Curlyqgrl's Steve & Kayla #29

Steve & Kayla #29 "Steve’s Return" August 28 - December 11, 2015: 8 hour original edit
DVD #29A A Kayla offered to keep her mom in the hospital for another night, but Caroline insisted that keeping busy would be better for her health than sticking around there another minute. Kayla suggested that Caroline's feelings were residual anxiety from the frightening experience she'd just been through. Kayla confessed that she was also feeling a bit anxious because she hadn't heard from Joey since he'd returned to school in Ohio a week earlier. Caroline urged her daughter not to worry, but Kayla pointed out that she and Joey had always been close, and it wasn't like him to be out of touch like that. Caroline suggested that Kayla get in touch with the school to check on Joey. A grateful Kayla kissed her mom and left.

Near the nurses' station, Kayla called Joey's school, but someone there informed her that Joey had never shown up at school. "I most certainly did not send a letter explaining his absence!" Kayla insisted, alarmed. She ordered the school to get in touch with all of Joey's friends immediately to find out if any of them had heard from him. As an anxious Kayla hung up, she informed the school that her next call would be to her brother, the police commissioner. Just then, Joey got off the elevator. Kayla rushed over and hugged him, breathlessly asking where he'd been. A second later, Steve exited the elevator, as well. "Hello, Sweetness. It's been a while, huh?" Steve said.

8/31 At the hospital, Joey protested as Kayla hugged him tightly. "New rule, no public displays of affection," Steve advised Kayla. "Don't give me tips on parenting," Kayla snapped before finally letting go of Joey and taking a step back to inspect him and assure herself that he was okay. After contacting Joey's school and assuring the administrator that she didn't blame the school for what had happened, Kayla ended the call and made it clear that she wasn't going to let Joey off the hook that easily.

"Why on earth would you leave school without telling anybody where you were going? And why would you drop in on your pretty-much-absentee father's doorstep in New York City? Do you know you scared the hell out of me? Or maybe you don't even care about that!" Kayla asked, leaving Joey no time to get a word in edgewise. Suggesting that it might be best for him to field Kayla's questions himself, Steve told Joey, whom he referred to as Joe, to go get a drink. "Do I have your permission?" Joey tiredly asked Kayla, who hesitated a moment before okaying the idea. Steve wanted to talk to Kayla in a more private location, so she reluctantly took him to her office.

"Nice digs. Oh.'Dr. Kayla Brady,' huh?" Steve noted when he saw the nameplate sitting on Kayla's desk. Kayla said the surname meant a lot to her.

"And Johnson doesn't, right?" Steve guessed.

"Sure it does. It's my children's name," Kayla answered uneasily before changing the subject, guessing Steve hadn't asked her to take him to a more private location just so they could discuss the two surnames. Steve confirmed the suspicion, explaining that he had assumed Kayla would want to raise her voice while chewing him out.

"You are the same as always," Kayla muttered with a shake of her head. "You're looking mighty fine yourself, Sweetness," Steve smoothly replied. Unimpressed, Kayla asked Steve to explain how Joey had ended up in New York City, which wasn't exactly walking distance from his school in Ohio. Steve took a seat and sighed as he admitted that he was to blame for that. "You see, Joe and I have been, um we've been in touch. For a while now," Steve explained. Kayla wasn't surprised to learn that Steve was responsible for Joey's trip to New York City, but she admitted that Joey had never mentioned that he had been in contact with Steve lately. Steve said he thought there was a good reason Joey had kept their communications a secret.

"Well, it's been a long time since I heard one of your explanations. They were always so creative," Kayla bitterly mused.  Steve suggested he and Kayla could skip the sarcasm and instead talk about their son. As Kayla agreed, Joey approached her office door and started eavesdropping. Steve explained that, thanks to social media, he and Joey had reconnected and begun corresponding via text messages and emails. Steve added that the conversations had been mundane at first, and when he admitted that they had also been a bit awkward, Kayla suggested that could be attributed to the fact that it had been a really long time since Joey had last seen Steve.

Nodding, Steve continued that the conversations had eventually started getting more personal, and he had learned that Joey hadn't been thrilled about leaving Salem and being dumped at a boarding school in Ohio. Steve explained that he had tried to sympathize with Joey and see things from his point of view. Kayla assumed that meant Steve had backed Joey up and invited him to drop out of school and fly to New York City on his own, but Steve insisted that he'd had no idea that Joey had been planning to do that. "He just showed up. And when I realized he had dropped out of school --" Steve started to add.

"He brought me home," Joey concluded as he entered the office. Kayla declared that Steve had done the right thing but added that it would have been nice if someone had bothered to let her know what had happened. Steve apologized, explaining that he had hoped to return to Salem with Joey before Kayla had realized Joey wasn't at the school. Kayla conceded that Steve had almost managed to achieve that goal. Steve added that he'd had another reason for escorting Joey back to Salem himself.

"I'm thinking about staying in Salem permanently," Steve revealed.  Kayla insisted that Steve needed to return to New York City because Salem was no longer his home. Steve disagreed, but Kayla maintained that New York City was the most exciting city in the world, and that was what Steve wanted, a life filled with excitement and devoid of ties to others.

"I want my family," Steve clarified. "For how long this time? I mean, just because you're feeling a little nostalgic? I don't think that you should be using Joey to try to recapture the past," Kayla countered. Rolling his eyes, Joey put away his cell phone and turned his attention to his parents' conversation. Steve clarified that he wasn't trying to recapture the past, he was instead thinking about the present and looking toward the future. Steve added that his family was in Salem. "You do not get to talk to me about family. You made your decision about family in Africa, when you, completely unilaterally, made a decision to join the ISA. And I had no choice but to learn to live with that decision, and learn to live without you. And so did our children," Kayla reminded Steve. Assuring Kayla that he was no longer involved with the ISA, Steve stressed that he just wanted to start over.

"You're just done with that? Because our son shows up at your front door, you just want to waltz back into our lives?" Kayla asked incredulously. Steve started to respond, but Kayla interrupted and told him not to say another word. "Just go, and I will handle this, just like I always do," Kayla quietly added. Steve agreed to leave but warned Kayla that he didn't intend to just go away. Kayla took Joey to the Brady Pub for some food, and when he showed a lack of interest in what she had ordered, she reminded him that it had once been his favorite meal.

"I changed, okay?" Joey replied with a shrug.

"Yeah, I know. You used to talk," Kayla recalled. Kayla told Joey that she wasn't just upset about what he had done; she was also worried about him. Kayla pointed out that Joey was a minor and that going off on his own could have proven to be dangerous, but he countered that he had managed to get to New York City just fine on his own. Kayla warned Joey not to cop an attitude with her.

"Do you see why I didn't tell you I was talking to Dad? 'Cause you think everything I do is wrong," Joey complained. Kayla clarified that she simply believed Joey had been making some mistakes lately. Kayla started to add that she understood that Joey wanted to get to know his father, but Joey interrupted.

"Look, you don't need to explain things to me, okay? Yeah, at first I thought he did want to be my dad, but it's just like you said, he's only using me as an excuse to come back here," Joey conceded. Kayla acknowledged that she had some issues with Steve.

"Nice way to put it," Joey muttered. Kayla continued that Steve loved Joey and hadn't been using him.

"That's why you were so glad to see him, ’cause he was being such a good dad," Joey sarcastically agreed. ;Kayla clarified that she had simply been taken aback and hadn't known what to make of Steve's announcement that he would be staying in Salem.

"You heard him, he's here 'cause his family is here," Joey reminded Kayla, his words still dripping with sarcasm. Not wanting to trash Steve to Joey, Kayla carefully explained that she believed Steve had meant what he had said; she just wasn't convinced he could follow through with his promises.

"Come on, how could you possibly not be sure?" Joey replied. Ignoring the continued sarcasm, Kayla noted that Joey and Stephanie knew what to expect from Steve.

"I think that he loves you the best he can; it's just that sometimes it's not as much as you want," Kayla added, grasping Joey's hand as he remained silent.

While passing through the town square, Steve paused to take a look at Tom and Alice's memorial plaque. "Mrs. H and Dr. H, still at the center of it all. That's nice. It is good to be home," Steve mused.

Steve went to the police station to see Hope, who was stunned to see that he was back in Salem. At Steve's request, Hope gave him a hug, but it wasn't exactly a warm one. After telling Hope about what Joey had done, Steve jokingly wondered why present-day kids couldn't be reliable and obedient, like his and Hope's generation had been. Hope sarcastically agreed that those were the exact words she'd use to describe the younger version of Steve, and he countered that taking off on the back of Bo's bike hadn't exactly been a reliable and obedient thing for her to do as a youth. Hope tensed as Steve wondered how Bo was doing. Hope said she didn't know because Bo had gone undercover for the ISA, and it had been three years since she had last seen him. "That's just not like him," Steve noted with obvious confusion.

"Really? Well, people change, don't they, Steve? That's exactly what he did, he deserted me," Hope replied. When Steve asked about Ciara, Hope tersely reported that she was doing wonderfully. Steve could tell that Hope didn't want to talk about the situation with Bo, and she confirmed the suspicion before changing the subject, wondering when Steve planned to head back to New York City. Steve admitted that he wasn't sure what he was going to do next. Hope was surprised to learn that Steve was no longer involved with the ISA. Steve explained that he had been hanging out with Joey recently in an effort to get to know him better. Steve added that Kayla hadn't exactly welcomed him back to Salem with open arms.

"Shocker," Hope dryly replied. Conceding that Kayla had a reason to be skeptical about his return, Steve noted that her reaction had made him realize just how hard he would have to work to make things right with his family again.

"Well, when you're put in the position to have to make it on your own because your husband's deserted you, and you're left having to raise the children on your own, you find that the happy memories are the most painful, so you don't get sentimental about the good old days, Steve," Hope replied. Hope's cell phone chimed before Steve could respond, and she excused herself, explaining that she was working on a case. Steve said it had been good to see Hope again, and she stiffly returned the sentiment.

"We'll talk later, if you decide to stick around this time," Hope added before walking away.

9/2 In Kayla's office, Hope stopped by to talk. Hope asked about Steve, but Kayla said she did not want to talk about her wayward ex. Kayla changed the subject to Aiden's proposal. Hope admitted that she loved Aiden, but the situation felt rushed. With a smile, Kayla advised Hope that her gut would tell her when the time was right.

After Hope left, Joey visited his mother in her office. Kayla called the headmaster of Joey's school, and he informed Kayla that Joey was not welcome back. Joey shrugged. With an exasperated sigh, Kayla reminded Joey that he had been doing better academically when he had started at the school. Joey's phone beeped, and he grabbed his phone to check the text message. Exasperated, Kayla ordered Joey to put his phone away. As Joey rolled his eyes, Steve opened the office door and poked his head in. Holding a vase of flowers, Steve asked Kayla and Joey if they were interested in lunch. Steve placed the flowers on Kayla's desk. She curtly informed Steve that Joey had been expelled from school.

When Steve joked that expulsion was expected when Joey had left school, Kayla blew up. Furious, Kayla ordered Steve to behave like a father. Steve countered that he did not want Joey to go to boarding school and that he was making an effort to be a father. With a scowl, Kayla said that she had sent Joey off to school to help him. While Kayla and Steve argued, Joey fumed in his chair. Finally, Joey cried out and ordered his parents to stop fighting. Kayla apologized, but Joey was clearly uncomfortable, and he left.

"We can't do that to him again," Steve said. "No we can't," Kayla growled. Steve pleaded with Kayla to give him a chance. Shaking her head, Kayla noted that flowers would not repair the damage of the years that Steve had been absent from her life and from Joey's life. Steve swore that he wanted to remain in Salem. Steve pleaded with Kayla to give him a chance to "do right by" her.

As Aiden kissed Hope, Steve walked into the square. Hope was startled to see Steve, and she broke away from Aiden's arms and called out to Steve. Stuttering, Hope introduced Steve to Aiden as "an old friend."

"And Aiden's a new friend?" Steve said with a mischievous smile. "Hope and I go way back, don't we? I'm Bo's best friend," Steve said as he firmly shook Aiden's hand. Hope apologized for skipping lunch, and she left. Steve asked if he could buy Aiden a drink. Unnerved, Aiden reluctantly agreed, and the two men walked to Club TBD. Over drinks, Steve explained that he had been in the merchant marines with Bo. As Aiden nodded, Steve added that he had known Bo and Hope for years and that Bo and Hope were soul mates. Aiden countered that Bo had abandoned Hope and Ciara, and Hope deserved better.

9/3 At Club TBD, Hope met with Maggie, Julie, Caroline, and Kayla to discuss plans for the bicentennial celebration. Julie mentioned Joey's return to Salem. Kayla admitted that, while seeing Steve again had been hard, she was thrilled to have Joey back home. Kayla added that Joey would soon be attending school in Salem because he was not allowed to return to his old school in Ohio. Hope was eager to see Joey again, so she made plans for her and Ciara to visit soon. Maggie pointed out that there was some other good news worth cheering about, and Julie agreed, declaring that she was happy and excited about Hope's engagement to Aiden. Caroline remained silent as Maggie and Julie tried to get Hope to fill them in on her plans for the wedding.

Julie eventually noticed and apologized to Caroline for being insensitive. Maggie issued her own apology, but Caroline assured both women that she understood and wanted Hope to be happy just as much as they did. Maggie and Julie wanted Hope to make her wedding to Aiden part of the bicentennial celebration, but Hope clarified that she hadn't even accepted his proposal yet. Caroline excused herself so she could get back to the pub, which was short staffed that day. Hope pulled Caroline aside and clarified that she hadn't tabled Aiden's proposal because of what Caroline had said about Bo during their last conversation.

Hope explained that she simply needed to be completely sure, before accepting Aiden's proposal, that marrying him was the right decision for her as well as Ciara. Caroline left after once again stating that she understood. When Hope rejoined the other women, they again apologized for being quick to assume that she had already accepted Aiden's proposal. Hope stressed that, regardless of whether she ultimately decided to accept or turn down Aiden's proposal, she felt incredibly lucky because she had managed to find love again with a good man who was great for her and Ciara.

Later, back inside the club, Kayla and Hope continued talking after Julie and Maggie left. Kayla hoped Julie and Maggie would give Hope the peace and time she needed to make up her mind about whether to accept Aiden's proposal. Hope agreed, stressing that she needed to be sure it was the right decision not only for herself but also for Ciara. Kayla said she had been thinking a lot lately about how her rift with Steve had affected Joey over the years. Hope was sure it had been hard on Joey but nevertheless assured Kayla that he would be fine, since he knew just how loved he was.

Hope told Kayla about Steve's recent encounter with Aiden. Kayla groaned and complained that Steve shouldn't have talked to Aiden about Bo. Hope agreed but pointed out that Steve had never been one to censor himself, and he would always be in Bo's corner, regardless of the situation. Kayla predicted that if Bo were still in Salem, he would be advocating for her to give Steve another chance. Hope wondered if Kayla was considering doing that. "Are you out of your mind? I don't know why you would even ask me that. No, I don't want anything to do with Steve! I am never gonna give him the chance to hurt me like that again," Kayla vowed. Upon request, Joey met with Steve in the park, but he stayed silent while Steve tried to converse with him. Steve conceded that he deserved the silent treatment. Steve added, however, that he was hoping he and Joey could eventually reach an understanding. Steve stressed that he didn't expect that to happen anytime soon but was determined to put all his effort into repairing his relationship with Joey because he loved Joey a lot.

"I know how hard it must have been on you all those years I was away. But you're older now, so I'm hoping that when I get a chance to explain things to you, maybe you'll understand," Steve added.

"Yeah, good luck with that," Joey replied. Undeterred, Steve wondered if Joey knew what his job had involved.

"Yeah, saving the world," Joey muttered. Steve denied that, clarifying that he hadn't exactly been saving the world but did like to think he had helped people during his time with the ISA and had done important work.

"But no matter where I was in the world, I was always thinking about you, Joe. You know, that's why I sent you all those gifts, those little gifts, you know, from Tunisia, Tanzania; I thought if I could send you some little souvenir from wherever I was in the world, that you would know you were not forgotten by your dad," Steve added. Joey turned his attention to his cell phone, prompting Steve to ask if they could just talk for a second.

"What do you want me to say that everything's okay now? Trying to make me think we can be really close now? And in case you're wondering, I did get your packages from all over the world, with all the fancy stamps. I just never opened them. I threw them all away, 'cause I didn't give a damn where you were or where you'd been. All I ever cared about is that you weren't here," Joey replied.

"I'm here now," Steve pointed out.

"Too little, too late," Joey countered before walking away.

Later, Steve went to the Kiriakis mansion to see Victor and Maggie after realizing that one of Victor's men was tailing him. Victor admitted that he knew all about Steve's recent return to Salem. Victor added, however, that what he didn't know was why Steve had returned to Salem in the first place. Steve said he would be happy to answer that but would want to ask Victor some questions of his own afterward. Maggie took that as her cue to leave, and once they were alone, Steve asked Victor to tell him what had happened to Bo.

9/4 Kayla and Joey are waiting to meet with the Head Master to try to get him into a school in Salem. He deliberately sabotages the interview. He has no interest in going back to Prep School. He blames Kayla for breaking up his family and driving his father away. Steve demands to know what Victor knows about where Bo is.

Meanwhile, A dark haired man is shown laying face down in a cell. Victor is indignant that Steve would think that Victor would know where Bo was and not do anything. Steve makes himself comfortable and informs Victor that he isn’t going anywhere until Victor gives him a real answer. Victor is losing patience with him, but Steve suggests that they work together to figure out where Bo is. He demands to know doesn’t Victor want to know where Bo is? Victor recommends he talk to the ISA?

Victor reports that he already has but got nowhere. Steve declares Bo has been gone for too long not even for deep cover. He knows Bo wouldn’t leave Hope hanging like this, he wouldn't have left her for so long. Victor points out Steve has been gone for years and left his own family. He suggests that Steve is trying to play the hero to show Kayla he is reliable. Victor agrees to show Steve the report his people had put together. Victor observes that he isn’t sure that Bo wants to come home. He put his work first and lost his wife over it.

