Lucy had pulled herself together after just a few minutes of crying. She was too strong to let a minor setback—and she kept telling herself that was all it was—get her down. It was time to take action, and Agents Heckart and Limm would rue the day they ever decided to take on Lucy Thornhart. She had always been fiercely protective of the people she loved—they stood no chance at all against her when they attacked her soul mate. Her first order of business was to let Christina and Daniel know that their mother was fine, and that Ian would be returning to them shortly. She answered Christina's questions as honestly as she could, but was frustrated with how very little she knew. By the time Scott and Kevin arrived, Lucy was ready to plan her attack.

Kevin was as outraged as Lucy by the manner in which the agents had manhandled Ian. Scott, however, explained to them both that a non-citizen truly had no rights—and if Ian's visa had been revoked they could hold him at an undisclosed location indefinitely. The U.S. Constitution protects citizens, but not foreigners. Scott's first confusion was why the Thornharts had let the situation simmer for so long without having the immigration attorney handling the case.

"Well…" Lucy said chewing on her lower lip. "I though they were satisfied with our interviews. I haven't seen them in weeks, and I figured they had given up. I did call the attorney once, but it didn't seem to be an issue—so I dropped it."

"You DROPPED it! Lucy! What were you thinking!" yelled Scott. "I can't believe this—can you believe this Kevin? I can't believe this! Lucy—the woman who NEVER lets ANYTHING go, just DROPPED it!"

"Scott, you're not helping matters any," Kevin said calmly. "Lucy—I'm sorry, but they hadn't stopped investigating him. Ian didn't tell you? They contacted me at the clinic and Alan at the hospital—asking a lot of questions. Really personal questions—about our marriage and my marriage to Eve—I told Ian all about it." Kevin said. When Lucy just shook her head, he said, "You didn't know at all, did you?"

Lucy answered softly, "No. He never said a word. He let me think we convinced them the night they visited the house."

"Don't think that way, Lucy. You know how protective he is—I'm sure he thought he was taking care of you," Kevin answered her.

"He still doesn't get it, does he? I'm not a damsel in distress—I'm his partner and he has to tell me what's going on!" Lucy said with a mixture of sadness and anger. "How am I going to get that through his thick Irish skull?"

At that moment, the telephone rang. Lucy picked up the phone, "Hello… yes, this is Lucy Thornhart… yes, I'll hold…" she said into the receiver. "It's the attorney," she whispered to the men before going back to the phone, "Hello, Mr. Williams. Thank you for calling me back. I'm afraid that we have a problem after all…"

As Lucy continued speaking with the attorney, she motioned for Scott to pick up the extension. The doorbell rang, and Kevin decided to answer it since everyone else was tied up. He went up the few steps and opened the front door—and there stood, "Ian? Ian, do you have any idea…" Kevin said.

The man looked just like Ian, except that his hair was longer and he seemed slightly shorter. Kevin was thoroughly confused, until the man spoke, "Sorry, but that'd be my brother. We're trying to find his bloody house actually—could you point us in the right direction, seems we're a wee bit lost."

Kevin reached out to shake Patrick's hand, not noticing the luggage he was carrying, saying, "That's right. Lucy said you were coming for a visit—with everything that's happened we completely forgot it was today! Come in, come in! Here let me help you with those."

As Kevin reached down to pick up a suitcase, he noticed a beautiful little girl—a couple of years older than Christina—with red-gold hair smiling up at him. As he looked up he beheld a beautiful woman holding a sleeping baby with a crown of dark red curls. He paused a moment in astonishment, admiring the Thornhart men's ability to have such remarkably beautiful wives and children.

"Ahem…" Patrick cleared his throat at Kevin's stare.

"Oh… I'm sorry. Let me introduce myself, I'm Kevin Collins… a friend… of Lucy's. She's on the telephone right now, won't you please come in. I know she'll be thrilled to see you."

Patrick kept his own counsel, but he knew exactly who Kevin Collins was—and was more interested in why his brother's door was being answered by his sister-in-law's ex-husband. He picked up the other suitcase, and they all went into the house. Christina had seen the car pull in the drive from the window and scampered around the corner shrieking, "Aisling! You're here, you're finally here!"

Lucy got off the phone, leaving Scott to finish discussing the details with the attorney. Since the attorney had his office in New York, Scott had already agreed to handle things in Port Charles for them. As soon as she got off the phone, she ran into Patrick's arms, "Oh, Patrick, it's awful! It's just awful!"

Patrick wrapped his arms around Lucy, much as he would have held Aisling or Christina, and let her cry on his shoulder. Lucy, however, didn't stay in the embrace for long. Despite the remarkable resemblance, she had never mistaken Patrick for his brother. Even though the embrace was comforting, it was not Ian's, and she needed Ian at that moment—only Ian.

"Why don't you tell us what happened," Marty said to Lucy. "Something's obviously happened—but we don't understand."

"Oh, where are my manners? I'm so sorry—it's been such a long trip from Ireland and now you're standing here like this—Oh, Marty, everything's falling apart," Lucy said to the other woman. "Let's get you settled and then I'll explain everything."

"Lucy, you sit down with Patrick and… Marty, is it?" Kevin said. At her nod, he said, "Marty, then. Christina and Aisling can play with Danny, and I'll take the suitcases to …"

"The guesthouse, thanks Doc," Lucy answered him.

