~ Only Time ~ Ch. 16 *Get Your Groove On*
 by rockstar
 

"Who's Livvie?"

"Whitney-"

"I asked you a question, Noah. Who's Livvie?" Whitney asked again.

"Listen, she's-"

"Well, I know it's a 'she'. That's the basis of the problem."

"All right, just calm down," Noah said, sitting up and facing Whitney, "Now, Livvie is that woman that has been causing all those problems with me."

"The one that wants to take you to court?"

"Yeah." Noah said, thankful he never told Whitney that Livvie was a Crane. She had already had enough dealings with the Crane's, another one wouldn't help. But here he was saying Livvie's name in his sleep.

"So what are you having nightmares about this woman?"

"Well, sort of. They're kind of nightmares." Noah had to admit, he was pretty scared of what he had dreamed.

"So has this Livvie's attorney called?"

"Nope. Actually she hasn't even mentioned it since that day she first brought it up."

"So you've seen her since she made her threat?"

"Oh -- on the wharf, but no blood was shed, or at least not much," he whispered.

"Maybe you should get a restraining order against her."

"Yeah, I should look into that." Noah said, "Hey, come on let's just go back to bed all right?"

Whitney nodded her head and laid back down along with Noah, "Goodnight," she said as she drifted off to sleep, while Noah stayed wide awake.
 

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Chad slowly eased away from Nelly as he opened his eyes, her brown eyes were still closed as if she were stuck in that position. Finally her eyes opened and she looked down at Chad.

"What were we talking about?" Nelly asked, dumbly.

"What my heart wanted."

"Oh, yeah. Was that it? Please tell me that was it and you didn't just trip over something or lose your balance."

"No, that was it." Chad said, as Nelly's smile grew even bigger, beyond her control. "So, you know what? I don't know about you, but I need to get home and get some rest," he said, standing up followed by Nelly.

"Oh yeah, you're club opens tomorrow."

"Yeah, so are you still going to be in town?" Chad asked hopefully.

"Most likely."

"Oh, so then you have the chance to go to the opening of one of the hippest clubs this town has ever seen. And you know, the German embassy would be ever pleased to see how things went over."

"You are never going to let me live that down are you?" Nelly laughed.

"You shouldn't have lied."

"Oh, so I take it you're going to say some wise crack about my sister every 5 minutes then, huh?"

"Oh, of course. I will be using that one for a long time."

"So then you forgive me for lying to you?" Nelly asked.

"Yeah." Chad sighed, "Come on, let's get you back to your hotel."
 

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The next evening...
 

"Hey Noah," Jessica said as she opened the door.

"Hey, sis, what's going on?" Noah asked as he walked inside the Bennett home.

"Nothing really. Mom and Dad went out to dinner and Charity and Miguel went to see a movie."

"So it's just you by yourself?" Noah asked, already knowing the answer.

Before Jessica could answer, Reese came walking through the kitchen door with a bowl of popcorn in hand until he tripped sending the snack flying across the room.

"He's really not as clumsy as he looks." Jessica said to Noah, while Reese smiled and picked up the food.

Noah nodded his head, "So, where's Kay?"

"She and Simone went out." Jessica said, bending down and picking up some popcorn.

"Really? Like, where? The Book Cafe?" Noah interrogated her.

"I think they were a little too over dressed for the Book Cafe." Jessica said, putting a handful of popcorn back in the bowl.

"I'll say. They looked like they were getting ready to get their groove on." Reese said sitting the popcorn bowl down.

"You think they were going on a date with some guys?" Noah asked, suspiciously.

"I don't know about Simone, but with Kay, you never know what she's up to." Jessica said.

"Yeah, so tell me, is she?"

"I told you everything I know, Noah." Jessica said.

"Yeah, right. I know you spy on her every chance you get. So tell me everything."

"All right, all right. I might have heard something while I was cleaning the table outside the door of her bedroom."

"What?" Noah asked.

"I didn't hear the beginning, but I did hear, she's going on a date with some guy named Nikolas."

"That little creep." Noah sighed.

"Now, Kay is some pretty nasty things, but-" Reese started.

"Not, Kay. The guy." Noah said, angrily.

"You know him?" Jessica asked.

"I know enough, do you know where they went to on their date?"

"Chad's."

"Chad's?"

"Yeah, you know, his club. It opens tonight." Jessica said calmly. "Is that a problem?"

"No, thanks for letting my know, Jess. I gotta go." Noah said, walking toward the door, "Listen, Whit's going to be by-" Noah opened to door to come face to face with Whitney.

"Hey, where are you going?" she asked.

"I have to go take care of something. Okay?" he said walking past her.

"Whoa, wait, what is it? What's wrong?" she grabbed a hold of his arm.

"I'll tell you what's wrong. Crane's. They're everywhere." Noah broke contact with Whitney and walked off, while Whitney went off after him.

Back inside, Jessica closed the door as she turned around to Reese. "I love my brother and Whitney to death, but I'm so glad they're gone." Jessica said, walking up to Reese.

He reached up and took off his glasses, "My too. It's a good thing I heard him from the kitchen and had my glasses on me."

"Yeah, by the way, nice touch with the tripping."

"You liked that?" Reese said in a sexy voice.

"It was very nice." Jessica said as she wrapped herself up in Reese's arms.

"Do you think maybe we should show off the real me to everyone?" Reese asked as Jessica looked up to him.

"No, I like making them wonder why I'm so interested in you." With that, Jessica pulled Reese into a smoldering kiss, while outside, Timmy and Tabitha peered in through the window.

"See, Tabby. Timmy told you once we made Reese a lady's man for Jessica, he wouldn't bother Tabitha about being a witch anymore. He's too busy with his new girlfriend."

