off than she already was, and maybe it's always been that way. I don't know. I don't… I don't want to… but I can't help wondering if there's a point where the best thing I can do for her is give up, is back off and give her what she wants so that she has a chance in hell of getting better."

Marlena glanced at Elizabeth, whose eyes were wide and shiny. "I think Dr. Harper has something to say about that," she said. "She specializes in young people so perhaps she can help you better."

Mrs. Hunter nodded. Elizabeth said, slowly, "There are times when it's in a child's best interest to get a lot of space from their parents, but I don't think this is one of those times. Marissa needs you. She does. She just isn't ready to admit it to herself yet."

"So what do I do?"

"I think…" Elizabeth was still talking slowly, as if she were thinking aloud. "I think maybe repairing your relationship needs to be part of her therapy. This is… it might be uncomfortable, I don't know, but I think we have to get her used to you being in her life all over again. What I mean is, I think you should have short, scheduled visits with her and then after each visit I can help her explore her feelings towards you. Kind of like… family therapy but seeing each of you separately for the moment, since she's not ready to accept being in the same room with you for a long period of time yet."

Mrs. Hunter's eyes filled with tears. "So I'd only be able to see her for, what, half an hour a week?"

"We'll work out the logistics after I talk with her," Elizabeth said. "For now… I know it hurts. I know this isn't the relationship you dreamed of and that you want nothing more than to hold your daughter in your arms, to comfort her, to talk openly with her. Try to think of this as the first step to getting there. To heal your relationship with Marissa, we have to start all over again and rebuild it in a healthier manner. I know limited visits with her while she's not well doesn't feel good, but it's a lot better than nothing at all, isn't it?"

Mrs. Hunter nodded. "You're right. Of course you're right. We… we all want the same thing… we all want her to get better… so all right. I'll stick to whatever schedule you set up and leave her alone the rest of the time."

After Sonny and Ari went home, Jen headed to the police station. She walked in slowly, trying to get her bearings. Everything looked the same, but something felt off. Normally she would have headed directly to Roman's office, but something told her to see the front desk sergeant.

"The Commissioner's in a meeting," the sergeant told her. "He let word that he's not to be disturbed."

"Oh." Jennifer squeezed her hands together. "What about Rafe Hernandez?"

The front desk sergeant's eyes narrowed and he said, "He's not available to talk to civilians right now."

Jennifer frowned, remembering what JJ had said about Rafe. She had decided she wasn't going to let any desk sergeant stand in her way and was about to push past the front desk to see if she could find anyone herself when a tall, balding man came out of a back office and approached the desk. "Is there something I can help you with, ma'am?" he asked. "As the sergeant said, the commissioner is tied up in a meeting. My name is Tim Rodman - I'm internal affairs but if there's anything you need I will be sure to get the message to Commissioner Brady. We're all about serving the public, after all."

"Right." Jennifer made herself smile. "It's nothing important. I'm just doing a holiday drive for the Horton Center - have you heard of it? We help kids who need someone to talk to or something to do so that they can turn their lives around."

"I see." Rodman sounded bored.

"They were a godsend to my son JJ when he was on a bad path," Jennifer added, bending the truth in order to see if she could get a reaction out of Rodman. "He's doing much better now, and I'm sure the police want to contribute to helping kids like him stay out of trouble so that they don't have to put time and energy into taking them off the streets. Makes all of your jobs easier, doesn't it?"

Rodman frowned. "All charity requests have to go through our PR person. Here's her card." He took a card out of his card holder and handed it to Jennifer. "Best of luck to your son. I hope he continues to stay out of trouble - it would truly be a shame for him to disappoint a mother with such a big heart." He walked away.

Jennifer's eyes narrowed and she hurried out of the station. Outside, she mumbled to herself, "That man is as familiar as he is creepy. Where have I seen him before?" She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. Who does he think he is, making veiled threats to me against my son?"

