Neither Rahne nor Sam felt it would be a good idea to stick around after the riot and answer questions, so Li'l Bit allowed herself to be used as an excuse to quickly leave the area. Paige was waiting at the apartment and greeted her friend.

It was fun to watch Sam and Li'l Bit talk at the supper table, Rahne quickly discovered. Li'l Bit was animated, Sam was reserved. She talked without appearing to think, he appeared to think before talking. Her hands flew everywhere, his stayed still. They were a study in extremes, which was why they made extremely good friends.

At this moment, she was trying to explain her video "Best Friends", an autobiographical video about their friendship, while Sam was trying to get her talk about anything else. Paige was trying to stop her from spilling highly personal information that might really embarrass her brother, but Rahne got the feeling that, for all her blonde hair and ditsy attitude, there was a real brain in Li'l Bit's head and she wouldn't tell anything that she didn't mean to tell. "And then he decides ta hold the baby Jesus that Mrs. Holder told me ta hold," she told Rahne.

Sam laughed. "So she sucker punches me- in front of the whole church. And ta this day, every Christmas, the whole church talks about the first custody fight at the manger." Li'l Bit smiled at that memory.

Rahne then asked about the spider that was in the video. Sam quickly plopped some potatoes on Li'l Bit's plate, while Paige just grinned. "Actually," the singer adroitly changed the subject, "Sam, I need to ask you something..." Her voice trailed off.

"What?" Sam leaned in. Li'l Bit frowned and went to get her briefcase.

"Have ya heard much about celebrity outings? Ah mean suddenly discoverin' that a celeb is a mutant?" Her face grew dark as she asked him that. She snapped open the case and started to pull something out.

"Only in the Intruder an' such. Why?" Since Dazzler had been outed, the tabloids loved claiming that any celebrity was a mutant.

Li'l Bit pulled out some pictures and a pair of boxers. "Here ya go Paige, the real McCoy's--" Paige's face lit up as she realized that these used to belong to her favorite country singer, Neal McCoy. "Ah won 'em playing poker one night." She slid the pictures over to Sam and Rahne. "Ah come home from the treatment center and find these under my door."

Sam looked them over and discovered that they were pictures of her in her house with butterfly wings spread out. "This could ruin yer career, couldn't it?" It was troublesome that they got close enough to use the tele-lens on the camera, but it was scary that some one would try to frame her as a mutant when she wasn't.

She nodded. "Yep." After a second, she added, "Ya've already met Mike- he's the guy Ah wrote a song for. When he saw these, he made me go up ta Momma G's for a bit so nothin' could trigger a relapse. He's a good friend." He had made her go to the one place in the world she felt safe so she could finish her recovery around those she loved best.

"Why would someone do something like this?" Paige asked. The mutant card was a hot topic, but it didn't make sense that the media would target Bit. On the videos and interviews, she'd call Sam "Zack Samuels" as a way to disguise her friendship with Cannonball, member of the X-Men.

"So Ah'll change record companies. Someone in the entertainment business knows how to play the mutant card real well- Ah've checked around. So far ten musicians- all like me, have great futures- have gotten these kind of picture. All have joined Jeweled Leopard Music instead of facin' the chance of bein' exposed for mutants. All the pictures are doctored." She shook her head. "Silver Spur was good ta me durin' muh problems, Ah'm not goin' ta sign on elsewheres." She was one hundred percent loyal to those she was loyal to.

"Ah'll see what Ah can do," Sam promised as he took the pictures from his friend. He'd make some calls, get in touch with Lila and see if he could find out who was at the bottom of this. His best friend didn't need the extra stress right now. "Ah'll handle this- ya just focus on stayin' well." He patted her hand.

***

Laura had just gotten off work at the youth center when she starting thinking about the conversation she had had with Dawn. Someone had really hurt Dawn, and the girl was opening up to her. The conversation had been about telling the truth- regardless of whom it might hurt.

If Laura told the truth about the porn pictures, she would be looked down on by a lot of people. Her adopted mother, Brooke, would break up with Jim. Jim would be arrested, and he would he would retaliate by revealing she caused the fire at the SRO hotel. She could be arrested. But the truth would be told.

