Wednesday, December 05, 2007, Episode #5201

Charlie discusses the Forrester case with his dad.

At the police station, Charlie is about to take down his suspect board for the Forrester shooting, but Lt. Baker stops him and tells him they're not done with this one yet. Charlie asks his dad what he means. Lt. Baker points out that Stephanie has a lot of enemies. Charlie suggests that this case should be open-and-shut based on the ballistics report, but Lt. Baker informs him that nothing is ever open-and-shut with the Forresters. Charlie insists that they arrested the right guy. Lt. Baker agrees, but he wants to make sure given the large number of suspects they have who had the means, motive and opportunity to shoot Stephanie. The elder Baker takes out a CD with the security camera footage from Forrester Creations on the day of the shooting and wants to review it one more time. Charlie asks his dad what he expects to find. "We won't know till we look at it," Lt. Baker replies.

Pam brings the cops some cookies.

Just then, a bubbly Pam pops in to see Lt. Baker. She reminds him that they met in Stephanie's hospital room the other day, and she wants him to know how relieved they all are that he arrested Stephen Logan. As a show of gratitude, she baked some cookies and is here to drop them off. After putting the Tupperware container of cookies down, Pam says "Toodles" to the Bakers and takes her leave of them.

Lt. Baker adds a suspect to the list.

Lt. Baker and Charlie are both shocked that Pam had time to make cookies with her sister still in the hospital. Lt. Baker adds Pam to the suspect board and tells Charlie to check her out. Charlie asks where he should start. "Follow the cookie crumbs," Lt. Baker says.

Katie can't trust her father.

In Stephen's hotel room, Donna and Katie continue to disagree about their father's guilt in the shooting. Donna is thrilled when the room door opens and Stephen and Storm return. Donna still can't believe that her father could shoot anything. Storm states that they have to prove that Stephen is innocent, and he started by passing out flyers to the hotel staff and asking if anyone saw something suspicious. "Like Dad putting the gun in the wall?" Katie asks. Stephen states that Stephanie framed him and set him up; Donna agrees that it's possible, but a skeptical Katie points out that anything is possible. Storm tells Katie that he understands her concerns, and he doesn't like seeing their names in the tabloids any more than she does. Unable to find a better solution, he proposes that they pull together as a family to build their father's defense. Katie wishes she could do that, but she's still not convinced enough of their father's innocence to just give him the benefit of the doubt. She worries that their whole family will look like either idiots or accessories if they support Stephen. Stephen insists that he didn't do it, but Katie rejects that notion. Stephen tells her that he's still her father, but Katie asserts that he's not.

Storm and Donna give their dad their support.

Stephen asks Katie how she can say such a thing. Katie reminds Stephen that he was never around when she and her siblings grew up and tells him that she can't trust him when she barely knows him. Stephen concedes that she's right and admits that he did a lot of things to hurt his family, but he didn't do this. Katie says that he can't just keep blaming the Forresters and pretending everything's OK, and she storms out. Donna tells Stephen that Katie will come around, but Stephen admits that Katie is right; he did threaten Stephanie, just like he did abandon his family, so Katie doesn't have reason to trust him. Storm promises to prove Stephen's innocence.

Stephen praises Storm for stepping up.

Stephen thanks Storm and Donna for their support, even though he wasn't there for them when they needed him. But even without him being the kind of father they needed, they still grew up to be incredible people, and he is proud of them for that, He just wishes he hadn't gotten caught up in all the hatred of blaming the Forresters, all because he was afraid. Meanwhile, Storm stepped in to fill the void and hold the family together. Storm admits that it wasn't easy, and he wonders if the fact that it was so hard made them stronger. He recalls being so determined to prove that they could get by without Stephen, but deep down, he was terrified. But even though it wasn't fair to live life that way, he kept going, and he thinks that the desire to put away the bad guys is what led him to be a lawyer. Donna tells him that she knows he'll find one bad guy, Stephanie's shooter. Storm agrees. Stephen thanks the two of them for being there, since his future is in Storm's hands. He just hopes he has the chance to pay them back some day, even if he doesn't deserve it..

Nick sees the connection between Brooke and Jack.

At the Marone mansion, Brooke delights in holding baby Jack. When Nick says they should put the baby down now, Brooke asks for just a few more minutes. She knows she did everything to distance herself from the baby, since that's what everyone thought was best, but when she holds him, she sees the connection between them. She knows she isn't Jack's mother, but she just can't bear to not be part of the boy's life. Brooke hands the baby back to Nick, who prepares to out Jack down. Brooke thanks him for the chance to hold the baby for the first time, since she knows that neither Taylor nor Ridge would be happy to know she was there, and they have to respect Ridge and Taylor's feelings. "Like Ridge respected yours?" Nick asked, showing her the photo of Jack that Ridge returned earlier. He recalls that Ridge said the picture sent Brooke mixed signals, so giving her the photo might have been a bad idea. But at the same time, she rushed over when she thought something was wrong, and that's what mothers do. He admits to Brooke that he fell for her the first time he saw her, so he didn't need a blood test to tell him how this baby's mother was; all he had to do was look at the baby for the first time.