Roman leaned back in his chair, cracked his fingers, and eyed the pile of paperwork distastefully. He missed being a real cop rather than a paper pushing bureaucrat. With a grimace he signed yet another requisition form, not even bothering to read this one. Tilting his head back, he stared at the ceiling and searched for an excuse to hit the streets. His musings were interrupted by a perfunctory knock and Abe Carver strode in. Without waiting for an invitation, Roman’s right-hand man took his favored position in the chair set before the cluttered desk.

At first glance, the two men were a study in contrasts. Abe was built like the linebacker he had been in college and he still moved with the easy grace of an athlete. His short cropped hair was already streaked with grey, lending him an air of maturity. Combined with the well-cut suit he wore like he’d been born in and his deceptively mild voice, he could easily play the part of a corporate executive. A really big corporate executive.

Abraham Carver was solid, dependable, the calm before the storm. Roman was the storm itself. The man was in motion even when he was sitting still. He never seemed to relax, only to coil and wait- and waiting was something he had never been very good at. The tie around his neck was there only because his job forced him to wear it and a discerning eye could see his concern that the slight piece of silk was at any moment going to leap up and strangle him. His rangy build was deceptive and in a dress jacket the broad width of his shoulders was concealed, making him appear almost slim. From a distance, Abe was by far the more imposing form. Up close- well, up close to either of the men could be a dangerous place to be.

Their personnel files gave a hint of what had made these two seemingly disparate men the most effective team in the history of the Salem P.D. Both files were filled with commendations and the number of major cases they had solved was too large to bother counting. Even more impressive were the accolades from outside agencies. In Roman’s case, some of those agencies were so covert that not even their real names were included in the files. The files explained why Abe was the first black man to rise to the position of Captain in the city of Salem and why Roman was the police Commander though he had yet to see his 40th birthday. Of course, files were just files- pieces of paper that created a reality for outsiders to see. Paper can never really capture the nature of a man.

“Let’s go shoot somebody,” Roman said, in a tone that might have been joking.

“Hm- I’m not certain, but I think that’s against the law,” Abe replied, leaning back in his chair and flashing a broad grin.

“Not if it’s somebody bad.”

“I think you better brush up on the criminal codes in this state, Roman.”

“You never let me have any fun,” Roman groused, flinging his pen down atop the mounds of unread paper.

“What you mean is, I never let you get into any trouble.”

“Same difference. What’d you come in here for, anyway? Volunteering to help me work on the budget for next year?”

Still smiling, Abe shook his head. “No thanks, partner. I’ve got my own pile of work to wade through. Just came by because I thought you might be interested in seeing the results of the latest lieutenant’s test.”

That got Roman’s attention. He leaned forward, resting his arms on the top of the desk. “Well? Don’t keep me in suspense here. How’d he do?”

“Had you any doubt? He was top of the class. Looks like your little brother is in for a promotion.”

“Yes! I knew he could do it. Bo’s turning out to be one hell of a cop. I always said he had it in him.”

“No you didn’t,” Abe replied, his smile turning wry.

“Well he was pretty wild in his youth, Abe. Somebody had to ride the kid,” Roman answered defensively.

“And you rode him pretty hard.”

Roman shrugged. “Maybe I was a little rough on him, but we’ve worked it out. Gotta say, I’m really proud of the man he’s become.”

“I’d chalk that up to Hope’s influence. It’s amazing what the love of a good woman can do. I mean, it’s really the only reason I can find for your success,” Abe teased.

“Hey, my rise to the top was inevitable, partner.”

“Well, shit does float....”

The banter was cut short by a sudden intrusion as the subject of their discussion burst into the room.

“Hey, doesn’t anybody around here knock anymore?” Roman chided his brother. At the look on Bo’s face, he quickly sobered. The younger man was pale, with a glint in his eye that Roman rarely saw. “What’s up, bro?”

With a quick nod in Carver’s direction, Bo didn’t waste time on pleasantries. “That smuggling case I’ve been working on- I finally got a solid lead. It looks like the base of operations is somewhere down near New Orleans.”