JJ and Nicole got to Brady Pub before the source. As they sat down at a booth in the very back of the pub, JJ whispered to Nicole, "Isn't this kind of public? I figured we'd meet in like, some out of the way place."

Nicole signaled a waiter over and ordered drinks. After he left, she said, "I get enough of a thrill from finding out things people don't want me to know without having to worry that some so-called source is going to go to extremes to try to shut me up, not that it would really work anyway."

JJ's eyes widened. "No way. That's happened to you?"

"No, and it's not going to. JJ, we're talking about going up against people with a lot of power, people who can make what the cops did to you look like a walk in the park. Those kinds of people go to a lot of trouble to cover things up, and if some lesser mortal like us gets too close, they'll do whatever it takes to keep us from uncovering their dirty little secrets. A place like this is private enough to make a real source comfortable and public enough that we can attract attention if someone decides to bring extra drama to the table." Nicole waited til the waiter brought the drinks and had gone away before saying, "Mouth dry enough yet? Here." She pushed JJ's root beer over to him.

Just then, a woman came over to their table. She had dark glasses on but otherwise looked normal, with reddish hair that hung straight down and a stylish jacket. "Patty?" Nicole asked, and the woman nodded. As she slid into her seat, Nicole said, "I took the liberty of ordering drinks for us so we wouldn't get disturbed." The woman glanced at JJ and Nicole said, "This is the intern I told you would be shadowing me."

"I know who he is," the woman said. "JJ, right? You're that kid they arrested at Fall Festival."

JJ scowled. "I don't know what kind of stories they're telling you in the DA's office, but - "

Nicole put her hand on JJ's wrist as she interrupted, "That's a sensitive topic for him, as I'm sure you understand. How about we leave all our hard feelings on the table and get started with what we hoped to talk about?"

"You misunderstood me," Patty said. She took off her jacket and folded it neatly, putting it on the seat next to her. "I wasn't bringing it up to embarrass the kid. Uh uh." She sipped her gin and tonic, buying herself time to get her words together. "You see, JJ, or I should say, Jack Junior, there's something you need to know. Your arrest was no innocent mistake. It - "

"I know that," JJ said. "Rodman or Jenkins or whoever wants me behind bars. The only thing I don't get is why."

Patty's eyes narrowed. "I've heard your father was just like that, excitable, in a hurry to get the story, shooting himself in the foot with his own impatience. There. Now I've got your attention. You need to listen because I don't have much time. I don't know all the details, Jack Junior, only because I'm too new to the DA's office, but I do know something that you very much want and need to know. So put those racing thoughts on hold because if I get interrupted too much I'm going to lose my nerve. I'll answer your questions afterwards, I promise. But first listen to what I have to say."

Bev lay in bed, staring at her sonogram. "It's so weird," she mumbled to herself. "This… this doesn't look like a baby. It looks like a seahorse or something… and by the time it becomes a baby, by the time it's something… someone I can love… I'll be in jail… this is probably the only photo I'll ever have…" She blinked hard.

There was a knock on her door. "Come in," she said flatly, not moving her eyes from the photo.

Aiden came in. He glanced at Bev, taking in what she was looking at. "You're pregnant," he said softly.

"No, really?" Bev didn't look away from the photo.

"How far along?" Aiden asked. Bev didn't answer and he said. "Sorry. Here I am asking you what seems like extremely personal questions and I haven't even introduced myself. Aiden Jennings. I'm -"

"I know who you are." Bev played with the edge of the sonogram. "You're that lawyer that kept JJ out of jail. What I don't get us why you're here. I mean, my father already got some overpriced attorney to tell me the best I can do is a shorter jail sentence than they really want, and no way is he paying for two so there's no point to talking to you, is there?"