"Right… the guesthouse. You explain what's going on and I'll be right back," Kevin said to Lucy as he picked up the Thornharts' luggage and headed out the patio door.

"Okay, Luce, we've got our work cut out for us…" Scott said as he walked back into the living room. He stopped short and looked at the couple sitting on the sofa with Lucy. "Ian—if this is some kind of practical joke…"

"I see I'll be doing this a lot, won't I?" said Patrick with a little chuckle. "Not Ian—I'm his brother Patrick. Pleased to make your acquaintance, uh…"

"Scott… Scott Baldwin," he answered bemusedly. "Wow, Luce, I know you said they resemble each other—but I didn't expect…"

"Baldwin, that'd be Serena and Christina's Da, wouldn't it?" Patrick said.

"Yeah… that's right… you were all in Ireland together last summer. And you must be Patrick's wife… uh…."

"Marty. Marty Thornhart," Margaret replied extending her hand to Scott. "Lucy, I'm sorry, but what is going on? Where's Ian?"

"I don't know, and that's the problem," said Lucy.

Lucy did her best to explain what had happened, but it was so confused in her own mind that it didn't make much sense to anyone else either. It seemed that each member of the group had a piece of the puzzle and they all needed to compare notes in order to see the whole picture. After about fifteen minutes of confused ramblings, Lucy, Patrick and Marty went into the kitchen to make some tea and sandwiches. Seamus was still sound asleep, lying on his blanket in the living room, Caroline had fallen asleep in her crib, and Carmen had offered to keep an eye on the children so that the adults could talk.

Scott went to the guesthouse and filled Kevin in on his conversation with the attorney. After they had finished getting the luggage into the bedrooms, they headed back to the house and joined the Thornharts at the kitchen table. Lucy had sketched out the basics—everyone understood that Ian had applied for citizenship, and that someone in immigration had red flagged his file because of his marriage to Arianna. From that point on, each member of the group had a piece of the story—and they needed to pool their information.

Lucy described the visit by Agents Heckart and Limm in as much detail as she could remember. Quite honestly, she remembered more about their idyllic weekend at the cabin than the interviews. She tried hard to remember, but felt that she and Ian had been quite convincing in their conversations with the agents.

"I was sure we'd convinced them—you've all seen Ian and me together—would anyone believe that we had married and had Caroline for any reason except how much we love each other? They're just plain fools if they couldn't figure that out…" Lucy said emphatically. "Although… you know… there was something about that one agent… his name was Limm… what was his first name? Oh, what was it?"

"What about him, Lucy?" Kevin suggested.

"He just felt wrong, you know. Like he was up to something—but I never did get a good sense of what it was. He was the one who interviewed Ian, so I didn't get to spend as much time with him… but he was really creepy… he kept smiling… but his eyes… his smile never reached his eyes… and the way that he looked at Ian…" Lucy mused.

"Okay, so we've got an INS agent without a personality! I bet there aren't many of them around!" Scott said sarcastically.

"Wait a minute—Lucy's got this sense, she knows things—things that most people miss—if she says something was different, then I'm sure it was," Patrick stated.

"Thank you, Patrick," Lucy said with a smile.

"Did he say or do anything that made you suspicious—or was it just one of your notions?" Patrick continued.

"Well… not the first time he was here. I just didn't like the way he looked at me—and he was awfully rude to Ian. Ian was being very nice and very polite—I could tell he wanted to strangle the man, but he was in much better control than I was. But the nicer Ian was, the nastier that little man got. He gave me the creeps," Lucy said.

"What about the other agent, Lucy? Any ideas about him?" Marty interjected.

"No, she was nicer. Of course that's not much of a compliment—but she didn't seem like it was… That's it! The guy acted like it was PERSONAL! She was just doing her job."

"…and you never saw them again until today? What was different about today?" Marty coaxed her.

"He seemed almost… almost… HAPPY… about arresting Ian. Yeah, he was definitely enjoying himself. She was… I guess the word to describe her would be…"

"…professional," Kevin said. "She's the one who came to visit me, and she was very professional. You're right, Lucy, she was just doing her job. I didn't get to meet her partner, though."

"All right… we've got the INS asking questions and a rogue agent on our hands," Patrick summed it up. "What else are we missing?"

"I wouldn't go so far as to say 'rogue', Patrick," Kevin commented.

"Then you wouldn't have had much experience with government agents, now would you, Kevin?" Patrick replied. "There's always something about them gives 'em away… and I've had more than my share of troubles once upon a time. Lucy, love, what did he say to Sea—Ian—when he took him away?"

"Ummmm…." Lucy sat and thought for a minute. "Wait a minute! He said that Ian was a …." Lucy started laughing, "…a threat to national security!"

Marty chuckled, "He was talking about Ian… our Ian?"

"Yeah," Lucy said, suddenly serious. "And when Ian asked very nicely if he could say goodbye to me—he jerked him away and called him a terrorist! My Ian a terrorist!"

Patrick and Marty shared a look of concern that was missed by both Lucy and Scott—but Kevin caught their expression, "What? What is it? You know something, don't you?"

Slowly Patrick and Marty both nodded, and Patrick said, "Do you want to tell them, Angel… or shall I?"