Sorry it took me so long to update, I haven't had much free time lately. In the last chapter, the break in the page was supposed to indicate the passage of time. Before the break was just after breakfast and after it would have been around lunchtime. Sorry if that was confusing, now on with the story. Oh, and remember we like Belle in this fic and Philip is in war, but hasn't been captured.

"Are you sure this is what you want to do?"

Lucas looked at Bo with empty eyes. Now, he certainly didn't want to let Kate get away with messing up people's lives, but the younger man's lack of emotion was becoming a little frightening.

"You've seen the evidence, you have to arrest her. I thought that was some sort of law. I'll even find out where she is for you."

"What ever you say."

Bo studied him further for a minute as he waited for an answer to his phone call. There was definitely something off about Lucas, but he had no idea how to help him.

……………………………………

Sami held the mug of hot chocolate tightly, letting it warm her numb hands from the February chill. Belle was bustling in the kitchen like the little Susie homemaker that she was, but Sami couldn't help wishing that she would just sit still.

Her concern was sweet on some level, but it was so overwhelming that Sami hadn't gotten the chance to tell her there was no need for it. At least she hoped there wasn't.

She and Lucas were back together, as it should be, and he finally saw his mother for the bitch that she was. He was just reacting right now, that had to be it. Things would go back to normal in a little while.

Blessedly, Belle finally came to sit down with her homemade Dunkaccino, or half coffee-half hot chocolate concoction that had taken her so long in the kitchen. She took a dainty sip before focusing her gaze on her older sister.

"How're you doing? Are you okay? Has he tried to talk to you? Did you kick him? I hope you kicked him really hard. I hope you broke something. He's such a…"

"Belle, sweetie, calm down. I didn't break anything…"

"Well you should have."

"You don't know the whole story. That's what I came here to tell you. See…"

"Belle, honey, I thought you might be lonely without Philip here so I decided to… oh, hello Sami."

Kate nodded to her coldly with a flare of her nostrils and closed the loft door. Belle held in a wince, as she was sure this was exactly what her sister didn't need right now and Kate's attention was becoming more like smothering. At least she meant well.

"So, you decided to prey on poor Belle's sympathy because you couldn't satisfy Lucas. I guess you really will use any situation to your advantage."

"Kate!"

"No, Belle, it's okay. She obviously doesn't know the whole story either, and I know I'll enjoy telling her."

"Telling me what, Sami? That Lucas finally saw you for the useless waste that you are. In fact, we just had a little conversation about that while I was driving over here. I believe his exact words were 'You were so right, Mom. Sami would've destroyed me. I'm sorry I spoke to you the way that I did for her.'"

Sami studied her with an icy blue gaze and Belle couldn't remember the last time she had seen her sister look at anyone with that much hate. It was so much more than she could ever remember seeing focused on her dad, Carrie, or even Lucas.

"You have a lot of nerve to keep up with these lies. Maybe you don't know that you've been caught, but I really doubt it. I was there when Lucas watched the tape, and I know you know what I'm talking about. You're sick."

Sami saw a flash of something in Kate's eyes, but was unable to fully let out her contempt for the pathetic woman in front of her by the somewhat unfortunate, though not at all unwelcome, arrival of her Uncle Bo and Lucas, along with a few other boys in blue.

For a second she wondered how Belle felt about the fact that everyone barged into her apartment unannounced, but that thought was promptly pushed to the back of her mind as she observed the strange exchange between her uncle and her fiancé.

Bo looked at him for a minute and Lucas gave him a curt nod. Oh, how she hoped they were doing what she thought they were doing. She would take great pleasure in that.

Bo let a little smile quirk his lips as he moved in for the kill. He had never liked Kate much, although he didn't hate her or anything, but there was such a sense of satisfaction when he cuffed a criminal he knew he could keep in jail for a long time. Trying to keep his satisfaction from showing, he moved forward and decided to jump right into the good stuff.

"Kate, we have just received evidence of your crime this afternoon."

"I don't know what the hell…"

"I'm hoping that you'll come peacefully," with no small sense of accomplishment, Bo took out his handcuffs; it felt good to actually cuff a criminal. He ignored the woman's indignant sputtering as he closed the cold metal around her bony wrists and began to recite her Miranda Rights.

"Bo, this is all a mistake. Lucas, tell him that I didn't do anything. You won't let him send you're mother to jail, will you? I know you won't. Lucas, Belle do something."

Belle watched in bewilderment as her mother-in-law was handcuffed by her ex-boyfriend's father. She had no idea what was going on here, but if Lucas wasn't going to do anything to help Kate, then she supposed that there had to be a good reason. She just wished she could've understood the conversation Sami and Kate were having before all of this started.

Lucas clamped down his jaw, vaguely aware that his dentist would not be happy with the grinding going on, but he had to stop himself from trying to help her. It was a knee-jerk reaction and he was doing his best to kill it, but she was his mother. She didn't deserve his sympathy or his loyalty. It hadn't gotten him anywhere.

"Give it up, Mother. You brought this on yourself when you drugged me."

Sami let a smirk grace her pretty mouth, "Bye-bye, Katie. Hope you have fun in prison, I know I did."

Bo led his prisoner out with a terse nod to the group gathered in loft, leaving Belle to exclaim in puzzlement, "What just happened here?"

………………………………...

Sami and Lucas entered her apartment and she tossed her coat onto a chair. She moved to take his coat as well, but he tossed it aside without acknowledging her attempt. Briefly, she bit her lip as she wondered how to breach the subject, before deciding to just bite the bullet.

She plopped down onto the couch and looked up at him uncertainly, "Are you okay?"

He raised an eyebrow in a silent show of his confusion, and then added, "Why would you ask me that? I'm fine."

"Are you sure, because you don't seem fine? I mean, I'm glad Kate's in prison, 'cause that's exactly where she belongs, but you're… I don't know. You seem different."

Letting his first smile out in what felt like hours, Lucas took her hand and gently brought her up to stand in from of him, and then wrapped his arms around her waist. Purposefully, he pressed a kiss to her neck and whispered, "I'm fine."

He knew it was a lie, but it seemed to soothe her for now. Which was good because right now all he wanted was to loose himself in Sami. He needed to wrap himself up in her warmth and love, because if he didn't forget what his mother had done he was sure he would spontaneously combust.

Sami let him maneuver them towards the bedroom door. She was pretty sure sex wasn't what he needed right now, but he was kissing her. Kissing her, and he was acting like himself again, and that was a combination she was helpless to resist.

I don't know if Kate's arrest had quite the bang that you might have been looking for, but this fic is more about how Lucas handles what's happening to him and how it affects Lumi. Somehow, that detail is what made it longer than I had thought it would be.