"That's where you're wrong. Mr. Berger has very graciously allowed me to take the lead on your case, and trust me, I play to win. In your case, that means an acquittal. No time whatsoever, a clean record and if we're very lucky an apology from the court for wasting your time." Bev shrugged. "That doesn't impress you. Okay. Maybe this will." Aiden leaned forward. "I heard you're eager for a visit from Paige Larson. I can make that happen." Bev looked up, then back at the sonogram. "See, it happens I have an appointment with her on an unrelated matter as soon as I leave here. I have I can convince her to give five minutes of her time to visiting you while you're still in the hospital so you won't have to face her in cuffs. But for that to happen, you gotta do something first."

"What?"

"Not much. Five minutes of her time goes for the low, low price of five minutes of yours. So put the sonogram down, look at me, and let's talk about how we're going to get you out of the mess you're in."

Bev hesitated, then she slowly put the sonogram down and turned towards Aiden.

JJ was sure this woman was full of crap, but one look at Nicole's face told him to play her game. "I'm listening," he said, as the sound of the cell door being closed against him echoed in his head. He picked up the paper from his straw and played with it, nervously, hoping nobody noticed.

Patty glanced at him and said, "Good." She sipped her gin and tonic while JJ waited, swallowing hard to stop himself from telling her to hurry up and spit it out. "Did your father ever mention an organization to you called the brotherhood?"

JJ shook his head. "I… I didn't really get to talk to him about reporting," he said softly.

"The brotherhood is… well, I suppose most people would say it's an urban legend. Supposedly within the legal system here in Salem, there's a secret organization made up mostly of cops, though of course there have to be judges and prosecutors who are part of it or the whole thing falls apart. These cops and judges and whoever else are over their heads in illegal activity. Stealing evidence, embezzling money, that sort of thing. And the thing is… they protect their own. If a cop is a member of the brotherhood, he's untouchable, because if he gets caught the other members of the brotherhood make it go away."

"Sounds more like a mob than people who are supposed to keep law and order," Nicole commented.

Patty nodded. "Like I said, it's supposed to be an urban legend. I can't imagine what would happen if it was real and an outsider stumbled upon it." She took another sip. "I haven't been at the DA's office all that long so I have no idea if we're involved in this crap in any way, but I do know one thing. About three or four years ago, there was a reporter who totally bought into the idea of the brotherhood being real. This reporter supposedly uncovered some really incriminating stuff, stuff that the brotherhood didn't want to see the light of day. But then, he suddenly dropped the story and went running off to Afghanistan."

JJ's eyes widened. Setting his jaw, he said, "They set my dad up, didn't they?"

"I don't know. It's possible. The timing of him finding evidence of whatever it was he was supposed to be reporting on in Afghanistan and then getting thrown in prison over there is awfully suspicious. Anyway, I don't have any hard proof of anything, not even that the brotherhood exists. But it seems to me that if it does, when you began following in your father's footsteps certain people would have been alarmed, especially when during your very first story you managed to get your hands on confidential police photos. If you could do that when you'd barely begun, you could uncover all sorts of corruption, all sorts of things they'd rather nobody know. So they'd have to find a way to get rid of you, especially if they were afraid that your father shared information with you before he died about what he had found out."

"Well, he didn't, so they can leave me the hell alone." Nicole put her hand on JJ's wrist, but he pulled away. "You don't know what it was like, Nicole, what they did to me, so don't tell me to be quiet, okay? That dude Jenkins - " His mouth dropped open. "Jenkins is brotherhood too, isn't he? Nobody's gonna be able to get him for what he did to me."

"I don't know. All I can tell you is that if the corruption exists, it runs deep, deeper than just the Salem police department. The entire legal system in Salem, or maybe even in the state, is impacted. This is big, Jack Junior, bigger than you and probably bigger than Nicole."

Nicole frowned. "Okay, I'll play. Let's say there is statewide corruption and they're afraid we're going to stumble across it. How does putting JJ behind bars help? I mean, no offense JJ, but you are just an intern. To shut us down they'd have to go after me and Sally too, and locking up my intern on bogus charges is just going to make me twice as determined to expose what they're up to."

Patty nodded. "That means one of two things. Well, three, really. One possibility is there is no brotherhood and this is all some crazy conspiracy theory."

