Only Time ~ Ch. 14 ~ It's a Small World After All
by rockstar
 
 

Livvie flipped open her cell phone and dialed the phone number of her mother. She was shocked that she would even consider talking to Ivy, but even more shocked when she was disappointed that she got her answering machine. She sighed and heard the beep.
"Hey Mom. It's me, Livvie -- Olivia. I just, I don't know why I'm calling. I guess, I just thought that maybe you and I could talk-" BEEP. Livvie sighed and hung up her phone. She turned around and with her first step, she fell to the wooden docks, cursing under her breath.

"Are you all right?" a man asked her, coming up from behind.

"I'm fine, I think. Thanks," she said, turning around, "Noah." Livvie said his name and immediately felt a warm feeling flow through her body.

"Oh, you." Noah took one look at her and stood up, "If I knew it were you, I would've backed off. Don't want you trying to convince the court I pulled up an old piece of wood to try and hurt you."

Livvie sighed and looked away from him. She moved to stand up when a  moan escaped her mouth, sending her back to the ground.

Noah immediately bent back down by her side, "are you hurt somewhere?" What was her doing? Showing concern for a Crane? And one who had made it clear she could take care of herself.

"My leg-" Livvie turned her leg to reveal a hole in the knee of her pants and scratches and blood showing through.

"You're bleeding."

"Oh gee, where'd you get your Ph.D.?"

Noah ignored her latest 1-liner, "Can you get up?"

"Yeah, I just thought I'd make a fool of myself and sit here all night."

"You know, why don't you drop you attitude, smart mouth, and high-horse I'm better than anyone exterior, and I'll help you up."

"You'll help me? Why? You hate me."

"But you're hurt. Here." Noah wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up and sat her on her feet. "Can you stand on your own?"

Livvie just nodded her head, lost in Noah's eyes. Noah released his hold on her, knocking Livvie out of her trance as she fell back into Noah's arms.

"Opps." she muttered. Noah sighed, "Where's your car? I'll take you to it."

"It's not here. I was just out for a walk."

"From the mansion?"

"No. I rented a studio today and I was there. It's just about half a block away."

"All right, come on then."

"You're going to take me?"
 

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Julian walked through the backdoor of the Book Cafe and saw Sheridan sitting at a table next to a tall counter.

"How's it going?" he asked, peaking at Chad and Roxy.

"Okay, I think. They're acting a little like they already know each other."

"How would they? This town isn't that small."
 

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"Wow, this is a real surprise." Roxy said, nervously, taking a sip of her coffee.

"What is?" Chad said, still trying to figure out why he had let her sit with him.

"Well, you and me, here, together. It's such a coincidence."

"I actually come here every Friday at this time."

"You mad at me?" Roxy asked, quickly catching Chad's hint.

"Hmm? Oh, no, but you know, I guess you're right. This is a bit of a surprise. Seeing you here."

"Why is that?" Roxy asked, now more nervous. Why was he acting like this? It was no way like he was before.

"Well, you know, you're a busy woman. Working for a big paper, having one night stands, Jax…"

"Who?"

"Jax. That's who called you this morning right before you ran out of my room. You said his name. I guess you were late for the movie."

"Movie? Oh, whoa Chad that's not what it seemed."

"Really? Weren't you with -- what's his name? Jax, playing a good old fashioned game of tonsil hockey?"

"Well, yeah that was me." Roxy said, honestly.

"Is this what you do for your kicks? Take guys to your hotel room while you're got another guy on the side. Or maybe I'm the one on the side."

"No." Roxy sighed in frustration. "Wait right here." She stood up and walked to the back, avoiding Sheridan and Julian.
 

"Hello?" Nelly said answering her phone.

"Nelly. You have got to get down here. And I mean YOU."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Chad's here."

"Oh my God. And he saw you with the Crane kid?"

"No need. He IS the Crane kid."

"What?"

"Chad Harris -- your Chad - AKA Chad Crane."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. So you need to get down here right now."

"All right, where is the outfit you're wearing?"

"On me."

"No! The double you have."

"I don't have anything like this. This is yours remember? And it must be new, I've never seen it before."

"Okay, Okay, I'll change clothes with you when I get there."

"Hurry." Roxy hung up her phone. "It's cool. It's so cool. Nothing else could possibly go wrong." She turned around to go back to the table and gasped, "Alexis?"
 

"Things are going good with Eve?" Chad asked, looking up at Alexis.

"Yes. I've met with her a couple of times along with Simone. You sister's a nice kid."

"Yeah. So you know the entire situation now?"

"Yes, I also know that TC's lawyer is his daughter's husband."

"Noah." Chad's blood started to boil just the mention of his name.

"You know him well?"

"I know enough. So what are you doing here tonight?"

"A friend of mine from Port Charles called me today and he's here in Harmony with a friend of his. So I'm meeting him here."

"Well, at least your time here doesn't have to be all work."

"My entire life is work, even my personal life."
 

"Note to self: When things look like they couldn't possibly get any worse, they do."

"Bad date?" Jax said, making Roxy jump.

"Jax? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Meeting Alexis. She's in town for some case. Small world, huh?"

"It's getting smaller. Listen, this guy I'm a date with-"

"Julian Crane's son?"

"Yeah, he's Chad Harris. Nelly's Chad."

"You're kidding."

"I wish, but it gets worse. He saw you and me kissing today and he thinks it was Nelly. And he is not happy."

"What are you going to do?"

"I called Nelly and she's on her way, but Chad is over there talking to Alexis."

"How do they know each other?"

"I don't know, but you need to get your work obsessed ex-wife over here and away from Chad without him seeing you or her seeing me."

