With just a couple of days left before the trial resumed, and Tammy now a couple days past due for her twins, everyone's minds seemed to rest on Lucy. For nearly two days, she was inconsolable. She was if she had been only eight or nine years old and she had been molested. She threw one tantrum after another, and rebuffed Eric and Annie's attempts to comfort her. When Kevin finally tried to hug her, she knocked out her husband with a roundhouse right.

This proved to be too much for Billie, who with Jay had returned to Glen Oak. Lucy, still recovering from her injuries, reluctantly agreed to let her friend into the room. Billie was in no mood for chitchat. Instead, she gave Lucy a stern lecture.

"Lucy, again, I am so sorry this happened to you. No one - and I mean no one - deserves to be raped, ever!" the cop said. "But you can't let yourself be defined by an act of violence. You are defined by the acts of kindness you give to this community, day after day! You may be a bit blasé with your sermons, but that doesn't mean you're a bad minister. Yours is not a façade, a wolf in sheep's clothing like the phonies. You are the real you. You have no idea how many messages of sympathy you've gotten. Or how many bouquets. So many, in fact, that Kevin and your kids have sent nearly all of them to patients who don't have family or friends.

"You are much stronger than you think. You only have to ask me or Jay for help, anytime. But please, stop moping. The important thing is we need to find this creep, and if you come out as strong, that will put the living fear in the guy that his days are numbered."

Lucy rolled her eyes, in dismay at herself.

"How could I reject my parents?" she finally said. "How could I rebuff Kevin? And my kids? I haven't been able to look at them straight in the face. Or maybe I didn't want to? Billie, what have I become? But see it from my viewpoint. I've only cheated on Kevin twice. One a man and one a woman, who just happen to be married to each other now! Were, in fact, when I seduced the man first, then the woman."

"Chandler and Roxanne," said Billie.

"But all the times I have had sex until now, it was entirely with my and my partner's consent. This ... bastard ... he took away the one thing that mattered to me, that I would only ever consent to having another human being inside of me. That's gone, forever! I don't know if I can trust anyone anymore, even Kevin."

"You can, my friend. You have a whole family you can trust. And a community you can trust. And don't worry, now that we know who it is, even without a positive coming yet, everyone in the country will be looking for him. We'll find him. That much I promise you. And when he is brought back to California, he'll get the max if we have anything to say about it!"

Lucy finally smiled.

"Give me a couple of days, and I'll be back at work. I don't know what I'd do without you as a friend! You're so good to Kevin. I know why you two are best friends. You trust each other, you honor each other ... and neither of you would do anything inappropriate, especially with each other."

"Lucy, I do love Kevin ... just not in that way. I'm not an only child, but there are days that he's more a brother to me than my real brother. And while Kevin has Ben and Patty Mary as siblings, I think he sees me as a closer relation. He's even told me he loves me like I was his sister. And just so you know ... I love you too! I can't help but caring for the very woman who's my pal's anchor."

Lucy reached out and clasped Billie's hand. They tightened their grip.

Billie's phone then rang.

"Billie, is Lucy there?" a woman's voice said.

"Uh, yeah, but who's this?" said Billie cautiously.

"It's Roxanne," said Roxanne. "Actually I need to talk with both of you. This whole situation has gotten way more serious in just the last few hours."

Billie turned on the speaker. She then said, "What's up?"

"Lucy, do you remember Cecilia Smith and Meredith Davies?"

"Yes, the sisters," said Lucy. "George and Gwen adopted Meredith and her three siblings. Cecilia was so happy the day she learned she was no longer an only child. Yes, I know them. But how do they figure into this?"

"Guys," said Roxie, "Cecilia and Meredith were both raped, in the same room, about four hours ago. And this time, the attacker didn't wear a ski mask. The sisters made a positive ID the moment my partner Morton and I arrived at their brownstone on the Upper West Side. It was Arnold Thompson, Junior."

"WHAT?!" screamed everyone in the hospital room at the same time. Lucy, Billie, Hank, the two nurses and the porter.

"What the hell happened?" asked Lucy, sitting up with her legs hanging out the right side of the bed.

"They share the same house with their respective boyfriends and their families," said Roxie. "Cecilia has the bottom two floors and Meredith the top two, although they have meals together like a big clan. The boyfriends were out on a night on the town, doing the usual 'bonding' that bros do, when Thompson show up unannounced. Meredith opened the door and was promptly knocked out. Thompson then rushed Cecilia and raped her right in front of her and Cecilia's children. When Meredith came to, she was attacked as well."

