Eve answered the door and was shocked to be facing a bunch of reporters taking her picture and firing questions at her.

"Did he lose his mind again?"

"What?" Eve stared at them in bewilderment.

"Think he'll beat the system again?"

"Who? What are you talking about?"

One of them moved closer to her. "We're talking about your husband. Think he'll do any jail time?"

"For what?"

"You don't know what he was arrested for?" The other reporters quieted to hear her answer.

"Kevin was arrested?" Eve was shocked, and the cameras caught the moment.

"He was arrested for assault and battery and attempted murder."

"Murder? Kevin?"

"You don't know anything about it? Apparently he completely went nuts on one of his patients."

Another reporter jumped in. "Did you know he's lost it before?"

Eve stared at them, wanting to know what happened, but not wanting to discuss it. "When was he arrested?"

"Just a few hours ago."

Stepping back, Eve shook her head. "No comment." Shutting the door behind her, she paced around in the lighthouse for a few minutes, trying to figure out what to do. Making a decision, she picked up the phone and dialed Lucy's.

"Doc?" Lucy answered the phone.

"No, it's Eve."

"Oh." Lucy sighed. "What?"

"I just heard about Kevin. I just wanted to know if there was anything I could do."

"No. Scott's taking care of it. I was hoping that he was calling."

"Lucy, what the hell happened?"

Eve could hear Lucy hesitating on the other end of the phone. "I can't. There's a lot more to it, and I can't..."

"Lucy, this is Kevin's life we're talking about."

"I KNOW THAT!" Lucy almost shrieked the words at Eve, and then her voice lowered. "I..." Lucy's voice faltered, and Eve waited for a minute.

The phone got quiet, and the next voice Eve heard was Victor. "Eve?"

"Victor, what's going on? I just had a couple dozen reporters show up at the lighthouse to tell me that Kevin was arrested for attempted murder!"

"I was afraid the press would get a hold of this."

Lucy's voice in the background was shrill. "The press?!"

"They're at the lighthouse." Victor spoke to Lucy before returning to Eve. "It's a long complicated story that you shouldn't get involved in, Eve."

"Victor! He's still my husband, and I still care what happens to him!"

"I understand that, Eve, but the more you know, the more you could get dragged into this. Right now you don't know anything, so the police and all the lawyers will probably leave you alone. I wish I could say the same about the press, but I can't."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Right now the only thing you can do is.... I know it's a lot to ask, but..."

"VICTOR!" Eve was exasperated.

"Please don't mention Lucy to them. They'll find out about her soon enough."

"Don't mention Lucy?" Eve didn't understand. "Why is everyone so hell bent on protecting HER when Kevin's the one in trouble?!"

"Eve, please. There is so much going on right now. I promise as soon as we can, we'll explain everything to you."

"She has something to do with this, doesn't she. What did she do, Victor?"

"Nothing! Eve, this entire situation is so horrible..."

It clicked in Eve's mind. "I saw the bruises on her, Victor. That has something to do with it, right?"

Victor sighed. "Eve, for your own good, I can't tell you anymore. When we can, we'll tell you everything. I can promise you that."

"Fine." Eve sighed. "If there's anything I can do let me know. And I won't mention Lucy to anybody."

"Thank you, Eve." Hanging up the phone, Victor turned to Lucy.

"Eve promised not to say anything."

Lucy's eyes met his for a moment, hoping he could tell her she was wrong. "They're going to find out everything, aren't they."

"I wish I could say they won't, Lucy. I really do. But I don't think there's any way we can stop it." He really didn't want to tell her that, but it was the truth.

Picking up the phone, Lucy was almost shaking by the time she finished dialing Scott's cell phone.


Scott stared at Kevin and Mac as he reached for his phone. "Who wants to bet that's Lucy?" He glanced at it. "Win my bet." He pushed the button. "Hello, Lucy, I'm fine, but since you didn't call MY cell phone to actually talk to ME, I guess-"

"SCOTT!"

Lucy sounded so panicky, Scott stopped. "Lucy, come on, calm down. I said I'd take care of this, didn't I?"

