Lulu didn't know what had possessed her to come back here. There wasn't anything she wanted to remind her of this place, or why she had come to stay here in the first place. The door was still broken; clearly the landlord had cared just as much as he always did for repairs. Evan had already removed anything of value she hadn't already sold or traded for drugs. All that was left was the results of late-night Dumpster diving sessions, nothing she really wanted to keep.

Still, here she stood the doorway of what was left of her apartment. She didn't dare turn on the lights, a leftover fear from her last visit. She remembered it being a dump when she was high. Lulu shuddered to think what it actually looked like now that she was sober.

Her fingers traced over the wood of the table that she once thrown her keys on top of. At one point, she had tried to aim them for a small dish she had kept there, but as time went on, she counted herself lucky to get the keys actually on the table. Then of course came the time when she stopped driving altogether.

Like some cruel cosmic joke, the song changed to a slow piece of pop trash. By a singer that had to be drowned out by her background singers to hide how thin her voice was. Lucky would have never signed this flash in the pan, Lulu thought briefly as she reached out to change the station. Her head turned to the side, her eyes entranced by the patterns the trees seemed to make as she drove by. Moonbeams seemed to descend in waves. Making the trees and leaves dance in their light. Idly she wondered what would happen if her car went faster.

She laughed as she sped up, noticing how the trees seemed to wave at her. Her foot pressed harder on the gas pedal, making the leaves dance in her wake. Now this was why she needed Vermin. She would have never noticed such a thing without his help. The odometer climbed higher and higher as she laughed harder and harder.

It was the crunch of metal on metal that caught her attention. The unmistakable sensation of her body hurtling forward while her car was trying to stop. As she whipped her head forward, she stomped on the brakes, trying to figure out what had just happened. Feeling the car skid into a stop, she took a shaky breath and stepped out, her mind reeling and her breath coming in short pants.

The other car looked vaguely familiar to her. Another night, another hour earlier maybe she would recognize it. Peering over the edge, into the darkness, she tried to see if she could hear or see anything. This wasn't good. If she was found, the cops wouldn't hesitate to take her away. That would mean no Vermin, no pills, no way to escape the monsters. That couldn't happen. It just couldn't happen.

Running back into her car, she nearly left another set of skid marks in her hurry to get out of there. She had to leave. She had to leave. No good would come if she stayed.

Lulu sunk to her knees and began to shake. The memories started to flood back. Why she had awakened that morning in her car on the side of the road. Why she no longer wanted to drive. God even why when she heard about Steven's accident she had felt a feeling of dread settle over her. She had caused it. She had nearly killed Steven Webber.

Evan wasn't sure how he found her. For one thing, the fading sunlight draped the tiny apartment in almost total darkness. For another, she was asleep. Only her random, high-pitched gasps clued him into her presence at all. Flipping on a light, he bent down beside her and tilted her head back.

"Wake up." He whispered, stroking her cheek with his thumb.

"Evan?" she murmured, batting at the tears that still formed in her eyes.

"Why are you crying?"

"I'm a terrible person."

"No."

"Yes I am." Lulu insisted shaking her head. "You better leave now before I destroy your life too."

"I already told you. I'm not watching Emergency Room."

"I'm serious. I almost killed one person. I'll do the same to you."

"What are you talking about?"

"Steven Webber. I almost killed him. I ran him off the road."

"Let's get you up off the floor." Evan suggested, wrapping his fingers around her arm and helping her up.

"No. Leave Evan. I'm just going to destroy you." Lulu wiggled her way out of his grasp and sat back down on the floor.

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Don't you get it? I almost killed Steven."

"I know."

"You know?" Lulu spun around. "You know?"

"The car we found was registered to Lucky. When I asked him about it, he told me it was a birthday present for you."

"Lucky knows? Oh God." Lulu began to pace.

Evan caught her wrist and carefully turned her around. "Honey, calm down."

"No. I'm not going to calm down. I did something terrible. I ran away. There's no good to this."

"You got out of the car and checked on Steven."

"I still hit him."

"You didn't mean to do it."

"That doesn't matter. Logan didn't mean to kidnap me and he still did."

"You are NOT like Logan."

"Yes I am. I hurt someone because I was too concerned with my own needs. I don't remember seeing Steven. I didn't hear him. I just left. I knew I hit a car and I left. Because I was worried about not getting my fix. I didn't do the same thing, but I am no better than him."

"If you were anything like your cousin, you wouldn't be telling me this right now. You would feel absolutely no remorse."

"What happens now, Evan?"

"I talked to Harper earlier. He's taken over the case. I called Lucky."

Lulu bit her lip. The last thing she wanted to do was to drag her brother into her mess. "What did they say?"

"Lucky was pretty quiet about it and Harper said that it's not going to be easy on either end."

"How much time do I have?"

"An hour." Evan confirmed.

"Don't leave me ok?"

"Will you come with me?"

"Where?"

"My apartment. It's not safe here."

"Take me home." Lulu nodded. "Take me home."

*****

"Of all the ludicrous, hair-brained schemes!" Alexis shouted shoving the door to her office closed even though she assumed the entire station could hear her nonetheless.

