Past and Present Danger, Chapter 9
by blueeaglex
 

Mistaking Eve's excitement for disgust, Julian tried to look away from Eve, but she would have none of that. She walked towards him, and threw her arms around Julian. At first believing Eve was trying to hurt him, Julian was stunned...by his shock only grew as he realized she was hugging him. What was going on?

"Finally, someone I recognize," Eve said, releasing Julian from the hug. "Has this place changed or what?" Eve gazed around the jazz club, which had had a major renovation a decade before.

"You...hugged me?" Still caught up in the hug, Julian tried to make sense of this crazy situation. Eve was dressed just as she had been years before, when he'd first met her. Her hair style was oddly changed as well....a wig, perhaps? " Here's a hint, Julian: I will never want to be with you. Never. Ever." Eve had told Julian those words only hours before: what was up with the sudden change of heart?

"Of course I hugged you, silly," Eve teased, her hand rubbing up against his chest.

"Pinch me."

"What?"

"Pinch me."

Eve giggled. She lowered her hand on his leg, sending Julian into near-ecstacy. Then, she quickly pinched his leg. "Ow!" " I'm not dreaming," Julian thought to himself. "That's a good first step..."

All of Julian's protests and suspicions faded away as Eve planted a tiny kiss on his lips. Julian pulled away for a second, looking at her more closely. She didn't protest as he kissed her again, this time a long, sensuous kiss with no end in sight.

Tabitha entered the club, holding Timmy in her arms, but dropped the doll to the ground upon seeing Julian and Eve in their liplock. "Agh!" Timmy said, as he hit the floor with a thud.

"Would you look at that," Tabitha said, rubbing her hands together in glee. "The fun's started without us."

"Why is Julian kissing Eve?" Timmy asked, as he got to his feet.

"Because he thinks it's Dr. Eve Russell...who knows what he thinks of her bizarre hair and clothes."

"But wouldn't he wonder why she'd want to kiss him?"

"Maybe at first, Tim-Tim. But his brain probably stopped functioning and let a lower body part take over, I imagine."

Julian and Eve finished their kiss, neither noticing Tabitha and Timmy standing in the background.

"I have to get ready for my show," Eve said, wiping her lips seductively. "Maybe we could meet up later?"

"Okay," Julian said, unable to think of something to say that was more than one word. What was going on?

"I'll see you after the show, then...and we can have some REAL fun." Julian started to wonder what Eve was referring to...could she be suggesting what he thought she was suggesting?

"Is this some kind of joke?" Julian asked suddenly. "Because if it is, it's not funny."

"A joke?" Eve was genuinely surprised to hear this, and studied Julian's face carefully. For the first time, she noticed how much older he looked than he'd looked the last time she'd seen him. How long ago had that been? she wondered. "Why would I joke about something like that?"

"So you want to get together later?" Julian asked.

"That's what I said, didn't I?"

Julian nodded, then shuffled away from Eve. He scratched his head, his mind working overtime to come up with an explanation for what was happening. Unless he woke up and realized it was a dream, he decided, tonight was going to be a lot of fun!

While Eve went back to practicing for her show, Tabitha stood in the back with Timmy, the two listening to Eve's soulful musical voice. A phone call interrupted the music, as the club owner reached for the phone. "Reservations for four, for tonight?" he said, into the phone. "Listen, lady, you don't need reservations, just come and..." A pause, then, "Okay, reservations for four...Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, Mr. and Mrs. Russell. Thanks. Bye."

"Did you just hear that, Timmy?" Tabitha hissed, walking towards the door. Her faithful companion followed closely behind. "The Bennetts and the Russells are coming here tonight."

"So?"

"If the two Eves come face to face, the spell is ended, and Eve will be back to her normal, goodie-goodie self. Oh, no, Timmy, we can't have that just yet...not when the fun with Julian is just starting!"

"So what are we going to do, Princess?"