"Where is he, Scott? What's going on?"

As Lucy continued to fire questions at him, Scott handed Kevin his phone. "She doesn't sound good."

Kevin had to say her name twice before she realized she was talking to him. "I'm fine, I'll be out of here in about a half hour."

"You're sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. I'll be home as soon as I can get out of here. I promise."

"Hang on." The phone was silent in Kevin's hand for a moment.

"Monk?"

"Yeah. I take it she's not okay."

"No, not really. She got hysterical when Eve called."

"Eve? What did she say?"

"She called to say that a hoard of reporters are camped out at the lighthouse wanting a statement concerning your arrest."

Closing his eyes, Kevin sighed. When he opened his eyes again, Mac and Scott were staring at him. "The press is already at the lighthouse."

"Oh, great!" Scott shook his head. "It's not gonna take them long to follow the trail right to her."

"Thanks, Victor. I'll be there as soon as I can. I just have some more paperwork to muddle through, and I'll be out of here."

Before Kevin could even ask, Mac nodded. "We'll get you out of here and back to Lucy's before the press finds out you've left the building."

"Thanks, Mac."

"I can't stop them forever." Mac sighed. "Scott, will they find out.... Can the press get..... Will what happened to Lucy hit the papers?"

"I don't know." Scott ran his hand through his hair. "Once the D.A. presses charges, they become public. The victim is supposed to be anonymous. But I wouldn't count on it."

Kevin was so angry he was shaking. "We need to count on it, Scott. She needs us to protect her. And neither one of us has done a damn thing for her so far!"

"You don't think I'd do something if I could? You really think I want everybody to read all about what happened to her over their morning coffee?"

"Scott, I-" Kevin hadn't meant it as a personal attack, but it sounded like Scott was taking it that way.

"You don't think I want to protect her from all of this? What, Kevin, you think that just because I let her go I don't love her?!" The last sentence slipped out, and Scott stared at Kevin. All three men were silent for a moment, and then Scott shrugged. "Don't get me wrong, here. I'm not IN love with her the way I hope you are. The way she loves you." Scott turned. "Let's get the hell out of here."


Opening the door, Kevin entered Lucy's and looked around. Before he could say anything, Lucy was in his arms with her arms around his waist. Holding her, he stroked her hair and tried to talk to her. "Lucy, I'm fine."

"You're NOT fine! You did this because of me!"

"It will work out."

"How?!" Stepping back, she stared at him.

"Scott's going to handle it."

"Stop saying that! I know Scott. He has a plan, and you know what it is. What is it?!"

Stopping, Kevin looked at her and Victor for a moment before speaking. "He's going to work out a plea."

"A plea." Lucy thought about it for a moment. "How much trouble are you in?"

"I don't know." At her glare, he took her hands. "I really don't know. Scott's not sure how far they're going to insist on going."

"Could you... you're not... you're not going to have to go to....jail, are you?"

"No. Scott doesn't think I'll have to."

"But what about your license?"

"That I don't know." He sighed. "Lucy, whatever happens, I'll deal with it."

"WE'LL deal with it." Letting go of his hands, Lucy reached for his shirt. "I know you're trying to protect me, but I'm already involved."

"Lucy,"

"Don't argue with me!" She jerked on his shirt so hard he stumbled towards her.

"Okay!" In spite of the situation, he smiled. "I won't argue with you." Extricating her hands from his shirt, he pulled her to him. "At least until I have more than two shirts here."

His eyes met Victor's, and both men shook their heads. Victor watched

Kevin hold Lucy for a few minutes, and finally moved towards them. "I need to get going. Call me if either of you need anything."

"Thanks, Victor." Kevin released Lucy and she hugged Victor.

Returning her embrace, Victor looked at Kevin. "Make her eat. She hasn't."

"I'm hungry, myself." Kevin reached for her shoulders when she let go of Victor. "We'll both eat."

"Good." Victor smiled as he headed for the door.