9/8 In the Kiriakis mansion, Steve warned that the letters Victor had received from Bo were clearly not written by Bo. Steve offered to dig up Bo's merchant marine files and prove that Bo had never been to Tahiti. With a groan, Victor countered that Bo had been in Tahiti with Hope. Victor said he believed that Steve was "grasping at straws." When Steve urged Victor to consider that he was not imagining things, Victor said that if Steve was correct, then they needed to determine who had written Bo's letters.

Steve wondered aloud whether Bo had been working for the ISA at all. When Steve asked Victor if Bo had ever said that he was working with the ISA, Victor shook his head no. Eager to confirm whether Bo had been working with the ISA, Steve met up with John at the Brady Pub. After a joyous greeting, Steve broached the subject of Bo's disappearance. Steve asked John to tell him about the last time he had spoken to Bo. John explained that after Bo had given him the letter to give to Hope, Bo had informed John that Bo's investigation had involved an international crime syndicate.

"He couldn't give me any details. I wasn't with the agency back then," John added. John confirmed that he had not spoken to Bo since that last meeting. John added that Bo had said that he was working for the ISA. With a sigh, John warned Steve not to look for problems that were not there. Steve refused to believe that Bo would abandon his family.

"That's part of the life. I think you know that better than anybody. But I'll tell you this; before Bo left to go after Dimera, he was really driven. For the sake of his family. So I will check out this theory of yours, but I've gotta tell you, my gut says that he went off the grid of his own free will," John said. Steve frowned.

In an unknown prison, a man with Bo's tattoo on his back lay on the floor of a cell, disheveled and grimy.

Kayla called Steve from her office at the hospital so they could talk about Joey. Before they could agree on where or when to meet, Kayla was called away to the operating room. In the park outside Horton Square, as Steve hung up, Aiden hurried through the gate. Steve stopped him so they could finish their conversation, but Aiden said they had finished. Steve bristled a bit. Aiden snappishly acknowledged that Steve was Bo's best friend, but Aiden asserted that Bo had chosen to leave Hope. The conversation between the men was starting to turn heated when Hope showed up and interrupted.

Steve complained about how Aiden had "swooped in on Hope" and Hope had let him. Hope ordered Steve to stop, reminding her that she wasn't some helpless woman on whom Aiden had preyed, and Steve completely agreed. Hope wondered if he thought she'd been disloyal, even though Bo had deserted her, just as Steve had deserted Kayla. Conceding that point, Steve reminded Hope that they were talking about the ISA. Hope declared that she didn't give a damn about the ISA or how noble Bo's mission had been.

Steve told Hope about the letters that Bo had written to Victor, which Steve didn't think Bo had actually written. A skeptical Hope told Steve that it had been very painful for her to finally accept that her husband had chosen his job over his family, noting that she hadn't even heard a word from Bo after she'd filed for divorce, which had told her that he didn't care about fighting for his family. Steve wanted to know how long Hope had known "this dude," Aiden. Hope contended that it was none of Steve's business.   When Steve became angry and demanded to know how Hope could know that Bo was never returning, Aiden stepped in and pointed out how painful the whole experience had been for Hope. It appeared the argument between the men might become physical, but Hope quickly interceded. She pointed out that Steve had given her no reasons to believe his theories about Bo were true.

"You do what you want, Hope, but I won't let it go. I can't," Steve said as he left.

Kayla was back in her office when Steve stopped by to discuss Joey. Steve said he hadn't had much luck talking to Joey earlier. Kayla admitted that Joey's words to her earlier had hurt but she was so desperate to help her son that she wanted Steve's help. Steve cautioned Kayla that their son hated him.

"I'm not giving up, baby, on Joe or on us," Steve vowed. Kayla reminded him, "There is no 'us,' Steve." Steve expressed his displeasure when Kayla was called away, but she pointed out, "I've got a hospital to run. I don't have time to bang my head against the wall."

9/11 Julie, Maggie, and Caroline are at the old Martin family mansion, which was draped with drop cloths and filled with the paraphernalia of ongoing renovations. Julie showed the ladies a box of photographs. The women each took a stack of pictures, and Caroline quickly found a photo of the Brady Fishmarket from before Shawn and Caroline had turned it into the Brady Pub. Caroline privately recalled happy times of being alone with her husband in their establishment. She excused herself and headed into the foyer, where she shook her head and looked around in confusion.

As Caroline's eyes fell on a large mirror, she saw a ghostly image of her late husband floating above her own reflection. Caroline moved closer to the mirror, but Shawn's image vanished just as Maggie entered the room. Maggie asked if Caroline were all right, and Caroline let out a strangled shout. "Where am I?" Caroline asked, confused. Maggie reminded Caroline that they were in the old Martin mansion, and Caroline seemed to return to her senses. Hiding her concern, Maggie gently led Caroline back into the room with the photographs.

9/15 The paramedics arrived at the hospital with Stefano and Chad. While the medics wheeled Stefano into an exam room, Chad told Kayla that Stefano's heart had stopped in the ambulance. Kayla reassured Chad that the stoppage was common. As Chad stared wild-eyed across the waiting room, Kayla asked Chad to steer clear of his father while the doctors worked on him. Kayla returned to the waiting room to inform Chad that Stefano would be fine. While Kayla and Chad talked about how Chad had helped to save Stefano's life, Steve walked around the corner and eavesdropped. Kayla commended Chad for his quick actions.

Steve approached Kayla and asked her what had happened to Stefano. With a nervous chuckle, Kayla shook her head. Steve asked Kayla why she had treated Stefano. Kayla explained that a cardiologist had handled Stefano. With a knowing nod, Steve commented that heart problems would keep Stefano out of trouble. Rafe interrupted the conversation to ask about Stefano. Kayla updated Rafe. With a nod, Rafe asked to see the patient. Kayla noted that Rafe could speak to Stefano when Chad left.After Rafe walked away, Steve asked Kayla if they could talk privately about their son.

Kayla escorted Steve back to her office to talk. Steve marveled that Kayla was looking after Stefano in the hospital. With a shrug, Kayla noted that she was the chief of staff and needed to look after Stefano despite what he had done to the people she loved. With a grin, Steve asked Kayla if he was one of the ones that she loved.

"You got a heart as big as all outdoors, especially when someone needs your help. You're an amazing doctor. Not to mention an amazing mom. You're an amazing woman, Kayla," Steve said. Talk turned to Joey's school schedule, and Steve commented that Joey liked art class. When Kayla added chemistry to the schedule, Steve argued that Joey hated science. As Kayla groaned, Steve relented and commented that Joey could not hate a class he had never taken. Kayla smiled in spite of herself. Kayla asked Steve about his theories about Bo.

Steve refused to turn his back on his friend. Steve wondered aloud why Bo had escorted his mother to California for medical tests but then had sent her home alone and had never been seen again. Shaking her head, Kayla reminded Steve that there had been letters. Steve argued that the letters did not sound like Bo. The discussion turned heated. Steve said he wanted to retrace Bo's footsteps, angering Kayla. Kayla accused Steve of using Bo as an excuse to skip town. As Steve shook his head, Hope entered the office and asked what was going on.

9/16 As Hope entered Kayla's office at the hospital, she overheard part of Kayla and Steve's conversation. "You want to go chasing after Bo?" Hope asked. Steve said no one could convince him that Bo had abandoned his family. Hope emphasized that she'd felt exactly the same way at first, and she had something that might change Steve's mind. Hope asked Kayla to retrieve the letter, so Kayla opened a file drawer and handed Hope a sheet of paper that had obviously been torn up and taped back together. Hope explained that it was the last letter she'd gotten from Bo, the last time she'd heard from him at all. She added that John had delivered the letter to her nearly two years earlier.

She continues that she had been so upset after reading it that she'd ripped it up. Steve guessed that Hope hadn't been able to bear throwing the letter away and they both knew why. Hope asserted that after tearing up the letter, she'd realized that it had been the right of Bo's family to read it, as well. Hope gave the letter to Steve so he could read it for himself. As Steve read the letter aloud, his voice began to break as he neared the end. When Steve finished reading, Hope believed he could no longer deny that Bo had chosen work over family.

Steve acknowledged that the letter did sound like Bo, nothing like the letters Victor had gotten. Steve apologized to both Hope and Kayla, explaining to Kayla that reading the letter and seeing Hope's face had made him realize just what Steve had put Kayla through. Steve berated himself for not being there to talk Bo out of the mission, but Hope contended that Steve would not have been able to do so. She wondered if Bo had been bored with her, but Steve refused to believe that. He apologized again and left.

Hope asked if Kayla thought Steve would give up on the idea of trying to find Bo. "Not for a minute," Kayla admitted. Hope and Kayla showed up just as Ciara was cautioning Aiden to stay away from Mr. DiMera. Kayla admonished Aiden that he shouldn't have been bothering Stefano, who wasn't allowed visitors. Kayla returned with the kids and pronounced them fit for sports. The kids were excited when Aiden and Hope offered to take them out for ice cream, although Ciara mostly just wanted to know the adults' secret.

Steve found Joey on a bench in Horton Square. Steve noted that Joey looked a little down, and Joey admitted that his first day at Salem High hadn't been that great. Steve offered to do whatever he could to help, and Joey wondered if that meant his dad was going to stick around. Steve said it was never too late to have a good father/son relationship, and he promised to listen if Joey ever needed to complain about school. Joey admitted that when Hope had been nice to him earlier, he'd gotten "in her face" and said she wasn't family because she'd divorced Bo. Steve explained that Hope had waited a long time for Bo, who was the one who had left, then she'd met Aiden and had decided to start a new life with him. Joey didn't understand why his Uncle Bo had left like that. Steve surprised his son by blaming the ISA. Steve added that although Kayla believed he had left because he'd been bored with his life, it wasn't the reason. He urged Joey to apologize to his Aunt Hope.

As Kayla was digging through her desk drawers to find a charger for her phone, she ran across a portrait of herself and Steve from their wedding. Joey stopped by a little later to ask his mom for some money to buy school supplies. While she was getting out her wallet, he noticed the picture out on her desk and asked about it. Kayla explained how she'd found it. Laughing, Joey made fun of his dad's hair and tuxedo in the picture, and Kayla noted that her hair wasn't that great, either. Joey said he'd run into his dad earlier and had told his dad how he'd acted toward his Aunt Hope. Joey promised to apologize to Hope, acknowledging that Steve had filled him in a little about what had really happened with Bo and Hope. Joey added that, although he wasn't getting his hopes up, his dad had seemed like less of a jerk, at least where his ex-wife and son were concerned.

Asking Joey not to tell his dad what she was about to say, Kayla admitted that Steve had always liked being a "daredevil," but he'd also liked returning home, so perhaps she should have spent less time being angry with him and more time accepting who he really was.

"It doesn't mean he doesn't love us, right? I mean, I think he does. Why else would he keep coming back?" Kayla noted.

"Maybe because even when you had big hair, Dad was hot for you," Joey suggested. Steve tells John that he'd read Hope's letter and agreed that it really was from Bo, but Steve still couldn't accept that Bo had deserted his family. John pointed out that Bo had been working undercover, although he had no idea what Bo had been working on. Steve wanted to know if John had gotten the letter directly from Bo.

"No. After I met with him, the letter was delivered to the hotel room a couple hours later," John replied. He added that he'd done some digging after talking to Steve, but John had turned up nothing. "It's as if Bo never worked for the agency," John explained. Steve was taken aback. John said, "I'll tell you what I hope didn't happen, that the mission went south and the ISA is just covering it up."

9/17 Kayla met with Steve at Club TBD and told him about her earlier conversation with Joey. Kayla struggled to understand why Steve would want to run off to search for Bo, especially when it seemed like he was actually managing to make a bit of progress with Joey. Steve told Kayla about what he had learned from John earlier, and he wondered if she really wanted him to just ignore the possibility that Bo might be in real danger. Kayla didn't know how to respond to that question.

"Kayla, you know I came back here because I wanted to see if there's still a chance for us. I've been thinking, if I can bring your brother back and show you that I'm not just looking for a reason to run away, you might be willing to give me another chance," Steve admitted.

Later, Kayla went to the police station to see Hope. Kayla had mixed emotions about Hope's engagement news; she was happy for Hope but realized that the news could mean that her relationship with Hope would soon change. Hope assured Kayla that they would always be sisters. Kayla told Hope about her earlier meeting with Steve. Hope admitted that she wished Steve could find Bo and convince him to return home. Not only for the sake of his kids, his siblings, and his mother, but also so she could confront him about his abandonment and tell him, face-to-face, that their relationship was over for good. Kayla complained that having Steve back in the picture made it harder to tell herself that she loathed him and was glad to have him out of her life.

"When he's in the room --" Kayla started to add, and when her voice trailed off, Hope guessed Kayla was still attracted to Steve.

"Well, I don't know if it's just, like, an old habit or something, or if it's more than that, but I am gonna do my best to fight it. That's all I can tell you," Kayla replied with a nervous laugh. Hope suspected that Steve wanted Kayla back.

"Oh, he says that now," Kayla skeptically replied before letting her voice trail off again.

Steve tracked Kayla down at the hospital and excitedly told her that he had just talked to a woman he had met in Hamburg. Kayla complained that she didn't need to hear about one of Steve's flings, but he forged ahead, urging her to hear him out. Steve continued that the woman owned a boat that she used to run people up the river and out to the North Sea, as a side business of sorts. Bo had been one of her passengers. Steve added that the woman had taken Bo to a freighter he had then boarded, but she didn't know where it had headed afterward.

Steve said he had been unable to figure out if Bo's meeting with John had happened before or after that but was certain that it had all occurred within the same basic time frame. Kayla expressed skepticism, but Steve was just happy to have a lead to follow. Kayla pointed out that the lead could turn out to be a dead end, and Steve could therefore be about to get everyone's hopes up for nothing. Kayla wondered what would happen if that turned out to be the case, prompting Steve to guess she was really just asking if he would return to Salem if he failed to find Bo.

"Do you want me to come back?" Steve wondered.

"No, I don't," Kayla claimed with a dismissive shrug.

"Nice try, but I don't believe you," Steve replied.

9/18 On the phone with a contact, John requested information on a man named Ilya Petrov, who had defected from Russia. John hoped the man could help John find what he was looking for. Steve showed up just as John ended the call. Steve related what he'd learned from some of his old contacts in the Merchant Marine, about a year and a half or two years earlier, a woman named Monika had transported Bo on her charter boat from Hamburg to a freighter in the North Sea.

Steve hoped John could find out if there had been any ISA activity in Germany around that time that Bo could have been caught up in. John got back on the phone. A little later, he reported to Steve that the ISA had shut down operations in Germany after the incidents with Wikileaks and Edward Snowden, and the timing coincided with when Bo had been there. Steve and John concluded that by then, Bo had already stopped working with the ISA and had been on his own, although neither could figure out why.

John got on the computer to research the Marianne, the freighter where Monika had taken Bo. John learned that the Marianne made regular runs between Hamburg and Copenhagen. Steve sent a message to his buddy Axel to find out if anyone in Copenhagen had seen Bo. John and Steve agreed that Marlena and Kayla weren't happy about the guys "getting back in the game." John noted that he'd promised Marlena that he wouldn't let his job interfere with their relationship and if he and Steve screwed up, they would not get another chance.

John found an email from his contact about Ilya Petrov. Along with a photo of Petrov, John learned that the man had defected in 1987 and had been a teacher at Winterthorne Academy in Littleton, Vermont. Since he'd never heard of the school, John did a web search and found its website, which showed a photo of the traditional-looking academy, complete with bell tower, on the shores of a serene lake. Steve got a reply from Axel. "Looks like Bo didn't disappear, after all. He just knew how to fly under the radar," Steve announced. He explained that Bo had been in Copenhagen off and on for a while until Axel had helped him get to Cancun. John frowned when he realized what the look on Steve's face meant.

"Yeah, I'm going, man. I'm going to Cancun. I'm bringing Bo back," Steve declared. Chad called Kayla to ask if she could help him find some information about a medication, but she pointed out that he could search the Internet for that. Chad gently used his position on the board to persuade Kayla to help him. He inquired about what drug could make someone black out. Kayla said there were several, so Chad narrowed it down to things that could be mixed with alcohol but not tasted.

After Kayla suggested Rohypnol, or "roofies," she asked if Chad thought that was what had happened to him. Chad admitted that it could explain what had happened, although he would have to prove it. Kayla said if Chad had been drugged, there would no longer be any traces of it in his system. Chad thanked Kayla and hung up.

9/21 At the hospital, Joey followed Kayla to the nurses' station, where she stopped and asked him to give her a minute to check her messages. Joey offered to head home so Kayla could get back to work, but she wasn't ready to let him off the hook that easily. Kayla, who had just finished picking Joey up from school because he had been suspended after getting into a fight, wondered why he had taken a swing at a boy who was supposed to be one of his friends. Joey admitted that he, too, had been under the impression that the kid could be considered a friend. Joey wasn't willing to say much about what had caused the incident, stating only that it was hard to explain and that things had just escalated. Kayla wondered if Joey was trying to get his father's attention.

Joey scoffed and rolled his eyes as he shook his head dismissively, prompting Kayla to admit that she couldn't figure out what it was about her question that he had found humorous.

"No, it's just that you and Dad, you're on, like, your own planets half the time," Joey replied. Kayla didn't know what that meant, but Joey told her to forget about it and go back to work. Kayla stressed that, while she was indeed busy, she was never too busy for Joey. Kayla added that Joey was old enough to understand that she had other obligations, such as caring for Caroline, looking after the pub, and working to earn the money needed to support herself and him. Kayla added, however, that if Joey ever needed anything, all he had to do was ask her for it. Joey insisted that he was good.

