srhrobin
Short Story
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Post by srhrobin on Jun 29, 2009 12:40:35 GMT -5
Chapter Twenty
The next morning, at the Crane Compound, Julian was in bed, still not awake yet and muttering in his sleep the name Essie. When he opened his eyes and work up he saw that he was back in his room at the Compound. “Oh my God,” he said in amazement when he realized he was back in present. He tossed the cover off of his body, and sat up on the side of his bed feeling very perplexed. Julian had had the strangest dream or vision you might say. He dreamt that he was with Eve during the civil war. He was a young man named John and Eve was a slave named Essie. They were in love, but Alistair sold Essie and John went to look for her and found her after he had been wounded in the battle of Gettysburg. Unfortunately John had died then. The strange thing was that Julian actually remembered this lifetime as well as being John in the Civil War.
Julian remembered that Luis and Sheridan had shared past lives together, now he wondered if he had shared past lives with Eve. Then Julian remembered when he was younger hearing about a great-great-great-great-great something uncle of his who died in the battle of Gettysburg. He had asked his father and grandfather how it at the time but they said this uncle had been a bad seed and refused to even mention his name. “Oh my God, could it be?” Julian said in amazement. “Was I that uncle in a past life?” Julian wasn’t certain what exactly all of this meant, but he didn’t doubt that vision was real and that he stared the past life with his beloved Eve.
“Uncle Julian,” Julian heard say from behind him. Julian turned around and saw that his sweet little nephew had woken up.
“Hey Son,” Julian said smiling at Marty. “How did you sleep?”
“Fine,” Marty replied.
“No more bad dreams?” he asked.
“No.”
“Good.”
Julian got Marty dressed and they had breakfast together, and an hour later they were playing with Lincoln logs on the floor. It was cold up at the compound on that day. Even indoors Julian could feel the chill from outside. It didn’t bother him though. After being locked in one room for five months, the air from outdoors felt nice for him. He was worried though Marty might get sick though. However, the little fellow seemed to be all right, while he played with his Uncle Julian.
“Uncle Julian, when we go home will you still come over to play with me sometimes?”
“Wild horses couldn’t keep me away,” Julian said to Marty as he gave him a kiss on the head. Marty had formed a special place in Julian’s heart, just as Julian had formed a special place in Marty’s heart.
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srhrobin
Short Story
[M:0]
[ss:Spring Break Skin]
Posts: 191
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Post by srhrobin on Jun 29, 2009 12:47:08 GMT -5
Chapter Twenty-One
Back in Harmony, at the Bennetts, Eve was still in bed, and not awake yet and was muttering the name John in her sleep. When she woke up she saw that she was back in Harmony. “Oh my God,” she said in amazement when she realized she was back in present. Eve had the strangest dream or vision. She dreamt that she was with Julian during the civil war. Julian was a young man named John and Eve was a slave girl named Essie. They were in love, but Alistair sold Essie and John went to look for her and found her after he had been wounded in the battle of Gettysburg, but unfortunately John had been unable to survive his wounds and he died. The strange thing was that Eve actually remembered this lifetime as well as being Essie in the Civil War. She remembered that Luis and Sheridan had shared past lives together, so it possible that she and Julian shared a past life as well? Eve wasn’t certain what exactly all of this meant, but she didn’t doubt that vision was real and that she shared the past life with her beloved Julian.
Eve got out of bed to get ready for work. She got dressed and covered up her bruises with make-up and clothing. Then she went down to the Bennett’s kitchen and had breakfast with Sam, Grace, Noah, and Jessica. After breakfast, Sam, Noah, and Jessica left and Eve stayed with Grace in the kitchen in the kitchen helping her with the dishes. While Eve was rinsing a dish she felt a sharp pain go through her back, which caused her to wince as she put her hand on her back.
“Are you all right?” Grace asked with concern as she saw Eve wince.
“Yeah,” Eve groaned in pain. “I just take something.”
Grace went over to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair for Eve, “Here sit down,” she said to Eve. Eve sat down and Grace got a glass from the cabinet and pours some water into it and set it down on the table next to Eve so she could take her medicine. “Here” she said to Eve as she gave her the water.
“Thank you,” Eve said as she took the medicine with her water.
“You know,” said Grace as she went to stand in front of the sink facing Eve. “You should be taking it easily with your injury. Being on your feet at day at the hospital isn’t good for you right now.”
“I know,” Eve agreed. “But I have patients, and besides it keeps my mind off my troubles.”
Hearing Eve say that about her troubles broke Grace’s heart, seeing what Eve was going through now. Grace was still fuming about T.C. beating Eve. It made Grace furious to think about what T.C. had done to her best friend. T.C. had been Sam’s best friend all of his life, but now that T.C. had beaten Eve, Grace was official done with him. Grace folded her arms across her chest and grimaced. “I am never going to forgive T.C. for this,” Grace said with anger in her voice. “I swear if T.C. ever lays a hand on you again I’m going to kill him.”
Eve smiled at Grace’s love for her. It touched her to know that Grace would do that for her, even after what Eve gave into Ivy’s blackmail. “Thank you I appreciate that,” Eve said feeling touched.
Grace put her arms back at her sides and smiled back at Eve, “You’d do it for me,” she replied. Then Grace gave a wink letting Eve know how much he valued Eve’s friendship and that inspite of what happened Eve was a good friend.
“Yes I would,” Eve said with sincerity. Then Eve had an idea about telling Grace about her vision. Grace would understand, after all she was known for having premonitions herself and was her best friend. “Grace?” Eve asked. “Can I tell you something and can you promise that you won’t think I’m insane?”
“Sure Honey, what is it?”
“Do you remember how Luis and Sheridan shared past lives together?”
“Yeah? Why?”
“Well I think Julian and I did too.”
“What do you mean?”
Eve told Grace all about the vision she had. “And the strange thing is,” Eve said as soon she was done telling Grace about John and Essie, “I actually remembered being Essie in that life.”
“Oh my God, that’s amazing,” Grace said with fascination. She couldn’t believe that Eve and Julian actually shared a past life together.
“So you believe me?”
“Of course I do. I’ve had premonitions myself,” Grace answered. “So did Essie ever get married after John died?”
“No,” said Eve. “She worked as a nurse and as an activist for the rest of her life, but she never got over losing John.”
“That’s so sad.”
“I know,” Eve said solemnly. “I just hope it won’t be like for me and Julian in this lifetime.”
“You think that vision was a sign of some kind?”
“I don’t know but I know this, I’ve never been able to stop loving Julian and no matter what I do I can’t stop loving him now. Even after everything he did,” said Eve as she sighed with a heavy heart.
“Well how’s it been going with trying to find out what's been going on with Julian?” Grace asked.
“It’s going,” said Eve. “I’ve been exploring the possibility of Julian having a neurological condition. I made a list of conditions that apply to Julian, however my top three are a brain tumor, Cirrhosis of the liver, alcoholism.”
“I’ve heard that brain tumors can cause personality changes sometimes.”
“Yeah,” Eve agreed. “When it’s in certain areas of the brain, usually the frontal lobe.”
“What’s Cirrhosis of the liver?” Grace asked.
“It’s when the liver becomes permanently damaged by scar tissue.”
“How can that cause a personality change, if it’s in the liver?”
“It’s because of hepatic encephalopathy. When the liver shuts down it’s unable to remove toxins from the blood, so they build up toxins in the brain, which is known hepatic encephalopathy. What that happens then not only is the toxin accumulating in the blood but it impairs the function of brain cells which can cause one’s mental function to decrease, causing the person to display symptoms of personality changes.”
“Wow, I didn’t know that,” said Grace. “I’m no doctor but that sounds a lot like Julian to me.”
“I know, Cirrhosis of the liver is at the top of my list. I was considering Huntington’s disease for a while too.”
“Huntington’s Disease,” said Grace. “I think I heard about that disease one time, what does it do?”
“It’s a progressive, degenerative neurological disease that causes nerve cells in the brain to waste away. One of the main symptom’s of Huntington’s disease is irritability, emotional disturbances, mental deterioration, and personality changes.”
“It sounds bad.” Grace shuddered at the thought of having someone having their brain waste away like that.
“It’s very bad. It’s a genetic disease someone gets from a parent. The onset of the disease usually happens between the ages of 30 to 50.”
“Well, it might explain why the Crane’s are so nasty.”
“He doesn’t have it. Last night at work, I found an old blood sample of Julian’s on file and I did a genetic test for Huntington’s Disease on Julian and it came up negative.”
“Well thank God, for Julian’s sake. I have to say you’re off to a good start. So if Julian has a brain tumor, Cirrhosis of the liver or any of these diseases what’s his prognosis?”
“I don’t know. I can’t tell without an accurate diagnosis.”
“Can’t you run some more tests on the blood sample of Julian’s that you found?”
“No, it has to be recent. Besides I can’t diagnose him just based on a blood sample. I would need to do a full work up on him, a complete physical, blood work, urine, eck, eeg, ultrasound, echocardiogram, x-ray, CAT Scan, PET Scan, MRI, the works.”
“So what are you going to do now?”
“Honestly Grace I have no clue,” Eve clipped. Eve was at a lost as to what her next move should be. She knew she couldn’t diagnose Julian without running tests on him. However, things had been so bad between them, Eve wasn’t sure if Julian would listen to her.
“You don’t think you could get him to come in to the hospital for some tests?” asked Grace.
“Not with the way things have been between us,” Eve scoffed at the thought of how Julian would react if she called him and told him let her exam him to see if he was sick.
“Why what have things been like between the two of you since the break up?”
“Not good,” Eve clipped.
“Define not good.”
“Well a just after we broke up, I went back to the mansion get this fake brooch that Julian won for me at a carnival both. However, as I was getting it, Julian comes into the room and accuses him of stealing it and calls me a gold digger again.”
“How can Julian call you a gold digger?” Grace clipped. “You’re not even materialistic, and you make a very generous salary as a doctor.”
“I know, that’s one of the things that puzzles me too. In the entire time that we were together, recently and in the past, I never took a dime from him. Even when he bought me gifts like when he took me to Rodeo drive, it was his idea. I was touched but I told him not to spend so much money on me but he insisted. And even then it wasn’t the gifts that mattered to me it was that he gave them to me. And you know what else? He didn’t even remember winning the brooch for him, and he had won it for him only six months beforehand. Not to mention he always remembers everything about us as a couple, just like I do.”
“You said that he accused you of stealing the brooch. But if it was a fake one wouldn’t someone with his upbringing be able to tell a fake one from a real one a mile away?”
“Yes, and that’s another thing I can’t figure out either.”
“What happened to the brooch?”
“I threw it on the floor and stepped on it with my foot and then stormed out. Then the next time I saw him was the night that Kay told everything about Ivy hiring David to break up you and Sam.”
“What happened?”
“I had just heard about the truth coming out and I went to the blue note where Ivy was and asked she what happened. While we were talking about it, Julian overhears as a chews me out about what I did and goes on about what a hypocrite and I am. Then he said how I talked about how I once said I didn’t want to spend my life with someone like him, and that now the shoe was on the other foot, that he didn’t want to spend another minute with someone as malevolent as me, and then he said to me, ‘God help that stroked-out, crippled husband of yours. Let's just hope he gets his health back so he can make his escape from you.’”
“Okay,” Grace said firmly feeling angry at Julian for berating her best friend. “You tell him that I said he has absolute no right to give you a hard time, especially since you were so understanding and forgiving of his past sins. Then you tell him if he doesn’t shape up and keeps treating you this way he’s going to be answering to me.”
“Thank you,” said Eve.
“I’m serious. So when was the next time you saw him?”
“At thanksgiving, only this I was in the wrong and the fight was all my fault.”
“What happened?”
