Rachel stretched out her arm in the bed; it was empty. Her eyes flew open.

"Carl?"

"Good morning, Darling!" Clean and well-groomed, Carl was once more the man Rachel had married.

"Oh, thank goodness! For a second, I thought I'd dreamed it!"

"No, I'm back where I belong."

"Not quite!" Rachel reached up and wrapped her arms around Carl. "Now you are!"

"It's the little things I missed the most." Carl murmured, holding her close, "The sound of your laugh - the scent of your hair -"

Rachel ran her hands over his back. "You're so thin!" she said, "I'll tell Helen to cook us a really big breakfast!"

"Breakfast can wait!" said Carl, nibbling her earlobe.

****

Later that day, everyone (Carl, Rachel, Matthew, Lila, Amanda, Cameron, Cass, Felicia, Josie, Gary, Wally and Paulina) gathered in the living room of the Cory Mansion.

"Carl! I'm so glad you're alive!" cried Paulina, throwing her arms around him. They hugged and kissed.

"Thank you, Paulina." said Carl, "I'm sorry about Joe."

Paulina shrugged. "The Doctors say he's gonna live."

(Note: I didn't kill The Jerk - this time - because, even if she has come to her senses, Paulina couldn't be quite so blase if he was dead :-D)

"Well, " said Carl, looking around at the sea of expectant faces, "This is like the last chapter of an Agatha Christie novel."

"So give us the benefit of your little grey cells, Hercule." said Rachel.

"Yeah, Carl." said Gary, "I gotta admit that I don't understand what the heck's been goin' on these last few months."

"I shall tell you everything I know, and give you my best guess as to the rest," said Carl, "Where to begin? Oh what a tangled web we weave/ When first we practice to deceive." (Alexander Pope)

"Embers In The Snow?" suggested Cass, "Was that you?"

"No, it wasn't." said Carl, "I believe it was part of Nikos' plan to make me seem irrational and dangerous. When did it begin - February? That was about the same time that I started having the headaches. It was in the course of my investigation into the Embers nonsense that I first made the acquaintance of my good friend, William Wallace Walters."

"That's me!" said Wally.

(Note: When Felicia first met Wally, he told her that his name was 'Wallace'. Later, when he was suspected of being behind the Embers affair, we were told that he was an ex-employee of Cory Publishing named 'Walters'. I don't recall what his first name was supposed to be, but the name of the hero of BRAVEHEART seemed appropriate.)

"The headaches kept getting worse and worse, and my thinking became more irrational day by day." said Carl, "I thought I was going mad."

"Darling!" said Rachel, "If only I had realized!"

"I hid the truth from you as best I could," said Carl, "You know how I hate to show weakness."

Rachel gave a sigh of loving exasperation. Men and their macho pride!

"It was at this point that my long-lost brother Scott contacted me."

"Why didn't you ever tell me about him?" Rachel asked.

"Scott and I had lost touch after he dropped out of Oxford," said Carl, "But my sources told me that he had made a career as a contract killer."

"My Brother The Hitman?"

"Exactly - not a relative to boast about. However, in a crisis, one uses the tools that come to hand: when Scott came back into my life, I was only too glad of his help. What I didn't know at the time was that Alexander Nikos had hired him to kill You, Rachel."

"What about ME?" asked Cass.

"Yes, yes, you as well." said Carl, "Unfortunately for Nikos' best-laid plans, Andrew Hutchins did not father any idiot sons: Scott had no qualms about the killings, but he soon realized that Nikos intended Me to take the blame, and he had enough family feeling to balk at that. So he persuaded me to hire a bodyguard - Cameron - and set about framing him."

"Thanks a lot!" muttered Cameron.

" Meanwhile, I was growing more irrational by the day; I was afraid that , in my madness, I might harm Rachel or our children." said Carl, "I contemplated suicide -"

"Carl!" said Rachel.

Carl gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "It's ancient history now, Love. Scott was able to persuade me to fake my own death instead. That last evening, when you and I went to the top of the hill, Rachel, I knew that Scott was lying in wait for me with a high-powered rifle. At the last moment, when you told me that you would never abandon me, I changed my mind about 'dying' - but it was too late."

"So that's why you yelled 'NO!' just before he shot you!" said Rachel.

"After I was shot, I was in no condition to resist when Scott smuggled me out of the hospital and put me on a private jet to Florida." said Carl, "But I swear to you, I had no idea that he would cover his tracks by setting off an explosion in the ICU."

"So, you were at the house in Florida when Scott showed up here, claiming that you had hired him to work at Cory Publishing." said Rachel, "Was that part of Nikos' plan too?"

"No, Scott had his own agenda. He had grown up obsessed with getting revenge on the Cory family for Mac's supposed crimes against our father. I must accept part of the blame for that."

" Well, you were obsessed yourself, in those days."

