Chapter 14

Bo lay in bed lightly running his fingers through Hope's hair as she lay sleeping peacefully in his arms. He still couldn't wrap his mind around the information Shane had pulled off the disc. He couldn't wait for Alicia to be well enough to answer some questions. She certainly had been through a lot these past few weeks. He wanted to protect her from Vito. That's twice that bastard had attacked his daughter. He was going to make sure there wouldn't be a third time. Bo's mind continued to wander to the night before. Dallas said he heard Alicia screaming and said she had had a nightmare. Alicia claimed that she had screamed several times and no one came to her rescue. Had Dallas left his post more than once? Or maybe he had another Dimera contact on his hands.

Hope moaned softly in her sleep and stirred in Bo's arms. She was up most of the night checking on Alicia. Kayla was reluctant to let Alicia remain at home with them after coming out of the coma and surgery so soon. She only gave in because she thought Alicia would recuperate a lot faster if she were home with Bo and Hope where she could feel safe and protected. Hope had to promise her she'd make sure Alicia got plenty of rest.

Bo looked up to see his bedroom door ease open. A pink pajama clad little girl peeked in from the hallway. "Hey sugar bear. Did you just wake up?" Bo asked Ciara.

Ciara trotted over to her daddy's side of the bed and scrambled up onto the bed to snuggle next to him. "I had a bad dream." She said burying her face in his neck as she wrapped her tiny arms around him.

"Hey, sweetheart." Hope woke when she heard her baby girls cries. She reached over to wrap her arm around Ciara. "You had a bad dream?" Hope stroked Ciara's hair. "What was it about?"

"There was a scary man in my room." Ciara whimpered. "He wouldn't let me go see you." Ciara cried.

Hope perked up. She looked over at Bo who was thinking the same thing she was. Bo rose quickly from the bed and put Ciara safely in Hope's arms before running across the hall to look in Ciara's room.

"Sh. It's okay baby. Mommy's right here." She held onto Ciara soothing her cries. Hope nervously eyed the bedroom door, waiting for Bo to return.

"Mommy, where did Daddy go?" Ciara looked up at her mother.

"He'll be right back, baby. Don't you worry." Hope kissed the top of her head and pulled her closer. Several minutes passed and Bo hadn't returned to their room. She could hear someone walking down the hall. The door to Alicia's room opened and closed.

A few minutes later Bo emerged through their bedroom door. He nodded to her telling her there was nothing to be worried about. Bo scooped Ciara up into his arms. "Daddy chased away the bad man." He tweaked her little nose. "Are you hungry?" He asked her.

"Yes, Daddy." She squealed.

"Well then how about some pancakes?" He asked her.

"Yeah!" Bo laughed as he carried his little girl down to the kitchen to make her breakfast.

……

Alicia tossed and turned all night remembering Vito attacking her both in the mill and in the hospital. Her arms ached where he had grabbed her. She remembered seeing her mother come in several times to check on her. She felt safe enough to fall asleep after seeing her there, but the dreams always made their way back to Vito. She woke up feeling the same way she had at the hospital; as though someone was watching her. She glanced around the room to see if anyone was there. She saw her door opening and her father looked in on her. She was happy to see him standing in her door.

"Hey little one. Are you okay." He was surprised to hear the nickname flow so easily from his lips. She looked so much like Hope, he couldn't believe he hadn't seen it before now.

"I'm just a little tired. I keep having nightmares about what happened yesterday." She told him.

Bo walked over to her bed and sat down next to her. "I will do everything I can to keep you safe. I won't let that scum touch you again." He brushed strands of hair back from her face tucking it behind her ear. "I'm glad you didn't take off on us again."

"I didn't think I'd get very far with a broken arm and having just come out of brain surgery." She laughed a smile spreading quickly across her face.

Bo chuckled to himself feeling more at ease with Alicia. He pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead before rising to go back to Hope and Ciara. "Are you hungry?" He called back over his shoulder.

"Not really." She said. "I think I'm going to try sleeping a little more." She laid her head back against the pillow and smiled at her father feeling a little safer now.

"Okay. I'll check in on you in a little while then." Bo closed her door and went back to his room where Hope was waiting anxiously to see if there was anything amiss.

……

Hope watched as Bo carried their daughter out of their room to go down to breakfast. Hope walked into the master bath leaving the door slightly ajar and started her shower. She gingerly steeped out of her pajamas and under the warm stream of water. Hope was startled by a noise and turned to see if anyone was in the room with her. There was no one there. She must have imagined it. She was probably jumpy from the events of the past few days. Hope continued applying soap to her body and washed her hair before rinsing off and stepping out of the shower. She reached for her robe and noticed a shadow of a person moving in her bedroom. She left the water running so as not to draw attention. She quickly wrapped the robe around her and opened the hall door. Hope wasn't sure who could be rifling through her things, but she wasn't taking any chances seeing how she was unarmed. She hurried down the stairs to get Bo.

Bo watched as Hope walked into the kitchen in her bathrobe looking back over her shoulder. He knew something was up. "Hope, what's wrong?" He asked.

"There's someone in our room." She whispered so Ciara wouldn't hear the worried tone of her voice. "I was taking a shower and heard a noise, but I didn't see anything. When I got out I caught a glimpse of someone walking around in our room. I couldn't get to my gun, so I came out through the hall door to get you."

"Stay here. Call Roman for me and I'll go check it out." Bo went to pull his gun out of it's hiding spot.

"Bo! Alicia is upstairs. What if he gets to her?" Hope was worried that Vito had come looking for Alicia here.

