Upon reentering the library, David saw a sight that left him dumbfounded. Ivy was sitting, alone, in the library. Crying. A lot. Even knowing that she wasn't the Ivy that he knew, he could have never imagined her in tears, displaying a vulnerability that was very nearly…human.
She looked so lost and frightened that David, before he realized it, began to feel sorry for her, trapped in such an awful situation. However, as soon as these thoughts appeared, he purposefully brushed them away. This was still the woman who had blackmailed him; just because she hadn't done it yet did not mean that he was not looking at the girl who would become his enemy. Still, he needed to calm her down, so he kneeled down next to her and asked, "Ivy, what's wrong?"
"Why do they all hate me?" she sobbed, but just as he opened his mouth to reply, she cut him off. "You don't have to answer me; I already know. It's true, isn't it?"
"What exactly do you mean?"
"Several people came in here, and the things they accused me of…" she looked intensely into David's eyes, "and they're telling the truth, aren't they? I actually got Theresa to confess and drugged Dr. Russell's daughter, didn't I?"
David nodded solemnly. "I'm not certain about Theresa, though I think you did, and I know for a fact that you forced Dr. Russell to change the DNA results."
Through her tears, Ivy smiled wryly. "Right. Everyone hates me, or if they don't, they should. I deserve it for what I've done. You hate me too, right?"
David shifted, slightly embarrassed. "Well, uh, you, or the other you, anyway, are blackmailing me. I'm rather justified."
"Of course, I don't blame you. If I ever came across someone that horrible, I'd hate her too. From everything I can tell, I'm pure evil."
Uncomfortable just sitting next to a woman in hysterics and doing nothing, David grabbed a tissue from a box on the desk, and gently wiped her eyes. "You haven't done any of this, Ivy, it's not your fault. You're not the heartless woman that I know." As David said these words, he found, to his amazement, that he meant them. No matter how hard he tried, he simply couldn't reconcile this younger version of his adversary as the same person that he hated. Pilar had been right: it was appalling just how much she had changed over the years.
Ivy shook her head soberly. "This is still my future, what I'm going to be. I know that I'm not perfect, but I always thought of myself as a halfway decent person. Certainly not a murderer, at the very least. How could I have gotten to this point?"
"According to what I've heard, it was a slow process, beginning when you married Julian and started living as a Crane. You spent all of your energy raising Ethan to be nothing like them, and, as far as I can tell, he's a fine young man. You, however, were warped in the process, and eventually became just like the worst of the family." He had never really believed that before, thinking it was ridiculously melodramatic to talk of a person being "slowly tainted" by evil, but he was now realizing the full extent of what the Cranes had done to her.
"Kay told me when my father and Alistair Crane split Sam and me up," Ivy mused. "She also said that I'm supposed to marry Julian in just a few months from where I came from. That means, I'm just about to make the mistakes that will lead to all this!"
"It makes sense, really, that the spell took you from where it did. It was supposed to bring back the girl that Sam loved, so it would take you while you were still untainted, and right before you accepted Julian."
The tears were gone now, and Ivy was fuming. "I'm so stupid, allowing myself to be manipulated like that! It was my one chance at happiness, and I blew it. I let myself be led along until I couldn't go back, and here I am, paralyzed from the waist down, almost universally hated, and truly evil. Plus," she admitted sheepishly, "I think I've gotten myself addicted to painkillers."
In spite of everything, David couldn't help laughing a little. "That, and all the champagne I've seen you drink, would explain a lot."
Ivy giggled as well, unable to deny the humor of the situation. "Can't you just see me? Whizzing around in this thing with a pill bottle in one hand and a wine glass in the other, saying things like, 'You will be mine again, Sam,' and 'I will destroy you, Theresa'?" Both being able to picture such an image quite well, the two of them shared another laugh, though it soon became bittersweet for Ivy.
"Oh God, what am I going to do now? I mean, I know that I'll have to play this part, while Kay tries to fix it all, but what then? I don't think that even she knows how it'll all pan out. What's really going to happen to me?" Her expression as she asked this question that must have been haunting her the whole time could only be described as panic, albeit remarkable well-controlled.
Not able to offer any words of solid comfort, David could only squeeze her hand sympathetically. "I wish I could tell you, but none of us know. We're just going to have to face it when we get there, and trust that Kay, of all people, can come up with something."
