Looks like I got inspired to write another fic, this time about Days of Our Lives and a new exciting bad-ass couple, Xander & Nicole. Thanks to all my Xcole girls who love them as much as I do. Bear with me this first chapter because I gotta lay the foundation for the story!

This fic starts about three months into the future from what's airing now in 2015. Besides this being about Xander and Nicole, it will loosley follow the show and I will probably use other characters from Days as need be, but most of the plot will have changed to suit my imagination because what's happening on the show now isn't going to end well for Xander & Nicole. So this is purely for fun and to bring Xcole into my fantasy world and my readers' fantasy world and for them to get their own fun and badass story. I hope you enjoy. Rated M for Mature, I'm sure.

Please take time to send me a review at the end so I know you're enjoying it! Thank you.

(Monday, August 31, 2015)

Nicole was restless as she felt the temperature in the air steadily rising in her room. She could feel the skin on her lower back start to sweat. She was half asleep, half awake, tossing beneath her sheets as she grasped for the glass of water she had left on her nightstand earlier. She was so thirsty that her half-assed attempt to grab the glass resulted in it slipping through her tired fingers and onto the floor below. She instantly sprung herself forward and started scrambling with her left hand to find the light switch on the tiny lamp next to her, blurting out expletives as she kept managing to over or undershoot her intended target again and again.

"Finally," she said exasperated as her finger felt the tiny knob on the lamp and proceeded to push it angrily, causing a sudden burst of light to pierce her sleepy eyes. She immediately squinted hard to avoid a direct hit but failed miserably. After she was able to gain focus again, she looked down to assess the spill. The glass was on its side and, except for a few inconsequential drops, the water had spilled onto the floor beneath her.

"Damn it, Nicole. You're not usually this clumsy."

She quickly rotated her bare legs from beneath her sheet and down to the floor. She gasped when she saw her phone lying in the puddle of water. She realized she must have inadvertently knocked it off when she was reaching for just one sip of water to quench her sudden 2 am. thirst, most likely due to her air conditioner cutting on and off all night.

"That damn landlord said the AC would be fixed before I moved in. Add him to my list of lying bastards."

As she scooped up her iPhone and frantically began to wipe it with her bed sheet, she now began to have a heated conversation with it.

"Not you too. Couldn't you have just stayed put on the nightstand like a good little phone? Why is it that everything in my life goes to shit?"

Then she took a deep breath and remembered what today was and tried to shake off her negativity, "Well, not today it doesn't."

With her mind still wandering to the proverbial black cloud that seemed to follow her around, Nicole began to rehash in her mind the never-ending losing predicament she had put herself in all these years by trying to be a better person, a different person, and in the process losing the essence of who she was. She had spent too much damn time trying to be something she wasn't and trying to help people who obviously never wanted her help. She was tired of apologizing for being who she was. She had fought tooth and nail to get where she was and to survive her dreaded abusive past at the hands of her father. She had grown tired of it being thrown back in her face as if it was her fault. Through gossip and lies, somehow her being forced into pornography as a child turned into her voluntarily becoming a "porn star," in essence, blaming the victim. She was sick of the backhanded comments and jokes and was not going to put up with it anymore.

She was now on her own, by choice, and ready to face her life head on. So much had happened the past few months. Nicole thought back to the whole diamond mess and how it all blew up. It had turned into such a fiasco. Xander turned out to be an informant for the FBI trying to work off multiple federal charges he had pending, most of which involved doing Uncle Vic's dirty work and taking the blame for all of it. He agreed to work with the FBI to bring down the diamond smuggling ring and to do so, he had to infiltrate himself into that world and, with his questionable past, it wasn't a task that was hard to do.

Serena, on the other hand, hadn't been the innocent scared victim she had been portraying. She had been involved up to her eyeballs. Nicole kicked herself for not trusting her first instinct when it came to that woman, but Eric had convinced her Serena was this perfect specimen and that Nicole needed to mind her own damn business. Serena had been dealing all along with the diamond smugglers willingly and freely and Xander was only in it to help bring them down. In the end, when all hell broke loose, Serena tried to point the finger at Xander, claiming he forced her into it and cried victim, but Xander managed to get her admitting her guilt along with her partner on a wire.

Of course, Nicole didn't know any of this at the time she wrote her expose, that damn expose she wishes she had never written. Dan was in one ear warning Nicole her life was in danger and Xander was going to hurt her and Serena was in the other ear telling her he'd kill her for knowing too much. So she dug up all the dirt she could on him and cut off all communication with Xander before he could tell her the truth. She exposed his past crimes, his present dealings in the supposed diamond smuggling ring and it got published in the newspaper. And in the meantime, Serena's partner managed to evade arrest and put a hit out on Xander, according to the FBI, and so he had to flee the country and she hadn't seen him since. That was almost three months ago. It didn't matter that she immediattely wrote a retraction when she learned the truth because Xander was already long gone.

She actually felt very bad for thinking the worst of him, as others always did to her, and she never got to apologize for her part in all of it. She'd played with his emotions to try to get the dirt on him and he developed genuine feelings for her and she wasn't so sure she hadn't begun to do the same. Yes, he was a bad boy with a past, but who is she to judge, and he was nothing she couldn't handle. Hell, she had a thing for bad boys. But when it came right down to it, he had actually treated her with respect the whole time she had been around him, something she hadn't experienced for a long time. But it didn't matter now, he was gone and there was nothing she could do about it.