"That you were right, lad. Come on, let's get a thermal of Martimmy's and go find Blondie and Miguel at the movie theater." Tabitha said as they were off.
 

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Chad sat a drink on a napkin and pushed it over to the smiling brunette sitting on the barstool.

"You know, the term 'silent partner' means the partner is never seen and never heard." Chad said as he leaned against the bar.

"In my case it's sometimes seen and always heard." Gwen said as she took a drink and sighed happily, "You know, I knew when you bought this dump of a building from the Realtor group my father owns that you would make something happen here."

"Really? Why's that?" Chad asked as he took a sip of his own drink.

"Because you are a very determined man. You get things done. And if you want something, you go after it and you don't quit until you've got it. Which is why this night is such a success." Gwen said, turning around and looking at all the people in the room.

"Well, this night's just started."

"Exactly! And look, this place is packed. Oh, we're going to have to put bouncers outside and have lines of people wanting to get in! And a list."

"A list?"

"Yeah, you know. A list. For you know, important people and friends. Those people will get in before everyone else."

"You know what?" Chad said, lifting up his drink, "With my determination and your amazing ideas, this place just might be the success you said it will be."

Gwen smiled, "Who would've thought? You and me, partners, owning a club together. I guess it's true what they say. I guess we're both proof of that old saying. There is life after love."

Chad sat his drink down and sighed. "Oh, come on, Chad. I meant that as a complement. You've come a long way from that major impact that was made on you a few months ago. You can surpass anything and this club here proves it."

Chad smiled and lifted up his glass again, "Well, to the success of this place then..." Gwen lifted up her glass to meet Chad's, "Hear, hear."

"...and my beautiful, SILENT partner." Gwen laughed as a woman joined her at the bar.

"Are you always such a comedian?" Nelly asked, taking a seat next to Gwen.

"Hey," Chad said, not helping but smiling.

"Oh my God. Nelly Watson." Gwen said, looking at Nelly. "Gwen Hotchkiss."

"Wow, I haven't seen you for such a long time. Not since college." Nelly said.

"You two went to college together?" Chad asked, suspiciously.

"Well, we were in different years, but we were there at the same time. God, so are you in town to see Felicity?" Gwen asked, raising her eyebrow.

"You know Gwen Hotchkiss and Felicity Crane? You are not a lucky woman." Chad said.

"Felicity and I were roommates in college and we had a few misunderstandings." Nelly said, hardly hiding her anger toward the oldest Crane woman.

"Misunderstandings? I've known Felicity Crane for almost 6 months and she rarely has anything to do with misunderstandings. Everything she does is understandably cruel and malicious." Chad said.

"She just got ticked off because this alumni organization I was in chose Nelly to be a member over Felicity because she was just a hell of a lot more suitable for the place than Felicity was and she didn't like it." Gwen said.

"Alumni group?" Chad thought out loud, then turning to Nelly, "You're the poor girl that got the pillow case stuck to her head?"

"News travels fast." Nelly said, "After 4 years."

"Don't think she got out that one without a finally hooray." Gwen smiled, taking a drink.

"What happened?"

"Roxy took care of it. She put blue hair dye in Felicity's shampoo." Nelly chuckled.

"That seems fitting." Chad laughed, thinking of the moments he had had with Nelly's sister.

"Oh, but see," Gwen started, "the blue wouldn't really come out. And even the most famous hair dressers in the world couldn't save it." Gwen finally gave in and laughed.

"Whoa, last time I saw her, I didn't see any blue." Chad said.

"Oh, no, of course not." Nelly said, "You see, Felicity's no longer a real blonde. Bleach."

"She was once a beautiful blonde though," Gwen said, sincerely.

"Oh, yes, once." Nelly laughed, while Chad got distracted by a scene towards another part of the club.

"Hey, why don't you two sit here and continue looking back on fun times. I'll be right back."
 

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Kay looked around nervously as Simone sat calmly at a table. "Are you, THE Kay Bennett, nervous?"

"No, I'm not nervous. I'm angered. Where is he?" Kay said, looking around the room again.

"This would've been a better first date if he'd came by your house to pick you up, you know?" Simone said.

"Well, Jessica was there and she can't keep a secret. At least none of mine."

"Regretting treating your little sister so badly all those years you two shared a room?"

"No way." Kay laughed. "Oh, where are you Nikolas?"
 

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Livvie walked into the packed room and glanced around at all the people when she heard that voice that made her wish she were deaf.

"Well, it seems our dear older brother sure knows how to throw a bash." Felicity said, walking up to Livvie.

Livvie turned around to face her and smiled slyly, "Interesting choice of words: throw and bash," she said, swirling her small beaded purse to her side.

"Always the witty one, aren't we?"

"What are you doing here? I know Chad wouldn't want you here."

"Oh, you've talked to him? Trading notes with the enemy?" Felicity said angered.

"That's what I would be doing if I answered your essy questions."

"I'm really disappointed, Olivia. I thought you understood the problems our family could and still have a chance of getting with
this guy getting closer and closer to us. Hell, he's already got Father and Sheridan. Do you want to be next? And what about Nikolas?"

"I can speak for myself." Nikolas said, walking up behind Felicity, "I'm 18 and even though Livvie's my guardian, I'm a legal adult and I can decide who I do and don't want to associate with in the family."

"And that list keeps getting smaller and smaller by the day, doesn't it?" Livvie said, crossing her arms.

"You know, if you don't like this family, then why do you stick around? No one certainly never asked you to stay."

"That's enough!" Felicity, Livvie and Nikolas turned around and were shocked to see the man standing there, "I've had enough of you, Felicity, to last a few dozen lifetimes. So you should understand when I tell you to get the hell out of my club."