A mere few days before Valentine's Day, Hope sat on the couch watching Connor seated at the coffee table, diligently coloring in a book. He was growing more verbal each day. Most of it was odd sounds mixed with words-none of which was intellectually astute or of his age level. But both Bo and Hope learned to understand him as they encouraged him to progress further.

Connor had turned and threw a crayon-which landed in Hope's lap-only to get reprimanded as Bo walked in. "Whoa, Fancy Face, what's the problem?"

Hope stood, "Just explaining that he shouldn't throw things." Connor ripped a page out of the book and ran up to Bo, thrusting the half colored picture into his hands.

Bo knelt down and examined the artwork, "That is very creative, Connor. You're a regular Picasso, ain'tcha?!"

"So, what did you find out?" Hope approached him, rewarding him with a hug only.

"Connor's previous guardians called us." Bo watched as Connor went back to coloring.

"And?"

"Well, actually it was the woman that called us. She apologized for how Connor was left on our doorstep and that it was her husbands doing." Bo explained, sitting on the couch.

"So I take it that the husband never wanted Connor?" Hope joined Bo on the couch.

"That's what I assumed. But she said she'd explain more in person."

"She's meeting with us?" Hope certainly was surprised.

Bo nodded, "Yeah. And guess where she elected the meeting to take place." He smiled in an "I don't believe it" fashion.

"Where?" She faced him fully, hanging on his every word.

"The art museum." Bo grinned in amusement upon Hope's half uneasy expression.

"Picasso." Connor chimed in. Hope and Bo looked over and noticed the extravagant patio scene that he had whipped up in minutes. Hope glanced at Bo, assuming that he was thinking the same thing: Connor inherited Gina's artistic ability.

"Let's just get going." Bo managed to say. It had taken both of them a bit over twenty minutes to get Connor's jacket on. He fought against them, since his interest was on the football just out of his reach.

During the drive to the museum, there was silence-except for Connor's verbal complaints of being tied down to the seat with the seat-belt. But it if weren't for his agitated squeals, the drive would have been more agonizing for Bo and Hope. Each of them wanted to discuss further of Connor's painting. Neither side could get the expressive words out. Soon, they arrived and Bo eased the SUV into a close parking spot.

There were no signs of anyone on the entrance steps, so the three of them headed inside. Able to walk around now, Connor seemed more behaved than he was in the SUV. However, he was simply mesmerized by a certain wall painting. Bo and Hope kept an eye on him, not noticing an older woman approaching them.

"Mr. and Mrs. Brady?"

They turned and saw the woman. Bo stepped forward with his hand out, "I'm Bo Brady, this is my wife, Hope."

"I'm Helen Bostic." She gracefully accepted Bo's handshake. The woman nodded to Hope, then looked past her at Connor. "I chose this location to appease him. Since a young age, he's taken to sitting and staring at paintings for hours."

"He likes to paint, doesn't he?" Hope was the one to finally address that surprising discovery.

Helen nodded. "Our home was once vastly decorated with Connor's work until my husband trashed them. I managed to recover a few of his best pieces that he had done over the years." She handed them a slightly thick portfolio.

Hope accepted it and when she opened it, Bo was just as amazed as she was. "These are incredible."

Helen interrupted when they flipped to a certain portrait, "This was his first one. He was 2 and I had shown him a picture of Gina…his mother. This was his interpretation of her."

There were still more to go through, but after seeing a picture of Gina, Hope quickly shut the portfolio. At this time, Connor had wandered over to them. "We'll take a look at the rest of these later." Hope replied about her abrupt action. "I want to know why Connor was tied to my porch and left there…certainly your husband could have waited for someone to arrive home."

Helen shook her head, "My husband loathed the child."

"What about you?" Bo chimed in.

"Connor was a blessing to me. But all the love I tried to give him, couldn't counter-balance all the abuse my husband dished out."

Hope frowned, pulling Connor close to her. "Why did he abuse Connor?"

"That should be obvious, Hope." Helen sighed, but answered anyway. "Connor is the result of Gina and your husband. My husband wanted that right."

"But how did you become his guardians?" Bo's detective side chimed in.

"A friend of mine had ways to revive Gina and stabilize her enough for the fetus to grow as normal. Once the fetus was able to survive outside of the womb, it was taken out and Gina was returned to her previous state. My friend had known my husband and I wanted a child…that is why he did it."

Hope was disgusted, but somewhat grateful for Helen's unknown friend. "Your friend isn't by chance a DiMera, is he?"

