Chapter 47

"So, I think there is a chance you or dad is going to be angry with me and I do not want you to be," said Stephanie as she went into the living room in the apartment where her mother was sat.

In spite of the respect she had for Sophie, she could not say she had not been glad when they had had their coffees and she had had the chance to come home.

She had come to terms with what had happened to her a long time ago but it was never nice to have it all dragged up.

"Well, it has been a long time since you looked as if you were a young girl who just got caught with her hand in the cookie jar so this I have to hear," said Kayla.

"But I do not want you to be mad with me."

"Sweetie, I can only tell you if I am going to be mad with you once I know what you have done," said Kayla.

Steph took a deep breathe before she began her story and it was clear from her mother's face she was not all together happy with what she had done when she was telling her and Stephanie felt slightly sickened by that. The last thing in the world which she wanted to do was make her mum feel uncomfortable after all she had already been through. But the one thing she did want to do more than any other was to catch the man who hurt her.

"Well – I do not know if I agree with your method and I do not think for a minute your father will –" Steve had not always believed in the police when the two of them were young, but he had come round to them as they had got a bit older and seeing as he was a cop now, she did not think this was going to please him.

"I need you to tell me about her again." she said to her daughter but she did not know why.

She didn't understand it herself but Stephanie saw there not going to be a lot of rhyme of reason to any of this for there was not meant to be… for what was going to join her mother and Sophie never should have happened.

"Well I do not know her exact age but at a guess she is about my age but she is blonde like you. And if I am honest she just seems so normal. Loves her mum, wants to do the right thing but I do not think she had had a lot of people who have been willingly to listen to her over all of this." In fact is if Stephanie had to guess she would have said that Sophie had an even harder time than most.

"But she is ok now?" asked Kayla. It did not much matter to her how much this young woman was going to be able to help her now.

What matter was she had been her when she was so young and she had got hurt in just the same way. She did not like the thought of Sophie out there on her own.

"I mean she does seem as if she is pretty put together but I do not know if you ever really are after something such as this," said Stephanie.

She did not have to tell her mother that and looked down when she heard what she had just said.

"Sorry - I do not mean to be preachy." her Steph sighed.

"I know you don't baby."

"I do think she means to help you if she can."

"Well, it is on the understanding it is only if she can!" said Kayla for she was not going to let that girl do anything which she did not want too.

"I told her that."

"I do have to ring your dad so this can go through the official channels now -"

"I did expect that – I told her to expect a call from the police. For a while she did seem as if she was a bit freaked out but then she came around to the idea."

"Ok baby," said Kayla as she reached to get her phone out of her pocket.

As Stephanie had got the ball rolling it was time for her to do just the same thought Kayla.

"Are you mad at me mom?" asked Stephanie as she did that bringing her attention back to her daughter.

Kayla wondered if she was.

There was a part of her which was angry and had been for quite some time now after everything that had gone on.

But she did not think so.

"I am not angry with you baby," she reassured her daughter. The world at large was another matter altogether.

X x x

It was Hope in the end who took the call from Kayla, and so she told her sister in law everything which she would have told her husband and Kayla had to say she did not think her aunt was any more impressed with Stephanie than what her father was going to be.

She knew that the police men and women in her family had been working hard to solve this case for her and they had been eager to get it solved not through any sort of pride but through love – they wanted to get it arranged for her and sorted. They wanted to bring her nightmare to its end.

And they had wanted to do it through the entirely legal method. thus they did not appear to favour her daughters quick fix.

"I cannot believe Stephanie went behind our back like this," said Hope as she put her head in her hands.

The fact was everything seemed to be fine but the reality was there was a chance when her niece went down this route it was going to be less than fine.

If Sophie had not wanted to talk, then it would have put the whole case at risk. Intimidation was no joke.

"I can," said Bo. "That girl is more than a little bit Brady."

"I am less than impressed and I am going to be having words," said Steve.

He had not ever expected this sort of thing in his daughter.