On the positive side, she knew that Scott and Stuart would stand by her, as long as they knew the truth. Janet would stand up for her, as would her adoptive mother, and she'd know her true friends. And the truth would be told.

It was worth the effort.

***

Edmund smiled at his friend Hank McCoy, former Avenger, current X-Man, and one of the best scientific minds of modern times. While in town to evaluate Rahne's progress, he had consented to an exclusive interview with Tempo dealing with the Legacy virus. Tempo was going to publish a balanced piece in a coming issue.

"Thanks again for agreeing to meet with me this late." Edmund gestured with the hand still in a cast from the plane wreck that killed his wife. "Most of my days revolve around trying to get my daughter back from my brother."

Hank nodded. News of that messy custody case had made the papers. There was one detail that bothered him though. "Why didn't you challenge the lab test showing Maddie to be Dimitri's?"

Edmund took a sip of his tea and sighed. "DNA evidence is conclusive."

"There are at least 12 people who don't believe that." Hank was talking about the O. J. Simpson case, which the media covered with a vigor that had made Onslaught look like a mild fight. "And it was Center City who did the testing."

"What's wrong with Center City's lab?" Edmund leaned in, smelling a good piece of information.

"Nothing since Andy Fowler left." The man wasn't a competent lab tech, and several of his tests had come back wrong. "Besides that, the paper said that you didn't want Maddie to be hurt- a DNA sample could have been taken from her saliva."

That hadn't been what his assistant had told him. Quickly, Edmund picked up the phone and called his lawyer.

***

After dinner, Sam and his friend moved to the living area to catch up on their lives. So much had changed.

Li'l Bit smiled as she shook her head at something Sam said. She was glad that she and Sam had reached a point in their friendship that they felt comfortable seeing if there was anything else there. If they had never left the small town they grew up in, they would have been married by now. Sam would have made a great father, wonderful husband, fantastic friend, but she would never see the light in his eyes that she saw when he looked at Rahne. And, in friendship, she loved him enough to want his eyes to light up.

But that night taught her a lot. Most importantly, decent guys found her attractive. She had a chance of finding a wonderful guy that could cherish her like Sam cherished Rahne. The other lessons, watch how much you drink and be prepared, were less important than the fact that somewhere there was the kind of guy she wanted, the kind her mother never brought home.

A shadow crossed Sam's face which meant he needed to ask her something important. Years of friendship allowed them to read each other like a book. Their friendship was like a tree with deep roots, a strong support system. Planted in youth, watered in tears and nurtured during the hard times, it had grown. No other friendship could run as deep or be as true.

"Li'l Bit," he started. "Ah need ta tell ya something. Paige has been havin' problems lately and Ah was hopin' ya could talk ta her. It's — about Teddy." He shifted his weight and sighed.

Li'l Bit winced and nodded. "Momma G and Ah talked about this when Ah was home." She didn't want to think about the night when she was nine when she woke up to find a very drunk man touching her in a way no man had a right to. He was touching her where her swimsuit covered her body, and Momma G had said that it was bad for a person to touch her there.

"Did he — hurt ya?" Sam leaned in. His parents had ordered them not to talk about that night and he felt awkward asking her about it.

She sighed and sipped her drink, wishing it was stronger. "He smacked me around, Sam .... tore off my nightgown... tried ta touch me--" her face grew cold, "down there. His hands..." Sam winced at her tone of voice. "Ah hit him with that lamp by muh bed and Ah ran for help." She told him the bare bones of the attack.

Sam fought back the images Li'l Bit's abbreviated account brought to mind. If that man hadn't died years ago, he'd be tempted to hunt him down. "Ah'm sorry."

She nodded. "Mother never believed me when Ah tried ta tell her. She said Ah just wanted ta live with y'all and Ah made up the story ta run away." Ouch, Sam thought. He always knew that Li'l Bit's mother wasn't a pleasant woman when she was drinking, but to disbelieve her own daughter? "That's part of why Ah was at yer place for two weeks this last time and didn't see her once."

Sam hugged his friend. "Ah'm sorry Bit--" She leaned into him for a second.

