Chapter 9

"Hey kid. Is Hope upstairs?" Bo had just returned home and saw Chelsea sitting in the living room.

"No. Hope is at the hospital." Chelsea told him. "So where have you been all night?" She asked her father.

"I was working on a case. When did Hope leave for the hospital. I called and left her several messages, but she never got back to me." Bo was worried about Hope.

"She's been at the hospital all night." Chelsea told her dad.

"Huh? She never came home? What about Ciara? Is she still at your Grandma Caroline's?"

"No. Hope called me and asked if I would pick her up and stay here with her until you got home. So I've been here all night with Ciara. This case must be pretty important to keep you out all night." Chelsea said.

"Yeah, it is. Thanks for staying with Ciara."

"Daddy, Daddy. I missed you." Ciara came running down the stairs and jumped into her fathers arms.

"Hey my little sugar bear." He said grabbing his daughter and lifting her into a bear hug.

"Daddy? Where's Mommy?" She looked up sadly at her father.

"Don't you worry about mommy. She'll be home soon." He held onto Ciara.

"When's Mommy coming home, Daddy?" Ciara persisted.

"Hey, I have an idea. How about you go upstairs and get changed and we can go see Mommy." Bo said trying to soothe her.

"Okay." She said excitedly. Ciara raced back upstairs.

"I'll go help her." Chelsea went up after Ciara.

"Thanks kid." Bo went to check his messages. "Nothing. Hope, why didn't you come home last night?" Bo paced around the room waiting for Ciara to return, He was anxious to see Hope and fill her in on everything.

"Dad, you're taking Ciara to see Hope at the hospital?"

"Mommy's in the hospital? What's wrong with Mommy?" Ciara asked with tears in her eyes.

"No, Ciara. Mommy isn't in the hospital. She's just visiting someone who is." Chelsea said trying to cover her slip up.

"Come here sugar bear." Bo reached out his hand to Ciara. "Let's go see Mommy and we can have some breakfast. How does that sound?"

"Good."

"Good." He tickled her belly and she squealed with glee.

…At the hospital…

Hope stirred lifting her head off the bed. She rubbed the back of her neck trying to ease the pain of lying her head in a crooked position all night. She looked over at Alicia who sill lay in the same position as the night before. "Still no change I see."

"Hey Hope. You been here all night?" Kayla was coming in to check Alicia's vitals.

"Yes. I couldn't leave her here alone." Hope told her.

"She wasn't alone. There's a whole staff here, not to mention the guard Bo has stationed outside her room."

"It's not the same. I've already abandoned her once. I won't do it again." Hope reached over and took Alicia's hand in hers.

"Hope. What are you talking about? You didn't abandon her.""Yes I did!" Hope said cutting her off.

"Hope, you had no memory of her. You didn't abandon her." Kayla tried to make sense of it all.

"But I did. I did. I might have had my memories erased by Stefano, but I should have known in my heart that something was missing. I should've been able to remember her when I got my memories back. Why didn't I?" Hope was crying now. She couldn't stop blaming herself for missing all these years with her daughter.

"Hope, come on. Even when you were starting to remember your life, you had trouble remembering everything. We all helped you. You never remembered anything from the time Stefano had you prisoner. Except for the time you went to France right before Princess Gina kidnapped you, you haven't had a single memory of those years. You can't blame yourself for this." Kayla continued to try to get Hope to see that she wasn't the one to blame here. She was a victim too.

"But I should've known." A knock interrupted them. Kayla went to the door a little puzzled.

"Bo? Why are you knocking?" She asked him.

"Would you mind getting Hope and telling her to come out here." Bo asked her.

"Why? Just come in….Oh." She said when she saw Ciara standing behind her brother. "Hope, can you come here?" She asked her over her shoulder.

"What? Who is it?" Hope asked turning her head to see.

"There's a little girl here that wants to see her Mommy." Kayla told her.

Hope wiped away her tears and put on a happy face. "Ciara! My sweet baby girl. How are you. Mommy missed you." She pulled Ciara into a hug and kissed the top of her head.

"Hi, Mommy. We're going to have breakfast. Want to come?" She asked Hope.

"Of course I do. I love spending time with you." Hope squeezed her tight. "Kay, will you call the minute there's any change? I won't be long, but if anything changes I want to know."

"Of course I will. I'll make sure the staff knows to call you if there are any changes. Don't worry. I'll be doing my rounds and I'll keep checking in on her. Go be with your family and get a bite to eat. You need a break from this place." Kayla gave her a hug and went off on her rounds.

"Ok. Let's go." Bo pulled Hope close to him and the three left to go eat breakfast.

…Brady Pub…

"Now that Ciara isn't here, I have something I need to tell you." Bo told Hope about the break in the case and how Higley may be connected to the murders of the rape victims. "When Roman first told me about this, I wasn't thinking straight. Now that I've had time to wrap my head around this, I think Higley is crooked. He was with Reynolds the day Vito escaped. And his vehicle was the one you saw leaving Doug's Place. There's got to be a connection here that I'm just not seeing. With him being the first guy on every one of those crime scenes, I have a feeling he might be the guy who's been attacking all these young girls."

"I can't even begin to think of how this could effect everyone. I mean think about it. Just how safe are the citizens going to feel when they find out one of Salem's finest has been the one raping, beating, and killing all these young girls." Hope was horrified at the thought.

"I know what you mean. The newspapers are going to have a field day with this….Hi Ciara." Bo stopped talking about the case. Ciara had just come back from visiting her grandma in the kitchen.

"Did grandma give you a cookie?" Hope asked her as she wiped the evidence off her daughters mouth.

