*Only Time* Chapter 4 {Everyone}
 by rockstar
 
 

It was Friday night and the Jazz Club was packed with all sorts of different people. Some were there with their dates hoping the soft music would romance the evening. The rest were men who were drowning their sorrows or looking for some excitement for the evening. That was exactly what the woman was looking for when she walked through the door. She walked straight up to the bar, her black, strapless dress barely swayed in the short distance.
"White wine, thank you." she said to the bartender. As she sat down on a stool, she looked around at all of the people in the room. She smiled, realizing this was going to be an evening she will never forget.
 

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The Crane Mansion was quiet for a moment. The vision of a nice evening was now far gone. All anyone in the room could do, was watch as Chad continued to rage at Julian.
"The real question is what's wrong with you? Did you really think I was going to appreciate you meddling in my life? My business?" Chad yelled.
"What did you do, Julian?" Sheridan asked, turning Julian around, so he could face her.
"I just-"
"Went somewhere you didn't belong." Chad finished off.
"I didn't mean to upset you." Julian said, facing Chad.
Everyone watched the two as Felicity rolled her eyes.
"Well, what was your purpose, then, hmm?"
"I was just trying to help."
"Why?" Chad gave Julian a look of disbelief.
Julian couldn't seem to find the words he needed, should've, and wanted to say, leaving the room silent for another short moment again.
"All right. What happened that has you so upset, you had to come over here and interrupt our family evening?" Felicity said coldly to Chad.
"It was turning more into a family slaying." Livvie said.
"You paid for that shipment to my club. And you put that money in my account."
"Money? You gave him money? How much?" Felicity said facing Julian.
"That is none of your damn business." Julian told her.
"If you're just going to hand out money to all the bastard children you have, well, this family will be poor in a matter of weeks!"
"You better watch it, Felicity." Sheridan said, standing next to Julian.
"You know what? I don't want it. What I do want is for you to take this dirty money back and stay the hell out of my life."
"I second that." Felicity said.
"Shut up." Nikolas spoke up.
"Don't talk to me like that!"
"He'll talk to you like you deserve to be talked to, which is bad." Livvie stood next to Nikolas.
"You didn't bring me to a family dinner. You brought me to a circus." Luis said to Sheridan.
"Listen, you did this, now undo it." Chad said to Julian and walked out of the room.
Julian stood there for a moment, until Sheridan nudged him to go after his son.
"Chad wait." Julian said, coming into the entryway, just as Chad opened the door.
Chad paused for a moment, but Julian opened his mouth again.
"I was wanting to help you."
"Why? Why do you give a damn?"
"You're my son."
Chad lowered his head. He hated being reminded of that, and even more from Julian.
"I can take care of myself."
"I just wanted to give you something you didn't get."
"Your money? What did you average it out between your other kids? And the 300 grand was my cut? No, you didn't do this out of the kindness of your heart, you did this to make yourself feel better."
Julian started to walk closer to Chad, who immediately back further out the door.
"You want to help? Why don't you take my 'share' and give it to someone who really needs it a hell of a lot more than me, you, or anyone else in this house."
"You mean like a charity?"
"Sure, why not? I hate to break it to you, but you won't die if you do something nice for someone you don't know." Chad said, heading out the door.
Julian stood there for a moment, puzzled. 'Is he trying to make me a good person?' Julian thought. What if Chad was making an effort to make things civil between them.
Julian started to close the door, when Sheridan and Luis appeared behind him.
"Well?" Sheridan asked in a hopeful voice.
"Could've gone worse." Julian told him.
"Yeah, we could have found a dead body." Luis joked.
Julian let out fake laugh that quickly ended. "You two don't have to run off you know?"
"All right, let's stay. By the way, Julian, when exactly was the last time you saw my father?"
"Sheridan it's getting awfully late for a woman in you condition to be out. Goodnight." Julian said, ushering them out the door and Luis was only glad to go. Sheridan stopped halfway out, "I'll talk to you about this tomorrow."
Julian nodded his head and closed the door. He made his way back into the living room to find the rest of his family sitting down except for Ivy.
"Well, this was an interesting evening. I think I will be going now," Ivy said, walking over to where Livvie and Nikolas were sitting. "I'll talk to you both later. About everything," she looked at Nikolas. "Goodnight, darling." she said to Felicity as she kissed her cheek.
"Goodnight, Mother."
Ivy swayed past Julian, who gave her a 'good riddance' look.
"Well, I'm guessing dinner off?" Nikolas asked.
"At least I didn't get any foods or liquids thrown on me." Livvie said.
"I'm going upstairs, I'll see you all tomorrow." Felicity said walking toward the staircase.
"Calling the day quit early, aren't you?" Julian asked Felicity as she walked by.
"An evening with you, Mother, those two, and that local is enough to make someone want to sleep for 20 years."
"Well, an evening with you, makes me want to kill myself." Livvie said.
Felicity walked upstairs while Livvie made choking sounds as if she were strangling herself.
"Careful, someday, that just might happen." Felicity said to herself, disappearing for the evening.
"So are you two staying in for the rest of the evening also?" Julian asked.
"I guess I will. I still need to unpack. And I need to take another shower. I swear I still smell like a bag of coffee beans." Livvie said.
"Why would you smell like that?" Julian asked.
"Some guy accidentally spilt cooled coffee on her. She's been bitching about it all day." Nikolas told him.
"Coffee? Did it hurt you?" Julian asked concerned.
"No, like Nikolas said, it had cooled off. I'm going upstairs." Livvie got up and walked past Nikolas and Julian without a word.
"Is she always like this? Or is it whenever she's around this family?" Julian asked.
"Depends."
"On what?"
"If she's talking, hearing, or thinking about this family."
 

