Parker, Robin and the two other agents pulled up to the Scorpio house and straight into utter chaos. It looked liked Grand Central Station. Squad cars filled the driveway and several more had crammed in at the curb. Police officers swarmed over the lawn and in and out of the house. Robin jumped out the car before it came to a complete stop and raced inside, her heart pounding in her chest. She passed Detective Alex Garcia on his way out the front door. He was in a hurry.

"Alex? What’s – "

"Hey Robin. Good to see you. I gotta go, sweetie," he said as he strode past her, barking orders into his cell phone. Before Robin could ask him what was going on he was already climbing into his car. She went inside. Cops were everywhere. The living room looked like it had been turned into a command center. She looked around frantically, trying to find her father or Mac. Parker and the others came running in after her. She wasn’t watching where she was going and bumped into someone. Detective Taggart.

"Hey watch it! Oh, sorry Robin. You okay?"

"What the hell happened? Why are all of these people here?"

"You’ll have to ask Mac about that," he said evasively as he strode toward the kitchen. He called back, "Welcome home," before he disappeared around the corner.

"Did you find out anything?" Parker asked.

"No." Robin went to the first officer she saw. The man was talking on his walkie talkie when she interrupted him.

"Excuse me, have you seen – " He held up a hand to stop her, then continued his conversation. "I need to find – " The officer turned his back on her.

Parker had seen enough. He put two fingers in his mouth and let loose a piercing whistle. All of the activity in the room ground to a sudden halt.

"Robert or Mac Scorpio. Now!" One of the plainclothes cops jerked his thumb toward the kitchen. Parker headed in that direction without waiting for Robin. She was right on his heels.

In the kitchen, Robert and Mac were arguing.

"I can’t believe you did this! So much for no one knowing!" Robert shouted.

"What did you expect me to do, Robert? He’s butchering federal agents right under our noses!"

"The WSB could have handled it quietly!"

"I don’t think the WSB is doing such a bang-up job, do you?" Mac asked sarcastically.

"Daddy?" Only the "butchering federal agents" line really registered in her brain.

"Robin, are you okay?" Robert went to hug his daughter.

"Fine, what happened?"

"Your mother’s fine. So are Sean and Frisco," Robert said gently.

"But?"

"Faison’s men were at the headquarters while they were out. We’re going out there now to try to clean things up."

"Clean up? Did somebody get hurt?" Robert sighed, trying to think of a good way to tell her.

"They’re dead, Robin," Mac said bluntly. Robin shook her head, not understanding.

"Who’s dead? Dad just said Mom and Uncle Sean and Frisco were fine."

"They are. But the other agents are dead. All of them." Robin face drained of all color. She had known many of those agents for several weeks. She had even befriended a couple of them, including a woman not much older than herself named Carol who often watched the monitors.

"All of them? Carol, too?"

"If she was there, luv, yes." Robert kept his arm around her for support.

"Okay. Let’s go."

"No, not you. You stay here with the girls."

"I want to go with you."

"No you don’t. It’s bad, Robin. I don’t want you to that. Stay here with the girls," Robert insisted. Robin nodded, still in shock. She opened her mouth to tell her father about her run-in with Faison at the hospital but changed her mind. He was about to go through the roof now, God knew what he would do if he knew Faison had approached her.

"Be careful. Both of you." She hugged her father, then Mac. She made her way out of the kitchen through the crush of police officers.

"When do we leave?" Parker asked. His face was tight and red with rage.

"We are leaving now. You are staying here with my daughter. That’s your job," Robert said brusquely.

"I want to be out there," Parker protested.

"Your job is to keep Robin and her daughters safe. You’ll stay here and do that." Robert brushed by him. Mac followed his brother out the kitchen door, glaring at Parker one last time.

Parker stood in the middle of the kitchen feeling like he’d been caught up in a nightmare that wouldn’t end.

*****

Elizabeth was trying to squash the airbag down away from her face when she heard Lucky call her name.

"Lucky are you okay?" she asked as she struggled with the airbag.

"Yeah, I just hit my head." Before she could say anything else, her door was jerked open, startling her.

