Ben walked through the door to Carmen's office; his days of knocking before entering had long since past. He needed an answer regarding some holdings that the Santos Family, held mind you under a fictitious name, had with Spaulding Enterprises. Those were something that was of great interest to him. Alan Spaulding was high on his list of those requiring payback for misdeeds done. Now that Ben carried the weight of Carmen Santos behind him, surely it would be a simple task to exert his pound of flesh from the good Mr. Spaulding.

Ben stopped short seeing the angry lines embedded in Carmen's brow. He raised his own as if to ask the question what was going on. Carmen's non-verbal response came in the form of her turning the back of her leather chair on him. Instantly Ben felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. As deep as he had gotten into this organization, it was still only as deep as Carmen would let it be. Ben's over inflated sense of himself had been seriously bruised by her actions.

"Exactly what do you expect me to do!?!?!" He could her the strain in her voice to keep her rage in check. "I have explained this to you.....all of you more times then necessary!!!........I don't have to justify anything I do to you....any of you!!! Daniel is handling our problem," with those words said Ben's question had been answered. He was certain the man on the other end of that phone line was Bernardo, "When it has been taken care of to my satisfaction, that's when Daniel will be back. And not a moment sooner!!! Am I making myself," she stressed that word, "CLEAR?!?!"

"Anything I can do?" he asked as Carmen slammed down the phone in its cradle.

"What is it you want now!?!?" she spat. Her fuse was growing shorter with each day that there was no word from Danny. She had laid the bait fully expecting him to run with it, but nothing. She was finally coming to the realization truly how little control she had.

"A bit testy aren't we?" Ben continued to chide.

"I don't have time for this. Make your point or be gone!"

"Well the reason I originally came in here can wait, what seems to be more important at the moment is Danny or should I say the lack of Danny."

"Very funny," she growled at the grin that Ben couldn't remove from his lips.

"I can't help you Carmen if you don't tell me the game plan."

"I am handling it!" she forced.

"Apparently not," he countered, "Obviously the boys don't see it that way either."

"I just need a little more time.....a little more time for Daniel to come to his senses. Lord only knows what kinds of things Albert and that wife of his have been filling his head with."

"I beg to differ, time isn't on your side here Carmen. The sand in your hourglass is damn near ready to run out."

Carmen sighed and reached for the drink that sat in front of her. How had she let things get so far gone? Why hadn't this played out according to the nice neat plan she devised all those years ago? She knew the answer to that question better then anyone. Her son had been the reason, actually both of them. Mick, the hot head that he was, couldn't accept the place that had been carved out for him nor did his brother.

Carmen and Mick were one in the same. Neither of them had ever been satisfied with the scraps that had been fed them. While Miguel and Daniel hadn't any idea what they held beneath their fingers. And now that ignorance on her son's part was about to cost her everything.

"Carmen," Ben's voice forced her to look at him.

"What?"

"Exactly what is going on here? I gave you enough ammunition to bury the Bauer girl for Mick's murder and as far as I can tell you have done nothing. I was under the impression that she would have been dead by now, by Danny's hand, in turn forcing him to have no choice but to come home. So where the hell is he?"

"All in do time," she remarked.

"Do time?" he echoed, "Exactly what is do time to you Carmen? When Bernardo and the others are about to dispose of you, hell and me for that matter? Cause personally I am not too keen on that idea thank you!" he forced.

"There is no need to worry. It will never get that far!"

"The hell it won't. It already has. If I hadn't threw my wild card on the table that night, we'd both be swimming with the fishes," Ben said using the cliché mob phrase for emphasizes.

"That's a bit of an over exaggeration don't you think counselor?" she eyed him cautiously knowing how true his words were.

"Not from where I was sitting." he stated flatly.

"That was just Bernardo's way," she shrugged off Ben's words.

"Carmen, you really expect me to believe that you didn't think the same thing I was thinking?"

"And exactly what were you thinking?" she played him.

"That your number was up!" he said as if it had been obvious.

"That would never have happened. Not without there being dire consequences for them all."

"FROM WHO CARMEN?!?!? Danny's gone, Mick's dead, your daughter hasn't been in the states in years. Who Carmen who????" he countered bewildered by the fact that more and more it appeared that Carmen Santos only lived in a fantasy world of her own creation.

"Daniel and I may have had our differences but he would certainly not stand for my murder!"

"Why is it that you don't sound like you believe yourself anymore then I do?" Ben stated hearing the uncertainty that Carmen tried to hide in her tone.

"What is it you wanted in the first place?" she questioned no longer wanting to discuss her son.

"I think I deserve an answer to my question Carmen," Ben returned not budging from the topic at hand.

"YOU DESERVE!?!?!" she bellowed.

"Yes Carmen, DESERVE!" Ben said not backing down, "I have as much at stake here.............."

"Hardly," she cut him off.

"You don't think so?"

"NO! Everything I have built in the last ten years is at stake here. I have a greater investment in this then anyone realizes."

"To hell with your investment! I am talking about my life. I think I have a right to know what the hell it is you have up you sleeve!" Ben seethed knowing the Carmen had backed herself into a corner and he had no intention of joining her there.

"Ben, you have nothing to worry about."

"Nothing to worry about?" his voice repeated her words.

"Daniel will come through for his family. I know my son."

"Know him? You are joking right?" Ben heard the hysteria in his voice. He couldn't stop it. For all the power that the Santos Family willed, he was beginning to have serious doubts about the sanity of the woman sitting before him, "Carmen, get real. You didn't have a clue where you son even was for god sakes!! And you are expecting him to ride in here guns blazing and save the day??? I highly doubt it! So might I suggest that we go with 'plan B'? Please tell me there is a 'plan B'" Ben asked looking into her blank eyes.

"'Plan B' won't be necessary. I know that once Daniel understands that his brother's killer is within his grasp he will not hesitate to act on it."

"Aaahhhh," Ben groaned throwing his hands in the air any further conversation was fruitless. He knew that it was time that he padded his bet in getting ready for the inevitable fall out.

Danny looked at the phone longingly willing it to ring. He had told Melanie that he had to get some work done for the New Year's Eve party that was to be held at the club, but at the moment all he wanted to be doing was whatever it was she was doing.

They had spent every waking moment together for the past week. There had been bands to check out for the night's celebration, they were movies to be seen and ice skating to be done. All of which were things that once had been so foreign to him but yet so easily incorporated into the person he was becoming.

As much as the shadow of his mother hung over his head, he still was able to revel in the peace that he found when he was with Melanie. A sense of himself that evaded Danny before encircled him now.

