Carly walked down the main staircase of the mansion and was greeted by pandemonium. Following the sound of the arguing, she made her way to the family room. Inside, Monica and Alan were pacing and Edward was yelling at the top of his lungs. Walking directly over to Lila, Carly sat down. “What happened?”

Lila smiled at Carly fondly. She knew that the marriage between her and AJ was forced, but she really liked the young woman. “Monica went to check on Emily this morning and she was gone. They think she ran away,” she said.

Carly froze, remembering the figures she saw leaving the grounds last night. Before she could say anything, Edward interrupted their conversation.

“I can’t take it anymore! Is that little girl trying to drive us insane?! I bet she’s with that Spencer boy! Can’t we have him arrested or something?!,” he wailed. Edward sat down on the couch when he saw Lila glare at him.

Carly watched the people in the room. Monica and Alan were playing the distraught parents. Edward relished his role as ‘family instigator’ and Lila played her usual role as mediator. Even Reginald was upset. The only one that didn’t fit the situation was AJ. He sat in a chair drinking his coffee like nothing was wrong. Something was up.

“Aren’t you worried about your sister AJ? You spent all of last night looking for her,” she said, baiting AJ. Something wasn’t right with him.

AJ glared at Carly. You could always count on the b**** to get smart at the wrong moment. “Of course I’m worried. I love her. Maybe she went out for a walk or something,” he said, daring Carly to ask him anything else. She was truly a thorn in his side. Glancing at his watch, he got up. “I have to leave for work. Call me if she comes home,” he said.

Carly stared at him as he walked out the door. She had to see Jason. Turning to Reginald, she spoke. “Hey Reginald, can you tell Leticia to get Michael ready? I want to take him out today,” she said.

Monica turned to stare at Carly. “My daughter is missing and you want to go out on an outing? What kind of person are you? Oh, I remember, a gold-digging tramp!,” Monica yelled as he fled the room. Alan followed her.

Not in the mood to argue with anyone, Carly got up and left. Saying goodbye to Lila, she took Michael from Leticia and headed out the door.

Jason sat with his head in his hands, tears running down his face. Sonny and Lucky watched him with sympathy in their eyes. They both knew that AJ was a weasel, but they never suspected that he was this evil. Sonny sat down next to Jason and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry man,” he said. He was in too much shock to say anything else.

Jason lifted his head up to stare at Sonny, hate for his brother in his eyes. “Sorry doesn’t cover it Sonny! He beat my sister! She’s upstairs with bruises all over her body!,” he yelled. Wiping the tears from his eyes, he began to pace the room.

Noticing how Jason was pacing, Lucky knew that they were going to need more help. Picking up the phone, he dialed his parents house. After a few rings, someone picked up. “Hello?”

“Hello? Who’s this? Its 8 o’clock in the morning?!,” Luke said, obviously wanting to go back to sleep.

“Dad, its me, Lucky---”

“What’s up Cowboy? Where are you? I hear talking in the background?,” Luke asked concerned.

Lucky sighed. “Listen Dad, I’m at Jason’s penthouse. I need you to come over her now. Tell mom whatever you have to, but come over,” Lucky said in a rush.

“Huh? What the hell happened over there. Is that Jason cursing in the background?,” Luke asked worried. Something was very wrong. Jason did not curse like a drunken sailor.

“I don’t want to talk about it over the phone, just come over,” Lucky said distraught.

Hearing the tone in his son’s voice, Luke sprung into action. “I’ll be right over Cowboy,” he said, hanging up the phone.

Lucky hanged up the phone and turned to see Sonny watching him. Noticing that Jason wasn’t in the room, Lucky spoke. “Where did Jason go? I just called my dad. He’s coming over. He’s going to want a part of this,” he said.

Sonny nodded. He knew that Luke would want to be involved. He loved Emily just as much as the rest of them. “Jase went upstairs to see if Emily was still sleeping. I can’t believe it man. How could her brother do that to her? No one deserves that. She’s just a little girl,” Sonny said, thinking about his own childhood.

