Alexis looked at her husband, smiling at him as she watched him talking seriously with DJ, Tyler, and that Bobby guy who was married to Betty's older sister. They all seemed to be studying some notes they had found in one of her goofy brother's many desks. She was so proud and pleased at the way Henri had jumped right in and offered to help in any way he could when they got the call from Claire that Danny had gone missing.

It was just like that dumbass to go off and disappear, without taking his damn phone and without thinking how his actions might affect other people's lives! Right now she was choosing to be pissed at her idiotic younger brother, mainly to avoid being worried out of her mind that he might actually turn up seriously hurt or worse!

Of course, it wasn't lost on her that she had in fact, faked her own death for two whole years while she dealt with the aftermath of her many surgeries, and thereby caused her family unnecessary grief and pain. But after having gone through that, you would think Danny would have learned from her mistakes to not make people think he was dead if he wasn't. And he'd better not be; the little shit or she'd kick his ass!

"Mom! Come tell us what you think of these scribbles. Can you read Uncle Daniel's writing? It's...kind of hard to make out."

Alexis nodded, as she walked over and took the notes from her son, "I should be able to; I had to read his chicken scratch all the time back when we both worked at Mode. I see it hasn't improved much. Let's see that."

She looked at the notes and read, "This looks like some kind of crazy brainstorming ideas for the end of his new book. See, there's something here about the ending. Like he was trying to decide if he wanted the main characters to end up together or not.

Trish told me he said he was finished with it and would be sending it to her, but she never received an email with his final draft, so all she has are bits and pieces of some of the chapters he sent her while he was working on it."

"Do you think that's what happened to him? Maybe he was writing about somebody who didn't want their story told and Daniel pissed them off." Bobby suggested.

Alexis looked a bit taken aback by the possibility, but tried to dismiss the notion, "No! I can't imagine my brother writing anything that would be that...dangerous! Most of his stuff is about women's fashions, gossip, family drama, sure, but...nothing that would make somebody mad enough to actually want to kill him!

Not even Wilhelmina. Hell, since his first book that was primarily about her drove up sales on Mode through the roof, she's his biggest fan now. She's had her picture taken with some silly tee shirt that said, "The Real Bitch" for the cover shot after his book sales went sky high."

The door opened and everyone looked expectantly, but let out a collective sigh when they saw it was not Daniel, but simply Claire, returning with Justin and Betty.

Several police detectives had also arrived and were attempting to update Claire on the progress of their investigation of Daniel's disappearance, or lack thereof. She walked past them, refusing to answer their questions.

Instead, she squeezed Betty's waist lightly as they walked up to the cabin door, "This little lady knows my son better than anyone here. She's going to solve the case and help get Daniel back to us!"

Betty felt the pressure of all eyes on her. Her family quickly rushed to her, hugging her so hard she found it hard to breathe, "Mami! Mija! Chipmunk!"

"Qu'est-ce qu'un chipmunk?" Henri turned to his wife and DJ curiously.

Alexis shrugged, pointing to Betty, obviously annoyed at all the attention she was getting, "Her, apparently. Some crazy pet name Bobby has for his sister-in-law, I presume. Her family's nice enough, and I know they want to help, but they're all...a little strange if you ask me."

Tyler chuckled, as he walked up to his half-sister and her husband, "Sorry, but you think Betty's family is weird? No offense, Sis, but...I'd have to say that's sort of the pot calling the kettle black, don't you think? I'd say we've pretty much got the market cornered on strangeness in the tri-state area.

And before you go getting all pissed at me, I wasn't even considering your
own ... life changes! I meant...well, everything else! All of it; the murders, affairs, drinking, shootings, public scandals, secret love children….do I need to go on? Besides, she's...gotten totally hot!"

She rolled her eyes, glancing at Betty, "You think Betty is hot?"

"Oui!" DJ and Henri both nodded.

Alexis hit Henri's arm, "Excuse moi, DARLING? My horny French son and recently dumped half-brother I'd expect that kind of talk from, but YOU do remember this, don't you?" she held up her wedding ring in his face.

He laughed, kissing her finger and nodded, "Oui, but of course I do, darling! We are married. That does not mean I cannot appreciate another beautiful woman, does it? As long as all I do is look? I admit I do think Betty is a very beautiful woman, it is true. You, however, are far beyond beautiful, you are the love of my life, my Goddess, my soulmate, my…." he began kissing her hand and went up to her arm, then her neck as he continued, before she put her hand on his mouth to stop him.

She smiled, kissing him gently then holding him out from her by his hands, "Enough! That's...much better. Merci, Cheri. I love you, too.

Sorry, you're right; Betty really is quite the hottie nowadays. She sure as hell looks different than the first time I met her! And I'm not actually jealous. She's a totally different type than I am. Honestly, I'm more than a little pissed at the girl on my poor brother's behalf."

She led her husband aside and lowered her voice, "Six years ago he walked away from Mode, left New York, and flew to London for her and what does she do? She shuts him down, basically keeps him in the "friend zone" indefinitely, so he comes crying to me, all broken up about her.

The only good thing that came out of it was it got him into writing. He started writing as a way to deal with his feelings. But now he's turned into some kind of freaking hermit because of her!

She did a number on him almost as much as that bitch Sofia did! Seriously, the poor bastard's had so many failed relationships, it's no wonder he's turned into Howard Hughes. I halfway expected to find him up here in the middle of nowhere having fashion shows with his cats or something! She really messed him up!"