Helen frowned, "Goodness no. I would never accept a child from him, no matter how badly I wanted a child."

Bo felt relieved and knew that Hope felt the same. "Why did your husband wait so long to dump Connor?"

"We discovered early on that you were the biological father, but I had convinced my husband that I badly wanted to keep Connor."

Hope was able to understand the rest of the story then. "And so he kept the child, but resulted to abusing Connor until that grew tiresome."

Helen nodded, "So it seems."

"It must have taken a lot of courage to come here without his consent. Thank you, Helen." Bo wanted to make sure he thanked her before the moment was lost or forgotten.

"I'm sorry it took so long to come forward to explain it to you. I had only recently learned of what he'd done." Helen stood up, shaking each of their hands again. "I can be happy now knowing that Connor is where he should be." Before Hope or Bo could detain her any longer, Helen said goodbye and quickly left.

Since it was still early, Bo and Hope decided to take Connor through the rest of the museum before Connor grew cranky from hunger. They ended their outing with a quick trip home.

"I'll make us some lunch." Bo shuffled ahead to the kitchen. Hope took Connor's jacket off and he was free to finally go after his football.

Hope watched him. "I bet you want someone to play with."

Just then, Shawn had knocked on the door and walked in, "Ah good, you guys are home!"

Hope stood up and turned, smiling bright at her son. "We just arrived."

"From where?" Shawn had to brace himself when Connor tackled his legs.

"Big Shawn!" Connor squealed.

Shawn ruffled his brothers' hair, "Hey there!"

"We had met with his previous guardian." Hope replied, loving how the boys got along.

"Guardian?" Shawn caught the use of the word.

"Just the woman met with us. She filled us in about how Connor was practically saved, on why he was abused and the reason he was left on our doorstep." At that moment, Bo came out of the kitchen with a plate full of sandwich halves.

"I got lunch!" He noticed Shawn. "Sailor Man, wanna join us?!"

"Sure." Shawn sat down on the couch, handing Connor a sandwich half before taking one for himself.

Soon, the four of them had their fill of sandwiches. Connor was eager to play now. "C'mon, Big Shawn!" He tugged Shawn's arm towards the door while he clung to his football.

"Alright, let's go." Shawn followed Connor to the front yard.

Hope and Bo then began cleaning up lunch. "I'm glad he is getting along with us." Hope muttered about Connor.

"He's certainly come a long way in a few short weeks." Bo added and followed Hope into the kitchen.

Hope set a plate in the sink and stopped. "I need to say this, Brady…but, for the first time in a long time…I feel really good about things."

Bo smiled, "Is that so?" Hope nodded. "Do things look good for us?"

He expected her smile to frown, but it didn't. "I admit, the past two nights have been difficult for me…and I don't mean about Connor's night terrors." She turned and fully faced Bo. "I think we should try getting him used to sleeping by himself. He didn't have any episodes last night." Bo immediately knew where she was going with this, but allowed to let her say it.

"So what is it that you're admitting?"

"That I miss you." Hope simply replied.

"I missed you too, Fancy Face." Bo boldly pulled Hope close and kissed her like it was their first.

When they pulled apart, Hope's cheeks were flushed. Just as she was about to suggest a trip upstairs, Shawn had entered the kitchen. "Oh, sorry."

Bo noticed a sleeping Connor in his older son's arms. "You wore him out?"

"'Fraid so, Dad." Shawn chuckled. He offered to tuck Connor into bed for the nap and then claimed he had things to do, so he left.

The rest of the day went along nicely. Connor opened up to more of the family and Bo noticed that Hope was falling back into love. After it had grown a bit dark outside, Hope suggested putting Connor to bed early-even if he did have a nap hours ago.

Luckily, Connor had been extremely active and eagerly settled to a nice long sleep. Bo stood and watched as Connor slept after tucking him in, so he didn't hear Hope until she was at his side.

"He'll be fine, Brady."

He turned, and the look Hope gave him sent all of his concern away. "What are you up to?"

He was teasing her as she pulled him to the confines of their master bedroom. He didn't need the lit candles to put him in the mood-just having his Fancy Face have a need of him was enough. He was so glad to have her back and oddly thanked Gina for giving him Connor.

Connor had no night terrors that night, allowing Bo and Hope to fully concentrate on each other until the morning light. However, it wouldn't be until Valentines day that they would discover that another miracle had occurred that night.

FIN