Kayla disagreed, but before she could say anything else, she received a text message about an emergency. Joey encouraged Kayla to take care of the matter, adding that he was going to try to catch Steve before Steve left town. Kayla warned Joey not to be disappointed if Steve ignored his phone calls. "You're so sure about him," Joey observed with a sigh. Kayla confirmed that she was, adding that, while she was sorry that Steve had never been around for Joey, or her, for that matter, she could guarantee that Steve would always put himself ahead of his family.

At the Martin mansion, Caroline followed the music to the room that contained the mirror she had seen Shawn's face in during one of her previous visits. Again, Shawn's face appeared to Caroline in the mirror. Knowing her health was deteriorating, Caroline wondered if Shawn was appearing to her in an effort to prepare her for death. Caroline admitted that, a few days earlier, she had secretly spent twenty minutes with Kayla before finally remembering Kayla's name.

Later, in Kayla's office, Kayla finished checking Caroline's blood pressure and announced that, all things considered, Caroline's vitals were good. Caroline admitted that she had been seeing ghostly images of Shawn lately and feared that might mean she was about to die. Kayla confirmed that things were progressing but optimistically added that Caroline was a fighter.

At the Kiriakis mansion, Steve told Victor about his plan to head to Mexico in search of Bo. Steve had been retracing Bo's steps, dating back to a year before his departure from Salem, and had found a gap in the timeline, right after Bo had taken Caroline to California for treatment. Steve had hoped Victor might be able to explain the gap, but Victor insisted it was nothing, and he instructed Steve to leave it alone. Steve wasn't willing to do that, and after spending a few minutes going back and forth with Victor on the matter, he got fed up and pulled up an image on his tablet computer that had been taken from a surveillance camera at a bar in Cancun.

"Good God," Victor muttered as he stared at the image.

"I thought that'd get your attention," Steve replied. Victor demanded to know how Steve had acquired the image and how he was sure it was real. Steve explained that, after learning that Bo had gone to Cancun, he had started contacting old friends who lived there, and he had eventually found someone who had remembered seeing Bo at that particular bar.

Steve added that he had gotten the owner of the bar to dig through the surveillance footage, and the image Victor was looking at was from the last time Bo had been inside the bar. Steve said the ISA had no record of Bo's movements afterward. Steve added that he couldn't even be sure the ISA had been following Bo up until that point, since the files had been sealed, and they weren't even willing to release them to John. Realizing the ISA believed that Bo had turned, Victor insisted that was ridiculous. "Is it? You're looking at this picture. Now, who do you think Bo is talking to there?" Steve asked.

"Some local. I mean, it couldn't possibly be who...who I thought it was," Victor replied, losing some of his confidence along the way. Steve zoomed in on the woman and showed the image to Victor again.

"It's impossible. Britta Englund is dead," Victor insisted as he stared at the screen in disbelief, looking at a blonde woman who was sporting a dagger tattoo on her right arm. Steve agreed, guessing that someone had lured Bo to Cancun under the mistaken belief that Bo didn't know Britta was dead. Observing that Bo seemed to be playing along in the image, Steve wondered what Bo had expected to gain from the meeting. Steve added that Bo had completely disappeared afterward.

Fearing that someone had captured Bo, Victor wondered how he had failed to realize that sooner. Steve insisted that no one else, not even Hope, could have pieced everything together because that would have required knowing about old contacts Steve and Bo had gained way back in the Merchant Marine days. Steve added that Victor could still help Bo, and he once again urged Victor to tell him about the gap in Bo's timeline. Victor admitted that Bo had been trying to save Caroline's life at that time, adding that she didn't really have Alzheimer's, after all she had a rare neurological disease that had similar symptoms but was completely different. Victor explained that Bo had gone off in search of a cure and had found a doctor in Peru, Dr. Salinas, who'd had some success with experimental trials involving native plants.

Victor added that Salinas had not yet completed the project but had been receiving funding from him along the way, something Caroline and the rest of her family had never been made aware of because he didn't want to give her or them false hope. Victor offered his private jet to Steve, asking only for it to be returned in one piece, preferably with Bo aboard. After boarding Victor's jet, Steve was forced to wait for some fog to clear from the runway. Steve heard a noise in another part of the jet. Pulling a switchblade out of his back pocket, Steve crept toward a storage compartment and opened the door, pointing the blade at the intruder's throat, only to discover that it was Joey.

9/22 Kayla paced the floor of her office at the hospital as she left a voicemail for Joey on his phone. Kayla begged Joey to call her and tell her that he was okay. After leaving the message, Kayla sat at her desk and stared at her wedding photo. Kayla thought about past romantic moments with Steve. With a sigh, Kayla set the picture aside and left her office. Kayla walked through the town square and thought about the day that Joey had been born.

On the Kiriakis jet, Steve was startled to find that Joey had stowed away. Joey confronted Steve about abandoning his family again. Steve promised that he had returned to Salem because he wanted to be a good father and husband. Steve explained that he believed Bo was in trouble. When Joey demanded to accompany Steve on his search for Bo, Steve refused, citing the danger of the situation. Joey countered that he had followed Steve without Steve realizing it. When Steve again refused to take Joey with him, a hurt Joey asked why Steve did not want him around. Steve explained that his adventure was not a fool's errand. For proof, Steve noted that Victor had given Steve his jet to follow up on a lead. Joey asked if Steve had left Africa because of him, but Steve swore that nothing was more important to him than family. Steve said he could not tell Joey the real reason he had abandoned his family in Africa.

Steve said that his mother, Jo, had placed him in an orphanage in order to protect him from his father, Duke. With a sigh, Steve admitted that he was worried that he was like his father. Joey said he did not need Steve. Steve told an abbreviated story of how he had met Kayla and how she had changed and saved his life. Steve stressed that he would always need Kayla and his children. After playing the harmonica and softening Joey's attitude a bit with some small talk, Steve said that he wanted to get to know Joey. As Joey nodded, Steve added that he needed to send Joey back to Kayla. Steve called Kayla and told her about his stowaway. Steve added that after he found Bo, he would never go out on another mission again.

"I'll be home for good," Steve said.

9/25 At the Martin house, Hope thanked Kayla for agreeing to be her matron of honor. Kayla asked why Hope was taking a back seat in an important case. Hope explained that she wanted to remind Rafe's superiors that he was a fine cop. Kayla cautiously informed Hope that Steve had left town because he'd gotten a lead on Bo's whereabouts and Kayla thought Steve was onto something. Hope was skeptical, so Kayla explained that she'd changed her mind about Steve's theories after she'd heard him out. Kayla added that Steve had promised it would be his very last mission. An incredulous Hope reminded Kayla that Steve was the same man who'd deserted Joey and Kayla in Africa. Hope admitted that she hoped Steve could find Bo, but it wouldn't change how Bo had chosen his mission over his family or that she'd fallen in love with a wonderful man.

Kayla clarified that she had only thought Hope should know what Steve was doing; she didn't expect Hope to change her feelings about Aiden. Kayla got a text message and had to leave, but first she reassured Hope that she would make sure Hope's wedding was great. Kayla and Adrienne headed into Kayla's office. Adrienne asked if Kayla knew how to get in touch with Steve, but Kayla said he was out of town. Adrienne explained that her mom had just had a biopsy of a spot the doctors had seen on her mammogram, and it had been malignant, but they'd assured Jo they'd caught it in time. Relieved, Kayla promised to call Jo. Adrienne clarified that Jo had wanted her to get tested for the BRCA1 gene mutation. Kayla reassured Adrienne that, even if Adrienne had the gene, it didn't mean she would get cancer. Adrienne was aware of that, but she wanted to find out anyway. Kayla said she would schedule the test. Adrienne changed her mind and asked Kayla not to say anything to Steve yet.

Aboard the Kiriakis jet, Steve met with a blonde woman named Claudia to ask her what had happened to Bo Brady. Claudia was reluctant to talk, but Steve reassured her that no one would find out they had spoken. Claudia admitted that she'd been paid to meet with Bo and to lie that she had gotten the knife tattoo to honor her mother, Britta Englund. Claudia had told Bo that Britta was still alive and Claudia knew where she was. Steve promised to make it worth Claudia's while if she would tell him where she'd sent Bo. Claudia coyly suggested that Steve could seduce her as payment, but he declined. Claudia revealed that she'd been instructed to give Bo a phone number for him to call and learn where Britta was. Claudia claimed she couldn't remember where she'd put the phone number, so Steve held up a rubber-banded roll of bills and offered her a thousand dollars to jog her memory.

Claudia agreeably produced a phone number on a torn scrap of paper, and Steve handed over the cash. "I hope you find your friend. I mean it. You seem like a decent guy. I don't meet that many of them," Claudia said as she got off the plane. Steve immediately called John and filled him in that Claudia had been hired to send Bo into a trap. Since they didn't have an address, Steve asked John to research to whom that number had been registered a year prior. John called back later and informed Steve that the phone number had been registered to a monastery in Yucatán, Mexico.

"Why the hell would they lure Bo there? And who gave the order?" Steve wondered.  Next, Steve phoned Kayla to check in. He asked how Joey was, and Kayla said the teen had been much less angry since he'd returned.

"What'd you say to him?" she asked.

"I just told him all the reasons I have for loving you," Steve said. Kayla hoped Steve hadn't made any promises he couldn't keep.

"I made my intentions very clear to our son, and I mean to live up to every word," Steve assured his ex. Steve added that he also intended to return home, even if he didn't find Bo, although Steve believed he was on the right track.

9/28 Steve visited the monastery to which Claudia's phone number had led him, but it turned out to be empty. Discovering shackles in one of the rooms, Steve realized that the place had been turned into a prison at some point. When he noticed a hole in the wall, Steve leaned in for a closer look, using his switchblade to pry some pills out of it. Cupping them in his hand, Steve contacted someone and asked how long it would take them to run a DNA test.

9/29 Adrienne's phone rang. Kayla called to tell Adrienne that she was still waiting on the test results. Kayla told Adrienne that the test was likely nothing to worry about. After Adrienne hung up the phone, she told Justin that the call had been a friend. Adrienne did not mention the test she had taken.

9/30 Caroline entered the Martin house, and once again, she heard a music box playing "Für Elise" and saw Shawn's reflection in the foyer mirror. Angrily calling Shawn a "banshee," Caroline told him that it wasn't her time because her family needed her. She easily recalled the names and problems of her children and grandchildren.

"It's not my time, you understand? You get out of here!" Caroline shouted at the mirror. Julie walked in just then and gently touched Caroline on the shoulders, and Caroline's aural and visual hallucinations vanished. Staring at the mirror in confusion, Caroline mumbled, "I'm not done yet." A concerned Julie called Kayla.

At the hospital, Victor demanded to know where Caroline was. Kayla explained that they had sent Caroline home because there was nothing more they could do for her. Kayla admitted that she hadn't been able to lie to her mother, although Caroline's condition was getting worse. Victor assured Kayla that she was a good daughter and had handled the situation well and he was sure that Caroline would get better. Kayla impatiently cautioned Victor that there was nothing new in the field of degenerative neurological disorders.

Kayla got Julie's call just then. After filling Kayla in that they were at the Martin mansion, Julie reported that Caroline had called her but had seemed surprised when Julie had shown up. Kayla could hear her mother in the background, yelling at Shawn. Kayla promised that she would be there right away, and Victor said he would go, too. When Kayla and Victor arrived at the Martin house, Caroline was sitting in the foyer with her back to the mirror. She didn't recognize either Victor or Kayla. Pointing over her shoulder at the mirror, Caroline said, "I'm trying to get rid of the old man... That's Shawn, my old man. He's gone over to the other side. He's trying to drag me with him!" Kayla knelt in front of her mother and asked if Caroline knew her.

Caroline said she recognized Kayla but didn't know from where. Crying and trying not to completely break down, Kayla explained, "I'm your daughter, Kayla.” Caroline repeated that she wasn't going anywhere because her family needed her. Victor introduced himself to Caroline, and she seemed to recognize him. Taking her hands and helping her out of the chair, Victor reassured her that she wasn't going anywhere. Hope and Maggie got off the elevator at the hospital just as Julie, Victor, and Kayla arrived with Caroline. As Kayla took Caroline to get her settled in a room, Maggie and Hope realized that Caroline hadn't known who they were. Julie described how she'd found Caroline arguing with Shawn as if he'd been in the room. Victor explained that Dr. Salinas had been doing some cutting-edge research about Caroline's condition and had developed an experimental protocol that had been somewhat successful. Victor was hopeful that the doctor's research could cure Caroline. Hope and Maggie were worried about Caroline undergoing an unproven, experimental treatment. Victor pointed out that Caroline's condition was deteriorating rapidly, so they needed to begin treatment right away. Julie agreed. As the others were discussing the treatment, Kayla returned and overheard.

"You want to try an experimental treatment on my mother? Over my dead body!" Kayla warned.

10/5 At the hospital, Kayla was on the phone with Jennifer, apologetically explaining that she had been unable to attend Paige's funeral because she had been called in to work to perform an emergency surgery. As Kayla ended the call, Roman and Victor entered her office to talk to her about the experimental drug that could potentially cure Caroline's medical condition. Kayla put an abrupt end to the conversation before it even really began, insisting that, as the person who had Caroline's medical power of attorney, she wasn't going to allow the drug to be administered to Caroline, period. Victor didn't understand why Kayla wasn't willing to consider the option, and Roman shared Victor's confusion, pointing out that Salinas' research seemed very promising.

Kayla countered that, unlike Roman and Victor, she had actually received the education and training needed to comprehend what was in Salinas' research and, more importantly, what wasn't in it. Kayla pointed out that Salinas' research hadn't involved a control group or a placebo, and she added that, while there was no proof that the drug would even help Caroline, there were reasons to believe that the side effects could actually be quite devastating, given Caroline's age.

"She couldn't be much worse," Victor muttered. "She could be dead!" Kayla countered. Victor started to insist that there was nothing in Salinas' research that suggested that the drug wasn't completely safe, but Kayla interrupted, wondering if Victor would ever agree to take such a chance on one of his own family members.

"Yes, I would," Victor replied without hesitation. Refusing to budge, Kayla reminded Victor that Caroline wasn't a part of his family; she was a part of hers.

"This conversation is over," Kayla added before heading off to check on Caroline.

Roman went to Caroline's room and took a seat next to Kayla as he began reminiscing about the speech Caroline had given at Will and Sonny's wedding, noting that, while people had feared that she had been rambling about something unrelated to the event, she had known exactly what she had been doing the whole time.

"And what she said was beautiful. So eloquent. Funny. Do you think we'll ever see that Caroline Brady again?" Roman wondered. Kayla said she believed Caroline would still have lucid moments from time to time.

"Yeah, but they'll be fewer and fewer as time goes on," Roman guessed. Roman guessed Kayla was reluctant to give Caroline the drug because she wasn't sure she would be able to live with the guilt if that ended up being the wrong call to make.

"What if you're making the wrong call now? What if that drug could help? And what if you are the only thing standing between Ma and her only real chance?" Roman asked. Kayla said Roman wasn't being fair, and he conceded the point but wondered if she would be as adamant about refusing the treatment if she were dealing with any other patient. Kayla insisted that she would never give any patient an untested drug that had dubious benefits, especially not her own mother. Kayla added that she had no way of knowing which of Caroline's symptoms were aftereffects of the stroke and which were from her underlying condition, and the drug was only designed to treat the latter. Roman pointed out that the odds had been against Caroline after the stroke, and she had fought hard to recover from that.

Arguing that Caroline had probably never made a decision based on fear in her entire life. Roman cited the risk she and Shawn had taken with the Brady Pub as a prime example, noting that it had been crazy to turn the fish market into a pub, especially with no prior restaurant experience, but they had made it work, and Shawn had always credited the pub's success to Caroline's willingness to take chances. Roman suspected that he and Kayla both knew what Caroline's answer would be if she were able to make her own decision about her medical treatment. Kayla asked for a minute alone with Caroline, and after Roman left, she grasped Caroline's hand and tearfully admitted that, while the doctor in her believed that it would be ethically wrong, and potentially dangerous, to administer an untested drug to Caroline, the little girl in her just wanted her mother back.

Caroline stirred while Kayla was struggling to make a decision, so she seized the opportunity to ask if she could have a serious talk with Caroline about Caroline's medical treatment.

"Sure. Well, I think my daughter, Dr. Brady, should be part of that conversation. Would you mind calling her for me?" Caroline replied. Hope arrived and, after receiving an update, wondered how Victor had found out about the treatment in the first place.

"Oh, I didn't find out about it, Bo did," Victor clarified. Victor filled Hope in on how Bo had discovered Salinas and had asked Victor to fund the doctor's research. Victor explained that Bo hadn't mentioned the potential cure to anyone else because he hadn't wanted to get their hopes up.

"[And] the other reason that we wanted to keep it under wraps is because it was potentially a huge breakthrough and a lucrative discovery. We didn't want people trying to get in just to make a quick buck; it would have compromised everything. I mean, if the doctor lost control of the research, we could be in clinical trials for years. If it fell into the wrong hands --" Victor added before letting his voice trail off.  "One thing Caroline doesn't have is time. We need to act now. I just hope that Kayla comes to her senses before it's too late," Victor concluded just as Kayla entered the waiting area.

A short time later, Kayla, Roman, Hope, Maggie, and Victor gathered in Caroline's room, along with Salinas, who agreed to let Kayla administer the drug herself. Kayla injected the drug into Caroline's I.V. as everyone else watched with cautious optimism.

At the abandoned monastery, Steve contacted John and told him to be on the lookout for some pills that needed to be tested for Bo's DNA. After ending the call, Steve found some breadcrumbs on the floor. "Looks like I got here before the rats," Steve mused. Steve soon spotted a bloodstain on the floor, but as he leaned in to take a closer look at it, someone burst into the room and pointed a gun at him, warning him not to move.