"Don't be," she smiled at him. "Muh momma and daddy weren't the ones Ah was born ta, but Ah knew where ta find them. Somewheres along the line, we became a family." They were that close.

"Thanks," he told her as he moved back to his chair. "Now can Ah ask ya a question?" She might be the only person that could give them a hint as to what really went on with Teddy and the Guthries.

She nodded, knowing where this was going to lead. "Do Ah think he did anything with ya two?" Sam nodded. "Momma G and Ah talked about this. No." Her answer was firm. "But he may have tried."

"Why didja talk about him?" Sam decided to ask the easy question first, and motioned for Paige to walk in the room.

"It was an issue, and therapy brought all of muh issues to the surface." She smiled sadly at Sam, "Ah had a lot of them ta deal with." And then, later, she and Momma G had talked at length about why they never talked about that night.

"Ah sorry Ah couldn't help ya like Ah should have." Sam loved Li'l Bit like a sister/ best friend and would have done anything to help her with her battle with her eating disorder.

She waved a hand. "Sam ya couldn't have. Ya had ta work and Ah didn't wantcha ta worry about me." She had wanted to protect him from how low she had fallen. As dangerous as his life was, he didn't need to worry about her.

He shook his head, knowing her true reason. "No matter what, Ah'm there for ya." Paige sat down next to her brother and Li'l Bit nodded. "Can ya talk about Teddy?"

She didn't want to, but friendship demanded she must. "Ya were safe- Sam who, was with ya all the time when ya were outside doin' chores or playin'?"

"Daffy." His favorite dog, the one he had tamed himself. "She was always with me outside, and Lassie slept on muh bed at night." None of the dogs had liked Teddy at all.

"An' Paige was around you, me, or Momma G most of the time. And Laddie slept with her." Paige nodded. "Paige, Ah'm not sayin' nothin' happened, but what Ah'm sayin' is that Ah don't think he raped ya." Rape was such an ugly word, she reflected.

"Ya don't?" she asked, feeling like a load of bricks had been lifted off of her. "How do ya know?'

Sam motioned for Rahne to come in. He felt better being able to give her good news than trying to shield her from bad. They were still going to have words tonight, but Li'l Bit was releasing him from his promise to his sister. Rahne sat next to him on the couch, taking in what was going on.

"Simple- Poppa G never allowed drinkin' in the house." Tom Guthrie was a strong Southern Baptist. "Paige, when he tried somethin' with me, he was _drunk_. But before that, he'd still ...." Her voice trailed off as she took another sip of her drink. "He'd look and his hands were very rude." He'd hold her in a way that made her feel dirty, touching her in places where her momma liked being touched.

Paige nodded. She remembered the stares and the way he'd touch her as he'd help her get ready for kindergarten. "And he had no reason ta touch Sam...."

Rahne looked shocked at what Sam had been keeping from her. She said a quick prayer and grabbed her boyfriend's hand. Sam smiled a small smile at her and added, "Ah dressed muhself and got muhself ready for school."

Li'l Bit smiled bitterly. "Momma G did some checkin'. Every time he attacked a kid, he was drunk." There had been three other children molested by Teddy, two of them his own.

"Then," Paige wondered, "why can't Ah talk about him?" She didn't understand the barrier she put up.

That made sense. "Momma and Poppa G tol' ya not ta talk about what he did ta me--" They hadn't wanted Li'l Bit to get branded as most victims were. Instinctively, they felt that she might live down to the reputation of being easy.

"Why?" Rahne asked. She was unfamiliar with the rural setting the three had grown up in and couldn't comprehend why something like this would be kept silent. She was also surprised that this could happen in such a warm, loving family.

"'Cause muh mother is a whore and Momma and Poppa G didn't want people ta think about me like that." The blunt talk shocked Rahne. "And if'n people knew what had happened, they would have."

"Sorry," she muttered, stunned at the girl's honesty.

Li'l Bit smiled at her, "As long as ya don't think bad of me, there's nothin' ta be sorry for." Sam looked at the two women, seeing the friendship blooming between them. "Anyways, Paige, Ah think that when ya heard that ya couldn't talk about Teddy, ya thought ya never could. He was suddenly gone, yer daddy nearly arrested 'cause of him, and Momma and Poppa G asked ya all sorts of questions about him, and then tol' ya not ta talk about him around me. Ya were a little girl in an adult situation."

