"John," Kim cried loudly as she wrapped John in a tight embrace. From the top of the stairs, Shane could see the two of them in the doorway.

He and Kim had just been getting out of bed when they heard the door chime. She had made the trip downstairs a lot faster than Shane could. He had followed slowly, and was now puzzled at John being at the house. It was not only that John was there ridiculously early on a Monday morning, but Shane had not realized John was in Salem at all. They had talked a few days earlier and John had still been in Alaska. He had not made any mention of returning home.

John caught sight of Shane carefully navigating the stairs. "Hey, partner, you look a hell of a lot better since the last time I saw you." John glanced at Kim, catching the smile she was giving Shane, and then said, "Oh. . . ." He raised an eyebrow. "There something you want to tell me?"

Kim turned a definite shade of pink as she turned to face John and stammered, "We. . . . Well. . . . "

Shane reached Kim and put his hands on her shoulders. "What I think Kimberly is trying to say is that we finally stopped being fools." He squeezed her shoulders, and Kim raised her hand and placed it on his.

"It sure took the two of you long enough," John said. He grinned broadly and then looked at Kim. "I'm glad for you, si-" He abruptly stopped.

Kim stepped forward. "If you're uncomfortable about saying 'sis,' you'd better get over it. I'm not losing my big brother."

"Kim-"

"Don't 'Kim' me, John," she said. "You're part of my family and I know that in my heart, so I don't care what some silly test says."

"You know how stubborn Kimberly can be," Shane added. "It seems to be a Brady trait."

John started to shake his head and then began to chuckle slightly. "Guess I'm not gonna get rid of you all, will I?"

"Not on your life, buster," Kim said in a teasing tone. "Don't you even think about it."

John pulled Kim away from Shane and into an embrace that lifted her off the floor. "You've got no idea how much that means to me." He swung Kim around before returning her feet to the ground. She laughed and Shane found himself beaming at the pair of them. "And you, partner. . . ." John said to Shane. "I was starting to worry that you'd lost your touch."

Kim started to laugh, but stopped when they heard the sound of Jeannie wailing from upstairs. She rolled her eyes and laughed. "I guess duty calls."

John gave her a quick kiss. "I won't be offended, uh . . . sis. Actually, I've got something I need to talk about with Shane. Do you mind if we talk alone?"

The dots connected and Shane had an inkling what was up, so he motioned John toward the library and closed the door behind them. "I gather you found him?"

"I found him - one Donald Jackson, former prison warden in Nome, Alaska," John said. "He had plenty to say. I wanted to tell you, but I didn't know who might listening in on a call. So we took the redeye and I came here as soon as we landed."

Shane leaned against the desk and waited for John to give his report.

"You were right, partner. Alamain had his hands all over Winters' escape. The warden had a long history with Maurice Marchand."

Marchand. Shane had always suspected the attorney was Lawrence's conduit. "So Marchand paid off the warden?"

John nodded. "$25,000 - and more was promised, but then Marchand's body wound up in Green Oaks Forest. Our friend, Mr. Jackson, took that as a sign to go underground. I found him at a commune an hour outside of San Francisco."

Shane raised an eyebrow. "I'm not even going to ask how you tracked him."

"Trust me, that's a story for another day - and several rounds." John chuckled a little. "So now we know that Lawrence was pulling the puppet strings."

That made Shane think for a minute. Lawrence had let Cal Winters loose to wreak havoc while Lawrence moved up his parol hearing and made his escape from Salem. The sociopathic mind never failed to amaze Shane.

"Shane?" John was eyeing Shane closely.

"It's nothing. . . . I was just reminding myself of how evil Lawrence Alamain is," Shane said. "He's a true sociopath. He doesn't see other people as human beings like he is. He sees targets and enemies, and anyone in his way is nothing more than a bug for him to squash. They're meaningless."

John just shook his head.

"Mike Adams is dead," Shane said bitterly. "And Andrew, Kim, and Kayla all could have been killed - all so Lawrence could distract us long enough for him to sneak in his parol hearing. It's all some game to him."

"Is that what the toxin's all about?" John asked.

Shane shook his head sharply. "No. . . . The toxin's revenge for all us lesser beings interfering in Alamainia and sending Lawrence to prison."

John scoffed. "As if what he got should even be called a prison sentence. A couple of months when he should have gone to jail for years."

"There's not much we can do about changing the past." Shane looked over at the picture of his family on the edge of his desk. "We just need to ensure that he doesn't get a chance to use that toxin on Salem."

With a frown, John said, "Well, I'm not sure I can help you there. Jackson said he has no clue where Alamain is. They never talked; Jackson's only contact was with Marchand."

That was the last thing Shane wanted to hear.

"Sorry, partner. It's a dead-end." John shook his head. "Wish I had some ideas."

"What about the ISA?" Shane asked, getting an idea. "You've still got some contacts there - or Roman Brady does."