"That's insane!" said Hank. "First he has the gall to rape my niece. Now he goes after two true friends of the Camden family - one of whom, Cecilia, was practically an honorary member of the family for two years since she spent so much time with first Simon, then Annie who was struggling with her father Charles. I don't care what the jeweler said, Lucy was targeted, and so were those poor sisters!"

"I agree, Dr Hastings. But you won't believe what happened next?"

"What?"

"The children ran out of the room when Thompson had his way with Meredith. One of the children ran upstairs and got her gun, maybe just to threaten the guy. Or not, we're trying to figure this out. Just as he was climaxing inside of her, the kid says she was playing with the trigger when it 'accidentally' discharged. The bullet struck Thompson in the derrière."

"Good!"

"I personally think she did it on purpose, to defend her mother. Either way, he was disabled long enough that the children called 9-1-1. Meredith, who's engaged to a minister - her children are from a previous relationship that soured - didn't take long to realize who her and Cecilia's attacker was. When the cops arrived, she named him. And when he was booked, he immediately confessed to raping the sisters ... and you, Luce."

Lucy was so shocked she nearly fell on the floor, but the firm hands of Hank and Billie made sure that didn't happen.

"I don't believe it, Roxie," she said. "He actually admitted he raped me, and those poor girls? Man ... I never imagined I'd be a member of the sisterhood no woman ever wants to be a part of, but I am now. But Cecilia and Meredith? For what reason?"

"Thompson won't give one," said Roxie. "Nor for you. Not for them. But - and this is what really shocked Morton and me - is that he said he was a drifter and basically survived the last few years by robbing banks right across the country, always making sure he wore rubber gloves and a different pair of shoes each time so he couldn't be tracked. He even dressed as a woman for quite a few of them, with fake eyelashes, premium lipstick and blush, wigs of various colors and lengths, a blouse on top of a D-cup mastectomy bra and a skirt, fake fingernails also of various colors, plus a corset to make him look like a curvy woman, to confuse witnesses! He showed Mort and me some of those pictures of himself. He was really good at making himself a faux woman, at least, we'll give him that ... you'd never guess he was a man.

"And here's the kicker ... he started listing names. Lots of names. There are one hundred and forty women he's raped over the last five years. Twelve of them teenagers, and six under the age of twelve. He's just as depraved as Harry and Prudence are!"

"Did you read him his Miranda rights?" asked Billie. She didn't like asking the obvious question, but had to regardless.

"Billie, who do you think I am?" snapped Roxie. "Dirty Harriette?"

"Sorry. I didn't mean to offend you, but you know if you didn't his entire statement is useless."

"His first words after I read him his rights, is that he waived them. Oh, and here's the real beauty - he knows we want his father, so he said a Mister Big wasn't necessary for him. But he would gladly reel in his father, with him being live bait!"

"This is a security breach of massive proportions. If he knew about what we had planned for him, who else knows? Unless he bugged the conversation Jay and I had with Wes and Di. Oh my God!"

"Is Thompson trying to bail out?" asked Hank, worried.

"If he is, he'll have to come up with a ton of money," said Roxie. "The ADA is asking for ten million, cash. No deposit. Even if he could get his trust account unlocked, he'd be only halfway."

"Can he come up with the rest?"

"He does have friends in the evangelical fringe, who support, as he does, forcing Armaggedon, Dr Hastings. Yeah, he can come up with it, unfortunately. But we're going to have to put really restrictive conditions on him - taking all his travel cards, restricting his MetroCard so he can travel only within the City, and he'll have to spill what he knows about his father, everything, no matter how out of the loop he claims he is."

"One last thing, Roxie," said Lucy. At last, she was standing on her feet. "What about the girls' boyfriends? And the families in general?"

"The men are livid, as you can imagine, Luce. They're kicking themselves for not being home when they could have whacked the guy themselves. Both families have been moved to a safe house we run. The ex-husbands will also be there, just to reassure the families they still love very much. And the children will get escorts to and from school at least the first couple of weeks. As for Cecilia and Meredith ... they're just holding on to each other. But they're showing up for work on Monday. They're not going to let this dictate their lives."

"Good for them! Anything else?"

"We've covered it, my friend. Good luck. Hugs from me - and I hope my family can see you soon, and under better circumstances. Over and out."

The call ended.

The room was silent for a full minute. The pause was only broken by Lucy's phone ringing.

It was Ruthie. Tammy had gone into labor, and was rushed to the hospital. By the time she was there, she had already dilated four centimeters. Her twins seemed to be excited to come into the world and join her, Patrick and their other children, for the gynecologist said she could deliver within the next three hours.

Lucy and Billie high-fived. At least this day was going to have a happy ending after all.