"Just another day as friends with Roxy Clark." Jax chuckled to himself.

"Move it, Aussie."
 

"So this girl has been sort of playing the field with you?" Alexis said.

"I guess. I don't know why I'm so upset. It's not like me and her are anything official." Chad sighed, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be pouring all my personal problems on my lawyer."

"It's all right. Reminds me of being home." Alexis looked up to see Jax in the back signaling for her to come with him.

"There's my friend. I'll get in touch with you later." Alexis walked back where Jax lead her out through the back way he'd come in.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"I'll explain. I hope you don't have a full night, because now you do."
 

Roxy walked back around and sat across from Chad, secretly wondering when Nelly would arrive.
 

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Livvie wobbled down the hallway guiding Noah, until they reached room 106. Livvie unlocked the door and stumbled in, turning around, expecting to see Noah leave, she was surprised he had walked in and closed the door behind him. "Why don't you sit down?" he said.

Livvie sat down on the nearest chair with no objections as Noah bent down in front of her. "Do you have a first aid kit?"

"Yeah, in the cabinet." Noah reached over and opened the cabinet to pull out the kit. Livvie kept her eyes on him as his hands moved to her sore knee.

"You better not charge me for this." Noah said.

"Unless you really do have a Ph.D."

"No, I meant this-" with one rip, the hole in Livvie's pants grew, revealing her entire knee and the lower part of her thigh.

Noah reached into the First Aid kit and pulled out some things. Livvie couldn't pay attention to what he was doing. All she could do was look at him. He was so sweet and generous and kind and could stand staying in the same room with her for a more than a 5 minute period. Wait. What was she doing? Falling for a married man? This was definitely something Felicity would do, but never Livvie. She has morals, besides he must love his wife, why else would he had married her? No, there was no way, Livvie would let herself fall for a married man. Even if he was gorgeous.

Noah put the alcohol on the material from the first aid kit slowly started dabbing it on the scraps.

"Ow. Ow. Ow!" Livvie smacked Noah's hand that held the material and he looked up at her with that look in his eyes Livvie was convinced had to run in the family since she could always remember seeing it in Ethan's eyes. It just never had this effect on her before.

"You either behave or you can do it yourself," he said, firmly as Livvie leaned back slowly into the chair.

He continued to dab it on and looked up to see Livvie squinting to the pain. "It hurts that bad?"

"Yeah. Just put it all on a get it over with," she grabbed Noah's hand and put the alcohol on her knee, but immediately removed it. "Oh, it burns. It burns. It burns. It burns. It BURNS."

"Stop, just calm down." Noah put his hands around her knee and softly blew on her scraped up knee.

Livvie suddenly felt no pain, just light tingles flowing from her cuts, through her legs and arms, and out her fingers and toes.

Noah looked up at her as his heart started beating faster and faster, just stared at the beauty in front of him. "I have to go." Noah stood up quickly, followed by Livvie.

"Oh, okay. Umm, thanks for bringing me here. I really appreciate it. You didn't have to."

"Yeah, no problem." Noah said, opening the door, "You better stay off your leg for the rest of the night."

"I will." Noah walked out and closed the door and sighed a breath of relief. What was happening to him?
 

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Chad sighed and looked at his watch. "Listen, I need to go. There's no point just sitting here when neither of us are going to say anything."

"No." Roxy said, grabbing his arm, "Please, I'm sorry about everything. So sorry. It's all my fault."

"Well, it sure as hell isn't mine."

"I know, I know," Roxy looked behind Chad to see Nelly peak through the backdoor. "I'll be right back."

"I'll be gone."

"No, please, just wait." Roxy got up and walked around Chad.

"Hey-" Chad watched her as she went through the back door and followed her.

Julian stood up to stop her from leaving only to be pulled back to his seat by Sheridan.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Chad said to Julian.

"Why, I'm having coffee with my dear sister." Julian said, putting his hands on Sheridan's.

Chad rolled his eyes and walked over to the door and opened it.

Roxy screamed as she fell to the floor in front of Chad, Sheridan, Julian, and the other few people at the Book Cafe.

Chad looked from Roxy to Nelly standing in the back room, "What the hell?"

"There's two of them? Why didn't you tell me?" Sheridan asked Julian.

"I forgot. No one ever talks about her."

"So what? You two are twins?" Chad said, catching what Julian had said. "So which one of you is Nelly?"

"I am." Nelly and Roxy said in unison.

"Oh, we're not doing that anymore?" Roxy said standing up.

"What's 'that'?" Chad said looking at the real Nelly.

"I didn't want to go on this blind date my parents set me up on so Roxy filled in for me, but I didn't know it was you."

"Whoa, whoa. Blind date? You were set up on a blind date with me?" Chad looked over at Julian who had suddenly taken an interest in the menu for the first time ever.

"Julian-"

Julian laid down the menu, "Now I'm not paying you to turn me in."

"Paying you?" Chad said in disbelief.

"Whoa!" Roxy spoke up, turning to Nelly, "You're getting paid? I wasn't told cash was involved."

"There isn't." Julian admitted, while Sheridan looked at him with a confused look, "False of habit."

"I swear, we didn't mean any harm, Chad. Roxy just enjoys doing this sort of thing and I needed to get out of this date." Nelly pleaded to him.

Chad sighed and ran his hands across his face, "I can't handle this. I can't handle anymore games, lies, and tricks." Chad's words filled Julian and Sheridan full of guilt as Nelly and Roxy questioned to themselves what he was talking about. "I'm out of here." Chad turned to leave and stopped in front of Julian. "I swear, if you ever do anything like this again. You'll wish I had been killed." Julian opened his mouth to speak, but it was too late and Chad was already out the door.