Ben Warren and Ross Marler stared each other down from opposite ends of the table. Both with an agenda not matching the others.

"For once in your miserable life do the right thing," Ross implored.

Ben sat there eyeing Michelle up and down. He wasn't to be DA for much longer. What did he care if this girl went into the witness protection program or not? Besides Mick Santos had been a thorn in his side from the word go. It seemed only fitting to allow her to walk. Ben would finally have the last laugh.

"What's in it for me counselor?" Ben said true to form.

"You know damn well that this was a pure case of Michelle defending herself. Mick was attacking her. She had no other choice," Ross pushed all the while trying to remain calm.

Ben Warren had the ability to push every one of his buttons. It made his skin crawl at having to admit that this man and he shared the same mother. It was incredible to think that the same woman could have two completely opposite children. And that was only the tip of the iceberg in the long list of reasons that Ross despised his 'brother'. They were too numerous to even fathom.

"I agreed not to level charges against her. What more could you want?" Ben smirked. He so much enjoyed twisting the knife. It gave him great pleasure to inflict the pain he had as a child being bounced from on foster home to the next on his beloved 'brother'.

"You know damn well what I want!" Ross felt the anger brewing, "Who gives a damn if you don't go forward with this case. That's not the problem here and you know it!"

"Please...do enlighten me." Ben folded his arms against his chest and waited. Waited for what he knew was to come next. Ross was about to go into a lengthy sermon as to the evils of Mick Santos' family.

"How can you be such a bastard?" Ross quipped. He wasn't sure if this was more for the game that Ben was playing with Michelle's life or for what he had done to his own family. It was difficult to put things into perspective when it came to dealing with Ben Warren.

"If you have a point I suggest that you make it."

"My point is that Michelle isn't safe in Springfield. Whether you prosecute or not, that doesn't really matter to the Santos family. I know damn well either way she's a target for them. You don't kill one of their own and get away with it."

"That's really not my problem," Ben countered smugly.

"I'm making it your problem," Ross forced.

"Exactly what is it you want me to do? As you know I will no longer be the DA in a few days. What clout do you think that I have?"

"I want Michelle in the witness protection program. It's the only way that I see her staying alive. You have the power to make that happen."

"You over estimate me big brother. I got my fingers slapped don't you remember? I think you are barking up the wrong tree."

"Don't give me that! Have you forgotten that I once too was District Attorney? I know all the rules Ben. You still have the power to make this happen. Just do it!"

Michelle sat quietly listening to the two men banter back and forth. Her heart in her mouth with each new argument. This had been a complete nightmare. In all her life she had never expected to be sitting in the DA's office bargaining for her life. She had also never thought that she would have killed a man.......in self-defense or not. That day on the beach still a vivid memory. Every time she closed her eyes all she could see was Mick's face leering at her. How he told her of all the things that he wanted to do to her. The memory still caused her to shudder.

It had been her life or his that night. Pure survival instincts took over. Michelle would have done what ever it took to stay alive. For all intensive purposes she had. She could still hear the thud when the rock made contact with his skull. It was a deafening sound that haunted her. Every slammed door, every object dropped to the floor, any noise caused that image to emerge in her mind's eye. All she remembered doing was running. Running as fast and hard as she could away from the beach. It wasn't until the following day that she realized that she had actually killed him. The story was plastered over every newspaper, TV and radio station in town. The headline read "NEXT IN LINE TO HEAD THE SANTOS CRIME FAMILY FOUND DEAD ON THE BEACH". It was at that moment that Michelle understood what was about to happen to her. It was a well known fact that the Santos' were ruthless. They played by their own set of rules. And this was a game she wasn't about to win.

Now the only way to save herself was to become a different person. If Ben agreed to Ross's deal Michelle Bauer would cease to exist. That was a thought that she wasn't quite prepared for.

"Are we in agreement or not?" Ross's voice returned Michelle to the present.