John's eyes narrowed. "You're not suggesting-"

"I'm not suggesting anything untoward," Shane replied. "Just make a couple of calls . . . to contacts that may not have heard about the return of Roman Brady. I can't imagine the ISA is broadcasting that it misidentified Roman Brady for several years and let someone else work for the ISA in his place."

"And if they have?"

Shane shrugged. "Hang up."

John laughed. "You make it sound so easy. Why don't you make those calls?"

"I would," Shane said, glumly. "But I think 'Shane Donovan, traitor' has probably reached just about everyone in the ISA by now. Except for folks like Peachy who are so deep undercover that they couldn't be reached anyway."

Before John could reply, there was a knock on the door. They both looked up as Kim opened the door. She was carrying Jeannie, but all Shane could see was the scowl on Kim's face. He knew whatever she was about to say would not be good.

"What's wrong, sis?" John asked.

"I just talked to my mother," Kim said, facing Shane. "The Chronicle article is out."

Shane closed his eyes and took a deep breath. They had known it was probably coming and had discussed how to deal with it. They had discussed going to talk to Roman before the article was released, but had decided that would be pointless. Eventually, they had decided just to wait and deal with the story if it was released. Deep inside, Shane had clung to the vain hope that the ISA would be too embarrassed to reveal that it had covered up Roman's imprisonment and would kill the article before it was published.

"What's in the article?" John asked.

Shane answered before Kim could. "It's all about how I left Roman Brady in Stefano DiMera's clutches when I chose to rescue an ISA traitor instead. All hand-fed to Rachel Knight by the ISA."

"Oh, that's just great," John muttered. "So now Roman will have even more reason to doubt your loyalty."

"That definitely seems to be the ISA's goal," Shane said.

Kim grimaced. "If it weren't for Jeannie being here, I'd tell you exactly what I'd like to do to Chief Tarrington."

Shane stepped toward here and put a hand on her shoulder. "There's nothing we can do about it, so we'll deal with Roman when can. Do you want to see about talking with him?"

"Oh, I tried already," Kim said. "Marlena said he left the house in a huff, heading for the ISA field office. She was pretty confused too."

"I never told her about it," John said. "She was gone when we found out about it, and it never came up."

Shane understood. It was water-under-the-bridge as far as John and he were concerned. Shane had never even had to explain the whole story to John. Shane had tried, but John had always said it did not matter; he knew Shane well enough to know there were good reasons for the decision.

It would not be that easy with Roman. Shane looked at Kim. "Why don't I go over to Marlena's and talk to her. Maybe if I explain, she'll understand and then I'll wait for Roman."

Kim shook her head. "I don't think that's a good idea. I'll try to get in touch with Marlena; maybe I'll see her at the hospital. Maybe we can go over there tonight."

"We're supposed to go to Wings tonight." Shane reminded Kim that they had promised Eve that they would go to hear her sing. Kim had thought it would be good for Shane to get out of the house. For the past month, he had only left the house for doctor's appointments.

"I guess inviting Roman and Marlena to join us probably isn't the best idea," Kim said.

John smirked slightly. "Not unless you want to pay for a lot of broken glasses."

"No thanks," Shane said. "I've taken enough punches in that place. Steve and Bo have both had a go at me there. Granted, Bo was a set-up . . . but still. . . ."

John's smirk turned into a laugh. "Yeah, but didn't you do the same to Alex Marshall?"

"That was at Shenanigans," Kim said, breaking into a slight grin. "Remember Alex threatened to sue Chris Kositchek?" Before Shane or John could answer, she grew somber. "But, seriously, what are we going to do about Roman?"

Shane took a deep breath and tried to come up with an answer. "I'll talk to him," he told Kim. "You shouldn't have to be in the middle of this."

"Uh huh, wrong answer." Kim gave him a soft smile. "We're in this together, Shane. If my brother's going to be mad at you, he'd better understand that he's all alone in this. I'll track down Marlena and let you know what she says. Now, I'd better get ready for work."

She gave Shane a light kiss on the lips and he watched her as she left the room. He hated that she was in the middle of another family conflict, but maybe, with her support, they could resolve things with Roman before they got too heated.

As he sighed, he felt a hand on his shoulder. "You'll work this out, partner," John said. "We got over it."

Shane tried to feel as optimistic, but it was hard. Roman and John were different people and they had different histories with Shane. "I hope so, John," Shane said, silently wishing that the outcome of the DNA test had been different. He turned his head to face his good friend and decided to change the subject. In a determined voice, he said, "I need to catch Lawrence Alamain. That's the only way I'm going to prove I'm not a traitor, and now I need to prove that even to my friends."

"You don't have to prove anything," John insisted. "Your real friends know you and we know you'd do anything for the Brady family."

But Shane was not going to be convinced. He walked back to his desk. "Come on, we've got work to do. We need to find Lawrence and bring him to justice. So let's figure out how we're going to do that."