"Hope. Call Roman. I'm going to check things out. I won't let anything happen to Alicia." He tried to calm her fears, but knew it was pointless. Bo crept up the stairs to his room carefully easing the door open with his gun and peered inside for signs of movement. He noticed his bedroom window was opened all the way. 'That's odd. The alarm system is on. How could anyone have come in or gone out without setting it off?' He thought. Bo carefully made his way around the room and looked out the window to catch the back of some dark haired guy running off into the woods. He made sure there was no one in the room or master bath. He turned off the shower and went to check on Alicia.

"Bo?" Roman whispered to him as he came up the stairs and faced Bo coming out of his room. "See anything?' He asked.

"Nah. I'm going to check on Alicia to make sure she's alright. I think the guy escaped out my window. There was someone running from the house towards the woods." Bo explained.

"Alicia's here? I thought she just had brain surgery." Roman looked stunned.

"She did, but she was attacked by Vito yesterday in the hospital and ran off. Kayla okayed her staying here with us as long as she got plenty of rest. She'll be checking in on her to make sure she's healing alright." Bo made his way to Alicia's room and peeked in to see her sleeping soundly. He noticed her closet door was open and her window as well. He motioned to Roman to follow him in case he was wrong about the suspect being gone. He quietly crept along the wall until he reached the closet and turned aiming his gun inside. It was empty. He walked over to the window closed and relocked it. Alicia woke from the noise and looked up at him puzzled.

"What's going on?" She asked him.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it. I'm just checking the alarm system." He lied to her not wanting to frighten her anymore than she already had been. "I'm sorry I woke you. Go back to sleep." Bo made sure the window was secure before heading out of Alicia's room.

……

Hope paced around the kitchen waiting for Bo to return. Roman had stopped in to give Bo an update on Higley and Hope gave him the short version of what was happening. She was thankful Roman had stopped in when he did. She peered into the living room, listening intently for any sounds from upstairs. Hope looked over at the clock and watched the minutes tick by endlessly.

Ciara was busily eating her pancakes. She occasionally looked up at her mother, but didn't ask her any questions. She sensed something was wrong.

Chelsea walked in the back door. "Hi Hope. What's going on?" She was concerned seeing Hope pacing around the kitchen.

"Chels, hon. There's someone in the house. Your dad and Uncle Roman are upstairs now. Have you been out all this time?"

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep, so I went for a run and then I met up with Stephanie for coffee at the pub." She answered.

"I don't get how someone could've gotten in the house. The alarm is on. I double checked it before I went to bed last night." Hope was going over the night before in her mind.

"Oh no. This is all my fault Hope. I don't think I reset it when I left this morning." Chelsea's face whitened.

Hope placed her hand on her forehead and rubbed at her temples. "Chels, how could you forget the alarm? There's a man out there after your sister. He's already attacked her twice. What were you thinking?" Hope asked. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to yell." She hugged Chelsea. "I just want to know that everything is okay. I'm worried. Your dad hasn't returned yet, and Alicia is still sleeping upstairs."

"Dad and Uncle Roman won't let anything happen to Alicia. Besides, I don't hear any noise coming from upstairs, do you? I'm sure if whoever broke in were still here, we'd know about it." Chelsea tried to reassure her.

Bo and Roman returned to the kitchen then and told Hope the suspect was gone. "I don't know how he was able to get in without setting off the alarm, but he escaped out our bedroom window. I think he came in through Alicia's room. Her window was wide open as well. Our security system must be compromised."

"Dad, don't be mad at me." Chelsea bit at her fingertip. "When I left this morning, I forgot to reset the alarm. I'm sorry." Chelsea told him. "It was stupid of me. I know. I wasn't thinking. Is Alicia okay?" She asked.

"Yeah. She slept through everything. What were you thinking?" Bo balled his hands into a fist. "Kid, you need to be on your guard right now. Try not to let it happen again." Bo bit on his lip trying to control his anger. He knew it was an honest mistake. But he didn't like the fact that someone had been in his house lurking around his family.

"Daddy, why are you mad at Chelsea?" Ciara looked from her father to her sister wondering what was going on. "Was she a bad girl?"

"No." Bo calmed down. "I was just scared and I got mad at Chelsea."

"You was scared?" Ciara asked him her face all serious.

"I thought you were in danger. But everything is okay now." Bo picked Ciara up off her chair and held her in his arms. He worried that something could've happened to her this morning. She hadn't had a nightmare after all. Someone had been in her room. He hugged Ciara tighter to him.

"Daddy, you're squishing me." Ciara squirmed in his arms.

Bo eased his grip on her and leaned her back in his arms to look at her face. "Did you eat all your pancakes?" Bo asked changing the subject. Her mouth was smeared with syrup.

"Yes." She played with the strings on her pajama top. "Can I watch cartoons now?" Unaware of the danger the entire family had been in, her four-year-old mind was set on playtime and just being a kid.

"Come on sweetheart." Hope took Ciara form Bo's arms. "I'll go put cartoons on for her and then I'm going to change and check in on Alicia."

……

Hope opened Alicia's bedroom door. Alicia was sitting up in bed. "Hi sweetie. Can I get you anything." She asked.

"Do I really have to stay secluded here? It's kind of boring. Can't I rest just as easily on the couch downstairs where I can be with everyone?" Alicia was unable to fall back to sleep after her father left. She knew he was lying to her about checking the security. She wondered what was really going on. She had a feeling that someone had been in her room watching her. She couldn't prove it, but she had felt his eyes on her while she slept. She didn't feel safe anymore being all alone in her room. She didn't want to lie in bed all day either even though she promised her parents she would do just that.

Hope bit at her bottom lip. "Let me get changed and then I will help you downstairs. Don't go anywhere." She pointed at Alicia and turned to go to her own room. She smiled to herself thinking how much Alicia was like her.