He couldn't do more then just push the stacks of papers, folders and mail around on the desktop in front of him. His body may have been in the room but his mind; well it was fixated on the image of Melanie that he held in his brain.

"Danny," Joe said.

"Huh?"

"Looks like you got a lot accomplished this morning?" Joe laughed.

"I can't concentrate."

"Obviously."

"Joe, can I ask you something?"

"Sure.....but if you want me to work for you tonight my wife will have my head. She has been planning this party of hers for weeks now. She expects me to be there," he joked.

"No....no," Danny assured, "But this involves your wife sort of.....I guess........"

"My wife?" he questioned.

"Yeah, how did you know when she was the one. I mean like you knew that you wanted to spend the rest of your life with her?"

"Thinking of proposing to Melanie aren't you?"

"NO!" Danny said too quickly.

Joe smiled knowingly. The way Danny felt about Melanie was written in his every action not to mention every feature on his face, "Okay.....whatever you say. So when did I know my wife was the one, huh?"

"Yes," Danny returned anxious for his answer.

"I would have to say it was when my father died. We weren't all that close. See my parents were divorced when I was young and didn't see him all that much. So I had a lot of anger when it came to him. I never really got to vent that to him before he died. She took the brunt of most of it really. I was such a bastard to her. But she hung in there through it all. Helped me come to terms with things that I hadn't thought about in years. It was then that I knew I couldn't live without. And I sure as hell wasn't about to let another guy scoop her up."

"So she stuck by you?" Danny wondered if Melanie would do the same for him.

"Oh yeah. To this day I still think she was an angel sent to me. No one should have put up with what I put her through."

"Thanks, man."

"Thanks for what?" Albert asked joining the men.

"Danny was just wondering when it was I realized that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Jessica."

"Oh really?" Albert said a playful lilt to his voice, "Thinking about marriage are we?" he grinned sheepishly.

"NO!!!" Danny asserted again.

"Your mouth says no but your eyes....they say yes," Albert laughed enjoying watching his nephew squirm.

"Albert!" Danny groaned.

"On that note, I think I am outta here. Just wanted to let you know that the band is here and they are getting set up, Danny."

"Thanks Joe," he said shooting another look in Albert's direction.

"What son, we hit a nerve there?" Albert wasn't letting this drop.

"Enough! You know marriage for me isn't in the cards."

"You aren't serious?"

"Dead serious!"

"Danny, come on you know that that's foolish on your part. I have seen the two of you together. You are the most well suited two people I have ever witnessed. Jenny sees it too. She even commented how much like us the two of you are."

"No offense uncle, but have you forgotten the hell you have been through?"

"No not at all, but at the heart of it all I had the love of my life. Why do you think that we were still together even midst the dysfunction of the life we lived? Cause ultimately we loved one another."

"I can't do that to her. She deserves so much more."

"That's really not your decision to make Danny. It's Melanie's."

"No, it's mine."

"You are a bigger fool then I thought."

"What?"

"You heard me. You are a fool. I know how that mind of yours works Danny. You think that by never making the commitment it will somehow make it easy to walk away if you think you have to. Well let me tell you something, it's going to crush you either way you go."

"I know," Danny said falling back into his chair as if admitting defeat.

"Then what's the point of postponing the obvious?"

"Carmen and the gang," Danny sighed.

"I told you not to worry about that."

"I am worried about it. I try like hell to push it to the back of my head but in my silent moments it comes around to bite me again."

"I told you that Carmen isn't going to rob you of anymore then she already has. I give you my word on that."

"But see you don't understand. I can't let you fight my battles for me. I can't let you put you and the life you have here at risk. I have done that already. I couldn't live with myself if this were to end badly. And everything ends badly when my mother is involved."

"The point you are missing is, you can't stop me Danny. I owe your father enough respect to see that his only remaining son gets the opportunity to live out his life on his own terms."

"I bet my father is turning over in his grave."

"Why?!?!" Albert was stunned by those words.

"Why?" Danny returned with the same astonished tone, "I am not the man he expected me to be. I am supposed to be sitting at the head of that damned table, but rather then doing what was expected of me I ran. Ran away from everything that I was groomed to be."

"So?"

"I find it hard to believe that he is all that proud of me."

"Don't underestimate the love your father had for you. It wasn't tied to the place that you held within the organization. If that had been the case Miguel would have cut me out the minute I asked to be cut loose."

"But Carmen has been drumming what my father wanted for me since the moment that he died."

"Consider the source."

"That's what I am afraid of."

"Carmen isn't a problem. I will make sure of that............."

The bell of the ringing phone interrupted Albert's words. "Hello?" Albert said into the mouth piece, "Why hello Melanie, we were just talking about you.......of course it was only good things.......yes he is here, but I don't think he is available," Albert said as Danny reached for the phone, "Well you know he is supposed to be a partner in this club.......and lately I haven't seen hide nor hair of him........and since tonight is the big holiday party don't you think you could give an old man a break an let me have him one day????" Albert pleaded mockingly.

"What did you do that for?" Danny asked in horror as Albert replaced the phone in it's cradle without so much as even offering to let him speak to her.

"We were having a conversation, weren't we?" he asked in all seriousness.

"Albert!" Danny whined like a spoiled child.

The phone rang again. Danny grabbed it before Albert had the chance to. "I'll be there in five minutes," Danny said fully expecting it to be Melanie on the other end.

"Now that's what I have been expecting to here for days now," Carmen's cunning voice traveled through the line meeting Danny's eardrum, "Hello Daniel. I expect it's safe to assume you received the information that I sent you, however I am disappointed that I was the one who had to contact you."

"Information? What information?" He questioned his blood running cold.

"I will go check on the band," Albert said not realizing the importance of the call Danny had just taken.

"Sure I'll be there as soon as I finish up with this," Danny offered not wanting to let him in on the caller. He still had every intention of handling his mother on his own.

"Take your time. And tell Melanie hi for me. I knew she couldn't resist calling back," Albert laughed shutting the door behind him.

Danny covered the mouthpiece in hope that he had done it in time so that Carmen hadn't been able to hear Albert say Melanie's name. She certainly didn't need any further ammunition about his life.

"Daniel," she said.

"What is it now mother?" he growled knowing this was why he couldn't buy into Albert's version of his life.

"There have been some developments as to who killed your brother."

"So? I told you that I am out!"

"You'll never be out, Daniel," she snarled angered by his attitude, "Don't you want to see Mick's killer brought to justice?"

"That's not going to bring him back!"