"You said that already." David pointed out as he sat down in the chair, even though she hadn't offered him one. "Three times to be exact."

"It's as true now as it was then. How did you see this ending? And to involve my daughter in something so dangerous."

"First off I didn't involve your daughter in anything she wasn't already doing. If anything, I've been able to keep her safer for a lot longer than her plans would have. And secondly let me remind you most of this was her idea that she did without telling me." David cocked his head to one side. "She's stubborn. Remind you of anyone?"

"No one comes to mind."

"Shame. It would be wonderful to know who to thank for that."

"So what you're telling me is that if Lulu can't provide enough information on Vermin, Sam is going to go through with this plan of hers?"

David shook his head. "That's her plan. I have different thoughts on the matter."

"Do we have any proof that Lulu was the one driving? Besides her sketchy confession?" Alexis wanted to know.

"The car traces back to her. We can't find anyone from that party who saw her leave with anyone else. There's nothing in the car that indicates anyone other than Lulu was in there." David shrugged his shoulders. "It's not completely solid, but we've gone to court with less."

Alexis stabbed her fingers through her hair, sitting down for the first time since David came to see her. "If we prosecute Lulu for the hit-and-run, she serves between two and seven years. If we don't, Steven Webber is done a major injustice. Meanwhile, we've got my daughter who has to be the most stubborn person and will follow through with a case she had no right being involved in anyway." She heaved a sigh. "I don't know what to do. If we get nothing on Vermin, the body count increases."

"You took down Corinthos and Morgan. Vermin isn't nearly so well protected. We just need to find the right angle." David argued.

"Can you find out what Lulu knows?"

"I can try but she's only going to tell me so much. If Cassidy didn't gum everything up by sleeping with her, I'd send him." David sighed. "Wait a second. Cassidy."

"What about Cassidy?"

"If Lulu knows anything she probably would have told him. He might be useless as an investigator to us, but as a potential witness…"

"I see where you're going with this. Get him in an interrogation room and remind him what's on the line if he lies to us."

David nodded as he stood up and headed to the door. "If nothing else, he might be able to convince Miss Spencer it's in her best interest to tell everything she knows."

"And be able to wrap this up once and for all." Alexis grabbed her purse. "I'm going to try and catch Sam before she does anything stupid. You can reach me on my cell. Call me the second you have something."

"Let me know how that plan works out for you." David laughed. "I find it best to come at her with a counter offer."

"Any suggestions?"

"Something she can't resist. Start with food."

*****

"Damn it Bubba. You'll let me into see my daughter now." Luke stood up, advancing towards Mac. This had gone on long enough and he was going to see Lulu now.

"You know I can't do that." Mac countered, rubbing his eyes. This had been going on for the past two hours and he didn't see an end in sight.

"You mean you won't do that." Luke corrected him. "There's a hell of a difference."

"How can you keep us from her?" Laura demanded shrilly. "I thought you cared about her."

"That's not fair Laura. You know I do."

"I've yet to see you make any effort."

"Effort? Effort! Laura, if you knew half the things I've done for Lulu over the past—oh never mind!" Mac threw up his hands in frustration.

Luke shook his head, still trying to make sense of everything. He never pretended that his children were going to be perfect. He had even started a bail fund when they were younger instead of a college fund. But he hadn't actually expected Lucky's visit this afternoon. Luke looked Mac in the eyes. "Level with me Bubba. How deep is she in?"

"Deep." Mac answered. "I don't think I can do anything to help her."

"Can anything help her?"

"If she tells the truth, she'll have a better chance."

"Are you calling my daughter a liar?"

"Of course not." Mac assured them. "Between the three of us, when it comes to your daughter, we have a blind spot a mile wide."

"Mac. When can we see her?" Laura asked again.

"Not for a while. I would estimate tomorrow afternoon at the earliest." He caught their similar expressions of shock at the idea of their daughter having to spend the night in jail, but knew there was little he could do about it. His hands were literally tied.

"Then I'll stay with her." Laura decided.

"You can't."

"Angel." Luke put his hands out on her shoulder.

"She's my baby. I will not leave her alone!"

"Angel this isn't the Holiday Inn." Luke tried to reason with her.

"What do you expect me to do?" Laura sucked in a choppy breath. "We've turned a blind eye to our daughter for too long and now she's in real trouble. She's scared. I know it. I have to protect her."

"There's no way to protect her from this." Luke said sadly.

Laura slapped him hard across the face. "You don't know!"

"Do you think I want to leave her like this?" Luke asked her.

"I don't know what you want, what you're thinking because you don't talk to me. You never talk to me."

"And you've been so honest with me? Why didn't you tell me about the drugs Laura?"

"Evan made me promise not to and I wasn't going to lose the only link to our daughter."

"And what a swell job he's done so far."

"He shouldn't have had to do anything. We should have stepped in way before now. Instead, we ignored Lulu until the point that we can't even help her. God, we can't help her, can we?" Laura bent in half.

Luke immediately wrapped his arms around her. "She's still alive. And she's still a Spencer. We will get her through this."

"How? What are we going to do?"

"Lucky's taking care of the legal mumbo jumbo with Dara. We'll take care of our daughter."