Chapter 44

Pinned beneath EJ's body, Olivia heard more gunfire, screams and pounding of feet around.

'Oh no, you don't!' she heard someone yell, and then the sound of a struggle and more screams.

Nathan was locked in a fierce battle with the shooter who was dressed in doctor's scrubs, trying his hardest to wrest the gun from him.

'Someone call 911! For god sake's somebody call 911!' was the general scream.

Olivia's mouth went dry with horror as she raised her head in time to see Nathan's arms wrapped round the shooter and grabbing the hand which still held the gun. The gun went off in the air, chucks of plaster falling from the ceiling. Everyone screamed again from their hiding places.

'No... No, no!' she squeaked, trying to disentangle herself from EJ. 'He'll be killed! Nathan!'

Two uniformed police officers suddenly materialised from the stairs and rushed at the struggling pair. The shooter was disarmed and subdued after another fierce struggle.

'Get off me, EJ... Oh OUCH!' Her back felt sore from being slammed so suddenly onto the hard floor.

'Are you alright?' he demanded, pulling her to her feet.

'I'm fine...'

Before she could push EJ aside, she was wrenched away from his arms.

'Are you alright... are you okay?' Kayla's voice shook with sobs as she held her tightly.

Lexie appeared as well, tears pouring her cheeks as she pressed her lips against Olivia's forehead. 'Thank God you're okay! If anything had happened...'

'Who the hell is that in the first place?' EJ said, finally getting a word in, swallowing his jealousy as Olivia pulled away from her aunt's grip and hobbled towards Nathan who immediately enveloped her in his arms.

'You're the biggest idiot on the face of the earth, you know that?' she sobbed against his neck.

'Nathan! Over here!' Lexie hurried to Newton who was lying on the floor, his chest gushing out blood. Two nurses ran over to him as well. Kissing Olivia on the cheek, Nathan went to join them. Other doctors and nurses and a few robed patients appeared from where they'd taken cover, still looking much shaken.

Meanwhile the shooter was being handcuffed and roughly pulled to his feet. Wild eyed and dishevelled from the struggle he caught Olivia's eye, glaring at her.

'YOU!' she gasped in amazement.

'You know him?' Kayla snapped.

'He's the one who delivered my pizza that night! You son-of-a-bitch... you're the one who poisoned me!'

Kayla looked at the man, whose colouring made her suspect he was either French or North African, Algerian maybe.

'So it was you.' EJ growled menacingly. 'That's why you were shooting at her... That means you work for Vivian Alamain!'

'Then he's the one who kidnapped Dr. Manning!' Nathan added, leaving Newton at the hands of Lexie and Dr. Scavo to stand beside Kayla.

'Where's my mother?' Olivia snapped. Loosening herself from her aunt's grip she went up to him. 'Where have you and that witch hidden her, answer me!'

In reply, Gus spat on her face. Making a sound of sheer outrage, EJ darted forward and punched him right in the middle of his mouth while Nathan and Kayla pulled Olivia away from him. A nurse hurried forward with a clean cloth.

'You've just sealed your fate, pal.' One of the officers said grimly. 'A few hours in the holding cell will cool you off and make you talk.'

Gus hissed through bleeding teeth, in heavily accented English. 'Do your worst, I'm telling you nothing.'

'Check his pockets, Nathan.' Olivia said desperately. 'If he has a cell phone we can probably get some information.'

Gus snarled and tried to break free, a pointless effort considering his hands were handcuffed behind his back and was being held in a vice grip by two burly men. Nathan pulled out a BlackBerry, handing it to Olivia. With shaking fingers, Olivia clicked on "Messages", while Gus was led aside, snarling and kicking.

After searching through three texts, Olivia hit jackpot.

:::::::::::

Bo, Roman, Steve and Max, who'd come along for the ride had already been to several motels with no success when Bo's cell rang in his jacket.

'Brady.'

'Dad! We know where Vivian is now, she's at the Rose Motel, Aunt Kayla thinks it's a little outside town, just off the main road.'

'How did you find out?' he asked, surprised.

'It was in her henchman's phone. That bitch sent him to finish me off...'

'What?' he barked. 'Are you okay, did he hurt you?'

