Thanks for your reviews Kelly & EC Brenway! Good to see you catching up!

Kelly - I can't believe it either and hope pierce doesn't either and yet...

EC - Aster's been through the wringer with her family situations! Oh lord, Beebo as Chucky, no thank you!

The Chemistry In Darkness

Chapter Seventy-Eight

Sunday 2nd March 2025

Aaron sighed gently as he stood in the backyard with his brother, Mark, having just been told Pierce had been released on bail, "How did Pierce even get bail? Does the judge not even realize he could be a risk and want revenge on Chloe for what she's accusing him of? Don't tell me it's because Chloe's taken off and you and your buddies haven't been able to track her down."

Mark shrugged, "We're talking about Pierce here, he probably managed to pay someone off to get bail…or the bail amount was hardly enough for Pierce not to pay it so he could be free until he has to face a trial. Chloe disappearing hasn't exactly helped things. Right now, all we have is a letter from Chloe to us accusing Pierce of assaulting her. And the warrant we got to search Chloe and Pierce's house only turned up Chloe's letter to Pierce telling him she's pregnant to someone else. We know Pierce would be heartbroken and angry about that, for all we know Chloe thought by accusing Pierce of something criminal it would stop him finding out who she cheated with. It's not proof of anything he did."

"I can't believe Chloe cheated on Pierce with anyone else other than Elly," Aaron admitted, then when Mark glared at him, Aaron shrugged, "Oh c'mon, we weren't blind to how things were between Chloe and Elly until Elly disappeared again…but I guess we were wrong and Chloe did cheat with someone else."

"Is that really important right now?" Mark pointed out.

"Okay, I guess not," Aaron agreed, "Are you any closer to tracking Chloe down?"

Mark shook his head, "All we know is Chloe took an Uber to Anson's' Corner at about 3am on Wednesday morning. Then from there we don't know except that Chloe did make it back to Erinsborough mid-morning. She removed cash from her account in several transactions at the ATM and then got a taxi to who knows where. The CCTV doesn't show the license plate in full and it turns out at the time she called the taxi there was also check out time at the hotel and a big conference that had been at the hotel earlier in the week ended so…lots of taxi's were in the area. I'm betting Chloe knew that…she might not have worked at the hotel anymore but she never lost that knowledge of how things work. We have no idea where Chloe's disappeared to."

"If we don't find her…Pierce is gonna get away with everything, isn't he?" Aaron worried.

"It's Pierce's word against Chloe on the assault charge and without Chloe around to stand up and speak her truth, he might very well get away with it," Mark admitted, "But Pierce will be found guilty of the charge of feeding Chloe fertility drugs. We got his chef to confess to been coerced by Pierce to lace Chloe's food and drink for years with fertility drugs in an attempt to get Chloe pregnant…and presumably tie her to him forever. But at best, Pierce isn't looking at a long sentence or even a jail sentence at all with the lawyer he's got. He's trying to get Pierce off by re-working Rene's claim that he and Pierce were working together dosing Chloe's food by arguing that Chloe knew about the fertility drugs. That she was as desperate as Pierce was to get pregnant. We still have Chloe's doctor's version of Chloe's reaction to been told about the drugs…but we don't know what the judge will make of the situation. If it doesn't go our way, Pierce will be free to go after Chloe before we know it…like right now."

Aaron couldn't help but smirk, "Pierce must be suffering at least knowing he's been trying to get Chloe pregnant for years and Chloe managed to get pregnant by some other guy without even trying," then off Mark's look, "It's a little bit ironic, okay? How did Chloe manage to avoid getting pregnant to Pierce with the amount of drugs Rene and Pierce were dosing her with for years?"

David and Paige suddenly appeared from the house, walking outside to join their partners after putting all their kids to sleep.

David bit his lip before admitting, "I might know the answer to that…but if I make a statement to the police or…provide the evidence that Chloe didn't want to have a baby with Pierce and therefore didn't know about the fertility drugs…it's my career on the line."

