Follow up piece to "Knock Knock," takes place a couple of months down the road.

Characters aren't mine, story is.

Kendall let the phone fall from her hands and sunk onto the couch. Inhaling sharply she buried her head in her hands and tried to calm herself, knowing that getting upset wouldn't help the situation, or be good for the baby she carried. Unfortunately, keeping calm in a situation like this was the last thing that Kendall Hart-Slater had ever been able to do.

Seething, she cursed herself for coming up with the idea to carry Greenlee and Ryan's child. Zach, she hated to admit even to herself, had been right. It had been the worse mistake of her life, especially with Ryan's return alongside his nutcase of a brother and pain in the ass of a sister. And if that wasn't bad enough, Greenlee had decided not to take the child and had flittered off in a huff of anger, signing her maternal rights over to Kendall, who ten minutes before was served with papers from Ryan, who in all his infinite wisdom, was suing for custody of the child she carried--- but which he had admitted he didn't want.

That alone had shaken her, but the phone call that had followed only added to her emotional turmoil.

Leave it to the Pine Valley PD to make a phone call to inform her that her husband was on his way to the hospital due to a gunshot wound instead of sending someone in person.

Running her hand down her face, she forced herself to breathe and used the arm of the couch to help her get to her feet. Staggering slightly, she rounded the couch to grab her purse, knowing she had to get to the emergency room. As she picked up the small clutch, a demanding knock sounded on her door: "Now what?" she muttered as she crossed the room while searching for her keys with one hand and pulling open the door with the other: "I don't have time. . ." she started only to be put off.

"Then make it," the woman shimmering with anger suggested as she pushed past her and into the room.

"How about I make it to call the police?" Kendall shot back angrily as she turned to face the petite blonde.

"And be held as an accomplice? I don't think so," Di/Dixie answered in a drawl.

"For what?"

"For helping me perpetrate my hoax."

"Like hell I did!"

"Well, you certainly didn't stop me."

"I have better things to do then worry about the Henry siblings," Kendall countered, "shut the door on the way out, and remember if something's missing, I'll know who took it," she added as she started to stalk out.

"You don't know anything. And if you're not careful, it's going to get you killed," Di cautioned. "Call your husband off the Dragon before it's too late, for all of us."

Kendall spun around, anger blazing in her eyes, "a little late for that, don't you think?"

"Excuse me?"

"You are still the same conniving con artist you were when Del found you," Kendall accused heatedly as she stomped to the woman, "you think you scare me? You don't. And you can't break up my marriage this time. But I can bring the world down around your pretty little shoulders, can't I, Di?"

"And yourself," Di answered, slightly unsure.

"Like it isn't crashing in on me already? Your warning's a bit too late. My husband's on his way to the hospital."

"I. . . I'm sorry. I didn't know," Di managed to stammer.

"Right. I'm so sure you didn't. You know, you sicken me. They say I'm so bad, but to take over someone else's life--- your sister's life--- that's low. And then, on top of it, to keep secrets that get people killed. You know, people in this town might not like me, or my husband, but they loved your sister, and they hold Julia Keifer in high regard. How do you think they'll react when they know the truth, all of it, little Ms. Di Henry?" Kendall ranted.

"Di?" a voice asked from the doorway, causing Di to look up in shock and Kendall to turn, slightly deflated. "What the hell's going on?" Tad Martin asked, "and for how long have you known, Kendall?"

"Oh, no. You are not--- I don't have time for this now," Kendall started.

"Make it," Tad insisted.

"Dad was right?" JR asked in confusion from his place at stepfather's side in the doorway.

"No. .. let me explain," Di started to protest, panic clear in her voice

"Kendall?" JR entreated as he crossed the threshold of the condo, not wanting to hear what his 'mother' had to say.

"I don't have time for this," Kendall answered shakily. "Zach's. . . I need to get to the hospital--- to Zach."

"Just--- you've always been the one to be honest with me."

"That's a laugh. Kendall wouldn't know the truth if it bit her," Di said caustically, causing Tad to narrow his eyes and Kendall to shake her head as he made his way across her living room.

"Need more of an answer than that?" Kendall asked as she looked at JR, who stared back at her blankly: "then fine. She's not Dixie. She's her half sister Di, and I didn't know for sure until Del showed up on my doorstep asking if I was planning on blowing her out of the water. I didn't say anything, because, quite frankly I didn't care and because I was too damned busy with other things to be too concerned what the hell she was up to. Maybe if I had said something then. . ." she shook her head as tears started to fall down her cheeks and she started to crumple.

Acting on instinct, both Tad and JR moved to hold her up. "She's making it up. Del--- Del introduced me to her as Di at one point when I went to see him when they were still married."

"When you couldn't remember any of us?" Tad asked angrily as he looked over at her.

"Look, it's complicated."

"Lies usually are," JR said angrily. "I can't believe that I. . . you're no better than Babe."

"JR, please. . . I did it for you. For all of you. I saw how much you needed. . ."

"Needed my mother? Well, you're not her so go to hell."

"I think I'm already there," Di sighed.

Looking down at the floor, Tad shook his head: "JR, get Kendall to the hospital," he ordered, knowing that the young woman wouldn't be able to handle much more of this and, from the part of the conversation that they had over heard and was starting to penetrate the hurt and anger of this woman's true identity, that his friend's daughter was in a whole hell of a lot of danger. "Stay with her. I'll call Aidan. Have him join you. I'll handle this."

"But. . ."

"Do it," Tad said stiffly.

Nodding, JR put an arm around Kendall and started to lead her to the door, as they got there, Kendall put a hand on JR's chest to stop their progress, then looked up at him. Seeing the need in her eyes, he stopped and dropped his hold, slowly, she shifted and faced her former sister-in-law: "if my husband dies because of your lies, there will be no place that you can hide," she said simply.

"You come after me, I make sure you lose that baby," Di threatened.

Stiffening at her comment and Kendall's gasp JR looked over his shoulder and glared at the woman who had taken his mother's place: "try it and see where it gets you. Hell hath no fury like a Kane woman scorned, except when she has the Chandlers, Courtlands, and Martins on her side," he warned before ushering Kendall out of the Condo and towards his car.

"Well, I guess that removes all doubt," Tad said angrily. "Dixie would never have threatened a woman's child."

"I didn't mean. . . I just meant that I'd help Ryan get custody. Kendall isn't exactly the most stellar of role models, Tad."

"Better than some others I can think of."

"Tad, she's lying. The old Dixie might not have said those things, but. . . well, prison changes a person. I don't like how she leads JR on."

"But it's OK when Babe does it?" Tad laughed humorlessly. "Let me guess, she or Krystal know the truth and got you to help them by encouraging JR to let her in, no matter how much it hurt Jamie--- how if it went bad it could hurt little Adam--- to keep your secret."

Swallowing, Di looked down at her feet. "Yeah, that's what I though," he said with disgust as she went over to her and grabbed her arm and started to pull her towards the door.

"Let go of me."

"No."

"What are you going to do with me?" she asked, for the first time allowing fear to enter her voice.

"Turn you in to Derek. You can take the blame or turn this time, I really don't care which. But no one else is getting hurt or killed because of your lies. . ."