Scott viewed the files that Victor's men had accumulated on what Schneider's investigators had found. There wasn't much they hadn't found. Pacing around the firehouse, Scott knew he was missing something, but he couldn't figure out what.

A knock at the door brought him running.

Alexis stepped inside and he pulled her to the sofa.

"Nice to see you, too, Scott."

"Sorry. Hi, how are you? I wanted you to take a look at this. I get the feeling I'm missing something big."

"Is Kevin out on bail?"

"Yeah. Thank God. Lucy must have called my cell every half hour until he was out."

"What kind of plea are you going to go for?"

"I gotta feel it out first. The attorney that's calling the shots is famous for playing hardball."

"I've heard of him." Alexis glanced through the file while Scott watched her carefully. "You're making me nervous, Baldwin. Why don't you find something to do while I go over this."

"You want some fish sticks?"

"Fish sticks?!" Alexis actually crinkled her nose at the thought.

At first, Scott laughed at her expression. Then his second thought was how cute she was. "Yeah, fish sticks. Don't knock what you haven't tried."

"I won't knock them, but that doesn't mean I want to try them."

"No sense of adventure?"

Sighing, Alexis looked up at him. "Okay! Fine! I'll try them! Just get out of here and let me read!"

"You won't be sorry." Smiling, Scott went to the kitchen.

Taking a legal pad, Alexis jotted notes and questions as she read.

Scott hadn't told her anything other then he was involved, and he thought he was missing something. She hadn't wanted him to tell her any more than that, so she wouldn't be looking for what he said, and also missing what he was. She had a feeling Kevin being arrested was related, but had told Scott not to tell her anything until she'd reviewed the file.

Scott was talking to himself as he moved about in the kitchen, and Alexis laughed softly before she forced herself to concentrate.


As Kevin moved around the kitchen, he was surprised to see Lucy at the door. "You need something?"

She shrugged. "Just you."

He watched the way she stood there, trying to look at him and not the rest of the room. "I'll be out in a minute."

Nodding, she took a deep breath, but didn't move. The look on her face worried Kevin, and he went to her. "Come on." He started to pull her towards the living room, but she shook her head.

"This is my kitchen, Doc. I can't be afraid to be in MY kitchen in my own home." She started to shake, and Kevin wasn't sure if it was anger or fear.

"You also don't have to push yourself harder than you're ready for, Lucy." As she glared at him, he took her shoulders. "I'm not shrinking you. I'm looking at you. You're forcing yourself, and you don't have to."

"I hate this! You don't understand."

"Then explain it to me."

"I can't! I can't explain it to you because I can't explain it to myself!" Furious, Lucy left the kitchen and paced around the living room.

The way she moved around the room reminded Kevin of a tiger, looking for a way out of a cage.

"This is ridiculous! It's over, and I'm tired of thinking about it! I don't get it! I never used to dwell on things that happened, you know? I just put them out of my mind, and it was gone!"

"Lucy, this is an entirely different situation. You-"

"Why? I mean, it happened, it's over! You don't get it, do you, Doc? I've always been the type to just move on, get on with my life!"

Standing, Kevin waited until Lucy passed him on the next round. When she did, he reached out and took her arm. "Will you stop being so hard on yourself? You're human, Lucy. It hurts, and it's not going to just go away because you snap your fingers! I wish it would, I swear I do. And I'd do anything to make it go away. But I can't, and you can't just stop feeling it no matter how badly you want to."

"You didn't know me, Kevin. There was a time in my life it really didn't matter. I didn't care." Pulling away from him, she began to pace around the room again. "When something bad happened, I just got over it! You think this was the first time I ever got my ass kicked? When you're the poorest kid in your town, not to mention the only one with no parents, the other kids have nothing better to do! I lived with Colton for 18 years! How do you think I LEARNED to fight?"

Kevin watched her, listening to her rant. She'd mentioned the other kids teasing her before, but she'd never told him that they'd beaten her up over not having parents. He started to contemplate what she was saying about Colton, but she was still going, and he didn't want to miss what she was saying.

