Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters.
Carmen was finishing the preparations for her trip to San Cristobel. She and Dietz would be flying out the following evening, and she had already confirmed that the family jet was indeed ready for their departure. Now all that she had left to do was finish packing.
On this trip she would be meeting with a new contact to assist her with the highly questionable, yet highly profitable business she conducted on the island. Her ties with Edmund had been severed once Prince Richard uncovered Edmund�s involvement in Jonathan�s disappearance, and Carmen had waited patiently for five years to find a new, trustworthy partner for her actions.
Jonathan had been discovered, living with a family in Seattle, going by the name Trevor. How Richard tracked the boy down, Carmen never knew, but thankfully he had only discovered Edmund�s responsibility, not her own. Once Jonathan came back to San Cristobel, Edmund had gone stark raving mad, and tried to kill him. He was shot by a palace guard, who happened upon Edmund attempting to strangle the boy. He died before he could reveal that Carmen helped him get rid of Jonathan in the first place.
So, for the last few years, Carmen kept a low profile on the island, and the baby smuggling business died down to practically nothing. That is, until now. Now she�d found someone she could trust to take care of things in San Cristobel, while she took care of the black market in the states. The number of unwed pregnancies in San Cristobel was alarming, and the culture there was not at all accepting of mothers and children outside of the marriage institution. Likewise, there are thousands of couples in the United States who can�t have children of their own, are too impatient to wait on adoption proceedings, and are willing to pay big bucks for a child with no strings attached. Scruples, if any existed in her, were not enough to keep Carmen from capitalizing on such an opportunity.
She began rifling through her dresser drawers deciding what to pack. She selected a business suit, for her meeting with the contact, but other than that, she chose mainly casual, care-free items, that would hopefully help her to relax. She so hoped that this trip would ease her mind, and cause the nightmares about Mick and the night he died to cease. Perhaps some time away from Springfield, on a tropical paradise, would be just what she needed.
Then she saw it, taped to the bottom of one of the drawers. An envelope that she hadn�t opened in years. Inside was a picture, and a letter that she�d intended to send to him. Him, the one who had given her a new desire for life, when she thought she would suffocate to death in this mafia family.
Carmen hadn�t always been such a hard woman. Growing up, she had hopes and dreams, just like everyone else. She wanted to find love, happiness, and have a family of her own. Her own childhood had been so lacking in love, and so filled with poverty, that when the heir to the Santos fortune had proposed to her at age sixteen, she�d accepted, with no thought to the consequences, because she wanted to leave home so badly.
Although she loved her husband, she never fooled herself into believing that he felt the same for her. She was his trophy, the lovely young bride that would be on his arm, and make him look good in they eyes of the rival families. She believed she could live with it, though, because he could give her the kind of life she had always dreamed of.
When Mick was born, Carmen truly thought that her marriage would strengthen. She believed it would draw her husband closer to her, but she was wrong. He was just as distant and cold as he was before, and conjugal relations between the two of them, few and far between, were always on his terms, and about his needs, not hers. Carmen was left alone the majority of the time, with total responsibility for Mick�s care. She was painfully exhausted, and psychologically closed off.
Then she met him The handsome stranger who�d taken a liking to her at first glance. He didn�t know her as a mafia wife, only as Carmen. She knew nothing about him, except his first name. He was aware that she was married, but that didn�t stop them from loving each other, deeply and madly, during a brief, six-week affair.
He was her saving grace, the element that brought her back among the living and revived in her the desire to go on. She made up her mind to leave her husband in order to be with him, but she never got the chance to tell him. He never returned to the obscure restaurant where they always met. Her heart retreated into places unknown inside her, and the cold, bitter woman that she would become began to surface after he left.
Years later, after her husband�s death, when she had taken her place as head of the Santos family, she would see him again. He�d returned to town, and had created a bit of a reputation for himself. On the few occasions when they saw each other, they simply smiled, knowing, secret smiles, that simply meant, "I remember". And remember she did, fondly.
It was then that she�d written the letter to him, and enclosed the photo of the two of them with it. She desperately wanted him to know what he�d meant to her, and how he�d changed her life, but she could not bring herself to mail the letter to him. Instead, she left instructions for that the letter be mailed to him in the event of her death. For all practical purposes, the letter should be in the safety deposit box with her will, but for some reason, she�d left it in the drawer. It made her feel as if she were still close to him.
No one had ever known about the affair. At least not until Mick found out. He found the letter and the picture, not long before his death, as he snooped through her dresser intending to steal money to by drugs. He demanded money from her, large amounts of money, in order to buy his silence. He didn�t just want money for drugs and liquor; he wanted a new car, new clothes, and entirely new image, so that the little Bauer girl might see him in a different light.
He wasn�t sure if it was a smart thing to do, but Dietz knocked on the door anyway. When Danny opened the door, his shock was evident. Dietz was unsure what exactly he was seeing in Danny�s eyes. Was it fear or just disdain?
Nevertheless, Danny let him in. Dietz wasn�t sure what he was going to say. He couldn�t betray Carmen, but at the same time, he couldn�t keep lying to Danny.
Their conversation was rather benign, for the most part, and Dietz knew that Danny wanted him to get to the point of his visit. Something had obviously been troubling Danny before Dietz arrived, and he could tell that his presence was not helping matters.
"Danny, you know that your mother and I will be leaving for San Cristobel tomorrow night," Dietz said.
"Yes, I�m aware of that," Danny answered.
"Well, there won�t be anyone in the house while we�re gone. The live-in servants have all been given vacation time and will be out of town. The only employees will be the outside guards. The house will be empty, and the security personnel won�t think twice about you coming over."
Danny was uncertain what Dietz was implying. "What are you talking about, Dietz?"
"Look, I�ve got to be careful what I say here," Dietz said. "I can�t go around saying things that will hurt Carmen. But I know there are things in the house that you might need to look at or read through. You know, things that maybe you�ve been curious about for a long time, or maybe something you never even knew. So, I just want you to know that the house will be empty for a week, while we�re in San Cristobel."
Danny was flabbergasted. Dietz had just handed him an incredible opportunity, and as much as told him that there were things in that house that he needed to find.
"Well, Dietz, I appreciate your honesty," Danny said.
Dietz nodded to Danny, as if to say "I hope you find what you�re
searching for", and then he walked out the door.