“Well, that’s great Bo, but it’s not exactly a national emergency. What’s got you so excited?”

“An informant told me that the head of the ring is a man that goes by the name “The Phoenix”. It looks like we finally got a lead on Dimera.”

“Dimera.”

Roman’s voice was flat, cold and dead, betraying no hint of emotion. Abe watched in sudden concern, noting how his friend’s hand eased beneath his jacket to lightly caress the butt of his gun. He doubted Roman was even aware of the action.

“Stefano Dimera’s dead, Bo,” Abe cut in, trying to diffuse the tension that suddenly filled the room. Even as he said the words, he knew that they were a lie.

Roman ignored him completely, staring sightlessly into the air. Bo, true to his nature, spun on his heel. “That’s a load of bull and you know it. They never found a body and that man is too damned slick to die so easily.”

“Bo, we’ve never found a body but we’ve also never found a single trace of the man. Do you really think that all these years would have passed without at least some sign that he was alive?” Though the words were directed at Bo, Abe’s eyes remained locked on Roman’s still figure. As he watched, the man began to shut down, to shut him out, to leave nothing but a cold fire flickering behind blue eyes gone ice hard. Not for the first time, Abe Carver wished that Bo would learn to think before he spoke.

“No trace? Abe, who the hell do you think took Roman from that island? Who else would have tried to wipe his mind? Taken him from his home? From Marlena? Hell, who else would have held Marlena for all of those years...”

“Are you certain?” Roman snapped, immediately silencing the debate.

“Huh?” Bo looked startled and had to force his attention back to the seemingly calm form of his older brother.

“Are you certain it’s Dimera?”

Suddenly uncomfortable, but not certain why, Bo began to fidget. “Well, you know nothing is certain where that man is concerned. But it’s a good tip. I’m doing a face-to-face with my snitch tonight- I should know more then. But if I had to bet, I’d say the information’s solid.”

“I’m going with you. I want to hear this for myself,” Roman said, nodding distractedly as if some decision had been made.

“No can do, brother.” Bo shook his head. “This guy is real shaky about meeting with me and I’ve been working on this contact for over a year. Anybody else shows up, and he’s sure to rabbit. Let me handle it. I’ll give you a report as soon as I’m done.”

Roman simply stared at Bo, unwilling to debate the issue. Abe took the opportunity to try and stop a fight before it could start. “Let him go, Roman,” he urged. “After all, if you can’t trust your brother on something like this, you ought to be able to trust our newest Lieutenant.”

As Abe’s comment set in, a grin washed across Bo’s face. “Why didn’t you tell me? You’re not joking?” Bo asked, half-worried that the older men were putting him on.

Roman seemed to relax slightly, sitting back in his seat and forcing a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. In a voice that was almost natural, he conceded. “Well, Abe, guess you’re right. If I can’t trust this to one of my lieutenants, it doesn’t say much for my department, does it?”

“Yes! When were you two going to get around to telling me the news?!”

“We were just going to call you when you so rudely barged in,” Abe chided.

“We’re having dinner with Mom and Pop at the pub tonight,” Roman said, his eyes still on Bo. “As soon as your meeting is over, I want you to come by with a full report. And don’t say anything to Marlena, or Mom and Pop for that matter, until we are a little more certain what’s going on. You understand me, little brother?”

“You got it, Roman. I’ll be by a little after 7. We should be able to figure out our next step once we know a little more,” Bo replied, once more focused on the job at hand.

“Come on, Lieutenant. We’ve got some things to discuss before you hit the streets,” Abe said, rising from his chair.

Bo nodded agreeably and turned to head out the door.

“Bo, watch your back. You have a wife and son and a baby on the way- don’t take any unnecessary risks,” Roman called.

“You worry too much,” Bo replied with a cocky grin.

“Not for much longer.”

The words were so soft, Abe wasn’t certain they had been said.

Abe Carver slammed shut the door to his office and finally allowed his frustration to show. “I swear, Bo, how you passed the Lieutenant’s exam is a mystery to me. You are as thick as a brick sometimes!”

“What’s your problem, Abe?”