"I never let things get to me, you know? I couldn't. It just gave them more power over me. And I'll be DAMNED if I'm going to give that son of a bitch ANY more power over me!"

He was getting dizzy watching her circle the room, but he realized that trying to stop her now was futile.

"I have ALWAYS fought back! And I'm sure as hell NOT going to stop now! This is MY house, and I'm not going to be afraid to go into my own damn kitchen! I swore this would never happen again! It's MY body, and I say who and I say when! There may have been a lot of them, but it was MY decision!"

Kevin stared at her in shock, but she turned and ran into the kitchen.


Alexis turned the page and sighed. Her first thought was of Lucy, and what she'd been through. They'd never really been friends, but Alexis liked her. After watching how close Lucy and Kevin were after he'd been arrested for stalking Felicia, she'd been shocked to hear they'd split.

Scott interrupted her thoughts by approaching her. "Well?"

"I'm not finished yet, but the evidence is there. She's hurt, and somebody did it."

"And?"

"And, the only problem I see is the unknown."

"Unknown?"

"Yeah. The unknown DNA. There's another man involved. One of them could have been consensual, but from the physical evidence, either one of them could have hurt her."

"The other man is Kevin! He'd never hurt Lucy!"

Alexis stared at Scott. "Part of me isn't surprised, but part of me is shocked. Isn't Kevin married?"

"I doubt he will be for much longer."

"Then I guess-"

"THAT'S IT!" Scott jumped to his feet and began to pace. "That's what they're after!"

"What is?" Alexis was lost.

"I thought.... This could end up being bad. Schneider's investigators pulled up everything about Kevin. You know, his breakdown? Lucy told me you helped them."

"How do you know what the investigators-"

"Never mind how I know! The point is, I thought it was the assault case, but now I'm not so sure."

"You're going right past me, Scott. Slow down."

"Kevin- the assault case-"

"Is HIM?" Alexis gestured to the file in her hand.

"Yes. Plus he's a patient of Kevin's. That's how he found Lucy to begin with."

"This is getting complicated."

"It's about to get ten times more complicated. I need to know what happened with Kevin before."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean Kevin has a history of violence with women! What happened between him and Lucy that night?!"

Alexis stared at Scott. "I don't know what happened. I mean where Lucy was concerned. Lucy would never tell anyone. I was his lawyer and Lucy wouldn't tell me everything that happened after Felicia got out. She even...." Stopping, Alexis sighed. "She wanted to marry Kevin before it could go to trial so she wouldn't have to tell anyone what he did to her."

"What did he do?"

"Nothing that I could see, but she wouldn't tell anyone." Now shock crossed Alexis's face. "You're talking like Kevin did that to her."

"NO! I know he didn't. He loves her. But I think it's gonna get worse."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the defense can prove Kevin had sex with her. They can prove that Kevin has a history of violence, with women and what he did to Davis. And they can prove that Lucy will commit perjury to protect a man she loves."

"Perjury?"

"A long time ago." Scott shrugged. "But it was over a man."

"And if the defense thinks they can get one juror to believe Lucy's lying about which one of them hurt her." Alexis realized where Scott was going and sighed.

"That bastard will walk away free." Scott slammed his fist on the table. "Dammit! This is NOT going to happen!"

"How can we stop it? I mean, I'm betting that you're right. The best way to defend a client is to give the jury another suspect. So even though we probably know what the defense is going to do, how do we counter it? Everything you're saying is true. Kevin has been violent towards women before. Possibly including Lucy. Lucy has hidden the truth, in the past even lied to protect the men in her life. We aren't reaching here to think that the defense is going to use this to their advantage." Alexis shrugged again. "Let's face it, Scott. If he was our client, either of us would use it."

"I can't believe I missed this!"

"I can. I didn't know who the other man was. You knew it was Kevin, and you wouldn't consider Kevin being the one that hurt her. That's why I didn't want you to tell me anything. I would have missed it, too if I'd known."

"We gotta go talk to Dara. She's prosecuting this."

Nodding, Alexis stood. "You'll probably do better with her alone. I'm not her favorite person- I'm not even sure I'm her favorite Cassadine."