"I think I can accommodate your request. I won't have the paper work for a day or so. That means that Michelle will have to stay at a federal safe house until everything is in place."

"Understood."

"Are you sure you are ready for this, Michelle?" Ben directed his comment directly to her, "You understand that this means you can never come home again. That as of right now Michelle Bauer is no more. And Springfield will be a distant memory for you?"

"Yes.....yes I understand," she said knowing it in her head but her heart ached all the while.

Danny sat absently drumming his fingers along the edge of his mother's expansive desk. As a child he loved to crawl up in her lap. He would play man in charge. Mimicking all the actions that he watched his mother do so well. It was a game for him then, but now that he was on the perch getting ready to take the reins it somehow lacked the luster that it had when he was a child. Now it was more then play acting it was so very real. A reality that left Danny with a much too sour taste in his mouth.

Danny let his eyes wander to the mantle. It was laden with family photos. So many memories to be found there. Memories of much happier times for Danny. Times that he and his bother were able to be the children that they had been meant to be. Not the person that Danny now saw when he looked at his reflection in the mirror. The features were familiar but that was where his knowledge of himself ended.

His gaze fell on the photo of him and Mick the day that he had gotten his driver's license. Danny had to smile remembering all the grief that Mick had given him while he claimed to be 'teaching' him the finer points of the art of driving a five speed. It had been a test of wills for both brothers. Danny doing his best to spread his wings and fly while Mick liked being the dominate one. That's the way it had always been for the brothers. A healthy competition that forced both of them to become the men they were today.

A tear wound it's way down Danny's cheek. The thought that Mick's life had been cut short sent a stabbing pain through his chest. It had been weeks since Mick had been murdered and Danny was still no closer to finding out who had been responsible. All the his leads brought him to dead ends. It was maddening.

His eyes came to rest on that picture once more. Danny missed those days with his brother. As of late their relationship was strained at best. Danny and Mick had gone in completely opposite directions. Danny saw so much potential that lay untapped in the depths of the 'family' business. Things that could ultimately lead them into the world of legitimate businesses, along side the likes of the Spaulding and Lewis clans. Sancorp could have been a force to be reckoned with without being pulled into the darker side of life. Unfortunately his brother and mother had other ideas in mind. They were content to be the embroiled in that life. They thrived on it. Carmen was the brains and Mick was the Braun. Which he enjoyed immensely. It was the thrill of the hunt and taste for blood that sucked Mick in. In the beginning Mick played by the rules. The rules that Carmen had ingrained into both boys from the time that their father was gunned down doing business until the present day. It wasn't until more recently that Mick branched out into his own rules. Which were highly questionable and a far cry from what Carmen had taught. Mick's skewed view of things was something that Danny was certain had ensured Mick's ultimate demise. Still Mick was his flesh and blood. And no matter what Danny's view of the business was family was everything!

As much as he detested the journey he was about to embark on, there wasn't anyone left to carry the torch. Danny was the Santos Family's last chance at greatness, or so his mother said.

Carmen saw her son as the shining beckon that would lead the machine forward into the new millennium. Danny had been her husband's choice to head the family. Even at the age of fourteen, Miguel saw the potential that lay just below the surface in Danny. Yet Danny lacked the taste for what it actually took to make it in his father's world of business. Carmen did her best to bring him to the fold but at each turn Danny found reason to hang back. Now though there were no excuses. Mick's murder called for swift action on his part. There was no turning back now.

The ice clinked in his glass as Danny polished off another scotch. The amber liquid brought little clarity to his rambling thoughts. There was so little information to process. It was as if the person responsible for this act had disappear. Vanished into thin air without a trace. At each and every turn, Danny had one person or another breathing down his neck. If it wasn't Carmen and Dietz it was the heads of the other families. They were angry that Danny had suspected them of this crime. What choice did he have though? Danny knew that Mick was living on a razor's edge. He cared little about the code of honor that the other's lived by. It was only natural to think that Mick had pushed one of them too far and they had pushed back with enough force to get their message across loud and clear.