“I was feeding T.C. his dinner, and I heard something outside and I went to go see what the noise was and it was Julian outside. He said that he couldn’t believe that I would rather be spoon feeding T.C. his dinner than being with him at the mansion and I told him yes that would rather be with a man who accepts me than who runs my life like they own me. Then he asked me if I was saying that he treated me like a slave and I said how he always wanted me to be at his beckon all to do whatever he wanted to do whenever he wanted to do it, and that yes he treated me like a slave, and I told him thank god I was free at last. And then Julian said that he never wanted to be my master he wanted to be my equal, and how could I cast that aside for a man who threw me out when he found out I wasn’t perfect. I said that I hurt T.C. by lying to him and that it was him putting me up on a pedestal that had made it so difficult to comes to terms with what I had done, but now he had come around.”
“Oh honey,” Grace said in horrified disbelief. “Don’t you ever say or think that about T.C. again.”
“Don’t worry I won’t,” Eve replied. After what T.C. did, she knew she could not have been more wrong about what she had said to Julian about T.C. that night. “What happened after that?”
“Julian said that I was staying with T.C. out of guilt and how can I stay with T.C. being angry, unforgiving, and judgemental? And then I said to him, ‘And you’re not?’ And then said to me I could stay there wiping T.C.’s droll and he didn’t give a dang.”
“Look you lost your temper,” Grace gently reassured. “We all do. Don’t forget he’s put you through a lot lately.”
“Still it was wrong. The bottom line is that was completely untrue and unfounded and no matter what he did he didn’t deserve that.”
“So when was the next time you saw him.”
“Two week ago, and that was the last time I saw him. I was concerned about Fancy and Sheridan pining for Luis and I expressed my concern to Julian, and he brushed me off and told me how much I hurt him, and how he didn’t care that he lost me. I tried to tell him that I knew he was hurt, but I couldn’t be disloyal to T.C. and then he left. Then you called me and of course you know what happened.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry about my timing,” Grace said as she realized what it must have been like for Eve dealing with Julian and than Grace’s tirade at the same time.
“Don’t worry about it,” Eve reassured. Eve didn’t blame Grace one bit. “Well after I got off the phone with you, Julian appears to me again this time drunk and he attacked me.”
“He attacked you!!??” Grace exclaimed with horror.
Eve relayed the whole incident to Grace.
“Well, I don’t care if T.C. had a stroke or not,” Grace said when Eve was finished. “He deserves that and worse for what he did to you.”
“I know,” Eve agreed. “Now that I look back, I can see that I may have overreacted.”
“Look Eve,” said Grace. “I don’t care about Julian hitting T.C., but as for Julian, are you sure you want to be with a guy who tried to force himself on you like that?”
“That’s another thing that doesn’t make any sense. Julian’s never tried to rape anyone, not even when he was the Old Julian. Remember he didn’t even rape Theresa back in Bermuda. Even when Liz made Julian think that he raped her all those years ago I didn’t even completely believed it. Plus I know how affected Julian was when he found out that Alistair raped his mother Katherine. Not to mention I remember when Theresa married Alistair last year, how disgusted Julian was when he found out Alistair was raping Theresa. Rape is just not in Julian’s nature.”
“Okay let’s just say for arguments sake that this New kinder Julian was all an act, have you considered that?”
“When Julian first started to regress, I couldn’t believe it, but somehow the thought of the New Julian being a lie seemed to be the only explanation. However, the whole time I had this feeling in gut telling me that there was something seriously wrong with him and it wasn’t that he regressed and over time it’s just grown stronger and stronger. I mean three years ago when Liz first came to Harmony and she was blackmailing me and Julian started to change, he had absolutely no shoot of getting me back at the time. And he made sacrifices for me when he had everything to lose and nothing to gain, including me. I know what we had together Grace, and they weren’t lies.”
“Have you tried taking to Marlena about this? I’m mean she’s a psychiatrist, maybe she might be able to shed some light on the situation.”
“I did. I gave Marlena, Julian’s complete psychological history.”
“What did she say?”
“She said that Alistair’s abuse caused Julian to adopt Alistair’s values and led him to make the decisions he made in the past, but that when he was on the road with Timmy the time Julian spent with Timmy and the time away from Alistair helped him to begin to become his own man and along with his love for me. As for Julian’s regression, she says it doesn’t add up. She said that Julian feeling jealous and uncomfortable about me taking care of T.C. after his accident was normal, but not to him to regress. Also she said Julian emulated Alistair at this point doesn’t make sense either.”
“How so?”
“Psychologically, when a child abuse victim realizes that his or her abuser was wrong to abuse them, the victim doesn’t start to emulate their abuser. Julian had stood up to Alistair and realized that Alistair was wrong to abuse him.”
“Yeah I’ll even admit that sounds strange,” Grace agreed. “Have you tried talking to Julian about this?”
“How can I with the way things have been between us? Besides after what I did to Julian I wouldn’t blame him if he never wanted to speak to me ever again.”
“Don’t forget he had a part in this too. He’s just as much to blame for this if not more.”
“I know, but that doesn’t make what I did any less wrong. I guess a part of me is scared to talk to him too. I mean the last time I wanted to work things out with Julian, I found him having sex with Valerie.”
“I still can’t believe you slept with Julian after that.”
“What can I say, he’s a good kisser,” quipped Eve.
“Still I hope you got a STD test afterwards, because from what I hear Valerie’s has slept around.”
“I did and I tested negative,” answered Eve. It was true. A few days after she broke up with Julian she had an STD test performed on her. As grateful as she was to find out the test was negative, it seemed trivial to her compared to losing Julian.
“Thank God,” said Grace.
“Although,” said Eve, “when I was having sex with Julian, it wasn’t that great.”
“Well Honey, you did just see him sleeping with his secretary.”
“It wasn’t that, something about it just felt different. I can’t put my finger on it.”
Grace sat down at the table next to Eve and looked at Eve. “You know what I think. I think you should fight for Julian.”
“You do?” Eve was surprised at this. Grace had hated the Cranes for years.
“One thing that I always regretted when Ivy tried to break me and Sam up was that I didn’t fight harder for him.”
“But-” Eve said.
Grace put her hand up in front of her, “It doesn’t matter what anybody did or didn’t do. The bottom line is that I should have fought harder for him. And the reason I didn’t was because I felt obligated to David, the same way you felt obligated to T.C.. However, I learned that a relationship that isn’t based on love, simply doesn’t work. And I think if you believe that Julian is in some sort of trouble you need to find out what it is. Don’t let love go.”
“But what am I suppose to do?” Eve said. “Go up to him and say, ‘I’m sorry I betrayed you when I went back to T.C.. I had no right to do that to you. I’m still angry at you for what you did, and by the way I think you might have a neurological condition!?’”
“Well I know things have been awkward between the two of you, but if he has a neurological condition, isn’t early detection important?”
“I guess so,” Eve admitted.
“Look I’ll help you think of a good way to approach him.”
“Thank you Honey,” Eve said smiling. “I appreciate that.”
Eve and Grace hugged and then Eve went off to work.
Preview: Next chapter T.C.’s secret is revealed.
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srhrobin
Short Story
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[ss:Spring Break Skin]
Posts: 191
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Post by srhrobin on Jul 20, 2009 14:37:18 GMT -5
I'm dying for feedback please.
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srhrobin
Short Story
[M:0]
[ss:Spring Break Skin]
Posts: 191
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Post by srhrobin on Aug 4, 2009 11:54:23 GMT -5
Chapter Twenty-Two Back at the police station, Sam and Luis had set up a wiretap. That morning Sam had the idea of getting permission from the D.A. to wiretap Spike’s cell phone, thinking he could find some dirt on him so Sam could arrest him. Sam and Luis were now sitting in one of the back rooms of the station, at a table across from each other with a wiretap machine sitting right in the middle of the table; waiting for Spike to receive some calls. It had been two hours and they still hadn’t found anything incriminating yet. “Well I got to hand it to you,” Luis said to Sam. “That was a good idea of you getting permission from the D.A. to wiretap Spike.” “Yeah, the idea just came over me this morning. I was surprise the D.A. had agreed to it so quickly.” It was true. That morning the idea of wiretapping Spike had come on Sam like a bolt of lightening. Sam didn’t have to convince the D.A., the office just agreed right away. “You got lucky,” said Luis. “I definitely want to bring Spike down too for helping Alistair and Beth keeping Marty from me and Sheridan.” “I don’t blame you, I would too.” Sam grit his teeth as he felt his anger towards Spike come over him. He thought about all the horrible things Spike had done to him, Jessica, and his family. For over a year, Spike had made his life miserable, and Sam just couldn’t take it anymore. “I’m telling you,” Sam said as he shook his head and grimaced with anger. “I can’t wait to bring Spike to his knees.” He banged his fist on the desk. “When I think of everything he’s done to Jessica and everyone else it just makes my blood boil.” “I know,” Luis agreed. Luis’s heart went out to Sam knowing all the turmoil Spike had put the Bennett’s through. He looked at Sam sympathetically and said, “I don’t know how you’ve put up with Spike all this time.” “It hasn’t been easy, that’s for sure. To be honest, I think Spike is holding something over Jessica to have her stay married to him.” Sam knew that since earlier that year, Jessica had begun to see Spike for who he really was. She hated Spike now and still she married him even though she hated him and hated being married to him. It didn’t make sense to Sam that Jessica would willingly stay with Spike. “Do you know what it is?” Luis asked curiously. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. I just want him out of hers and my life forever.” “Amen to that.” Just then some noise came on in the wiretap. “Look, someone’s calling Spike’s phone,” Sam said. Sam and Luis looked at the wiretap machine and began to listen intently. Spike: Hello.
Alistair: Spike, it’s Alistair Crane. How’s it going?’“Alistair!” Sam and Luis exclaimed at the same it. They both looked up at each other in shock. Alistair was supposed to be dead. Spike: It’s going great Boss, but it’s cold out here today, bbrrr.
Alistair: Never mind the weather report. How’s it going with the plan?
Spike: Everything’s going great. Everything totally thinks that Mitch Wagner is Julian. I still can’t believe you kidnapped Julian five months ago and replaced him with an imposter. That latex mask he’s been wearing has really worked.“What!!??” Luis exclaimed as his eyes widened. Alistair: Well I had to. Rebecca had granted Julian a divorce, and my current leverage for keeping Julian and Eve apart was gone.
Spike: I still can’t believe you got T.C. Russell to team up with you in kidnapping Julian. Sam’s jaw dropped as soon as he heard this about his best friend. Alistair: Sure, it was easy. All I had to do, after his car accident was convince him that I would help him get back together with Eve. Then I just rubbed into T.C., all the things Julian had done to him. T.C. was more than happy to have Julian kidnapped.
Spike: Well getting the coach to fake his stroke was brilliant man.Sam and Luis looked at each other in shock, not knowing what to think. Alistair: Sure, T.C. and I both knew that Eve would play right into our hands if we played on her guilt for lying to T.C. when they were married. And with the good lady doctor thinking Wagner is Julian who has regressed, there’s no way she’ll ever look at Julian again. “No way, this isn’t happening,” Sam said as he shook his head back and forth vigorously. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing about T.C.. Alistair: And with me faking my death back in Rome, no one will ever think I was behind it. Now what’s the scope on that situation, Eve left T.C. a week ago. Is she back with him yet?
Spike: No, the coach won’t tell me why she left and ain’t no one else knows either.
Alistair: I know why she left.
Spike: Yeah what happened?
Alistair: I’m not telling you. You just tell T.C. to get Eve back with him and make sure you tell Wagner to keep repelling Eve whenever he can.
Spike: Got it.
Alistair: Now what’s the situation on Sheridan.
Spike: Well Sheridan still loves Luis, but she ain’t gonna leave Chris. Too bad she don’t know that you paid Chris to fall in love with her and that he’s not James father.Luis’s jaw dropped when heard this. He knew Chris was up to something but he didn’t think that Chris would sink so low as to pretend that James wasn’t his child. Even though Luis now had the dirt he needed on Chris, it made him sick to know how Alistair and Chris had teamed up to keep him apart from Sheridan. Sam gave Luis a long look. Alistair: Well I couldn’t have Sheridan be with Luis, and what better was to punish my daughter than to have her be force to stay married to a man she doesn’t love. Are you still blackmailing Chris to embezzle money from Crane?“Oh my God!” Luis said as he hung his head in distress. Spike: Yup, and I’m still forwarding it to you.