"Yes. Can I have another one?" She innocently asked.

"How about you bring one to school with you for snack? Does that sound good?" Hope asked her.

"Yes. I'm going to tell Grandma right now." Ciara raced back to the kitchen to find her grandmother."Brady? You okay?" Hope was worried about Bo. "You look like you have a lot on your mind and it's not all about this case either. What's bothering you?" Hope asked him.

"I just got some things on my mind." He said.

"BO?" Hope raised her eyebrows with that knowing look. "What are you keeping from me? We said no secrets. Remember?"

"I remember. I just want to have more information before I bring you in on it. How was your night?" He asked trying to change the subject.

"Bo! Don't change the subject on me Brady. What's going on. This is obviously eating at you. What is it?' She pressed.

"Do you remember me telling you about a disc that was left on Abe's desk? Well, there's some information on it about those missing years of yours." He said.

"This is about me and you didn't want to tell me about it?" She asked him. "Why not?"

"Hope, I wasn't trying to keep it from you. There just isn't all that much information just yet. Shane's here and he and the ISA are working on it. So far, they've only managed to pull some footage of you and Alicia when you were at Maison Blanche. But it's just bits and pieces of you and her."

"There's video of Alicia when she was a baby?" Hope asked. "Can I see it? It might help jog more of my memories."

"I'll give Shane a call and see if we can stop by to watch it. Hopefully he's got some more information for us. We can drop Ciara off on the way." Bo was talking to her when Hope got up suddenly. "Hope? Where are you going?"

"I'm going to call the hospital and check on Alicia." She went to call Kayla.

"Hope, Kayla said she'd call if there's anymore news. Hope?" Bo tried to stop her.

"Bo, I'll be right back. I just need to check on her."

……

"Shane!" Hope kissed Shane's cheek and hugged him. "It's so good to see you. How long has it been?" She laughed.

"Too long. How are you? You look great."

"I'd be a lot happier if I could remember what happened all those years ago."

"Bo filled me in on everything. I'm sure you're anxious to view what little video we have of you on the disc. My men are working on breaking the rest of the encryption. Can I get you anything? Tea?" He asked her.

"No thank you, Shane. I'd really like to have a look at the video."

"Of course. I have it right here." He said pointing at the his laptop. Hope went over and started watching the clips of video.

"Oh, look at how tiny she was. Those little hands." She watched herself rocking Alicia. "I don't remember any of this. I don't remember her being that small. Look Bo, she looks a little like Ciara did when she was a baby." Hope continued watching until she heard Alicia crying out 'Mommy!' Then she went into a trance like state remembering another time Alicia was calling for her. She saw her falling down the stairs and hitting her head. She saw her lifeless body lying at the bottom of the stairs.

"Hope? Are you alright?" Bo asked her. He was worried when he saw her stare out at nothing and she wouldn't answer him. He grew even more worried when he saw the tears coming out the corner of her eyes. "Hope?"

"Something happened that day." Hope was still thinking about the memory.

"What day?" Bo was confused. "Are you remembering the day you played blocks with her?" He asked.

"No." Hope shook her head. "It triggered a memory. The same memory I keep having of her."

"The one you told me about? The nightmare you keep having of her?" Bo asked.

"Yes. I think it's the last day I saw her. I was so afraid when I saw her fall down the stairs and then Vito was there and he wouldn't let me go to her. I think that might be why I'm blocking it out. I think it's the last day I saw her." Hope was trying to make sense of everything. "Is there any more, Shane?"

"Uh yeah." He looked over to Bo to make sure it was alright for Hope to see the rest.

"Is it bad?" Hope asked looking from Bo's face to Shane's.

"Hope, maybe you ought to wait until there's more information before you watch the rest." Bo told her,

"Why? What is it?" She asked him. "BO? Why don't you want me to see what's on the disc? What is it?" She pestered him.

"Stefano was training Alicia." He told her.

"What do you mean…training her?" Hope asked.

"We don't know for sure. He was teaching her kick boxing and how to aim a gun." Bo told her. "You really don't want to see it. We should wait until Shane's men get some more information."

"Teaching her how to aim a gun…Wha..I …why would he do something like that?" Hope stuttered.

"Hope. We don't know anything for sure. Right now it looks like he was training her to be one of his little soldiers. But we don't have all the information." Bo was trying to keep Hope from getting to upset. "Just wait until there's more information to go on."

"She was petrified of Stefano's men finding her. There's no way he could've been training her to be one of his soldiers. I don't believe it! I won't believe it. Look at these videos. She's an innocent little girl. She can't be working for Stefano. She was afraid of him." Hope was irate.

"Hope. Calm down. We don't know anything for sure right now." Bo grabbed her arm and tried to get her to sit back down.

"But Bo, how can you even think it?" She said.

"Fancy face, we've had a lot of questions ourselves. She's lied to us, she's run off on us, she's been…""What Bo? What has she been?" Hope cut him off. "She's a scared little girl who's been kept from her family all her life. How do you expect her to act? She was terrified of Stefano. That's why she lied to us. That's why she wouldn't tell us anything. She wanted to feel safe and we couldn't do that for her. I couldn't…" Hope started crying.

"Hope." Bo took her in his arms and comforted her. "It's okay. She's going to pull through this."

"How do you know?" She said pulling away from him.

"She's a Brady." He smiled at her. "Besides she's my daughter. She's got that stubborn Irish streak in her. She'll pull through just fine. You can never keep a Brady down for long." Bo pulled her back into his embrace. "I know in my heart that she'll pull through."