"You sure about this?" Kayla asked. Her arms were wrapped around Steve's waist and his good arm was resting across her shoulders. She had tried to get him to rest, but he was too amped up even to sit.
Steve studied the living room. Perched on the edge of her chair, Carly was explaining the toxin to Jennifer and Jack, who were sitting on a couch, comparing notes, and making suggestions about her statement.
"I'm sure," Steve said.
They had gathered at Tom and Alice Horton's house. That had been Steve's idea. He suspected the ISA would be watching each of their homes, so he suggested they secretly gather at the Hortons'. It was easy enough to justify Jennifer and Jack spending time at her grandparents, and Bo and Carly were effectively family. Steve and Kayla had gone to Roman's and Marlena's from the hospital and had then snuck around the back to the door to the Horton kitchen. Currently, Marlena was home alone, pretending that Steve and Kayla were dozing in a guest room, while she waited for Roman to come back from working the refinery crime scene.
Now if only Roman, John, and Bo would just get back here unnoticed. Actually, Steve had few doubts about Roman. It was John and Bo that had the tougher task.
"You don't think they ran into trouble?" Kayla asked. "If the ISA suspects. . . ."
Steve shook his head. "We've got to assume the ISA suspects something, but we can't worry. Your brothers can take care of themselves."
Alice Horton came through the kitchen door carrying a tray of doughnuts. "I figured all this secret planning might have made you hungry." She stopped in front of Steve and he lifted his arm off of Kayla and picked up a doughnut. They were still warm.
"Thanks, Mrs. H," he said.
Kayla smiled and passed on a doughnut. "I'll take a bite of his," she said.
"Not on your life, baby," Steve teased. "I know marriage is all about sharing, but a man's got to draw a line somewhere." He raised the doughnut. "And this is-"
Kayla's head darted forward. She chomped down on the doughnut.
"Hey!"
She pulled away, leaving Steve with about two thirds of the original pastry. He looked at it in disbelief, then raised his head to his wife. Kayla took a nibble from the remnants of her stolen piece and gave him a coy smile. "I'm sorry. Were you saying something?" She ignored Steve's mock snarl, turned to Alice, and smiled softly. "It's delicious. . . . Just you didn't have to. We're already burdening you and Doctor Horton-"
"Hush," Alice said. "If you can do something to fix this travesty then Tom and I'll do whatever we can. The doughnuts are nothing." She paused, then added, "Speaking of Tom. He was watching out the kitchen window and said something about Roman's car pulling up."
Steve jerked forward, even as Kayla seemed to try to hold him still. "Steve!"
But he was too anxious. Roman's part was critical. Without him, Steve's plan would fail. Steve was almost to the kitchen door when it opened and Roman and Tom Horton entered the living room.
"Did you get it?" Steve asked.
Roman stopped and then broke into a grin as he pulled the videotape out of his pocket. "They didn't even realize it was there. Ol' Tarrington doesn't have a clue we've got it."
Steve felt a wave of relief. "Great," he said. Glancing at Kayla, he gave her his best reassuring smile. "See, baby, everything's going exactly according to plan. Now that we've got big brother on our side, nothing can stop us."
Still carrying the tape, Roman headed for the television. For the first time, Steve realized that Roman also was carrying a video camera.
"I grabbed this from the house," Roman said. He began hooking up the camera to the TV.
Carly, Jack, and Jennifer all sat up and watched him. Kayla put an arm around Steve as she too watched her brother. When Roman finished setting everything up, he glanced over his shoulder.
"I already rewinded it, so it's ready to go." He pressed play as he added, "Let's see what we've got."
Steve watched he snowy image on the screen switch to the room beneath the refinery. From the camera's fixed point, he could see the gas chamber and, next to it, the area where he had faced off with Lawrence. At the moment, though, the room was empty.
"Hmm. . . . Must have rewound too far," Roman said. "Let me fast-forward it." He punched a button and watched the screen at high-speed until some figures finally entered the screen. He punched the button again and it switched back to normal speed. They could see that Lawrence and some of his men had placed Shane inside the gas chamber. Lawrence was now taunting Shane.
Steve turned away as they exchanged words. He did not have to watch the video; he had been there. Instead, he left Kayla with the others watching the recording and walked toward the kitchen.
Where are John and Bo? Steve asked himself. He hoped they had not run into trouble with the ISA, but he told himself that the ISA had no reason to do anything to John and Bo right now. Shane had given Tarrington what he wanted and that smug SOB probably figured he was in total control now. Steve was looking forward to proving otherwise.
He was still standing there when he felt a hand touch his shoulder. Jerking his head around, he saw Alice Horton immediately behind him.
"Would you give me a hand in the kitchen, Steven?" she asked.
Steve glanced toward the TV and saw that everyone else was still watching the screen with rapt attention. On the screen, Lawrence was revealing his plan for the school and giving Steve his "choice" of button to push.
Alice tugged Steve's hand. "Come into the kitchen."
Steve shrugged and followed Alice out of the room into the kitchen. "I doubt you really need my help with more donuts, Mrs. Horton, and with my arm in this sling, I can't do much cleaning."
"Phooey," Alice snapped. "I just figured you didn't need to see all that again."
Steve shook his head. "I'm a big boy, Mrs. Horton."
With a sigh, Alice nodded. "I know you are. . . . But you saw something today that I don't think a lot of men ever see."
"And what's that?"
Alice looked him over carefully. "Pure evil, Steven. I used to think there wasn't such a thing. I used to think there was good in every man, but the last ten years . . . I've seen a lot of evil things. Jake Kositchek, the DiMeras, . . . and Lawrence Alamain. That man was evil."