"Better paranoid than sorry," Nicole said. "We'll assume there is."

"I agree. So either they haven't counted on you backing him up or they figure he's just the top priority and once he's out of the way, they'll work on making sure you cooperate."

"Nicole can't be bought," JJ said, "and neither can I. If they manage to lock me up, the whole world's gonna know why."

"Everyone has a price," Patty told him, "and yours - "

"I think we've had our fill of off-the-record scare tactics," Nicole interrupted. "How about we go on the record now? We're going to investigate the Ku Klux Cops or whatever they are, but first we have a job to do. We want to know about Bev Walters. Why is the DA going against her own orders to get tough on crime by making sure Cole Hines gets away with a slap on the wrist for kidnapping two girls and only avoiding murder charges because his aim was bad?"

Patty hesitated. "She's not," she said. "Here's the deal. The DA is determined to make Bev Walters pay for her part in this. The girl says she was forced into it, and maybe she was, but we're talking about a horrific crime, and she has to answer for it. If Cole turns on her, it makes it easier to convict Bev. But once he plays his part, nothing stops the DA from filing new charges against him, charges that'll get him just as much time as if he were convicted of kidnapping."

Nicole frowned. "Is that ethical?" she asked.

"Who cares?" JJ interrupted. "This is freaking Cole we're talking about."

"I agree," Patty said, "except the cops who locked you up the other day have the same attitude towards you." JJ reddened. He looked down at the table while Patty said, "Ask your lawyer sometime to explain to you the concept of rights for all or rights for none. I don't have time. But anyway, no, I don't think it's ethical, but it's not up to me, so I don't say anything." Her phone beeped. "I'd better go. I'm starting to be missed." She got up.

"Hold on!" JJ said. "What the hell did you mean, everyone has their price? What are they gonna try - " But Patty was already gone. "Hey!" he shouted in the direction she had gone in.

Nicole put her hand on his wrist. Again. "JJ. Look at me," she said firmly. JJ glared at her, but he obeyed. "We got all we could out of her. Making a scene isn't going to help; it's only going to attract the kind of attention we don't want and make her regret talking to us at all. Understand?"

JJ nodded. Taking a breath to compose himself, he asked, "So what's our next step?"

Nicole was already sending a text. "I'm going to have Sally transcribe this and put her to work looking for sources to corroborate. What this one said seems like it makes sense, but it's not a good idea just to take some anonymous person's word for it, especially not on something like this. She could just as easily be a plant Rodman sent our way to try to scare us out of investigating him or to find out what we already know about what he's involved in."

"Like that'll work," JJ said darkly.

Nicole glanced at him. "I'm going to assume you're like all the ordinary kids your age and have an iPod that's glued to your ear when you're not busy losing your temper with sources. Let me have it for a second."

"Why?" JJ asked, but he took the iPod out of his pocket and handed it to her.

"I'm sending you the file too. Rafe wants to take you to lunch; make sure he gets a chance to listen." JJ scowled as he took the iPod back and Nicole said, "Do I need to dust off my speech about letting him back us up when the going gets dangerous?"

"No, it's not that." JJ wasn't exactly sure why he was annoyed, but it didn't have to do with Rafe. He glanced down at his phone, pretending to reread Daniel's text, which he'd answered hours ago, while wishing he'd get one from Paige already. "It's just, I'm seeing Paige in a couple hours and I don't wanna be all wound up. I kinda wanted to go home and try to decompress if that's okay." Nicole looked concerned and he said, "I'll catch up with Rafe soon, I swear. Please, Nicole, I wanna have a normal life for like 30 seconds, just be a regular guy going out for coffee with the girl he wants to be with. Do I have to - "

"I guess they aren't going to move that fast. Text Rafe and let him know and you can have the afternoon off for your date."

"Thanks." JJ opened his phone and sent a text, quickly. As he got up, Nicole said, "Hey, JJ?"

He turned around again. Nicole said, "I really hope it works out for you and Paige today. You deserve something to smile about."