"Are you hurt?" the man asked.

She was about to answer him when she noticed it. His clothes were casual but where his jacket gaped, she could see he was wearing a shoulder holster. She could hear another man talking to Lucky but couldn’t see him. She thought Faison had sent someone after them and started to scream.

"Hey! Hey kid! Calm down! What’s the matter? Are you hurt?"

"Get away from me! Don’t touch him!"

"Elizabeth wait! It’s okay. Listen to me!" Lucky shouted. The other man had shown him his ID. "Elizabeth they’re cops!" She stopped screaming and looked around for Lucky. He staggered around to the driver’s side of the car, holding his head, as the man beside her helped push down the deflating airbag. He hunkered down by the window. "They’re WSB agents. They’re supposed to escort us home."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Pretty sure, anyway." Her eyes widened as she noticed the blood running down his face.

"Lucky, your head!" She fumbled with the seatbelt and climbed out of the car.

"It’s okay. Looks worse than it is."

"Why don’t you both come sit in the car? An ambulance is on the way." The men helped Lucky and Liz climb out of the ditch and led them to the car parked on the shoulder. As they sat in the back seat, Liz looked around in amazement.

"What a rotten day," Lucky muttered.

"Just be glad we got to you before Faison did, kid." Lucky and Liz traded a despairing look before they chuckled and held each other closer.

*****

Sean, Frisco and Anna were still wandering around the lodge in shock. They kept staring at one body, then the next, before their gaze returned to the bloody message on the wall. In the distance, they could hear multiple sirens drawing closer. Anna stared out the window, thinking of her conversation with Faison at the Outback the night before:

"This is between you and me. We don’t need an audience."

The words "between you and me" kept ringing in her ears. She knew this was what he wanted. For her to feel guilty, responsible. It was classic Faison: "if you’d just come with me then this needn’t have happened". She tried to tell herself that he might have done this anyway, just because he could. He probably would have done it just to make his point. Still, it was hard to justify her actions when there were nine dead bodies strewn around the room.

The sirens reached a deafening crescendo. Squad cars were skidding to a halt in the gravel parking lot. She saw Robert and Mac jump out of one of the first ones. She didn’t know if she could face Mac just now. Robert rushed inside and ran straight to her. He crushed her to him and she felt his fear.

"I’m okay," she said in a voice devoid of any emotion.

"This isn’t your fault," he whispered in her hair. She nodded but didn’t answer him. Mac was giving orders to the various police officers spilling into the room. Most were stunned by the gruesome scene. Robert released her and stroked her cheek.

"I want you to go upstairs and pack. You’re coming to the house with me so I can keep an eye on you personally." She pushed him away, avoiding his eyes. Across the room, Mac was staring in horror at the message on the wall. He, too, remembered Anna’s words to Faison from the night before.

"You know I can’t do that."

"Anna – "

"There are children there, Robert. Including our granddaughters. How can you expect me to stay there?" she hissed. Mac and some of the other officers stopped to stare. "I’m not going to risk their lives, too."

"Anna." Anna reluctantly looked at Mac. "Robert’s right. It would be a lot harder to do something like this in town. Too many witnesses. Besides, it’ll be easier on us if everybody’s in one place. Go get your things."

"No."

"You’re outnumbered," Sean said from his place by the couch. Frisco nodded.

"I’m not doing it. No." Anna shook her head as her chin trembled and tears came to her eyes.

"Then I’ll do it for you," Robert said, walking past her. She caught his coat sleeve to stop him.

"Robert, please…" Robert shook his head, stepping closer to her. He held her arms, leaning into her.

"It’ll be all right, luv. Somehow, it’ll be all right." Anna refused to meet his eyes. They stood that way for a long moment. Anna finally turned and went upstairs, angrily wiping away tears. Robert watched her go, his face betraying his misery.

"You did the right thing," Mac said.

