AUTHOR'S NOTE: So here is chapter 5. This chapter, I'm hoping, will leave you guys squirming in your seats (and please, lemme know if it does (). So without further ado, Chapter 5.....

"Mommy," Dawne began curiously as her mother proceeded to French braid her hair, "What're we doing today?"

"Whatever you want baby," Skye replied.

"I wanna' play with Michael," she replied with excitement. "And I wanna' see the whole family too!"

"The whole family?" Skye repeated. "That's a lot of people."

"But I wanna meet them all," Dawne said. "Molly said that since I don't know my family it means I probably don't have one."

"Who's Molly?" Skye asked.

"She's one of the girls in my dorm room," Dawne shrugged. "She's not very nice."

"Well she certainly doesn't seem like it," Skye agreed. "Is that why you want to meet the whole family, so you can tell her you do have a family?"

Dawne nodded.

"All right then, I guess I can arrange for you to meet them all," Skye smiled.

"Yay!" Dawne exclaimed. "And I get to play with Michael too, right?"

"When I take you to meet your Uncle Jason we'll see if Michael's home. He lives right across the hall from him you know?"

"Why doesn't he live with the family like Uncle AJ?" she asked curiously.

"The same reason I don't live with them," Skye answered. "Because he doesn't want too."

"Oh," she nodded understanding it somewhat. "Can we go there first?"

Skye smiled and kissed her daughter. "Of course baby."

* * * * *

Less than an hour later Skye and Dawne stepped out of the elevator onto the floor where Jason and Sonny's penthouses were. She could only remember a few times when she'd been up here and each time hadn't been one of her best memories.

Dawne grabbed her mother's hand in a mix of excitement and fear as Skye led her over to one of the two doors and knocked. She waited a while, but there was no answer. "I guess he's not home yet," she said aloud.

Dawne frowned. "When will he be back?"

"I'm not sure baby," Skye shook her head. "But we can go visit Michael while we're waiting, how 'bout that?"

Dawne nodded vigorously, smiling with excitement as her mother led her across the hall to the only other door. There was a large man standing next to the door with his arms crossed across his chest, sporting a very cross expression.

"I'd like to see Carly and Michael," Skye told him.

The man looked at her without any emotion, but knocked on the door behind him without moving his eyes from hers.

"Who is it Marco?" Skye heard Sonny's voice call from the other side of the door.

"It's Ms. Quartermaine sir," Marco replied.

There was a long pause, and then Sonny opened the door slowly. He looked Skye up and down, then looked at the little girl holding her hand. "What do you want Skye?" he asked just as emotionless as the guard had.

"Dawne was wondering if she could play with Michael," Skye replied biting the inside of her cheek out of nervousness.

Sonny looked her up and down again, then looked at the little girl. "Come on in," he stood out of the way as Skye and her daughter walked inside. He walked over to the stairs casually. "Michael, come downstairs for a moment."

A few seconds later Michael rushed down the stairs. "Yeah?"

"Yes," Sonny corrected, then turned and pointed to Dawne. "You're little friend came over to play. Why don't you take her upstairs and show her your new toy?" Michael smiled brightly and waved a hand for Dawne to follow. Together the two ran upstairs leaving Skye and Sonny alone.

There was a long uncomfortable silence between them as Sonny studied her. Skye cleared her throat uncomfortable with the silence. "What?"

"Carly told me you had a daughter," he replied. "I wasn't sure I believed it until now...... She looks a lot like you."

"So everyone says," Skye nodded. They lapsed into silence again, and Skye's eyes darted nervously. "So is Jason going to be home soon?" she asked.

"Soon," he nodded. "Why?"

"Dawne wanted to meet him," Skye shrugged. "I figured she and Michael could play while we're here."

They looked up when they heard movement on the stairs and watched as Carly came down. "Hey Sweety," Sonny said. "You need some help?" "No," Carly replied but Sonny met her on the last few steps and held her hand as she descended the rest of the stairs. "Hey Skye," she smiled. "I saw Dawne and Michael in his room so I thought you might be here."

"Dawne wanted to meet Jason and play with Michael today," she replied.

Carly nodded. "I was wondering if we could get them together again while she's here."

"I've got a meeting with the families," Sonny told the two. He walked over and kissed Carly good-bye, and waved to Skye as he left.

Carly motioned for her to sit down on the couch. "Would you like a drink?" she pointed to the liquor cabinet.

Skye shook her head. "No, I don't drink anymore."

"Oh right," Carly nodded. "Sorry about that, I forgot."

"No problem," Skye waved her hand with a smile. "I'm sorry about the way I left the other day. I've just been really nervous with Dawne here. Everybody's asking questions I can't answer, you know?"

"I understand," Carly nodded. "Don't worry about it," she said as she sat down on the couch with a bit of difficulty.

"Do you need some help?" Skye asked nervously.

"God, if someone asks me that one more time...." Carly shook her head with a laugh. "I hate that about being pregnant. Everyone treats you like you're gonna' break at any second."

Skye smiled. "We just don't want anything to happen, that's all."

"I understand the concern, but still, it gets rather annoying," she sighed. "So, how are things going with you?"

Skye wrinkled her nose. "God, I just wish everyone would stop asking questions! They can't seem to get it through their heads that I'd rather not talk about it!"

