Author's note: One of my more minor complaints about the famously awful Shane/Kayla story is the midsummer departure of Shane and Kim for offscreen "ISA training." In the real world, it was presumably an accommodation of actor vacations. Plot wise, I found it hard to believe that Shane and Kim's dynamic remained unchanged after they were able to talk for a couple of weeks without Kayla interrupting. (I'm not hating on Kayla in general, but this arc of the story did rely heavily on the time-honored soap trope of "don't ever give two sides of the triangle five minutes to discuss what they're mad about.")

When I noticed that the scene where Shane tells Kim that she has to come to training with him aired on July 8— which happens to be my birthday— I took it as a sign that I was meant to write myself a fanfic. So here we are.

Disclaimer: Days of Our Lives does not belong to me. In particular, some dialog from this chapter is lifted directly from the show (6/24/91 and 7/8/91).


It was one of those days that started out bad and got worse.

She was, after all, scheduled to testify against a man who had raped a girl barely out of her teens. Worse, her family and the girl's family had been entwined for most of her life. Worse still, she had started to hope that somehow this man, this monster hadn't really chosen to commit vile and disgusting acts of sexual abuse… and he had seen her hope and mocked her for it.

I find her so, so entertaining. Kimberly believes that she's a judge of human nature, and yet I had no difficulty convincing her that it was the pills the caused my behavior. I used to stay up nights worry that Kimberly would figure out I stopped taking those pills months before my wedding night, but she never suspected a thing. She believed everything I told her. No one else did, but she did.

And then she'd had to play the tape for her ex-husband, as if she weren't buckling under his disdain on a daily basis as it was.

She hadn't had Shane— she'd lost his heart to her own sister thanks to her own stupid mistakes— but she'd still had the idea that she was helping to make the world a better place.

Now she knew that she wasn't helping to stop predators who abused women the way her uncle had abused her; she was helping one escape.

Now she knew that wasn't knowledgeable about both childhood psychology and the ways of the ISA; she was easily fooled when no one else was.

Now she knew that she wasn't desirable to handsome men the way Shane was desirable to myriad beautiful woman; she was entertainment, just as disposable to men as she'd always been.

At least, she had thought, it would be over when she testified against Lawerence. Her self-absorbed naiveté wouldn't have any longterm effects if Lawrence went to prison where he belonged. Most importantly, Jennifer would get justice and a chance to continue to heal. And by turning the tables on Lawrence at the last minute, Kim herself would even be able to salvage the tiniest scrap of dignity.

That was when Chief Tarrington arrived.

She tried to refuse to talk to him. Nothing good ever came from the unexpected arrival of a high-ranking ISA official. That, of course, was a battle she was never going to win, and soon she found herself sequestered with Tarrington and Shane in some back room of the courthouse that she'd never needed to see.

Tarrington insisted that he didn't want her to testify because he was more concerned about the virus that was presently working its way through his roster of ISA agents than he was about the fact that Lawrence had raped Jennifer. That was bad.

Then Tarrington revealed that he and Shane had discussed exactly how Kim and Lawrence had passed their time together when she'd been trying to move on from Shane. That was worse.

Then Kayla arrived to remind her what it felt like to receive news that was so purely terrible that being used and humiliated felt like a day in the park.

"Tarrington left?" asked Kayla by way of greeting. In truth, Kim was glad that Kayla didn't pretend that the two of them were on any kind of decent terms. It was exhausting enough to keep that facade up in mixed company.

No, of course Shane and Kayla have my blessing. Leave them alone, Papa, they're both single, consenting adults. Why, it's no different than if we were in high school and Shane were some boy I kissed under the bleachers at the football game once, and then he and Kayla decided to go steady…

"How'd you know he was here?" asked Kim, just as blunt. Even though she knew she shouldn't wonder, that she would only hurt herself wondering, she did. She wondered how well Kayla knew Tarrington. She wondered how deeply Kayla had become involved with the ISA even after Kim had managed to get her removed from the lab where the ISA was frantically trying to find an antidote to the virus. She wondered if Shane reveled in using Kayla as an ad hoc partner the way he had done with Kim. She wondered if Kayla was learning to love it the way Kim had.