'Not a scratch. They've taken him away but your Sergeant Newton was shot.'

'Jesus Christ! Did he tell you where your Mum is?'

'No, he won't talk. Hurry, Dad... maybe she's holding Ma's there.'

'We're on our way there now. In the meantime stay put.' He relayed the message to Roman who was driving and then radioed Steve who was in the car following them. Steve in turn radioed for backup.

Meanwhile, Olivia refused to stay at the hospital a minute longer. 'I have to go there, I have to make sure Ma's alright...'

Kayla was immediately up in arms. 'You're not even completely recovered, absolutely not! How can you even consider such an idea?'

'Aunt Kayla, the only way you can make me stay in bed is if you strap me to it and I swear... I'll still find a way to break free!' Olivia snapped despite her aching head, eyes flashing. 'I can't rest easy till I see her with my own eyes!'

'I'll take her...' EJ began.

'This is a family discussion and she's not stepping into your car for anything,' Kayla interrupted swiftly, glaring at him. 'Besides, you have to stay around until the police get here to take your statement. You too,' as Nathan opened his mouth.

'Damn it, Aunt Kayla!' Olivia was getting close at being hysterical. 'We don't have time for this...I'll walk there if I have to!'

Kayla held her head between her hands. 'Alright, alright! I'm going to call Phillip and Brady to come with us. In the meantime... change of clothes.'

::::::::::::::::::::::

'For a moment I thought you've come for me... come to take me away.'

Isabella smiled wider. 'I'm not the angel of death. Besides, you still have many more years to spend on this earth. Your life is actually just beginning.'

'Once I get out of here that is,' Carly said dryly. 'Not exactly how I imagined spending my evening... I don't even know how many hours I've been in this hell hole. I don't even know if my baby girl's okay.'

'She's okay,' Isabella reassured her.

'She is?' Carly gasped. 'Are you sure?'

Isabella nodded. 'She's safe and sound.'

'Thank God! Thank God!' Carly whispered. 'I don't know what I'd do if I lost her.' She rubbed her head. 'Until I got my memory back... I thought she was all I had in the world, it's been just the two of us for so long.'

'Not quite, Carly. I was with you both the whole time,' said Isabella. 'I watched your struggles, I witnessed your beatings, the torture... everything. You couldn't see me, but I was right there in the delivery room when you had Olivia.'

'How come you never showed yourself, never talked to me?' asked Carly, stunned by the revelation.

'You wouldn't have known who I was, amnesia remember? I had no power over that. Just like I had no power to stop Vivian from doing what she did or Lawrence taking you away from Bo. But there was one thing I did know... I knew you and Bo would find your way back to each other again. You two were destined right from time to be together.'

Carly was silent for a while, remembering what Bo had said that night on the beach... that he wouldn't have chosen Hope over her. But what would she have done if she'd been around when Hope came back? Would she have been secure about his love for her or stepped aside for them to be together? They'd only been married for five years after all.

'You would have left, wouldn't you?' Isabella said, reading her mind.

'Bo's happiness was always my priority from the moment I met him, Izzy. I watched him mourn her, she was the love of his life; mother of his son... it took him a whole year before he brought himself to love me at all.'

'Brought himself to love you...' Isabella said in disbelief. 'Carly, how can you say that? Bo loved you long before he realised it himself! You shared so many things the few years you were together; he wouldn't have given you up.'

'That's what he told me and I believe him, I would have believed him then. But I would have felt so guilty,' Carly confessed. 'Guilty that Hope returned to see someone else with her husband.'

'I think you would have allowed Hope to make you feel guilty. I'm not saying she's a bad person... far from it. Bo's first love... yes. Voice of reason? No. She didn't and still doesn't understand him completely; the main reason they fell apart. Then you came back...exactly the right time.'

'I guess things do happen for a reason...' Carly shook her head. 'The timing... why I didn't die from the fall...'

'And why you never gave in to despair all those years because you had something to live for, not just Olivia... the future that lay ahead of you but didn't know it.'

'Is there a reason why I'm in here now?' Carly asked, her tone heavy with sarcasm.

'Actually there is. You will see soon enough.'