"Well there're gonna' be questions Skye," Carly shrugged. "You can't get away from them with something this big. I mean, you never even let on about Dawne. There were no hints whatsoever- except that time when Michael went over to the mansion........ I thought it was odd that you were so nice and motherly to him while he was there."

"Well that was mainly because he was my nephew -of sorts- and I'd never really met him," she replied. "I wanted him to like me."

"And he did," Carly smiled. "He asked me who you were on the way home. He said you were really cool and let him hold Kristina."

Skye smiled. "He said I was cool?"

Carly nodded. "You made an impression on him."

They looked over at the door as it opened and Jason stepped inside. He saw the two smiling women and immediately stopped. "What's going on?" he asked suspiciously.

Skye looked over at Carly for support, and she nodded for her to go ahead. She bit her lip and stood, turning to him. "Hi Jason," she gave him a small smile.

"Skye," he nodded. "What are you doing here?"

"I-I," she began. She sounded like a nervous little rabbit and she probably looked like one too, she thought. She sighed, she hated to look weak in front of others, but she *really* was nervous. "Look, I know we're not really close or anything, but I wanted you to meet my daughter-"

"Your daughter?" Jason repeated.

Skye nodded. "Yes, my daughter."

"I wasn't aware-" he began.

Skye sighed again because it was something everyone seemed to say. "I know you didn't know. No body did until the other day when she showed up at the Quatermaines."

Jason nodded, but his face remained blank as it usually did. "How old is she?"

"She's seven," Skye replied. "Her name is Dawne."

"Uncle Jason!" they heard Michael shout from the top of the stairs as he came barreling down and lept into Jason's arms.

Jason hugged him tightly as Dawne crept quietly down the stairs and came to stand next to her mother. Jason set him down and gave him an affectionate pat on the head before looking back over at Skye where he noticed the little girl now standing next to his sister.

She was no doubt his sister's daughter. Their hair was the same shade of red, their skin was the same dusty golden color and their faces had the same bone structure. He wondered if Dawne was what Skye had looked like as a child.

They all watched as the two stared at each other for a moment. Then slowly Dawne walked over to him and stood in front of him, looking up at him. Jason bent down slowly so he was eye level with her. "Hi Dawne, I'm your Uncle Jason."

Dawne stared at him for a moment more, then without warning, she threw her arms around Jason's neck and held on tightly. It surprised Jason, throwing him a little off balance, so he wrapped his arms around Dawne to keep from toppling over.

Once he'd gained his balance again, he willed his arms to let go of the little girl, but he couldn't bring himself to do so. He could feel the immediate trust and love emanating around her, and couldn't help but fall in love with her as well. Slowly, he smiled.

* * * * *

The dark silence was interrupted abruptly by the sharp ring of the telephone sitting on a dark wood desk in an office lined with shelves of books on various antiques. Slowly the man behind the desk reached forward and picked up the phone with a well-manicured hand, before it rang a second time. "Yes?" the man asked in a deep voice that many people had learned to fear.

"Boss, it's Hunter," the man named Hunter informed him.

"I told you not to call me again unless you had something good," he replied slowly. "You'd better have something good."

"I-I do," the man answered quickly. "At least I think I do."

"I don't want what you think," he said. "I want what you know."

"I-I'm downloading a security tape from two days ago onto your computer," he began. "I'm not sure what it means, b-but I think it'll be of value."

He didn't reply as he logged on his computer and opened his mail. He had one message; it was from Hunter with the subject Video. He opened it and watched as the images loaded instantly. He pressed play and sat back, puffing on a Cuban cigar.

What he saw was a limo pull up in front of the Quatermaine mansion. He watched as an oddly familiar looking man stepped out of the limo, straightened his suit coat and turned back to the limo to help a little girl out. The man, who he now recognized as Collin Francis, took the little girl's hand and led her up to the door and knocked.

As they waited in front of the door, Collin bent down to listen to something the little girl said. He nodded and the little girl walked into the yard and began to play with a dog. The door opened and Collin disappeared inside.

He watched the screen for another moment or two. It showed nothing but the little girl playing fetch with the dog. His attention was drawn away from the little girl as the door was thrown opened and a woman raced outside. The little girl dropped the stick and ran to the woman and they met in a tight hug.

He set his cigar down and looked closer. The woman was Skye, but he'd already known that since he'd assigned Hunter to watch her. The little girl was what he was interested in.

"What can you tell me about this?" he asked slowly.

"I found out from another guard that the little girl is her daughter. She's seven," the man replied.

"Hummm," he said aloud and stroked his smoothly shaven chin. "Good work Hunter, you'll be paid for your troubles."

"It was not trouble at all boss," Hunter began, his voice full of relief but his boss didn't listen.

He hung up the phone and picked up his cigar, freezing the tape on a frame of Skye and her daughter hugging. He leaned back in his chair again and studied the picture.

So the girl was seven, he mused. The timing was right. He and Skye had been together seven years ago in college. He blew a smoke ring with ease. So he had a daughter.

He clicked his tongue as if shaming Skye. "Skye, my dear, you know better than to keep my daughter away from me. Shame on you," and slowly he smiled.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: *evil grin* I just love ending my chapters on cliffhangers. Anyway, please review and tell me how you like it. Oh, and thanks to all those who reviewed last chapter, I really appreciate the support. PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!