At this moment Danny had hit a wall. Each time he made headway he was stopped dead in his tracks. He was beyond frustrated. He was fighting a losing battle at every turn. And the look of disappointment in Carmen's eyes was more then he wanted to deal with. As much as he knew that avenging his brother death was his responsibility, Danny could have cared less at this point in time.

All he wanted right now was a life removed from here. The constraints of being Carmen Santos' son....the future of the Santos Family was a heavy burden to Danny. One that he would have done just about anything to relieve himself of. If he only had a clue how to do that.

Michelle let Ben's questions replay continuously throughout the cavities in her mind. It was as though she had no control to stop them. It was hard for her to believe the man who had virtually let her sister-in-law rot in jail when he had the evidence to free her, would be the same man to help her now. It was as if Ross had played some hidden trump card. By all rights Ben Warren could have fed her to the wolves, but he wasn't. A fact that both frightened and relieved Michelle. She was having difficulty deciding which one she felt more.

In this case relief won out. She had been walking in fear for so long now that to be at ease was a comfort. She found herself laughing at the thoughts that paraded about her head. The actuality of finding relief in this nightmare was a joke. Yes she would most certainly be alive, but she would never be Michelle Bauer again. The life that she envisioned for herself went up in a puff of smoke. She felt as though she was the product of a magician's act that had gone awry. And the worst part being, that there wasn't a damn thing she could do to stop it from happening. Her fate had been sealed that night on the beach. She may have taken Mick Santos' life but he had stolen hers just the same.

Without warning the tears fell. The sight of what she had always called home.....a place that after tonight she would never step foot in again...the flood of emotions was far to great. So many wonderful things had happened to her in this place. She had learned to ride her two-wheeler in the driveway, gotten her first grown up kiss under the trellis in the garden, the annual Bauer barbecues, the scent of Maureen's that still lingered in the house after all these years.....all those things would be no more then memories for her now.

"Michelle?" Ross rested his hand on her shoulder. In his quiet way he did his best to fill the void left by her father. Ed was off saving the world. Seemed as though it was easier for him to reach out to those unknown to him rather then those closest. It angered him that his friend had dropped the ball so to speak when it came to his children. In the years Ed Bauer had been gone, Ross watched the Bauer children struggle and grow into wonderful adults. It was a shame that he chose to miss all of that.

"I'm fine?" she responded wiping the tears from her cheeks. She knew what he would ask before the words even came, "I just can't imagine leaving here and never looking back," the anguish consumed her voice.

"It's something that you must do," Ross assured her.

As true as his words were, they brought little comfort to her at the moment. The only thoughts she was able to entertain were those of utter loss. In a way for Michelle, it was like losing her mother all over again. The devastation that accompanied Maureen's death was something that she never expected to ever totally get over. This house had been her last tie to the woman who raised her, taught her so much about life and love. The thought of never seeing it again was more then she was able to bare.

"I understand that here," she said pointing to her head, "But it hurts so much here," Michelle laid her hands across her heart.

"I wish there was another way around this. I just don't see one," Ross added sympathetically. The Bauer house had been a port in a storm to many of those wayward members of Springfield society. It had come to mean a great deal to so many. And for Michelle that feeling had to be much more intense. This was the only home that she had ever known. But now due to circumstances beyond her control she was being asked to forget all that she loved and knew. Asked to start over again as a new person in a new place. For a girl of nineteen that had to be unthinkable. Unfortunately it beat the all too real alternative.

"You ready to go in and say good-bye?" Michelle hated the finality of Ross's words.

"Don't see as I have much choice," she stated. After tonight Rick and Abby would not exist in Michelle's world. There would be no contact with them. She would never know if they were to ever have children. She would never know if her father was to return. Ed Bauer couldn't even be found. There was no way for Michelle to even say a proper good-bye to her father. That notion troubled her in a way but it was somehow fitting as well. For all intensive purposes she would be dropping out of sight in the same manner that he had done years before. But for Michelle that was little consolation. It still hurt like hell.