Steve claimed that he had simply been doing some sightseeing, but when the armed man didn't buy that excuse, Steve made a sudden move for the man's gun, knocking it out of the man's hand and pulling his own gun before the man could recover. Steve demanded to know where Bo was, but the man insisted that he had never known the prisoner's name or why the prisoner was being held captive in the first place. Steve wanted to know who had been giving the man his orders, but the man claimed that he had never been in direct contact with the person, adding that he had just been paid each week with cash that a messenger had delivered to him. Steve wondered if Bo had been hurt while being held captive. The man confirmed that extreme measures had been taken in an effort to get Bo to answer some questions, and Steve took that to mean that Bo had been tortured.

Nodding, the man added that Bo had been very determined not to answer the questions, which had been about some type of formula or serum. Pressing the barrel of his gun against the man's neck, Steve demanded to know where Bo was. The man insisted that was all he knew, and when Steve moved the gun away from the man's neck to grab the collar of his shirt, the man head-butted Steve, sending Steve falling back against the wall. Before Steve could recover, the man sprang to his feet and pulled something out of his pocket, which he tried to shove into Steve's mouth. Steve managed to knock the item out of the man's hand, so the man punched Steve and rushed off.

"You tell your boss I'm coming for him!" Steve shouted at the man, too disoriented to chase after him at that time.

10/7 At the monastery, Steve concluded that Bo's captors wouldn't have kept an armed guard around for no reason. As he used a flashlight to search Bo's cell for more clues, Steve spotted a scrap of open-weave cloth affixed to the wall, and when he removed it, he found a camera hidden in a hole in the wall. Steve looked around until he found an office with an ancient-looking video monitor and a computer. He sat at the computer and found the video files from Bo's cell. Steve watched footage of Bo eating from metal trays, strung up by his wrists and doused with water, and being zapped with a stun gun. Further into the tape, Steve saw Bo lying on the floor, a knife in his chest and a large pool of blood on the floor around him. Later, a guard zipped Bo into a body bag and dragged him out, leaving a streak of blood on the concrete floor. Sobbing, Steve leaned back in his chair but unable to look away. "No, man!" he cried, moaning despondently.

Kayla, Hope, Victor, and Maggie were gathered around Caroline's hospital bed while Dr. Salinas made notes in her chart. Salinas assured the anxious bunch that Caroline's vital signs were good, but Kayla was even more worried than the others that they had administered an untested drug to her mother. Kayla suddenly realized that Roman had left without a word. The group encouraged Caroline to fight to return to them. Kayla recalled a story from her childhood when she'd misbehaved, but Caroline had hugged Kayla instead of scolding her. As she slept, Caroline was dreaming about visiting Kayla and Steve in the hospital after Stephanie's birth. Beginning to cry as she emphasized how important Caroline was to her, Kayla was overcome and had to run out of the room.

Hope and Maggie followed Kayla while Victor stayed behind with Caroline. Kayla headed to the waiting area and fretted tearfully that her mother hadn't responded to the treatment. Seeing Kayla's anxious, agitated state prompted Maggie to suggest that the two of them take a long walk. Hope promised to stick around and call Kayla if there were any news, so Kayla somewhat reluctantly left with Maggie.

In the park, Kayla admitted that she'd been desperate because Caroline had been going downhill so quickly, and Kayla knew that some doctors would consider it unethical that she had given an experimental drug to Caroline. "Not if it were their mother and they were watching her slip away," Maggie asserted. Kayla confided that the events of the previous few months had been a tad overwhelming, and she needed her mother. Maggie firmly reassured Kayla that there was still hope for Caroline.

Maggie confessed that, even though he would never admit it, Victor had hoped Bo would be the one to deliver the serum to Caroline. Maggie knew how worried Victor was about his son, but she also knew that if the serum worked, Victor would just be happy that Caroline was well. Kayla wondered if it were difficult for Maggie to see how much Victor cared for Caroline. Maggie noted that Bo and Hope wouldn't exist without Caroline and Victor, and neither would Ciara, so Maggie wouldn't want it any other way. Salinas cautioned everyone that Caroline could awaken soon or that it could take a couple of days.

"Or that serum could have destroyed whole sections of her brain and she is never going to wake up again!" Kayla fumed. Steve arrived and silently motioned for Victor to join him outside without letting Kayla know he was there. After Victor slipped out, Salinas advised the others that he had drawn some of Caroline's blood and would get to work on running tests right away. He hurried out. Kayla sat at Caroline's bedside and spoke softly to her mother, "Mom, it's Kayla. Can you hear me? I just need you to squeeze my hand, all right?" Caroline slowly opened her eyes and smiled, to Kayla, Maggie, and Hope's utter joy. Caroline became a little impatient but lightheartedly so, while Kayla administered some simple, verbal cognitive tests. The women laughed as Caroline cracked jokes.

"I am so glad that you're back!" Maggie declared happily. Hope chimed in, "We all love you so much." Caroline admitted that she didn't know how she'd gotten there, but she felt very well rested. She told the others that she'd had lots of nice dreams, except for those about Bo.

In the hallway, Victor gave Steve the highlights of what had been happening with Caroline's treatment. He quickly recognized that Steve had bad news and demanded to hear it. Steve explained that he'd tracked Bo down to a prison cell beneath an old monastery in Yucatán, but Steve had arrived too late, although it was still being guarded. Steve continued that Bo's kidnappers had been trying to get their hands on the serum that Victor's people had developed for Caroline. Victor understood that, but not why Steve wasn't still in Mexico looking for Bo.

"I don't know how to tell you this. Bo's dead. They murdered him," Steve said quietly, fighting back tears. Victor refused to accept it, but Steve described what he'd seen on the surveillance video. Numb, Victor lamented how hard Bo had worked to help get the research project started.

"Now Caroline might be saved, and her son, our son." Victor said, his voice trailing off. A devastated Steve put an arm around Victor's shoulder.

"Wish I'd gotten there sooner," Steve admitted. Victor didn't want to tell Hope because it would only make her mourn Bo all over again. Just then, Hope rushed out and breathlessly told Victor, "Caroline's awake, and she's doing really well!" As Victor headed into Caroline's room, Hope saw Steve's expression and seemed to sense that something was wrong. Caroline beamed at Victor when he entered her room. Steve and Hope walked in as Caroline was describing, "I've been dreaming a lot about [Bo], only it was more than a dream. I mean, it was real. Bo was there, and he was uncomfortable. A lot of time went by. His beard was very heavy. He was in chains." Hope and Kayla tried to downplay it, but Caroline insisted that the dream and the chains had been real.

At the monastery, Bo lay unconscious on a gurney, a bright surgical light flickering overhead, as the two guards entered the room. "Today, this man is either going to tell me what I want to know -- or die," the bald captor declared, uncapping a syringe. As the man injected Bo, he asserted that Bo wouldn't be able to fight the drug's effects. The other man seemed concerned that Bo could die with so high a dosage. "If he does, he does. He's useless to us unless he talks, anyway," the bald man pointed out. As the drug seemed to take effect, the bald man shined a flashlight in Bo's eyes to check his reactions.

Bo suddenly stiffened and began to tremble, arching his back and grunting as if he were going into cardiac arrest. The bald man ordered the other one to get the crash cart. The other man dragged the machine over and charged the defibrillator paddles. The bald man grabbed the paddles and started to apply them to Bo's chest. Lightning-fast, Bo suddenly punched the guy, unfastened his restraints, and got up off the gurney.

While the bald man tried to recover from Bo's sucker punch, the other man approached Bo, who pleaded with him, but the man hit Bo in the ribs several times. Bo found the strength to fight back, punching the man in the abdomen and elbowing him in the chin before grabbing the fully charged defibrillator paddles and shoving them against the man's chest. The man collapsed against the floor as the bald man watched helplessly.

"It's business," the bald guy protested meekly. Bo walloped him in the head with a lead pipe.

"I'm going home!" Bo bellowed as he fled.

10/12 At the hospital, Caroline was reading a magazine when Steve peeked into her room to see how she was doing. Caroline reported that she was feeling more like herself with each passing day. Pleased to hear that, Steve abruptly changed the subject, wondering if Caroline was still having dreams about Bo. Caroline confirmed that she was.

"He's in a hospital. It's not a nice one, like this; it's old and neglected. He's been hurt. There's a lot of blood, and his chest was bandaged," Caroline explained. Steve asked if Caroline could tell him anything specific about the room she had seen Bo in.

"Well, it looked like an operating room. There's a steel tray with surgical instruments, and there's a big light overhead," Caroline replied. Steve started to ask if Caroline knew where the hospital was located, but before she could respond, Kayla arrived and abruptly ended the conversation. Kayla and Steve stepped into the hallway, where she reminded him that Caroline was still in a fragile state. Steve understood but suggested that Caroline's dreams about Bo might actually be real.

"What if the drugs they pumped into your mama's system have somehow juiced up her intuition?" Steve mused, prompting Kayla to respond that he sounded like a crazy person. Conceding that his theory seemed far-fetched, Steve nevertheless maintained that the details in Caroline's dreams were eerily specific. Kayla suspected that Steve was just trying to look for an excuse to resume his search for Bo, despite the fact that he had previously promised her and Joey that the mission he had just returned from would be his last one. Steve denied the accusation, insisting he was just interested in reuniting Bo with his family.

"Fine. I will try to not be cynical about what your motives are. But in the meantime, why don't you make a promise that you can keep? Stay off the subject of Bo when you're with my mother. It will only make her miserable and undermine her recovery, and I won't have that," Kayla stressed before returning to Caroline's room. Kayla apologized to Caroline on Steve's behalf, pointing out that he could be annoyingly persistent at times, especially when he got an idea stuck in his head that he wasn't willing to abandon.

"Just stop it, would you? You're either making excuses for Steve, or you're pushing him away. The man came here to make amends, and you're acting cynical and dismissive. How is that fair, Kayla?" Caroline wondered. Kayla reminded Caroline that Steve had a history of making promises he couldn't keep, but Caroline advised Kayla to keep an open mind regardless.

"I see the way he looks at you. He loves you," Caroline added. Kayla countered that Steve loved adventure more and would always choose it over her, Stephanie, and Joey.

"I have waited half my life for that man, and you know what? I'm not gonna do it anymore. I have to protect myself," Kayla insisted.

"Oh, to hell with protecting yourself! If you love him, as I'm sure you do, then just let your guard down and go for it. Give him a chance, if not for Joey's sake, for your own," Caroline advised.

Steve went to tell John his theory about Caroline's dreams. "So, Caroline's psychic now, and we're taking that as proof that Bo's alive?" John asked incredulously. Steve maintained that the dreams were just too specific to be hastily dismissed, and he insisted that if there was even the slightest chance that Bo was still alive, he had to at least follow up on the lead. John pointed out that Steve was going to need a plan, and Steve agreed, promising to let John know as soon as he figured out what that plan would entail. Catching a glimpse of John's laptop screen, Steve apologized for forgetting to ask how John's own search for answers was going.

After John provided a quick summary of the progress he had made, Steve mused that it was too bad that Victor had eliminated Petrov, since Stefano definitely wasn't going to give John the information he was seeking. John agreed but vowed that he wasn't going to give up. Kayla approached and wondered if Maggie was okay. Maggie confirmed that she was, adding that she was glad Caroline was doing well. Victor interrupted and asked if Maggie was ready to leave. Maggie nodded shakily, and as she and Victor headed toward the elevator, Hope arrived and sadly informed them and Kayla that Will had been murdered. Stunned, Victor excused himself so he could contact Sonny, while Hope, Maggie, and Kayla comforted each other and agreed that Caroline couldn't be told the devastating news yet because she was still too fragile.

Meanwhile, Steve entered Caroline's room. "Oh, I'm so glad you're here. I saw [Bo] again. I know where he is. You have to help him; he hasn't got much time!" Caroline stressed.

10/13 At the hospital, Kayla examined Chad, who was unconscious and handcuffed to the bed. Kayla informed Hope and Rafe that Chad had suffered a fractured skull. When Rafe noted that they needed to speak to Chad when he woke up, Kayla informed them that Chad was in a coma. The detectives left, and Kayla returned to work at the nurses' station. Abigail arrived and informed Kayla that Ben seemed to be okay. Abigail looked across the room at the guard posted outside Chad's door. Kayla told Abigail that when Chad woke up, he would be charged with murder.

10/15 Kayla went to the Kiriakis mansion to check on Adrienne, who admitted that she still couldn't believe Will was dead. Adrienne started fretting about the guilt Sonny was undoubtedly feeling, but Kayla interrupted, stating that she was more worried about how Adrienne was doing. Kayla pointed out that Adrienne had received confirmation that she had inherited the BRCA1 gene mutation but had not yet contacted Kayla to discuss her options. Adrienne admitted that she was finding the whole thing kind of hard to process and there was a part of her that wished she had never taken the test in the first place.

;Meanwhile, Sonny walked into the living room, and Adrienne, who hadn't even known that he was headed home because he hadn't answered any of her recent calls, rushed over to give him a hug, which he eventually had to end because she was making it hard for him to breathe. Kayla offered Sonny her condolences, stating that Will had been more than just a nephew to her. Kayla was pleased to see Sonny again but wished that their reunion could have occurred under different circumstances. Nodding, Sonny revealed that he had actually made plans to return to Salem before he had heard the news.

"Will left me this message, and I listened to it over and over again. I started thinking, 'What the hell am I doing here?' I realized I still loved him, and I needed to be here with him and Arianna. But now I've gotta tell my two-year-old daughter that she's never gonna see her dad again," Sonny sadly added. Kayla excused herself to give Sonny and Adrienne some privacy, stressing that she wanted them to call her if they ever needed anything.

At the nurses' station, Daniel offered Kayla his condolences then asked about Caroline. Kayla pulled Daniel aside and told him about the experimental treatment she had given Caroline, stressing that the matter needed to stay between them.

10/19 At the hospital, Kayla reluctantly agreed to let Steve visit Caroline, who was eager to hear what he was doing to help Bo. Steve apologetically explained that he couldn't do anything to help Bo without a solid lead to go on. Sighing, Caroline closed her eyes and tried to remember more details from her visions, eventually recalling that there had been a sign hanging on one of the filthy walls, "Punta Laguna."

At the hospital, Kayla visited Caroline, who happily reported that it had been years since she had last felt so energized. Caroline observed, however, that Kayla didn't look very good herself. Concerned, Caroline wondered what was wrong, and Kayla hesitantly replied that Will had been murdered. Caroline gasped in horror and hugged Kayla as she rested her head on Caroline's chest.

Later, Hope found Kayla near the nurses' station and assured her that everyone had understood why she had missed the funeral and, in fact, Sami had found it comforting to know that Caroline hadn't been alone that day. Kayla revealed that she had told Caroline about Will's death earlier.

"You know what the worst part is? I'm just so afraid that, um, she's gonna wake up tomorrow, and I'm gonna have to tell her all over again," Kayla admitted. Confused, Hope said she had been under the impression that Caroline had been doing better lately. Kayla confirmed that it seemed that way, but she added that Caroline was still quite insistent that her recent visions of Bo had all been real.

"I mean, if she can't distinguish between reality and fantasy, then I can't really believe that she's getting better," Kayla concluded. After noticing that Caroline was pushing her call button, Kayla and Hope went to her room to make sure everything was okay.

"How can I be okay when my son's out somewhere in some terrible danger? I am not crazy. Kayla, you have to understand, I can see Bo. And we have to bring him back; we have to bring him home!" Caroline insisted as Kayla and Hope exchanged looks of concern.

Steve ran into Joey in the town square and explained what had happened during his recent search for Bo and why he felt like he had to go off on another search. "You think Grandma Caroline's psychic all of a sudden? Seriously?" Joey asked incredulously. Steve replied that, while he understood how crazy the whole thing sounded, Caroline's visions eerily matched up with the things he had seen during his first search. Steve added that he would rather believe that Bo was alive, and Joey conceded that he would, too.

"You're never gonna stick around; it's always gonna be something else," Joey muttered. Steve stressed that he would do anything for Joey, but he added that the same was true for Bo, who was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of friend. Joey wondered if Kayla was okay with the fact that Steve was about to leave again. Steve admitted that he hadn't shared that information with Kayla. "Well, that's a big mistake," Joey warned. Steve wondered if Joey had ever heard anyone say that it was better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

"Neither one seems to work out very well for me," Joey mused. Steve reasoned that if he left without telling Kayla but returned with Bo in tow, she would quickly forget about being angry. Joey pointed out that there was a chance that Steve might not return with Bo in tow and that Steve had promised Kayla he would stay in Salem. Steve stressed that he still planned to keep that promise, after he finished doing what he needed to do. "Fine. But it's not like you're going to an amusement park. You might not come back. Don't you think you at least owe it to her to say goodbye?" Joey asked.

Later, Steve went to the hospital to see Kayla, who assumed he wanted to question Caroline further. Steve clarified that he simply wanted to say goodbye to Kayla, since he had promised someone he would. Steve added, however, that his goodbye didn't really mean goodbye, prompting Kayla to wonder what it really meant. "This," Steve replied, giving Kayla a long, passionate kiss before walking away, leaving her speechless.

10/21 At the hospital, although she spoke in hushed tones, Kayla was clearly agitated as she told Hope about what had happened with Steve before he'd left town again. Hope tried to reassure Kayla that Steve's words had indicated that he intended to return. Kayla said Steve had grabbed her and kissed her right there in her place of business, in front of her colleagues but the worst part of the whole situation had been that Steve had taken off right after talking to her mother about Caroline's dreams.

Hope couldn't help but smile and point out, "Kind of seems like old times, don't you think?" Ignoring Hope, Kayla noted that, at the very least, her mother really seemed to be doing much better. Dr. Salinas entered Caroline’s room with Kayla and Hope. Caroline asserted, "He's talking to me like me, not like some ditzy old lady." Victor explained that Caroline could go home that day, but first, Dr. Salinas thought she should have another dose of the serum. Caroline tried to refuse, and Roman and Kayla agreed that it seemed like a bad idea. Victor sat on Caroline's bed and stated gently that he hadn't gotten the best doctor in that hemisphere to treat her so she could quit halfway through but if she wanted to go home, she could "sit in her room and knit."