Alistair: Good. Now make sure you check in with Chris and T.C.. And tell T.C. to get Eve back with him. Both of my brats with Katherine, have always married beneath their class, and I won’t let them get away with betraying me and I’ll do what ever I have to do to keep Luis and Sheridan and Eve and Julian apart.
Spike: Got it.Just then Sam and Luis heard Spike dial the phone to call someone else. Chris: Hello.
Spike: Hey yo Chris, it’s Spike.
Chris: What do you want?
Spike: How about that money you were going to embezzle for me?
Chris: It’s coming all right. I have to be careful. I have an audit coming next month.
Spike: Well get it to me soon, or I’ll tell Sheridan the truth about you.
Chris: All right. All right.Spike hung up the phone and dialed another number. T.C.: Hello.
Spike: Hey coach, it’s the Spikeman.
T.C.: What do you want?
Spike: Hey don’t get testy with me or I’ll tell Eve that you kidnapped Julian and faked your stroke.
T.C.: You can’t without incriminating yourself. If I go down I’m taking you down with me.
Spike: All right don’t have a cow. I just got off the phone with old man Crane. He wants you to get the lady doctor back.
T.C.: I’m trying but I don’t know where she is. She changed all of her numbers and even told security at the hospital not to let me inside.
Spike: Well do something man. Send her some flowers.
T.C.: Oh I’m going to take romance advise from you!?
Spike: Look don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just telling you what the boss said.
T.C.: All right, all right. You just make sure that no one knows that Julian has been kidnapped and that I was behind it. And ask Alistair when I can stop with this stroke act.
Spike: Okay.With that Spike hung up the phone. Sam immediately shot up from his chair like a bolt of lightening. “I don’t believe this,” he said. Sam slammed the palm of his hand on the table. He just stood there with his arms folded across his chest as he shook his head in disbelief. Luis immediately took action. He stood up and dialed the courtesy phone that was also on the table. “Hi, this is Lopez-Fitzgerald,” he said in a no nonsense voice. “I need phone records for both Christopher Booth and T.C. Russell. I need to see if either of them received any incoming in the past few minutes. And get ballistics to in here and ask them to bring in there. I need to see if a wiretap was dubbed. Now!” Someone from ballistics brought in the device to see if the wiretap was dubbed. After Sam and Luis played the wiretap again with the device, the results showed that the voices or what was said hadn’t been dubbed. Then an officer brought in the results of the phone records and handed it to Sam. “Here you go Chief,” the officer said. “Thanks officer,” Sam replied. Sam looked at the report and then looked up at Luis with a distressed look in his eyes. “It’s true,” he said. “Oh God,” Luis said in a low voice. “Dammit,” Sam said as he slammed his hand on the table again. As cops, Sam and Luis were taught that anything is possible when it comes to people committing crime, but nothing in the police academy could ever have prepared them for this. “I knew that Chris was up to no good,” Luis said. “I knew it.” “My God,” Sam said shaking his head. “I can’t believe Alistair faked his death in Rome.” “Well this is Harmony,” Luis pointed out. “It makes sense to me, especially with Julian. Alistair never wanted Eve and Julian together. He forced them to break up all those years ago, and then stole their child just like he did with Marty. Then they get back together two years ago and Alistair tells them Chad was their son to keep them apart, but that didn’t work. However, Rebecca was determined not to let Julian go, so Alistair didn’t have to do to keep them apart then because Rebecca was doing it for him. Then when Eve and Julian were going to leave the country last year, Alistair calls the authorities to keep them from leaving. Then Rebecca finally grants Julian the divorce last summer and Alistair doesn’t have Rebecca as bate anymore to keep Eve and Julian apart. So Alistair has to come up with a new plan. I mean Rebecca granting Julian the divorce, Alistair dying, T.C. having a stoke, and Julian regressing all at the same time does seem more than a coincidence to me.” “Yeah,” Sam nodded in agreement. “I know that everyone has said since Julian regressed that he was only pretending to change so he could get back with Eve. But this wasn’t the first time something or someone was standing in his way of being with Eve. Three years ago, Julian had no chance whatsoever, of getting back with Eve and he was willing to do whatever it took for Eve to be happy, even if it meant she said with T.C..” “Yeah, when Julian was helping me rescue Sheridan from the psych ward, he was telling me about his love for Eve. I didn’t know it was Eve at the time, but he said the same thing to me about not interfering with their marriage. And don’t forget before Eve’s trial when T.C. wanted Eve back, Julian didn’t regress then.” “That’s true,” Sam clipped. “Eve told me that night that Eve had said she was going to go back to T.C., Julian was at the Seascape and feeling depressed over losing Eve. Eve went to talk to him and he was saying how it seemed easier for him to go back to the way he was before, but if this improved Julian was all an act, why didn’t he regress right then?” “Exactly,” Luis replied. “I mean let’s face it, it’s obvious Julian’s never had very good self-esteem not matter how arrogant he acted in the past, and lately.” “Eve wasn’t even planning on breaking up with Julian until he regressed,” Sam pointed out. “I mean I can understand how Julian would feel uncomfortable about Eve spending all of her time nursing T.C., but him regressing like that seems a little extreme.” “I know. If I were in his situation, I would think that if I acted the way he did, I might as well kiss the relationship good-bye. It was almost like he was deliberately sabotaging himself.” “And if this new Julian has all been an act,” said Sam. “I would think he would keep up with the act than let Eve know the truth and risk losing her. I know that ever since Julian regressed that he has been emulating Alistair. Alistair abused Julian of his life. And we both know that he eventually was able to stand up to Alistair and saw what Alistair did to him was wrong. As a cop, I know that once a child abuse victim realizes what their abuser did to them was wrong, they don’t start emulating them.” “Also, Sheridan told me that when Julian was growing up he was a good person, and it was after Katherine left and Julian lost Eve that became the old Julian,” said Luis. “Mama even told me a few days ago that she and Papa both remembered the same thing about Julian when they were working at the mansion. And don’t forget when Julian was the old Julian, he was Alistair’s puppet. Whatever Julian did, it was because he received orders from Alistair or because Rebecca persuaded him to do something. And now Alistair’s dead and he’s acting worse then he was when he was the old Julian. That doesn’t make any sense.” “Yeah, this current Julian definitely doesn’t add up,” Sam agreed. “But T.C. he’s my best friend.” Sam had a heartbroken look in his eyes. “I know he hates Julian but it’s so hard to believe that he would kidnap Julian and fake his stroke just to get Eve back.” “I know,” said Luis. He felt bad for Sam knowing that his best friend since childhood could do something so despicable. “I can’t believe it either, but he’s always hated Julian and he wanted Eve back, and we can’t ignore the evidence.” “I know,” Sam nodded as he felt tears come into his eyes. Sam didn’t want to believe that T.C. did this, but he knew it was true. Sam also knew he was only to be unable to defend T.C. or get him out of this mess. T.C. was like a brother to Sam, and for T.C. to commit a crime of this nature, made Sam feel like a member of his own family had committed the crime. Sam threw his hands up in the air. “How could T.C. do this?” he yelled. “What would possess him to do something so ? Did he actually think he could get away with this?” “I don’t know Sam,” Luis said sympathetically. “But I am sorry. I know how hard this must be for you right now.” “I’m not even going to be able to defend him. There isn’t anything I can do to get him out of this.” Then Sam raised his voice again. “Did he even think about what that would feel like for me if he got caught?” “He was being selfish,” answered Luis. “He didn’t think what faking his stroke and kidnapping Julian, and replacing him with an imposter would do to people.” “No, he didn’t,” Sam said in a low voice. “I’ll tell you one thing, I’m going to kick his ass for this.” “There is one thing I was wondering about,” said Luis. “Eve moved out from T.C. last week, do you think she knows anything about this?” “I don’t think so. T.C.’s may be my best friend, but I know that Eve went back to him out of guilt. Eve loves and adores Julian, and if she had known, she would have said something to someone.” “Did T.C. tell you why she left?” “No,” Sam shook his head. “He was really evasive about it. He just said that Eve left last week with no warning or note and changed all of her phone numbers and told security at the hospital not to let him in.” “That doesn’t sound like Eve,” said Luis. Luis knew that as a doctor Eve had to let people know where she was in case of an emergency. Not to mention he thought T.C. had had a stroke, and if she was taking care of him, it wouldn’t make sense that she would leave him with notice, if she thought he was sick. “I did talk to Mama last night and she said that she ran into Eve last night and Eve was limping because she said she threw her back out.” Sam knew that Eve and Grace were adamant that no one know where Eve was, but now this was a police investigation and he had to let Luis know what he knew. “Listen,” said Sam, “there something you I should tell you but you can’t tell anyone. It’s strictly police business.” “Okay,” Luis agreed. “Eve’s been staying at our house this past week.” “What? I didn’t think you and Grace were even speaking to her.” “We weren’t but we decided to forgive her after we realized the position Ivy put her in. I was able to find out the hotel she was staying at through her credit card, and when I did Grace went to go see her and they talked things out. Grace invited Eve to stay in the garage apartment until Eve found a more permanent place to stay. However, Eve and Grace were adamant that T.C. not know where Eve was. They even told me and the kids, not to bring T.C. by the house and not to let anyone know where Eve was, under any circumstances. When I asked Grace about it, she said she couldn’t tell me because she didn’t want to betray Eve’s confidence, but I just I had to trust her on this one, so I didn’t tell anyone. And she’s also been limping this past week and told us the same story about her back. “You don’t think Eve and Grace knew anything about this?” “No, Eve loves Julian,. I’ve known her for years, she may not show it but I can tell she misses Julian and wants him back. Plus she’s been heartbroken without him.” “Yeah, I’ve known Eve for years too,” said Luis, “and I never saw her look at T.C. the ways looked at Julian.” “You know what this means?” said Sam. “That Julian was kidnapped five months ago, and we don’t know where the hell he is. And it’s going to be that much harder finding him because we weren’t able to catch this earlier.” “I know,” Luis said, having the same feelings that Sam was. “Look,” Sam said in a no nonsense voice. “We need to get everybody involved in here right away. I need you to call Eve, Sheridan, T.C., Chris, This Mitch Wagner guy, and Katherine.” “Katherine? Why, Katherine?” “She’s about to find out her son has been kidnapped, I think it’s better that she hear about it from us and not on the news.” “All right,” Luis agreed. Katherine wasn’t one of Luis’s favorite people, but right now he couldn’t help but feel bad for her, as she was about to get the worst news of her life. Luis knew better than anyone how painful it was to have your child kidnapped.” “What ever you do,” Sam instructed, “don’t tell any of them about the wiretap. Just tell them that we need them to come in right away. And while you’re out there tell Fancy to come back here so I can tell her about what happened. Also call the D.A. and get a search warrant to search Wagner’s face for a latex mask.” “All right,” said Luis. Luis left the room and Sam just paced the floor trying to think of a way to break the news to Fancy. He wasn’t sure how close she was with her father, but either way this was ago to be devastating for her, the Cranes, Eve, and Whitney and Simone. Just then, Fancy came in the room in her police uniform. She had just graduated from the police academy the day before and was now officially a cop. “You wanted to see me Sam?” she asked. Sam walked toward Fancy and put his hands gently on her shoulders and looked kindly into her eyes. “Fancy, I want you to be strong now.” “Why what’s the matter?” she asked. “Luis and I wiretapped Spike this morning and we found out that your father was kidnapped five months ago.” “What!!! ” she exclaimed. “How could my father have been kidnapped five months ago? He’s been here all this time.” “Well just listen,” Sam played the wiretap again for Fancy. After Fancy was done finishing to the tape, she just stood there with her body trembling in fear. Her face had now turned red. “No, no, that’s impossible,” she cried. “Grandfather died last summer in Rome.” “Well it looks like he faked his death,” said Sam. “The tape’s a fake,” Fancy yelled. She wasn’t going to believe that her father had been kidnapped. “ Someone could have dubbed it to play a cruel joke.” “We checked,” said Sam gently. “The tape wasn’t dubbed and we even checked T.C. and Chris’s phone records and they show that Spike called him when during the wiretap.” “That doesn’t mean Daddy was kidnapped,” Fancy said trying to convince Sam that her father was fine. “I mean I know he was upset about Eve and that he regressed but” as soon as Fancy said those words she knew in her in her heart and her head, and as a cop and a daughter that what Sam was telling her was true. “Oh my God, Oh my god!” Fancy shrieked as she burst into tears. Her knees buckled and she began to sink to the floor. Sam caught her before she could land on the floor. He held her as she sobbed violently in his arms. Fancy couldn’t believe this was happening. At that moment, she felt her whole world fall apart knowing her father had been kidnapped. Fancy knew she hadn’t close with her father when she was growing up, but he was still her father and she loved him. Ever since Fancy had come back to Harmony, Julian had changed for the better and she was looking forward to having a better relationship. Last summer before Julian was kidnapped, he had apologized to Fancy for not being a better father and they talked about having a closer relationship. However, knowing that her father was out there kidnapped was enough to break her heart. Whatever upset she had experience over how her father used to be was now gone. Now that her father had been kidnapped the only thing that mattered to Fancy was that Julian was her father and that they loved each other. Fancy looked at Sam and said through her sobs “This can’t be happening. He’s my father. He can’t be gone.” “I know Fancy,” Sam coaxed gently as he wiped the tears from her eyes. “I am so sorry. I want you to know that we are going to do everything we can to bring him home. Now I’ve called Eve, Sheridan, T.C., Chris, This Mitch Wagner guy, and Katherine to come in and we’re going to get to the bottom of this.” “Oh my God, Eve and my grandmother are going to be so devastated.” “I know.” “I’m going to kill T.C.,” she said angrily. “I’m going to make him pay for this.” “I know. I want you to know how sorry I am for what my best friend did to your father.” “It’s okay, it’s not your fault.” Fancy took a tissue from her pants pocket to dry her eyes. “All these years, I thought Grandfather was a sweetie pie, and that he loved me.” Then Fancy started to yell again. “But he was the reason Daddy was never there for me and my brothers and sister while we were growing up. And now Grandfather has taken Daddy from me again.” “I am so sorry.” Sam’s heart broke for Fancy as he saw he going through all of this pain. “Listen Sam,” she said, “I want to be put on this case.” “Fancy, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said. “He’s my father,” she cried. “Exactly,” stated Sam. “Which is why I don’t think it’s a good idea.” “Sam,” Fancy said firmly as she folded her arms across her chest. “I’m a cop. I was trained to be objective. A cop is supposed to rescue people from danger and my father’s life is too important.” Sam knew Fancy was serious and it would be pointless arguing with her on this one. “All right,” he said. “But if at any time you can’t handle it, but taking you off the case.” “I can handle it,” Fancy said with confidence and then she began to cry again. Preview: Next Chapter Eve, Katherine, and Sheridan learn the truth about T.C. and Chris, and that Julian has been kidnapped.