"DANIEL!!!"

"You do what you feel you have to do mother. But I want no parts of it."

"YOU ARE A PART OF IT!!!"

"No Carmen I am not!"

"What about what your father expected of you?"

"That's not working anymore, mother!"

Carmen fumed on the other end of the phone. She was well past desperation when it came to dealing with her son, "Daniel, we don't have time for this. The longer you sit on the information I have for you the greater the chance that this person will be gone again."

"What are you talking about?"

"The person who killed Mick is in Texas! In Galveston as a matter of fact."

"WHAT!?!?!?!" Danny's mouth went dry. He had closed that chapter of his life when he walked away from Springfield but hearing that he was in the same city as the man who killed his brother made the blood freeze in his veins.

"That's right Daniel. Galveston, Texas, the place you thought you could run and hide. So you see there is no denying now that you are the destiny of the Santos Family. No matter what you do or where you go it will always be there waiting for you!" she remarked with renewed confidence that things would work out to her original expectations.

"What is this some kind of joke?" he asked never putting anything past his mother when it came to her manipulations to get what she wanted.

"No joke, Daniel."

"How?"

"That's not important right now. All that matters is that you take care of the situation. The way I intended you to do in the first place." Her words were met by Danny's heavy sigh, "You should have received the information I sent you days ago......I sent you an envelope with all of the information you would need to handle our little problem."

"Envelope??? What's this information you keep talking about????"

"I sent you a package several days ago. I thought you would have received it already. It has everything you will need to find Mick's killer."

Danny looked at the piles neatly stacked on his desk wondering if the envelope she was talking about was somewhere in all of them. His curiosity getting the better of him, Danny began rifling through each pile. He had almost stopped but the glimpse of his mother's sprawling handwriting propelled his hands forward.

"You are serious about this aren't you?" he questioned the manila package in hand.

"Did you find it?"

"That I did."

"Well then I expect you to handle this and be on the next flight out of Texas the minute you have completed the job!" Carmen's authority pierced Danny's ears.

"And if I don't?" he spat back.

"You will. I know that you will just as much as you know it!!" her confidence angered him. The thought that she expected him to ask how high when she said jump triggered his disgust for his mother all over again.

Before he had a chance to say anymore the line went dead. Danny sat there and toyed with the envelope. He was mad at the fact that no matter how hard he didn't want to open this Pandora's box, he couldn't stop his fingers as they easily slid under the flap. Next came the blue folder, Danny laid it down on the desk running his hands along it's cool surface. Right now his body was acting with little regard to the things that his mind was screaming. Before he even realized he had done it. The folder lay open before him and he was aghast at the picture he saw.

Danny looked away and back again hoping to find that his mind had been playing a cruel trick on him. That hadn't been the case. He felt his body go cold, it was as if he had no heat there whatsoever. His mouth felt as though it was full of cotton, unable to speak. His eyes were riveted to the folder that lay open in front of him. The face that looked back at him; it was the same beautiful face he had spent endless days with in the past weeks. The crushing pain that filled him rendered him motionless. His limbs had the heaviness of lead weights and his stomach was rolling end over end. What was staring back at him couldn't be true. It had be some fabrication on Carmen's part. Another ploy to keep him forever under her thumb.

He closed his eyes one more time, silently praying that this was some bizarre dream. That when he opened them again, he would find a picture of anyone other then Melanie, or maybe find no folder at all. That illusion was shattered again as Danny's eyes rested on Melanie's smiling face. So sweet, so innocent, the girl who had brought so much promise into his miserable existence.

Danny pushed the folder away from him quickly, almost as if it were scalding to the touch. None of this made sense. It had to be a mistake. There was no way that Melanie had killed his brother. He knew her inside and out. She wasn't capable of such an act. It had to be Carmen; it had to be just another elaborate scheme on her part. She was so desperate to bring him back to the fold she would do just about anything.

In slow motion, Danny reached again for the folder he had just pushed away hoping it would disappear. His curiosity as to just how far his mother would go got the better of him. Absently he turned over the picture of Melanie. He couldn't, wouldn't associate her with this sick joke that Carmen thought she could play with him.

Danny swallowed hard around the lump in his throat as he began leafing through the documents. He couldn't silence the tiny nagging voice in his head, the one that kept forcing him to wonder just how it was that Carmen had been about to get a photo of Melanie. That was the part of this mess that picked at him. The part that made absolutely no sense. Had Carmen known where he was all along; had she had him followed; did she now know that this wonderful person that by the grace of god had come into his life was his one true weakness; was she going to exploit that weakness like she had taught him all along how to do? There were so few answers to far too many questions racing about his mind.

Danny took a deep breath and looked at the first piece of information. He read it over and over again. The name Michelle Bauer popped out at him. He knew the Bauer's were a prominent family in Springfield, but he had no idea they had a daughter. Still this wasn't adding up. What did Michelle Bauer have to do with Melanie Branson?

He went on to read the police report and subsequent autopsy report on his brother's death. It brought it all back. The horrible experience of identifying the body at the morgue, which even to this day Danny thought, had been unnecessary, seeing as how Mick was well known around Springfield. Danny could still hear Frank Cooper's voice saying.....'It's standard police procedure........ all the while Danny saw the ambivalence in his eyes. No one cared that Mick had been killed. The only thing that was important to the men in blue was that there was one less Santos in town.

Danny kicked himself for he hadn't been any better then them really. He knew what he should have done for his brother back then. But instead he turned tail and ran. Spouting things like not wanting the life that had been force upon him; that revenge wouldn't bring his brother back.

The next page was a transcript of the confession given by Miss Bauer. Danny's thoughts still unable to wrap themselves around the horror of it all. There were words like sexual assault, attempted rape, he saw phrases like Mick's hands around my throat; I kicked and pushed but he was too strong. The finality of it all comes in the closing sentence that read.................I picked up the closest thing within my reach and hit him as hard as I could. Then I ran never looking back........................

Danny ran his hands over his face. He was trying so desperately to grasp all of this. Nothing that he read surprised him much. Mick lived his life on a razor's edge. He was of the opinion that he could take whatever it was he wanted. He had little or no respect for anyone or anything. But he still didn't deserve to die the way he had.

Hesitantly Danny turned over the picture of Melanie. What on earth did she have to do with this? He still couldn't think straight. The file on his brother's death had nothing to do with her. So why was it that Carmen wanted him to think that it had? Was she that desperate that she was willing to ruin his life but again? What an insane question. He knew the answer to it. He knew it so well. Yes Carmen was that desperate. She would do anything to get and keep what she wanted.