Caroline hissed, "I hate you!"

Victor retorted, "I don't care." He promised to hold Caroline's hand through it. Caroline asked what Kayla thought, and Salinas reassured Kayla that administering another dose was in Caroline's best interest. Kayla reluctantly agreed as long as she could be the one to administer the drug. Caroline requested her rosary from Roman, which he handed over. After Caroline kissed it and crossed herself with it, Victor told her to take his hand and not to watch while Kayla injected the syringe into Caroline's IV.

Kayla, Victor, and Dr. Salinas soon joined Hope. Kayla fretted that her mother was delusional and hallucinating about Bo. Victor insisted that Caroline was still doing much better; she was just worried about her son. Salinas noted that even though he and Dr. Brady were scientists, even she had to admit that they didn't know everything there was to know about the human brain.

"Are you saying that you think that this drug is giving my mother some form of ESP? Because if you are, I want you off the case," Kayla said.

Once the women were alone, Hope admitted to Kayla that, even as unsettling as it was for Caroline to keep talking about the dreams, Hope's heart was breaking for her former mother-in-law. Kayla noted that Dr. Salinas' drug was making Caroline believe that her dreams were actually visions. Kayla reminded Hope that they had both worked hard to accept that Bo was gone and to move on, so they should stop thinking about Caroline's visions and focus on Hope's wedding day.

Kayla began ranting about Steve again, blaming her ex for making Caroline think that Bo was out there somewhere but unable to return home. Kayla complained, "Why couldn't he just stay in New York, you know? They like crazy people there!" Hope remarked that Steve was just in love with Kayla, who adamantly refused to believe that. Kayla grumbled that it was just like Steve to encourage Caroline to believe she had some kind of mystical powers in which she could see Bo then for Steve to take off and leave Kayla to clean up the mess.

"My mom now believes that her son is coming back, and it is not true!" Kayla asserted. Hope assured Kayla that, as much as Caroline wanted to believe that Bo was returning, Hope knew the dreams were only dreams.

"It's time for me to move on with my life with Aiden," Hope said.

Victor left Steve an irritated voicemail when he didn’t answer,"You promised to keep me posted. What's going on? Have you found out anything? Call me back!" a worried Victor ordered on Steve's voicemail.

In Mexico, Bo was asleep on a narrow bed, sweaty but shivering and mumbling fretfully in his sleep, in a crude cabin. Steve found the place where Bo had been tortured and which Caroline had seen in her dreams. As he explored the dingy exam room with a flashlight, Steve spotted a sign that read "Punta Laguna," just as she had described it. Beneath that were the words "Centro Medico." Steve found a used syringe on the floor and gave it a sniff. He searched the gurney to which Bo had been strapped and found the unfastened restraints.

"The hell, Bo? Did you do this, man?" Steve muttered.

"Where are you?" Steve wondered, looking around the room one last time before drawing his pistol and heading out. Once he was back on Victor's jet, Steve called John to tell him that he'd found the place from Caroline's dreams, although there had been no sign of Bo. Steve guessed that the syringes had been used to give sodium pentothal to Bo. John wondered, if Bo had been there, where he'd gone.

"Probably not far. But, hey, wasn't there an ISA safe house around here?" Steve asked. John said the safe house was still there. "That's where I'm headed," Steve decided. His gun drawn, Steve explored an abandoned-looking building, calling Bo's name until suddenly, a man approached from behind and used the butt of his pistol to bash Steve on the back of the head. Steve fell to the floor, unconscious.   10/23 Steve awoke and found himself chained to a wall. A man soon entered the room, and when Steve asked the man to tell him where Bo Brady was, the man mused that it was nice to know that Steve wasn't going to try to pretend he didn't know Bo, since that would have been a waste of time and would have caused Steve a great deal of pain. The man asked Steve to tell him about the secret project Bo had been working on.

"You mean he didn't tell you?" Steve asked. The man confirmed that, despite plenty of encouragement, Bo hadn't said much.

"Well, Bo never was much of a conversationalist," Steve said with a shrug. Pulling a Taser out of his back pocket, the man warned that, while he had been quite lenient with Bo, he wouldn't be making the same mistake with Steve. Assuring the man that shock therapy wouldn't be necessary, Steve promised to tell him everything he wanted to know about the wonder drug Victor had been funding. Steve claimed that Dr. Salinas had promised that the drug would cure cancer, but it had turned out to be a dud and, therefore, anything Bo might be able to tell the man about the drug would be totally worthless. Doubting Steve's story, the man shocked Steve, promising to keep doing so until Steve told him the truth. Steve muttered that he had nothing more to say. Meanwhile, another man led Bo into the room, explaining that he had just caught Bo in the woods, trying to sneak up to the building. As Bo settled on the floor next to Steve, they smiled at each other.

10/26 At the Horton Town Square, "See? [When] push came to shove, I walked. No harm, no foul," Joey said with a shrug. "I am looking at a complete clone of your father," Kayla replied, shaking her head in disbelief. Kayla complained that it had been selfish of Joey to pull an idiotic prank in the name of fun, without ever thinking, for even a single second, that it might be a bad idea, just like it had been selfish of Steve to run off on another adventure in the name of fun, without ever thinking, for even a single second, that his family might need him to stick around for a change. Kayla apologized when she realized she was making it sound like everything was Joey's fault. Conceding that he might have actually deserved the lecture, Joey stressed that he did care about his family, a lot and he missed his father.

"I'm scared that this time or next time whenever he takes off, he'll never come back," Joey admitted. Kayla hugged Joey, who apologized for messing up.

In Mexico, Steve and Bo are both chained to a pipe that was attached to the wall. They discussed how they had both been under the impression that the place they were being held in was an ISA safe house. While bantering with each other, Bo and Steve tugged on their chains, trying to loosen the pipe. Bo told Steve about how he had gone to the Amazon rainforest to get a bunch of exotic plants that Salinas had needed to create the experimental drug for Caroline. Bo complained about the mosquitoes and snakes he had encountered there, prompting Steve to decide that he needed to check the place off his bucket list.

When Bo started to talk about Hope and Ciara, Steve reluctantly revealed that Hope was planning to get married soon. Bo thought Steve was joking, but Steve explained that Hope had divorced Bo after receiving a Dear Jane letter that had left her heartbroken. Realizing that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make Hope think he was never going to return home, Bo conceded that it might be best for him to stay away, since there was no reason for him to return home if he had already lost the love of his life. Steve stressed that Hope was planning to get married, meaning the wedding hadn't happened yet, and there was still time for Bo to stop it. Nodding, Bo began tugging at the chains with renewed determination, and Steve continued to help while deflecting questions about his own love life.

Dvd #29B Kayla advised Joey to throw away the computer program so he wouldn't be tempted to use it again. "On one condition, don't say I'm a clone of Dad. At least not just the bad stuff," Joey asked, and Kayla agreed. Noticing that one end of the pipe was weaker than the other, Steve focused his attention on that end, but as he banged his wrists against the pipe, he slipped and broke a nearby gas line. "My bad," Steve sheepishly stated as the room began filling with toxic fumes.

10/27 In the locked room of the safe house in Mexico, Steve and Bo struggled to breathe as gas filled the room from the busted pipe. Desperate to survive, Bo and Steve pulled at their chains to free themselves from the wall. As Bo coughed and struggled to stay awake, Steve slapped his face and urged him to think of his wife and children. Bo snapped back to reality, and the two men kicked the wall until the bar they were chained to gave way. Steve and Bo pushed the door to exit, but it would not budge.

With a grunt, Bo said that ISA safe houses usually had a secret passage for escape. The two men started to feel around the room for a hidden exit. After escaping the safe house through a hidden passage in the wall, Steve and Bo ran to the jet. As Steve called out to Pete the pilot, they heard groaning. Bo and Steve checked the utility closet on the plane and found an unconscious Pete. Bo and Steve carried Pete to a chair in the main cabin. Pete woke up and explained that two men had jumped him. Steve noted that the men had disabled the control panel and the radio.

Pete felt for his cellphone, and he noted that it had been taken as well. When Bo asked if the plane could fly, Steve swore that he would get the plane working again. While Steve worked in the cockpit, Bo cleaned up Pete's head wound. Steve managed to repair everything but the radio. Anxious to leave, Pete said he was ready to fly, but it was not safe to fly without a radio. Steve reminded Pete that there were armed men nearby that could return to finish them off. Pete nodded and headed into the cockpit.

Hope walked into her living room and was surprised to find Kayla and Julie decorating for a surprise bridal shower. Kayla noted that Jennifer and Abigail were on their way, and she encouraged Hope to circle the block and pretend to be surprised when she returned. When Hope wondered if a ruse was necessary, Julie said that they all needed some cheer in their lives. With a grin, Hope agreed to return in ten minutes, and she left.

"Is it me, or does Hope not seem like she has that bride-to-be glow?" Kayla asked Julie. After Caroline, Maggie, Jennifer, and Abigail arrived, they waited in the dark for Hope. When Hope arrived, she pretended to be surprised when the ladies yelled out "Surprise!" Hope thanked everyone for the shower. Maggie informed Hope that Marlena had sent her regrets that she could not attend, but Hope understood that Marlena was not up to celebrating so soon after Will's death. Julie suggested that they could honor Will by showing each other that they appreciated one another and celebrating in each other's company.

"We're grateful for every moment we have together because they are always too brief," Julie added. Kayla informed Hope that Roman and Rafe were throwing a bachelor party at the pub. Hope joked that she was up for anything as long as they had not hired a stripper. Kayla and Abigail looked at one another guiltily. The doorbell rang. Abigail quietly walked to the door and ushered a stripper fireman, Todd, into the house. Hope blushed. After stripping for Hope, Todd danced with Julie while Abigail informed Hope that Todd was a friend of Cameron's from the strip club in Chicago. Todd spotted Caroline and waved hello. Chuckling, Caroline joked that Todd missed her tips as she slipped some bills into his waistband.

Kayla asked Caroline if she remembered Todd, and a cheerful Caroline told her daughter that the treatment was working. With an awkward laugh, Kayla looked over at Todd, who was dancing with Maggie. After the stripper finished dancing, he went upstairs to change. Kayla toasted to Hope's second chance at love. After the ladies knocked back their drinks, Hope opened presents. Maggie was mock scandalized over Jennifer's lingerie gift. Caroline jumped in and said she would take the lingerie if Hope did not want it.

Hope laughed. When a nervous Jennifer offered to provide a gift receipt, Hope said she was delighted to keep the gift. Todd returned downstairs and said goodbye to the women. As Abigail rushed to get Todd's check, she bumped into him, causing him to drop jewelry onto the floor. Surprised, Abigail asked if Todd had taken Hope's jewelry. Todd shoved Abigail away, and while Jennifer grabbed Todd, Julie hit him over the head with a bottle of Champagne. Hope slapped handcuffs on Todd and arrested him.

Maggie joked about Jennifer and Julie's quick thinking in stopping Todd. Kayla chimed in to comment that their party was far more interesting than whatever the men had planned for Aiden. Julie asked Maggie about the mansion, and Maggie confirmed that the renovations to the mansion would be complete before the bicentennial celebration. As Maggie and Julie continued to clean, Jennifer asked Kayla if Steve would be her escort to the bicentennial gala. Kayla shrugged and said she was not sure if Steve would be in Salem. Abigail noted that the Johnson men were prone to wanderlust. Nodding, Jennifer said there were many nights that Jack had disappeared.

"It hurt terribly, and I know that's how you feel right now. But you know, what I understood is that it wasn't because he didn't love us. It was him. He felt so insecure and not worthy of us that I don't know, subconsciously, I think he felt driven to keep his distance from us. And I think maybe that's what Steve is doing," Jennifer said.

Across the room, Caroline asked Hope if she had heard from Steve about the search for Bo. Caroline informed Hope that she had given Steve a solid lead on Bo from one of her dreams. As Hope raised an eyebrow, Caroline asked Hope what she would do if Bo returned home.  Hope quietly noted that Caroline's dream was not real. Caroline disagreed. Kayla interrupted and sent Caroline into the kitchen to help Julie. When Kayla asked Hope if she was okay, Hope admitted that she did not want to hear about Bo anymore. "Bo's not coming back," Hope said firmly.

Alone in Hope's living room, Kayla said that Hope needed to be honest with her. Kayla said she was concerned that Hope was not ready to marry Aiden based on her reaction to Caroline's comments about Bo. Hope said that she wanted to commit to Aiden. Hope added that everything was arranged and that she wanted Kayla's blessing. Kayla nodded. After Kayla left, a drunken Aiden stopped by Hope's house. Surprised, Hope asked Aiden if their plan to spend the night apart had changed. Aiden shrugged. Worried, Hope asked Aiden what was wrong. Aiden said he could not marry her.

10/28 Aboard the Kiriakis jet, Steve informed Bo that there was a major storm rolling in, and since they had no radio, they couldn't take off. Bo urgently insisted that he had to get back to Hope, no matter what it took, plus he was worried what would happen if the goons who'd kidnapped them learned Bo and Steve had escaped. Steve tried to reassure Bo that the storm should blow over quickly, and if the plane went down, Hope would never know where Bo had been for so long.

Steve put his jacket on and announced he was going to buy them some time. On his way out, advised Bo to get cleaned up. Later, when Bo was exiting the lavatory, freshly shaven and in some of Steve's clean clothes, Steve returned. Steve announced that he'd just blown up the safe house, so anyone who found it would think the two of them had died. Bo thanked Steve for everything he'd done to find Bo. Steve explained that he'd been certain that his old pal would never have abandoned his wife and kids, and Steve had become even more suspicious when he'd been unable to get any information out of the ISA. Bo didn't understand why the ISA would have forged a "Dear John" letter to Hope, and Steve didn't get it, either. Bo was determined to get his life back, then get even with whoever had done that to him.

An antsy Bo watched out the windows as the rain began to pour and thunder cracked outside. Bo declined Steve's offer to play poker while they waited for the weather to clear, and Steve correctly concluded that Bo wanted to know what had been happening in his absence. Steve answered Bo's questions as well as he could: the guy Hope was about to marry was named Aiden Jennings, and he was a lawyer. Immediately deducing that Aiden was a defense attorney, Bo demanded to know if Aiden was worthy of Hope. Steve dodged the question and informed Bo that Aiden had a son about Ciara's age, but Ciara had given both of the guys a hard time at first.

"That's my girl," Bo muttered. Steve continued that the kids had grown closer, and Ciara had begun to approve of her mom's relationship with Aiden. Bo wanted to know what everyone else thought of Aiden. Without really answering the question, Steve admitted that Kayla hadn't been a fan at first, but Aiden had eventually won her over. Bo asked what Victor thought. Steve wasn't sure what Victor thought about Aiden, but Victor didn't really believe that Bo was alive, either. Steve gently told Bo that everyone who knew and loved Hope just wanted her to move on with her life and find love again. Bo grumbled that everyone clearly loved Aiden, the "white knight."

"Not everybody... I think he's bad news," Steve declared, explaining, "It's almost like he's too good to be true." Steve fiddled around with the phone until he managed to fix it. A grateful Bo immediately took it from Steve and dialed Hope's number. Snuggled up next to Aiden on the sofa, Hope let the phone ring. Bo hung up and tried again. Realizing that it might be the station, Hope answered when the phone rang again.

"Fancy Face? It's me," Bo said when he heard Hope's voice, his own voice eager yet full of apprehension. Hope repeated, "Hello?" several times, but she only heard static on the line. When Hope hung up, Bo tried again but the phone had died again. Steve stopped Bo from throwing the phone and got to work on trying to repair it again. Steve was unable to fix the phone again. Bo admitted that he knew Hope well enough to know that she had been upset on the phone. Bo insisted that they had to take off right away so he could get home, but Steve reminded him that they were in the midst of a monsoon.

"I don't care! If we have to fly into the middle of this storm, I gotta get home to my wife!" Bo declared vehemently.

10/30 At the bicentennial Martin mansion, Caroline was overwhelmed by a series of visions of Bo in danger. Julie rushed to Caroline's side and eased her onto a nearby chair. In tears, Caroline pleaded with God to protect Bo. As Caroline cried out, Julie rushed to Caroline's side.  Steve and Bo flew threw a storm on the jet back into the United States. Still without a radio, the pilot did his best to navigate the storm. When Steve suggested that they might need to land the plane, a worried Bo pleaded with Steve to keep flying to Salem. Bo said he believed that something was wrong with Hope. After some rough turbulence, the plane started to lose altitude.

11/2 Sometime after their plane crashed, Steve and Bo regained consciousness and determined, with the help of the pilot, that they were somewhere in the northeast corner of Kansas. "Well, that's relatively close to home. Come on, let's hit the road!" Bo excitedly urged Steve, who followed Bo until they stumbled upon a mechanic's garage. The mechanic agreed to let Bo and Steve use his phone to call 911 and get an ambulance out to the wreckage site to help the pilot, who had a broken ankle.

When Bo mentioned wanting to contact Hope, though, the mechanic snatched the phone away from Steve and insisted that long-distance calls weren't allowed. The mechanic changed his mind when Steve offered him one hundred dollars for the use of his phone. Bo called Hope's cell phone, but Hope was dancing with Aiden at that time, and her phone's ringer was turned off, so the call went to voicemail. The mechanic warned that making a second phone call would cost Bo another one hundred dollars. This prompted Steve to counter that Bo had been through some rough times lately, was at the end of his rope, and would like nothing more than to take his frustrations out on someone.

"And once he gets started, I can't stop him," Steve added as Bo picked up a nearby wrench.  Outside the Martin mansion, Caroline slumped down on a bench, reassuring herself that she really had seen Bo earlier. Meanwhile, Caroline's cell phone began ringing, and when she answered it, a familiar voice greeted her on the other end.

"Bo! Bo!" Caroline cried out in happy disbelief.

