At Java, Hunter hovered over Maddie, who was on her laptop playing her fantasy game. Finally she made him sit across from her, and he complimented her on how rapidly her avatar had caught his. Maddie boasted that it had been one of her character's easiest captures, and Hunter confessed that his avatar had "wanted to be caught" because their two avatars were "totally into each other." Maddie reminded Hunter that they were only role-playing and that had nothing to do with the two of them personally.
Alison and Casey met by chance in Old Town, and Alison asked if Maddie had gotten into Oakdale University. Casey said yes, and then asked if Alison was dating the guy he had seen her with the other day. Alison knew that Casey meant Mick, and she asked if he cared. Casey chalked it up to "morbid curiosity," as Maddie walked out of Java. Casey invited Maddie back to his house, and Alison went into the coffee shop.
Alison noticed Hunter at a table and remarked that he looked terrible. He complained that he was completely striking out with Maddie. Alison got upset when Hunter mentioned wooing Maddie so that Alison could get back with Casey. Suddenly Alison realized that it had most likely been Emily who put that idea in Hunter's head, and she vowed to kill her sister. Hunter apologized, and Alison said that she was already in a grumpy mood because of Casey and Maddie.
Casey and Maddie went to his house, and Casey teased her about playing fantasy games on the computer. Maddie defended her hobby as an escape, but Casey said he liked to escape in different ways. They began kissing, but Casey called a halt soon afterward. He said that he was worried that his folks might walk in on them, so Maddie suggested that Casey think about getting his own place. Casey said he couldn't afford that because he didn't have a job, so Maddie told him to get one. She suggested that she could be his roommate and that way they could split the rent.
At the Lakeview, Paul and Emily waited for Mick and discussed their pending business venture with him. Paul was having second thoughts, but Emily was very excited, and Paul said how much he enjoyed seeing his wife happy again. At the front desk, Barbara literally bumped into Mick, who said that he was looking forward to working with Paul and Emily on their "Reclamation of Youth" project. Barbara was immediately skeptical and asked for a couple of minutes alone with her son before Mick joined them.
Barbara marched up to Paul and Emily and hurled out the challenge that if James's inheritance was burning such a colossal hole in Paul's pocket, he should just set it all on fire and be done with it. Emily was so enthused about the project that she shared with Barbara her hopes for changing mankind. Mick approached then and offered to give Barbara a demonstration of his product. He asked if she would we willing to let him apply an ointment to her face, which she allowed him to do, as he explained all about cellular rejuvenation.
Mick asked if Barbara would be interested in volunteering for the clinical trial on the product, but Paul stepped up then and said that Barbara was "not a good fit" for clinical trials because of her own health issues. Mick stated that cell rejuvenation was a natural preventative against cancer, but Barbara was disturbed and asked how Mick knew that she had cancer. He took her aside and mentioned that she was at an age when many women were interested in whatever would make younger lovers stick around longer.
Mick was continuing to explain the good points of his discovery when suddenly he turned his back and gave a huge sneeze. Suddenly blood was all over his face, so he covered it with his handkerchief and called back to Barbara that he had just remembered an appointment. He asked her to tell Paul and Emily to reschedule their lunch meeting.
Paul, Emily, and Barbara sat at the Lakeview bar, and Emily told her mother-in-law to go ahead and blast her about wasting Paul's inheritance on a crazy scheme. Barbara, however, said that she had decided to support them in their decision to invest with Mick. She was also willing to go into the clinical trial. Paul spoke up and questioned his mother's sudden willingness to be a "personal guinea pig," but her response was that Mick had shared his rejuvenation cream with her so that she would trust his principles.
She did say, however, that if Mick turned out to be "full of it," she would have his head on a platter.
Mick showed up at Memorial with his bloody nose, and Alison spotted him. She put him in an exam room and went to find a resident. She came back without a doctor, but she treated him with packing and an ice bag. She began to search again for a resident, but she ran into Casey in the hall. He said that he had heard that the hospital had lifted its hiring freeze and he wanted his old job back. Casey and Mick stared at each other through the window in the exam room, as Alison resumed her hunt for a doctor.
Alison returned empty-handed again, but she discovered that the bleeding had stopped. Mick wanted to leave without seeing a doctor, and he promised her that he was okay. Alison warned him that the amount of bleeding could mean nothing, but it could also be a symptom of something more serious. Mick said he had to go, and he walked out.
