Lynn Henderson, the teenage runaway alcoholic is, like a lemming, rushing to destroy herself. She is desperate to be home with her mother, but her mother can offer only good schools -- not a home. In the girl's pain and confusion of being rejected, she absconds with $40 of the clinic's money. With money she can completely ignore Joe's warning that the deterioration of a teen-ager from alcoholism is much faster and more drastic than for someone of greater maturity.

Joe can only hope that she is found in time: he fears brain damage could result form another bender.

Cal and Rick are each alone, each unutterably miserable. Cal accepts, but does not entirely believe Rick's story that he and Barbara plan to reunite -- for Hank's sake. Cal asks a dumbfounded Van for some word about Barbara.

Van, distressed over the possible return to Rosehill of her nemesis, rushes to ask Rick if it is so. When she learns, to her relief, that is not, that it was the first plausible excuse Rick could come up to break off with Cal but still hurt her the least, Van can only ask: how did he hope to keep this lying up? Rick has no ready answer, but Van does realize the depth of his love for Cal.



Cal finds no comfort in Meg's efforts to console her. Without realizing it, Meg, with her statements to her daughter, paints -- with her words -- a self-portrait, a study in loneliness and bitterness when she tells Cal that it is not as though she were an older woman with all her chances running out.

Carrie is so worried about the mounting hospital bill that she attempts to leave. Joe and Tom try to convince her that the hospital is the only place for her right now.

Arlene is also concerned about her mother's medical bills and she may be forced to take -- against her wishes and common sense -- the job with Ray Slater, after all.

Ray calls on Rick with the same proposal he made to Meg. When Rick also sneeringly turns him down, Ray becomes nasty and, promising to warm things up for Rick, he leaves.

Ben's desperate wish to see Betsy comes true. To his astonishment, she comes to say good-bye before he is transferred to prison.

It is clear, when Betsy and Ben have their last meeting, that their love for one another is deep and lasting and futile. She can see that he has changed, but there can never be anything more between them. He knows it is too late, but he asks her to tell the baby, someday, that his father wanted to welcome him into the world. Goodbye is etched into their hearts by the tears they shed privately.



Cal and Rick are also beset by tears. Rick is being cleverly maneuvered by Meg into signing a "contingency" agreement before she will ante up her share of the money for the Schuyler Mountain project. Jamie advises Rick that this particular agreement has some very sticky ramifications and, knowing Meg, these must be taken into account. She could legally pull out, leaving him with full fiscal responsibility. So that if Rick were ever to THINK of Cal, in effect, he would lose everything else. As Rick says to Meg, he wonders if ambition is worth the cost.

Cal sees little Hank in Charles's bookstore and mentions his mother's return. Hank, of course, knows nothing because there is nothing, but he is thrilled at the prospect of his mother's coming home to him.

From the boy's reaction, Cal realizes that something is afoot and she decides to confront Rick, who, backed into a corner, tells her that as far as they are concerned, it is over, finished. "It just has to be," Rick cries out. With tears in her voice, but not her eyes, Cal replies that it won't happen again. She leaves his office, perhaps his life, forever.

Ben pleads with Eddie to look after Cal carefully. Eddie is only mildly shocked at the confirmation by Ben of his suspicions of an affair between Meg and Rick. Ben is of the opinion that the affair is not "past" for Meg, although he feels it is for Rick. Eddie decides to postpone his trip and remain in Rosehill. Cal, he realizes, needs her father.

Ray is attempting to tangle Arlene in a web of gratitude. She is unable, because of her record, to get a job. He offers to lend her the money she will need for her mother's medical bills. The interest he charges is total possession. Can Arlene pay that -- when she still loves Ben, even though she has no hope of ever getting him back?

Meeting accidentally at Beaver Ridge, Tom and Arlene find themselves mutually attracted until Meg puts a stop to it by drawing Tom aside to let him know that Arlene is Ben's ex-wife. He is shocked, because hew as not expecting the arch-villainess in the piece to be so warm and vulnerable.

The next day, Arlene asks Tom if he is sure that he can treat her mother, knowing now who she is. He admits he considered the question himself, but he points out to her that he is uniquely qualified by his training to care for Carrie. He feels he is needed; however, he will let Arlene decide. Will her cynicism force her to make a faulty decision herself?

Ray Slater's life is built on the promise that he makes no errors in judgments. When Arlene comes to tell him she needs the job he offered her, the job is, regrettably filled; he reminds her how deeply in debt she is to him. Arlene's back is against the wall now. Precisely where Ray wants it.

Meg is heartbroken, at least as far as she is capable, when Ben requests to be sent to prison a few days early. For once, her manipulations fail her and she weeps at the prospect of Ben sitting and stifling in prison. He, on the other hand, looks forward to it (as much as one can) as a means of really making something of himself, an endeavor sadly neglected until now.



Against Jamie's advice, and despite Meg's position of seeming strength in the matter of the contingency agreement for Schuyler Mountain, Rick goes ahead. He makes the deal with Meg, explaining in no uncertain terms that their agreement is a business deal. Picking up the phone, she smugly calls her bank to arrange the transfer of money. She feels she has won, but Rick obviously has something up his sleeve.



What Rick has up his sleeve is his overpowering love for Cal. They cannot live apart and -- to Cal's everlasting joy -- he comes to her. And, taking her in his arms and engulfing her with kisses, he tells her he has figured out a way to outsmart Meg. They will force Meg to accept a fait accompli -- or risk another public scandal. They will elope.

Lynn takes her first real step toward recovery when she shows up on Van's doorstep.

Carrie trusts Tom and she wants him to remain on the case. When Arlene learns that an operation for Carrie will cost in the five-figure range, she takes a deep breath and tells Tom she will find a way to pay for the best surgeon there is.

Di makes Jamie face the reality that their love is now past. She asks his forgiveness, saying she "used" him to make a last grab for romance, for motherhood. Jamie does not want to let her go, but she convinces him that their beautiful memories are all that they can share now.

When she leaves, Jamie is struck forcibly with the realization that he needs to be needed; he chastises himself for being selfish, for using Di to build up his own strength. Betsy, seeing his unhappiness, asks to be allowed to help him -- as he helped her. When he remarks that everything is pointless, with Di gone, Betsy knows exactly what he means. She has been there.

At Van's urging, Lynn faces a disciplinary meeting at Halfway House, but the committee turns thumbs down because Lynn will not admit to being an alcoholic. She is really at the bottom now, but she is afraid of hurting Van -- as she feels she has hurt everyone who has ever been kind to her -- so she does her best to rudely chase Van off. She will not succeed, because Van is beginning to realize just what the girl is doing.

Charles may be forced to get help from the outside. Sara dropped by the house and found Felicia prostrate on the floor; the wise lady does not buy Felicia's story that she feels fine now, nor does she allow Charles to. Sara forces him to call the doctor and the nurses' registry, as well.



Rick and Cal plan to leave in the afternoon for Las Vegas, where they will marry and honeymoon, but their departure becomes entangled in the complications of...fate?

Between a call from Jamie telling Rick that he must sign some important papers right away, plus other difficulties -- mainly Meg, Rick will not get to Cal's apartment at 5 p.m.

Between Ray's remarks of seeing Rick with a beautiful young woman, Hank's slips of the tongue and Rick's sudden, unannounced weekend trip, Meg puts two and two together. She hastens to Rick's apartment to confront him and tells him that now it is time for Cal to know all about Rick's past -- with her mother.