Worse, Kim wondered whether Shane was willing be completely transparent about his duties with the ISA, perhaps even to step back from the ISA, for Kayla in a way that he had never done for Kim. To be sure, he had offered once or twice. And Kim had always assured him that she knew who she'd married, and that while she didn't love the lies or the worrying, she did love Shane and would never ask him to be someone he was not.

Kayla's tolerance for that sort of thing had always been lower than Kim's. Before Steve's death, the two of them had been planning to leave behind police actions and international intrigue in favor of a world tour with baby Stephanie. Had Kayla changed? Or did Shane really love Kayla so much that he was suddenly eager to make the compromises and sacrifices that had always filled him with dread?

"Shane told me," said Kayla. That was hardly a surprise. "He filled me in on how you were going to testify against Lawrence and the ISA is against it."

For a fleeting moment, Kim thought that she and Kayla would be on the same page for the first time in a long time. Lawrence had, after all, been responsible for Steve's death. It would be nice for the two of them to be allies again. "Yeah, well they can be against it all they want. Knowing what I know, there's no way I'm going to let that monster go free."

"Kim—" Kayla tried.

"I don't care what Tarrington says. I really don't, Kay. I'm not gonna let him get away with it. I am not going to let Lawrence go free."

And then Kayla dropped the bomb. "You have to."

Kim had misheard. She had to have misheard. Kayla was not advocating for the corrupt menace that was the ISA. Kayla was not suggesting that a sex offender be allowed to resume stalking the streets. "Excuse me?"

"Tarrington is right," Kayla repeated. "The ISA is right. They know what they're talking about, Kim."

"Wait a minute. Is this you? It doesn't sound like you, Kay. Wouldn't you just love to see Lawrence's face when they slap a prison sentence on him or…" And then Kim's eyes fell on the emerald ring on Kayla's left hand. It was one of Shane's many family heirlooms (thankfully, one Kim had never cared for or worn). Neither Shane nor Kayla had officially called it an engagement ring. But it sure as hell looked like an engagement ring. "So that's it. Is it that you're thinking that if Lawrence were out of the picture, I'd be free to interfere with you and Shane?"

"This isn't about Shane," said Kayla.

Kim was unconvinced. "Isn't it?"

"No. He has nothing to do with this."

It was a variation on the same argument they'd been having— mostly unspoken, but sometimes aloud— for six months. "Oh, he doesn't? Then what's all behind this?"

Kayla's hand and the ugly ring flew anxiously to her face. "The virus, all right?" Her voice shook. "The damn virus. We have to do everything we can to find a cure for it."

Kim made an effort to be calmer, less combative. When Kayla said it that way, sounding distressed where she was usually so level-headed, Kim had to admit that she had a point. Kayla had probably been spending a lot of time with Miss Peach lately since she'd become involved with Shane. Kim knew better than anyone how quickly Peachy grew on a person, how easy it was to want the best for her. And how devastating it would be for Shane if the worst happened. "I agree. If it's Miss Peach you're concerned about, I know you're just as fond of her as I am."

"This isn't just for Peach's sake." Kayla fidgeted like she'd done as a child when she'd engaged in one of her oh-so-rare moments of rule-breaking. Tried to set the lobsters free, or some nonsense like that.

(It had been such a quintessentially Kayla stunt to pull, all full of love and compassion. It also would have put the family business in the red for a month if she'd gotten away with it.)

"Well then, what? Who are you worried about if it isn't Peachy."

Kayla stalled the way Kayla tended to do. "It's just hit home a lot harder than any of us ever dreamed."

"Kayla, what on earth are you talking about? What is it, honey?"

Kayla drew in a shaky breath and her eyes filled with tears. "It's Bo. Bo's been infected with the virus."

The words rattled in Kim's brain, but they didn't quite sink in. "That can't be, Kayla. That's just not possible."