"Hello sweetie," Abby embraced Michelle as she came through the door. The was no hiding the fact that both she and Rick had been crying. Neither of them were taking the reality of this any better then Michelle herself was.

Rick had retraced every step with Ross trying to come up with any choice but this one. In his heart Rick knew that Ross's instincts were right on the money. The longer Michelle stayed in Springfield the easier it would be for the Santos Family to come knocking on their door; however that didn't make letting his little sister walk out of his life any easier.

"Hi..................." Michelle gasped before bursting into a new round of sobs. Rick and Abby rallied around her while Ross hung back still feeling as if he had been the reason for the pain in the room. Knowing he was doing the right thing for his best friend's daughter still didn't erase the agony he saw in her eyes.

"I'll wait for you outside," Ross said heading for the door.

"Ross, please.......stay," Michelle implored.

"Thought you might like to say your good-byes in private," he countered.

"You belong here too. You have been through it all with us. And right now if it wasn't for you I don't know where I would be. Please stay."

Ross gently took Michelle into his arms embracing her like she had hoped her father would have been there to do. "You are a strong young woman. You will make the best of this." Ross hoped his words were more convincing then the way the sounded ringing in his own ears.

"I'm glad one of us has faith in me," she gave a half hearted laugh.

The four of them sat around the table drinking coffee and reminiscing. Michelle couldn't get enough of the stories. She would have recorded them if you thought that she could have gotten away with it. As much as Rick's overprotectiveness drove her crazy, she would miss it. The little things that once had been an annoyance would now be treasures locked away for safe keeping.

"We really need to be going," Ross prodded as his eyes went to the clock on the wall. He had extended Michelle's visit much longer then it should have been.

Ross's words brought tears to all the eyes at the table. Michelle let herself be wrapped tightly in the arms of her family. "We love you honey," Rick said through his tears, "No matter where you are or who you are....a part of you will live on in all of us," he choked.

"I know," she returned through her own cries. "As you all with me."

Rick and Abby looked on as Michelle and Ross made their way up the drive. She felt as if she had been sentenced to death row rather then the witness protection program. At this moment Michelle didn't think death could be much worse.

The blackness of night seeped through the window panes encircling Danny. He tried to find comfort in it's stillness, yet the sensation of comfort had long since left him.

He had sat behind that desk for the greater part of the day making calls, issuing orders, but threats were now what he had been driven too. On numerous occasions he caught his mother or Dietz watching him from the corner of his eye. They both waited to pounce on him for his lack of vigor in dealing with this problem.

This had been Carmen's ultimate test of her son's ability. His lack of determination concerned her while Dietz's overzealous wiliness to strike down all and any in his path troubled her as well. It was as though she was stuck in the middle of some bizarre tug of war. One side pulling so furiously that she might collapse under their force while the other side was barely breaking a sweat to bring her down.

Danny walked over to the side board filling his glass with scotch again. This had become a ritual of sorts with him. The alcohol dulled the senses enough for Danny to somewhere in his soul find the strength he needed to be the ruthless boss that he was expected to be. His words and actions were too far removed from his true character. Even growing up Danny had always been the one with the gentle touch and soft voice. He was the one that Pilar would come to when she had had a bad dream or needed some comforting. In this stone palace they called home, Danny was the only member with a heart.