11/3 Bo informed her that he was on his way home. Caroline was stunned. When Caroline said that Hope was marrying Aiden that night, Bo asked Caroline to delay the wedding until he could return to Salem. After hanging up the phone, Bo and Steve found a motorcycle. Bo said the bike was a good sign because he had interrupted another wedding of Hope's with a motorcycle. Unfortunately, the bike would not start, so Steve and Bo started working to repair it. Frustrated, Bo grumbled that he would hunt down his captors and make them wish he had killed them.

Caroline marched into the main room and announced that she had talked to Bo. Caroline said Bo was returning home. Roman attempted to usher Caroline outside, but she stood her ground. Caroline said she had talked to Bo on her phone. When Caroline attempted to give her phone to Roman, she realized she had dropped it somewhere. Citing embarrassment, Caroline said she wanted to freshen up in the bathroom. After Caroline left, Roman asked Marlena if Caroline was okay. Marlena shrugged and said Caroline seemed to be in control. As Caroline walked out of the house, she chuckled and said, "Suckers!"

In her living room, Hope stared at her wedding dress. As Hope began to prepare to dress for her wedding, Caroline entered the house. Caroline told Hope that she had spoken to Bo and that he was on his way home. Nodding, Hope urged Caroline to sit down. Caroline stressed that she was sure she had talked to Bo. Hope asked to see Caroline's phone. Upset, Caroline cried out that she was not crazy. Caroline pleaded with Hope not to marry Aiden because it would be the biggest mistake of her life.

When Kayla arrived, Caroline told her that she had talked to Bo. Caroline asked Hope and Kayla to have faith in her. Holding Caroline's shoulders, Kayla asked Caroline to let Hope be happy. Kayla swore to punish Steve for putting ideas in Caroline's head. Caroline protested. When Kayla said she wanted to take Caroline to the hospital, Caroline pulled away and said that she needed to be at the party when Bo arrived. Hope and Kayla made pleading eyes with one another.

At the party, Julie and Maggie were surprised when Kayla returned Caroline to the party after her confrontation with Hope. Kayla said that Caroline had insisted and that Hope had agreed. After finding her phone, Caroline handed it to Victor as proof that she had talked to Bo. Victor dialed the last number, but there was no answer.

In the garage in Illinois, Steve and Bo returned from the junkyard and continued to work on the bike. Steve asked Bo who would have wanted the serum badly enough to kidnap Bo. With a shrug, Bo said he had a few suspects but that he needed to be sure before he pursued them.

Aiden arrived and listened to Caroline talk to Victor and Kayla about the phone call from Bo. A sad Caroline said she had to have been mistaken and that she would let the matter go. As the wedding ceremony started in Salem, somewhere in Illinois, Bo and Steve managed to repair the bike. Steve hopped on the back of the bike behind Bo, and Bo quipped that he liked it better when Hope was holding on to him. With big grins, Bo and Steve rode off toward home. In Salem, Hope walked down the aisle. As the priest started to speak, Caroline interjected, "Stop! You have to stop this!"

11/4 As Bo and Steve were making their way to Salem, the motorcycle they had cadged ran out of gas. A frustrated Bo nearly threw a temper tantrum because all the gas stations were closed, so he couldn't stop Hope's wedding. Steve said he'd seen a car parked at the last gas station, and if there were gas in the tank, he could siphon some out. Bo wanted to go, too, but he suddenly had a dizzy spell. Urging his buddy to wait there, Steve took off. A little later, a state police officer was locking Bo and Steve in a cell. Bo and Steve begged the cop to let Bo make a phone call so they could get to Salem.

"Not gonna happen. You can use the phone in the morning, right before you face the judge for reckless driving, driving without a license, and without proper registration," the cop said. Bo pleaded with the cop to call the Salem Police Department and ask for his brother Roman, who would verify what Bo had said and even post bail. The cop repeated that nothing would happen until the next morning. He walked out, leaving Steve and a frustrated Bo locked up. After pacing in the cell, Bo violently shook the bars and screamed, "No!" at the top of his lungs.

As Hope and Aiden's wedding got underway at the Martin mansion, Caroline jumped up and interrupted the priest. "Stop! You have to stop this!" Caroline shouted. Several people, including Kayla, Roman, and Daniel, rushed to Caroline's side to check on her. "I can't breathe!" Caroline gasped. Hope and Aiden exchanged worried looks. Kayla checked her mother's pulse, which was a little fast, and Jennifer hurried away to get Caroline some water. With Kayla, Roman, Hope, Doug, Julie, Eric, and Victor gathered around, Caroline cried that she felt terrible about ruining the wedding.

She asked if they could postpone it until she felt a little better. Kayla was immediately suspicious of her mother's behavior. She declared that she would take Caroline to the hospital, but Kayla was firm that they would not stop the wedding. Caroline claimed that she wanted to just rest for a moment because she didn't want to miss Hope's wedding. After Daniel checked Caroline out, he walked away, urging her to call him if she needed anything. Hope proposed that they wait to continue the wedding until Caroline was feeling better. Kayla asked to speak to her mother in private, so the others moved away.

Kayla hissed, "Either you are playing a game or you really need medical attention and either way, I am not letting you ruin or even postpone Hope's wedding." Kayla stood up and handed her bouquet to Jennifer, asking her to please take over maid-of-honor duties so Kayla could take Caroline to the hospital.

"But Hope, we really want you to go on without us. My mom and I want you to get married tonight," Kayla declared firmly. As Kayla talked to Joey, Chase asked her if his dad and Hope were still getting married. Kayla assured Chase that they were. Most of the rest of the guests followed Caroline and Kayla to the door to see them off.

At the hospital, with a cannula in her nose and Kayla and Roman at her bedside, Caroline complained, "I hate this damn place!" Kayla suggested that Caroline stop talking and rest. Caroline cheerfully maintained that she felt much better. As Caroline began ripping off her blood pressure cuff, Kayla said crossly, "You might be able to fool everybody else, but you're not fooling me. A miracle has happened, she feels better. And it must be a miracle because I didn't even turn the damn oxygen on!" Caroline accused Kayla of tricking her. Kayla countered that Caroline had lied to everyone at the wedding, all of whom were worried sick, and hadn't even considered Hope's feelings. Caroline swore that she had talked to Bo.

"You gotta knock this off, okay? Because if Bo comes back here, we don't want it to be for your funeral," Roman warned his mother.

Outside Caroline's room, Kayla recounted Caroline's earlier actions to Roman and asserted that Caroline needed to take it easy. "This obsession that she has with Bo, it's just eating her up. Doesn't she think that Hope wishes that Bo was coming back? Doesn't she know that I want nothing more than that? It's just not going to happen," Kayla said.

11/5 At the hospital, Caroline remained adamant that Bo had called her earlier and was on his way back to Salem. Still skeptical, Kayla consulted with Salinas, who agreed that it would be best to run some tests on Caroline and keep her at the hospital overnight for observation.

Stuck in a jail somewhere between Kansas and Salem, Steve passed the time with a round of bluesy tunes on his harmonica while Bo tried to reason with the cop who had arrested them, reminding him that they were legally entitled to a phone call. Uninterested, the cop picked up an old issue of Playpen and left the room. Frustrated, Bo knocked the harmonica out of Steve's hand, sending it flying across the holding cell. As Steve went to retrieve the instrument, he warned that, while he and Bo would make it back to Salem eventually, it didn't really matter if they made it back in time to stop Hope's wedding, because even if they did, she might still choose Aiden over Bo in the end.

Bo angrily punched Steve, who countered with a punch of his own. The cop soon returned to break up the fight, and when he got close enough, Bo reached out, grabbed his shirt, and pulled him forward, slamming his head against the metal bars. After grabbing the cop's keys, Bo loosened his grip, and the cop slumped to the floor, unconscious. Bo and Steve let themselves out of the holding cell and rushed off, bantering about their ruse. When the paramedics arrived at the hospital with Joey, Lani filled Kayla in on what had happened.

Noticing that Kayla had her hands full, Salinas went to see Caroline again. Salinas informed Caroline that he was headed home for the night but would be back to check on her again the following morning. Caroline wondered where Kayla was, and Salinas replied that she was with a patient but would surely be seeing Caroline again before the end of her shift. "Oh, no, she won't," Caroline said in a sing-song voice after Salinas left, smiling mischievously as she jumped out of her hospital bed and began removing her blood pressure cuff.

Caroline arrived at the Martin mansion, her hospital gown still visible under her dress, and was dismayed to find that everyone had left already. Caroline slumped down on one of the chairs and hung her head, accepting defeat just as Bo and Steve burst through the front door. Caroline was thrilled to see Bo, but after they hugged, she regretfully admitted that she had failed him. "I couldn't stop the wedding. Hope is married to another man," Caroline tearfully added, causing Bo to scream in frustration.

11/6 At the Martin mansion, Caroline and Bo shared an exuberant embrace. Although she was beyond relieved to see her son, Caroline apologized for failing Bo because she hadn't been able to stop Hope and Aiden's wedding.

"No! This can't be!" Bo bellowed. Bo wondered where all the wedding guests, and Hope, were, so Steve went outside to check. A tearful Caroline guessed that Hope and Aiden had gone home.

"Home? To our house?" Bo growled furiously. He stomped around the room, throwing chairs. Bo started to leave for the house. As he turned to leave, he lost his balance but caught himself before he fell, and he lowered himself into a chair.

Steve returned and reported that it had been as deserted outside as it was inside. Steve wanted to help Bo get to the house to see Hope, but Bo insisted that Steve find Kayla right away. Caroline said Kayla was at the hospital, probably looking for Caroline because she'd escaped. As Steve headed out, he said he would leave the motorcycle for Bo. After making sure that Caroline would be all right, Bo hurried out.

Joey lay in his hospital bed and maintained to his mom that he had not taken drugs at the gala. A dubious Kayla said they would just have to wait for the results of Joey's blood tests. A nurse entered and informed Kayla that Caroline was not in her room, and her clothes were gone. Worried, Kayla pulled her phone out of her pocket. Kayla tried to reach Caroline by phone but got her mom's voicemail instead. Exasperated and worried, Kayla decided that she needed to call the police and report Caroline missing. Just then, Steve walked in and informed Kayla, "Your mom's not missing. I just saw her at the mansion with Bo. I told you I would [find him], Sweetness."

Steve related the story of how he'd found Bo and everything they'd gone through to get home. "I didn't believe one word my mother said. I owe her a big apology," Kayla acknowledged. Kayla informed Steve that their son had been admitted to the hospital earlier. She reassured him that Joey was stable, and she was just waiting for some test results to release him. Kayla explained that, apparently, Joey had taken some kind of drugs at the celebration. Stunned, Steve wanted to see his son right away. As Steve and Kayla entered Joey's room, Joey immediately insisted that he hadn't done drugs.

"All I had was a can of soda, nothing else," Joey added. He explained that he and Theo had been hanging out, and some other kids had offered them some booze, but Theo and Joey had said "no." Joey swore that he was telling the truth. Kayla got a text message, alerting her that Joey's test results were in, so she left the room.

Steve sat next to Joey and told him about finding Bo and getting him back to Salem. Although amazed, Joey asked, "What about Aunt Hope? I mean, if she knew that Bo was coming home?” Steve reassured his son that everything would work out. Kayla returned and announced that Joey had, indeed, had drugs in his system.

"No way! Mom, I swear, someone must've slipped me something!" Joey insisted. A skeptical Kayla asked to speak to Steve outside, while Joey kept contending that he hadn't done any drugs. As they walked out of Joey's room, Steve maintained to Kayla that he didn't think their son would lie to them about doing drugs. Kayla pointed out that blood tests didn't lie. Steve wanted to know what kind of drugs they had been.

Kayla replied that it had been a combination, including zolpidem. Steve asserted that if someone had slipped drugs to Joey, Steve needed to know the other drugs. Kayla maintained that after Joey's recent moody behavior, it wasn't surprising that he had moved on to drugs. She noted that it had started after Steve had returned to Salem. A nurse interrupted Steve and Kayla's conversation to give him a note that had been left for him at the nurses' station. Frowning, Steve said he hadn't told anyone that he was in town.

"There's something off about this whole situation," he added. Kayla suggested that he open the envelope to find out who had sent it. Steve did so, and inside he found a gold-edged sheet of stationery with words printed on it in capital letters. He read aloud, "You thought you were rid of me for good, didn't you?"

11/9 At the hospital, Steve explained to Kayla that leaving her and Joey behind in Africa had been a matter of life and death. "I never would have come back unless I felt sure it was safe. But now it looks like the bastard's followed me home," Steve added with a sigh. Kayla wondered who Steve was talking about.

"And if you say you're not gonna tell me, I'm gonna wring your neck," Kayla warned. Steve explained that he had rejoined the ISA, despite knowing that doing so would infuriate Kayla, because he had needed to take care of something or, rather, someone. Steve added that he hadn't told Kayla that back then because he hadn't wanted to put her and their kids in danger.

"But now we are?" Kayla guessed.

"I thought I had eliminated the threat. Apparently, I was wrong," Steve replied with another heavy sigh. Kayla reminded Steve that his decision to keep her in the dark had led her to divorce him and stop trusting him.

"I know," Steve quietly replied. Steve assured Kayla that everything was going to be okay, vowing that he would protect her and their kids to the ends of the earth. Kayla wanted to believe that but seemed skeptical.

"Oh, my God. Does your unfinished business have anything to do with what happened to our son tonight?" Kayla wondered. Steve said he didn't know what had happened to Joey, but Kayla pointed out that Steve had believed Joey's claim that he hadn't taken drugs.

"I swear, if anything happens to our son --" Kayla began.

"Listen, you know what, I was doing my job! You know, that respectable job you always wanted me to have? When are you ever gonna give me credit for that? I brought Bo back home, for God's sake!" Steve countered. Kayla stressed that she was truly grateful for that.

"But now, knowing that we are living under some mysterious threat that you have brought into our lives --" Kayla continued before letting her voice trail off. Steve said he had been under the impression that he had dealt with the problem, and he conceded that, in hindsight, he probably shouldn't have returned to Salem, after all. "If you are going to go get that guy, whoever he is, go do it. And in the meantime, I need you to stay away from me and your son," Kayla replied before walking away.

A short time later, the paramedics arrived with Hope, and Bo quickly filled Steve in on what had happened then he went into Hope's room to check on her. A nurse tried to convince Bo to get himself examined, but he assured her that he would be fine. "I just want to be here with my, with my wife," Bo added.

After the nurse left, Hope woke up and began screaming when she saw Bo, again mistaking him for Aiden. Bo calmed Hope down and assured her that she was safe.

At the hospital, Kayla tracked Steve down after hearing that Hope had been admitted, but before he could explain what had happened, Bo returned from his examination, wearing clean scrubs. After a brief reunion with Kayla, Bo went back to Hope's room and crawled into Hope's hospital bed so he could protectively cradle her in his arms as she slept.

11/11 At the hospital, Steve tracked Kayla down in her office and reported that Joey was feeling better and had even asked for a cheeseburger and some fries. Kayla wasn't happy to learn that Steve had visited Joey, since, as far as she was concerned, it was Steve's fault that Joey had been hospitalized in the first place. Kayla complained that it had been wrong of Steve to keep her in the dark about the mysterious threat to their family.

"Why don't you ask Bo how that worked out [for him]?" Kayla suggested, asserting that Hope wouldn't have had her near-death experience if Bo had just stayed in Salem, where he belonged.  Steve pointed out that Caroline probably never would have recovered from her illness in that case, but Kayla refused to buy that excuse because Bo hadn't just gone off to look for a cure for Caroline, he had also taken on a new ISA mission as a side project during his absence because, like Steve, he just couldn't resist the allure of such things.

"We are who we are," Steve said with a shrug.

“Right, idealistic, stubborn men who think that [they're] the only people [who] can save the world," Kayla summarized, adding that Steve and Bo apparently didn't care about the possibility of their respective families getting hurt in the process. Steve protested that neither he nor Bo had ever put their respective families in danger intentionally, but that distinction didn't really matter much to Kayla because danger had still found all of them regardless. Kayla added that the scariest part was that Steve didn't even seem to understand how that had happened.

Steve guessed Kayla wanted him to be someone else entirely, but she denied that, clarifying that she simply wanted to know the whole truth about what was going on, something Steve should have told her before their son had been drugged. Steve maintained that he never would have returned to Salem if he had known that the threat against his family had, in fact, not been neutralized. "That's why I left in the first place! That's why I stayed away! I won't apologize for that!" Steve added. Kayla understood that danger followed Steve wherever he went, and that was just part of who he was as a person, but she insisted that he couldn't keep that stuff to himself.

"You want to share the danger?" Steve asked incredulously.

"We already do!" Kayla replied.

"I just need a little heads-up, a little warning. We should be a team! I can help! But you've gotta tell me what's going on!" Kayla added, arguing that if Steve had told her about the threat sooner, they might have been able to neutralize it together. Steve admitted that it had been wrong of him to keep Kayla in the dark.

"All I could think was [that] the threat was following me, [and] the further away I got, the better it would be for you and Joe," Steve explained. Kayla suggested that if Steve actually wanted a family of his own, they needed to start acting like a family, meaning they needed to handle the threat together. Grinning, Steve started cracking jokes, and when Kayla wondered how he could manage to do so at such a time, he explained that he was simply happy.

"You want me back! Right?" Steve guessed.

"Unbelievable!" Kayla countered, tossing a box of tissues at Steve, who caught it and chuckled as he reminded her that he wasn't the bad guy.

"Okay, fine. Then start talking, and tell me who is," Kayla demanded.

11/13 In the park, Joey took off his backpack and set it on the ground, and when he heard someone approaching, Joey hurled the pack in that direction, where it landed squarely in his dad's midsection.