*****

At the top of the stairs, Anna paused, her head in her hands, trying to get control of her emotions. She gave a long, shaky sigh and pushed open the door to her room. She tossed a small suitcase on the bed and began throwing clothes into it haphazardly. As she was making a third trip to the bed, she finally saw it. Sitting on her pillow was a single red orchid. The clothing she was holding fell to the floor as she felt her legs turn to jelly. Anna sank to her knees beside the bed, suddenly feeling too weak to stand. With her shaking hands over her mouth, she stared at the flower but her tears refused to fall.

Luke dragged himself into his club. Damn, I’m getting old, he thought. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt so tired or the last time he actually got a headache from drinking and playing cards all night. But with the fatigue came the joy of knowing that the entire Scorpio family was alive and well. He was so happy he wasn’t even angry with Mac anymore. He got satisfaction of knowing the other man probably caught hell from Robert. He got a bottle of scotch and a glass from behind the bar and whistled his way back to the office.

The whistling stopped, however, when he found Laura sitting behind his desk. By the furious look on her face, he guessed he was in trouble for something.

"Where the hell have you been?" Laura demanded as she stood and put her hands on her hips.

"Now what did I do?" Luke asked, walking over to the desk.

"I’ve been trying to find you since last night. Where were you? You didn’t do something stupid like go after Faison alone, did you?" Luke raised an eyebrow, offended by her choice of words.

"Something ‘stupid’? What is that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean."

"I was out being a good little Boy Scout and this is the thanks I get?" Luke deliberately stalled, enjoying seeing her all fired up. He sat on the edge of the desk playing innocent.

"Luke, I’m going to ask you one more time: where have you been?

"Bobbie’s," he said simply as he leaned over to kiss her. Laura stepped back out of his reach, glaring. He sighed, deciding he’d better quit irritating her unless he wanted to start sleeping at the club again.

"I was on the docks last night checking out Spoon Island and found that someone beat me to it." He could see her mind was already jumping to all sorts of terrible conclusions and hurriedly continued, rambling his way through the whole story.

" – and, then this morning, he sent those damn flowers so I called Robert to come over and then we talked for a while and – "

"Stop. You called Robert? Robert Scorpio?"

"Yeah, I just said that. Try to keep up here, darlin’."

"Robert’s alive?" Luke nodded with a grin. "What about Robin?"

"Yep. She’s at Mac and Felicia’s." Laura smiled in amazement.

"That’s fantastic!"

"Yeah, so anyway – "

"What flowers?" she interrupted, frowning again.

"Faison sent Anna flowers and an invitation to dinner." Laura scowled, disgusted. "My sentiments exactly. He also sent pictures of her on the docks last night and one taken at Bobbie’s. He’s way too close for comfort."

"Where is she now?" Laura asked quietly.

"Back at whatever hideout they’re using."

"I called Lucky and told him to come home. He should have been here by now," Laura said suddenly. Luke finally understood why she was so worried.

"I talked to Robert about him this afternoon. He’s got a couple of guys keeping an eye on him. He’ll be fine." She walked into his arms with a big sigh of relief. Luke rested his chin on top of her head. "We’re not going to lose him again, Angel. Besides, I think Faison’s attention is focused elsewhere."

*****

Sean was speaking to one of the detectives when he saw Anna come back downstairs carrying her suitcase. She walked out the door without a glance at anyone although many of the police officers turned to stare as she passed.

Outside, she tossed the suitcase in the trunk and quickly slid into the driver’s seat. She began backing out but slammed on the brakes when she saw Frisco in the rearview mirror. He braced his hands against the trunk, preventing her from leaving. Anna twisted in the seat, rolling down her window. She was about to tell him to move when the passenger door opened and Sean slipped into the seat next to her.

"Going somewhere?" he asked as he pulled the door shut.

"Get out, Sean," she replied angrily.

"Nope." Before she could respond, Frisco climbed into the seat behind her. Sean took the opportunity to put the car in park.

"Where’s the fire?" Frisco asked.

"Damn it! Get out, both of you!" Neither man answered. "Don’t do this to me!"

"Anna –"

"That could have been you in there!" she screamed.