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srhrobin
Short Story
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[ss:Spring Break Skin]
Posts: 191
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Post by srhrobin on Aug 21, 2009 21:48:32 GMT -5
Chapter Twenty-Three
(Note to readers: Paloma in this story is played by Silvana Arias)
Over the next ten minutes, Luis phoned Eve, Sheridan, T.C., Chris, Mitch Wagner, and Katherine. He didn’t tell any of them what was going on, just that they needed to come down to the police station immediately. Luis was lucky that he was able to reach all of them right away and that they all agreed to come in. Sam gave orders to Luis not to tell any of the other police officers on the force yet, except for Paloma, about Julian being kidnapped. Sam would make a public announcement after they confronted T.C., Wagner, and Chris.
Twenty minutes later, Eve walked into the police station and saw Katherine, Sheridan and Chris standing around in the front area of the police station. Katherine was standing in front of Luis’s desk, and Chris and Sheridan were standing on the left side of Sam desk adjacent to the door that led to the back of the station.
“Eve,” Katherine said as soon as she saw Eve.
“Katherine, hi,” Eve smiled at Katherine and went back to her to and they gave each other a hug. “It’s so good to see you again.”
“You too.” Katherine loved Eve. Eve was everything and more than she could have wanted for a woman for Julian. She was kind, loving, beautiful, smart, and so much more. Katherine didn’t think any less of Eve because of her past or mistakes that she made. As far as Katherine was concerned, people make mistakes and she admired Eve for overcoming everything she had in her life. Katherine thought that Eve’s family, were wrong to treat her the way they did when her past came out.”
“How have you been?” Eve asked Katherine after they hugged.
“I’m good, how are you?”
“Okay.” Eve didn’t have the heart to tell Katherine how she really felt, heartbroken and lost without Julian. That was another loss for Eve. Eve liked Katherine and had been looking forward to having Katherine as her mother-in-law. Katherine had been wonderful to her and to Julian every since she came back to Harmony. She was very supportive of their relationship, and she didn’t judge Eve for her past mistakes. Katherine had been kinder and better to Eve than even her own mother ever was. When Eve thought of Julian really being good man, she could see that he took after Katherine not Alistair.
“I’m so sorry to hear about you and Julian,” Katherine said kindly to Eve.
“Thank you,” Eve said appreciatively.
Katherine could tell that Eve was trying to put on a brave face, but she could see that Eve still loved Julian and missed him and wanted him back. Katherine didn’t have any ill will against Eve for Julian and Eve’s break up. Katherine understood how Julian felt about Eve spending all of her time playing nursemaid to T.C., but she didn’t believe that Eve was trying to hurt Julian for a second or that Eve had fallen back in love with T.C.. However, she had not been happy with her son’s behavior lately, and was at a loss to figure out how to help him.
“What are you doing here?” Katherine asked Eve.
“I received call telling me to come down here,” Eve replied.
“So did we,” said Sheridan.
That seemed strange to Sam and Luis would call all of them down to the police station like that.
“Do you have any idea why we were all called down here?” asked Eve.
“I have no idea,” Chris answered.
“Listen Eve, are you all right?” Sheridan asked. “I saw that you were limping when you came in here.”
“Yeah I did too,” said Katherine.
“Yeah I’m fine, I just threw my back out the other day,” Eve said. Saying that was becoming second nature to her now.
Just then T.C. walked in the police station. He was still using his cane. Eve shuddered when she saw him. T.C. was the last person in the world that she wanted and needed to see right now. When T.C. saw her, he stopped dead in his track. He couldn’t believe after a week of looking for Eve, he had found her. However, the second he looked at Eve, she looked away from him. T.C. wanted to go up to Eve and talk to her, but given the fact that they were in a police station and Eve was standing with her would have been mother-in-law, he didn’t think it was the right time, especially given what had happened last week. He decided he would talk to her later and try to beg Eve for her forgiveness for beating her. T.C. was just glad that Julian was kidnapped because if he weren’t, Julian would try to sweep in pretending to be Eve’s hero and Eve would fall for his act again.
“T.C., what are you doing here?” asked Sheridan.
“I was told to come down here,” T.C. answered.
“So did we,” replied Chris.
All of a sudden Eve felt annoyed with Sam. Sam knew that Eve didn’t want to see T.C., so why on earth would he have T.C. come down to the station while she was there?
“Does anyone know what’s going on?” asked T.C. as he walked across the room to stand on the right side of Sam’s desk.
“No,” answered Chris. “We were all wondering the same thing.”
T.C. tried to look at Eve from across the room, but she couldn’t and wouldn’t look him in the eye. Katherine immediately could pick up on the tension between Eve and T.C. and wondered what was going on between them. Katherine had never liked T.C.. She thought he was an angry, mean, abusive man. He treated Eve like dirt, and he behaved like a school yard bully towards Julian. She also didn’t approve of the way he treated Simone now that she was a lesbian, and the way T.C. allowed Whitney and Simone to treat Eve when her past came out. Katherine especially hated the way T.C. would beat up and attack Julian. Katherine knew that Julian and T.C. had a long history of being enemies, and there was the car accident that ruined T.C.’s knee. While Katherine knew that Julian and Eve were wrong to drive drunk, she also knew that it was an accident and that neither Julian nor Eve meant for it to happen. As far as T.C. blaming Julian for breaking up his family, Katherine laughed at that. T.C. did that to himself, not Julian. Katherine just hoped that somehow Julian would come out of this regression, and that he and Eve would get back together and get married. Katherine knew Julian and Eve belonged together. They were perfect together and she would feel the same way if Julian weren’t her son.
~
In the back hallway of the police station, Luis was holding Fancy in his arms, comforting her as she sobbed into his shoulder. Sam was standing across from them waiting for word on the search warrant for Wagner and the arrest warrant for Chris, T.C., and Wagner. As Sam looked at Fancy sobbing into Luis’s arms, his heart broke. He knew that pretty soon, Eve, Katherine, and the rest of Julian’s family would be just as distraught as Fancy was. As a cop, Sam had seen people’s grief over losing a loved one to a kidnapping, murder, etc. However, for Sam seeing it happened to people he knew and loved, was especially hard. Sam loved Eve like a sister, he had grown to love Fox and Fancy like they were his own children, and Sheridan was a close family friend; seeing their pain was not going to be easy for him.
Just then Paloma came back into the hall way and approached them very solemnly. Her eyes had a very sad and sympathetic look to them. She was still shocked to learn about Julian. She still couldn’t believe that this had happened, and that Alistair and T.C. could do something like this. Her heart broke for the Julian, Eve, Fancy and the rest of the Cranes. She wished their was something she could do to take this all away from them. However, she was planning to join the task force for finding Julian and she would try to be there for Eve, Simone, Fancy, Sheridan, and the rest of their family. “The D.A. called,” she said as she approached them. “Their office agreed to the warrants, and everyone except for Wagner has arrived. I called Wagner on his cell phone and he’s should be here in a few minutes. I also cleared the rest of the officers out of the front area, so there’s just Eve, Sheridan, T.C., Chris, and Katherine out front.
“Thank you Paloma,” said Sam. Sam didn’t want to wait for Wagner. Wagner was on his way and Wagner being present while they questioned T.C., might be too much for Eve and Katherine. “Okay, I think we can get started without Wagner.” Then Sam gently put his hand on Fancy’s shoulder. “Fancy, are you sure, you feel up to this Sweetheart? You know you don’t have to do this.”
Fancy broke away from Luis and dried her eyes. “Yes, I do,” she said nodding. “He’s my father, I have to. I’ll be fine.”
“Okay,” said Sam.
“Fancy,” Paloma said sweetly. “I want you to know how I am so sorry about your father. And I want you to know I’m going to praying for him and you and your family, and I’m going to do everything I can here at the station to help find me.”
“Thank you Paloma,” Fancy smiled kindly back at Paloma through her tears. “I appreciate that.” Paloma and Fancy gave each other a heartfelt hug. Fancy was grateful to have a friend as wonderful as Paloma. Ever since Fancy and Paloma had joined the police academy, they had become really close friends. Paloma knew right now Fancy was going to need of the love and support she could give her now that her father had been kidnapped.
After Fancy and Paloma hugged; Sam, Luis, Fancy, and Paloma all walked out solemnly to the front of the police station. No one said a word to each other knowing the gravity of the situation. Sam wonder how he was going to break this to Eve and Katherine. ‘How do you break this kind of news to anyone?’ As a cop, Sam had to break bad news to all the time, but nothing like this. This wasn’t going to be easy.
“Well, I’m glad you’re all here,” said Sam when he, Luis, Fancy, and Paloma entered the room. Sam stood behind his desk and Luis stood at the left side of Sam’s desk, with Chris and Sheridan adjacent to him. Paloma stood in next to Sheridan.
As soon as Katherine saw Fancy, she saw that Fancy’s face had been tear stained and that her eyes were red from crying. “Fancy, you are all right?” Katherine asked with concern for her granddaughter.
“No, I’m not,” Fancy replied as she went to go stand next to Katherine. Then she looked at Katherine and Eve. “Listen you two are going to have to brace yourselves.”
“Why, what’s going on?” asked Eve. Eve’s curiosity as to what was going on was growing now.