Thoughts of Pilar lept forward. How he missed his sister. Once their father had been killed, Carmen had whisked her daughter off to a boarding school for her own protection. Those had been Carmen's words but Danny knew now it had been for different reasons entirely. Initially yes it had been to keep her daughter safe but as time wore on it become a convenience having her out of the picture. It gave Carmen the time she needed to rally the troops and take over as head of her family. She stepped into his father's shoes quite willingly. Carmen was a player as soon as she was out of the starting gate. It didn't take long for the other families to recognize that the Santos Family wasn't about to dry up and wither away just because they had been successful at chopping off it's head. In fact a more furious one grew in it's place. Dietz had been a long loyal employee under Danny's father. He kept a watchful eye out at every turn so he became Carmen's right hand man without question. Looking at them now Danny had to laugh. His mother and Dietz looked more the couple then he ever remembered his father and her to be. Seemed as though Carmen and Dietz were cut from the same cloth. They saw everything in the same twisted light. The same light that they had gotten Mick to see as well.

Danny found it hard not to lay some of the blame for Mick's demise at his mother's feet. She had reeled Mick in with her words of greatness and the power that he saw in her. It was obvious to him that she used Mick, her own son, to do the dirtiest of work for the family. That was a fact that Danny found unfathomable. But Mick had taken the bait and fell easily into all the trappings of this life. A life that Danny could see had the stench of death hanging about it.

He wasn't about to let himself be pulled into that trap. Revenge or not, Danny wasn't the Santos to lead this family anywhere that Carmen wanted it to go. He had dreams of legitimate dealings, things that were above board not the backstreet deals, not the associations that enabled them to live off the misery of others. That's not what Danny had wanted ever. He didn't care what high hopes his father had for him. The longer he stayed the less he recognized or liked himself.

Michelle watched as Ross's car faded into the distance. She held the sheers tightly in her grasp as if somehow her holding on to them would bring him back to claim her from what was now the beginning of her new life.

The safe house was quiet. Actually she was the only person there other then the agents sent to guard her. She milled about the sterile surroundings. This place was nothing more the a stop over for many wayward souls. It was a barren place. For Michelle that analogy was rather fitting. At this moment she felt oddly cold and empty. She was standing of the threshold of something completely unknown. She should have been afraid but there was no feeling at all. Michelle was numb.

"Miss Bauer," the agent startled her, "We are going to order dinner. Is there anything special that we can get you?" his voice said pleasantly. As if this was just an ordinary night for him, yet for her it was anything but that.

"No thank you," she returned. Food was the last thing on her mind at the moment.

"You let us know if you change you mind," he countered.

Michelle sunk into the depths of the overstuffed sofa. She was hoping for it to swallow her whole. Closing her eyes, her life flashed before her. In a way she imagined that it did when a person was on the verge of death. She had always thought that was so cliché but now that it was happening to her it was far too real.

She was recalling things that had long been tucked away. Memories of her mother flooded her senses. Maureen was in every frame that scrolled through her mind. She absently wondered what it was that her mother would have thought of her now. The fact that she had killed a man was a sobering one. As forgiving as her mother was, Michelle couldn't imagine that even the great Maureen Bauer could have found a way to absolve her daughter of this sin. She would have given anything for one more moment with her mother. Her death left no room for good-byes. At the age of twelve, Michelle had been stripped of the only mother she had ever known without as much as a good-bye or even an I love you. The harsh reality of that caused the tears to well in her eyes once more.

For all these years now, Michelle had bought into this charade of hers. A charade that she had come to terms with everything that had lead up to that fateful night that her mother died. Yet now that she was losing the security of the only life she had ever known every detail of her life was now suspect. All those things that she had held etched in stone now were rubble at her feet.

She had never felt so lost in all of her life. Each time that this sensation would overtake her, she would plunge head long into the next great project that would serve to bring purpose to her life. But this time that wasn't going to happen. There was no great cause.....this time she was the cause. Somehow that thought frightened her terribly.

The longer she sat there the more that the doubts consumed her. Could she really do this? Could she just walk away from the only home she had ever known? Could the Santos Family really hurt her? Ben said he wasn't going to pursue a case against her. Why was she running? Why wasn't she standing her ground? She had as much right to be there as the Santos family did. Even more so. The Bauer's had been the back bone of this town since it had been formed. Generations of her family had served to make this town what it was today. There were wings at the hospital dedicated to every Bauer doctor who had ever walked the halls there. What had the Santos family given Springfield? As far as Michelle could see, NOTHING! Nothing but heartache and misery to any and all who unknowingly entered their path.