"Boo?" Aaron worried about what his husband had done, using the affectionate nickname they had for each other.

"I've been stealing birth control pills for Chloe from the hospital…since she had her miscarriage with Pierce's baby years ago," David confessed.

"David, are you serious? That's against the law," Mark complained, knowing that the information could help them but didn't want to jeopardize David's career.

"Why didn't you ever tell me about this, Boo?" Aaron was upset.

"Because I knew it was wrong," David sighed, "But Chloe needed someone to understand she wasn't prepared to have a baby with Pierce, knowing there was the risk of passing on her Huntington's gene as Pierce didn't want to go through IVF to use an egg from Chloe that was screened for the gene before impregnated. He had a very real…need to want their baby to be conceived naturally. Chloe was too scared of that happening…and I think a part of her…wasn't ready to have a baby with Pierce the way he was keen for them to. Do I have to make a statement, Mark?"

Mark thought for a moment, prompting Paige to add, "We can't have David's career ended because he was looking out for Chloe and doing something she wanted."

"I know," Mark agreed, "David, don't say anything to anyone official yet. If we track Chloe down and get her to make a statement then perhaps your little…pill stealing habits can remain…unofficial if there's a way for Chloe to convince a court that she didn't know about the fertility drugs and didn't want to have Pierce's baby. If we can't find Chloe…then I'm sorry, David, but you did the wrong thing…and it might be the only way a court will side against Pierce."

"I understand," David accepted.

"We really need to find our sister to make sure she's safe and Pierce can't harm her ever again," Aaron posed.

Mark agreed, "We really do. I suppose the only good thing we know is that if the police haven't managed to find Chloe with the resources that we have…Pierce doesn't have much chance of finding Chloe before we do."

Over the road at #24, Pierce entered his home, fuming from his several days stuck in lock up at the Police Station, waiting for his lawyer to see to his bail been granted then paid for.

Pierce pulled out a plastic bag from his belongings that the cops had taken from him when he'd been arrested down at the Station after Mark had dragged him down there. He grabbed his phone immediately, his annoyance at an all time high that the device's battery had died during his days locked up and he had to wait for it to be charged. Pierce quickly shifted to picking up his phone charger where it always was, plugging it into the phone, silently willing the battery to be charged enough to turn back on within minutes.

Pierce knew it was going to take longer than that for the phone to recharge enough. As he looked around the house that had been empty for days, he screwed up his nose at the smell from the kitchen. His piss-stained towels still laid on the kitchen floor from his urination troubles upon finding out Chloe was pregnant to someone else.

Pierce knew the police had been to his house, looking for proof of his knowledge to the fertility drugs Chloe had been dosed with. He was embarrassed to know someone had been in his kitchen, seen the evidence of his accident and yet the towels still remained there, now dried but smelling up the house with his piss.

Pierce opened the fridge, unsurprised to see it empty, with the police taking all the food and drinks that had been in there as evidence that Chloe's food had been drugged. Pierce had been forced to submit his own blood and urine into evidence too that he didn't have the same fertility drugs in his system in a bid for Mark's co-workers to prove that Pierce didn't eat the same food as Chloe did and therefore if he was clean for the drugs, then he had to be part of the accusation that he was aware of what his chef was doing.

Pierce wondered if Mark even knew about this angle his co-workers were placing their case on. But his concern was more on the fact it was inevitable that some of the food and drinks from their fridge, the food he always ate and Chloe didn't touch, would be found without the fertility drugs in them, just like his drug test would come back clean.

Glancing back at his phone, seeing it wasn't close to been charged enough to turn back on, Pierce set to work on cleaning up the kitchen, his embarrassment blushing through on his face as he picked up the towels at the reminder of pissing his pants. Throwing the towels in the washing machine and turning them on, Pierce surprisingly managed to successfully do something he hadn't done in years.

