2011
Episodes #621-655

Ryan Moriani feared that his new, stable life, including his engagement to Danielle Taylor, might be derailed by the book that Julian St. John was writing--a book that contained details of Ryan’s former criminal dealings. A desperate Ryan snuck into Diane Bishop’s office at Vision Publishing, stole the file of the manuscript from her computer, and sent it to a rival publisher. Ryan told Sal, the other publisher, that he could get Julian to Las Vegas for a meeting.

Meanwhile, Julian’s fiancée, Natalie Bishop, began to suspect that he was being unfaithful. Ryan took advantage of this fear to make Natalie even more susceptible, so when she “won” an opportunity for a trip to Las Vegas (where she could convince Julian to elope), she jumped at the chance. Ryan ambushed them upon their arrival and convinced Julian to take a meeting with Sal. Back in King’s Bay, Diane figured out what Ryan was up to; desperate to save her job at Vision, she tailed them to Vegas. Sal offered Julian a more favorable contract, on the condition that he cut mentions of Ryan from the book.

Helen Chase also enlisted Eric Westin to help her and her husband, Don, in their bid for custody of their granddaughter. Helen was convinced that Jason Fisher, now a grief-stricken widower, was in no condition to raise young Sophie. Don was reluctant to take such action, especially after Eric insinuated that they would need more substantial ammunition to use against Jason. When Jason’s brother, Tim, spotted Helen meeting with Eric, he alerted his family. Paula Fisher warned her old friend, Helen, to back off, and the Fishers then held an intervention of sorts, pleading with Jason to let them help him. He agreed to have Ryan come work with him at his ice arena again, alleviating some of his burden there, as well as to have his friend, Alex Marshall, move in with him and help out with Sophie.

Eric hired a P.I. to tail Jason and suggested to Helen that they attempt some more aggressive tactics. Shortly afterward, Jason was playing at the park with Sophie when he met Lindsay, the mother of another child. After their talk, Lindsay made a mysterious phone call to tell someone that she had “made contact.” The next time Jason ran into Lindsay, she spilled the contents of her purse all over, and when Jason finished helping pick her things up, Sophie was nowhere to be found! He was frantic and called 911. At the same time, Eric received a text from the woman calling herself Lindsay, saying that the plan had worked. Eric contacted Helen to let her know that everything was going according to plan--but that would not be the case for long, as the hired kidnapper turned the tables and called Eric, demanding half a million dollars for Sophie’s return.

On the way home from the prison, Diane and Ryan’s path was blocked by a fallen tree. They had no choice but to spend the night in a motel. Ryan feared that he would miss the wedding or, even worse, that Danielle would figure out what he had gotten himself into with Diane. But he made it home in time, and their family and friends gathered for the wedding. Natalie, who was staying with Diane after her breakup from Julian, continued to blame Ryan for her bad fortune. She had a chance run-in with Eric, during which she came upon some very interesting information. Natalie planned to crash Ryan and Danielle’s wedding with the news that Ryan was still legally married to Diane (since Eric’s arrest had prevented him from filing the annulment in time). Diane realized what Natalie was planning and followed her. The two sisters wound up in a brawl that landed them in the wedding cake, and with the ceremony interrupted, Natalie revealed that Ryan was married to Diane. A devastated and humiliated Danielle called off the wedding.

In the aftermath, Diane kicked Natalie out of her condo. Danielle nearly fell off the wagon but, with her family’s support, fought to maintain her sobriety. The near-slip made her realize that she could no longer have Ryan’s instability in her life, and she ended their relationship for good.

Teenage Tori Gray questioned her father, Matt, about why he had come to her mother’s wedding to Graham Colville but didn’t interrupt. Matt insisted that Sarah was happy with Graham. When Tori clashed with her new stepfather, she blurted out to Sarah that Matt had come to the wedding with the intention of stopping it but had backed down at the last second. Diane encouraged Sarah to talk it out with Matt in order to move on with her life for good, while Matt’s new friend, Danielle, urged him to do the same.

