"Tad finally came face-to-face with the man that hired him to come up with information on Taylor, and said that he would leave only after the man told him the reason why. The man told him that as an employee, Tad was only supposed to find and deliver information, not ask for background information. Tad returned the man's cashier's check, reintroduced himself as a friend of Taylor's and then asked his question again. The man identified himself as Mike Sweeney and said that he'd been in Taylor's unit and just wanted to know how she was. Tad asked why he couldn't have chosen a direct route, and Mike claimed that he liked Taylor a lot but since she was engaged, he wanted to avoid stirring up any bad memories for her.
Satisfied for the moment, Tad told him that she'd been doing fine, but wasn't anymore. He filled Mike in on Taylor's accident and how it paralyzed her, and the fact that she'd lost her will to live. Tad offered that perhaps Mike could help Taylor with a visit, but Mike took his hat off, which displayed his massive injuries, and asked how he could possibly be of any help. Tad asked Mike how he'd gotten his injuries and where he planned to go when he got out of the hospital. Mike answered the first question but got irritated that Tad kept digging for a story after the second. He returned the check to Tad and told him that he was still bound by confidentiality. Tad urged the man to reconsider seeing Taylor, as he believed a visit from her platoon mate would do her a world of good.
Taylor rejected Jake's claim that he broke up with Amanda so that he could be with her, and said she was convinced he did so as a way to get her to walk. Jake let her words soak in for a moment, and then told her sincerely that there were a lot of reasons he broke up with Amanda, but one of them was definitely Taylor. She started in on a rant, but Jake stopped her and asked if she would be quiet long enough for him to tell her how he'd been feeling about her. Taylor interrupted again and insisted that all he felt was pity. Jake told her that she was wrong, and then challenged her to deny his belief that she was using her situation as a way to check out of life. He also told her that she wanted to go back to war so she could get herself killed.
Taylor blasted Jake for daring to assume how she felt and he told her that she was not the only one in the world who was ever hurt or felt alone. She asked if he'd ever lost someone he loved because a bomb killed them, and he told her that the only loss he ever felt was when the woman he loved more than life decided to leave him. He recognized that the pain was nowhere near the same. She realized how brutally honest he was being and apologized for the pain his ex-wife had left with him. She told him that his feelings were just as valid as hers, and then shared with him her memory of her last night with her fiancé.
After Krystal slapped him for daring to talk about having bastard children with David while they stood at Babe's grave, JR told her that while he believed that she was strong enough to hold her own, he also knew how low David could stoop when it came to women. Krystal claimed that she could deal with David, but JR hit home when he compared Krystal to his mother - two strong women, both dedicated to Tad and their families, and both sucked in by David. He told her that he didn't want to see her life ruined the way Dixie's had been. Krystal countered that David was not so sure of himself anymore, and revealed that the doctor had pondered taking his own life, and only failed because she stopped him. Krystal told JR not to worry about her, and said that they needed to stop entertaining the "what ifs," since that wasn't what Babe would have wanted. She turned to place a framed picture of Babe with Little Adam on the grave, then made her way out of the cemetery and headed home at JR's suggestion.
David laid a kiss on Amanda for a few moments, then broke it off and cited that he couldn't take advantage of her, as she had been drinking. Amanda protested and said that she'd been enjoying herself. David stood his ground and said that he would call her a cab, but was stunned when Amanda drunkenly called him Jake. After he clarified that she'd called him the wrong doctor and assured her that she would come out better on the other side of the hurt she was dealing with, he got an earful on how she thought she'd learned to avoid being hurt by men. She blathered on until she explained that through a series of events, she'd become a millionaire thanks to JR and his father. David told her how impressed he was with her, and said that she deserved to have a man on her arm that consistently told her how wonderful she was. She welled up with tears at his words, and he told her that if other men hadn't said those things to her, they were all fools. They talked for a little while longer, and Amanda thanked David for being surprisingly sweet. Because she knew that she was in no condition to drive, she told him that she would rest upstairs for a while before she headed home, and then headed upstairs and did just that.
Ryan, Greenlee, and Aidan reached a wooded locale and stumbled upon what appeared to be freshly overturned earth. Dismally, Aidan remarked that he thought they would find that. He asked Greenlee to take Ryan to the car while he sorted things out at the site. Ryan, enraged at how easily they would give up, grabbed a shovel and started to dig, and all the while refused to believe that his wife and daughter were dead. They got a few feet down and, when Ryan uncovered the sleeve of Emma's raincoat, he broke down into tears. Greenlee urged Aidan to cease and desist with the recovery mission while Ryan was still there, but the detective plowed ahead.
Aidan soon called Ryan's attention to the fact that what was clad in the raincoat was merely a life-sized doll. Reenergized, Ryan assisted with the unearthing and together they found a second doll that was closer to Annie's size. Aidan deduced that the kidnapper was playing a game, and Ryan begged Greenlee to go through the clothing on the dolls to see if she could find anything else. He continued to dig near the mock grave and soon found Annie's purse. He opened it and dumped the contents, surprised to find a shot glass inside. Aidan told him that it was left as a clue that Ryan would need to decipher.
The trio found a nearby bar where Ryan showed the bartender two photographs and asked if the subjects had been spotted. The bartender feigned innocence, but a man holding a pool stick physically interrupted, snagged the picture, and then confirmed that he'd seen the older woman the day before. It took a few moments before the local revealed that he had lied to Ryan for the sheer enjoyment of stringing him along. Once Ryan realized the man was playing him, he assaulted the man as payback. The fight blazed pretty quickly, but the bartender extinguished it just as fast. Greenlee saw that Aidan had been punched in the face and tried to help him by bringing over some ice in a napkin, but he pushed her away roughly and demanded that she stay away from him. Ryan went to bat for Greenlee and said that they would get nowhere if they kept attacking each other. He then asked Aidan why he bothered to hunt for Emma when he had so much hatred for his two travel mates. Aidan said that he was doing what he was trained to do - put his life on the line for people that deserved it. He then told Greenlee that she'd made it easier for him to do so, since he had very little left to live for.