When Paige got to Aiden's office, there was another client waiting in the waiting room, a short guy with a neatly trimmed beard. He looked like some kind of professional guy, but he made Paige nervous. She sat as far away from him as she could. Okay, she thought. He's just some guy waiting. He's not Jeff. Stop freaking out.

"Ms. Larson?" Aiden's receptionist said.

Paige flinched. "Yeah?"

"Mr. Jennings is ready for you." The receptionist smiled sympathetically.

Paige couldn't help looking over her shoulder at the stranger as she walked into Aiden's office. He was looking at his phone, not even paying attention to her.

As soon as the door closed behind Paige, the guy texted:

Jennings talking to Larson girl. Instructions?

Inside Aiden's office, Paige looked around as she sat down across from him. Her eyes automatically took in all the law books on his shelf; reading the titles helped calm her even though she had no idea what most of them were about.

"First things first," Aiden said. "You seem a little frazzled. You all right?"

"Yeah. This whole thing with the cops is just upsetting, you know? All my life I thought if there's ever a problem, they'll take care of it. Then they left me and JJ to fend for ourselves against Jeff and now this. I… I don't know what to believe anymore."

Aiden nodded. "I know the feeling," he said. "This is throwing me for a loop too. But that's kind of why we're here. JJ wants to go ahead and file a complaint against the officers who arrested him."

"Good for him." Paige's voice was flat, but there was anger in her eyes. "I hope he makes them pay and pay for what they did to both of us."

"Right. That's where you come in. See, JJ has a strong case, but he's also got a criminal record, and the fact of the matter is any jury's gonna look at him with suspicion cause this isn't the first time he's been behind bars. This is supposed to be us suing them for violating his rights, but they're gonna try to put him on trial just like they would have if they'd managed to make their bogus charges stick."

"But he didn't do anything wrong!"

"I know, and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure the cops don't get away with it. But here's the thing." Aiden leaned forward. "Two voices are a lot louder than one, Paige, and JJ's not the only one whose rights got violated."

Paige's heart beat fast, thinking about everyone's eyes turning towards her as she took the stand. She automatically pressed her arms against her chest, protecting herself. But she said, "I'll testify. Don't worry, Mr. Jennings, you can trust me to tell the whole story, tell the whole world what the cops did to try to force me to say JJ did something wrong. That cop got in my face, made me freak out even worse than I already was, and he did it on purpose. While I was sitting there I memorized his name and his badge number just in case."

"Good," Aiden said. "But I was thinking even bigger. There any chance you'd be willing to file a joint complaint? See, the cops'll try to spin a tale of how JJ was acting suspicious, going back to his old ways, all that jazz. But you suing too significantly weakens their case, and there's no way they could drag your character through the mud, not unless they wanna look like they're in the business of beating up crime victims."

Paige swallowed hard, but she nodded. "Whatever it takes to make them pay."

"You're sure?" Aiden asked. "This is gonna be tough. They're not gonna play dirty with you - or at least I don't think so, anyway - but that doesn't mean this is gonna be easy for you. This isn't just a lawsuit, Paige, it's a war, and it's gonna get ugly. I want you to do what it takes to get justice, for you and for JJ, but if you're not ready I need to know now cause once we file there's no turning back."

Paige's eyes narrowed. "I didn't get the chance to face Jeff down in a courtroom," she said, her voice hard, "to stand up in front of everyone and tell them what he did to me. But the cops terrorized us all over again and this time I want to shame them with the truth. If I ask Dr. Evans she might say I'm not ready, but I don't care. I want to do this. I want to get them. And if there's any way you can do something to my roommate for lying to the cops so they had a reason to put JJ behind bars, I want you to do that too. I'm tired of being a victim. From now on, I'm fighting back."

Roman glared at the subpoena on his desk. Tapping it against the palm of his hand, he picked up his landline and made a call. "Aiden. It's Roman Brady. I got your little message. Why the hell didn't you just come to me instead of filing a motion? I'd have given you everything you needed to know. Call me as soon as you get this cause we gotta talk." He slammed the phone down.