Betty could practically feel the evil looks Alexis was sending her way and determined that in order to help find Daniel she needed to offer an olive branch. Personally, she wasn't particularly happy to see Alexis, either. She couldn't stop thinking about the fact that the last time she had spoken to the tall blonde was to convince her to turn herself in for trying to kill Christina and let her own brother go to jail for it!

She eventually managed to extricate herself from her family's welcome and made her way to Alexis, extending her hand cordially, "Hello, Alexis. It's good to see you again. Although, I'm sorry it's under...such upsetting circumstances. Tyler, how are you? And this must be DJ! Look how tall you've gotten? No more silly string, huh?"

She hugged both men warmly and extended her hand to Henri, "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met. You're Alexis's husband, I presume? I heard you got married."

"Oui. Henri Troussard, Mademoiselle Betty. Enchanté."

"Yes, you, too. Henry? That's...an interesting name."

"It's ON REE! Not Henry!" Alexis cut in impatiently. The last thing she wanted was to have her hot French husband compared in any way, shape or form to that sniveling accounting nerd at Mode that she knew Betty used to date.

"Oh, of course. Sorry, Henri! It's very nice to meet you." she looked hesitantly at his wife, who was shooting daggers at Betty with her eyes.

"You as well, Miss Betty. I have heard so much about you!"

"Yes, I'm sure you have. But you can't believe everything you hear. I can't be all bad, can I?" Betty glanced at Alexis, who was trying her best not to scowl at her. But Betty could still remember the woman's body language and she was fairly certain Alexis Meade Troussard, unlike everyone else in that room, was anything but happy to see her.

Henri smiled at Alexis, putting his hand around her waist to try and reassure her, "Of course not! You must not think ill of my Lexi because she is not that happy to see the woman who hurt her "Danny". She is very protective of her little brother. Even though he is no longer a child, and although she would never admit it to him, she cares for his happiness very much and I'm sorry to say that you, Mademoiselle, broke his heart."

Alexis squared off, gently pushing Henri aside, as she looked down at Betty, giving into her anger, "You're damn right she did. He would never have ended up alone and unhappy up in this god-forsaken place in the middle of nowhere if it wasn't for her! You do know you totally screwed him up, Betty! He was completely in love with you; he gave up his life to follow you to London but Miss high and mighty, you wouldn't give him the time of day! You'd be nobody without Daniel. He's the one who..."

Betty was crying, "gave me my start. He believed in me, cheered me on, encouraged me, told me to go for my dreams. Yes, believe me, I know exactly how much I owe Daniel, Alexis. That's why I'm here now. He was my best friend. And I feel bad that we lost touch over the years.

But you're wrong...if you think he felt anything but friendship towards me. I admit I had a bit of a crush on him, perhaps. But I knew he was always out of my league. You know the kind of women Daniel went for. Look at me; I'm no model. And I never will be. I just wasn't his type."

Alexis narrowed her eyes, "Wasn't? First of all, you are so off-base if you think he wasn't into you. But more importantly, do not talk about him in the past tense as if he's already ...gone! My brother is NOT DEAD! I don't care what these idiotic hillbilly cops keep telling us about how long he's been gone and to prepare for the worst. That's total bullshit.

I know my goofy brother is alive! That little dumbass wouldn't dare die on me! Not like this...just…vanishing without a trace! It's...bullshit! He..." she trailed off, trying to control the flood of emotions she felt rushing to the surface. She had tried to keep it together for her mother and son's sake up till now, but she was scared to death. And this bitch had seriously hurt her little brother. So she was going to get told off but good.

Betty's voice was soft and reassuring, as she put her hand on Alexis's arm, startling her with how calm she seemed in spite of being yelled at, "I couldn't agree more. So...let's work together to figure out where he is and how we can get to him. We're on the same side here, Alexis. Team Daniel. Deal?"

She started to hold out her hand, then smiled and held it up instead and Alexis reluctantly slapped it, shaking her head at the gesture, then handed Betty the note she had been scrutinizing, "Fine, Suarez. Here. Take a look at this.

So, what do you make of it? It was over there on his writing desk. Nobody can figure out what it says. I think it's something about the end of his book. I think maybe his disappearance is connected in some way to his latest novel.

It seems that his publisher was the last one to talk to him. But he never emailed her his final draft. The locals said the storm knocked out the power during the worst part of it. He's got a little food in the fridge, even though it's mostly junk. But I don't think that was a shopping list, and he was out getting groceries when he got abducted by aliens or anything."

Betty smiled up at the tall blonde, as she pointed to the scribbled note, "No, you're absolutely right, Alexis. This is Daniel's outline for the last chapter of his novel. He always used to write just the beginning of a phrase he particularly liked or a quote he wanted to use and he would write just a few keywords that would trigger enough of the phrase or quote so that he could google it later when he began writing.

See right here, he wrote, 'after the happily ever after part what happens to the happy couple?' That's really clever, Daniel." she blew out a breath, trying to keep her own emotions in check. This search HAD to have its own "happy ending" she thought, one with them finding Daniel alive and well in the end. This had to be a fairytale ending; not some grisly horror story!

Daniel moaned, looking down at his leg. He put his hand to his bloody head and tried to piece together where he was and what had happened.

"Oh, you're awake, I see. It's about time! I thought you were dead."

"Where am I? Who the hell are you?"