“This morning,” said Sam. “Luis and I did a wiretap on Spike’s cell phone, and we found out some information that you should all hear.” T.C. and Chris immediately began to look nervous knowing that they both had talked to Spike that morning. Sam picked up on their nervous looks and so did Luis. Sam and Luis both looked at each other in agreement, knowing that they would make a note of T.C. and Chris’s nervous looks when they made their official police report. Then Sam the pushed the play button, and began to play the wiretap.
Spike: Hello.
Alistair: Spike, it’s Alistair Crane. How’s it going?’
Everyone gasped in shock as soon as they heard Alistair say his name, even T.C.. However, T.C. was shocked for a different reason than everyone else.
Spike: It’s going great Boss, but it’s cold out here today, bbrrr.
Alistair: Never mind the weather report. How’s it going with the plan?
Spike: Everything’s going great. Everyone totally thinks that Mitch Wagner is Julian.
Eve was confused. What was Spike talking about and who was Mitch Wagner?
Spike: I still can’t believe you kidnapped Julian five months ago and replaced him with an imposter. That latex mask he’s been wearing has really worked.
“What!!??” Katherine exclaimed in a low voice.
Eve gasped with shock as soon as she heard that sentence. For the past five months, Julian had regressed and now he supposedly was kidnapped and replaced with an imposter? ‘Could it be true?’ she wondered. She felt chills go up and down her spine.
‘Oh no,’ T.C. thought to himself. He knew he was in trouble now. However, he told himself to just stay calm and deny everything.
Alistair: Well I had to. Rebecca had granted Julian a divorce and my current leverage for keeping Julian and Eve apart was gone.
“No,” Eve gasped in disbelief. She felt her heart skip a beat as her body trembled even more. She didn’t want to believe any of this was true, but somehow what she was hearing made sense.
All of the color had now drained from Katherine and Sheridan’s faces.
Spike: I still can’t believe you got T.C. Russell to team up with you in kidnapping Julian.
Eve’s mouth dropped open.
‘Oh my God,’ T.C. thought to himself. ‘This is bad, this is so bad.’
Alistair: Sure, it was easy. All I had to do, after his car accident was convince him that I would help him get back together with Eve. Then I just rubbed into T.C., all the things Julian had done to him. T.C. was more than happy to have Julian kidnapped.
Spike: Well getting the coach to fake his stroke was brilliant man.
“No way,” Eve said under her breath. Eve shook she head in disbelief. She didn’t think there could be anymore surprises on that tape, but she was wrong.
Alistair: Sure, T.C. and I both knew that Eve would play right into our hands if we played on her guilt for lying to T.C. when they were married. And with the good lady doctor thinking Wagner is Julian who has regressed, there’s no way she’ll ever look at Julian again.
Eve glared at T.C. in shock. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. At that moment Eve felt as though she had been knocked over with a brick. She didn’t know what to believe. Her gut was telling her that what she was hearing was true, but another voice was telling her to that this tape could be a fake. Overall, she didn’t want it to be true, because then it meant that Julian had been kidnapped.
Katherine and Sheridan gave each other a long look, neither one of them knew what to believe either.
Alistair: And with me faking my death back in Rome, no one will ever think I was behind it. Now what’s the scope on that situation, Eve left T.C. a week ago. Is she back with him yet?
Spike: No, the coach won’t tell me why she left and ain’t no one else knows either.
Alistair: I know why she left.
Eve felt herself cringe.
Spike: Yeah what happened?
Alistair: I’m not telling you. You just tell T.C. to get Eve back with him and make sure you tell Wagner to keep repelling Eve whenever he can.
Spike: Got it.
T.C. was grateful that Alistair didn’t tell the truth about him beating Eve.
Alistair: Now what’s the situation on Sheridan.
Spike: Well Sheridan still loves Luis, but she ain’t gonna leave Chris. Too bad she don’t know that you paid Chris to fall in love with her and that he’s not James father.
Sheridan looked at Chris in shock, and so did Katherine. Chris just stood there emotionless.
Alistair: Well I couldn’t have Sheridan be with Luis, and what better was to punish my daughter than to have her be force to stay married to a man she doesn’t love. Are you still blackmailing Chris to embezzle money from Crane?
Spike: Yup, and I’m still forwarding it to you.
“Oh my god,” said Sheridan as she hung her head bewildered.
Alistair: Good. Now make sure you check in with Chris and T.C.. And tell T.C. to get Eve back with him. Both of my brats with Katherine, have always married beneath their class, and I won’t let them get away with betraying me and I’ll do what ever I have to do to keep Luis and Sheridan and Eve and Julian apart.
“Oh my God,” Katherine said all choked up.
Spike: Got it.
There were dialing sound on the tape.
Chris: Hello.
Spike: Hey yo Chris, it’s Spike.
Sheridan felt her heart sink. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her brother had supposedly been kidnapped and her husband was a fraud? She didn’t know what to believe either.
Chris: What do you want?
Spike: How about that money you were going to embezzle for me?
Chris: It’s coming all right. I have to be careful. I have an audit coming next month.
Spike: Well get it to me soon, or I’ll tell Sheridan the truth about you.
Chris: All right. All right.
Then there were more dialing sounds on the tape.
T.C.: Hello.
Spike: Hey coach, it’s the Spikeman.
‘I’m doomed,’ T.C. thought.
T.C.: What do you want?
Spike: Hey don’t get testy with me or I’ll tell Eve that you kidnapped Julian and faked your stroke.
T.C.: You can’t without incriminating yourself. If I go down I’m taking you down with me.
Spike: All right don’t have a cow. I just got off the phone with old man Crane. He wants you to get the lady doctor back.
T.C.: I’m trying but I don’t know where she is. She changed all of her numbers and even told security at the hospital not to let me inside.
Spike: Well do something man. Send her some flowers.
T.C.: Oh I’m going to take romance advise from you!?
Spike: Look don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just telling you what the boss said.
T.C.: All right, all right. You just make sure that no one knows that Julian has been kidnapped and that I was behind it. And ask Alistair when I can stop with this stroke act.
‘Please tell me this isn’t happening,’ Eve thought to herself.
Spike: Okay.
Then they heard Spike hang up the phone and Sam turned off the tape. Eve, Katherine, and Sheridan all stood their in shock feeling completely dumbfounded. All three of them couldn’t believe what they just heard. They weren’t sure what to believe about what to believe about what was said on that tape. Was it real? Was Julian kidnapped and was Chris a fraud? Or was it some cruel joke or plot? None of them wanted to believe that Julian was kidnapped, but something was going on that wasn’t right. They were all suspicious now. T.C. and Chris just stood their trying to hide their true emotions.
“All right, Chris and T.C.,” said Sam. “I think you two have some explaining to do.”
“It’s a lie,” cried Chris pretending to be innocent. “Alistair never pay me to love in love with Sheridan.”
“The tape says differently,” Luis clipped.
“Well the tape is probably a fake,” said Chris. “I never did any biding for Alistair.”
“The tape is not a fake,” quipped Luis. “Sam and I check it for ballistics and it hadn’t been dubbed in any way. Besides, we have phone records that show that Spike called both you at T.C., at the very same time of the wiretap.”
“You’re a cop Luis, you could have easily dubbed the tape and faked the records. This is just some plot of yours to get back together with Sheridan and you got Sam to go along with it.”
“Oh give it up Chris,” Luis said feeling annoyed with Chris’s innocent act. “You’ve been caught.”
“T.C.’s my best friend,” Sam said to Chris. “Why would I try to bring T.C. down in order to help Luis get back together with Sheridan?”
“Sammy, you don’t actually think that I did that, do you?” T.C. said shocked.
“Did you?” Sam asked.
“No,” T.C. cried. “Sam this is absolutely ridiculous. I did not fake my stroke or kidnap Julian.”
“T.C., don’t lie to me,” Sam said firmly. Sam knew already knew that T.C. was guilty and he was upset enough about what T.C. had done.
“Are you exactly accusing me of this?” T.C. asked. His tone was defensive now.
“Hell yeah, I’m accusing you.” Sam still couldn’t believe that T.C. could stand there and lie to him in the face like that. “Everyone knows that you hate Julian.”
“Not to mention you threatened to kill him for years,” added Fancy.
“Sam,” T.C. said. “We’ve known each other our whole lives. You know I’m not capable of this.”
‘I didn’t think T.C. was capable of beating me, but he did,’ Eve thought to herself.
“Look,” said T.C.. “This is probably some scheme of Julian’s to manipulate Eve to get her back.”
“Oh please,” Katherine said as she rolled her eyes in disgust at what T.C. was saying about Julian. The mother lion in her wanted to sock him.
‘Julian’s never manipulated me before,’ Eve thought. ‘He’s manipulated other people in the past, but never me. And even then he did it because Alistair ordered him to.’ Eve knew if this were true it meant that Julian had been kidnapped and that he’s was probably in terrible danger. ‘Please don’t let this be true,’ Eve prayed to herself. ‘Let Julian have a brain tumor, let Julian have regressed for no reason, but please don’t let him be kidnapped.’
“Eve,” said Sam. “You moved out from T.C. last week. Did it have anything to do with this or did you have any idea about this?”
“No absolutely not,” said Eve. “I knew nothing of this. I left T.C. for a completely different reason.”
“It’s okay, I believe you,” said Sam. Then Sam turned to T.C., “T.C. do you know why Eve left you?”
“It’s a long story,” T.C. said.
Eve scoffed and rolled her eyes at T.C.’s response. She couldn’t believe he could stand there and say that after what he did. Then T.C. looked at Eve and said, “Come on Eve, don’t tell me you believe this.”
Eve was in no mood to talk to T.C. after he beat her, so she looked at Sam and said flippantly, “Sam, tell your friend not to talk to me.”
“Why can’t you tell him yourself?” Sam asked. A trace of annoyance was in his tone. He thought this seemed like a ridiculous request.
“Because I’m not talking to him,” Eve said gritting her teeth.
Sam turned to T.C.. “T.C., why is Eve not speaking to you?”
T.C. shrugged his shoulders.
Sam realized now whatever happened to make Eve leave T.C. last week was bigger than he realized before. Eve was very angry at T.C., and so was Grace. T.C. had done something to make Eve extremely upset and whatever it was, it wasn’t minor. “What did you do T.C.?” Sam asked with suspicion.
“What are you talking about?” T.C. rolled his eyes.
“Well judging from Eve’s attitude,” Sam said. “It’s obvious that you did something to her to tick her off. Not to mention she left you last week with absolutely no word or notice and changed all of her phone numbers. And while I believe her when she says it wasn’t because of anything on this tape or these alleged accusations, it seems to me that you did something to make her really mad and I’m not talking about ‘forgetting to take out the trash,’ kind of mad.”
“Why don’t you mind your own business,” T.C. replied. T.C. knew that Sam was his best friend but he was annoyed that Sam was asking him personal questions in public.
“T.C., I’m a cop I’m trying to find out what’s going on here. What did you do? Have an affair?”
“Worse,” clipped Eve.
“Worse than an affair!!??” Sam asked her.
Eve nodded.
“Okay,” said Sam summing up the situation. “The reason Eve left wasn’t because of anything on this tape and the reason she left was because T.C. did something that worse than an affair.” Sam put up his hand waving off the situation. “You know what I don’t want to know anymore.”
“Thank you,” T.C. said sarcastically.
“But I will say this,” Sam said sternly. “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark. First Rebecca grants Julian a divorce, then T.C. has a car accident, then Alistair supposedly dies, then T.C. has a stroke, then Julian regresses, then Eve and Julian break up, then last week Eve leaves T.C. with absolutely no notice and doesn’t tell him where she is or where she’s going, and now this wiretap. I want to know what’s going on here.”
“So do I,” said Eve.
“What are you talking about?” asked Sam.
“For the past five months I have watched Julian; my fiance and the man that I love adore regress. I know now that I had no right to treat Julian the way I did when I went back to T.C. after his accident. I never wanted to break up with Julian and I never stopped loving him. I never fell back in love with T.C. either. The only reason I went back to T.C. was because I felt guilty about his accident and for lying to him all those years, but that’s not an excuse for what I did to Julian.” Eve looked at Katherine, Sheridan, and Fancy. “I’m sorry,” she said to them. “I’m so sorry. I truly am.”
