In 1996 Carl became obsessed with his
son's killer, Grant Harrison, and took what pleasure he could in
hounding and tormenting him. His actions ostracized him from
Rachel, who wanted peace above all else. Rachel took a black and
white view, insisting that Carl choose between his love of her and his
desire of revenge upon Grant. Carl did make a peace offering for the
sake of Kirkland, but broke it off when it became apparent that Grant
had targeted him and Vicky in an attempt to rid himself of his enemies.
As part of his plan to destroy Carl,
Grant made certain that Rachel learned of Carl's scare tactics against him. She
was furious to learn that Carl had turned Rafael, the Cory handyman, into
his private thug with orders to shoot Grant if he ever stepped foot onto the
Cory estate. In his defence, Carl neglected to tell Rachel that the gun had been filled with blanks.
Carl 
never crossed the line in his dealings with Grant.
Yet it was his never-ending obsession and the possibility that it might
lead to irrevocable violence that dismayed Rachel. Rachel understood
the danger that Grant represented, and knew full well that he had
been the provoker during the more dangerous encounters,
particularly the one in which her grandson Steven was almost killed.
But the only solution Rachel could arrive at was for Carl to cut all
ties to Grant and ignore any attempts to provoke him. This Carl was
unwilling to do, for Vicky's protection as well as his own peace of mind. Thus, despite her
continuing love for him, Rachel ordered Carl out of her life.
In 1997 Rachel discovered she was pregnant with Carl's child. She
feared for its safety, knowing the violence that overbore Carl's life,
but finally realized she had to tell Carl the news. Although he was
elated, nothing had changed between them, and he was left to
wonder at his role in her life and that of their child.
Rachel's take on the situation did a
flip-flop, as she came to the realization that she wanted to be with Carl, no matter what the
cost. Their twins were born prematurely under less than ideal
circumstances, and Carl and Rachel were forced to learn to adapt
as parents to two demanding newborns.
In 1997, Amanda, for no logical reason, decided she no longer accepted Carl, even though she had eventually accepted him in 1994 and was one of his strongest supporters when she left Bay City in 1995. Later that year, Alexander Nikos arrived in town, swearing revenge against Carl for what Alexander considered the murder of his wife. Amanda was quick to join forces with Alexander, and together they strove to split Carl and Rachel. They plotted to make Rachel believe Carl was having an affair with a woman named Hadley Prescott, and Amanda seemed to relish her role as the other woman.
Matthew returned to Bay City and was revealed to have been the one to orchestrate Alexander's
arrival in Bay City. He also took the blame for the Hadley Prescott affair, for which Amanda
was racked with guilt. Amanda and Matt realized they were wrong to trust Nikos when he turned violent and
kidnapped Rachel, stuffing her into an abandoned tomb. Nikos then lured Carl to his plane, where they
struggled, Carl shooting Alexander in the arm. Nikos was presumed dead, but returned the next
week as an exact double of Carl. The Nikos/Hutchins feud came to a bloody end in Rachel's
studio when Rachel shot Alexander to death.
As 1998 continued, Carl began exhibiting bizarre behavior. Rachel's family and friends worried that Carl was reverting to his old ways, making Rachel a target. Rachel stood by her husband as he was accused of killing Chris Chapin, an old enemy. But suspecting that there was a physical cause for his behavior, she urged him to see a doctor. When that avenue came to a dead end, Rachel decided to leave Bay City and start afresh with Carl, seeing it as the only possible cure for his sickness.
Carl had been testing Rachel, and with her willingness to move, she seemed to have passed. But one
day when he was given cause to doubt her loyalty, he brought her to a grassy knoll. He seemed to be
saying goodbye to her, then moved to stand apart from her. Nearby, a gunman viewed Rachel
through his crosshairs. As she told him she would stand by him no matter what, Carl shouted "No!" and
lunged toward her. A shot rang out, and Carl fell to the ground.
Carl pulled through surgery. The doctor revealed to Rachel the presence of a malformation in Carl's brain but Carl was once again against the idea of tests. Recovering in the E.R., Carl said a tender goodbye to Rachel. Later the hitman returned to whisk Carl away as part of their plan. Carl was later thought dead in a hospital fire. Rachel scattered his ashes at their retreat in Key West, then returned home determined to find out what had been going on.
Eventually she discovered that the gunman was Scott Hutchins, Carl's half-brother. Scott was killed, and
Rachel was never to know Carl hadn't died in the hospital fire. Carl had been recuperating in Key West
when he went on a plane that was then to explode, with no survivors reported. It looked like in the end,
Carl's ashes were scattered in Key West after all.
A year later, Rachel stumbled across Carl wandering the beach of their Florida Keys house. She learned he'd had a brain tumor which was excised, leaving him amnesiac. She happily helped him put back the pieces of both their shattered lives.