Tabitha considered the question for a moment, as she and Timmy exited the club. "There's only one thing we can do, Timmy. We're coming back here tonight!"

***************

"Why did you scream, Ivy?"

Retrieving her purse from the ground, Ivy did her best to resume a happy look as she faced Eve. "An...involuntary reaction," she said, shrugging it off.

"Don't lie to me, Ivy." Eve stood, waiting for an answer.

Ivy paused to reflect on the possibility of Chad being Julian and Eve's son. If that were true, she thought, then Chad and Whitney were teetering on the brink of depravity, messing around with their half-siblings. The thought made her sick to her stomach.

Worse yet, she decided, was the fact that they would never know the truth. Ivy certainly had no plans on revealing the truth...if Chad turned out to be Julian and Eve's son, she would burn the results, and do everything in her power to ensure that Chad never learned his true nature. No, she couldn't lose the Crane empire to Julian's bastard son...

"I'm not leaving without an answer," Eve said, waving her hand in front of Ivy to regain her attention. "What was with you, just now?"

"I was just shocked, that's all," Ivy said, trying to move past the comments. "But not as shocked as I was to hear about your renewal of your wedding vows. Congratulations."

"You're...congratulating me?"

"Why of course!" Ivy said, loosening up now that she didn't fear revealing her belief that Chad was a Crane. "I hope to get an invitation to the wedding."

"I need to check on a patient, not to mention deal with my family's problems," Eve said, brushing past Ivy.

Needing to make a move quickly, Ivy opened her purse, searching for a pin. Yet there was none to be found. Frantically searching through her bag, Ivy settled her right hand on something much bigger than a pin: a pair of scissors. Did she dare?

Before she could make a move, Eve cried out, and Ivy looked up in time to see Eve fall to the ground, having tripped over a rock. Ivy was at her side in a flash, and held back her smile, seeing that Eve's arm was bleeding. Without hesitation, Ivy whipped out a handkerchief, then wiped up the blood from Eve's arm. "What are you doing, Ivy?" Eve stood to her feet, brushing herself up.

"What, I can't be a caring person?"

"No, you can't." Eve stepped away, moving into the hospital.

"How dare she," Ivy whispered to herself, returning the handkerchief to her purse. "Never mind, I have everything I need."

"Everything for what, Ivy?"

Ivy spun around, coming face to face with a greater enemy of hers than Eve.

"Rebecca!"

***************

"It's happening," Whitney said weakly. She was standing at the window of the hospital room, looking out. "Everything I feared would happen is happening."

"Don't say that," Chad insisted, his hands resting on her shoulders. "Just give 'em time, they'll come around. You'll see."

"A few hours ago, that's what I would have hoped for," Whitney admitted. Her voice was low, the voice of someone who seemed to have almost given up. "I knew that my dad and Simone wouldn't like me and you together, but still...I thought that they'd give me some kind of hint that they'd come around in the end."

"Your pops didn't kill me...isn't that a hint enough?" Chad laughed, trying to make light of the situation.

"I told you I wanted to wait for 3 months so I could prove to everyone that I could play tennis and have a boyfriend, and my Dad threw it right back in my face." Whitney turned around, then gazed into her boyfriend's eyes. "He told me that I've been losing more games than usual. And he's right."

"You think I'm causing you to lose games?"

"Yes." Pause. "No." Another pause. "I don't know." Whitney tossed her hands into the air. "But that's not the only thing. I don't think that was the only reason I wanted to wait...I think I wanted to convince myself that everyone would be okay with this in the end, and putting it off for three months let me stop thinking about it for a while."

"Everything is going to be okay in the end," Chad assured her, looking deep into her eyes.

"I don't think that's true anymore," Whitney said, shaking her head. "I don't think we can make it together."

"Whitney, what are you saying?" Chad drew back from Whitney, puzzled by what she had just said.

"I'm saying I think we need to break up," Whitney declared, her voice shaking.