"Yes," Ivy said distractedly, "My daughter. As far as I can tell, she seems to be the only person around who doesn't totally despise me. In fact, she genuinely seems to really love me!"
"Yes, well, I'm sorry to say this, but I wouldn't be too cheered up by her approval. That girl has some serious problems."
"I can tell. There's something dangerous about her, and then there's the fact that she's been messing with black magic! Still, I can't help but like her, I know it's strange, but it's like I somehow have this connection with her, even though I haven't even had her yet. I don't know why, but somehow I can tell that she's basically a loving person, but really desperate. Oh, I do wish she'd get back in here, though, I wonder what Alistair Crane wants to see her about."
David took in a deep breath when he realized that he, against his will, was beginning to like this Ivy quite a lot! She was moral and decent and caring, while still remaining witty, feisty, and tough. Furthermore, though he had to admit that she'd always been extremely attractive, the chilling frost that he had formerly observed in her eye had vanished, replaced, in her happier moments, with a warm twinkle. This intangible change made a world of difference, making Ivy breathtakingly beautiful, and his thoughts began to drift to that insane but electric kiss he had shared with the other Ivy…
No!, David insisted to himself furiously. I am NOT going to let myself go there! This is already confusing enough without making it even more complicated for myself.
Staring ahead at the door of the library, David fervently hoped that Kay would be joining them soon.
*****
Having finished her tale, Cassandra waited expectantly for Kay's reaction. Of course, she hadn't told the girl everything. That would all come in good time, but it was important that Kay should slowly step into her role, and not get frightened off. For now, it was quite enough that she know that Cassandra was a vampire, and her ancestor, who looked over the family and had secured their fortune.
Though she looked somewhat nonplussed, Kay replied evenly, "So, vampires are real, huh? And you are one? That's really interesting and all, but I still don't see why I'm the Crane heir now."
Cassandra smiled while Alistair appeared startled that she so readily believed in supernatural creatures. While it pleased Cassandra, it didn't surprise her, as a girl who to some extent was already involved in magic would probably have an open mind about such forces. "I know that this will sound like a repeat of what Alistair told you, but I really COULD sense a certain quality about you, and I liked it. Plus, I know you have power, I could feel that spell you cast earlier today."
Alistair was about to exclaim something, but Cassandra raised her hand in warning. She perceived that Kay was getting nervous, and assured her, "You needn't worry. I have no interest in what you were doing, if you wish to keep it a secret. All I care about is the potential you showed, a potential that makes you the best of all the current candidates for Crane leadership." That was enough for now; no point in overwhelming her with talk of being the True Heir and what her expectations would eventually be.
Cassandra watched as Kay seemed to silently weigh her ancestor's words carefully, judging the logic behind them. Apparently satisfied with the reasoning Cassandra had used, Kay finally answered, "Fine. I guess I'd be crazy to say 'no' to what you're offering me. So, how does this work now?"
Satisfied with her Heir's decision, Cassandra struggled to conceal her excitement. "You'll need to start receiving instruction, and it will be fairly intense, to make up for all the time that you were hidden from us. There is no need to do anything at the present, though. You shall be allowed some time to get used to the idea, and get over the media circus that will ensue from the news. When everything dies down to a reasonable calm, I'll send for you to begin. Does that sound reasonable to you? If so, you may go now."
Nodding assuredly, though a bit dazed, Kay thanked her and left the den. Turning to Alistair, she gloated, "See what I mean? She's perfect!"
Alistair snorted, irritated to have been so observably undermined in authority, though he reluctantly admitted, "She is rather impressive, all things considered. However, I certainly never thought I'd see the day when a female, raised by those Bennetts, was marked to run Crane Industries!"
Cassandra offered another toothy grin. "I'm afraid you'll just have to deal with it, because the times are changing, and this family will go places you've never even dreamed of!"
*****
"I still can't believe you pulled all this off on a couple of hours' notice!" Hank remarked as the plane Gwen had chartered began its descent.
"You said we needed to investigate Sheridan and Antonio's activities, and what better way than to talk to the people who knew them where they were living?" Gwen replied, unable to hide the satisfaction she felt at having been able to arrange their trip to St. Lisa's without delay. "As for this, well, you should just be glad you're teamed up with someone who has as many connections as I do. After we find out whatever we need, we can go wherever we need to go in no time at all."
"Good thinking, but we'll have to be careful; someone might get suspicious if they notice us flying all over the place."