He would have expected it from himself when he was young but not from her. He could not help wondering if this was going to be a classic case of 'do as I say not as I do' and if he really had a right to be having words.

"I am not condoning what she did, but if this woman she has found is going to be willing to talk to us then I think we have to get on with it now whether we like it or not," said Bo.

"Well, yes we do – but what about the lead you were following?" his Fancy Face said to him.

She understood he was very close to tracking someone down himself.

"I think we should use both if my lead works out – the more voices there are the stronger the case is going to be."

"I do not care about any of that – the fact is Stephanie should not have acted alone." Steve chipped in.

And he knew he did care and so did they – that had been a given. But his daughter had done wrong and she was going to know about it.

"But she was not acting on her own," at first Hope had said it as a throw away comment and when she realized what she had said, she wished she had not for it was bound to cause problems and she did not want to be the route of it.

But Steve was going to find out in the end. It was better not to compound the deceit with a lie.

"Who was she working with, Hope?" Steve asked her and he knew she did not want to tell him though for the life of him, he could not work out why until she opened her mouth and said one name.

"Jack."

X x x

There was a knock on the Horton house door and once more Jack was the one to answer it. Jen and both kids were out at work.

A nagging voice in his brain said he should be back at work by now as well.

He just did not know what to do with himself. He wasn't a cop like Bo or Steve.

He thought that was a vocation for the two of them and he did not know if he had one of them.

He had been a damn good writer at one time so he could go back to that but he was not sure he wanted too…

Still he did need a job to occupy him and it was not as if he could sit on his behind for the rest of his life.

He had to work out what he was going to do with himself now all of them were settled back in Salem. But first he was going to have some coffee. And before that he was going to answer the door.

"Oh Steve." he said, delighted to see his brother. Maybe he was going to help him work out what to do next.

But then he noticed his big brother had a face like thunder…

"Next time my daughter turns up here with any bright ideas as to how to help her mom and you do not come and tell me straight away, I will come and kick your ass."

No matter how good their intentions had been their methods had left more than a little to be desire.

"I did not mean too –"

"Steph is still young and Kayla's daughter so I can forgive her enthusiasm but you – you Billy Jack should know a lot better. You know what something like this can do to a case such as Kayla's… but maybe that was your end game here."

"No – you know I wouldn't do that or anything of the sort now."

In his heart, Steve knew that to be the case but at the very same time this had always been a pressure point to him and so it would always be.

"Just don't do anything like that ever again." Steve growled and without so much as a goodbye or going into the old Horton house, he stalked home to see his love and children, leaving his brother wounded in the door frame.

The thing Jack Deveraux hated most in the world was to feel as if he was at odds with his brother, which was another sigh of just how different he was to when he was young. But to hear him say those things was a stab in the heart from which few recovered.

X x x

Steve got home in somewhat of a temper, no matter how much he tried to hide it. To minimize it, he stuck to himself, played some harmonica and had a beer – just one though.

It had been quite a day.

it worked, because by the time his baby girl approached him he was in a much kinder mood then when he had been speaking to his brother.

"So I know mom is not mad at us but I just want to check you are ok with me and Uncle Jack," said Steph as she found her dad in the kitchen. In all honesty, Steve could not say he had been best pleased.

He was having a hard time trying to figure out if the way he was feeling was selfish or not. But every time he got to thinking too much on that he always came up with the same answer – no. He felt as he did as he wanted this to work out for Kayla – for no other reason. His pride was not hurt he had not been the one to find someone first.

The truth was he just wanted it over.

"You know you could have put the whole case in jeopardy right?"

She had to know what they had done was dangerous to the case. The fact it seemed to be working out was beside the point.

"I know."

"And then all your mothers bravery would have been for nothing –"

"But it worked out."

Steve wised he was able to argue against that. Still it did not make any of what she had done right.

"All I am going to ask is you never do anything so risky again."

Seeing how serious her father was, Stephanie nodded.

She had had a gut feeling that he was not going to approve and she had been right.