But he wasn't about to let that happen. He wasn't going to let her continue to pull his strings. The guilt that she threw around so easily wasn't going to force him back to a place he didn't want to be. Mick was gone! He had been gone long before he physically died. They hadn't had a relationship like brothers were supposed to in ten years, maybe longer. As much as Danny missed him and grieved for him he couldn't sacrifice his soul for Mick's. He didn't care what his mother expected him to do. He didn't care that it was his duty to avenge Mick's killing. He didn't care that his mother was so desperate that she used an innocent girl as her pawn. He didn't care about any of it.

This was the final straw for Danny. The final curtain call as it was. He fought the inner turmoil about what his Uncle Albert had eluded to with regards as to how to handle Carmen. Yet now there was not longer a fight raging in his mind. Carmen's feeble attempt at ruining his chance at happiness wasn't going to work, not this time and not ever again.

Danny gathered up the information in front of him. He didn't know what was real and what had been a fraud and frankly he didn't much care. It wasn't until he came to the last document that his heart stopped.

There before him lay the answer to all those questions he had minutes ago thought ludicrous. His hands shook as he brought the paper in for closer inspection. As he read the words, Danny's fingers tighten around the flimsy white piece of paper. He did his best to focus on them but they appeared only as a mass of jumbled letters not forming a single readable word. He could feel the rise and fall of his chest, as if he were ready to hyperventilate. Again he looked at the document. It's clarity finally reaching him as he read........

WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM

Name: Michelle Bauer

Alias: Melanie Branson

Destination: Galveston, Texas

Contact: Agent Jeremy Lucas

 

Danny couldn't contain his rage. It was all consuming. With one angry swipe of his arms the neat piles on the desk were now a disshelved mess on the floor. If he could have found his voice he would have screamed but nothing happened when he opened his mouth. The only sensation that filled him was his heart being ripped to pieces inside his chest.

Without warning he ripped the picture of Melanie/Michelle whoever the hell she was that rested before him. His grand illusion of love instantly shattered. Carmen had won again. Without even knowing she was doing it, she had been successful in stripping but one more good thing from his life.

Good thing, he thought to himself, Good thing........how could he even put those words and thoughts in the same concept of his brother's death. This girl who had grown to be his everything had killed his brother. The concept was unfathomable to him.

No matter the circumstances she had killed him and left him to die alone on the beach. He couldn't reconcile that thought with the girl he knew. He had to laugh thinking what the hell did he really know. There had been so many secrets and lies that anymore he wasn't sure what was the truth and what wasn't, but he was damn sure going to find out. He grabbed for the folder and made his way to the door determination written all over his face.

"Danny boy," Albert called from his perch near the bandstand, "Hey Danny!" he yelled once more as Danny continued on his way towards the door not even bothering to look back.

"What's going on?" Joe asked not being able to miss Danny's behavior.

"I wish I knew," Albert returned, suddenly having a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Can you handle this place for a bit? I think I need to check on a few things?" he asked Joe.

"Yeah, sure whatever you need."

Albert walked into the office hoping to find something, anything that would clue him into Danny's state of mind. He looked around at the mess left in Danny's wake. Walking over to the desk doing his best not to trip over the debris, he picked up the remnants of the photo of Melanie that Danny had torn apart. He was more confused then ever.

"What on earth happened in here?" he asked thinking only if these walls could talk.

Danny's car came screeching to a halt in front of the building where Melanie/Michelle lived. The ride over there had done very little to calm him. As a matter of fact it only gave him more time to grow angrier.

"Danny," Sarah said startled to see him standing before her as she opened the door.

"Where's Melanie!?!?" he growled.

"She's at school registering for the spring semester," Sarah starred at him with uncertainty. Suddenly he didn't resemble the man he once had. There was a look in his black eyes that she couldn't put her finger on but it struck fear in her.

"I'll wait!" he pushed past her.

"Sure," she said understanding that she didn't have a choice in the matter, "I guess I will be seeing you tonight at the club right?" she asked referring to the New Year's Eve party that had been planned at The Two Step.

"Yeah.....whatever," he said absently just wanting Sarah to be gone. He needed to think; to put order to his thoughts.

"Bye," she returned hesitantly closing the door while she wondered exactly what the hell was going on here.

Danny made his way around the apartment. He tried not to let his thoughts be drawn to all that they had shared here. He couldn't let his judgment be clouded by things he was no longer sure of.

He stopped in front of the bookcase and looked at the pictures that were housed there. Why was it that he had never paid much attention to them until now? One caught his attention readily. It was of her and the man he had left his insurance policy with back in Springfield. His hairs stood on end. Why was Melanie, his Melanie, in a picture with a Springfield lawyer? Danny's head spun at the thoughts he was now forced to entertain.

For once could his mother have been telling the truth? Rather then the folder he held within his finger being a fake, could it have been real. Were the words that he had read been the explanation of Mick's murder? And was this girl, the woman who he had so easily fallen in love with the person responsible?

He couldn't let himself believe it. There must have been another explanation; some reasonable coincidence for it all. While his heart spouted such things his instincts took on a life of their own. Danny watched himself as if he was watching a movie. He opened drawer after drawer not knowing what he was looking for and hoping beyond all reason he would find nothing out of the ordinary.

Luck was not on his side. In the desk drawer buried under a mound of pens, pencils and scraps of paper, the first piece of evidence sprang forth. It was a business card that read...... Agent Jeremy Lucas. Danny didn't even bother looking back at the information that Carmen had sent. The images were burned in his memory. The names were a perfect match. Danny reached for the desk to steady himself, the biting reality was getting the better of him. There was no stopping his search, he continued digging through the drawer. The rest had been nothing more the school papers and things from the bookstore. Danny pushed the drawer in disgust, but rather then close as it had been, the drawer was jammed. He pulled it from its tracks. In his haste to rummage through it's contents he had pushed a thick folder to the very back stopping it from closing properly.

As Danny opened it his mouth began to water just as it did when he was a child about to get sick to his stomach. The world as he knew it to be came crashing to a stand still the minute he turned the first page. Danny wasn't about to stop himself from falling to the ground as his knees gave way.

"This can't be happening," his voice barely audible.

He skimmed the pages forcing his brain to process the words. It was like reading a movie actress' script. He could almost hear a voice in the distance saying the part of Melanie Branson is now being played by Michelle Bauer. Some of the things she had told him about her life came right from these pages. It was like being hit hard enough to have the wind knocked out of you. He couldn't breath; he couldn't think.