“That’s Captain Carver to you, officer Brady. Now if you want ever want to pin those shiny bars on your lapel, you will sit your butt down and not make me any madder than I am already!”

Almost growling in his irritation, Abe forced himself to take a long slow breath and count to ten. By the time he got to five, the urge to throttle the younger man was almost gone. Propping his hip on the edge of his desk, Abe looked down on Bo Brady and debated over just exactly how much he wanted to say.

“You don’t really believe Dimera is dead, do you? I mean, my tip was good, I’m almost positive,” Bo blurted out, unable to take the silence.

Abe sighed and found his teeth starting to grind. “No, Bo, I don’t doubt that Dimera is alive. What I am starting to wonder about is your IQ. What exactly were you trying to accomplish by telling Roman about a lead on Dimera?”

“What do you mean? Roman hates the guy! After everything Stefano has done- to me, to Marlena, especially to Roman.... Geesh, why do you think I told him about it?”

“Allow me to rephrase- what exactly did you think Roman was going to do once you told him about the lead?” Abe asked, trying to be patient.

“He’ll go after him. This time, we’re going to nail that son of a bitch!”

“Bo, what happened the last time we clashed with Stefano? Think about it really hard, now. What happened to the Brady family?”

Bo flushed slightly, his eyes dropping to study the floor beneath his feet. “Well- I still think he’s the one who took Marlena after the plane crash- but the last time we know for certain it was Dimera was… the island? When Roman got shot, when we thought he died- I guess that’s the last time we know for sure Stefano was involved.”

“Do you ever wonder what Stefano did to Roman? He had him for almost a year, Bo. Remember when he came back? The man didn’t know who he was. Bo, he still doesn’t have most of his memory back! The first time he kissed a girl, the first time he saw Marlena, the first time he kicked your butt for being such a dumbass- all of that is just gone. He will never be the same man he was. Stefano took that from him.”

Bo’s head snapped up, his eyes locking angrily on Abe’s. “That’s exactly why Roman deserves to know if Stefano is still alive. Dimera has to pay for what he has done to my family!”

“Bo, it’s been 8 years since Marlena came back to us. That means it’s been at least 8 years since Stefano has shown any interest in Salem or in the Bradys. Do you really want to start this up again? You know how Roman was when he thought he had lost Marlena. You want to risk him feeling that again? All for a threat that hasn’t existed for 8 damn years?”

“No- damn, no. You know that’s not what I want, Abe! But we could take him this time. We’ve got surprise on our side, Dimera doesn’t know we’re on to him. We know how he works, how he thinks. This time, we’ll win.”

Bo wasn’t backing down, his determination as evident as his anger. Abe raked his hand through his hair and shook his head. “Maybe you’re right. In fact, you probably are. But have you considered what ‘winning’ might cost us? Did you even look at your brother when you told him Stefano was alive? Roman doesn’t think clearly when it comes to Dimera. Hell, Bo, he doesn’t think at all- he just hates. If he goes after Stefano this time, he’ll kill him.”

Bo shrugged and glanced away. “Roman’s a cop. He won’t do anything stupid. I mean, I’m a lot more likely to do something stupid than he is!”

Abe grunted a laugh. “Usually true- but not where it comes to Dimera. Look, Bo, you gotta understand, Roman and I were still on the street as partners when Marlena was lost. You don’t realize how bad it was- how violent, how lost Roman was.”

“I was there too, you know!” Bo shot back. “He was pissed. He had a right to be. But that was a long time ago and he thought Marlena was dead. Marlena is alive and well and back with my brother. Roman is gonna go after Dimera, but he’ll do it as a cop.”

Abe shook his head in frustration. “No, Bo, you weren’t there. Not like I was. Not every day. You didn’t.... Look, this doesn’t go any further than this room. Understand?”

“Understand what?”

“When he thought Marlena died, it hurt him. It… damaged him somehow. Even after he came back, started working patrol, acted like he’d accepted it- he still wasn’t the same. He was so hard, brittle as ice. It was like, without Marlena all he had was this hate, this rage. I watched him, Bo. All the time, I watched him. I wouldn’t leave him alone with a suspect, I made sure I always had his back on a bust. I was afraid. Afraid of what he might do- to himself, to somebody else. For a long time, it was like that. A really long time. I finally started thinking I was paranoid, overreacting. I stopped watching so close, I thought he had it together.