The older girl had a natural understanding of the younger. "Maybe," Paige muttered.

***

Liza Colby-Chandler was utterly satisfied. She had won her time slot this afternoon with "The Cutting Edge", generated controversy with her coverage of the attack on the television station, and had come home to find her husband willing to serve her supper in bed. Short on the supper part, long on the bed part.

She turned, bright-eyed, to her husband. "Mmm..."

Adam Chandler propped himself up on one elbow and agreed. "At least." He lowered his head to her stomach and started to talk to his child. Their stupid stubbornness had nearly ruined his chance to get to know their first child, but nothing was going to stop him from being involved with this one. "Daddy says hello."

Liza smiled down at him. "We really owe someone a thank you for this afternoon. If Sam hadn't got everyone to safety, and Rahne and his friend and Gillian, hadn't directed the mob away from the studio, I don't know what would have happened."

Although he had a strange way of showing it at times, for all his wealth and power, there was nothing more important to Adam Chandler than his family. He agreed instantly. "But how to say thanks?" He sat up so he was facing his wife.

Liza thought about that. "Sam and his friend are from the same area you grew up in--" Adam had been the son of a dirt-poor coal miner in West Virginia. "And you give scholarships to area teenagers. Why not arrange for his brothers and sisters to go to college?"

Adam smiled at the idea. "Done." He could afford to send twenty plus people to school a year. "Gillian could get some Enchantment stock." Enchantment was a multimillion dollar cosmetic company based in Pine Valley. "And I'll double my support of Rahne's research." Liza pulled Adam back down to her end of the bed and nestled in the crook of his arm. "I just wish there was a way to say thank you publicly."

She turned to him and remembered the fact that the assistant of a friend of their's had recommended Sam. "We can at least thank Emma Frost for sending them our way. And her new board of examiners is a great idea. Maybe we could help her raise some money..."

For some people, pillow talk was sweet nothings. For Adam and Liza, it was business dealings. A fund raiser was tax deductible, great publicity, and would make them the talk of the town. "Can do." Liza shot him a seductive, questioning glance.

"Really?" she asked. And Adam proved he could.

***

Sam and Rahne had left the other two women to talk and gone for a walk in the park. Rahne was hurt and confused. Why did Sam keep something like this from her?

Sensing Rahne's emotions, Sam started to explain. "Ah promised Paige that Ah wouldn't breathe a word about any of this."

Rahne nodded. She wasn't angry at him, but more mad at the situation. She had prayed for Sam and his sister from the day she realized their problems were connected, and finding out what the problem was was made easier by that. And God was gracious enough that neither person had been molested by the monster. Her gratitude for that fact outweighed her hurt. "A just wish ye could have told me."

Sam nodded. "It hurt to keep this a secret, 'cause yer so good at bein' strong for others. Ah wanted yer help." He had been torn between his promise to Paige and his need for Rahne's help. "Ah was hopin' Paige could deal with her problems enough so Ah could tell ya about them soon."

Rahne looked at Sam and smiled. Sam was a honorable man, and he would feel like he had to keep his word to his sister. With a brief prayer, she released the last of her hurt feelings. "Sam, can A ask ye a favor?"

He sat down on a bench and she sat next to him. "What?"

"A'm committed tae us- tae what we can become." Rahne started. "Am A wrong?" She knew that Sam was more serious about dating her, courting her, than he had ever been with Tabitha or Lila.

Sam shook his head. "Ah'm one hundred percent committed to this relationship." He looked at her sitting on the bench and literally felt his heart stop for a second. He loved her.

"No more secrets?" She asked him. "A ken that there are some things best left private- like yer feelings about Mum's coffee and such, but no more real secrets." She was laying her heart on the line for him because she didn't want a repeat of this incident.

Sam nodded. "Ah won't keep anything important a secret from ya." After a brief kiss, he added, "Can Ah ask ya somethin'?" Rahne nodded. "Thanksgiving is a big deal with muh family, everybody comes. Would ya like ta come home with me?" Thanksgiving was a couple of months.