Gwen rolled her eyes. "I'm not stupid! I know we can't zip back and forth all the time. However, this is the quickest way to get anywhere, and we don't know how much time we have to find them. And anyhow," she added matter-of-factly, "if anybody noticed us flying off together, they'd just assume we were having a romantic fling."
Hank raised an eyebrow in her direction. "A fling?" he asked, amusement evident in his voice.
Well," Gwen shifted uncomfortably, "we are going to a tropical island, and you are a reasonably attractive man, and I'm technically on the rebound on account of Ethan…" her voice trailed off, until she caught herself. "But this isn't about me, or Ethan, or you, or the little nut job, it's about finding Sheridan and the others," she said determinedly.
Any comment that Hank was going to make was interrupted when the airplane hit the tarmac, and they got out of the plane. "Hmmm," Hank mused, now we'll have to find the hotel they've been staying at. Shouldn't take too long, this is a pretty small island."
"Done!" Gwen chimed in, handing Hank a copy of printed-out instructions from the airport to their destination. "I took the liberty of checking for a listing of hotels while I was getting the plane. I figured it would save us some time when we got here. There are only a few of them on the island, and this one's run by a woman named Liz Sanbourne, and I'd heard Sheridan mention her name."
Hank smiled, impressed. "I am definitely glad that you decided to help me."
"You should be. I wasn't a successful businesswoman with an M.B.A. summa cum laude for nothing. Now, let's get started on this."
The two of them hitched a ride to the hotel, which wasn't far at all from the tiny airport. Arriving at the reception area of the well-kept but seemingly deserted resort, Hank rang the bell. For a long moment, there was nothing, and then an attractive black woman rushed in to greet them. "Hello, I'm Liz Sanbourne, the owner of this hotel. I'm sorry about the wait, but we're a little short on help right now. That doesn't mean that we can't provide you with top quality accommodations, though. This hotel is open for business. For now, anyway," she added bitterly under her breath.
"Is the hotel in financial trouble?" Gwen asked sympathetically.
"Well, it's just that St. Lisa's is such an isolated place, and so close to Bermuda, which attracts all the tourists. Plus, it doesn't help that I had to shut the place down a few weeks ago because my friend Brian was in trouble."
"Trouble?" both Hank and Gwen intoned at the same time.
"Yes," she replied, still stinging at the memory. "This girl he fell for, Diana, idiotically ran up a huge gambling debt, and Brian had to race to cancel it. It almost killed him, but he didn't care and they went off to his home town so she could meet his family. I am so furious with her! I mean, I know I should feel sorry for her, since she's had amnesia since washing ashore here, and I did for a long time, but she was such a walking disaster area! She couldn't do anything, kept almost drowning herself, and then got him into that mess. In fact, she even tried to drive the racecar herself, when she couldn't even wait a table without spilling everything!"
"Huh," Gwen reflected, "that doesn't sound like her at all! Except for the waiting tables part."
Liz eyed the two of them suspiciously. "What do you mean by that?"
Hank and Gwen looked at each other, as if trying to decide just how much they should tell Liz. They had to be careful, but they needed all the information they could get, and Liz seemed to be as close to Antonio as they were to Luis and Sheridan, in which case she probably deserved to be informed of the situation at hand. Finally, they nodded to each other in accord.
Gwen was the first to speak. "I have to confess, we're not actually looking for a place to stay. We're from Harmony, and we know 'Brian' and your Diana too. She's gotten her memory back."
"Really!" Liz exclaimed. "I am happy for her, even if I am annoyed with what she's done. Who is she, then?"
"Well, the really weird part is, she's from Harmony, too. In fact, she's my best friend, and I want to thank you for taking care of her this whole time. You've actually probably heard of her—your Diana is really Sheridan Crane."
Liz gaped back at them slack-jawed, completely floored. "Sheridan Crane! You mean to tell me that one of the wealthiest and most famous women in the world was staying here for months! We thought at first that that might have been her, but then we got word that her body had been found and identified. How can Diana possibly be Sheridan, then?"
"That's actually the part we can't figure out," Hank admitted. "All we could come up with is that the tests done on the body they found must have been wrong."
"So then, why would you two come all the way here just to tell me this? Why wouldn't Brian and Di—Sheridan return or at least call me themselves?"
"Unfortunately," Gwen said, "they seem to have disappeared, and we're trying to find out why."
Liz looked as if she'd received a blow to the chest. "Oh my God, what happened?!"