“It’s all right,” Katherine kindly assured. Katherine’s heart went out to Eve as she was saying this. She could see how much pain Eve was in. She gently rubbed Eve’s arm trying to comfort her.
“Yeah, Eve it’s okay,” Fancy added gently.
“Yeah, we understand” Sheridan chimed in.
“However,” Eve continued. “Now I realize that my marriage to T.C. was not a good one. He treated me like dirt throughout our entire marriage and when we got divorce, and now I understand why I lied to him all those years. I also realize that Julian was right about T.C.. T.C. is an angry, self-centered, judgment, unforgiving jerk; and that his accident last summer was not my fault.”
“I never said it was your fault,” T.C. said to her.
“She told you not to talk to her,” Fancy snapped at T.C.. Fancy didn’t know what was going on with Eve and T.C., but she was sick and tired of T.C. trying to undermine her father’s relationship with Eve.
Eve gave Fancy an appreciative look for sticking up for her. “However,” Eve continued again. “In the process I betrayed Julian, and he regressed and I don’t know why, because I know him and I know with every fiber of my being knows that Julian really is a good man, and his behavior lately doesn’t make any sense, and I want to know why he regressed and what really happened to him.”
“So I do,” said Katherine.
“Me too,” said Sheridan.
“Me three,” said Fancy.
“Oh come on, I can’t believe you all actually believe this,” said T.C..
Then Eve remembered the dream she had had about Julian the morning that T.C. had beat her. Alistair had created an evil Julian with the chalice and Julian was helpless to get away because he was bound and gage by Alistair. Then there was the dream she when they were making love and Julian told her, “I didn’t regress, they took me away.” Those dreams were trying to tell her that Julian had been kidnapped. Eve never told anyone about those dreams, not even Grace and Marlena, so there was no way anyone could have found out about them to play a trick on her. Then she remembered the brooch. ‘Julian didn’t remember it because that Julian never won it for me,’ she thought. All of a sudden Eve felt the oxygen being sucked out of the room. ‘This can’t be happening,’ she thought. ‘Julian can’t be gone.’
Just then Mitch Wagner came in the station still dressed as Julian. Luis immediately went up him with the warrant. “Mitch Wagner, I have a warrant to search your face,” Luis said as he showed him the warrant.
“What the hell are you taking about?” Wagner asked. Then Luis peal off the Julian mask and wig, exposing a balding middle aged man who wasn’t Julian.
“Oh my God!” Eve, Katherine, and Sheridan shrieked as soon as they saw Wagner.
“Hey what’s the big idea?” Wagner said.
“WHO ARE YOU?” Eve yelled at him.
“Well, I think I should let you know now, that I’m the guy who’s been pretending to be Julian these past five months,” his tone was sadistic and cold.
“No!” Katherine cried in horror, now knowing for sure that her son had been kidnapped.
Eve felt her heart sink. For the first time in five months the gut feeling she had been having about Julian had disappeared. She now knew and understood what that gut feeling had been telling her. “I’ve been dealing with you all this time?” Eve asked Wagner on the verge of tears herself.
“Yeah,” Wagner answered.
“Where’s Julian?” Eve sobbed.
“How the hell should I know? Alistair wouldn’t tell me or T.C..”
“NOOO!!!” Eve screamed. She bursted into tears, and buried her face in her hands began to sob violently.
“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Katherine sobbed. Her knees buckled as Fancy caught her before Katherine could hit the floor. “My Baby, not my baby.”
Another cop came into to the front of the station and read Wagner his rights, and took him to the back of the police station to book him as an accessory in the kidnapping of Julian Crane.
No one could deny it anymore. Julian had been kidnapped by Alistair and T.C..
Preview; Next chapter; Eve, Katherine, Sheridan, and Fancy confront T.C. and Chris.
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srhrobin
Short Story
[M:0]
[ss:Spring Break Skin]
Posts: 191
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Post by srhrobin on Sept 24, 2009 13:27:37 GMT -5
Chapter Twenty-Four
Another cop came into to the front of the station and read Wagner his rights, and took him to the back of the police station to book him as an accessory in the kidnapping of Julian Crane.
No one could deny it anymore. Julian had been kidnapped by Alistair and T.C..
T.C. and Chris knew there was no way out for them now. They had been caught and there was nothing they could do to get out of it.
Eve, Katherine, Sheridan and Fancy were sobbing over Julian’s kidnapping. Eve felt like her heart had been ripped out from her. She had known something was wrong with Julian, but she had no idea it was something as terrible as him being kidnapped. Now it all made sense, the timing of the events of the past six months, Julian’s behavior and regression, everything. However, all this time Eve thought Julian had regressed, but instead he had been kidnapped and in terrible danger. It was all too horrible and too surreal.
“Are you happy now T.C.?” Fancy shouted through her tears. “How could you do this??!!” Her voice with filled with anger.
Eve looked up at T.C., with her face tear stained. When she saw T.C. she no longer recognized him. It was like she was looking at a stranger, an abuser, a kidnapper. As angry as Eve was at T.C. for faking his stroke, making her think that Julian had regressed and keeping them apart, and beating her; it didn’t even compare to the rage she felt at T.C. for kidnapping and hurting the man she loved. Julian had been kidnapped five months and now was nowhere to be found, and was probably in terrible danger thanks to T.C.. She stared with at T.C. with venom in her eyes. She was not going to let T.C. getting away with doing this to the man she loved, no matter what she had to do.
“You bastard,” Eve snarled at T.C. through her sobs. The silent treatment was now over. She went right up to T.C. and slapped him across the face so hard that he almost lost his balance. Then she started attacking him by pounding her fists against his chest. “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!” she cried.
Sam went over to Eve and pulled her off T.C. and held her back trying to restrain her. “Eve! Eve!” Sam said coolly as he moved her back away from T.C. back to where Eve was standing before. “Where is he T.C.?” Eve screamed at him. “WHERE IS HE?” The tears continued to runs down her face.
“I don’t know,” T.C. shouted. He felt helpless now that he was exposed. He was in big trouble and now not even Alistair could help him.
“The hell you don’t,” Katherine screamed at T.C. through sobs. “Where’s my son?”
“I don’t know all right!,” T.C. shouted again. “Alistair wouldn’t tell me.”
“Oh my God!!” Eve sobbed as she realized the danger her beloved Julian was probably in. Her knees buckled and she started to fall to the floor, but Sam caught her before she could hit the ground. Never in a million years, did Eve ever imagine anything like this could ever happen to Julian. It was a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from.
As Katherine looked over at Eve, her heart went out to her, when saw how much pain Eve was in. It was the same pain Katherine was going through. Katherine went right over to Eve and took her from Sam into her arms to comfort her. “I know Darling, I know,” Katherine coaxed Eve as they hugged each other as they cried for Julian. Once Sam saw that Eve and Katherine were comforting each other, he went back to stand behind his desk.
Chris put his hand on Sheridan’s shoulder as she sobbed over Julian’s kidnapping. As angry as Sheridan was at Chris, it didn’t even compare to the pain she felt over her brother. “Sheridan,” Chris said gently to her.
“Don’t talk to me Chris,” Sheridan cried as she turned around a slapped Chris across the face. She looked at Chris in disbelief and shock about what he had done. She couldn’t believe how fooled she had been by him. “How could you do this to me?!”
“Sheridan, listen to me,” Chris said calmly. “It’s true that Alistair paid me to love in fall with you and that I never met Maureen, and I’m not James biological father, but I really did fall in love with you and James.”
“And you think that’s supposed to make this okay?!” she asked. “Did you have anything to do with my brother’s kidnapping?”
“No absolutely not! This is the first time I’m hearing about Julian.”
“Chris I swear if you’re lying about that,” Katherine threatened him as tears were still rushing down her face. She was still hugging Eve.
“I didn’t Katherine, honest. Look I’m sorry about Julian but I didn’t know anything about him being kidnapped until now.”
“And that’s suppose to make me forget about that you’ve lied to me since the day we met,” Sheridan quipped. Then she looked Chris straight in the eye and began shaking her finger at him. “You knew how much I had been hurt in the past and how much I love Luis and you didn’t care, just as long as you got what you wanted. And I got angry at Luis for Marty’s death, and I was so grateful to you thinking you were there to catch me when I fell. But Marty’s death wasn’t Luis’s fault. I can’t believe how I ranted about Luis hurting me when he believed Beth over me, when he is the one who truly loved me and was always there for me. You never caught me when I fell. You manipulated me. YOU ARE THE ONE WHO HURT ME, YOU BASTARD.” Eve turned to Sheridan letting go of her hug from Katherine, and looked at Sheridan with empathy in her eyes. “I know exactly how you feel Sheridan.” she said.
Sheridan looked over at Eve and returned the same look to Eve, “Oh Eve,” Sheridan replied. Both of them had both been deceived by Alistair in an effort to be kept apart from the men they truly loved, Julian and Luis. Only in the process they were both deceived by the men they didn’t love, T.C. and Chris. Sheridan left Chris side and went over to stand next to Eve. She wanted and needed to be with her family right now. Eve and Sheridan took each others hands trying to comfort one another, both feeling grief stricken over Julian.
“Come on Sweetheart,” T.C. said to Eve. “You don’t mean that.”
Eve looked at T.C. with hatred in her eyes. She never thought she could hate T.C. with a passion, but she did now and would for the rest of her life. It wasn’t the kind of hatred someone feels because a lover scorned them, but the kind of hatred that someone feels when feels at a kidnapper and a murderer when they kidnapped and murdered someone they love. Whatever love Eve felt towards T.C. was now dead. She felt absolutely nothing for him. She didn’t care anymore if she and T.C. had been married for twenty years and had two daughters. T.C. kidnapped Julian, the love of her life and her real husband, and that was enough for Eve to hate T.C. for life. “Don’t call me Sweetheart,” Eve snarled at T.C. as she felt more tears come down her cheeks and let go of Sheridan’s hand. “Don’t you ever call me anything but my name ever again. HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO JULIAN?”
T.C. knew that he was in hot water, but he hoped that maybe if Eve should still see how much he loved her, she might her forgive him and come back to him. He still loved Eve and wanted to be with her more than anything. He had felt terrible all week for beating her and he so badly wanted to apologize to her and make things right between them. Maybe there still was a chance for him to be with Eve and work this out. He took a calm and loving tone and said, “I did it because I love you.”
Eve’s eyes popped out of her head. “You tell me what kind of a person, who loves a person does what you did!” she accused in a demanding tone. She was shocked and outraged by T.C.’s response. How could he stand there after kidnapping Julian and be so cold and callous?
“I was desperate to get you back,” T.C. explained. “For months I felt like I died without you, and after my car accident I wasn’t sure I wanted to go on without you. Then Alistair came into my room at the hospital when you and Julian were out of the room, and told me he would help me get you back. I didn’t want to do it at first, but then I realized that there was no other way, because Julian would just manipulate you to stay with him. Julian’s a bum and I knew he would hurt you eventually, so I did what I had to do to protect you.”
Eve had her arms folded across her chest. “To protect me T.C.?!” Eve exclaimed in disbelief. “You call deliberately ruining my life and kidnapping the man I love protecting me!? I don’t think Julian’s the one I need protecting from!”
“Yes, you do,” T.C. said. “I know I’ve hurt you and I’m sorry. But Julian’s a bastard, who was just using you. You were blinded by him, when he used his money and his phony charm to woo you over. He’s an evil pig who doesn’t love anyone but himself.”
“Don’t you ever talk that way about Julian again!!,” she yelled at T.C. defending Julian. Eve wanted to strangle T.C. at that moment. She couldn’t believe T.C. could be so evil and so cruel. ““He is the most wonderful man I have ever known. And you know what? You’re little plan didn’t work. I love Julian. I’ve loved him since the day we met, I loved him all the years we were apart, I loved him when we were together again, I loved him when I thought Wagner was him, I loved him when we broke up, and I still do, and I will love him even after I die.”