His office door opened and Rafe slipped inside. Closing it softly behind him, he said, "Guess you heard that JJ's getting ready to sue the department."

"Not now," Roman said under his breath. "You think Rodman's not listening?"

Rafe shrugged. "I don't care, boss. Far as I'm concerned, tiptoeing around him just gives him power he doesn't deserve." He crossed his arms. "I don't care what he does to me, okay? All I care about is getting him out of here so that we can get out of the business of terrorizing innocent people and back to stopping real crime."

Roman turned on some inane training video and turned the volume up. "What da hell do you think you're gonna be able to do if he kicks you off the force altogether?"

"I dunno. But maybe it's time you stopped going along with him so I don't have to worry about it." Rafe's eyes flashed.

"You know I can't stand up to him directly and neither can you. You just gotta lay low and keep working under the table. You accomplish what I asked you to?"

Rafe nodded. "Nicole's in."

"Good. Anything else you need to tell me?"

"Yeah. We need to recruit Horowitz." Roman frowned and Rafe said, "Look, she's the one who leaked those photos. Rodman gets wind of it, he's gonna eat her for lunch, and we can't afford that. Not when she's the only uniform we've run across so far that's actually committed to what the badge is supposed to stand for. Besides, Jenkins switched partners after what went down, and considering what I know about what he did to JJ, that's real cause for alarm."

Roman nodded. "What're you thinking I can do for her?"

"Take her to lunch tomorrow and fill her in on the plan. We gotta get her on board, cause pretty soon, we're gonna need her."

The man in Aiden's office came up to the receptionist's desk. "Look, I know Mr. Jennings is alone, cause I saw that girl leave. Now, I'm a patient man, but I'm a busy one, and I can't afford to waste time. Why haven't you called me into his office yet?"

"He's finishing up some paperwork. I'll let you know when he's ready."

"Better be soon." The man adjusted his suit jacket and the receptionist saw, or thought she saw, a bulge that looked like the butt of a gun underneath the bottom of the jacket.

"Tell you what," the receptionist said. "I'll remind him again that you're waiting."

The man nodded, but he didn't go sit down. The receptionist picked up her phone and pressed a button three times in quick succession. Her phone buzzed back and she glanced at her computer screen. "He's ready for you now, Mr. Brewster."

Jennifer had gone up to the attic to get Jack's old computer. She was in the kitchen now, looking through files on it.

Just then, the front door opened, then closed. "JJ?" Jennifer called. "Is that you, honey?" She didn't get an answer. She closed the search bar and minimized her screen, then walked into the living room.

JJ was staring at the Christmas tree. It was still bare, of course - they'd put the ornaments up Christmas Eve like always - but seeing it there was making his mood worse for some reason. He went up to it and played with one of the branches, thinking.

Once when he was little, his dad bribed him into being good all week with a promise of a trip to the Christmas tree farm to help pick out the tree, just him and Jack, no girls allowed. He picked out a tree that was way too tall for their little house and Jack's eyes twinkled as he said, "Nothing wrong with aiming high, son, but I think your mother will object to me cutting a hole in the ceiling. What do you say we try this one instead?" Then he directed him towards a tree that was way more likely to fit in their house. JJ was proud of himself that he cooperated without even wanting to have a tantrum, and Jack never said anything but he knew his dad was proud of him too. Jack picked him up so that he could feel the bark of the tree to make sure it wasn't being cut down too soon and showed him how to breathe in the scent of the pine needles so that he would remember it forever...

JJ felt a need, now, to feel the plastic holding up their artificial tree even though he knew it wouldn't be the same. He hated how fake it was and how whoever made it didn't even bother spraying it with something to make it smell like pine needles.