“I don’t know Sonny. I don’t know, but he’s going to pay,” Lucky said, vengeance in his voice.

Carly walked briskly towards the building entrance, Michael’s stroller in front of her. As she neared the elevators, she became aware of someone behind her. Turning around, she smiled. “Why hello Uncle Luke,” she said, using the term ‘uncle’ because she knew that it would bait him. It seemed that he wasn’t in the mood to bicker this morning though.

“Caroline,” he said, his thoughts elsewhere.

Carly was intrigued. Luke always had time to bicker with her. It was sometimes the high point of her day, so she was justifiably concerned. “Uh, are you okay? Are you going up to see Jason? Does it have anything to do with Emily? She’s missing you know,” Carly said. She knew that she was blatantly fishing for information, but she was worried.

Luke stared at her, shock evident on his face. “Emily is missing? No wonder Lucky was so freaked out on the phone. Who told you that she was missing?,” he asked.

“Duh. I live in the same house as her. I went downstairs this morning and Edward was yelling the house down about it,” she said. She would have continued the conversation, but they had reached the penthouse level.

They both stepped out to see Johnny, Francis and Pete pacing the halls. Carly stared at them curiously. These guys were rarely upset to the point that they would show it, but there they were, walking up and down the hall like maniacs. “Hey guys. Is Jason in?,” she asked. Johnny answered her.

“Yeah, go on in. You too Mister Spencer, they’re waiting for you,” Johnny said. He then walked them over to Jason’s door and announced them. “Mr. Spencer and Mrs. Quartermaine are here to see you”

Carly walked in to see a distraught Jason pacing the room. Nodding to Sonny and Lucky, she rushed over to him. Staring into his eyes, she almost broke into tears at the look she saw in his eyes. She had never seen such saddness and anger in his eyes before. “What’s wrong Jason?,” she asked quietly.

Jason stared at Carly. He hardly noticed that she was there. He motioned for her to sit while he put Michael upstairs in his old room to sleep. “Lucky will explain when I come back down,” he said, walking up the stairs.

Carly did as she was told and sit down. Staring at Lucky she spoke. “What’s going on? I come over here to tell you that Emily is missing and everyone’s gathered here like someone died,” she said. “Wait a minute, no one died, right?,” she asked nervously looking around the room.

Lucky stared at her. “Emily isn’t missing she’s upstairs sleeping. I took her from the mansion last night. She won’t be going back there,” he said, venom in his voice.

Carly stared at him in shock. “So you two were the shadows I saw last night! I knew something wasn’t right. What the hell is going on?,” she asked.

Just then, Jason walked down the stairs and sat in the chair opposite everyone. “I need to know everything. Start from the beginning Lucky,” he said grimly.

Lucky glanced at everyone in the room nervously, but he started to speak. “You know how I was in the accident last night? Well, I knew that Em would be worried, so I went home and took a shower. After I got dressed, I got in my truck and drove to the Quartermaines. I parked off the grounds though, cause it was real late,” he began.

Jason nodded. “He must have just missed my call,” he thought to himself.

“Anyway, when I got there, I climbed up her tree and knocked on her window since her light was off. I thought she was asleep or something. She wasn’t so I went in. She was real happy to see me and stuff, so I asked her to tell me what was going on with her, but she started to cry. I felt bad man, so I backed off of her. You guys know I can’t take it when she cries,” he said. “When I told her that I had to go, she got all jumpy and stuff and asked me to sleep over. I told her that I couldn’t cause my dad was going to call me in the morning,” he said, glancing at Luke.

Luke nodded for him to continue.

“Uh, so I tucked her in and kissed her ‘goodbye’ and left. I was walking towards my car when I realized that we had things to work out and I couldn’t wait until tomorrow, so I headed back to the tree by her room. When I got there, I swear, I felt like someone just walked over my grave,” Lucky said, staring at Jason, willing him to believe it. “I climbed up the tree an-and then I s-saw it,” Lucky said. He glanced down, unable to continue.