At Pine Valley Hospital, Natalia demanded to know what could be done to reduce the threat of her mother's brain tumor, and the risk it posed to Rebecca's life. Jesse interrupted and insisted that Rebecca had refused any invasive techniques. Angry, Natalia refused to accept that Jesse could speak for her mother, and stormed off to Rebecca's room. Rebecca clasped her child close and told her that, as a doctor, she understood what was happening and knew that it was her time to go, despite the fact that it would be hard on Natalia. She told her daughter that there were no miracle cures, so they needed to prepare for the worst so that Rebecca could go with the knowledge that Natalia would be well cared for. Jesse, who had followed her to the room, told Natalia that he and Angie would love for her to be a part of their family, but Natalia angrily exclaimed that his offer violated life as she knew it. Jesse sat on the bed and assured Rebecca that Natalia would be taken care of, but Rebecca told him that their daughter didn't believe either one of them.
After Randi and Frankie caught up with Natalia down the hall, Randi asked Natalia how the young woman was doing. Before she could answer, Randi said that she'd heard what happened to Rebecca and recognized how hard things must be. Natalia voiced her disbelief that Randi would have any clue, but was apologetic when Randi told her she'd experienced something similar when her mother got sick when she was younger. Randi suggested that they all get away from the hospital for a while, and although Natalia looked at her half-brother skeptically, she agreed. They landed at BJ's, but it wasn't long before Natalia and Frankie were at each other's throats. Natalia summarized that while Frankie could still deal with his anger over his father's actions, there was nothing she could do for her mother. Frankie suggested that she let everything else go and just be there for her mother. His pager went off and he announced that he had to go back to the hospital to check on his patients. Randi agreed to stick with Natalia and insisted that Natalia needed more to eat than the hospital food she'd been consuming.
Angie stood back from the bed as she listened to Rebecca come clean to Jesse about the role she played in how Natalia viewed him. Jesse tried to shoulder some blame as he mentioned that he'd left them, but Rebecca told him that somehow, Natalia always knew that Jesse would leave. Her hope, Rebecca said then, was that before she died, she could somehow convince Natalia to open her heart to her father. Jesse refused to let it go, and apologized to both Rebecca and Angie for not being forthright, and thus cheating them and the children out of the man they needed in their lives. He promised that he would do better, but his words mainly fell on deaf ears when Rebecca started to have a seizure.
JR showed up at Wildwind and demanded that David stay away from Krystal. David laughed and assured JR that he had no such designs. He then asked what David's plans were with Amanda, and David tried to benignly explain away the presence of Amanda's car outside the house. He then spotted Amanda peering in on them from the hall and decided to use it to his advantage. He egged JR on and said that he thought JR would be as protective of Amanda as he was of Krystal. He was pleased when he JR blamed Babe's death on Amanda's actions and said that Amanda had always been and would always be trouble, which greatly pleased David. JR then decided he had enough of Hayward, and stalked out, oblivious to Amanda's presence. Once the door slammed, Amanda joined David and said she wished that JR had been the one that died instead of Babe. She ranted for a while and then realized that David's focus was elsewhere. He admitted that he was plagued by the thought of all the pain JR had caused his daughter over the years. Amanda reminded him that JR could no longer hurt Babe. She moved closer and hugged him comfortingly, but it soon turned into a passionate kissing session.
Jesse touched base with his team briefly via phone and, when he ended the call, he ran into his son in the hall. He asked if Frankie had seen Natalia, and his son's clipped anger made him realize he was still in the doghouse. He informed Frankie that Rebecca had just suffered a seizure, and that Angie and an oncologist were in the process of examining her. He then asked Frankie how long he planned to stay angry, but received no answer. Jesse returned to Rebecca's room just as she came to. When she spotted him, she asked him simply to hold her, and Angie was forced to watch from the corner.
Taylor asked Jake to tell her more about his ex-wife and was treated to a humor-injected version of events. The phone rang in the middle of their chat, so when the phone rang and she answered mid-laugh, Mike chose to say nothing on the other end, and simply hung up. With that break, Jake jumped back into the original conversation and confirmed that Taylor was part of the reason he broke up with Amanda. She coyly told him that he shouldn't get sappy because that they were finally becoming friends, but he silenced her swiftly with a kiss.
Tad showed up at the hospital and met up with Frankie, who told him that there was no way the man Tad met was Mike Sweeney. When asked why, Frankie told him that he was the medic that pronounced Sweeney dead. They moved to a computer station and Frankie showed Tad a picture of Mike, which Tad quickly ascertained was not the man he'd met. He told Frankie that the man was severely burned and related the story of how it happened. Frankie thought that it sounded like a story that happened to one of the guys in his unit and pulled up his picture. Tad immediately identified the man and, although Frankie didn't believe it, he told Tad that the man he pointed out was Brot, Taylor's fiancé. Meanwhile, across town, Brot sat alone in a darkened room.
Krystal woke up from a nightmare where David had gotten rid of Tad so that they could be together.
Ryan received a frantic call from Annie, who told him that she'd been blindfolded and put on a plane. Ryan told her that she was in Puerto Rico and that she needed to give him some more information. She couldn't, so he asked her if Emma was with her, but the call abruptly ended. As Ryan stared at his phone in frustration, Annie sat in a luxurious outdoor bath, far from anything that resembled a hostage situation, and calmly drank from a glass of wine."
- Soap Central
