Sitting in her car in the parking lot outside the apartment building, Kayla took a few deep breaths to bring her churning emotions under control. She needed to compose herself before going inside to face her husband.

To say the day had been difficult would be an understatement. She had gone to work as normal and had met Carly arriving at the lab at the same time. Together they had entered the lab, prepared for another day.

That was when the day had taken a turn for the worse. Upon entering the lab, they had immediately noticed the remains of a broken vial on a table, its contents in a puddle on the floor. Their hope that it was just the result of a careless janitor had been dashed when Carly had reported that her office door was unlocked and some papers had been moved around on her desk.

That revelation had resulted in a call to the head of hospital security. Kayla, Carly, and the other people who worked in the lab had spent the entire day doing a complete check of the inventory, trying to determine what had been taken.

After several hours of painstakingly counting the numerous items in the lab's inventory, Kayla and Carly had finally reached the conclusion that nothing was missing. While that revelation had relieved Carly and Dr. Bishop, and had caused them to return to the original conclusion that it was the work of a careless janitor, it had the opposite effect on Kayla.

From the moment she realized someone had broken into the lab, Kayla had thought of Steve. He had been preoccupied ever since she had told him about Carly's project and the connection to Lawrence Alamain. But what had really triggered her suspicions was the fact that he had been gone several evenings recently, including the previous night.

Each night, there had been some reason. Two nights, it had been to shoot a few games of pool at the Heart. Another night, it had been to meet Marcus for a late dinner after Marcus's shift at the hospital. At first, Kayla had not thought much of it, and he had never been gone for more than a couple hours, but now she had her suspicions as to what Steve had really been doing.

Taking one last moment to collect herself, Kayla exited the car and walked to the building. When she reached the apartment door, she took and deep breath and then opened it.

When she entered the apartment, the living room was empty. "Steve?" she called. After a moment, he appeared through the door to the kitchen. He was carrying Stephanie in his arms.

"Sweetness?" He looked at her with concern. "Is everything okay? You're home early."

Kayla nodded and took Stephanie from Steve. "I'm fine." She put Stephanie in the playpen and surrounded her with toys, hoping they would keep her occupied for a little while.

"So why are you home so early?" Steve asked, still sounding concerned.

Moving away from the playpen, Kayla tried to keep her voice calm. "There was a possible break-in in the lab last night. By the time we finished checking everything and dealing with security, there was no point in staying." Her eyes did not leave his face as she spoke.

"A break-in!" Steve sounded surprised. "Why would anyone break into the immunology lab?"

Gotcha, Kayla thought silently. She was sure that nobody else in the world would have known Steve was lying, but she knew her husband too well. His tone was a little too surprised, and, more importantly, his eye never quite met hers.

Kayla shrugged in response to his question. "That's the mystery. Nothing was taken, and we probably wouldn't have known anything had happened, but there was a broken glass on a table and Carly's office door was left unlocked."

"Well, if nothing's missing, maybe it was just a sloppy janitor," Steve said, still avoiding Kayla's direct gaze.

"Maybe," Kayla agreed. "That's what hospital security seems to think. They plan to speak to the man tonight. If it was him, I'm afraid he'll be out of a job."

Kayla did not miss Steve's flinch at that remark. If she was not sure before, she was now. What he did not know was that Kayla had convinced the hospital not to fire the janitor, no matter what. She had insisted that everyone deserved a second chance.

"The guy shouldn't lose his job just because he had one bad night," Steve said, a little too forcefully.

"Maybe not," Kayla replied. "But the lab is filled with delicate and important experiments and information. We can't afford to have careless accidents there."

"I'm sure the guy didn't mean to do any harm," Steve insisted. "You can't let him lose his job over this."

Kayla could hear the guilt in Steve's voice. If she was not so close to losing her temper, she might have almost felt bad for him. "Don't worry, Steve," she finally replied coldly. "I couldn't let them fire an innocent man. Especially when we both know who was really responsible."

Steve's eye widened at Kayla's tone. He stared for a moment, then finally asked, "What are you trying to say, Kayla?"

Kayla scoffed. "I'm saying that we both know you're the one that broke into the lab." She looked him in the eye and continued. "I knew you were upset after I told you about what Carly had shown me. I could tell you were stewing over it, but I wanted to give you time. I stupidly believed that you would talk to me about what you were feeling when you were ready." She shook her head ruefully. "You'd think I would have learned my lesson about that by now."

"Sweetness-"

"Don't." Kayla held up her hand. "Don't bother to try and deny it. You weren't meeting Marcus for dinner last night. You weren't playing pool at the Cheating Heart the other night. You were figuring out how to break into the lab. What I want to know is why. Why would you do that?"

Steve took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair before adjusting the patch over his eye. "I'm sorry I lied to you," he finally said. "But I figured it was better if you didn't know what I was doing."

"Don't pretend you lied to me to protect me," Kayla snapped angrily. "You didn't tell me, because you knew I'd never let you do it." She stared angrily at her husband. "I told you everything Carly told me. What on earth did you think you would accomplish?"

"I don't know," Steve shot back. "I don't know what I thought I'd find. But I had to try and find something. That maniac is out there, killing people so that he can perfect his formula for killing us - you, me, our family." Steve threw his hands in the air in frustration. "We both know he's coming after Salem again. I can't just sit back and wait for it to happen."

Kayla took a deep breath to calm herself. She glanced towards Stephanie, but she had fallen asleep in her playpen. Kayla was grateful that her daughter was blissfully unaware of the argument taking place between her parents.

"I understand why you're worried about Lawrence Alamain, Steve." She ran her hand down her face in frustration. "But if you'd been caught breaking into the lab, you'd have been arrested. How are you going to accomplish anything if you're in jail?"

"I wasn't planning on getting caught," Steve said calmly. "I wasn't going to take anything. But I needed to know what Carly and the ISA know, and it was the only way I could find out. If I'd talked to Carly, she'd have known you talked to me, and that would have gotten you in trouble."

Kayla did not know whether to laugh or cry. She understood why Steve had done what he had done - and a part of her loved him for his single-minded focus on protecting his family. But his tendency to leap without thinking about the consequences was the flipside of that protective instinct.

"So . . . did you find anything?" Kayla finally asked, plopping down on the couch and not knowing what else to say or do.

Steve walked around the couch and sat down beside her. "Not really." He shrugged and offered a chagrined smile. "The janitor showed up before I got a chance to look too closely."

Kayla had to laugh at that. The whole situation was just so absurd. Steve took advantage of her laughter and put his arm around her shoulder. Kayla leaned into him, but then turned and looked at him.

"Don't think this means that you are off the hook," she said seriously. "I'm still mad at you for lying to me and for breaking into the lab." She pointed at their daughter. "You have a little girl over there who needs her father. If you won't stop and think for me, can you at least do it for her?"

Steve was silent and Kayla could see him watching Stephanie sleep. Finally, he turned to her. "I'm sorry I lied to you, baby. I just didn't know any other way. I know you don't like it, but I was thinking about you and Stephanie. I'll do anything I have to in order to protect you both."

"You can't protect us if you aren't here with us," Kayla insisted. "That's what we need."

Steve nodded, but said nothing further. In a way, Kayla was glad. Any further assurances would have been hard for her to believe anyway, and the last thing she wanted was for him to lie to her again. They sat together for a few minutes until Steve got up and went into the kitchen and Kayla took Stephanie into her room.

As she laid her daughter down in her crib, Kayla said a silent prayer that somebody, somewhere would figure out how to stop Lawrence Alamain before her husband got himself put in jail, hurt . . . or worse trying to do it himself.