"Kim." And now Kayla, even if she was still crying, was using the same oh-so-calm tone on Kim that Kim had used on her a moment before.

"Somebody made a mistake," Kim rambled. "There's got to be a mistake somewhere."

"No," said Kayla firmly.

"You don't know that for sure. You can't." Bo was fine. Well, not entirely fine. He was grieving for Hope. He was grieving for Steve. He was worried about the mess that Lawrence (who else?) was trying to make of the waterfront where they'd all grown up. He was terrified that Shawn-Douglas might never hear again. He was terrified of what Victor might do to exercise his influence over Shawn-Douglas and Carly. And he was a jumble of conflicting feelings when it came to his obvious attraction to Carly after he'd sworn to love Hope forever… But none of that meant that Bo was sick. Bo wasn't acting sick. Bo was full of energy and opinions and strength, as usual.

"Yes, I do," Kayla was saying. "I checked his blood over and over. The results—"

"No. He's walking around like he feels fine. He couldn't be walking around if he were sick. He couldn't. I don't understand any of this, Kayla. How did it happen? How could he possibly get it?" She couldn't argue with Kayla anymore. Her own voice was starting to shake, and her own eyes flooded with tears. She couldn't even look at Kayla, not yet. She would collapse into a sobbing mess, and she was the older sister. She was supposed to help Kayla, not make Kayla take care of her, too.

"We don't know. It was obviously deliberate. We just don't know who or when."

"What are we supposed to do?" Kim asked hollowly.

"The first thing you have to do is not say anything to anybody. Bo made me promise not to tell anyone when he got sick. He didn't want anyone else to know."

"Not even Carly?" Kim continued staring at the wall. Bo loved Carly and Carly loved Bo, Victor-related complications aside. Carly was, by all accounts, a brilliant physician. She was already working toward a cure for the virus. If Carly knew that Bo was sick—

"Especially not Carly. I only told you because I thought you could help."

"I want to." As if there were any other answer. "And I will respect your secrecy, I can promise you that."

"Thank you."

And now that the transaction was completed, now that they both knew that their little brother was going to die if something didn't change very quickly, there could be no more dwelling on rings or ISA agents. "Oh, God. Oh, God." Her hands went numb and her knees went weak as she pulled Kayla into a tight, teary hug."We're gonna save him. We're gonna do everything we can," she promised over and over again, leaning into the feel of Kayla whispering the same assurances into her own ear.

On this, at least, the two of them were still in perfect agreement. They were the only two people in the world who knew what it was to have the force of nature known as Bo Brady for a younger brother. They'd adored him from the time he was born, and truth be told they had both spoiled him rotten when they probably should have given him what-for. And now that Bo was an adult, they both trusted him above all others and valued his advice without exception.

They didn't break apart until Shane returned. Kim hastily wiped the tears from her cheeks.

Shane pretended not to notice. "All right, ready when you are. Court's about to reconvene."

She steadied herself. She had a lifetime of practice at this sort of thing. "I can't do it, Shane."

That startled him. "I beg your pardon?"

"I said, I'm sorry but I can't testify against Lawrence. I've done all I can do, okay? It's up to somebody else to finish this job."

At first he denied everything, the same way she'd denied everything when Kayla had first come in. "No. You don't mean that."

"Yes, I do. Yes, I do mean that."

He cleared his throat. He was stalling for time. It had never been a good sign when he did that. "All right, Kim. Suppose you tell me what the hell's going on."

"I reconsidered. Don't I have a right?"

"You reconsidered." His voice was flat, disbelieving. And there were hints of the disdain with which she had become so familiar in recent months.

"Yeah. I saw reason. I thought about what Tarrington said, and if our top priority is to find a cure for that virus, and I believe it is, then I have to maintain my relationship with Lawrence. And that's what I'm going to do."

That was when Kayla chimed in. "She's allowed to change her mind, Shane."

Shane's eyes flickered to Kayla as if he'd forgotten that she was even there. "So you're the one who changed her mind? You can't tell me that you want to watch your sister compromise herself all over again?"

