The Fine Print - Chapter 13
by yhh
"Have I told you how beautiful you look? How sexy you look in that dress?"
Julian asked, gazing at Eve from across the intimate table at the Lobster
Shack.
Eve smiled coyly. "Yes, you have mentioned it."
"It's hard for me to keep my promise if you deliberately try to entice
me."
She batted her eyelashes. "What in the world are you talking about, Julian?"
"Oh, darling, I know you too well. And you know there is nothing I love
more than seeing you in a form fitting, strapless black dress with your hair
flowing over your shoulders," he said seductively.
Looking down at her dress and flipping her hair, Eve dismissed his claim.
"This little old thing, I found it in the back of my closet."
"Then that most have been another black dress I saw you purchasing at Neiman-Marcus
today."
Eve's eyes widened with shock. "Were you following me?"
"No, I was there looking for a gift to celebrate our three month anniversary."
He reached into his pocket, pulled out a Tiffany's box, and presented it
to Eve.
"Julian, you didn't have- -" she gasped.
"Nonsense, you deserve the best." Opening the box, Julian revealed a multi-colored
gem tennis bracelet.
"Julian, is this- -" She asked with tears in her eyes.
"Yes, my love. Those are the birth stones of Ethan, Fox, Simone, Whitney,
Regan, Quinn, Ethan-Martin, and Endora."
Reaching across the table, she kissed him with all the love and warmth
she felt. Oh, how much did she love this man.
He took this to mean his gift was a success. He had originally ordered
the bracelet made with only Ethan,
Simone, and Whitney's birthstones, then he remembered a conversation he
had once overheard between Eve and Grace about making second marriages work.
He had heard Eve emphatically declare that second marriages would only work
if each spouse completely and wholly accepted each other's children and
treated them the same as they treated their own. He only wished- - he frowned
at seeing tears run down Eve's face.
She smiled. "It's your own fault."
"I love and respect you, Doctor Eve Johnson. And this time around, I'm
doing things the right way. The next time, you grace my bed, wrap those
long, luscious brown legs around me is when you have an eleven carat diamond
on your left ring finger and the Crane crest around your neck."
"The Crane crest?"
"Every member of Stefan Cassadine's family either upon birth or on their
wedding day receive the Cassadine crest. I think it's something the Cranes
should start now that the evil one is dead."
"Every where I go people would know I was a Crane?" Eve asked in a neutral
tone of voice.
"Yes," he responded in a matching tone.
"I like that." Leaning forward and motioning for Julian to meet her half-way,
Eve whispered in his ear. "I want the world to know I'm yours."
"Eve, I will make sure everyone knows you're mine as I am yours," he replied,
gazing into her brown orbs.
"Tsk, tsk, is that appropriate dinner table behavior?" A voice rang out.
Julian wanted to strangle whoever just spoke and interrupted them.
"Hello, Kay," Eve answered, finally tearing her eyes away from Julian.
She cringed inwardly at hearing her own words repeated back to her.
"Kathleen," Julian greeted sourly.
"Aunt Eve," the younger woman reprimanded. "If you caught me doing something
like that at a dinner table with a boy- -"
Times like these she rued the day she tried to teach the girls proper table
etiquette. "You're right, Kay. I'm sorry."
Kay laughed. "Just don't let it happen again, missy," she smiled. She tried
to ignore Julian, that was just way too freaky to even wrap her mind around.
In her world, in her mind, Aunt Eve and Uncle TC were forever linked. Though
from what she witnessed, it looked like her aunt was going to be linked
to someone new. Another change she was going to have to put up with. She
rolled her eyes at the thought.
"Honey, who are you- -Grace. Sam," Eve acknowledged her two friends.
"Sam. Grace," Julian addressed the Bennetts.
The hot and heated turned interrupted cold shower teasing moment had morphed
into deathly silence.
"Eve. Julian," the married couple said in unison.
"It's nice to know with your marriage over and your medical license possibly
taken away forever, you can still be out laughing, smiling, and having an
all around good time," Grace stated snidely.
"Grace- -" Eve began.
Sam shook his head.
"Mom, let's go sit down and order appetizers while we wait for Jess and
Charity," Kay recommended leading her parents away from the Crane/Johnson
table.
Eve watched them leave and couldn't help remember the olden days when it
would have been her, TC, Whit, and Simone, Sam, Grace and the girls meeting
for dinner. It would have been a big night out. But those days were long
gone, she thought wistfully. Turning back to Julian, she saw the questions
in his eyes which he tried to hide. "I love you and I look forward to our-
-" Eve's cell phone rang. She looked curiously at Julian, wondering who would
be calling her tonight of all nights. "Hello, this is Eve…Hi, Pilar…Have
you called her doctor?" Eve nodded her head. "Okay, we'll meet you there."
"Theresa?"
"She's in labor."
"But it's early."
"Not too early for twins, though."
Rushing around the table, Julian pulled out Eve's chair and assisted her
putting her coat on as he threw a few hundred dollar bills on the table
as they ran out of the door.
"Wait," Julian's beloved cried.
Quickly leaving Julian's side, Eve approached the Bennett table. "Theresa
has gone into labor. We are all going to the hospital. I'm sure Ethan and
Gwen could use the support," she concluded, then rushed out the restaurant
with Julian.
"Mama, don't leave me," Theresa begged and cried.
"Theresita, I'm not going anywhere. I will be right by your side, hija,"
Pilar assured her daughter. It pained her to see her baby in such pain.
"Ethan! Ethan! Where are you? I need you," Theresa continued, holing out
her hand and searching.
Why did she have to complicate everything? He would have been perfectly
happy to have sat out here and waited with everyone else. But he should have
known with Theresa that wasn't possible.
"Ethan!"
Feeling all eyes on him, Ethan turned to his wife.
