Kayla crawled into bed after yet another exhausting day. She had spent hours at the lab working feverishly with Carly to find that elusive breakthrough in discovering the cure for the virus. But, as with every other day, this day too had ended in frustration. Kayla knew that each day that passed without a cure was another day closer to Bo's and Peachy's deaths.

After working late, Kayla had picked up Stephanie from her parents. She once again had felt guilty for all the time she was spending away from Stephanie these days. Despite her exhaustion, Kayla had made sure to spend some quality time with Stephanie before putting her to bed. As important as her job was, Kayla was all Stephanie had now and she was determined not to let her daughter down.

Settling back into the soft pillows, Kayla, as she had done almost every time she had a spare minute over the last five days, let her thoughts drift to Shane. She wondered where he was and prayed that he was safe and well. She missed him terribly and still could not get his odd behavior when he left out of her mind. If only he would call and tell her he was okay, maybe she could relax and let go of her fears.

As if on cue, the phone rang. Kayla glanced quickly at the clock, which read 10:15 p.m. Who would be calling that late in the evening? Kayla could think of only one person and she desperately reached for the phone. As she pulled the handset to her face, she could not help but let out an excited "Shane!"

"Uh, no," the voice on the other end responded. "It's Carly Manning."

"Oh," said Kayla, the disappointment evident in her voice. "I'm sorry. I didn't expect to hear from you tonight. Is there something wrong at the lab?"

"No, nothing is wrong," Carly replied, sounding excited. "In fact, something is very, very right."

"What happened? Did you have a breakthrough on the cure?"

"Not exactly," said Carly. "I just got a call from the CDC and they are sending blood samples by special messenger that apparently have antibodies generated by a cure to the virus. We should be able to isolate those antibodies and reverse engineer the cure. We could have this virus beat within a few days."

"You're kidding! Where did the sample come from?"

"I don't really know," Carly answered. "The CDC wouldn't give specifics; they just said to expect the delivery very early tomorrow morning. Look Kayla, I know you've been working long hours lately, but this is the break we've been waiting for. Can you be at the lab by 5:00 a.m.?"

Kayla sighed, knowing that would mean imposing on her parents yet again. But Carly was right, this was the break they had been working so hard for, and there was no way she was going to miss out on it. "Yeah, I'll be there," Kayla finally said. "Just make sure the coffee is strong and there is plenty of it."

"I'll do my best," Carly laughed. "Oh, and if you happen to know where Shane is, you should call him and tell him the news. You know he'll be excited to find out how close we are."

"I'm sure he will be excited and I'll tell him as soon as I talk to him," Kayla replied, not wanting the reminder that she had no idea where Shane might be right now. "See you in the morning . . . and Carly, thanks for calling."

"No problem, Kayla. Goodnight."

Kayla hung up the phone feeling both relieved and disappointed if that was possible. She was ecstatic that the long hunt for the cure to that horrible virus suddenly seemed within reach. But she was also very disappointed that the call had not been Shane. As she laid back and tried to let sleep take her, she sent out yet another little prayer for Shane to come home safely.