"I think you know better than anybody I've been in tight spots before," snapped Kim.

"What about Jennifer and that tight spot she's in? She's relying on you." If only Shane could have known how much Kim hated, hated to do this to Jennifer.

"That's not fair!" said Kayla. "Kim wants to help Jennifer! She just wants to help everyone else as well, and there has to be another way to help Jennifer. There may not be another way to get to Lawrence if he really has the cure."

Shane ignored Kayla. Two days before, Kim would have thought that that was funny "Look, I said I'm sorry," she told Shane.

"You're sorry! Oh, right, as long as you're sorry I'm sure that'll be consolation enough when the man that raped her is acquitted."

That was too much. As if Kim didn't think about sexual assault almost every day of her life between her work and her own past. "Would you stop this, Shane?"

"No, you look, Kimberly, you look. You already cost Jennifer a lot when you had that night of passion. Cost us that videotape."

"Don't you think I know that?" And somehow, in the midst of everything else, it devastated her that he didn't. "Don't you think it's tearing me up inside?"

"I don't know what to think. I don't know what to think about. I don't know what you're up to. I don't even know who you are anymore. But I suppose I do know you well enough to know you're not going to budge." He sighed heavily in a deeply disgusted, long-suffering way. "I'll let the others know."

Kayla looked torn as to whether she should stay with Kim or follow Shane. "Go," Kim encouraged her. "Maybe you can do something to help Shane and Jack find another way to make Lawrence pay for what he did to Jennifer. God knows I'm useless right now."

"You did the right thing, Kimmy," said Kayla quietly.

And Kayla followed Shane back to the courtroom.


They hadn't really left Shane with much time to come up with an alternate plan, and so he resorted to cutting the power to the courtroom before using the recording Kim had made to blackmail Lawrence into pleading guilty, albeit to a lesser charge.

So Kim still helped, at least a little bit, in the end.

There was a small satisfaction in that. She'd wanted to do the right thing. She had wanted justice for Jennifer, who looked so impossibly young as she sat beside Jack in the courtroom.

She did not want to fling herself at Lawrence, publicly professing to believe in his innocence as he was carted off to jail.

But she'd submitted to worse to protect her family before. She been submitting to worse since she the age of ten. And if making herself the town pariah while pretending that she believed in Lawrence was going to protect Bo, then she would commit to it with every ounce of strength in her body.

Shane avoided her, which was for the best.

Her parents shook their heads and asked her what on earth she was thinking, which was more difficult.

It helped that Jennifer had decided to invite everyone in Salem, perhaps everyone in the state, to her wedding.

Quite obviously, Kim was the sole exception to that "everyone," and so she was left to her own devices. She visited Lawrence in prison while her friends and family celebrated at the first wedding-slash-wild-west-show that Kim had ever heard about.

She comforted Lawrence, praising him for his grace and bravery in the face of an unfair world. She didn't worry much about laying it on too thick since Lawrence already thought she was the stupidest sentient creature to ever draw breath.

Then she went home and cried. She overheard someone say that Kayla had caught Jennifer's bouquet and cried harder, even if Shane and Kayla's not-exactly-engagement was less important now. She remembered that Bo was sick with an incurable disease and lying about it, and that made her cry the hardest of all.


Shane's head hurt. Shane's head always hurt, but it had suddenly gotten worse.

His relationship with Kayla was supposed to be easy. That was the whole point.

He didn't mean that in any kind of disparaging way. He admired Kayla's tenderness as a mother, and Stephanie certainly had a special place in his heart. He thought that Kayla was quite beautiful. He appreciated her compassion and patience as a human being and as a nurse practitioner. He loved Kayla for her thoughtfulness; he wasn't sure that anyone else could have pulled him out of the pit he'd slipped into when Kim had left, and Kayla had done it when she would have been more than justified in focusing on her own pain rather than anyone else's. He liked Kayla for her firm understanding of who she was and what she wanted. He valued her commitment to public service; after all, that was something they had in common.