"You following me?" an incredulous Joey asked, and Steve admitted that he had been because he'd been worried about Joey. Steve asserted that he thought, because of Joey's drugging, someone was trying to send a message to him. Steve produced the anonymous note he'd received at the hospital. He explained that he had made a lot of enemies over the years, and one of those enemies had started targeting him in Africa, and he'd feared that Kayla and Joey had been in the line of fire, as well and that was why Steve had felt it necessary to leave his family behind. Once Steve had gotten rid of the threat, he'd returned home. Joey understood what Steve meant by that. Steve said that there had actually been more than one person after him.

"I can't believe you kept this from us! Damn it, I spent so much time hating you for leaving and so did Mom!" Joey complained. Steve apologized and cautioned Joey that the problem had to be dealt with. Joey pleaded with Steve to let him help. Steve firmly refused to use Joey as bait.

"This is on me. I got this," Steve declared.

"Fine. What happens when I leave this park? You gonna keep trailing me? Want me to save you a seat in the cafeteria?" Joey grumbled. Steve promised that it would all be over soon.& After Joey left, Steve got a text message that read simply, "Intrigued, aren't you?"

Shawn took Bo to the hospital, and Shawn told Kayla what had happened, although Bo claimed it had just been sleep deprivation. Kayla asked Bo to describe his symptoms. Before Bo began, he urged Shawn to go check on Hope but not to tell her about what was going on with Bo. Shawn reluctantly agreed. Once Kayla and Bo were alone, Bo insisted that whatever was wrong with him probably had something to do with what he'd been through. "Oh, did you get your medical degree when you were away?" Kayla asked. While Kayla questioned him, Bo admitted that he'd been having headaches pretty much every day and sometimes more often that that, he'd been lightheaded and dizzy, and his vision was sometimes blurry.

Kayla took Bo to an exam room and instructed him to put on a gown, after which she would run an MRI and CT scan. Bo tried to refuse because he wanted to get back to Hope, but Kayla pointed out that Shawn was capable of taking care of his mother while Bo got tested. After threatening to have her burliest orderlies put the gown on Bo, Kayla left. When Bo's tests were finished, he was antsy to return home. Kayla made him stay in bed but assured him that she'd put a rush on the test results. Kayla expressed her sympathy for everything Bo had been through. She added that Hope was feeling guilty because she hadn't recognized what had been going on with Aiden, but because she hadn't believed that Bo would have been trying to get home, it only compounded the guilt.

Kayla explained that she understood Hope's feelings because Kayla felt the same way. Bo assured his sister that he didn't blame her or Hope, because he was the one who had screwed up. All he wanted to do was help his family heal and help Hope after everything she'd been through. Kayla got a page from the lab and went to retrieve Bo's test results. Kayla got the file containing Bo's results at the nurses' station and became distressed while she was looking at them. Bo stuck his head out the door as if attempting to sneak out of his room, but he paused when he saw Kayla's disposition. Upset, Kayla dropped her glasses on the desk and dialed Dr. Michaelson to ask for a consult on Bo's test results right away. Bo slipped back into his room with a worried look on his face. Kayla composed herself before entering Bo's room but he was gone.

A few minutes later, an out-of-breath Kayla showed up, relieved to find her brother. Trying to laugh everything off, Bo joked that Steve would "laugh his ass off" when he heard about all the tests, since Bo had survived torture, drugs being pumped into him, and even a plane crash. Putting his arms on Kayla's shoulders, Bo choked up as he added, "And here I am, in this park, and my beautiful sister is about to tell me that I'm going to die. Right?"

11/16 In a secluded section of the town square, Kayla gently informed Bo that he had a pretty sizable brain tumor in his cerebrum. Kayla hesitantly added that, based on the size of the tumor as well as Bo's health, neither brain surgery nor chemotherapy would be a viable option for him. Kayla tried to remain optimistic, noting that the type of tumor Bo had developed had been known to go into remission, but Bo could tell she wasn't really hopeful. At Bo's insistence, Kayla reluctantly admitted that Bo probably didn't have much time left.

"What this tumor seems to be is a glioblastoma. They create their own blood supply, which makes them grow very rapidly," Kayla explained. "Leave it to me to have a crafty tumor," Bo joked. Kayla said that if Bo were her patient, she would advise him to plan for the worst.   Kayla tearfully begged Bo to let her take him back to the hospital, or at least stay with him for a while so he wouldn't have to be alone at that time but he told her that being alone for a while was precisely what he needed at that time. Kayla nodded and gave Bo a hug, promising, at his request, that she would let him be the one to break the news to the rest of the family.

Steve found Kayla crying in the town square, and when he asked her to tell him what was wrong, she tried to resist, explaining that she had made a promise to Bo, but she soon ended up telling Steve exactly what had just happened. Kayla thought Steve might be able to convince Bo to undergo chemotherapy in an effort to shrink the tumor, but she couldn't guarantee that the time it would give Bo would be quality time, since sending radiation to the brain carried its own set of risks. Steve knew Bo would never agree to such a thing, and although she didn't want to admit it, Kayla knew Steve was right about that.

Steve tracked Bo down in the park and took a seat next to him on the ground. "Kay never could keep a secret," Bo muttered. Steve wondered if there was anything he could do for Bo, who replied that Steve had already done enough. "In the end, you know what to do," Bo added, and Steve nodded to confirm that he understood. Steve said he loved Bo, and after Bo returned the sentiment, Steve broke down while watching Bo walk away.

Hope went to the hospital to see if Kayla knew where Bo was. Kayla reported that she and Bo had gone to the town square earlier to talk privately, but she didn't know where he had gone afterward. Hope wondered how Bo was doing, and when she didn't get an immediate response from Kayla, she surmised that there was something that Kayla wasn't telling her. As Kayla started to respond, Bo arrived and greeted Hope, who said she had been looking for him.

"Oh, yeah? Well, I've been looking for you all my life," Bo replied, causing Hope to smile.

11/17 In her office, Kayla talked to Steve about Bo. Kayla said she was grateful that Steve had returned Bo to Salem. With a shrug, Steve commented that he had lousy timing. Steve showed Kayla the latest text message from the unknown person. It read, "Intrigued aren't u??" Steve said he did not believe the texter was the same person he had dealt with previously. Angry that the texter might have been the person that had poisoned their son, Kayla grabbed Steve's phone and sent a reply text.

We know who you are," the message said. Steve smiled with pride, but he confided that he was also concerned that Kayla had escalated the matter. The texter sent a return message warning them that the situation was serious. Kayla was needed at work, so she asked Steve to figure out who the mystery person was and get back to her.

Steve stopped by to talk to John. Steve informed John about the threatening text messages he had received. John broke the news that he had quit the ISA. Steve asked John if the ISA had fired him. Changing the subject, Steve asked if John wanted to open a private detective agency with him. When John suggested that they hire Bo as a partner, a shifty-eyed Steve said that Bo needed time with his family.  After his talk with John, Steve walked through the town square. The mystery texter sent a new message ordering Steve to meet at the Salem Inn, room 204. With a nod, Steve left. When Steve arrived at the hotel room, the room was covered in rose petals, and there was a note on the bed. No one was in the room.

11/18 After a mystery person texted Steve a room number at the Salem Inn, Steve investigated. The room was covered in rose petals. On the bed was a note that read, "Romantic, isn't it?" Steve looked for cameras and checked under the bed. When Kayla arrived, Steve's mouth dropped open. Scowling, Kayla asked Steve if he had been the one sending the mysterious texts in order to woo her. Steve shook his head no. Steve noted that he knew Kayla would not fall for the clichéd hotel room. Steve showed Kayla the note on the bed. Puzzled, Kayla asked who had tricked them. Steve accused Kayla of the setup.

Furious, Kayla said she was too upset about her brother to plan a romantic getaway. When Kayla showed Steve the invitation text on her phone, Steve nodded. Steve admitted that he had suspected Kayla because he had hoped that she would want to work things out. Kayla warned Steve not to hold his breath. Stumped, Steve and Kayla looked around the room for clues. Kayla noted that the champagne was the same kind that had been served at their wedding. Steve poured a glass of champagne, but a stressed Kayla knocked the glass out of his hand. Kayla reminded Steve that Joe had been drugged. With a sigh, Kayla asked Steve if he was playing her. Steve said he would not have toyed with Kayla while her brother was dying. Kayla admitted that she was scared. Steve apologized for adding to the stress in Kayla's life.

As she looked around the room, Kayla suggested that someone had played matchmaker. Nodding, Steve said he believed the latest texts were matchmaking, but the previous ones were more sinister. Steve promised to get to the bottom of the text messages. With a nod, Kayla reminded Steve that her fears for Steve in the past had been founded. Kayla admitted that their lives had never been boring. With a grin, Steve poured a glass of champagne. Kayla wanted to test the champagne for drugs or poisons, but Steve noted that life was full of risks. As Steve raised the glass in a toast to Kayla, she gently placed her hand on the glass and asked him not to drink the champagne.

Steve thanked Kayla for still caring about him. After Steve sipped the champagne, Kayla noted that they were different people. Kayla argued that Steve liked risks, and she liked rules. When Kayla confessed that she was worried about losing Steve, Steve promised that she would never lose him.

"I wouldn't want my life without our children, without you. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. I don't know why I was so stupid. If I could just have you back," Steve said. Steve leaned in and kissed Kayla.

11/19 At the Salem Inn, a text message alert interrupted Steve and Kayla's heated kiss. Steve tried to convince Kayla to ignore the message, but she pointed out that it might be about Bo. After reading the message, Kayla explained that Ciara was throwing a surprise party for Bo at the pub. "This was a mistake," Kayla told Steve before rushing off.

At the Brady Pub, Steve and Kayla arrived for Bo’s welcome home party. Bo forced a smile and hugged Caroline as she added that bad days were behind them. Bo told the guests how they had each helped him get through his ordeal, Caroline had urged him to eat even though the food hadn't been up to her standards, Victor had made the guards sound like they were speaking Greek to keep things amusing, Kayla, Roman, and Steve had encouraged him to keep trying to find a way to escape, and his kids had kept him motivated every time he had considered giving up hope. Julie proposed a toast to Bo, pointing out that many of the guests owed their lives to him. Recalling just one of Bo's heroic acts, Julie started talking about how he had saved people from Ernesto Toscano's cruise ship when a bomb had gone off on it. Shawn added that Bo had once hung from a helicopter to save his life. Feeling a bit uncomfortable, Bo stood up and protested that enough stories had been told for one day.

Bo stumbled as he spoke, and as he braced himself against a nearby table, he assured everyone that there was nothing to worry about, claiming that he had simply stood too quickly after drinking alcohol for the first time in years. Knowing the truth, Steve quietly asked Kayla if she believed it would be best for them to get Bo out of the pub. Fighting back tears, Kayla decided not to spoil what could be the family's last good memory of togetherness with Bo. Ciara suddenly decided that the gathering would be the perfect time for Bo and Hope to get remarried.

Ciara suggested that Abe could officiate the wedding, and she added that it didn't matter if it was legal or not because Bo and Hope could always just go to City Hall later to make it official; the important thing, she reasoned, was that they symbolically acknowledged the fact that they were back together as a family again. Abe was willing to help out, and Hope seemed okay with the idea, too, but when she asked for Bo's thoughts, he abruptly left the pub, explaining that he needed a minute alone. Hope took that as proof that Bo hadn't really forgiven her for giving up on him, and she refused to listen when Kayla tried to convince her that wasn't true.

Steve followed Bo outside and wondered what was going on. Bo explained that he was suffering another headache. Changing the subject, Bo handed Steve the keys to the motorcycle they had ridden back to Salem, joking that he wouldn't need it where he was headed. Steve said Bo needed to tell Hope what was going on. Bo agreed but was frustrated because he didn't know how much time he had left nor how to tell his wife he was dying.

11/20 Outside the Brady Pub, Steve firmly urged Bo to fight and beat his illness. When Hope and Kayla exited the pub, Bo said he needed to talk to Hope alone. He added that he needed to pick up something first and asked her to meet him at their spot in the park. The Bradys left in opposite directions.  Steve followed Kayla as she headed for the park outside Horton Square. On the phone, she pleaded with another doctor to pull some strings and get Bo into a study. The doctor obviously turned Kayla down. She fought back tears until she hung up then she began to cry.

Kayla told Steve that she didn't want to give up on trying to save Bo if there were even a small chance that they could save him. Steve pointed out that the side effects of treatment would likely make Bo miserable. Admitting that she felt helpless, Kayla leaned against Steve and began to sob. Drying her tears with a tissue, Kayla remarked that after seeing Bo's MRI, she didn't know how he was even functioning. Unwilling to lose her baby brother, Kayla expressed her gratitude to Steve for not giving up on Bo.

An emotional Steve admitted that, after searching so long for Bo, losing Bo that way would be terribly painful. Kayla pointed out that Bo would be alone if Steve hadn't found him and Aiden would have killed Hope. "You've given me a chance to say goodbye to my brother. No matter how painful it is, it's a gift," Kayla asserted, taking Steve's hand gratefully. Kayla apologized and maintained that she didn't want Steve to get the wrong idea, because she had only been feeling vulnerable. Steve said he knew the two of them still had feelings for each other and Kayla knew it, too. Kayla sadly reminded Steve that she couldn't think about anything but Bo.

Steve declared determinedly that Bo would fight with everything he had. Kayla was ready to leave, but Steve asked if she would stay to watch the sunset with him. Kayla joined him on the bench as the waning light reflected off their faces. After the sunlight had faded, a forlorn Kayla rested her head on Steve's shoulder. Between kisses, Hope cried but beamed at Bo, declaring quietly, "I love you, Brady. I love you. I love you."

Bo reached up to caress Hope's face and kissed her one final time before closing his eyes and going limp in her arms. Hope gazed closely at Bo's face then she clutched him to her chest, wailing inconsolably, "No. No. No. No. No!"

She sobbed as she begged, "Please! Brady, don't leave me! No, please!" She tenderly held his head up as she rested her face against his, weeping despondently. Light snowflakes began to drift down on them. "Don't leave me, Brady. Don't leave me," an anguished Hope implored.

1123 At the hospital, a nurse handed Steve an envelope that had been left for him at the nurses' station. Sighing, Steve opened the envelope and read the enclosed note, "Just when you think maybe you've figured it out…” prompting Kayla to wonder what it meant.

"He's just playing with us," Steve guessed. Steve promised to kill the guy if he went near Joey again, but that didn't exactly make Kayla feel better. Reluctantly, Hope reached for her cell phone and contacted Kayla. Unable to verbalize what had just happened, Hope just sobbed for a few seconds before dropping the device. When Steve and Kayla arrived, Hope sadly informed them that it was too late to save Bo. Steve said an ambulance was on the way, and he offered to take Hope elsewhere so she wouldn't have to watch the paramedics take Bo's body away, but she insisted that she wasn't going to leave Bo. Hope guessed Kayla and Steve had known about Bo's brain tumor, and they confirmed that they had found out earlier that day. Hope hugged Bo tightly, tearfully wondering why he hadn't told her sooner.

"Is this my punishment for giving up on him? Is this my punishment, Brady? I didn't want to give up on you. I didn't want to give up on you. I'm sorry," Hope sobbed. When the paramedics arrived, Kayla and Steve gently dragged Hope away from Bo. Hope continued to sob in Kayla's arms as Steve knelt beside Bo and kissed his forehead. After Steve stepped away, the paramedics went to work, and Hope, Kayla, and Steve watched as they draped a sheet over Bo's body and wheeled him away on a stretcher.

Steve and Kayla went to the Brady Pub to tell Caroline about what had happened. Kayla was relieved to see that Caroline was with Roman and Shawn, knowing they would be able to provide additional support. Steve offered to help Kayla break the news to Caroline, Roman, and Shawn, but she insisted on handling the task on her own. Nodding, Steve said he was going to go inform someone else who needed to be told the news right away.

Meanwhile, Steve went to the Kiriakis mansion and took a deep breath before ringing the doorbell. "It's Bo," Steve gravely stated when Victor answered the door.

11/24 At the Kiriakis mansion, Steve informed Victor and Maggie that Bo had died. Victor was in denial. Steve told Victor and Maggie about the tests that Kayla had performed that had shown that there had been a brain tumor in Bo's head. As Maggie wept, Steve apologized then slipped out of the house.

In the Brady Pub, Kayla told Caroline, Roman, and Shawn that Bo had died from a brain tumor. Shawn noted that Bo had said that he was fine. Kayla said Bo had lied because he had not wanted anyone to know that the tumor had been inoperable. Shaking his head, Shawn sat down next to Caroline. Angry, Roman blamed the men that had kidnapped and tortured Bo. Kayla explained that the tumor had been growing for a long time prior to Bo's disappearance. When Kayla mentioned that Bo had died in Hope's arms, a worried Shawn asked about his mother. Kayla said that Jennifer was checking on Hope. As Shawn asked about Ciara, she entered the pub and asked what was going on. Shawn escorted his sister outside, and Roman and Kayla wondered how Ciara would take the news. Kayla thanked God that Bo had been able to talk to Ciara before he had died.

In the park, Steve drank liquor alone. Kayla called his phone, but he did not answer it. Instead, Steve played his harmonica. Steve's phone beeped with at text. The message read, "Sorry to see you in so much pain." Angry, Steve demanded that the person show themselves. When no one answered, Steve collapsed back on the bench and drank some more. As Steve stumbled around drunk, Hope entered the park and asked him for help. Hope said she wanted to pursue the men that had kidnapped Bo.

At the pub, Jennifer told Caroline, Roman, and Kayla about her interaction with Hope. Fighting tears, Jennifer said she understand because she had gone through the same thing when Jack had died. Victor and Maggie arrived. When Caroline saw Victor, she broke down sobbing. Victor hugged Caroline. Once Caroline calmed down, Victor informed the group that he had spoken to Chelsea and told her the news. When Kayla asked Maggie about Steve, Maggie said Steve had disappeared.