“So we go on, working the streets, making the busts. Everything’s good. Maybe Roman doesn’t laugh anymore. Maybe sometimes I’ll catch this dead look in his eyes when he thinks I’m not watching. But life goes on. One night, I get to the station and find out my partner went to check a lead. No big deal, right? I mean, it shouldn’t have been a big deal. But I knew something was wrong, I could feel it in my bones. I checked Roman’s desk and I found a note, a tip on an old associate of Dimera’s. As soon as I saw the note…

“Anyway, I got in my car and I hauled ass to the address. It was a warehouse, down on the docks. The whole time I was driving, I was thinking I’d better call for back-up. But I don’t call for back-up because I’m scared of what I might find when I get there. So I creep into this building and it’s all dark and deserted and I started to wonder if I was alone. Then the screaming started- just the sound of fear echoing off the walls. It was so damn loud and I couldn’t make out any words but I knew that it wasn’t Roman doing the screaming.

“I found them in the center of the warehouse. Roman had the guy handcuffed to a chair. There was blood. A lot of blood. Roman had beat the hell out of the guy. I think he even knocked a couple of teeth out. I didn’t want to look close enough to be sure. I didn’t want to see any more than I had to. I didn’t want to know what was happening at all. But it was too late and I was there and I knew.

“Maybe Roman didn’t hear me walk in or maybe he just didn’t care. Either way, I watched as he put a revolver right to the guy’s temple. He didn’t say a word as he pulled the trigger. The chamber was empty, but the guy in the chair, he started screaming even louder. I guess that sort of snapped me out of it. I yelled for Roman to put the gun down, to let the guy go. He just turned and looked at me, as calm as I’ve ever seen him.

“‘This fucker knows where Dimera is,’ he said, and he cocked the hammer as he said it. ‘I’m going to keep pulling this trigger until he either tells me or I blow his head off- whichever comes first.’

“Bo, the guy didn’t know anything. He was begging, pleading. He’d have sold out his own mother to make Roman stop. But Roman wasn’t stopping. He was going to keep firing until he killed the man- so I jumped him. I wrapped my arms around him and took him down, just as he pulled the trigger on a live round. A second later and the man would have been dead.

“Roman didn’t fight me. He didn’t do anything, just sort of lay there looking like he didn’t care what happened next. I took his gun and left him sitting there while I got the guy in the chair cleaned up. The guy was so scared he wasn’t going to say a thing. I found some coke in his pocket- dealer weight. That’s a mandatory 10 year sentence. I told the guy he ever showed his face in Salem again, he every told anyone about what had happened, I’d make sure he did those 10 years the hard way. Then I got Roman out of there. I took him home, made him take a couple of weeks off. Had Shawn and Caroline go with him and the kids on a long fishing trip out in the woods. We never talked about what happened, Bo. Roman never said a word to me about it since the day it happened. That was the last time we had a lead on Dimera. I was hoping we would never have another.”

Bo sat, staring up at Carver for a long minute. “Roman wouldn’t do that,” he finally said.

“Roman did do that, Bo. He’ll do it again if he gets the chance. You’re fooling yourself if you think otherwise.”

“He deserves to know. If Stefano is alive, he deserves to know.”

“He deserves to be happy. His family deserves to be happy. If he goes after Dimera again, he risks losing everything and everyone he loves. If he goes after Dimera, he could lose himself.”

“What do you want me to do?” Bo asked, shaking his head as if still rejecting Abe’s words.

“I want you to let it go. No matter what you find out from the snitch, I want you to just let it go. You owe it to Roman. You owe it to the family. Do you think you can do that?”

Bo rose stiffly to his feet. “I need to talk to my snitch. Before I decide anything, I have to hear what he has to say. After that- I don’t know.”

“You think about it. Think about it hard. You gotta decide, Bo- how high a price are you willing to pay for revenge?”

-----