With false enthusiasm she hoped seemed real, Gwen kissed her husband's
cheek. "Go watch our babies come into the world. I want a blow-by-blow account."
Ethan raised his wife's hand to his lips and kissed it.
"Ethan!" Theresa screamed in pain.
Ethan walked towards the woman pregnant with his children.
The young biracial woman grasped his hand tightly as soon as he entered
her vicinity.
"Next time, you'll see us they'll be two new additions to the family,"
Eve reminded everyone as she helped pushed Theresa's bed with the other
medical team members to the delivery room.
"As soon as you feel the first contraction, I'm making sure you are drugged,"
Fox informed Whitney as he placed his hand on her stomach. "I won't be able
to stomach seeing you like that."
Whitney nodded. The pain of the delivery was the least of her worries or
problems.
"Simone, what are you doing here?" Kay whispered, seeing her friend sneak
into the hospital.
The younger woman shrugged as she took a seat in a hidden corner of the
waiting room. "Whitney called and told me the babies were coming."
"Does that mean you've accepted Ethan and not Chad as your brother?" Kay
asked, taking the seat next to her best friend.
"Yes, just for the fact that Whit now knows she wasn't involved in an incestuous
relationship. Ethan seems okay. So does Gwen." Simone paused. "You know,
I used to watch you with Noah and I always wanted one."
"Noah's available."
The two young ladies laughed.
"I'll leave Noah to you, Jess, and Cha- -"
"No, you can say it. Charity."
The surprise was evident on Simone's face.
"What I can't grow?" Kay asked nonchalantly.
"Yes, but you hate change. You always have about any and everything. When
we got new volleyball uniforms you complained for a season-and-a-half."
"Well, they weren't nearly as comfortable or cute as our other ones. But
with the Ethan/John thing, it really drove home how important family is.
Even Noah has decided to move back home from New York City. I'm trying to
be a mature adult and look at things from the other person's perspective.
Charity lost her mom and suddenly was living with an aunt, her mom had thought
was long gone and a bunch of other strangers calling themselves, her uncle
and cousins, all in a brand new town. And I won't even talk about all John's
been through."
Simone was impressed, having Maria, becoming a mom, moving out of her parents'
house and then back in, had really changed her best friend. Finally, Kay
was slowly turning into an adult.
"What's new with you? Have you been spending more time with your mom?"
"Yes, after school, some lunches on the weekend. A lot of text messaging.
I even got mom to get AOL AIM- -"
"Wait, Aunt Eve, instant messaging?" Kay laughed.
Nodding her head, Simone laughed, too. "It's crazy I know. Mom is now part
of the 21st century though I still can't get her to buy DVDs."
The two young women looked at each other with identical expressions. They
were laughing, talking, having a good time as they waited for Simone's newly
found brother and Kay's former brother to have his twins who were being
carried by his obsessive crush who was also Maria's aunt. There was a time,
in the not to distant past, that neither of them thought they would laugh
or even smile again after everything their families had been through. But
somehow, here they were laughing, smiling, and looking forward to the future.
"How about Julian?"
"I- -"
"It's still icky, huh?"
"Yes. I've walked in on them- -"
"Having sex?" Kay screeched.
"Shh!!!" Simone reprimanded, looking around to make sure no one heard them.
"Gosh, no. I would be blind if I had seen that. Besides they're not doing
it."
"Not doing it? Julian Crane not getting busy?" Kay shook her brown hair.
"I don't believe it. How do you know?"
"It just sort of came out. Mom and I were watching one of those 'Are you
my baby's daddy?' episodes of Maury and you know Mom- -"
"Safe Sex lecture."
"Exactly. I made some remark about how she should have sex safe and she
told me that they were going to wait until they got married."
"Wow!" Kay replied, she couldn't think of anything else to say.
"Exactly."
Kay grabbed Simone's hand and intertwined their fingers as they sat in
silence and contemplated the constant changing world they lived in.
"Gwennie, I got here as fast as I could," Rebecca stated, huffing and puffing.
"Are your babies here yet?"
Gwen smiled. Her mother still refused to refer to herself as Grandma or
Grandmother. To Ethan-Martin, she was Bebe. Rebecca had declared Bebe didn't
make her sound old or like a style-less grandmother.
"No, Mom, they aren't here."
Glancing around Rebecca saw her ex-Crane step-children, Julian, Whitney,
Simone, Kay, the Bennetts, the Lopez-Fitzgeralds, but she did not see her
son-in-law. "Is Ethan getting you something to eat or drink?"
"No."
"Please don't tell me- - he's in there with her?"
Gwen remained silent.
"Gwen, what is wrong with you? You have to fight for your marriage, if
not that whore is going to be raising your children with your husband. Prison
or no prison."
Her mother's words stung, but she knew they were the truth. She had been
thinking long and hard about the state of her life and her marriage. She
was tired and not just working mother taking care of a toddler tired. Her
newly discovered mother-in-law had been a surprising source of help, listening
ear, non-judgmental, impartial advice giver and a sounding board. It was
time to make a change in her life. The twins would be a big change, but they,
Ethan-Martin and she needed another one. "Excuse me, Mom. I'll be right back,"
Gwen spat out quickly as she hurried down the hall.
"Gwen," the red head called after her daughter to no avail. Resigning herself
to staying until at least the twins were born or her current pookie called,
Rebecca Hotchkiss Crane took a seat in the hard, unforgiving hospital chair.
The things she did for love.
Being overly cautious, Gwen checked Eve's old office door one last time
to make sure it was locked. Using Eve's office phone, Gwen dialed the number
she read off of her cell phone. "Hello. Is this Alexis Davis?...I'm Gwen
Hotchkiss Crane and I want to file for divorce. All I want is sole custody
of my kids. Can you help me?"