Luke pat him on the back. “Come on Cowboy, finish the story,” he said, knowing that the ending could not be good. “What did you see?”

By this time, everyone in the room was staring at Lucky in expectation and he felt all their eyes on him. It wasn’t a comforting thing. Sighing, Lucky told the rest of the story. “I saw AJ beating Emily. It was him all the time,” he spat out.

Luke and Carly’s mouths dropped open in shock. Then the yelling began.

“What?!,” Carly yelled, disbelief and horror on her face. Sonny answered her.

“Let me see if I can make it clearer for you. Your. Husband. Has. Been. Beating. His. Little. Sister. Repeatedly,” he said angrily.

Luke stared at his son, stupefied. “Not my princess,” he said quietly, tears forming in his eyes.

Suddenly, Carly was a whirlwind of motion as she grabbed Jason’s forgotten handgun and made a mad dash for the door. Sonny jumped in her way. “Get out of my way Sonny,” she said impatiently.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going with Jason’s gun?!,” he asked angrily.

“I’m going to kill my ‘’husband’, so kindly get out of my way please,” she stated calmly. “The sick son of a b**** needs to die!,” she said, her voice rising in anger.

Sonny snatched the gun from her hands as the other people stared at the scene before them.

“I knew that girl was a real Spencer,” Luke said.

Everyone was so caught up in watching Carly try to get the gun back from Sonny that no one noticed the figure watching them from the steps, anguish on her face. Straightening, Emily winced as the step squeaked and all eyes turned to her.

Everyone stopped what they were doing when they heard someone on the steps. Carly and Luke gasped as they saw the hand marks around her neck accompanied by various scratches and bruises.

“Oh my God,” Luke and Carly said, simultaneously. They were both going to approach the battered girl, but Jason beat them to it.

Jason walked up to his little sister and looked deeply in her eyes. He was frightened to his soul by what he saw there--nothing. No sign of life. None of her spark. None of the things that made her Emily. Gathering her in his arms he gave her a crushing hug as silent tears rolled down both their cheeks.

“Oh, God,” Jason said, his words muffled in Emily’s shoulder. Picking her up, Jason took her back upstairs, knowing that she couldn’t face everyone in the living room.

Watching as Jason took Emily upstairs, Carly collapsed into a heap on the floor next to Sonny, crying her eyes out. “Oh sweet God, not again, not again,” she said, not paying attention to the men who were staring at her like she had grown another head.

“What does she mean, ‘Not again’?,” Sonny thought to himself, bending down to comfort the sobbing woman.

Luke and Lucky stared at each other, grief in their eyes.

AJ whistled a jaunty tune as he made his way down the docks towards Moreno’s new building. He patted the envelope in his pocket and made his way over to Sorel. “Good morning Mr. Sorel. Its a nice day isn’t it?,” AJ said nicely.

Sorel stared at him. The man was entirely too happy. It was kind of freaky. “Yes it is,” he said. “Mr. Moreno is waiting for you”

Following Sorel, AJ made his way inside the building and up the elevator. Reaching his destination, He and Sorel got out and made their way to Moreno’s suite. Announcing themselves, they walked inside.

Moreno walked away from the man in front of him and made his way over to AJ. “Good morning Mr. Quartermaine. I trust that everything is well?, he said.

AJ smiled. “Why yes, everything is fine,” he said, shaking Moreno’s hand.

Moreno motioned for AJ to follow him towards the man who was watching them, a calculating look on his face. “Mr Quartermaine, I’d like you to meet on of my associates, Vincent. Vincent, this is AJ Quartermaine,” he said.

“Hello Vincent,” AJ said, shaking the man’s hand. Vincent shook his hand and cocked his head to the side in greeting.

“Do you have what was requested?,” Vincent asked in a modulated vo that is all Vincent. Thank you,” AJ said, shaking the man’s hand again. Then he turned to Moreno and shook his hand also.

“Always a pleasure, always a pleasure”, he said. “Well, I have to be off now. Nice meeting you Vincent,” AJ said, whistling a happy tune as he walked out the door.