11/25 A hung-over Steve awakened in his hotel room, another empty bottle still in his hand, to the buzzing of his phone. Steve hauled himself off the bed and read the series of anonymous messages, which read, "Rough night? Bet this morning is even rougher. Hair of the dog? Get a head start on tomorrow's hangover. Steve was guzzling water when Hope showed up. She announced that she was going after the people who'd locked Bo up and had been responsible for Bo's death, and she needed Steve's help. Steve thought it was a mistake, but Hope insisted that it was justice, not revenge. Steve suggested they go later, when they were both more clear-headed but first, they needed to take care of business at home.

As Hope and Steve arrived at the pub, an upset Hope paused outside before entering. Steve gently talked her into going inside, for Bo and for her kids. Hope dried her tears and went inside with Steve. A thankful Ciara, Kayla, and Shawn embraced and welcomed Hope. Caroline announced that dinner was served, so everyone gathered around the table. Caroline noted that there was an empty chair where Bo would have been, explaining that they all felt the big hole Bo had left but he had also left them many gifts to treasure.

Raising her glass, her voice quavering, Caroline toasted, "To my son, who was larger than life. Until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand." She lifted her glass high and declared, "To Bo Brady." Everyone assembled echoed her words and gesture before taking a drink from their glasses. After dinner, Privately, Kayla suggested that Hope take Ciara out of town on a vacation so they could both heal. Hope quietly confronted Steve, "You told Kayla what we talked about, didn't you? She won't be able to stop me any more than you will." Hope cautioned Steve not to stand in her way, even if he tried to make things harder for her.

"All right. I get it. I can't be a part of if, but you do what you've got to do," Steve said.

"I will," Hope agreed. In the doorway, ghost Bo smiled at Hope and gave her a small, proud nod.

11/30 Hope followed Steve back to his room at the Salem Inn to continue interrogating him about Bo's captors. When Steve realized that Hope wasn't going to give up, with or without his help, he reluctantly advised her to search for Claudia, the woman who had pretended to be Britta Englund's daughter in order to lure Bo to Mexico. Steve promised to send Hope the information he had on Claudia. Hope tried to convince Steve to team up with her, but he declined, opting to stay in Salem because he knew his family needed him to make them his top priority. Hope insisted that she was doing what she had to do for her family, adding that Shawn and Ciara needed her to avenge Bo's death. Steve argued that Hope's kids needed her in the flesh and he warned that she was considering heading down a road that could lead her to some things she wasn't ready to face. Hope left after stating that she would happily take that risk.

Steve went to Kayla's office and informed Kayla that Hope was still determined to go after Bo's captors. Kayla offered to try talking to Hope herself, but Steve thought that would be a bad idea because Hope was still upset that he had told Kayla about her plan.

"Great. Just one more thing that I can do nothing about," Kayla complained with a sigh. Steve reasoned that Kayla was entitled to fall apart if she wished to do so, since she had just gotten her family through the worst Thanksgiving ever. Kayla insisted that she didn't want Steve to feel sorry for her, so he assured her that he didn’t. Kayla pointed out that she couldn't do anything about the mysterious messages she and Steve had been receiving lately, either. Steve suggested that he and Kayla might not have to do anything about the messages, since they didn't seem particularly threatening. Kayla agreed that it seemed like the messages were just intended to push her and Steve together.

"So, great, it’s not a threat; it's just weird," Kayla mused, and Steve added that it was also local, since the sender was obviously aware of their day-to-day activities. Steve and Kayla remained unable to think of any possible suspects, but Kayla hated the idea of handling the matter passively. She suggested that she and Steve could stage a public fight instead of just waiting for the next message to arrive. Steve joked that he didn't think it would be possible for Kayla to convince people that she was upset with him, but she countered that he had been turning her world upside down since the moment he had returned to Salem.

Realizing that Steve was just pushing her buttons, Kayla observed that he seemed to enjoy doing so, and he admitted that she might be right about that. Steve wondered if Kayla could remember a time when they had gotten along with each other. Kayla claimed that she couldn't, but Steve said he could, adding that when they'd had problems in the early stages of their relationship, they had always sorted them out over long walks together. Kayla said she couldn't do that because she had a reception to go to later, during which she would need to charm some important, wealthy people into donating money to the hospital. Steve wondered if Kayla was up for that kind of event, and she confirmed that she needed to stay busy. Kayla tried to print something, but her printer was out of paper. Muttering that she had just filled the printer with paper recently, Kayla excused herself so she could grab another pack of paper from the supply closet.

"Looks like we'll take that walk, after all," Steve mused as he followed Kayla out of the office. While helping Kayla retrieve a box from the highest shelf in the supply closet, Steve suggested that they could tag-team their stalker with frequent text messages from each of them. Kayla agreed, and as she grabbed a couple packs of paper from the box, the door to the supply closet shut behind her and Steve. When Steve tried to open the door, he discovered that it was locked. Joey stood on the other side of the door, watching for passersby as Steve called out for help.

12/1 Steve walked with Kayla to the supply closet, unaware that Joey was following them. Once his parents were in the closet, Joey closed the door and locked them in. As Steve and Kayla called out for assistance, Joey walked away. Since Kayla had left her phone at her desk and Steve's phone was out of power, Steve started to bang on the door. Kayla noted that Steve's effort was useless, since they were in the administrative wing late in the day, and the janitor would not be around until the end of the evening. Frustrated, Steve banged against the door with his shoulder, knocking over a bottle of floor cleaner in the process. As Steve wrestled with the door, the timer on the lights in the closet ended, leaving the couple in the dark.

Kayla was frustrated that she was missing her fundraiser. As Kayla grew woozy, Steve realized that the floor cleaner he had spilled was giving off fumes. Both Steve and Kayla moved to sop up the chemicals with towels. Steve gently guided Kayla to the corner. Kayla giggled as Steve mopped up the fluids and placed the towels in a plastic bag. After a few moments, a panicked Kayla started to bang on the door and plead for help. As Kayla started to hyperventilate, Steve calmed her down. The fumes accumulated, and the two grew punchy. Steve talked about his new partnership with John. Kayla laughed when Steve mentioned that the new business was going to be called "Black Patch." Steve said he and John were the two amigos.

Laughing, Kayla pointed out that there should be three amigos. Steve's smile fell away. Steve noted that Bo should have been the third amigo. Shivering, Steve noted that the room was turning cold. Kayla explained that the heat was turned down in the evening to save energy. Steve put his jacket around Kayla's shoulders then rubbed her hands to warm her up. As Steve put his arms around Kayla, she smiled shyly. Kayla looked into Steve's eyes, and they kissed. The kiss grew more passionate, and Steve pushed Kayla against the shelf, knocking over more supplies.

As the moment grew more heated, an orderly opened the door to the closet. Blushing furiously, Kayla explained that they had been locked in the closet. Kayla handed Steve his jacket, and she rushed out of the closet into the hallway. Steve gave the orderly a fist bump as he walked past him. Steve chased after Kayla and assured her that she had scored points with the orderly. Laughing, Kayla thanked Steve for distracting her. As Steve reached out and touched Kayla's face, he said, "You're welcome, Sweetness."

Around the corner, Joey smiled and texted someone, "Success!" The mystery person texted back, "Excellent!! Time for the next step." Joey peeked around the corner at his parents as they walked together down the hall.

12/2 Kayla, Roman, and Caroline were gathered at the Brady Pub before Bo's funeral. Kayla said Kimberly was stuck at the airport and probably wouldn't make it in time for the funeral. As Caroline went into the kitchen, Steve arrived. He tried to tell the others that he'd rented an SUV so more of them could ride together, but he broke down before he could finish. Kayla tried to comfort him with a hug.

"I need you today," Steve said a little later as he took Kayla's hand. Kayla agreed, "I need you today, too."  Later, Bo's friends and family and some police officers congregated at the gravesite, where chairs had been arranged for the mourners. Hope took Ciara's hand as pallbearers Roman, Shawn, Steve, Rafe, Abe, and John carried Bo's casket and solemnly set it above the open grave. Father Louis began the eulogy. Caroline clutched the hand of a grim-faced Victor for strength.

At the end of the service, Bo's immediate family, beginning with Caroline and Victor, placed a red rose on the casket. Finally, Hope stood with her rose and stood for a long while in front of the casket. She was still there, holding the rose closely to her, after the other mourners had filed out. Slowly, Hope placed her rose on top of the others, and as her hand rested there for a moment, a vision of Bo appeared beside her and placed his hand over hers. The two beamed wordlessly at one another until Bo removed his hand and disappeared. Hope's expression transformed from one of grief to one of steely determination before she walked purposefully away from the gravesite.

After the funeral, everyone gathered at the Brady Pub in somber silence. Caroline stood up, marched over to the bar, and announced, "If my son Bo were here today, you know what he'd say? He'd say this party's tanking!" The tension broken a bit, the group chuckled. Caroline continued, "Victor reminded me, Bo lived the life that he wanted. I think we should celebrate that."

She declared that they should tell stories and listen to music while celebrating the time Bo had spent with them. Caroline turned to Roman behind the bar and ordered, "Set me up!" Laughing, Roman poured his "Ma" a very generous shot of Irish whiskey then poured one for himself. Raising her glass, Caroline toasted, "To Bo Brady, a great man who loved his family more than life itself!"

The others echoed, "To Bo!" Caroline downed her shot, impressing everyone in the room, which quickly filled with boisterous laughter.

Steve headed back to Bo's grave and stared down at the huge spray of red flowers that had adorned Bo's casket. As Steve began to cry, Kayla arrived and embraced him from behind. They clung to each other as they sobbed.

"You know he loved you like a brother," Kayla said, sniffling.

"I guess I'm on my own now," Steve said sadly. Kayla reassured him that he didn't have to be alone, adding softly, "I think my brother would be happy to know that something good came out of today."

12/9 A determined Kayla showed up at Steve's hotel room and announced that she was going to flush out their stalker. Before Steve could protest, Kayla grabbed Steve's phone and sent the stalker a text message that read, "You have us where you want us. If you want to keep us together, show your face. The park off Horton Square in thirty minutes." Steve was impressed. Someone wearing all black, including black leather gloves, read the message. Steve got a quick reply to the message, which read simply, "You're on."

Steve worried that that it was a trick, but Kayla pointed out that if the stalker had wanted to hurt them, he or she would have done so already. Steve took a switchblade out of the nightstand and assured a hesitant Kayla that he would always have her back. Kayla reminded Steve that she'd said they worked better as a team. Steve moved in for a kiss, but Kayla pulled away and said things were moving too quickly. When Steve kissed the back of her neck, Kayla was unable to resist and turned around to kiss him on the lips. She abruptly ended the kiss, reminded Steve that it was time to leave, and headed out the door.

A few minutes later, Steve and Kayla were waiting in the park outside Horton Square for their stalker to show up. Kayla asked if Steve were sure he wanted to work with John as a private investigator. Steve said that was what he knew how to do, plus it would keep him in Salem with his family. Kayla admitted that she was worried Steve wouldn't be happy with that job after working for the ISA.

Joey showed up just then and announced, "Okay, I'm here." Kayla and Steve looked at their son with surprise. Joey claimed that he was there because he'd gotten a text message from one of his parents, telling him to meet them there. Suspicious, Kayla and Steve somewhat angrily informed their son that neither of them had sent the text. Joey received a text message that said, "Take the blame!! They'll love you for it!" Joey lied that the message had been from Ciara. Steve demanded to see the phone, but Joey refused to hand it over.

Under questioning from his parents, Joey admitted that he'd sent the text messages to them. Joey apologized about locking his parents in the supply closet, explaining that as soon as he'd realized the heat had been off, he'd made sure an orderly would find them right away. "None of this is okay. You drugged yourself?" an incredulous Kayla demanded. Joey explained that he'd only dosed himself with enough to make himself pass out.

"Why would you do something like this?" Kayla demanded. Joey sheepishly explained that he'd known both of his parents would show up at the hospital, and although he'd also known that they might argue, at least they would both have been there.

"So the texts, the hotel room, all of it was just to get me and your mom back together, right?" Steve asked skeptically.

"Did it work?" Joey asked.

"Yeah, it kinda did," Steve admitted, much to Kayla's chagrin.

Back at Steve's hotel room, Steve asked Kayla, "So we're not together?" Kayla asserted that Steve needed to learn when not to tell a kid everything.

"We don't want to encourage him to pull this kind of stunt again," Kayla added.

"Joe didn't do this," Steve asserted, explaining, "When he got that text, I watched his face. When I mentioned the hotel, he had no idea what I was talking about. Joe’s involved, but he definitely had help." Joey was still in the park when Ava Vitali, Steve's ex-fiancée, showed up, clad all in black and wearing sunglasses, even though it was night.

"You were right. They weren't mad; they were happy. Your plan's totally working. Dad even said that he and Mom were pretty much together," Joey told Ava.

Removing her sunglasses, Ava said, "Perfect."

12/10 In a secluded section of Horton Town Square, Joey wondered why Ava was invested in getting Steve and Kayla back together. Ava reminded Joey that she had already told him that his parents were old friends of hers or had been, at least, until she had done something that had ended up hurting them. Ava said she had promised herself that if she ever got the chance, she would do whatever it took to make Steve and Kayla happy again.   Ava declined to give Joey more details, and she assured him, as she placed a hand on his knee, that she would understand if he wasn't happy with that and wanted to sever ties with her. Joey told Ava he wasn't going to back out of their plan, and she said she was happy to hear that because she really wanted to fix the mistake she had made.

Placing his hand on top of Ava's, Joey stressed that the important thing was that she was trying to make up for what she had done in the past. Ava wasn't sure Steve and Kayla would be as forgiving, and she said that was why she hadn't let them know yet that she was back in town. Joey wondered when Ava planned to reveal herself to Steve and Kayla. Ava said she might do that once Steve, Kayla, and Joey were officially a family again, and she added that, in the meantime, she planned to kick things into a higher gear. Joey gamely asked Ava to tell him what to do next. Caressing Joey's cheek, Ava replied that it was time for her to take control of their plan on her own. Hurt that Ava was ditching him, Joey protested that he had done exactly as she had asked.

Ava assured Joey that he had done a great job, and she explained that she simply needed to be the one to tell Steve and Kayla about her part in the scheme. Ava warned that if Joey revealed the truth himself, he could potentially ruin all the progress they had already made. Joey wasn't sure he could promise anything, since his father probably wasn't going to stop questioning him about the plan anytime soon, but Ava insisted that he was smart enough to handle such questions with ease. After giving Joey a kiss on the cheek, Ava suggested that it would be best for him to leave before someone saw them together. Ava smiled mischievously as she watched Joey hesitantly walk away.

At the Salem Inn, Steve and Kayla agreed that someone was definitely helping Joey with his plan to get them back together. Steve kissed Kayla's neck as he wondered if she wanted to tell Joey the plan wasn't going to work or stop fighting temptation. Kayla started kissing Steve but soon pushed him away, admitting that she wasn't sure she was making the smart move.

"You ever get tired of being so smart all the time?" Steve wondered. Ignoring the question, Kayla suggested that it might not be the best day for her to make big decisions, prompting Steve to wonder why the decision in question had to be a big one. Steve advised Kayla to just follow her heart, and when he kissed her again, she didn't pull away.

Later, after making love, Steve opened up to Kayla about what life had been like for him during their separation. Steve said he had spent every day thinking about how he was going to get Kayla back but had never been sure he would be able to accomplish that goal because she had always been her own person. Steve admitted that he had never felt deserving of Kayla and had never really had any confidence until she had started believing in him. Steve declared that Kayla was the best thing that had ever happened to him and that he had repeatedly thrown away what he'd had with her because he was an idiot. Chuckling, Kayla agreed. Steve said he could see that Kayla still believed in him, prompting her to wonder if he thought he knew her better than she knew herself. Steve allowed for the possibility, and Kayla admitted that he might be right. As Kayla rested her head on Steve's chest, he recalled how Bo had urged him to get his family back and never let them go again.

"I want us to be a family again. I want us to live together," Steve whispered as he stroked Kayla's hair. Kayla left the bed and grabbed a tissue, prompting Steve to apologetically wonder if he was moving too quickly for her. Kayla remained silent, so Steve acknowledged that he had never asked how life had been for her during their separation. Kayla admitted that it had been miserable at first, but, over time, she had gotten better at being alone and had even started to enjoy her newfound independence. Kayla added that she hadn't spent the whole time pining over Steve. She shares that she had even dated someone named Bob, but he had been pretty quiet, and the relationship hadn't really gone anywhere.

"So much for online dating," Kayla mused. Kayla said she found it hard to believe that Steve hadn't been involved with at least one woman during their separation. Steve confirmed that he had indeed been involved with one woman during that time.

"I thought so," Kayla quietly replied, lowering her head. Steve forced Kayla to look at him as he added that the woman's name was Kayla Johnson. Steve wondered what he would have to do to get Kayla to believe that she was the only woman for him. Kayla admitted that she wanted to believe that, and she added that she had been lying earlier, when she had claimed that she hadn't been pining for Steve during their separation. Kayla said Steve was, and always had been, the only man for her. "You happy now?" Kayla asked. Chuckling, Steve kissed Kayla to confirm that he was. Kayla pulled away from Steve and went to grab something from her purse.

"[This] might be a complete and total leap of faith, but if you're still interested, welcome home," Kayla said, offering her house key to Steve, who happily accepted it.

"I don't want to push my luck, but, uh maybe we can take this a step further," Steve suggested before kneeling in front of Kayla and taking her hand.

"Kayla Caroline Brady Johnson, will you marry me again?" Steve asked.

12/11 In Steve's hotel room, Kayla and Steve were dressed only in their hotel robes. Kayla remained silent after Steve proposed, so he offered proposals in Italian, French, and Spanish. Still Kayla didn't speak, although she smiled. Steve lamented not doing something more romantic for his proposal, but he reassured Kayla that he intended to stay in Salem with his family. He promises that he never wants to be away from her again. He is putting down roots!

"I love you with everything that I am but what am I? I'm not whole without you. I need you by my side. I want you to be my wife again. But this time, I want it to be forever” Steve said softly.

**The End**

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