But his relationship with Kayla had none of the passion of his relationship with Kimberly, and that was a bloody relief.

With Kim, there had been a constant string of lies.

I distracted Victor like you asked me to. How? That's not worth mentioning.

I'm pregnant with your son. (That had turned out to be true, but she hadn't known it at the time and that was the point.)

I've decided to resume prostituting myself. No, I'm not secretly trying to catch a serial killer on my own without training or backup. Obviously that would be dangerous and ridiculous, and no sane person would do it.

At the beginning of their relationship, there had been the most ridiculous lie of all: she had actually tried to convince him that she could see when she'd been blind. Shane still couldn't believe that she'd thought that there weren't any particular flaws in that plan.

At the time, of course, he'd been a tangle of guilt. He blamed himself for Kim's blindness. She'd been under such strain when Emma had turned up alive, and that had been his fault. He'd seen nothing but Kim's bravery in facing her illness alone. He'd seen nothing but her love in wanting to spare him any responsibility, in wanting to protect him from the consequences of his own actions.

Now he reveled in the fact that Kayla would never do such a thing. Kayla was honest. Kayla openly admitted that she would never love another man the way she'd loved Steve, and that that was why it was all right if he'd already had his grand life's passion, too.

There was a lot to be said for a grand life's passion— and oh how he had loved Kimberly— but sometimes a person got to a point in his life where it was more important to be able to come home to someone who is nice and kind and good and didn't mind having a little peace. He didn't have the strength to sustain another body blow. And his life with Kim had been nothing but crisis after crisis after crisis.

It wasn't that he blamed Kim for all of that. Much of it was his own fault. He was the one who had brought not only Emma, but Gillian and Gabrielle and Eve into their lives. Eve, for what it was worth, liked Kayla. Kayla herself had said that Eve only liked her because she didn't have to compete with her for Shane's love. And that was quite frankly very appealing.

But now, Kayla's beautiful, blunt honesty had somehow gone missing. It had gone missing the moment that she'd convinced Kimberly not to testify against Lawrence Alamain.

And suddenly, Kayla reminded Shane rather too much of her sister. When he asked a question, he no longer got an answer. Kayla told him that she didn't know, or that she was busy, or that it wasn't her secret to tell. Under no circumstances would Kayla repeat what she had said to Kimberly or why. Sometimes she even pretended that she hadn't said anything to Kim at all.

Kayla and Shane called a brief truce in order to attend Jack and Jennifer's wedding together. She genuinely wanted to attend; Jack was Steve's brother, after all, and Kayla wanted to show her support now that Steve couldn't. He'd genuinely wanted to attend, too; they'd worked so hard to get Alamain out of the picture, and it was nice to see that at least one love story had a happy ending. (Never mind that he sort of wanted to apologize for Eve's involvement in delaying the nuptials. He'd had no control over Eve when she'd been underage and he had even less now that she was legally an adult, but he was still her father. He'd still been partially responsible for creating a woman who thought marrying a desperate man for money was a stellar idea.)

But when Kayla caught the bouquet, he couldn't help thinking of Kimberly.

Kimberly, looking beautiful in her gown on the day he'd married her, after insisting that she certainly couldn't get married without Kayla there to be the maid of honor. They'd had to send friends and family running to all corners of Salem to find Kayla and get her to the church on time.

Kimberly, looking just as beautiful when she, in turn, had been the matron of honor at Kayla and Steve's wedding. After an accident, Kayla had been mute for some months, and the plan had been for Kimberly to speak her sister's vows aloud while Kayla signed them. Kayla had gotten her voice back in the nick of time, but the fact that she had even intended to allow Kim to speak for her at such a momentous occasion was certainly a testament to how close the sisters had been.

It made perfect sense. They had the same values. They wanted to help people and they loved their family. They wanted to raise children and valued the community in which they'd been raised. Shane honestly wasn't sure that he'd ever seen them argue unless it was over him.

