Back in Time, Chapter 8
by ejcrane
“Now that everything’s right…how do I get back?” TC asked himself as he
drove around Boston.
He then turned up the radio…
“…I bought you a brand-new mustang,
a 1965.
Now you come around, Signifyin' a woman
That don't wanna let me ride...
Mustang Sally, now baby, oh Lord,
Guess you better slow that mustang down...(Huh...oh yeah)
You been running all over town...OH!
Guess I have to put your flat feet on the ground...
What i said now...let me say it one more time.
Now all you wanna do is ride around Sally...
(Ride, Sally, Ride)
All you wanna do is ride around Sally...
(Ride, Sally, Ride)…”
Suddenly, as TC drove, everything seemed to appear differently! He drove
past The Blue Note, but the thing was…it was no longer there. Some other
building was in its place.
“How can that be?” he blinked, “Just a minute ago…” he shook his head,
“Wait! Can it be…can it be…that I’m, I’m…there’s only one way to find out…”
he smiled as he turned onto the highway that led into Harmony.
Yawning and stretching, Julian looked around and blinked in confusion.
He was back at the mansion, when last night, after he and Eve had got caught
making love in the interrogation room, he was led back to his cell where
he fell asleep.
“What’s going on?” he laughed to himself as he rubbed his eyes.
Nope, it didn’t do anything. He was still in the same room, at the mansion.
“Finally, you’re up,” Ivy came in and rolled her eyes.
“IVY!” he gritted through his teeth, “What the hell are you doing in here?”
She gave him a look.
“Well, I was thinking the same thing, but I actually got worried when you
hadn’t woke up,” she looked to her watch, “It is past twelve, and this is
not your usual time to get up…well,” she looked off to the side, “…unless
you’re out with some bimbo…”
WHAT?! What was she talking about? Ivy was acting as if they were married
again…
“Whatever Ivy, just get out! I need to shower and then go talk to Eve…”
“Eve?” she scoffed, “Eve? Please,” she chuckled, “She has never wanted
to speak to you after she found us together…”
“What?!”
“Oh, Julian, you are acting too strange, even for me…you know what? You
do that; you go out and go find Eve…” she continued to laugh and left their
room.
He didn’t know what she was talking about, but then again, what he and
Eve had done yesterday, and in the past year, no one had known about that.
Julian smiled in the mirror at his reflection. He was just about to go
see Eve, or try to see her. Applying cologne, Julian smiled once again,
and left…
The doorbell rang and Julian turned towards the door when he heard someone
unlocking it. The only reason he decided to go ahead and knock, was because
he didn’t see TC’s car in the driveway. But, he was startled by who opened
the door…
What was she doing here?
“Gwen? What are you doing here?” he smiled, “Were you and Ethan visiting
the Russell’s?”
“Good one!” she rolled her eyes, “I suppose you want to talk to…”
“Honey, who was at the door…” Eve’s words trailed off as she walked into
the living room from the kitchen drying her hands with a towel, “Ohh,” she
bit the inside of her cheek, “It’s you.”
Julian’s smile faded. What was wrong with Eve? She had such an attitude
with him, when yesterday she was so loving. Maybe she was having second thoughts.
God, he hoped not. But what was it with the relationship she had with Gwen?
She had just called her “honey”?
“Sam, I’ll handle this,” Eve finally said.
SAM?! HUH?!
“Are you sure, Mom?” when Eve nodded, she continued, “Okay, well, then
I’m going to go meet dad at the tennis courts…and I’ll be sure not to mention
he was here,” she eyed Julian.
With that, Gwen a.k.a. Samantha Russell began walking towards the kitchen.
“Wait a minute! What is going on here, damnit?!”
“How dare you come into my house and talk to me this way?!”
“All I want to know is why you are calling Gwen ‘Sam’? Eve, what the hell
is going on?”
‘Samantha’ turned to look at Julian and gave him a dirty look before leaving…
“Well, maybe you’d know what was going on in life if you, for once, paid
attention to your own daughter, OUR daughter! Maybe if you’d stop calling
her Gwen and start calling her by her real name, maybe she’d respond better
to you,” she paused to take in a breath, “Julian…what are you even doing
here? What do you want? You never showed any concern for us in the past,
so why now…”
“Eve…I’m confused. Gwen,” he closed his eyes tight, “Uh, Samantha isn’t
our daughter, Eve. We had a son, remember? But father took him away, and I
never told you this, but I’ve been secretly looking for him…” he said sincerely.
She shook her head in disbelief.
“You have some nerve to deny Sam as our little girl, but I’m not surprised.
You abandoned us in the past for your money and that Ivy Winthrop,” tears
streamed down her face, “Julian go! JUST GO!” she yelled and shoved him
out of the doorway and slammed the door in his face and locked it.
“Our little girl?” he whispered to himself, “How can this be? How is everything
so different after one night in jail?”
Arriving back at the mansion, Julian went straight for his room. Maybe
if he went to back to bed, and by the time he woke up, everything would
be back to normal.
“What was he doing here, Eve?”
“I don’t know, honey, I don’t know why he does the things he does…but I
told him to go, and not come back,” she hugged her husband.
God, she was so grateful for Tc. Meeting him when she did was such a blessing.
And for TC to help raise hers and Julian’s little girl; oh, that meant so
much to her…and to Samantha too. Sam loved him as if he was her own father.
It had been so tough for her growing up, when she looked like neither of
her parents, but Sam was the adult her parents had molded her into.
“Sweetheart, why don’t you go upstairs and take a nice warm bubble bath
while I fix dinner?” he smiled.
“TC…you’re the kind of man every woman dreams of, and I love you for that…”
she kissed him soundly and walked up the stairs.
TC looked up and watched as his wife disappeared. He then turned back towards
the phone and grinned mischievously. TC walked over to it and picked it
up, and then dialed a number and waited for someone to answer as it rang.
Finally someone did answer…
“Hello?”
“Yes, hello to you too…Julian. How are you doing today, hmm?”
“TC, what is you want? A raise at the high school? What’s the matter? You
can’t support your family on that little coaching salary?”
“Why Julian, I have no idea what you are talking about. Why would I, the
national tennis champion, need any money from a coaching job that I do not
even have?” he chuckled when Julian didn’t say a word, “Tell me something,
Crane? Tell me how it feels that I ended up with your little Songbird…that
she loves me…” and with that, TC hung up.
Julian gasped into the receiver. He then pulled it away from his ear and
looked at it in shock. TC knew about his and Eve’s past?! And didn’t care?!
Well, he had to have known, considering how he raised their kid…but…
Julian shook his head, until…
What did TC just say? What did he call Eve?
‘Songbird’? How did he know that? That was his secret name for her…no one
else knew that!