Sarah went to see Matt, not knowing that a suspicious Graham had followed her. She caught Matt coming out of the shower, and as they confessed their lingering feelings for one another, they shared a kiss. Graham witnessed the kiss and was irate, but he kept this information to himself. A guilty Sarah resolved to make her new marriage work, and Graham became more controlling, forcing her to cancel personal plans so that they could spend time together. But when Sarah learned that Tori and her friends had played a prank on her cousin, Samantha, at school, she once again had to visit Matt to discuss how to handle the situation. While at Matt’s, Sarah collapsed and dropped Graham’s mother’s cameo, which he had given her to wear. At the hospital, Sarah learned that she was pregnant, but she didn’t immediately share the news with Graham. When Tori returned the cameo, saying she’d found it at her father’s, Graham was upset to learn that Sarah had once again been with Matt.

Claire Fisher was struggling with a shocking secret: she knew that the young man she had raised as her son, Travis, had been switched as an infant with another child. Claire suspected that her biological son was Spencer Ragan, but she wanted to confirm this hunch before she turned everyone’s lives upside-down. With her sole confidant, Brent Taylor, Claire snuck into Spencer’s dorm room but failed to leave with anything that she could use for a DNA test. Instead, she pretended that she was interested in putting together a family medical file, and her half-brother, Philip, convinced a reluctant Spencer to participate. Claire used Spencer’s blood sample to conduct a DNA test and was rocked by the results: Spencer was her real son. She struggled with how to tell his father, Tim, as well as Travis.

Travis, now a student at King’s Bay University, was furious after his girlfriend, Elly, told him about an encounter between her roommate, Georgia, and Spencer, during which Spencer humiliated Georgia. Travis confronted Spencer in the dining hall and, after Spencer goaded him, punched him out in plain view of a crowd. Travis was punished with community service hours. When he told Claire what had happened, she began to wonder what kind of person her biological son really was. She visited him at his fraternity house on campus and found him in the middle of a fraternity hazing ritual. Spencer’s behavior alarmed Claire, who saw how cruel the young man could be. At Thanksgiving, Spencer flew to the East Coast to visit his adoptive mother, Loretta Ragan, in prison. When he told her of Claire’s interest in getting to know him, Loretta realized that Claire had closed in on the truth and fed Spencer’s hatred of Claire.

Claire’s foster daughter, Tempest Banks, prepared for her GED exam with the help of Samantha Fisher. On the day of the test, Tempest was so nervous that she tried to bolt, but Samantha intercepted her and convinced her to go back inside and take the test. Later, Samantha and Tempest ran into Samantha’s cousin, Tori, who was with a group of popular seniors from school. Tori stood by silently as the other girls picked on Samantha. Tempest stood up for her friend, which motivated the other girls to seek revenge. They convinced Tori to give them Samantha’s locker combination and filled her locker with garbage, humiliating her. Landon Esco, who had had an ongoing flirtation with Tori, learned what she’d done to her cousin and told her off.

Lauren Brooks was confused when she discovered that her boyfriend, Josh Taylor, had lied to her about a business trip and had really gone to Los Angeles. She feared that he might be cheating on her, especially after she spotted a text from a woman named Allison--which Josh lied to her about. On Christmas, however, Josh revealed the truth: he had been in negotiations for a job in L.A. and had decided to take it. He wanted Lauren to marry him and move with him. Shocked, Lauren accepted his proposal.

After the kidnapping horror, Jason refused to let the Chases have any contact with Sophie. Helen encouraged Don to divorce her so that he might have a chance to be a part of their granddaughter’s life. Don resisted, but Helen pressed him to sign the divorce papers. Alex informed Jason of the pending divorce. Jason was rocked by the realization of how off-course all their lives had gone after Courtney’s murder. On Christmas Day, a dreamlike interaction with Courtney’s spirit convinced him to take action and change things. He brought Sophie to the Chases’ and said that he wanted to find a way to have them be a part of her life, since it was what Courtney would have wanted. He also asked the prosecutor to be lenient toward Helen. The Chases were elated by this turn of events, and it finally seemed that they all might be able to move past their grief and begin a new chapter of their lives.

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