'But what is it exactly?'

Isabella's bright eyes stared down at Carly for a while. 'You ever heard the expression "spiritual bond", old friend? You're going to experience the full extent of it.'

:::::::::::::::

Vivian paced the floor of her room, wringing her hands agitatedly. She and Gus had argued heatedly over the plan. At the last minute he insisted that it would be impossible to kidnap Olivia without drawing any attention from the hospital staff or possible armed guards; killing her in her room with a silenced gun would be easier. She'd refused loudly, preferring to make Olivia suffer before she finally died but in the end had reluctantly agreed to Plan B. Once the matter was over, she would leave Salem and never come back; her revenge finally complete. But it would have to be somewhere very far away, even if Bo couldn't touch her, Frankie would.

'At last,' she muttered, 'at long last I've avenged you, Lawrence!'

Gus should have finished the job by now, where can he be?

She froze suddenly at a noise, the unmistakable noise of sirens at full blast. Running to the window, she pulled back the curtain, her mouth agape at the sight of police cars parked outside, red-and-blue bar lights flashing and several uniformed officers jumping out, guns drawn. In the middle of it all, she could make out the large shape of Bo Brady appearing in front, a bull horn in his hand. How in the devil had they found her? Surely Gus hadn't turned traitor? No, it wasn't possible!

Bo's voice sounded from the bull horn. 'It's no use trying to escape, Vivian Alamain, the area is completely surrounded. Come out with your hands up or we'll have to use extensive force.'

Like hell I will, Vivian muttered to herself. Kneeling beside the bed, she pulled out a loaded Browning Automatic 5 Gus had left behind for her just in case. If Bo Brady actually thought she was coming quietly, he had another thing coming. What ever happened, she was not going to prison.

'You think she'll come quiet?' Steve asked, standing next to Bo.

'She doesn't have any other option.' was the grim reply.

After about three minutes, Bo gave the same warning, again no response.

'The hell with this!' Roman growled. 'Is that bitch for real?'

'Vivian, if you don't come out on the count of three...' Bo shouted. The door opened suddenly. Vivian emerged and opened fire.

'DOWN!'

The officers sheltered themselves behind their cars immediately, some of them planted themselves on the pavement. Vivian's bullets smashed several headlights and windscreens.

'Hold your fire!' Bo ordered. 'No shooting till I say otherwise!'

Vivian kept up her fire for about five minutes then ran back in, slamming the door behind her.

Furious, Bo got up, his own gun drawn. Roman and Steve did likewise.

'Man, she doesn't want to make this easy, does she?' Roman snapped, clicking his Beretta in place.

'Vivian!' Bo barked over the bull horn again. 'Come on out and drop your weapon or we'll be forced to open fire! You have exactly two minutes to comply!'

For a few seconds, there was silence. Then the door opened again and all guns were immediately aimed at Vivian, who looked somewhat out of place holding the gun and wearing her fur coat and hat. She glared all round before settling her baleful eyes at Bo.

'I'm not cornered, you hear me Bo Brady?' she screamed at him.

'Drop your weapon, Vivian!'

'I don't take orders from you!'

'Vivian, I'm warning you...'

'You wouldn't dare shoot me! Not if you want to know where I buried your precious Carly!' she gave a cackling laugh. 'You'd make a bargain with the devil himself just to have her back in your arms.'

'I'm not here to bargain,' Bo shouted back, gun raised. 'I'm here to make an arrest; kidnapping and attempted murder. Surrender now and maybe you'll be lucky enough to serve twenty years instead of a life sentence!'

'Go to hell! Vivian Alamain will NOT spend the rest of her life in a cage!' she shrieked. Even from where they stood, they saw she looked absolutely demented, her face all wild, eyes flashing in the lights shining on her. 'And I'll have the everlasting satisfaction of you never getting Carly back!'

Before anyone could do anything, Vivian pointed the nuzzle to her neck.

'No!' Bo shouted, darting forward as she pulled the trigger and crumpled on the ground, the middle of her neck spurting blood. Roman, Patch and Max hurried forward to stare down at her. Trust Vivian to make an exit on her own terms. Ding dong... the witch is dead, they all thought.