He turned away, feeling stupid about being upset over nothing. His dad's picture seemed to be looking at him from the end table. He picked it up and stared at it, ignoring the pain that was starting up in his arm for a change. "Wonder what you'd think if you came back for like, five minutes. I bet you'd be surprised I'm a reporter like you now, huh? You tried to talk to me about it so many times and I didn't care about anything but my freaking guitar. Well, now I learned my lesson cause I can't even play. Serves me right for not listening to you when I had the chance, I guess. Now I wanna ask you everything and it's way too late cause you're freaking gone." JJ hit the photo against the table as he put it back, not hard enough to break the frame but hard enough to satisfy his anger. "Talking to your photo is so lame. Can't you, like, come back in a dream, push out whatever stupid nightmare I'm having just for one night? Is that too much to ask?"

He felt a hand on his shoulder and twisted his head to see who it was, half expecting it to be his dad magically back from the dead. It wasn't. It was his mom. She said, gently, "I miss your dad most around holiday time too, sweetheart." JJ shrugged and she said, "I have something that might help, though. Wanna come into the kitchen with me?"

"Can it wait?" JJ asked. His mother looked disappointed or worried - he couldn't tell which but as usual it was one of those two. "I… I'm supposed to meet someone. I only came back to get changed."

"This'll only take a second," Jen said. "I promise."

"Fine. Whatever." JJ followed his mother into the kitchen.

Jennifer gestured towards the computer. "This was your dad's computer, sweetie. I was going to give it to you on Christmas morning, but I think you might want it now. It has all of his notes, all of the stories he worked on in the past five years or so. Blog posts and photos too… not just to go with stories but things that inspired him, pictures of us I didn't know he'd ever taken, much less that he saved them on his hard drive. It's five years old so it's not worth much as a computer, but looking at it is like visiting him, learning so much more about him than even I knew, and I know he would want you to have it."

JJ's eyes widened. He reached for the computer, but his arm started throbbing. "Can… can you put it in my room for me?" he asked. "With my arm like this I don't wanna risk dropping it."

His mother nodded. "Of course, sweetheart."

JJ swallowed hard. "I'm being rude. Sorry." He hugged his mom tight. "Thank you so much," he said, his voice breaking. His mother held him for as long as he would let her. His phone buzzed and he knew without looking that it was Paige. "I… I gotta go," he said as he pulled it out and glanced at her text, smiling slightly.

"Go ahead. I'll take this upstairs for you while you're out."

JJ thanked her. He walked over to the mirror in the front hall, wondering if he should put on a tie as he texted Paige back to let her know he was on his way.

Paige grabbed a table in the back of the coffee shop, wondering if she should sit closer to the front so JJ couldn't miss her when he came in. But this gave them more privacy.

She was almost as nervous as she had been on that horrible day JJ had been arrested. She'd changed into a dress then back again, deciding that she'd rather wear a sweater/pants combination that showed off her chest and her butt without showing so much that strangers would stare at her. Her sweater was soft and white and hopefully made her eyes look even more beautiful than usual.

She kept glancing at the door, but whenever she locked eyes with someone who wasn't JJ it made her feel like that day in Club TBD when she and Jeff had met for the first time and she had to look away so she didn't freak out. Some guy seemed like he was coming towards her table and she held her breath until he walked past her and to the restroom. Stop that! she told herself. That's how you got JJ in trouble, remember? No more freaking out. She took out her compact, distracting herself by checking her hair and makeup. She'd done it all herself to spite Daphne, who had offered to help and made Paige have to ignore her while she was getting ready, and she wasn't sure it looked good at all. Well, she'd agreed to let Aiden set up a time for her to visit Bev. Maybe by the time Bev got out of trouble she and Paige would be friends and Bev would help her learn how to do her makeup properly.

JJ walked in. Paige put the compact away, quickly, and sat up straight, trying not to look nervous. It wasn't like she and JJ had never seen each other before, even if she'd started a lot of stupid fights lately. His eyes met hers from across the room. He smiled slightly as he waved to her. Paige blushed as she waved back. She watched, her eyes wide, as JJ came towards her table.