The first time he'd ever seen them look at each other with real distaste, it had been because they had just found out that he'd let them think Roman was dead when he'd known otherwise. He'd done it because he'd needed to protect his own brother. He'd done it because it was his duty as an ISA agent. He'd done it because at the time he'd barely known the Bradys. He'd done it because once Roman had reappeared in Salem, the damage was on track to be repaired anyway.

No one but him had ever found any of those arguments persuasive.

(He knew full well that those arguments weren't persuasive.)

And Kim had very nearly divorced him in private, but she'd always held the line for him when they were with her family. Kayla had been disgusted with both of them and hadn't hesitated to share her feelings. Shane probably would have been excised from the Brady's circle entirely if Kim hadn't flatly refused to celebrate Christmas with her parents and siblings unless he was welcome, too.

But that had been an aberration, and was far in the past. He didn't need to dwell on it.

He needed to find out what Kayla had said to convince Kimberly to continue on with her seduction of Lawrence before one or both of them got hurt. He'd already tried asking them, and had failed spectacularly. The fact that the two of them were suddenly aligned against him made his task twice as difficult. More than twice as difficult.

He wondered briefly if sweeping Kayla away for a romantic weekend would be enough to bring her around to the idea that he was in a position to protect her if she decided to tell him the whole story. It had to have something to do with the ISA, after all. She claimed that it was all about Peach, but if so, why now, after so many weeks?

He disposed of the idea. Kayla would almost certainly reject his proposal outright with an excuse about work or Stephanie. Or she might, more honestly, tell him that she was not ready for the sort of activities that usually came with a romantic weekend away. Tell him that she still felt that she was breaching her vows to Steve when it came to that level of physical closeness.

(If only Kimberly had felt the same when he'd been presumed dead.)

He had even less chance of getting Kimberly on unfamiliar turf. He supposed that he could claim that Andrew needed time with both of his parents— and he knew, with a sickening pang, that that was actually true— and then work on Kim when Andrew was asleep. But Kayla would be devastated and Kim's father would be insufferable, and Andrew would probably decline to close his eyes for even a moment, even if they took him away for a whole week.

But there was another option.

He made a face. He didn't want to ask Tarrington for favors. He didn't want to involve Tarrington at all. But if he couldn't control what Kimberly did on a personal level, he actually could order her to obey him in the professional realm.

If she wanted to be an ISA agent, she would be treated like an ISA agent.

Convincing Tarington took no time at all. He explained that Kim was volatile and impulsive, which Tarrington, of course, already knew. It was in her file, and besides, Tarrington had met Kimberly. She didn't exactly hide her thoughts and feelings.

Shane reminded Tarrington that Kim actually did not have ISA certification via osmosis. She had merely worked with them as a civilian. Yes, she had worked with them often. And yes, she had been privy to an unusual amount of information during her marriage to him, but she was in a very dangerous situation and she wasn't properly trained.

Tarrington agreed readily. He agreed almost too easily, Shane thought, claiming that he had been of a similar mind.

But at the moment, it didn't matter why Tarrington agreed. It mattered that Shane was going to be able to hit pause on Kimberly and Kayla's dangerous and potentially destructive plan. He was going to remove Kim from Lawrence's orbit entirely, and if Kim decided to stop keeping secrets for once in her life while she was gone, well, so much the better.


Shane called Kayla and Kimberly and asked them to come to his house. Not surprisingly, it only took one call to reach both of them. Thicker than thieves they were all of a sudden.

"Are you going somewhere?" asked Kayla when the two of them arrived in lockstep. It was an easy enough conclusion to draw. His suitcases were scattered about the room. He asked Simmons to remove them.

"I'm sorry to spring this on both of you like this," he said. And he was sorry. Sorry that the two of them had forced it come to this. He wanted to stay in Salem and do his job and spend time with Kayla and Stephanie and Andrew.

"Oh," said Kayla.

"I'm going to be going away for a couple of weeks. With Kimberly."

If he took some petty delight in how startled they both looked, well, that was his business.

He didn't take any delight, petty or otherwise, in how hurt Kayla looked.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but why do you and Kimberly need to go away together?" asked Kayla.