"What the hell am I supposed to do now?" he whispered.

Before the walls could answer his question Michelle walked through the door, "Danny!?!" she was surprised but delighted to see him sitting there, "I didn't expect to see you until tonight at the club. I figured Albert would have you hopping," she talked as though nothing had changed. But for Danny everything had.

"I had something important to look into," he said a coldness to his tone he hadn't heard in a while now.

"Oh really important huh?" she smiled

"Don't do that......." he thought to himself, "Don't smile at me, don't!"

"And here I thought maybe you were just missing me," she countered as she made her way to him. She leaned in to kiss him, but he turned away before she was able to reach her intended goal, "Danny?!?!" she questioned.

Danny moved away from her, needing the distance to keep the thoughts in his head from mixing with those of his heart. Which wasn't an easy task by any means.

"What?" he finally uttered.

"What?" she repeated quizzically, "What the hell's going on here?"

"Why don't you tell me Melanie, or should I say Michelle?"

Michelle froze in her tracks. He had used her true name. But how? How did he know she was Michelle?

It was now time for her thoughts to spin wildly in effort to exact her own damage control. But maybe in some strange way this is what she had been hoping for all along. A way to tell Danny everything about herself. She would be finally able to strip herself of all the lies and deceptions. That's what she had truly wanted from the beginning.

"What cat got your tongue?" he quipped an edge to his voice she had never heard before.

"Let me try to explain this," she began.

"Oh please do!"

"My name really isn't Melanie Branson, well in a way it is I guess," she stammered, "I mean now it is, but until I came to Texas I was Michelle Bauer."

Bile rose higher in Danny's throat at her statement. It took every ounce of his being to not rush forward and choke her for the nonchalant way she said it.

"Why the sudden name change?" he strained to keep his tone even as he spoke.

"Necessity."

"Excuse me?"

"It's a really long complicated story," she said suddenly fearful of revealing her secret.

"I have the time," he countered.

"I wouldn't even know where to start."

"How about from the beginning?"

"Well I'm not who you think I am. I mean no that's not right. I am me. I finally learned the name assigned to me doesn't amount to much more then a name on my driver's license. In here," she pointed to the place in her chest where her heart lay, "I am the person I always was."

Danny bit his tongue to stop the words cold-blooded killer from dropping out, "but that still doesn't really tell me much," he said instead.

"I'm originally from Springfield, Illinois. I grew up there really. And some of the things I told you about my past were true. My mother did die when I was young. But my father well he's alive and well somewhere in Africa. To be honest I don't really know where he is."

"Why did you come here? Why did you decide to change your name then?" Danny was growing impatient.

"Well the part I told you about a broken heart; that my boyfriend fell in love with someone else that was all-true. And the love I have found with you has healed that wound. I hope you don't doubt that."

"I doubt everything....." he thought to himself.

"There was this other guy; he was a real creep," Danny felt his fists clench at her description of his brother, "He was hot and heavy on me from day one. It didn't matter to him that I was in love with someone else. He wanted me. And," Michelle sighed looking for the words to make this make sense to him, "well let's just say his intention was to have me whether I wanted to be had or not." She hoped that was the only explanation she needed to give. Michelle didn't want to relive that night one more time.

"So what you had to move thousand of miles away and change your name?" he questioned.

"Well that's not exactly the entire story."

"Please go on," he prodded.

"Well things got out of hand. This guy was going to rape me. He was on top of me; holding me down; laughing like some crazed animal as I struggled beneath him," Michelle reached out for Danny to gain the support she needed to go on, but all she found were cold black eyes looking back at her.

"I didn't really know what to do. All I remember was grabbing for a anything within my reach. I got a hold of a rock and swung it as hard as I could. Danny you have to believe me. I didn't know I killed him until the following day........."

"You just left him there? You didn't even call 911?!?!" Danny returned horrified to hear the things he read said aloud.

"It was self defense Danny. It was him or me that night!" she said hysterically wanting him to understand but fearing there wasn't a way to make him. "The next day it was all over the TV and papers about his death...................."

"You never came forward?" he questioned.

"Yes and no."

"Which is it?"

"A friend of my families is an attorney. My brother and I went to him first........" Danny couldn't believe that he had stood before the very same man not so long ago himself. Stood before a man who knew who killed his brother and helped to cover up the facts...... "Ross helped set it up for me to be protected."

"Protected?"

"This is where it gets even more complicated. The guy I killed well he was connected, if you know what I mean."

He most certainly did know what she meant but played along, "Connected?"

"He was the son of a Mob Boss. Ross knew there was no other way for me to be safe then to disappear. To become an entirely new person. So that's what I did. I left my family and my friends and I came here," she said so matter of fact.

"So what you are in the witness protection program?" he feigned ignorance.

"Yes."

All this information flooded Danny's brain. All the things that she said about Mick, he knew deep within him were true. But what he couldn't fathom was the fact that she had done nothing to save him. Not lifted a finger to stop his suffering in any way. He couldn't wrap his thoughts around that concept and align it with the fact that he knew she was working towards becoming a doctor. Those two things worked against the other.

"I just have one thing I need to know," he said.

"What's that?" she asked trying to gage Danny's reaction to her tale.

"Did my brother suffer, Michelle?"

"WHAT!?!?!?!" she said as the single word caught in her throat.

"Did Mick suffer Michelle?"

Michelle pushed her body quickly away from his sheer terror consuming her. This couldn't be happening. She couldn't be sitting in her apartment with the brother of the man she killed; couldn't have slept with him and more importantly couldn't have fallen in love with Mick's brother.

"What's the matter Michelle? Thought you were in the clear?" he howled not knowing where his words were coming from. It was though he was no longer in control of his actions but rather the man he had been groomed to be. The taste for blood that filled his mouth actually frightened him but there wasn't a damn thing he could do to stop it.

Maybe Carmen had been right all along. That he was where he was supposed to be and all the running in the world wasn't going to change those facts.

"But........you can't be......"

"What.......I can't be Mick's brother? Well my dear as you so conveniently know anyone can change his or her name," he walked towards her as he spoke.

Before she knew what was happening Danny had her pinned in the corner, instantly she felt that she had traveled back to that night on the beach. Again she was frozen with panic, but yet there was something different this time around. She wanted to believe, needed to believe that Danny wasn't Mick. That all of the tender moments that they had shared had meant something to him. And she had every intention of using that to her advantage.

"Danny, you have to understand......."

"Understand? What's there to understand?" he said putting his hands against the walls caging her in further.

"I didn't mean to kill Mick. It was me or him that night!"