Sam wanted her to meet his family! Rahne smiled. "Aye."

***

Trish Tilby sat in her office and studied her files. Her boss had ordered her to come up with a breaking, sensational news story before the end of the week, and she was out of ideas. Quite simply, she needed a story that would keep people talking for months and dealt with sex, betrayal, and powerful people. Unfortunately, she had nothing like that.

"Two international scandals, the US planning to unveil a plan to eliminate the mutant threat, and corrupt political dealings. Nothing that says I'll sell ad space...." Trish got out her Rolodex and started flipping until she noticed a tall, dark and devilishly handsome man standing in her doorway.

He boldly walked in and sat down next to her. "Hear you need a story," he told her. She nodded. "And I need revenge," he told her with a grin. "Do you like adult movies?"

Trish shrugged, "They serve a purpose, I guess."

"An employee of mine found this tape in his collection. Seems like a certain executive assistant of a company that's trying to take over mine has a past that...." He gestured to the television and VCR in the corner. "Let's just say," he told her as he set a tape to play, "Emma Frost's 'special live-in friend' has the same taste her boss does."

This was the kind of story that Trish Tilby had been searching for, one about a powerful, intelligent, beautiful woman with a tragic secret. She could already hear the sound bites for the nightly news as she watched a few seconds of the tape. The man continued, "And interestingly enough, she left Texas pregnant and her medical records show that she never gave birth."

Trish turned off the tape and faced the man. "So she had an abortion. Nothing interesting there, Mr um...."

"Off the record, Dimitri Merrick." Dimitri handed her Celeste's medical records. "Her family fortune was lost or untouchable when she left Texas, but she was able to pay for a half a million dollar operation in Boston for her sister. And she wasn't pregnant when she got to Boston. Wonder where she got that money from? Especially since my people can't find a adoption record for that child."

"And what do you get from me revealing this?" Trish didn't really care, but she liked to know why people were using her.

"Time to stall Frost Corporation's hostile takeover of my company and a chance to destroy her board of directors from the inside out." Dimitri shrugged. "And the personal satisfaction of watching the person behind it never be able to hold her head up high again." He grinned like a cat who had cornered his prey. "And you get that story you need and a chance to prove you still got it."

"I'll need a couple of days to verify all the facts," Trish told him. "But this will be the story of the year when I get done." Already she was making plans to do stories on illegal adoptions, porn film stars, and sex scandal survivors. With any luck, she could turn this into her own news magazine.

***

Mateo knocked on the apartment door, needing some advice from a fellow big brother. He had been caught allowing Edmund Grey, the man who had been married to Maria and who had raised Maddie as his own daughter, to see Maddie. Dimitri Merrick had then barred him from ever seeing his niece again, according to the certified letter he had just received.

Li'l Bit sighed as she got up and opened the door. This wasn't a good time, Paige was upset and she was upset. And an upset Li'l Bit wasn't a pleasant Li'l Bit. "Yes?" Paige was taking a hot bath to try to relax.

Mateo ran a hand though his hair, "Is Sam here?"

"No," the woman answered. "May Ah help ya?" This woman looked familiar, but she couldn't be that famous singer he'd seen on the cover of the Intruder.

"Umm..." Mateo was somewhat clueless to appropriate behavior and quickly spilled his problem. "Do you have any ideas?"

The eye roll Li'l Bit sent him spoke volumes. She had plenty of ideas, but none of them were pleasant. "Let me get this straight- yer the family of the mother, and the father just barred ya from seein' yer niece?" Mateo nodded. "Sue- he can't do that without just cause and legal proceedings." The Guthries couldn't take her away from her birth mother because her mother had legal rights. The estate of Maria Gray had the same rights. Li'l Bit had studied law just in case her singing career didn't take off.

"Sue?" Mateo asked, liking the sound of that.

The woman nodded, trying to get rid of this person so that she and Paige could talk some more. "Sue for full custody and be prepared ta settle for liberal visitation rights."

Paige walked out on the conversation between Bit and her boss. "I know a good lawyer who is a good friend of the family." She handed him Nathan Dayspring-Summers' business card. "I think he's a friend of Trevor's too."

Mateo pocketed the card and left the apartment.