"While Scott was insinuating himself into your lives, I had become so paranoid that I no longer trusted Him!" said Carl, "I hid the Cory money where he couldn't find it, then faked my death a second time, making Scott think that I had died in a planecrash. Then an odd thing happened: once I was on my own, the headaches diminished, and my thinking became clear enough for me to put myself in the hands of the doctors. They gave me a thorough examination, which discovered traces of psychotropic drugs in my system!"

"What?" everyone gasped.

"Apparently, I had been systematically poisoned for months, presumably on Nikos' orders. That explains the headaches, and the paranoia."

"But how?"

"The drugs were put into something I ate or drank." said Carl, "I suspect it was the cognac. Very little surveillance would be necessary to establish that, while other members of the household might take the occasional snifter, I invariably did, every evening."

"I'm throwing that decanter out, right now!" said Rachel.

"I'm sure it's safe." said Carl, "Nikos will have had the evidence destroyed, after my 'death'."

"I'd better have it tested anyhow." said Josie.

"As you wish." said Carl, "Where was I? Wally had been keeping an eye on the family for me, so I knew about Scott's doings. By the time I was discharged from the clinic as cured, He had taken Amanda to Boca Linda. I arrived there too late to prevent the destruction of the house, and Amanda and Gary's subsequent ordeal."

"That house - that horrible room in the basement - Scott said you were going to put Mother there!" said Amanda.

"That was a lie." said Carl, " The house did belong to me - had done for years - but it was Scott who added the 'improvements', such as the room which could be filled with acid, and the explosives. By all accounts, his behaviour towards the end was bizarre."

"Maybe he'd been into the cognac." said Rachel, "But Carl, after Boca Linda, why didn't you tell us that you were alive? Why didn't you call me?"

"Because my sources informed me that Alexander Nikos was still alive. I thought you would be safer if I was out of the picture."

"You were wrong." said Rachel, "We needed you."

"I'll spend the rest of my life making amends." said Carl, "I was never very far away, Love."

"What about the Lumina Foundation?" said Matthew.

"It started as a legitimate psychic research enterprise, run by a young man named Zack Wilder." said Carl, " When Nikos - or Jordan Stark, as he was calling himself - offered unlimited funding, he naturally jumped at the chance."

"Apparently 'Stark' convinced Zack that he had incredible psychic powers." said Rachel.

"A credulous young man." Carl commented. "Well, as you have apparently guessed, Rachel, I attended the Lumina Ball, wearing a mask."

"So that was it!" said Josie. "You spotted him on the security camera tapes!"

"When Lila happened to give birth in the elevator -"

"Zack told us that she'd been given ergot." said Rachel, "It induced labour."

"Ah! I was unable to prevent the baby's kidnapping, but when Wally followed Zack to Bayside Park, and saw him leave her in a tree, he climbed up and got her, then brought her to me. I told him to tell Paulina that he had found her in the dumpster behind Carlino's."

"Why didn't you call the police?" said Josie, "We could have arrested the Lumina people for kidnapping!"

"I was dead, remember?" said Carl, "If Wally, an ex-mental patient, had told you that he saw Zack Wilder put a new-born baby up a tree, would you have believed him?"

"Probably not." Josie admitted, "More likely we would have arrested Wally."

"Exactly." said Carl, "Well, there's not much more to say: when Nikos' plans to make use of Lila were thwarted by the return of her infant, Nikos attempted to poison Paulina, then came after Rachel."

"I hope Alexander Nikos rots in jail!" said Paulina.

"Small chance of that." said Carl, "He will almost certainly be found unfit to plead, by reason of insanity."

"Yeah, but if it's any consolation, we can nail his daughter for conspiracy." said Josie.

"Remy? I mean, Zoe?" said Paulina, "She saved my life! She kept me from drinking that poisoned Coke!"

"She's probably the one who poisoned it in the first place!" Josie pointed out.

"Zoe is the one who let me out of the Lumina Lab, where Alexander had left me tied up." said Felicia, "I'm not testifying against her!"

"Neither am I!" said Paulina, "Let her go!"

"It's not up to me!" said Josie, "But when the DA hears what you have to say, he'll probably decide not to prosecute."

"Good!"

"That brings us to the final item on the agenda," said Carl, "Wally."

"Me?"

"After everything you have done for our family, it would be the blackest sort of ingratitude to just send you back to your life on the streets," said Carl, "So Rachel and I have a proposition for you."

"We'd like you to be our guest, for as long as you wish - forever, if you want - at the Lake House."

"It's that modest cottage down by the boat dock." said Carl, "You would have a roof over your head, but keep your independence. Helen, our cook, would give you your meals."

"Please say yes, " said Rachel, "We'd be delighted to have you."

"Indeed," said Carl, "I always like having a loyal henchman around the place."

"It sounds like a good idea to me." said Felicia.

"Then - I'll give it a try." said Wally.

"Excellent!" said Carl, "Now we can all do our best to live happily ever after!"

The End