"So you said. From the looks of things you faired much better then my brother did."

"How do you figure?" she spat, "I was ripped away from everything............everyone that I loved......................."

"MICK'S DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!" Danny seethed through his clenched teeth.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"YOU'RE SORRY!!!" his angry voice bounced off the walls, "YOU THINK THAT THAT MAKES IT ALL, ALL RIGHT!?!?!"

"No.......yes............I don't know," the tears fell on her checks as she slid her body down the length of the wall. As hard as she had tried to get away from everything that the Santos family represented all her effort had been in vain. She could have very well stayed in Springfield and accepted her fate but instead she was going to die in Texas where no one would even remember her in a few months.

Danny reached down grabbing her by the shoulders shaking her hard as he forced her to look him in the eye.

"Are you going to kill me?"

"Kill you?!?!" Danny cackled, "Kill you!?!?!"

Looking into Danny's cold calculating stare, hysteria got the best of her. Before she could stop herself, she was screaming out of control.

The shrill cries coming from behind the door to the apartment he knew to be Michelle's sent Jeremy Lucas bolting up the hallway. He had been on his way to inform her that there was no such person as Danny Sampson. But the rest of it was beyond even his comprehension.

This amazing twisting turning tale had led her right back into the belly of the beast. His investigation of this love of her life, Danny Sampson, sent him straight to the Santos family. Danny Sampson was none other then Danny Santos, the brother of the man she killed.

"Michelle!!" Jeremy screamed not waiting for an answer.

The events played out in slow motion. She watched him burst through the door guns blazing. Michelle heard the shots but it was such a hollow sound. A sound as if she were standing in a tunnel. The echoing pulsated in her ears. It was then she saw the blood......Danny's blood as he fell into her open arms.

Michelle's eyes toggled between Danny, who lay bleeding in her arms, and the man responsible for the action. She had to blink to be certain what was really going on around her. Minutes ago she feared for her own existence but in a matter of seconds roles were reversed and it was now Danny who's life hung in the balance.

Michelle looked down at Danny once again as the tears welled in her eyes. It no longer mattered that he was Mick's brother; no longer mattered that he had lied to her about who he really was; nothing but the love she held for him in her heart made a difference.

"Danny," she whispered pushing his chocolate curls from his forehead.

"Michelle," Jeremy Lucas' voice boomed, "Back away from him!" he ordered still holding his smoking gun on the pair.

"What have you done?" she stated still in a state of shock.

"BACK AWAY FROM HIM!!"

Michelle paid little or no attention to his words. She feverishly went to work looking for the entry and exit wound of the bullet. She needed to do something, anything to keep her hysteria from taking over again.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!?" Lucas screamed again.

"With me?!?!?" she spat the venom she felt for this man who never knew when to give up, finally reached it's breaking point.

"Do you even know who this man is?!?!" Agent Lucas pointed to the semi-conscious Danny, "He's…………."

"Danny Santos," she finished his sentence. Her revelation floored him into silence.

"Melanie?!?!" Sarah's horrified voice came from the open doorway.

"CALL 911!" Michelle ordered not caring which one complied.

"I better do it," Jeremy Lucas offered planning his own line of defense.

"What the hell happened here?" Sarah asked coming along side of her friend. It was then she realized the gravity of the situation, "OH MY GOD…..Danny. Melanie what happened?"

"I can't go into it right now. There's no exit wound. I don't know what kind of damage the bullet may have done………" Michelle's words were drowned out by her uncontrollable sobs. The only thought she could hold on to right now was the one that kept repeating she wasn't going to be responsible for yet another Santos death.

"The ambulance is on it's way. ETA is less then fifteen minutes," Jeremy said standing above them.

"FIFTEEN MINUTES?!?!!?" Michelle's voice shook, "What if he doesn't have fifteen minutes?" Sarah reached for her friend's arm. Michelle's whole body trembled under Sarah's touch.

"That's the best I can do," his words were so hollow now.

"THE BEST YOU CAN DO!?!?!" she repeated, "THE BEST YOU COULD HAVE DONE WAS TO STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!!!!!!!!!" she screamed.

"I saved your goddamned life," he forced.

"By taking his?" she countered.

Sarah sat back and watched this brutal exchange between the two. Sarah remembered this man quite vividly. She had wondered a great deal about him since the day that he had shown up on the doorstep of this apartment. From all she could gather at the moment he had been the one responsible for what happened there that day.

"He would have killed you. You do know that don't you?!?!" Jeremy continued not knowing whom he was trying to convince more, himself or her.

"YOU'RE WRONG!!" Michelle said as Danny began to moan in pain. "Danny…..Danny," she said softly, "Can you hear me?" her soft tears fell once more. "Don't try to move….lie still. An ambulance is on its way."

"Mich……" he strained to speak.

"Ssshhhh. Just lie still." Michelle raised her eyes upward in silent prayer. She had no right to call in any favors; she had long since used them up but damned be the consequence. If it meant buying Danny some time she would sacrifice herself without a moments hesitation.

She watched him slip unconscious again. She noticed how clammy his skin was to her touch. Michelle knew that shock was now setting in. Every minute wasted there was a minute Danny didn't have on his side.

"WHERE'S THAT DAMNED AMBULANCE?!?!?!?!"

"I'll go wait in the parking lot for them," Sarah offered wanting to do anything to ease her friend's mind.

"No….you stay I will go wait for the ambulance," Jeremy said wanting to disappear into the walls at the look Michelle carried on her face for the man that by all rights was dying in her arms.

"He's so cold……..," Michelle's voice trailed off as laid her head against his chest not caring as his blood soaked her honey blonde curls. She pressed her ear listening for the beating of his heart that on so many past occasions had lulled her to sleep, but now it was barely audible. Instinctively she reached down feeling for a pulse. Her breaths caught in her throat as she frantically moved her fingers in search of the elusive sensation.

Suddenly all the training that she had thus far was null and void. Even the simplest tasks evaded her. The only think that Michelle could focus on was the fact that right before her eyes Danny was slipping away.

The man that had finally taught her what real love was, was dying and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Amongst the chaos that had ensued and the revelations that had come about in the last hours Michelle still held tightly to the fact that she loved Danny. It didn't matter if he was Danny Sampson or Danny Santos…..she loved Danny; loved the man who had told her funny stories from his childhood; the man who had taken her body to heights she never expected; the man who had healed her wounded heart.

"The EMT's are on their way up," Jeremy Lucas said huffing from his run up the stairs.