“Come on,” T.C. scoffed. “How can you still love him? Wagner, treated you like dirt.”
“Well that’s how strong my love is for Julian!” Eve was still shouting at T.C.. “I know him and I know who he is really is inside, and he is a better man than you are any day. And as far you ‘protecting me,’ I am a grown woman. I can take care of myself. And you didn’t do it to protect me, you did it because you wanted to control me. You did it because you’re hateful and selfish. You did it because you wanted to get what you wanted and didn’t care who got caught hurt in the process.” Eve began to sob harder now. “I was miserable without Julian ever since we broke up and I know you knew that. You knew that he was being held hostage and suffering god knows where. And whatever your intentions were it doesn’t matter. YOU HURT JULIAN, YOU BASTARD!!!”
“Look,” T.C. said in a firm tone. “I know I was wrong to lie to you and I’m sorry, but what about how Julian hurt me? He ruined my tennis career, he got you addict to drugs and alcohol, he caused my father to die of a broken heart, and he ruined our marriage.”
“Oh shut up T.C.,” Katherine yelled at T.C.. She was in full mother lion mode. She wanted T.C.’s blood for what he had done to her son. Her tone was angry and speedy now. “Julian never meant to ruin your tennis career. That was an accident. Eve and Julian both made some mistakes when they were younger, we all do. And Julian didn’t ruin your marriage to Eve, you did that to yourself when you threw Eve out when you found out she wasn’t perfect. And as far as your father is dying of a broken heart because of your tennis career, no decent parent dies over a broken heart because of their child’s lost career. They die of a broken heart because their child died or was taken from them.” Katherine pointed to herself “Like, I am right now.”
“Don’t you dare talk about my father, lady,” T.C. threatened, feeling angry at Katherine for disrespecting her dead father. “My father sacrificed everything for me, so I could be a big time tennis star and go to Wimbledon. It was his dream and his father’s before that. Then my knee got destroyed and my career was gone. My father’s dreams died with me. It killed him and that’s how he died of a broken heart.”
“How?” Katherine shouted back at T.C. through her tears. Her tone wasn’t speedy anymore, but it was angry and her devastation could be heard in her voice. “How would that kill him? You didn’t die. He should have been happy he had his son with him, and that his son was alive and safe.” Katherine’s tone became angry and speedy again. “My son isn’t with me! My son has been kidnapped and taken away from me and I don’t know where the hell he is! My son is being held captive as we speak and is probably being tortured. I’m his mother, do you know what that feels like?” Katherine pointed to herself again, and her tone became speedy again. “This is what it means for a parent to die of a broken heart. You took my child away from me and my heart is broken right now, thanks to you and you’re pathetic need for revenge.”
“Your son is a low life bastard Katherine,” T.C. said to her coldly. “Julian doesn’t count as people. He is nothing but a pathetic junk yard dog, who doesn’t deserve the space he takes up the planet. We’re all better off without him.”
“You monster!!” Eve yelled at T.C..
Katherine eyes were wild with rage now, “I’m going to rip your heart out!” she yelled as she started to lunge at. T.C., but Fancy restrained her, holding her back. Katherine’s was seeing red right now. If she were a wild animal she would have devoured T.C. by now for what he did to her cub. “I’m going to make you pay for what you did to my son, T.C.!” she screamed at T.C. through her sobs. “I’m going to make you pay if it’s the last thing I do!”
“Oh he will Grandmother,” Fancy said as she stared at T.C. with hatred. “He will.”
“You’re evil T.C.,” Sheridan cried.
Eve shook her head furiously in disgust. “I can’t believe you just said that!” she shouted at T.C.. Anger and rage filled her voice. “Have you no feeling at all?”
“Well it’s true,” T.C. clipped.
“No, Katherine is right,” she contradicted putting her hands on her hips. “Julian and I made some mistakes when we were younger. But Julian never forced me to do drugs and alcohol. I made my own decisions, and you are the one who ruined our marriage, not Julian. You threw me out and treated me like dirt, all because I wasn’t perfect.”
“I know and I was wrong,” T.C. said taking a guilty tone. “But I did take you back and things were good between the two of us these past five months.”
Eve rolled her eyes. “Right, right,” she said sarcastically. “You lied to me about having a stroke, you kidnapped the man that I love, you made me think he betrayed me, and you beat me.”
“Wait a minute!” Luis exclaimed as soon as he heard the last part of Eve’s sentence. “He beat you?!”
Eve realized that she had inadvertently let the cat out of the bag. However, she was so angry at T.C., that she no longer cared if anybody knew. “Yeah, yeah, that’s right, T.C. beat me.” Eve said. “It was last week, that’s why I moved out and changed all my phone numbers. T.C. got upset with me about Simone being a lesbian and he started assaulting and attacking me.” Eve rolled up both of her sleeves to expose her bruised forearms. “You see this?” And then she took out a tissue from her purse and rubbed off the make up from her cheeks, exposing part of her bruised face. “And this?” she said as she wiped off the make up. “This is all from him.”
Everyone gasped in shock when they saw Eve’s bruises. They couldn’t believe it. None of had ever thought T.C. would beat Eve. Now they understood what Eve meant when she had that the reasons she left T.C. wasn’t because of anything on the tape and the reason she did leave was because T.C. had done something worse to her that was worse than an affair. T.C.’s felt his heart stop. He was caught completely off guard by Eve admission. He knew he was in even more trouble now.
Sam looked at T.C. “My god T.C.!” Sam asked him with anger and shock in his voice. “Is this true?”
“Tell him T.C.,” Eve demanded. “Tell everyone how you hit me, punched, threw me to the floor where you kicked me and struck me with your cane repeatedly. And how I begged you to stop but you wouldn’t. TELL THEM!!”
T.C. didn’t say anything. He just looked at the floor not knowing what to say.
Sam angrily shook his head back and forth in disbelief. “I don’t believe this,” Sam was yelling in T.C.’s face now. “What the hell were you thinking?” “I wasn’t. I lost my temper.” T.C.’s voice was barely audible now.
“You lost your temper?!” Sam was shocked and disgusted by that answer. “You beat Eve and all you can say is you lost your temper?! From the looks of her bruises you did a little bit more than just losing your temper.”
“I know!” T.C. look up at Sam with his eyes filled with guilt. “I was wrong. I didn’t mean to.”
“Don’t you dare give me that T.C.! There is no excuse for this. I don’t care if you lost your temper or not. She is the mother of your children for God sakes.”
“I know. I feel terrible about it.”
“You should feel terrible!” Sam shook his head in disbelief. “God, I cannot believe this. I have warned you about your temper for years T.C., and now you beat a woman and the mother of your children of all people! How could you do this?!”
“I don’t know,” T.C. said as he hung his end in shame.
Katherine looked at Eve, her son’s lover and hopeful future daughter-in-law, standing next to her. “Oh my God! Are you all right?” Katherine asked Eve with concern as she put her arm around Eve.
“I’m fine, I’m just really banged up,” Eve answered, all choked up.
Sheridan’s mouth dropped open. “You mean you have more bruises than this?” she asked Eve.
“Oh yeah,” Eve nodded her head vigerously. “All over my body.”
“Oh my God!” Fancy said in a low voice as she thought about the horror T.C. had put Eve through when he attacked her. “Eve I am so sorry.”
Eve looked over at Fancy. “Thank you Honey,” Eve said warmly to Fancy and gave her an appreciative smile. Her eyes still filled with tears over Julian.
Sam looked over at Eve. “Why didn’t you say anything about this?” he asked her.
“I didn’t want Whitney and Simone to hate their father,” she answered.
“Is that how you hurt your back?” “Yeah,” Eve answered. “The only other people who knew were Marlena and Grace and I swore both of them to secrecy.”
Sam’s eyes widen. “That’s what the two of you didn’t want us to know?!” Sam asked.
Eve nodded. Sam was glad now that he didn’t tell T.C. or anyone else about Eve staying with them. “Wait a minute,” T.C. said to Sam and Eve. “What the hell are you two talking about?”
Eve had nothing to hide anymore. She no longer cared if T.C. or anyone else knew where she had been staying last week. At least now, she could get a restraining order against T.C. if she needed to, with no questions. Eve gave Sam an ‘it’s-okay-go-ahead-and-tell-T.C.-look.’
Sam turned to T.C. and said, “Eve’s been staying with us this past week in the garage apartment.”
“What?!” T.C. exclaimed. “You knew I was looking for her and you didn’t say anything to me!!??”
“Eve and Grace were adamant that you not know where she was and now I understand why. And now I know why Grace looked like she wanted to kill you if your name was even mentioned.”
“I thought you and Grace weren’t speaking to Eve.”
“We weren’t but we decided to forgive her, given the way Ivy threatened her.”
“I don’t believe this.”
“Oh and there’s something I think I should let you know,” Sam said in a flippant tone. “Grace and Eve are closer than ever now. You’re the Russell, Grace hates and despises for what you did to her best friend.”
“Sam, come on,” T.C. rolled his eyes.
“I’m serious T.C. If you come by the house, you better wear a bullet proof vest. God only knows how she’s going to react when she finds out about this.”
“I’m not a Russell anymore,” Eve said grimacing. The volume of her voice was low and her tone was grave. She no longer wanted anything to do with T.C.. As soon as she had the chance, she was going to take all of the legal formalities to go back to her maiden name.
T.C. looked at Eve with a guilty look on his face. “Look Eve I-”he started to say.
“Save it T.C.,” Eve snapped. “I don’t want to hear it.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for beating you. It was wrong and indefensible and I had no right to do that to you. I have absolutely no excuses. I swear I never meant to hurt you.”
“You never meant to hurt me?!” Eve said in disbelief. Anger still filled her voice. “You beat me T.C.!! You hit me, and struck me, and kicked over and over again and all the while, I was begging you to let me go and you didn’t. How can someone beat someone else and not mean to hurt them?!”
“I know, believe me I hate myself for hurting you the way I did.”
“What do you mean by hurting me T.C.? Do you mean for expecting me to be perfect during our marriage? Or for throwing me out of the house and treating me like dirt when we got divorce and letting Whitney and Simone treat me like dirt? Or for you turning against Simone when she came out to us? Or for you faking a stroke? Or for you teaming up with Alistair Crane, the devil himself, while you kidnapped and hurt Julian? Or for replacing Julian with an imposter and making me think he regressed? Or for breaking my heart when I thought Julian regressed? Or for you beating me? Which one is it T.C.?! I want to know.”
“Look,” said T.C. “I know we can work this out if you just come back to me.”
“Eve, don’t listen to him,” Fancy said. “He’ll do it again.”
“She’s right Eve,” Katherine said.
“Yeah,” Sheridan added.
“Will you three stay out of this!?” T.C. snapped at Katherine, Sheridan, and Fancy. “This is a private family matter.”
“T.C. stop it,” Sam chided.
“You are not my family!” Eve snarled back at T.C..
“I know you’re angry at me now,” T.C. said to Eve. “I don’t blame you. But I promise I’ll never do it again.”
“Yes you will,” she said in a matter-a-fact voice. “You’ve abused before and you’ll do again. Only this time I’m not going to stick around when you do.”
“What do you mean abuse?” T.C. said taking a defensive tone. “I have never laid a hand on you before this.”
“I’m not talking about physical abuse I’m talking about emotional abuse,” Eve declared. “You expected me to perfect throughout our entire marriage. Then when you found out that I wasn’t you treated me like dirt. You called me every name in the book, and threw me out of the house like I was garbage. Then you allowed our daughters to treat me the same way. You let Whitney slap me!” Then Eve began to raise her voice again. “You let our daughter slap me! How could you do that?! They would have kept treating me that way if Julian hadn’t had tolerated it. Then you tried to have me sent to jail for crimes I didn’t commit.”
“I know I was wrong back then, but I was brainwashed by Liz,” T.C. said.