Maddie and Casey ran into each other again in the diner. He told her that he had filled out the paperwork for his old job, but Maddie didn't understand why he went to all that trouble. She wondered why Casey hadn't just asked his grandfather, the chief of staff, for his old job back, but Casey said he didn't like to take shortcuts. Then Maddie asked him to spend the night with her, since Henry would be gone, but Casey put her off by saying "another time." He gave Maddie a perfunctory kiss and promised to call her the next day.
Maddie sat down in the diner and opened her computer. She signed on to her game as "Ladyhawke," and in Java, Hunter saw her avatar appear, and he grinned. He told "Ladyhawke" that "Leonidas" had been waiting for her.
In New York at the CBS Broadcast Center, Molly Conlon tearfully packed up her belongings as Jack supervised. Jack was concerned that Molly's former lover, Silas Whitman, was a powerful man who might have some payback in mind for Molly's stunt of outing him on the noon news. Molly said goodbye to the weathercaster, Lonnie, and she and Jack left the building. They went outside and Molly picked up a newspaper and read the sordid details of the incident, including a direct quote from the congressman who stated that Molly was "in the midst of a psychotic break." Jack hurried Molly to her car and climbed into the driver's seat. As they pulled away from the curb, they just missed seeing Carly, who was entering the CBS building at that moment .
Carly asked at the front desk for Molly, but the receptionist snickered and said that Molly no longer worked there. He explained that Molly had been fired that day during the noon news. Molly's producer walked up and overheard Carly say that she was Molly's cousin. He offered to show her the tape of the news so that she would understand exactly why her cousin had been canned. Carly understood everything while she watched the tape, but then she wondered how she would locate Molly.
As he drove Molly's car, Jack explained about Brad's death, and Molly was shocked. The next time Jack stepped on the brake, however, his foot went to the floor and the car did not slow. Jack did some creative steering and used the emergency brake to bring the car to a safe stop at a curb. Molly yelled, "What the hell happened?" Jack examined the brake line and found it dry as a bone. He explained that someone had messed with it, and he suggested that it was "Congressman Blowhard."
Jack wanted to know if Molly had any friends in the local police precinct, and she mentioned a "Joe." The two of them walked to the station house, and Molly introduced Jack to her friend, Joe. Jack told Joe that he believed that Silas Whitman had drained Molly's brake line to frighten her into silence, and he asked for Joe's help in proving it. Joe arranged for the car to be towed and made safe, and he confirmed that Jack's explanation was correct. He fitted Molly with a wire, and he and Jack both wore earpieces. The c ongressman emerged from his office, and the cops sent Molly out to confront him.
Molly ran up to Whitman and yelled that she at least deserved a conversation from him after all they had shared. She invited him to get in her car and take a drive with her, but the congressman declined. He appeared reluctant to even get into the car, but Molly wasn't about to give up. She inched him over to the car at the curb when suddenly someone yelled "Molly," and Carly hurled herself into her cousin's arms. Molly was stunned and tried to get her cousin to back off for a minute. Carly took a good look at the congressman and realized who he was, just as Jack dashed up and swept Carly away.
Molly returned her attention to Whitman and told him to just get in the car or she would scream bloody murder. Whitman agreed to that, but he said he definitely did not want to drive anywhere in the car. Meanwhile, Jack pushed Carly behind some pillars where Joe was hiding and listening, and he told her that she had interrupted a sting operation.
In Molly's car, the congressman got very nervous when Molly started the engine. He stopped her from putting it in gear, however, and said that he had arranged for someone to tamper with her brakes to scare her. Molly unlocked the car at that point, and told him to get out. When he stepped to the curb, Jack and Joe grabbed him. Joe placed Whitman under arrest and recited the congressman's Miranda rights.
Carly ran out and hugged Molly, and Jack took the two women for coffee. Molly was very grateful to Jack for his help, and she mentioned that he could get on with his search for Simon Frasier. That stopped Carly cold, and when Molly excused herself to "have a private meltdown," Carly asked Jack to catch her up. She also begged him to return to Oakdale and his family, but Jack said he had to find Simon for Katie. Carly called Jack crazy to think that Simon or Mike or anyone could replace Brad.
Jack advised Carly to save her breath because he was on a mission. Carly declared that if Jack was "going on the road," she was going along. Jack asked her to stay in New York for a few days with Molly, but Carly continued to urge Jack to go home so that she could stay. When Jack got even more stubborn, Carly reminded him that she had been on the run with Simon, and she knew how he moved around. Jack said he was going alone, and he walked out.
