Hope calls 911 after she and R.J. spend the night alone. Brooke wakes up and realizes she spent the night in her car. Stephanie and Dorothy (from Child Protective Services) arrive at Brooke's house, and it is revealed that the two know each other from past work on the Abuse Prevention Council. Brooke arrives and is in shock that Donna left the kids home alone. It is hard for everyone to believe Brooke's story when they smell booze and Stephanie finds the cocktail napkin. Brooke is shocked to find that Dorothy works for CPS, and assures her nothing like this will happen again. Stephanie tells Brooke if something else does happen, it will be the last. Constantine sees Rick talking to Madison, and assumes that she is the other woman Rick has been seeing. He tries to get information on Madison and Rick from Felicia. Felicia refuses to help Constantine come between Rick and Phoebe.
Brooke watches as Nick plays with the kids. She tells him she still loves him. Brooke makes an appointment with Taylor and asks Nick to watch the kids. Brooke tells Taylor she feels she is an unfit mother, as Nick shows the kids how to make a map look old by burning the edges with his lighter. Eric discovers Stephanie and Dorothy have a past. Eric doesn't think Stephanie should get involved. Stephanie is shocked to see Nick with the kids. Nick vows that he won't let Stephanie set Brooke up for failure. Ashley offers Ridge her support.
Ashley and Ridge feel connected, but agree to wait for the perfect moment to sleep together. Taylor suggests to Brooke that she is addicted to men and romance. Nick tells Stephanie he won't let her take R.J. from Brooke. The kids tackle Nick, whose lighter falls onto the floor. Stephanie introduces Dorothy to Ridge and Ashley, and tells her the two are dating. Ridge goes to check on the children, after he suspects Stephanie is up to no good. While Brooke is in the kitchen making dinner, Hope and R.J. pick up Nick's lighter. Just as Nick realizes his lighter is missing, Brooke enters her living room to find her children surrounded by flames.
Nick continues to search for his missing lighter in Taylor's office, and he then calls Brooke's house concerned he left it there where, duh, the kids might find it. He leaves a message for Brooke, who is a little too busy with some burning issues to answer the phone.
At the Forrester mansion, Aunt Felicia welcomes Aly to a sleepover while Thorne thanks his sister for watching Aly for the night. As Thorne leaves, Felicia inquires about a big date, but Thorne seems distracted and says good-bye. When he's at home, Thorne sits on the floor of his bedroom weeping as he holds pictures of Darla on the anniversary of her death. He flashes back to happy times and then her death in the hospital. Through the tears, he says it's just so hard to be strong for their daughter. While he sips a tumbler of liquor, he pulls out a prescription medication bottle, and takes two capsules, asking Darla to forgive him. Uh-oh.
At Brooke's, smoke alarms are blasting as she sees her kids trapped against the terrace doors with flames between her and them. Brooke appears to panic as Hope and RJ cough. Suddenly, the front door opens and it's Ridge to the rescue – he races through the flames, picks up the coughing critters and hugs them as fire engines sirens blast. Ridge grabs a fire extinguisher that fails to work, and Brooke tells him to use the upstairs extinguisher. He does, and extinguishes the fire. As he hugs his family, Ridge accusingly asks Brooke what happened, and firefighters rush in.
At FO, Steph fills Dorothy from Child Protective Services in on Brooke's history, and it doesn't sound good when it all spills out. Steph brings up that Hope is the result of Brooke's affair with Deacon while he was married to Bridget, and Dorothy looks disgusted. Dorothy adds that she tried to track down Deacon, but Steph tells her he is bad news and not to bother. Steph fills Dorothy in on some more of Brooke's past including that famous breakdown when she played with dolls on the island. Steph's phone rings and someone, for some reason, informs her there's another 911 at Brooke's house. Dorothy is shocked that the 911 lines are lit up a second time in 24 hours, thanks to Brooke, and accompanies Steph to the scene. At Brooke's, Hope comes clean on how the fire started – she and RJ playing with Nick's lighter and lighting the candle for their picnic dinner of sandwiches on the veranda. The firefighters confirm Nick's lighter started the fire, and Ridge is upset that Brooke would let Nick watch the kids after Hope nearly drowned on his watch before. While Ridge insults Nick for smoking in front of the kids, Hope defends Nick saying he made a treasure map with the burnt edges. Ridge accuses Brooke of leaving the kids right after she left them alone all night, but Brooke tries to explain she went to Taylor's office, and needed Nick to babysit. If things aren't bad enough for Brooke, in come Stephanie and Dorothy, and a disbelieving Brooke sends them away, but they wait outside and talk to Ridge where Dorothy asks Ridge to take the kids because she has no choice but to remove them. Ridge says they are taking some drastic measures since Brooke is just going through a rough time. Steph points out that's true, but the kids need to be taken care of and Brooke needs some help. Inside, a firefighter tells Brooke accidents happen and not beat herself up, but Dorothy says she has no choice but to remove the kids until they can get Brooke some help. Brooke starts crying and repeatedly pleads to know where her babies are. She says she needs them, and they need her. No one answers her, and she freaks out as a firefighter tries to calm her.
The firemen, Stephanie and Dorothy (from CPS) were at Brooke's house. Brooke was screaming at Dorothy about where her kids were taken. Brooke continued screaming that Dorothy had no right to take them and that it was kidnapping. Dorothy and Stephanie both tried to get Brooke to calm down. Dorothy explained she had to take the children because she suspected neglect. Stephanie told Brooke to calm down before she had another breakdown. Brooke kept insisting she wanted her children back. She accused Stephanie of doing this to her to take the children away. Brooke realized as she argued with them that the children were with Ridge. She accused Dorothy and Stephanie of having a conspiracy to take her children away. Brooke tried to explain about how the children were left alone and how the fire started (both were just accidents). Dorothy said that children were with their father in a safe environment and there would be a hearing in the morning to determine their future. Brooke left to get her children.
Nick was at Taylor's office and got a call about the fire. He rushed out to go to Brooke's house. Stephanie and Dorothy were still at Brooke's when Nick stormed in and wanted to know about the kids. He wanted to know who Dorothy was and why she was there. Stephanie told Nick to go home and that he had caused enough damage because the fire was started with his lighter. Nick insisted on knowing where the children were and if they were with Brooke.
Dorothy pointed out to him about the kids being left alone and also about the fire. Nick blamed Donna and himself --not Brooke-- for what happened to Hope and RJ. Then Nick accused Stephanie of trying to steal the kids to get back at Brooke.
Ridge brought Hope and RJ to his house where Ashley was waiting for them with PB&J sandwiches. Ashley and Ridge discussed the fire and what is best for the kids. He thanked Ashley for being there. Ridge went upstairs to the kids' room and watched them sleep as he thought about how he saved them from the fire.
Brooke came in calling for Hope and RJ. Ashley let her know they were upstairs with Ridge and he was taking good care of them. Brooke accused Ashley of siding with Stephanie. She told Ashley that she and Ridge would fight Stephanie and CPS together. Ridge heard her and came downstairs. Brooke told him that his mother and "that woman" from CPS want to take her kids. She asked Ridge to help her. Brooke said it is a difficult time for her but she knows her kids need her and she needs them. She wanted to pick them up. Ridge told her the kids were asleep. Brooke insisted she could just wake them up and bring them home. Ridge told her, "No, you are not taking them." Brooke went on and on about it being a conspiracy against her to take her kids. Ridge told her she needed a break and then Brooke realized Ridge was not going to let her have the kids. She became upset with him and said she could not believe he was on Stephanie's side. She then called him a son of a bitch and said she expected that from his mother but did not expect that from him.