"But it wasn’t." Anna spun around in her seat to see Robert leaning down beside her window. Sean reached over to shut off the engine and took the keys while she was distracted. Anna lunged for the keys but he dropped them between his seat and the door, effectively putting them out of her reach.

"Give me the bloody keys and get out!" she demanded holding her hand out.

"Anna, that’s enough!" Robert snapped. He leaned in closer, lowering his voice as she stared straight ahead, fuming. "You’re not going out there and you’re certainly not going by yourself. We had a deal, remember?"

"Screw the deal!" Anna replied hatefully. Robert straightened and jerked open the door, his face tight with anger.

"Get out of the car." Anna still refused to look at him and gripped the steering wheel tightly. "I’m not having this argument with you in the parking lot. Now get out of the damn car!" he growled.

Anna could feel Sean’s eyes boring into her from the passenger seat. Her eyes met Frisco’s in the rearview mirror. He was as unwavering as Sean and Robert. They weren’t going to let her go after Faison regardless of how much she cursed or yelled or threw a fit. She was furious at them for ganging up on her. Finally, ceding that she wasn’t going to change their minds, she got out of the car and stomped back into the house. The three men watched her go and sighed, wondering if they would be so lucky the next time.

*****

Parker was going stir crazy. He couldn’t stand to be left out of the loop. It had been almost two hours since Robert and Mac left. Most of the PCPD officers had left, although several were still milling around the living room and kitchen. He gave up pacing, deciding to check in with the two agents he left at the hospital to keep an eye on Jason. Although Jason Morgan was not high on his priority list. he’d been "convinced" to leave a second man at Robin’s "request" after a heated discussion in a broom closet. He told himself it wasn’t really giving in so much as saving the time and breath of arguing with a hardhead. He was regretting that decision now, though, considering the slaughterhouse the resort had become. He decided to call one of the agents back to the house reasoning that what Robin didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.

After he hung up, he checked his watch again. Four whole minutes had passed since the last time he checked. He supposed he should check on Robin. She had only come downstairs once to prepare bottles for the babies. She looked tired and very pale and Parker knew she would definitely end up with a headache from this latest ordeal.

He went upstairs and, not finding Robin in her own room, knocked quietly on the door of the make-shift nursery. When he received no answer, he eased the door open. Robin was rocking Isabella as she fed her. The baby’s eyes were drooping as her mother sang softly to her. Olivia was already sound asleep in her crib. Parker could tell by the pinched look on Robin’s face that her head was already beginning to pound.

"Hey." Robin glanced at him before returning her gaze to her daughter’s tiny face. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she answered listlessly.

"How’s your head?"

"It hurts," she said simply.

"Do you want me to get your pills?" he asked, trying to keep his voice neutral.

"No, I want to find out what’s going on first." Parker stood watching her for a moment, again impressed by her quiet strength. The dimly lit room felt like the eye of the storm. He didn’t know how she stayed so calm. Police officers and WSB agents were overrunning the house, he himself had been either pacing or shouting at someone for the past two hours and here Robin sat feeding her children and putting them down for a nap. The silence became uncomfortable and he noticed she was staring back at him. He quickly dropped his eyes.

"Well, if there’s anything you need…"

"I know."

Parker couldn’t think of anything else to say so he turned to leave.

"Parker? What happened at the hospital?" Parker stayed facing the door. He had been waiting for this. He braced himself, then turned to meet her gaze.

"The EMT’s brought in an addict. He was high, thrashing around. Ended up kicking one of the nurses across the room. Joe and Al went to help hold the guy down."

"Where were you?" she asked in the same calm, quiet voice that made him feel like he was ten years old again, sitting outside Father Flynn’s office after having his palms whacked by Sister Mary Angela’s ruler for some boyish prank.

"I walked outside for a minute. I was trying to check in with the guys back at the lodge and I couldn’t use my cell phone inside the hospital."

Robin nodded and went back to singing to Isabella, dismissing Parker. He waited for a moment for the dressing down he expected, but when it didn’t come, he reluctantly left the room. She was so mad she wasn’t even going to yell at him. It just made him feel even guiltier.