"Excuse me," one of them said trying push Michelle aside, but she didn't budge. She couldn't let go of him for fear if she did she would lose him forever. And right now that would have been a fate worse then death for her.

"Michelle!" Agent Lucas said gently grabbing her to remove her from the other man's path, "Let the man do his job."

Sarah couldn't help but do a double take when she heard him call her Michelle. She chalked the mistake up to the stress of the moment.

"You mean the way you did?" she spat turning all of her anger on him again, "You'd be happy if he died, wouldn't you?!?! It'd be a RED-LETTER day for Agent Lucas he gets his man right!?!?!" she fumed.

Again Sarah watched these two banter back and forth. The more they spoke the more confused she became.

"You don't know what you are talking about!" he yelled back, "My job was to protect you. I did what I had to do!"

"Sarah…….Melanie?" the concern in Matt's voice pierced the conversation. Sarah ran into the safety of his arms. This was suddenly much more then she thought she could handle.

"Baby, what happened?" he asked wiping away her tears, "Melanie?" he said again while his eyes rested on the men hunched over Danny's body. He felt as though he had stepped into some bad version of a made for television movie.

"Danny's been shot," Sarah finally answered him.

"SHOT!?!?!" Matt countered in disbelief, "How.....who?"

"I don't know. I can't get Melanie to tell me anything," she whispered.

"Who the hell's that?" he questioned pointing Jeremy Lucas' general direction.

"I want to say that he's the one who shot Danny," Sarah swallowed hard.

"What?" None of this outlandish story was making any sense to him.

"That's all I know," she returned as exasperated as he was.

"Where are you taking him?!?!? I'm going with you!!!" they both heard Michelle's voice force.

"WE HAVE GOT TO MOVE NOW!!" the EMT countered understanding this young girl's position but knowing that time was of the essence for his patient.

"I'M GOING WITH YOU!!!" she stressed again.

Matt and Sarah came forward, "Mel, honey, come on let these men do their job," he said in the most soothing voice he could find.

"I have to.....I can't......."

"Sshhhh," he rubbed her back as she fell into his chest sobs racking her tiny frame. He motioned for the paramedics to go and do what was necessary to take care of Danny. He and Sarah would take care of Melanie.

"WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed as she watched Danny being wheeled out on the stretcher.

"Easy," Matt caught he in his arms again as she made an attempt to chase after him.

"LET ME GO!!!! I can't let him go alone!!!"

"Melanie, let the men do their job."

She wasn't even listening to him. Frantically she was searching the room for where she had laid her car keys. The only thoughts on her mind were those of getting to Danny. She needed him to know that she was there, that she needed him.

"WHOA.....," Matt grabbed her by the arm, "Where do you think you are going?"

"To the hospital!" she said as if it had been obvious.

"OH NO YOU'RE NOT!!" Agent Lucas piped in.

"Just who the hell are you anyway?" Matt asked turning to stare at him.

"That's classified," he returned finally into full-fledged FBI mode. Something he should have never broken from in the first place. Yet his infatuation with this girl had clouded his perception of things and had put everything he had worked so hard for all these years at risk.

"CLASSIFIED?!?!" Matt parroted suddenly as confused as Sarah had been.

"I will need to speak with Melanie," he was careful to use her alias, "privately."

"WHAT!?!?! What are you a cop?"

"As I said this is highly classified. Could you please leave us alone now?"

"NOT ON YOUR LIFE!!!!!" Sarah shouted, "I don't know what the hell's going on here. I do know you shot Danny and if you think that we are going to leave you alone with her, well buster you have another thing coming."

"This is between she and I."

"Not any more!" Matt said

"ENOUGH!!!!" Michelle's high pitched shrill perforated the air, "ENOUGH......Every second longer we stand here arguing is a second that I should be by Danny's side." Her tears were now running in a steady stream down her ghostly white face.

"Melanie,"

"Give it up Jeremy!" she yelled, "It's Michelle....for god sakes it's Michelle."

Matt and Sarah both looked at one another and back at the pair standing in front of them.

"What do you think you are doing?" he countered knowing full well that every illusion of control he thought he had of this situation was now lost.

"I'm going to be with Danny!!"

"Melanie, wait!!!" Sarah and Matt called to her as she raced away from them.

Michelle fumbled with the keys, her eyes so clouded by tears she couldn't even see the lock. The more attempts she made the worse things got. Until Matt and Sarah arrived outside to find her crumpled on the ground next to her car bawling.

Gently Matt took the keys from her hand as Sarah helped him get her into the car. As mystified as they both were about what was truly happening around them, there wasn't time for that now. The questions and subsequent answers would come all in due time. The most important thing for them was handling the here and now.

They rode in silence to Texas University Hospital. Michelle watched the scenery past by her much in the same way she had when she left Springfield many months before.

What had happened to her? Who was she? She didn't even know anymore. She looked down at her hands covered in Danny's blood; Santos blood. God forbid if Danny was to die, she would have been responsible in some way for two Santos Family deaths. There would be no where to hide. Sadly enough Michelle didn't care anymore. Even if Danny did somehow survive he was lost to her. She saw that look in his eyes as she spoke before knowing who he truly was. The was no way he was going to understand what she had done. There would be no room for forgiveness in his heart. How could there have been? If roles were reversed and he had killed Rick could she have forgiven him? She didn't think so. No love was that strong. It didn't matter if the Santos Family killed her, she was already dead.

Matt barely had the car stopped before Michelle was out running for the entrance of the emergency room.

"Sarah, what the hell's going on here?" he asked as they made a quick path following in her footsteps.

"I don't know. And right now I couldn't care less. I just want to be here for my friend. I think she's going to need it."

Sarah spoke the truth. Melanie/Michelle, whoever she was by name didn't change for Sarah the person who had befriended her on the lonely plane ride; the person who had made her first holidays without her mother bearable; the person who showed her what love was all about. For Sarah that was her friend, no matter what her name was.

They entered the lobby to find Michelle wildly running around trying to anyone and everyone's attention. Matt nodded in her general direction indicating for Sarah to do her best to calm her friend.

"Excuse me," he said as he approached the desk.

"Yes?" the young woman looked up at him.

"A friend of ours," he stated as Sarah brought Michelle to the counter, "Was just transported to the ER. His name is Danny Sampson. He was shot."

Sarah held Michelle tightly as he knees went weak at Matt's words.

"The name again?" the woman asked.

"Danny Sampson."

"I'm sorry but there is no patient by that name here."

"What?" Matt returned confused. He knew this was the best trauma center in the entire state of Texas. The ambulance had to have brought Danny here, "Could you please check again?"