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Noah walked through the front door of his pitch black home and turned on the light. Whitney was laying on the couch and her eyes squinted to the bright light she had missed during her nap.
"Sorry." Noah said, closing the door.
"It's all right. Is it night already?" she yawned.
"Yep, sleepyhead." Noah sat down on the edge of the couch and looked down at his wife. Whitney smiled and put her hand on his face to bring his lips down to hers.
The kiss was soft at first, but Whitney urged on, wanting more. Noah obliged, but then pulled away.
"What has gotten into you?" he asked, Whitney still having her arms around him.
"Nothing, can I not kiss my husband?" Whitney smiled, moving in for another kiss.
"I get the impression you want to do more than kiss."
"I've always been a very impressionable person."
Noah laughed and put his hands around Whitney's face and kissed her. The kissed ended and the two leaned back onto the couch, Whitney wrapped in Noah's arms.
"So did you think much about what I said today?" Noah asked her.
"You mean about that attitude challenged woman you spilt coffee on? Nope, not a second thought."
"Actually I was talking about your mother."
"I didn't even think about giving that a thought."
"Come on, Whitney. In 6 months, she's going to want to see her first grandchild."
"But she won't. I don't want her influence on our baby."
"I know that you are still hurting but she's your mother and an amazing person who made a mistake. Look how hard she worked to get to where she is. She went back to school, became a doctor, had two beautiful daughters."
"All with lies."
"You need to..."
"I can't, Noah. I need time before I can face her. If I ever can again. I looked up to her. I thought she was the most amazing person in the word. I wanted to end up just like her. Now, I just pray to God I don't."
"She's still your mother, she brought you into the world."
"And before that, she brought Chad into it." Whitney felt as if a million knives went through her heart after what she'd said. It was one thing finding out that her mother had had an affair with Julian Crane, but it almost killed her to discover the man she loved was the child that her mother had with him. If it weren't for her baby, Whitney probably would've given up on her life 3 months ago.
"That will always hurt you, Whitney. I know it will. I was here remember?"
Lucky for Whitney, Noah returned to Harmony just a week before her mother's secret past was revealed. And he had been with her through everything since.
"Just please promise me that you will think about what I've said, and you'll go see your mother, soon."
"I can't promise you that last thing, but I will think about everything else." Whitney gave in, the last thing she needed was to get into an argument with Noah, and the way the conversation was leading, they would be talking about Chad in no time. Chad. Whitney thought of his name. She hadn't seen him in so long. She knew she would never, without a doubt, be able to look at him the same way again. But that didn't mean she didn't miss seeing him or hearing his voice.
In fact, on some days, she wondered exactly what he was doing at that very moment.......
 

