Above deck

"Soph, look at me sweet girl," Laura requested soothingly, from where she was on her hands and knees facing her daughter.

"I can't… I can't…" Sophie tried, gasping for breath that just would not come.

"I know, baby, I know. I've been here a time or fifty myself. I want you to listen to me. Can you do that?" Frantic green eyes met her brown ones, while her daughter nodded her head.

"Okay," Laura scrambled to Sophie's side, and placed her hand on Sophie's solar-plexus, as Remington had done for her on more than one occasion. "I just want you to focus on my voice and nothing else. We're going to breath together. In through your nose, out through your mouth. Can you do that for me."

"I can't… I… I…"

"I know it feels like that right now, but it'll pass. Just focus on my voice. We're going to do it together. Here we go." Kneeling, she shifted her other hand to Sophie's back. "In through your nose…" she drew a breath in slowly "…out through your mouth." Sophie shook her head wildly.

"I can't… I—"

"You're a Steele. There's nothing we can't do when we do it together," Laura insisted. "Now, this time I want you to concentrate on my hand on your back and we're going to try again. "In through your nose… Out through your mouth…." She stroked a firm hand up and down Sophie's back. "Again. Focus on my hand. In through your nose… Out through your mouth…" Sophie managed to draw a short, stuttering breath inwards. "Good, good, again. In through your nose… out through your mouth."

It took another half dozen times before Sophie dragged in a deep, gasping breath, then broke down, sobbing. Laura moved next to her and drew her down carefully, resting her head on her lap and stroking her hair comfortingly, while containing her rage. If Castoro or his son were to step before her now, she'd happily put her hands around their neck and squeeze the life out of them for what they'd done to her daughter.

"Oh, Soph," she crooned, softly. "Another nightmare?" Sophie was slow to respond and when she did it was only with a slow shake of her head. "Talk to me, sweet girl. Please," she beseeched, when the girl remained silent. It wasn't easy, but Laura allowed the silence to linger lengthily, continuing to stroke her daughter's hair. She startled when Sophie suddenly sat up, hugging her legs to her body and rocking. The dull, hopeless look in her eyes reminded Laura of a case she and Remington had taken on more than a decade before in which a young girl who'd been kidnapped at three-years-old, had had felt entire world was torn apart when Remington and she located her and the woman who'd kidnapped her and raised her as her own.

Jessica had been hopeless, when Laura had found her after she'd runaway, sitting much like Sophie was now… looking much like Sophie now… on the beach from which she'd been kidnapped, believing with all her heart the life she'd loved was gone from her forever. It had taken both sets of parents – the one's she'd been born to and stolen from, and the ones who'd raised her – coming to an agreement to put the past aside and focus on what the child they all loved needed. If only—

She suddenly found herself with an armful of Sophie, crying a torrent of tears. Laura locked her in a tight embrace, rocking with her.

"I don't want to leave," she clutched at Laura's back, unable to conceal her fears any longer. "I love you. I love Da. And Holt and Livvie. I'll be a good big sister, I promise. I'll help you with the baby and I'll do more around the house. I'll… I'll take Livvie and Holt to school and their activities when I start driving. The baby can have my… my… room. I don't Vie will mind if we share. It won't be too long before I go to college. I'll work hard for a scholarship so you and Da don't have to pay for my college. I might not get into Stanford, but UCLA…" Laura's nose crinkled with distaste, but what college her daughter attended was not her concern at the moment, not by far. "I'll get a job and pay for anything scholarships don't cov-… cover. I know I shouldn't ask. You need my room for the baby and… and… I know… I know if anyone finds out the truth about me, it could ruin everything for you and Da." The tears that had been threatening in response to Sophie's anguish, spilled over. "I promise I won't tell anyone. I haven't ev- … even told Vie. I know I shouldn't ask. You never asked to have me dumped on—" Laura hugged her even tighter.

"Stop, sweet girl, stop," she implored, unable to hear any more of the damage that had been done to her. For eleven years, the Steele's, their families and friends had wrapped Sophie in a cocoon of love and security, that had not transformed the once nearly mute and severely traumatized into a secure, confident and beguiling girl.

And now…

"I want you to listen to me," Laura insisted, steadying her voice in a way she couldn't her emotions. "I don't ever want to hear you say again that you were 'dumped' on us again. Do you understand? That was never the case. Your father and I promised one another long ago, well before Livvie was born, that we would never regret… not for a second… how a child arrived to us. We are so grateful… so grateful… that Clarissa entrusted us with you, because we cannot imagine a life in which you are not our daugh—" Sophie ripped herself from her mother's embrace, racing towards the end of the stern, then spinning around. Anguish, fear and disgust swirled around the teen.

"You don't even know who I am!" she choked out. Laura took her feet.

"That is not—"

"I know! I know the truth!" Sophie shouted, her voice breaking as she did. "Julian told me everything. Everything!" she screeched.