"Yeah. I'd kind of like to know that myself," said Kim.

Side by side as if they'd stood that way forever. All but finishing each other's sentences. Still allied against him for now.

"I am in the middle of an assignment, in case you'd forgotten. I'm the one who's supposed to stay close to Lawrence to find a cure for this virus," Kim repeated needlessly while Kayla remained square-shouldered and stone-faced. "Shane, I won't be able to do that if I'm out of town."

"Kimberly, I'm perfectly well aware of your assignment. This just happens to be a lot more important." He crossed the room. In unison, they turned to follow him.

"What could possibly be more important than saving peoples' lives?" Kim demanded.

"Saving your own life," he said, playing his trump card. Not that he needed to convince Kim and Kayla. He'd already convinced Tarrington, and that was all that mattered.

"My life? My life's not in danger." Kim seemed to believe that. Kayla, the more sensible of the two, was starting to show the slightest signs of concern.

"Tarrington doesn't seem to think so. That's why he wants you to come with me."

"But it's just not true! Why didn't you argue with him?" And the fact that Kim was still passionately convinced either that she wasn't in danger or that the danger was irrelevant reminded him all over again that he had done the right thing.

"Because I happen to agree with him. As a matter of fact, Tarrington ordered you to come on this training mission with me because I complained to him about letting you continue this crazy undercover work with Lawerence."

Kim suddenly lowered her voice to just above a whisper. Shane knew from long experience that that was a bad sign. Luckily, Kim couldn't hurt him anymore. "He can order all he wants," said Kim. "I'm not going."

She couldn't hurt him, but she could still annoy him. "Come on, Kimberly, be realistic. You're neither trained nor equipped to deal with this situation." He turned is attention to Kayla. "Kayla, will you talk some sense into your sister?"

"Kimberly has a mind of her own," said Kayla, still sticking to whatever plan the two of them had hashed out.

"Great," said Shane. "Thanks a bunch."

"I just have one small question," Kayla added.

"Go ahead."

"I understand why Kimberly needs to go on this seminar, but why do you need to go with her?"

"As a matter of fact, that was my suggestion." When lying, it was good to tell as much of the truth as possible. "The idea is to get Kimberly back into the field as quickly as possible. Now, she's going to learn the ropes a lot quicker if I'm there to take her through it step by step, one on one."

"No, no, no," Kim interrupted. "This is where we go wrong here. I'm not going. So why don't we both stay home and do that here?"

"Kimberly, you don't understand. You don't have a choice. If you don't go on this training exercise, than Tarrington's simply going to pull you from the whole thing. That's all there is to it. Now, I know you may be impulsive." That was the understatement of the century. "But even you aren't foolhardy enough to go up against Lawrence without any ISA support." Of course, the problem was that she was almost certainly exactly that foolhardy, which was why he was going to put her under surveillance until he'd found out what was going on.

There was quiet for a long moment. Shane watched as Kim came to terms with reality. "I'm backed into a corner," she muttered at last. "All right, fine. Fine. I'll go."

"Great. Thank you—"

"But you don't have to go. You should be the one to stay here."

"I'm afraid it's too late for that. The arrangements have already been made." He said it authoritatively enough that she didn't tell him to un-make the arrangements. "And we don't have a whole lot of time. We're going to be leaving today."

The fight had gone out of her, and the rest of her objections were easily thwarted. He sent Kayla— still stone-faced and furious— to take Andrew and Jeannie over the the fish market to stay with their grandparents. He told Kim—her face still churning with conflicting emotions— to make up a story about attending a seminar about advances in the psychiatric care of abused children, and to make sure that she packed multiple cocktail dresses.

It was better that Kayla had stomped out of the room before she heard the part about the cocktail dresses.

Shane chased after Kayla and apologized to her. He claimed to hate it all as much as she did. He told her that they were trying to save lives, and that that was all that mattered, and she couldn't argue with that.

But the horrible hurt look in her eyes reminded him that, in his way, he'd been a real bastard to concoct this.

To be continued.