Port Charles

Two full carafes of strong Columbian blend bubbled in the coffeemaker. Lars and his team of six straggled in from night duty ready to hand over to Dani's day team of eight. Dani's breakfast buffet of croissants, eggs, hominy breakfast cakes, sausage, cereal and fruit was rapidly demolished by the team scattered throughout the expansive flat.

In the living room, the television monitor aired the overnight news. Three words made them all look up and pause - author P.K. Sinclair. The room quieted as they listened.

"Good Morning Port Charles has confirmed that their special guest this morning will be none other than reclusive author P.K. Sinclair," said the news reader. "The author formerly lived on Spoon Island and has fond memories of our city. He's in town to promote an appearance at The Book Nook at noon. I can't wait to hear what he has to say."

Eyes traveled towards team leads Dani and Lars who were hurriedly conversing between themselves. The presence of P.K. Sinclair aka Cesar Faison never boded well.

"Sleep periods may be shortened so eat fast and get to bed!" Lars ordered. "Prepare for roster adjustments when you wake up."

Dani issued orders one on one to her team. "Three of you do a manual check of Andrew's flat - check all points of ingress and egress. Verify monitoring of same. I'll notify the teams at DigiMaze and the Villa to be on the alert. Andrew is due there by ten but we'll change his schedule slightly to be on the safe side. Everyone else do a sweep of the building and immediate environment. Go!"

Lars waited until he and Dani were alone in the kitchen before saying, "Isolating him at the radio station would be better. At least that location is completely under our control."

"I'll ask Belle to move their analysis session to the station later today," said Dani. "Any other suggestions?"

"You're asking? Me?" asked Lars.

"Cut the sarcasm. I do know my limitations," admitted Dani. "You know Andrew better than I do. Andrew's cut Faison off from SIMON and our regular channels. Would he want to see Faison?"

Lars rubbed at his tired eyes. "I would say no but-"

"But what?"

"If Faison wants to see him, he'll let him know and he'll have a compelling reason I'm sure," said Lars. "You'll have to make sure that he can't get a message through. From my experience working against the DVX, they favor simple methods like paying an innocent to drop a note."

"I would think that the interview WAS his way of sending a message to Andrew."

"Damn, you're probably right. It will be in the papers, on the radio. It's unavoidable."

"Not if Anna can help it," said Dani. "Go to bed. I'll let her know."

"It's early. She won't have had her coffee yet. I can stay while you tell her," offered Lars.

"I do have to learn how to do my new job. There's no easy way around that. Get some shut eye. I might need you later." Dani made sure she had her facts in place before placing a call to Anna.

Buzz!

Tiffany stirred at hearing the alarm go off. She turned and discovered the reassuring presence of Sean beside her.

"Honey! When did you get in?"

Sean wound an arm around his wife's waist under the blanket and drew her closer. "Late. I didn't want to wake up sleeping beauty. Should I go back and come back later?"

"Don't you dare!" She hugged him hard. "How much sleep have you had?"

"I'll catch up on that later," said Sean. "You have to get to work early?"

"First appointment is at nine."

Sean nuzzled her. "Plenty of time then."

"For what?"

"Something I know you'll like," said Sean. His hands moved lower.

"You are too good to me."

Sean held her gaze. "That's because I love you. You're the best thing that ever happened to me. Never forget that."

"Maybe you ought to go out of town more often if you always come back like this."

"Shush, no work talk. You have my full and undivided attention. It's just you and me." Sean caressed her face with infinite tenderness. Tiffany sighed and surrendered.

Portland, Maine

Alex showed the picture displayed on her IPhone to the library clerk. The clerk peered at it closely.

The clerk said, "Yes, the face is her. The one who was researching Doctor Krieg. I should have known she was up to no good. At least you're a real doctor. You have a reason to want to know about his research. This woman and her people caused a mess."

"She did? How?"

"Come with me." The librarian led Alex to the storeroom housing old documents and artifacts from Skyview Sanatorium. Loose papers were strewn about the room. Some boxes were haphazardly ripped open. "This used to be neat if unorganized. Now it's ransacked. Then a few weeks ago we received boxes of material that we didn't know had gone missing!"

"From here?"

"Yes! They were found in a resort in upstate New York of all places. The proprietors were good enough to return it to us after seeing the library information stamped on the boxes," explained the librarian.

Alex didn't respond immediately. She knew exactly what resort the clerk was talking about - the Mohonk Mountain Resort. She lifted a thick ledger and flipped through it. "What could they have been looking for?"