“Don’t you blame this on Liz!” Eve cried. “Yes, my sister is a vindictive bitch, but she didn’t hold a gun to your head. She didn’t force you to turn against me. You did that on your own. You knew that I was a devoted wife and mother throughout our marriage, and the second you learned that I made some mistakes in my life, it didn’t matter to you. I know that I was wrong to lie to you, and I was wrong to drive drunk that all those years ago, but I didn’t ruin you life or Whitney and Simone’s lives. With the exception of your knee, you all are not paying for my mistakes, I am. You found out that I wasn’t perfect and you couldn’t handle it. Well I am not perfect. No one is. For years, I tried to be perfect and it killed me inside. I am so tired of you, the girls, Liz, Ivy, Rebecca, Aunt Irma, Grace Nancier, and whoever else; painting me like I’m the devil. Well I’m not the devil and I’m not perfect. I’m human and that’s all I can be. I am not going to let myself be a doormat anymore." Eve took a deep breath. "I have only had two people in my life who loved me unconditionally, Julian and Grace. Neither one of them care about my past or thought any less of me because of it, and I betrayed them both for you. And the funny thing my love for you had always been misplaced for Julian.”
“Eve you don’t mean that,” T.C. said.
“Yes I do.” Her voice became choked up again as she sobbed more tears. “I have always loved Julian more than you. Of course now any love I ever felt for you is now dead. Julian tried to get me to see what you were really like, but I didn’t listen to him. Instead, I just made excuses for you. Well no more. Julian’s right about you. You are an angry, hot tempered, abusive bastard.”
“Eve you’re upset, you’re not thinking clearly,” T.C. said.
“Yes I am,” Eve sobbed. “I’m thinking clearly for the first time in my life. You viciously hurt Julian, the man that I love, and took him away from me. My fiancée, the love of my life, my soul mate, my rock, my lover, and my best friend. You not only took him away from me, but from his whole family. Julian needed me to be there for him, but I couldn’t because I was taking care of you while you were having a fake stroke! Now he’s kidnapped and you’re here. God, how I wish it were the other way around.” Hatred filled her voice. “I wish you had died last summer in that car accident. At least Julian would be hear right now. I regret the day I ever met you. I will never forgive you for this as long as I live.”
“Eve please.”
“We’re done T.C., for good. I don’t ever want to see you again.”
“Look Eve you’re upset, you don’t know what you’re saying. We can work through this.”
“Will you stop it!!??” Fancy yelled at T.C.. “Anyone with eyes can see that Eve loves my father more than she ever loved you. But you couldn’t handle that, could you? You not only took my father away from Eve, you took him from his entire family. I swear, T.C. Russell, I will make you pay for what you did to my father if it’s the last thing I do.”
“Typical Crane,” said T.C. “only caring about themselves.”
“How dare you T.C.!” Sheridan cried. “Can’t you see what we’re going through? You did this to us and to Julian, and you don’t even care.”
“All right that’s enough of this,” Sam said then he turned to T.C. and Chris. “Now look you two this is important. I want to know truthfully do either one of you know where Julian is?”
“Oh please,” said Katherine. “Neither one of them have told the truth so far, what makes you think their going to tell the truth now. All though if they do know, they better tell, if they know what’s good for them." Katherine implied in a threatening manner.
“Sammy I don’t know,” said T.C.. “Alistair wouldn’t tell me, in case we got caught.”
“I swear I didn’t know anything about Julian being kidnapped until today,” Chris said. Then Chris looked at T.C., “And frankly I’m shocked.”
“Oh don’t you point fingers at me, Mr. I-was-paid-to-fall-in-love-with-Sheridan.”
“Yeah well we both took bribes from Alistair to keep Julian and Sheridan from the people they loved.”
“How could the two of you do this to my children?” Katherine said to Chris and T.C.. “Chris, Sheridan trusted you. You knew how much pain she has gone through in her life and how much she loves Luis, and you didn’t even care as long as you got what you wanted.” Then she turned to T.C. looking at him with venom in her eyes. “And TC, I never liked you to begin with. I didn’t like the way you bullied and attacked Julian all these years, and I think the way you treated Eve throughout marriage and when the two of you got divorced was despicable. But this!!?? You kidnapped Julian and replaced him with an imposter to break them up, so you could get back together with Eve.” Katherine grimaced harder now. “If anything happens to my son, I will kill you. I will hunt you don’t like a dog and kill you.”
“Katherine you might not want to say that in a police full of witnesses,” Sam gently warned.
“I don’t care who hears it," Katherine cried. "My son has been kidnapped, and this monster is going to pay.”
“You know what Katherine," T.C. countered. "Your son got drunk and then let Eve drive drunk, causing her to crash Julian's car into mind. Then Julian decided to leave the scene, leaving me to die.”
“Oh no, no, no,” Eve replied to T.C.. “Don’t you dare compare that to this! Yes, Julian and I were wrong to do what we did and we live with the shame and guilt of that everyday, but we did not intend to hurt you. You intended to hurt us.”
“Eve’s right,” Katherine added. “I know my son, and I did not raise him to deliberately hurt anyone. Whatever problem’s he had in the past were a result of Alistair’s cruelty and me not being there for him, and because he was trying to survive Alistair’s abuse of him that he experienced from his father his whole life. Julian is a good and decent man, who was able to overcome the effects of Alistair’s abuse.”
“Katherine’s right,” Eve chimed in. “I for one don’t care about the mistakes Julian made in his life. He did the best he could under terrible circumstances. I never twisted his arm to change. He did that on his own. I know who he really is, good, decent, and kind. That is why I never feel out of love with him.”
“Yeah,” Sheridan and Fancy said in agreement.
“All right everyone calm down,” said Sam trying to keep the situation under control. “Now what about Marty?” asked Sam. “Alistair didn’t die last summer, so what happened to Beth and Marty?”
“I don’t know what happened to Beth and Marty,” answered Chris. “I didn’t even know that Alistair was even alive until today.”
“Yeah, I don’t anything about Beth or Marty either,” said T.C..
“Oh and you two think that’s makes everything okay?!” Luis ask Chris and T.C. sarcastically.
“Luis I swear,” said T.C.. “I would never keep Marty away from you and Sheridan.”
“Yeah well forgive me if I no longer have any respect for you T.C.,” Luis stammered.
“You know what T.C.,” Sheridan said through her tears. “I don’t care if you had nothing to do with what happened to Marty. You kidnapped my brother, and I will never forgive you for that.”
“Neither will I,” said Katherine. “That goes for me too,” Fancy added.
Sam looked at T.C. and said, “T.C. you’re in a lot of trouble and if you can tell us what you know about Julian’s kidnapping it will go a lot better with the D.A..”
“All right,” said T.C.. “Julian was kidnapped early last august. It was the day that I had just come home from the hospital and he stopped by to get Eve to go with him to Paris. They had a little argument and then Julian left. Then the plan was for Spike to kidnap Julian and take from somewhere he couldn’t be found and then Wagner stepped in right away playing Julian. And everything went according to plan.”
‘Oh my God,’ Eve thought to herself. ‘That was the last time I saw Julian.’ Eve’s heart sunk. She couldn’t believe the last time she saw her real Julian, they had argued, after she had been so insensitive to him. If only she had known he would have walked right into his abduction. Then it registered to Eve that Spike had kidnapped Julian. She now was on the verge of panic now, when she thought about what Spike would do to Julian.
“Wait a minute,” Katherine exclaimed. “You let that sociopath kidnap my son, you bastard!?”
“Are you out of you’re mind?!” Fancy asked T.C.. “Spike is a dangerous criminal.”
“Yeah,” Sheridan agreed.
“If Spike hurt Julian in anyway, I’ll kill you T.C.,” Eve threatened.
“Where’s Spike now?” Sam asked T.C..
“I’m not sure. I think he’s probably guarding Julian,” T.C. answered. “I don’t know where.”
“Oh my God!” Eve shrieked in horror as she thought about that psychopath guarding Julian.
“Well Spike won’t be anymore trouble to anyone else again when he’s found, because he is now wanted for first degree kidnapping,” Sam said. His voice was calm and matter-a-fact. “And when I find him I will make sure he rots in this countries worst prison for the rest of his life.” “Sam I want T.C. arrested right now,” Katherine demanded. “I may not be legally married to Alistair or a Crane anymore, but I am Julian’s mother and I was born into a wealthy and powerful family. I will use every bit of power I have to make sure T.C. spends the rest of his life in jail.”
“I know,” said Sam. “I have arrest warrants for both T.C. and Chris.” Sam looked at Chris. “Chris, after Luis and I got the wiretap we called the FBI and we have information on your past, you’re being charged with that in addition to fraud.” Then Sam looked at T.C., “T.C., I’m going to have arrested you too. I can let you out on bail, but you’re going to have to find a lawyer. If Julian is found, it will be up to him if he decides to go through with pressing charges against you for kidnapping him. Until he’s found it will up to his family.”
“Oh there will be charges,” said Fancy. “I will use every bit of clout I have as a cop and a Crane to make sure T.C. so to jail for a long, long time.”
“So will I,” said Katherine.
“So will I,” said Sheridan.
“So will I,” said Eve.
T.C. couldn’t believe Eve was going to press charges against him. He never thought she would have done that before this. “Eve, you can’t be serious,” he said.
“Oh I’m deadly serious. And if Julian decides to press charges against you, I’m going to support him.” Then she looked at Sam and said to him. “I also want to press assault and battery charges against T.C. for beating me.”
“Eve, I don’t know if you can at this late point,” Sam said gently to her. “You need to have hard evidence.”
“I have hard evidence.” Eve dug into her purse and pulled out a copy of the pictures that Marlena took of her the day she was beaten. Eve had them developed a few days ago and had doubles made of them just in case. Eve limped over to Sam and handed him an envelope of the copy of the pictures. “These are pictures that Marlena took of me, right after T.C. beat me. She tended to my wounds at the time. You can even ask her and I know she’ll be more than happy to testify on my behalf and so will Grace.” Then Eve limped back where she was standing before.
“I’ll also have a word with the D.A. myself,” said Fancy. “I’ll make sure that they take Eve’s case seriously.”
“Eve, you can’t do this,” said T.C.. “We have two children together.”
“Really? You didn’t feel that way about me when Liz framed me for horrific crimes that I didn’t commit.”
“I believed you in the end.”
“Too little, too late,” Eve declared.
Fancy had had enough of T.C.. She went right up to him and stood behind his back and pulled out her handcuffs. “T.C. Russell,” she said as she put the handcuffs on T.C.’s hands. “You’re under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you can’t afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand this rights?” Then she grabbed T.C. hands very hard and snarled in his ear. “And if the system doesn’t provide justice, I will.”
“Fancy, let me do this,” Sam said to Fancy as he saw how aggressive Fancy was being given her state of mind at the moment. So Sam took over the responsibility of booking T.C.. and took him to another room to book him. Another officer came in to take Chris another room to book him as well. After they had gone Eve and Katherine fell into each others arms and sobbed over Julian being kidnapped. Sheridan and Fancy did the same thing with each other.
Finally, Sam came into the room and gently put his hand on Eve’s shoulder. Eve looked up from Katherine’s shoulder and saw Sam standing there. “Eve, I need to get a statement from you.”
“Okay,” she said. Eve let go of Katherine’s hug and Sam took Eve to the back of the station to question her.
Katherine got on her cell phone and dialed a number. “Is Fox Crane in? This is an emergency.”
Luis picked up the phone on Sam’s desk, dialing a number. “Hello, this is Lopez-Fitzerald. I have a missing person to report. A Kidnapping. The name is Julian Crane…yes Julian Crane of the Cranes. I want an apb put on him and I want him on the put on the fbi and interpool watch list too…When was he kidnapped? Five months ago…I’ll explain.”
Sheridan took out her cell phone too and dialed a number as well. “Hello Chad, I know you’re in Tokyo on business, but I have some bad news for you.”
Fancy got on the phone on Luis’s desk as well and dialed another number. “Hello, National Center For Missing Adults,” she said into the phone. “This is officer Fancy Crane, I have a kidnapping to report…Julian Crane…my father.” Fancy whimpered as she said “my father.” Fancy sat down at Luis's desk as she felt tears rushs down her cheeks.
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