"Ok – well then let's leave it there," he said as he came and kissed her forehead. For all the reasons he had thought of earlier – she was young, Kayla's child (and his) he found he could not be angry with her as he was with his brother.

Then he headed off for some more down time, leaving his daughter sighing.

She had done what she had done and there was no point in regretting it she thought to herself. Only one thing mattered and that was if she was do it again – and the only answer she could come up with was yes.

X x x

Kayla was only too aware that Steve was still not happy as they went to bed that night.

She was the one to turn in and was waiting for him when he climbed under the sheets.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong or am I going to have to find alternative means of getting it out of you?" asked Kayla.

"Is there a specific way you would like to get it out of me? That might help me make up my mind."

She gave him a look which told him what she thought of that.

Thinking better of it, and knowing she was asking an answer which did not involve any lip, he conceded.

"I had words with Jack earlier over what he and Stephanie did and I think I was a bit harsh on him."

"Well, it would not be the first time you have been hard on your brother and you two always survive it."

"I know but I said things to him today which even I don't think he deserves or I really believe, sweetness."

She was sorry for that for she did not like to see the two brothers at odds. They had wasted so much time when they were young and lost so much time. She knew what the three Johnson siblings meant to each other these days and they did not take one another for granted.

Therefore it would come as a surprise to no one that they worked much better as a team.

"You can go and see him tomorrow and say sorry for it."

He could thought Steve if his pride was going to let him. He wasn't sure if it would yet.

"Maybe," he sighed.

He still thought his brother should have known better.

"If you do then it is going to be a weight off your mind," she said trying to soothe him.

"But they were both so stupid – they should never –" he did not have to say who he was thinking of for she knew.

"Well they have and we can't change that." Part of her would like to as well but they could do nothing.

"The only thing we can change in the future."

Steve sighed – it wouldn't be so annoying, if it was the truth.

X x x

Sophie did not know what the etiquette was in this situation but on the way to the Johnson's she was sure to pick up Kayla a bunch of flowers. It was not going to take away all of the pain which she still felt she could have stopped if only she had had the courage but still none of them seemed inclined to blame her for any of this which she could only describe as generous given the circumstances. Inside of her, as she got to the Johnsons there was still something which would have just loved it run away from all of this but even deeper voice said all of this time that was what she had been doing and it had got her nowhere.

It was time to be brave.

She knocked on the door and she was glad when it did not take them long to answer.

It was Steph who she saw first.

"Hi, you!" she smiled greeting her warmly.

"Hey," she said a little nervously and she knew it showed.

"How are you?" just then that was not an altogether easy question for her to answer but given it all she did think she doing well.

"Ok."

Stephanie led her into the family home.

"Don't be nervous," Stephanie encouraged as they headed towards the heart of the house.

Her parents were so in view and she knew her words had had no effect. Sophie looked as if she was a dear in headlights.

"So this is my dad, Steve Johnson and this is my mom Kayla Brady."

Sophie had not known how she was going to feel when she saw Kayla for the first time but she hadn't thought she was going to feel quite as emotional as she did and try as she might, she was utterly unable to stop the shame which she felt from welling up within her.

She promptly burst into tears.

"I am so sorry."

None of them needed to be told why she was crying.

It was obvious.

If any of them had been angry at her for not reporting Grayson when she had had the chance it had been Steve but now he saw her he did not feel the same. She was a little kid who had had it tough and he knew it could be Abigail or Stephanie in front of him and that was a sobering thought.

"Come here," said Kayla as she moved over to Sophie, took the flowers out of her arms and then out her own arms about her in a motherly embrace

She was just a little girl who wanted to be mothered.

Kayla could see that.

And though from the sounds of Steph had said she had her own mom whom no doubt loved dearly, she would not have been able to open up to her over what had gone on. She had therefore not had a mom hug when she was trying to deal with something horrific and in that moment that was horrific enough for Kayla's mamas bear to come out.

"It's all going to be ok," Kayla murmured… somehow, no matter what it took she would make it so.

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