"Based on microfilm requests, it seems that she was looking for historical information. The doctor's career, his work and the scandals, of course."

"Naturally." Alex noticed a page had been folded in. She unfolded it and scanned the entries. It was a list of patients and their attending physician. Doctor Peter Krieg's name appeared several times. She blew out a breath as she saw an entry for Tessa Quayle. It had been the name the WSB had given to Anna as her cover identity. Next to the name was Peter's name. "My interest in Doctor Krieg is not in the scandals I'm afraid."

"Oh, they were dreadful. Those poor people committing suicide left and right or attacking their loved ones when they went out of their senses," said the librarian.

"They were the unfortunate victims of an unethical physician."

"He had all of us fooled. He seemed so normal if a little eccentric."

"You knew him personally?"

"No. But I remember him doing research here sometimes and borrowing books from other libraries through our system," said the librarian. "He was very exact. He would stack the books on his left side and his notepad in front of him. When he finished a book, he put it on his right side."

"I'm interested in the actual research that he did. Do you recall any specific books he used?" Alex gestured to the boxes. "Would there be any of his actual research notes among these boxes?"

"May I ask why you're doing the research?"

"As I told you, I'm a neurologist. I know that Doctor Krieg's earlier work showed real promise in stabilizing the condition of the mentally ill. At some later point, he pursued the wrong direction. It's the earlier work that I want to study. Perhaps there's something there that could still be useful, in a safe way, to help my patients." Alex took a card from her purse and handed it to the librarian. "In addition to my practice, I'm also a founder and board member of the Andrasy Foundation. We do fund a variety of medical research projects."

"I've heard of the Andrasy Foundation," said the librarian with a wide smile. "It does some good work."

"We do our best," replied Alex.

"Well, we'd like to help you as much as we can. Let me talk to our library trustee. Maybe, we can arrange to have you use this material we have. It's not doing anyone any good lying here like this."

"Oh, that would be wonderful," Alex grinned. "We would organize and catalogue it for you before we returned it."

"That would be wonderful." The librarian clapped her hands together.

"If you don't mind, I'll stay down here and browse."

"Of course, Doctor Marick. I'll be right back."

Skyview Sanitarium

Anna found the room she had been confined in. She walked the perimeter of the room and touched the iron bars that formed a grate in the sole window. Mac watched her from the doorway.

"I woke up in here. I had a cot, a pillow and blanket. I remember the sunlight coming in. How it made me feel happy for a little bit," said Anna. "I was treated like a ... a convalescing patient for the first month or two. I had regular meals, strolls outside, physical therapy and I talked to Peter every day."

"When did the treatments start?"

"Not long after I came here. They kept testing me to see if I had regained my memories. When I try to recall that time, it's vivid is some parts and foggy in others. As my body healed, my mind became clearer. I began to ask questions. Questions that no one wanted to answer or knew the answers to," said Anna. "I wanted to leave. I remember trying to ... to fight my way to the front door and being stopped."

"What were you starting to remember?"

"I remembered my name - Anna. They kept calling me by my cover name of Tessa but I knew that was wrong. I kept wanting to call someone but I couldn't recall a name or a phone number. No, that's not right. I was asking to call a person named Charles," said Anna. "There was a memory game they had me play. I liked it. There were these big cards that they would put face down on a table and I had to flip them two at a time to see if I could match the drawings and objects on the other side. I was good at that."

Anna gripped a rusted bar and pulled. It came out of the wall in a shower of dust. "There were two cards I ... hunted for all the time. One had a ring on it and the other was a picture of a bird with a red crest. I used to feel so good all day when I found them."

"Robby and Robin," said Mac. "Did you remember anything else?"

"Yes but the wrong things," said Anna. "My hand to hand combat skills came back especially when I was angry. Another patient had a rag doll in her room. I snuck into her room and stole it. I was punished for that. I was obsessed with looking at people's rings and chains. Then one day they showed me pictures of people. Random pictures of men, women and children. I remember crying because I didn't know any of them. After that I became ... difficult. Maybe it was a sign that I was about to remember. I'll never know. The treatments began about that time."

"You're sure?"