*****

The man knocked nervously on the door. As he waited for an answer, he told himself he had nothing to worry about; he’d done everything he was supposed to do. Everything went smoothly. Still, every time he met with his boss he was on edge. Finally, he was called into the room. He found Faison watching the monitors that were hidden in a cupboard behind the desk. The man recognized the area he left a few hours earlier.

"Well?" Faison asked, without looking away from the monitors.

"Everything went as planned. I left the flower on her bed like you asked."

"And the pictures?"

"I left them in the debris downstairs. They’ll be found during the clean up."

"Were there any survivors?"

"No sir." The man waited anxiously as Faison let the silence linger. He began to worry that he had done something wrong.

"Pity. You may go." Faison said absently. The man looked at the monitor that held Faison’s attention. A woman stalked back through the large common room of the lodge, causing police officers to jump out of her way. She looked furious. As she passed, one of the officers handed Commissioner Scorpio what appeared to be a photograph. When he turned the photo over to see if there was anything written on the back, the man saw it was the little girl’s picture. A small smile appeared on Faison’s face that chilled the man to the bone and he quickly made his exit.

*****

Mac saw Anna come storming through the door and back up the stairs as the officer next to him handed him something. He heard a door upstairs slam loudly. He sighed, then looked at the piece of paper in his hand. It was a photograph of a young girl. He turned it over, hoping there was some clue as to who it belonged to written on the back. The feminine handwriting on the back of the photo read "Avery, age 5".

Mac studied the picture more closely. He assumed the little girl was a relative of one of the slain agents although something about her seemed familiar.

Mac was still holding the picture when Robert, Sean and Frisco reentered the lodge. He stopped Robert on his way upstairs.

"Do you have any idea who this belongs to?" he asked as he handed the picture to Robert. Robert frowned as he studied the picture. An odd, unsettling feeling came over him.

"Never seen her before. Probably belonged to one of these guys," he replied with a wave toward the body bags that were now lined up along one wall. He reluctantly gave the photo back to his brother.

"She looks sort of familiar. Don’t you think?" Mac asked. Robert shrugged but Mac could tell he was thinking the same thing.

"She looks a little like Robin at that age. You’re probably just picking up on the resemblance." Mac nodded but his mind couldn’t let go of the thought that the picture was somehow important. Robert took the photo out of his hand.

"Maybe I should hang onto it. Try to find out who it belongs to," he said in answer to his brother’s questioning look.

"Yeah. Maybe you should." Mac watched as Robert slowly climbed the rest of the stairs, deep in thought.

*****

Alan hurried into the Emergency Room. He had been paged just as he was finishing up with his last patient. Bobbie Jones was waiting for him.

"Bobbie? What is it? Is it Jason?"

"In a way, yes. We found a man tied up in his room. Jason’s gone."

Alan ran into the room where Jason had been sleeping off the effects of the alcohol and sedative. A doctor and two nurses were trying to revive a man with a large bruise on his face. Alan assumed he was one of the WSB agents Robin told him would be staying with Jason.

"Where the hell are his clothes?" Alan asked.

"I guess whoever punched him out stole them." Alan swore and told one of the nurses to organize a search for the second man.

"Alan? What’s going on?" Bobbie asked.

"He’s a WSB agent assigned to protect Jason. There’s another one around here somewhere although Lord knows what Jason did with him."

"Why would the WSB be protecting Jason?"

"Because Robin asked them to. She was here earlier for an appointment and I asked her to come visit Jason. She called me from the car saying she had to leave unexpectedly but left two men to watch Jason."

"Why?"

"I don’t know. Where’s Corinthos? I’ll bet he knows where Jason is."

"Actually, he didn’t. He and Carly were very upset. They left to look for him."

"Likely story."

"Alan! Sonny and Carly care a great deal about Jason. You know that." Alan gave her a disapproving frown but didn’t comment. He was too busy worrying about his youngest son’s latest antics. He debated calling Robin and finally decided she needed to know. Considering Jason’s current state of mind, Alan was more than a little worried about Jason’s reaction to her sudden return.