"Well, you're my favorite Cassadine."

"Gee, thanks. My life is now complete." Smiling, Alexis moved towards the door. "Keep me informed, and if there's anything else I can do, let me know."

"You got it. I'm gonna call Mac and set up a meeting with Dara."

"You better be able to explain how you found all this out about Schneider's investigators."

"I'll figure something out." Shrugging, Scott closed the door behind her as she left.


Following Lucy into the kitchen, Kevin continued to watch her. She forced herself to cross the kitchen for the first time since Trent had dragged her across the floor. Stopping at the door, she grabbed the doorjamb and fought to breathe.

Not knowing what he should do, he simply stood still beside her.

"Right here. Two more steps and it wouldn't have happened at all. If I'd been a little faster."

He had no idea what she was talking about, so he said nothing.

"He caught me right outside this door. When he shoved me, I hit my ribs. I think it knocked the wind out of me, because I fell and couldn't breathe." She grabbed her ribs as she said it. "It hurt. Still does."

Now Kevin's mind wandered. His eyes drifted to the floor, and he couldn't stop the thoughts that he'd been fighting since he'd found out. The image in his mind of Trent throwing her down and being on top of her only about eight feet from where he was standing turned his stomach. But her voice caught his attention.

"I'm NOT going to think about it anymore!" She was angry again, and Kevin didn't know if that was good or bad. "I can get over this. I just have to do it!" Taking as deep a breath as she could, she started to step across the floor, forcing herself to stare at it. After a few steps, she turned and almost ran back to the door. "Why can't I do this! He's NOT going to control me like this. I'm NOT going to let him! I HATE THIS!" As she screamed, she punched the door. The sound of shattering glass brought Kevin almost running to her.

Keeping her back to him, Lucy's voice dropped to a whisper. "When you punch things because your angry, does it make you feel better?"

"Sometimes. Why? Did it help?"

"Yeah, a little, but no, actually. Because it hurt." Almost whining, she turned to him and showed him her hand, which had blood running from it.

Pulling her to the sink, Kevin shoved her hand under running water.

After a cursory examination, he couldn't help smiling. "The door never stood a chance."

"Not the smartest thing I've done, huh." They both laughed.

Wrapping a towel around her hand, Kevin pulled her to him and hugged her. "Why are you doing this to yourself?"

His voice was soft in her ear, and she responded just as softly. "Because I feel like I have to. I don't know how else to get over this."

"How about maybe giving yourself a little time?"

"No. The more time I give myself, the more power I give him over me and my life. It has to stop."

"I don't understand. Power?"

"It was ten minutes out of my life, Doc. MY life. And the more time I spend getting over it, the more time of MY life he takes away from me."

"Lucy," He sighed. "It's not just ten minutes we're talking about, and you know it. It's a lot more, and taking time to let yourself heal isn't giving him anything."

"I feel like it is. I've had enough of it." Sighing, Lucy let him lead her to the living room. Checking her hand again, he shook his head. "I don't think you're going to need stitches."

"It's not that bad. Just stupid." Her eyes dropped to the floor.

"Not stupid." Her eyes met his, and he finally shrugged and smiled at her. "Okay, that" He raised her hand a bit. "was stupid."

They both laughed for a moment.

Sighing, Lucy closed her eyes and forced herself to calm down. "Can we just forget about it for tonight? Think we can?"

"I'd like to." Pulling her closer to him gently, Kevin held her.

"Think we can?"

"Well," he knew what she was thinking, and he smiled at her. "if we just sit here and hold each other, don't answer the phone, light some candles, I think we can manage it for a night, at least."

"Are you agreeing with denial, Doctor?"

"You told me you didn't want me to shrink you, so I guess that leaves indulging you."

"That sounds so good to me." Smiling, she snuggled closer.

"If you'll sit here for a few minutes, I'm sure I can find some chocolate? And something that's actually good for both of us in the kitchen I can fix fast."

"I'll sit right here. Promise."

Kissing her lips gently, he stood and went to the kitchen.