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Chad walked into the Jazz Club, which was dying down for the evening. It was almost midnight on a Friday night, so Chad knew he could get something to calm his nerves.
"Scotch" he said, sitting at the bar, rubbing his hands over his face and sighed.
His drink came and he drank it a lot faster than he should have and ordered a second. He turned around and looked around the dark room. It was over a year ago, that he had been in that exact room, actually begging a woman to destroy his life. Although he had never thought of it before, Chad thought maybe Crystal should have told him that Julian and Eve were his parents. Maybe then, he wouldn't had fallen so far and hard when the truth was revealed and the love of his life was taken from him.
Chad drank the second drink just as fast as the first, getting a warning from the bartender to take it easy. Unaware to Chad, the bartender wasn't the only one watching him that evening.
The woman in the black dress drank her wine and starred at Chad from down the bar. She had been there for a few hours, watching and talking to different men, but as soon as she saw Chad she knew he was the one that was going to complete her evening. She grabbed her glass and walked down beside Chad.
"Is this seat taken?"
Chad looked at her, the scotch was already starting to get to him after he had swallowed his third glass. "No."
The woman sat down and took a drink of her wine as Chad ordered a fourth glass. "Something tells me, you aren't drinking safely."
"I'm not drinking and driving."
"Oh, so you're only being unsafe to yourself?"
"What's that matter? I don't have much to be safe about." Chad told her as his drink came.
"Now, I don't believe that. You look like a promising man."
"Right now?" Chad said, starting to look like he was actually drunk, since he was on he way to being that.
"Well, if you'd slow down with the liquor, yeah."
"Who are you?" Chad asked her.
"My name's Nelly." she said extending her small hand.
"Nelly. Why are you being so nice to me, Nelly?" he asked, shaking her hand.
"You seem like a nice guy. So why don't you tell me your name?"
"It's Chad. Just plain old Chad." he said, drinking his glass.
"Well, plain old Chad, you better finish off your drink if you want it, cause we're getting ready to close." the bartender said, "you too miss."
"All right, all right." Chad said finishing off his drink and standing up as did Nelly.
Only Chad's balance was off a bit more than hers.
"Whoa, are you all right?" Nelly asked, grabbing hold of Chad before he feel.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Are you going to be taking your friend home, miss?" the bartender asked.
"Yeah, I'll take care of him. Thanks. How would you like to go with me?" Nelly asked Chad.
"Sure, why not?" Chad said, heading toward the door as the butterflies in Nelly's stomach started to enter and she thought to herself, 'What have you gotten yourself into this time?'
 

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Livvie walked through the garden outside of the Crane Mansion when she heard a man's voice.
"There you are, I've been looking for you."
"Hi, I had to get out of there. My family is crazy. In case you didn't know." Livvie said to him.
"I knew."
"Sorry for leaving you with them."
"It's all right. I got away with all of my limbs attached didn't I?" he said taking hold of her hands.
"Let's hope so."
He pulled her closer and kissed her lightly on her soft lips when Livvie heard a knocking noise.
Her eyes flew open and she flung out of bed, hearing one last knock and finally her door opening and her brother's head sticking in.
"Sorry, did I walk you?"
"It's all right. I was having a strange dream anyway. So what's up?"
Nikolas walked into the room wearing a gray tank top and red sweatpants, going straight up to Livvie.
"Do you remember that girl from into today?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I talked to her." Nikolas said.
"Oh yeah? What's her name?" Livvie asked.
"Kay."
"Okay, what?"
"No, Kay. K-A-Y."
"Oh. I like it. So what happened?"
"It was great. I told her I was in town visiting family."
"Did you tell her it was the family from hell?"
"No."
"You didn't tell her your last name?"
"Nope. Well, I told her my families last name was Bird."
"Bird?" Livvie laughed. "That's the best you could come up with?"
"She caught me off guard. I had to think fast. And you know, a crane is a type of bird."
"Yeah, I've often thought Felicity resembled a peacock. But, hey, what are you going to do if she decides to look up this town for some birds that don't fly? Or look up a Nikolas Bird?" Livvie laughed.
Nikolas chuckled with his sister for a moment, when he realized what he had forgotten to mention to Kay earlier.
"Damn it."
"What?"
"I forgot to give her my first name."
"You bird brain. You gave this girl a fake last name and then you didn't even tell her your first name? What if she decides to track you down?"
"I'll just have to track her down first."
"And let me guess, you didn't get her last name?"
"No, but I don't need. It'll be a lot more fun this way."
"Well, good luck." Livvie said as Nikolas left her room.
Livvie looked over at the pile of coffee stained white pants and shirt and remembered her dream. The man kissing her in her dream. The man who spilt the coffee on her. They were one in the same. But why? Why on earth would Livvie be having a dream of kissing a man she had been thinking about dealing with all day? A more important question, why had she thought about him all day?
Livvie bent down and reached in one of the pant pockets and pulled out the business card he'd given her. She looked at it, "Damn." she said under her breath. The entire bottom part of the card which included the man's name and numbers had been stained over with the coffee when Livvie had first stuffed the card in her pocket. Although, She was relieved when she saw the top of the card was readable, but she was more surprised and curious by what it said, "Bennett & Winthrop Law Associates."