"Well he's gone now," Steve pointed out. "Score one for the good guys."
Alice nodded. "True, but you saw that evil firsthand today and sometimes I worry that if we see evil like that too much, it won't seem so evil any more."
"So we don't get so comfortable with it?" Steve said.
"Something like that," Alice replied. "Better to focus on the good and-"
Her words were cut off by the living room door bursting open. Steve spun around and saw Kayla in the doorway. Her eyes were dark and she stared at him without saying a word.
"Sweetness, what is it?"
Kayla's lip quivered and she swallowed a few times. She shook her head abruptly. "I can't." Then she rushed to the back door, jerked it open, and ran outside.
Completely bewildered, Steve looked through the door into the living room. The video was still playing and nobody had seemed to notice Kayla had rushed out. Steve looked at Alice, who looked back at him with a confused expression that probably mirrored the look on his own face.
Recovering slightly, Steve bolted through the still-open door. He ran into the darkness, ignoring the cold December air.
"Kayla," he called out before he spotted her standing next to a hedge that ran along the back border of the Horton's backyard. Slowing down, he approached her and repeated, "Kayla?"
She was breathing hard, but as he watched her, she steadied her breaths. "I . . . I'll be okay," she finally said.
"What happened?" Steve asked.
Kayla turned suddenly, "What happened? What happened is that I just watched my husband. . . my husband, the father of my daughter and our unborn child - I just watched him open a door and expose himself to a lethal toxin."
Damn. Steve had not had a chance to tell Kayla about the details of what happened in Lawrence's hideout earlier. He tried to think of something to say. "You knew I was exposed to the toxin."
"Exposed, yes," Kayla shot back. "I didn't know you dragged Lawrence to the gas chamber, opened the door, and stepped inside."
"Kay-"
"No." She cut him off. After taking another long breath, she said in a more controlled voice, "I'm not going to yell at you or be angry. I know who you are, Steve, and I know I can't change that. . . ." She turned away from him and looked up at the stars, which were just becoming visible overhead. "I know you didn't have any other options and Shane would have died if you didn't do it. . . . But I can't help how I feel, and it terrifies me. I'm terrified that you're going to go off one day and do something ridiculously heroic and I'm going to be have to sit in St. Luke's listening to your eulogy again."
Steve had no idea what to say.
"I know it was something you had to do," Kayla said, sounding almost as if she was trying to convince herself. "Shane's alive because you did."
He stepped toward her and she must have sensed him, because she looked up at him. The light from the house reflected off the tears welling in her eyes.
"What I did, Sweetness, is make sure your sister didn't lose the man she loves," Steve said. "And I made sure Andrew and Jeannie didn't lose their papa. . . . It's not really that much different than what Shane did for me, first by pulling my sorry ass out of Lawrence's camp and then by jumping in front of Cal Winters' bullet."
Kayla sniffed. "So things came full circle today?"
"In a way, I guess," Steve replied. Then he took a deep breath. "I did what I thought I had to. I don't know how to change, Kayla. A lot of what happened that you just saw was instinct. There wasn't a lot of time to run through a bunch of plans. I had an idea and I rolled the dice. I know that's hard for you to hear, but it's what any of us would've done in the same situation."
He motioned back to the house.
"It's what we're all doing here. . . . You heard Tarrington." He stepped toward her again and reached for her hand with his good one. She seemed to begin to pull away, but stayed still. Steve squeezed her hand tightly. "We all know what could happen if this fails. The ISA could make all of our lives a living hell if this doesn't work, but that's not stopping us. I doubt any of us even hesitated - well, Jack . . . maybe he did - but not any of the rest of us." Steve had to grin slightly as he said softly, "Not you either. And you didn't hesitate when Cal Winters tried to shoot Andrew. So I think if you'd been in that room with Alamain and you thought stepping into that thing gave you a better chance of getting him to tell you where the antidote was . . . well, I think you'd have been right next to me in opening the door."
A tear slipped down Kayla's cheek. "It still scares me."
"I know it does, but I love you and Stephanie more than anything," Steve said. "So just remember that you're going to have to fight real hard to get rid of me."
"Dang. . . so does that mean we're gonna have to keep seeing that ugly mug at Christmas and Easter, Kay?"
Steve jumped at the sound of Bo's voice. Kayla broke into a little giggle and even Steve had to roll his eye. He made a point of scowling, when he turned around to face Bo, who was standing, arms-crossed, just inside the gate that led from Roman and Marlena's house. A little behind him was John, who seemed to be struggling not to smirk.
"Very funny, Beauregard," Steve said, though his tone was light. "Did you-"
Before he finished, Bo stepped to his side, revealing the short woman behind him.
Rachel Knight did not seem to appreciate Bo's and John's humor. She glared at Steve.
"Well what do we have here?" Steve said. He chuckled at her obvious discomfort and then looked at John. "You didn't have any trouble, did you?"
John shook his head. "Not at all. Once I mentioned how some certain pictures might find their way to the wire services, the lady was happy to join us."
"She don't look so happy to me," Bo muttered.
"I'm perfectly capable of speaking for myself," Rachel snapped. She continued to glare at Steve, only stopping momentarily to scowl at Kayla. "So what do you want from me?"
Chuckling some more, Steve wrapped an arm around Kayla's shoulders and grinned. "Do you remember when you first came by our apartment. You said you wanted to help Shane if you could. Well, here's your chance and, whether it's kicking and screaming or smiling happily, you're going to do exactly what we tell you."