Find the mop and mop the floor whilst wondering if the washing machine setting that he had selected was anywhere near the setting that would actually wash his towels.

Pierce Greyson was not one to bother with such simplicities of household chores but he was desperately waiting for his phone to be charged enough and he didn't want to have to call someone in to clean up the mess, he himself had embarrassingly made.

After the mopping had been done and the towels looked to be washing fine on the setting he'd selected, Pierce crossed to the bookshelf behind the couch. Pierce pulled out his book on werewolves from the bookshelf, relieved that the police whom had searched his house for evidence of drugging his wife hadn't gone through the books he owned.

As Pierce stood there, re-reading every word of the chapter on werewolves, running his finger lightly over where he'd scrawled ELLY CONWAY at the top of the chapter, he was more convinced then ever that Elly was a werewolf.

Pierce wanted to find Chloe, go after her and find out whom she'd gotten pregnant to, but he also wanted to track Elly down just as much so he could prove he was right and that she was a supernatural being. Pierce wondered if the man whom had cheated with Chloe had any relation to Elly, he felt it in his gut that when he knew where Chloe was hiding, he would likely find Elly not far away but he couldn't quite piece together why.

Pierce's phone beeping took him out of his thoughts, as he crossed the house to where his phone was sitting. Pierce saw that the battery had charged enough to begin using the device again. He immediately dialed Rene's number from his contacts list, putting the phone on speaker then tapping off the call screen to open up one of the apps on his phone as he waited for Rene to answer the phone.

"Boss?" Rene finally squeaked when he did answer the phone.

"You sold me out to the police that you drugged Chloe under my intimidation," Pierce replied angrily, still tapping at his phone.

"I'm sorry, boss! They didn't give me any choice, I couldn't go down for the crime," Rene stated before pleading with Pierce for forgiveness.

Pierce waved his hand for a few seconds, forgetting no one could see him as he wasn't video calling Rene like he normally did, "Lucky for you, Rene…I'm in a forgiving mood. I want you at my house within an hour. You are going to bring me every weapon you have in your possession. Shotguns, handguns, knives, the whole enchilada…and most importantly…silver…anything you own that has silver in it. I need lots of it."

Rene was surprised, "What are you planning on doing, boss?"

"Chloe's with Elly…I'm sure of it, I don't know why though…so I'm going werewolf hunting…going to prove once and for all werewolves exist…that they are nothing but overly powerful human beings around 28 days of the month…and on the other 3 nights a month…they are monsters," Pierce declared, "Guess I'm lucky that the Full Moon cycle doesn't start for another couple weeks…I'd have loved to have killed Elly when she's a wolf but now when she looks like a human will have to do."

"Are you sure about this, boss? How do you even know where the werewolves are?" Rene asked in worry.

"Elly is the reason Chloe cheated on me with some guy and got pregnant to another man. That bitch will get what's coming to her," Pierce threatened as he continued tapping on his phone until he exhaled gently at the information on his screen, "Best damn money I ever spent. Can't believe I ever thought that going to Chloe's brothers was the better option because it would look more natural that they found her for me. Wasted days in a jail cell for nothing when what I needed was here all along."

"Boss?" Rene interrupted; unsure what Pierce was going on about.

"The tracking chip I had Chloe inserted with after her car accident…Chloe's on the Island…and I'm betting a bunch of werewolves have invaded my Island too…and that I'll find the person responsible for impregnating my wife with them all," Pierce revealed darkly, "Be here within an hour with everything I asked you to bring, Rene."

"What are you planning on doing?" Rene asked tepidly.

Pierce glanced up, seeing a photo of him and Chloe together on their wedding day and how perfectly happy they both were, "I'm going to hit the Island come day break…those werewolves won't know what hit them."

Next time - Unaware Pierce is after them, Chelly make plans for their day together. But who comes across Pierce before he can get to Chelly?