Those thoughts rushed through her mind. Giving her a reason to stay and fight for her dreams. She wasn't about to let Mick Santos take those from her. Her resolved faded as quick as it had come. The officer flipped on the television set to WSPR. There was Holly Reade doing an expose on the Santos Crime Family. In light of all the recent news coverage surrounding the future leader's death, Holly had quickly pieced together a showcase of fact and suspected facts regarding the 'la familia'.

Michelle's eyes were riveted to the screen. Each new fact caused her chest to tighten. There was no denying the danger she would be putting herself in if she stayed to fight. There were countless references to those that came up 'missing' after a deal with the Santos' had gone astray. Michelle knew all too well that she would just become another grim statistic in the Santos family album. There was no way out of this. That night on the beach....the first time that Mick Santos had walked into Millennium and picked her out of the crowd had fated her to this. Right now she would have loved to give fate a swift kick in the teeth.

Danny slipped between the cool satin sheets knowing that sleep was the last thing on his mind. He didn't remember the last time he had slept since this whole ordeal had begun. Since Mick's murder he had been in perpetual motion. There was no time to stop and think let alone breath.

He stared intently at the ceiling searching for the words necessary to express his intense distaste for all of this. How was he to make his mother understand his love for his brother but his unwillingness to continue on this quest that she had expected him to take?

He knew his mother well enough to be sure that she would see it as disloyalty to the family. That he was unworthy in some way. He could hear her words now. The tone in her voice of anger and disappointment. Did he really want to face her knowing what he had coming, more importantly could he face himself if he didn't?

The frustration that devoured him was tiring. Why had all of this been conveniently laid at his feet. Carmen knew all too well that Danny wanted nothing to do with the business as it stood right now. Yet that hadn't mattered to her. She saw the vision she had for her son and wasn't about to falter from it. She never really cared what Danny had wanted from his life. Having Mick die a senseless death the way his father had so many years before only served in making Danny see that he didn't want to end up the same way. It was hard to understand why Carmen would want that either. Ultimately Danny knew why. The reason's behind Carmen's insistence had nothing to do with family as she had always professed. It had much more to do with the power that she craved. Even if she was to step down leaving Danny at the helm, she would still hold a great deal of authority. That's how Carmen saw life. As the strength that she gained from the power that she forced. The money wasn't even a draw for her. It just helped to sweeten the pot, but without the power she didn't give a damn.

Danny knew in his heart that that was why all the dealings...legitimate contracts.....that he brought to Sancorp and the money that he was pulling in did little to improve his position in his mother's eyes. They were a drop in the bucket as far as she was concerned. She wasn't able to see that Danny too used the cunning ways that she had taught him, but used them within the realm of what was legal. That was the thrill he craved. Danny could get as much pleasure from a struggle for his piece of the pie as Carmen did from ordering her next hit.

There were times that he barely remembered the woman who raised him. The woman who sat him on her knee telling stories and reading books. The woman who told him he could be anything that he wanted to be. She forgot to tell him that was only if it fell into the domain of what she wanted him to be.

Danny rose from his bed. The thoughts that he entertained offered little help in his sleeping. He knew what it was that he had to do. For him to survive and become the man he saw himself being....he had to do this. Yet the thought of actually doing it left him breathless. He had side stepped Carmen many times now but never truly defied her. And what he was contemplating would be classified as true defiance in every sense of the word. Unfortunately he didn't see any other way. She hadn't given a damn about what he had wanted or needed. He was beginning to wonder why he should afford her the same courtesy.

Danny glanced at the clock on his bedside table, knowing full well that it was three hours earlier where Uncle Albert was. He only hoped to find an ally when he picked up the phone.