"As sure as someone who keeps getting put into a straightjacket and being given injections right and left," said Anna. Her ever word was heavy with anger. "Peter began calling me by another name. I kept repeating my real name though ... in my head. I held on to remembering the things I liked - the doll, the rings, the smell of flowers. When I resisted the treatments or became hostile, he would give me another injection. Then it would get harder to remember my name, my doll, my rings. It was the saddest most depressing feeling as I tried to recall what was within reach and every day they got farther and farther away until they just ... disappeared."

"The treatment made your amnesia worst."

"Yes, I know it did. Now I'm sure," said Anna with a voice full of regret. "He stole my life from me. Years of it. He tried to turn me into someone else as if who I was had no value at all."

"We'll find him, Anna, after we find Robin. He will pay," said Mac. "I have to ask a personal question and you don't have to answer but-"

"Go ahead and ask."

"You were so insistent about coming here and afraid about Peter having Robin, is it because he tried to rape you? Does Robby know?"

"As I remember more of that time, the more afraid for Robin I get, Mac," said Anna. "There was no rape. Robert knows what I know. Not the details because I'm still filling in the blanks but the gist of it he knows. As for rape, physical domination wasn't what Peter was after. He wanted something more permanent, something worse."

"Worse?"

"He was like Faison in that Peter knew how to burrow into a person's psyche to find out what makes a person tick. Then he uses what he learns to control you. He'll magnify every doubt and insecurity until that's all you can think about. Every day he's there so kind and helpful as you grow more and more afraid and unbalanced. You can't help but turn to him, to trust him. When you do, he's got you."

"He failed with you obviously," said Mac.

"Only because I was trained and I had the advantage of sparring with Faison for practice. I had different options of fighting back. Options that Robin didn't ... doesn't have."

"Based on what Eve saw on the tape, Robin WAS fighting back. She stood up to Faison and probably to Peter."

Anna's voice softened. "For how long? Weeks, months and years go by waiting for help that never comes. Then one day you realize that help isn't coming. That you're on your own. That day will either kill you inside or make you stronger. What happened to Robin on that day, Mac?"

"She became stronger, Anna. I know she did." Mac put his hands on Anna's shoulders. "Look, you underestimate how deep her strength goes. Compared to you, Robin's not so assertive. She has to be pushed hard to get into people's faces. But, and this is a big but, inside Robin is a core of steel that goes down and down and down. Everything she's been through has made her have roots that anchor her like a ... an oak tree. She bends with the winds but she won't break. She can be immovable once her mind and will is set just like you and Robby. I feel sorry for whoever has her actually."

"What if she's gone."

"She's not dead. We have to believe that."

"I feel in my gut that she's alive. But what if she's a different person, Mac. Brainwashed and drugged to be someone else like what he did to Eve. It would be like losing her all the same."

"Why are you being this way? Where's the fire and the conviction I remember?"

"I'm being realistic. I have to be ... be prepared for the worst."

"What you are is afraid to hope."

"Terrified into paralysis. I admit it," said Anna. "How do I face her, Mac? Her parents were too busy traveling the world to help their daughter. Her own MOTHER didn't notice a thing! Robert wasn't around enough to have a chance to notice. Me? I have no excuse. I SHOULD have done something. I mean I noticed some things here and there but I ... I didn't say or do anything about it. When did I start caring more for myself than for my child?"

"Anna! Stop this! Right now," said Mac. "This isn't your fault. It's no one's fault!"

"My mind runs in circles over and over," said Anna. "I know it's wrong but I can't help it. I try to keep busy to avoid thinking about it. I've been feeling so helpless and confused."

"Then why didn't you go with Robby? You could be searching non-stop."

"Because ... because ... what do I say to her? How do I explain?" asked Anna. "She'll hate me. I hate me. Gah! It's this place!" Anna closed her eyes. "Too many bad memories. I can feel all the doubts and fears crawling over my skin like rats over hunks of stale meat."

"Then let's get out of here. I don't even know why we came here," said Mac. "The place is condemned and should be torn down."

Anna led Mac down to the ground floor. "I wanted to see if it triggered some memories."

"Did it?"

"Yeah, it did," said Anna in a tone barely above a whisper. "All bad." She quickened her steps. "Let's get home. I want to be back before noon. I ... I have an appointment I can't miss."

Author's Note: This story was begun and posted on September 2010 on my home page. Any similarity to any current GH storyline(s) is coincidental. This is a direct sequel to The Telltale Lie which is partially posted here on FFN. Though it's not necessary to read that previously, it would be helpful. Please see my profile home page on the status of this series. More chapters are posted on my home page. Like it or hate it? Please leave a comment or review.