"Sorry, no one by the name of Sampson has been admitted to the ER."

"Santos.......try Danny Santos," Michelle eked out a response.

"Excuse me?" the woman behind the desk asked not hearing Michelle's words.

"Check under the name Danny Santos." Michelle was certain that suddenly Jeremy Lucas would be doing everything by the book and had given the name Danny Santos to ensure that he would be looked at as a hero.

"Danny Santos?" Matt questioned.

"Uh-huh," Michelle nodded feeling as though her web of lies had finally succumbed to hard pelting rain of reality.

"Yes we do have a Danny Santos, in trauma #2."

"How is he........what's his prognosis......when can I see him?" Michelle spoke so fast that most of those around her weren't able to keep up.

"I must ask are you family?"

"I'm his girlfriend," Michelle bit her bottom lip as she said the words.

"I am only able to give out patient information to blood relatives."

"Please......." Michelle begged. "Just tell he's still alive."

"Is there someone you would like me to call?" the woman questioned as she ignored the question.

"Please..................." her uncontainable tears pooled in her eyes again.

"No thank you," Matt offered, "We can make the call."

"I have to see him. He has to understand why.......I have to make him understand........"

"Understand what?" Sarah inquired hoping to get a clue as to what was going on.

"HE CAN'T DIE!!!! I can't live with myself if he dies because of me........."

"Because of you?? Mel, you didn't cause this to happen. It was that psycho guy at the apartment who shot Danny."

"IT'S ALL MY FAULT!!!!! EVERYTHING IS MY FAULT........." the rest of her words were drowned out by another wave of sobs.

Matt dialed the familiar number of the club. He looked down at his watch thinking that Albert was surely missing Danny by now. In less then two hours the doors were to swing open for the gala New Year's Eve event.

"Joe, hey listen it's Matt. Is Albert around?"

"No," Joe answered, "He left a while ago. Pretty pissed I might add. He tore out of here looking for Danny. He just took off this afternoon without a word to anyone."

"Do you know where he went? It's really important that I find him. It's about Danny."

"Matt, what happen?" Joe asked suddenly chilled to the bone.

"I wish I knew. I went to Melanie's apartment to talk to Sarah and it was all hell had broken loose."

"Matt!!!" he said not liking the vagueness of the response he was getting.

"Joe, Danny's been shot." Matt heard the receiver thud against the bar. "Joe.......Joe.....are you still there man?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm here," Joe's voice all of a sudden thick and raspy like that of a man with a cold.

"I have to find Albert......Jenny......anyone. The people at the hospital won't tell us a damn thing since we aren't technically family. Melanie is going nuts here. I have to find them."

"I really don't know where Albert went. I would have to assume that his wife would be at home."

"Do you have that number?"

"Sure hang on," Joe dug underneath the bar looking for the employee phone list, "It's 555-1987. Listen man, you call as soon as you hear anything, got it?"

"I will. Thanks Joe."

Joe put the phone down as he felt the hairs on his body stand on end. He shivered at the thought of Danny being shot. It was unfathomable. He picked up the receiver and dialed his wife, so much for a happy New Year's.

Matt put another quarter in the pay phone and dialed the number that Joe had given him. The instant that Danny's aunt picked up the phone his mouth went dry.

"Hello?"

"Mrs. Sampson?"

"Yes?"

"Hi this is Matt. I am a DJ at the club."

"Yes, Matt, how are you? Happy New Year's Eve."

"Thank you."

"If you are looking for Danny I haven't seen him all day. As a matter of fact I haven't seen my husband either."

"That's what I am calling about."

The sensation that fell over Jenny at that moment was one she recalled all too well. It was the same eerie feeling that drown her the night that her son had been killed.

"Matt what's wrong?" she said reaching for the table to steady herself. She knew that once Danny's whereabouts had been revealed that anything could happen. She and Albert had talked long and hard about all the possibilities but the stark reality of them happening hadn't come into play until now.

"Mrs. Sampson, Danny's been shot." Matt's statement was met by dead silence.

Finally she found enough of her voice to utter, "Is he dead?"

"I don't really know," he hated himself for having to say that but he didn't have much other choice, "They won't give us any information."

"Melanie?" Jenny gasped wondering if Danny's greatest fear had come true and she had gotten caught in the crossfire.

"She's here with Sarah and I but she's hysterical to say the least."

"Then she's all right?" Jenny breathed a sigh of relief.

"I can't really say. I don't know what happened."

"Was she hurt?"

"Physically no, but emotionally right now I don't think anyone really knows." Matt looked over to where Sarah sat holding her in her arms rocking her gently like a mother would a small child awakened from a terrible dream.

"Where are you?" Jenny questioned looking down at her evening gown but not really caring.

"Texas University Hospital."

"I'll be right there." Jenny hung up the phone and left the house without so much as a note to her husband as to what had happened.

Albert drove up to the front of the club. It was dark, not so much as even a flicker of light came from inside. His anger for Danny vanished as he was consumed by an onslaught of horrible images.

As he walked to the door, the closed sign starred back at him. This was to be one of the biggest nights for the club thus far, but it wasn't turning out that way.

"JOE......REGGIE......." Albert's booming voice echoed into the darkness.

As hard as he tried to reign in his panic, it was slowly getting the better of him. The bizarre way that Danny vanished this afternoon coupled with this, had his mind thinking things he hadn't in some time.

"JOE!!!" he shouted again.

"Over here," Joe's voice came from out of the darkness as he turned the over head lights above the bar on.

Albert squinted while his eyes made the stark adjustment to the light.

"What the hell's going on? Why on earth is the club closed? Where's the band?" Albert spouted out questions, as so he didn't have to listen to the answers. He didn't want to know the answers for in his heart he already knew.

"Albert," Joe offered him a shot glass full of crystal clear liquid, "Danny's been shot."

"When? Where is he now?"

"Matt called about a half-hour ago. I am pretty sure they are at the trauma center at Texas University Hospital."

"Is he alive?" Albert forced himself not to think about the past. This wasn't Richard. He couldn't turn what was happening with Danny right now into a bad replay of the night Richard died.

"I'm not sure. They wouldn't tell Matt anything about his condition. Something about him not being family. He said that Melanie is freaking out. I didn't know what else to but close the club."

"You did the right thing. I have to go," he said slamming the shot the hot liquid set his throat on fire.

"Albert, I'd like to come with you," Joe stammered the effects of the alcohol getting the better of him.

"Let's go."

With that said both were on their feet and out the door.