Between the two of them, they eventually managed to get out the whole story, from Luis and Sheridan's past together to the abandoned car keys. "So you see, we thought that if we talked to you, we might be able to find out if Sheridan and Antonio had made any enemies here," finished Hank.
"I see. Well, there's a lot about Brian's past that I don't know, but he has been having a lot of trouble with this Nick guy."
"Nick?" asked Gwen.
"Yeah," Liz frowned, looking even more worried than she had before. "He's the reason Brian had to race. From what I gathered, he's a big-time con artist, not to be messed with. Apparently, Brian DID mess with him some years ago, and he's been looking to get his payback ever since. He tricked your Sheridan into gambling all that money, and then forced Brian into a car race to pay it off. He won all right, but the car exploded, and Brian almost died. I'm pretty sure that Nick had rigged it, and even though the two of them are even now, Nick basically said that it wasn't over yet."
Hank and Gwen exchanged troubled glances. "I'd bet anything he has something to do with their disappearances. He has a score to settle with Sheridan and Antonio, and Luis just happened to be there!" Gwen exclaimed.
"I'm sure you're right," Hank agreed. "We'd better trace this lead. Liz, what does he look like, and where did you last meet him?"
Liz gave them the information, and added, "Anything you need, just let me know. I don't want anything to happen to them."
"Thanks for everything, and we will," Gwen promised. "We'd really better get going now, to get to that racetrack and see what we can find."
After they had left, Liz sighed. "Oh Brian, what have you gotten yourself into now?" She tried to get back to her work, but found that she couldn't concentrate. After a little while, she gave up altogether and resolved to do her own search into the matter, hoping that maybe she could discover something that those two couldn't. "In the meantime," she said to herself, "I just hope that they're okay."
*****
"Okay" was not a word that Sheridan, Luis, or Antonio would have used to describe their situation. After a few hours in the bare room they had been in, they had been handcuffed and transported God knows where, only to find themselves in a vast abandoned warehouse, where they'd been stashed for the past couple of days. Then, they had all been indignantly tethered to an area near the center, and had been ungagged because "you could scream all you want and nobody'd hear you." Ever since then, they had been attended to by a couple of lackeys, and had not caught of glimpse of Nick, and had had no explanation whatsoever.
At least they could now talk to each other, though their conversation had mostly revolved around trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Sheridan and Antonio had explained all about Nick to Luis, and the three had batted around theories about what he wanted with them, without really getting anywhere. Conversation soon became intermittent, with long stretches of miserable silence.
"It figures," Sheridan muttered absentmindedly. "I return to Harmony and get my memory back, and then THIS happens. What I wouldn't give for just a week, seven short days, where nothing disastrous or dramatic happens! Is that too much too ask. Honestly, I'm starting to think I'm cursed, and everyone around me gets sucked into it."
"This isn't because of you," Luis replied, glaring at his brother. "Antonio's the one who got mixed up with this guy. It's HIS past coming back to haunt us all!"
"It's not my fault, Luis!" Antonio seethed. "I found out the guy was scamming people, and I stopped him! You wouldn't have done any differently."
Luis laughed scornfully. "That's what you're telling us, anyway. What actually happened might have been entirely different."
"Are you accusing me of being crooked?"
"If the shoe fits," Luis answered coolly. "You haven't exactly been on the straight and narrow with the family for all these years. Who knows what you've been up to?"
"Quit it, you two!" Sheridan cried, desperate to avoid another fight. "Will you look at the spot we're in?! We're being held captive for some unknown reason in an abandoned warehouse, for goodness sake! We have to focus and stick together. The last thing we need is to be fighting amongst ourselves right now!"
Humbled by her words, the brothers apologized, and the silence resumed, during which each of them concentrated hard, trying to think of a way out, but none of them were able to come up with anything. Just as Antonio was about to voice his frustration, Nick sauntered in, stopping just past where the tethers could reach.
Smirking obnoxiously, Nick asked, "And how are my guests doing? Are you finding your lodging to your satisfaction?"
Antonio was in no mood for idle chitchat, especially with this guy. "What are we doing here?! We're even, Nick; I won the race fair and square, even if you did tamper with the car."
"Prove it," replied Nick in an even tone. All right, Brian O'Leary or 'Lopez-Fitzgerald' or whatever you've decided to call yourself now, I'll cut to the chase. You're here because," he said, smirking even wider, "you're going to go to work for me."