Afterwards, Jeremy has the audacity to ask an unemployed Nick for money. Nick demands his phone back. Jeremy implores Nick to give him ten minutes. Nick agrees to five. “Well, look who’s making deals,” jeers Jeremy. Nick reiterates his demand to Jeremy. Jeremy urges Nick to pay up after he hands the phone back. Nick obliges to an ungrateful Jeremy, who whines about Nick’s lack of cash. “What do you expect? I’m raising two kids. I have a bit of a financial crisis myself,” Nick reminds him. Nick suggests that Jeremy call Uncle Mickey, but Jeremy declares he’s out of there and hands Nick a note to give to Steph.
Back at the casino, Chelsea wonders why Jeremy would head back to Salem. Kayla speculates that Stephanie must’ve told him that Steve agreed to help him out. Bo then delivers grave news regarding Max and Stephanie. The plane landed in Mexico and Max and Steph weren’t on it. Bo further reveals that Rawlings managed to slip away. Kayla is disheartened by the news. Bo assures a frantic Kayla they’ll find Max and Stephanie along with Rawlings. Kayla insists they can’t tell Steve about the situation until they have more answers. Bo gets another phone call, then reveals that the women were found and had thousands of dollars of stolen goods on them. In addition, the women spilled that Max and Stephanie were on the flight. “What are you telling me Bo?” asks Kayla, who fears the worst. Bo demurs that Rawlings made them jump from the plane, but they had parachutes. This doesn’t make a frantic Kayla feel any better. Bo suspects they’re in New Mexico and assures Kayla there’s a search and rescue team on top of the situation. Kayla asserts that she’s going and refuses to sit by and wait for the phone to ring.
Later, Bo hugs Chelsea good-bye before he and Kayla head out to search for Max and Stephanie. Feeling alone, Chelsea phones Nick and reveals she’s at the hotel in Vegas where Jett got shot. A concerned Nick is eager to help and admits he’s glad she called. She claims she’ll be fine and asks him to say hello to the boys before she hangs up. The boys then come back over to a forlorn Nick and sweetly tell him not to be sad.
Stephanie touches a sleeping Max in the cave and admits she’s glad she’s with him, since he’s always made her feel safe and special. She has a flashback of making out with him in the hot tub and whispers for him to wake up. In an attempt to arouse his attention, she screams and claims she saw a bear, which of course startles Max. He is skeptical as drama queen Steph claims she’s scared. Max goes outside to check out the scene. Steph huffs how guys are so clueless. Max comes back and says there are no creatures to be seen and suggests they get some sleep. Stephanie whines about her hurt ankle and shows it to Max. He takes his shirt off in front of a drooling Stephanie and wraps it around her ankle. Spacey Stephanie recalls the last time she twisted her ankle was in Dayton, where she wore four-inch heels on her way to a party with Jeremy. She thanks Max and remarks that he’s much better at playing doctor than Jeremy is. Max speculates that Jeremy’s probably on some beach in Mexico by now. They briefly argue about Steph getting mixed up with Jeremy. She defends Jeremy and claims he can be really sweet when he wants to be. “Yeah, when he wants some sex!” exclaims Max. Steph denies this accusation and sarcastically apologizes for screwing things up for Max, then rolls over in a huff. Max sarcastically prays to God while an annoyed Steph calls Max a hypocrite for knocking Jeremy and yet being involved in the same crimes. “And how many girls have you been with in the past year?” interrogates Stephanie. Max assumes she’s still upset with the way they ended things last year. She affirms that he’s the one who ended things between them and waited until the worst possible moment to do so. “I was in the hospital for God sakes!” she rehashes. She then asserts that she was the best da*n thing to ever happen to him. They continue to argue about Jeremy and his power trip over her. Stephanie chastises Max for dumping her last year and asks him when the last time he had real feelings above the belt for a girl. He abruptly ends their conversation and says goodnight. Steph then asks Max why guys are never interested in girls who are available, noting that he had zero interest in her until she hooked up with Jeremy. Max dodges the subject as she theorizes that a guy hooks up with a girl who’s already taken because there are no strings attached. An annoyed Max says fine, then asks for some peace. She continues to rehash their past. Max admits he didn’t feel as though they connected before, especially since Stephanie was so young. He notes that when she came back from Dayton, she exuded more confidence as a woman he could see himself with. “What if I told you that you could have me?” she wonders. Max implores her to make a choice between him and Jeremy and advises her to be honest with herself before he can be honest with her.