"I miss my brother," Nicole blurted out. "I can't stand most of the sanctimonious people in this town. Why am I even still living here? Why do I put myself through this? I deserve better than this town, the same town who holds Sami "Who's My Baby Daddy" Brady out to be a good mother. As fucking if, Bitch. If it wasn't for my new job, I'd be out of here."

Nicole tried to power on her phone with no avail. "Oh, well, it's not like anyone is going to call me anyway." Nicole flashed back to the messy breakup she had with Daniel months ago after the whole diamond scandal came to a head.

"He never even apologized for accusing me of sleeping with Xander. What a self-righteous prick sucker."

She had finally gotten tired of the constant slut-slamming and him always thinking the worst of her and she couldn't take it anymore. She moved out of his shitty apartment and moved into her own shitty apartment. Daniel wanted so much from her but he never gave her anything back but grief, more grief, and negative and condescending comments concerning every move she made. She was better without him. She felt better. Free, even.

"I'm so done with goodie-goodie mama's boys who want some perfect picture girl. She doesn't exist, morons, and that's why you're in your 40's and not married because you're looking for perfection when you're not all that to begin with. Learn to aim lower, losers."

Suddenly her mind began to wander to happier times and a happier Nicole, a time where Pookie was still alive and she could breathe snark and just cut loose for the sake of it with no restrictions on her behavior. She opened her side dresser drawer and pulled out an old, slightly torn picture of EJ. She had forgotten until that very moment she had left in there.

"Damn you, EJ, why did you have to go back to Sami, the bitch who shot you in the head and never wanted you until you were with me? We could have had it all. I hate you for dying on me and leaving me with these people who don't get me like you used to. Yes, we weren't perfect, but our imperfections worked perfect together. We didn't judge each other because we knew we were damaged goods. You were my damaged goods, damn it. I loved sharing in our triumphs over the jerks of Salem and never having to say sorry for it. You had my back when you had it. When you stabbed me in it, I hated you because I still loved you. I knew Sami would never have made you happy in the long run. She didn't know you like I did and accept you, faults and all, like I did. I loved your faults – most of the time anyway. I just know Sami would have ended up back with Lucas or Rafe because she didn't get people like us. Sanctimonious home-wrecking bitch."

Somewhere between the conversation with her phone and the sanctimonious home-wrecking bitch comment, Nicole fell back to asleep. She woke up to the sound of her alarm and an excruciating headache.

"Ow, my head is kicking my ass."

Nicole got up, went into the kitchen searching for some Tylenol. She found the bottle after a painstakingly long endeavor searching for it. She took three and drank a whole glass of water. She went back in her room, jumped in a hot bath and tried to soak her headache away. She knew she couldn't miss the first day on her new job: President in charge of Publishing at Titan, a job she used to have many years ago. A string of terrible events happened since then, but now Nicole had the chance to begin her career over. Victor Kiriakis had a stroke after Maggie, who couldn't live without Melanie, left him to go live with her in another town. Brady, heartbroken over Melanie, started drinking again and, in the midst of all of that, his child got sick and suddenly died and he had pretty much checked out since then. Nicole had been by to see him several times but he refused to see her or anyone. Well, when Philip Kiriakis came back to care for his ailing father, he was compelled to stay and help him run the company. He cleaned house, firing a lot of high-paid non-productive executives, leaving jobs that needed to be filled.

By that time, Nicole had broken up with Daniel, quit her job as a reporter and needed a new start and decided to apply. She was done with reporting and butting into the lives of people she didn't care about. She wanted a new career or wanted her old one back. She knew she could do the job from her days working at Titan and being Vice-President of Austin Reed and Company, and all that PR work she did for EJ's mayoral campaign gave her quite the resume. Philip found himself hardpressed not to recognize her impressive qualifications and hired her on the spot and gave her the chance that most wouldn't.

"Hell, if Sami could become an executive overnight with no college, no experience, and no sense, then I sure as hell can do it with my qualifications."

Nicole jumped out of the tub, threw on a bathrobe and sat down in front of her mirror.

"Up or down?" she said as she held her hair in her hands. Her hair had grown a couple of inches in the last few months and was hanging below her ears now.

"I think down."

She blew her hair dry and started applying her make-up. Everything was done except choosing her shade of lipstick. She got up and went to her closet and grabbed the white silk blouse and black pin-striped suit she decided to wear for her first day of work.

"Come to mama," she smiled as she shook her head rather pleased with herself.

As she laid the suit along the edge of her bed and began to pull off her robe, she heard a faint knock on her front door. She thought of ignoring it when she heard it again.

"It's 6:00 in the morning. Who in their right mind would ever think I'd be up at this ungodly hour? I didn't tell anyone about my new job...well, because it's nobody's business," she said as she snapped her fingers, finding herself very pleased with her new-found independence.

"Oh, crap, it's probably the landlord asking for that security deposit I never gave him."

She thought about not answering it, but now with her new job and title, she knew she could convince him she was good for it and decided to answer it. She tightened up her robe and proceeded to the door.

As she moved closer to the door, she began talking before her hand hit the knob. "I'll give you what you want, you just have to wait a little longer..."

As the door flung open, her mouth responded in kind, as she looked up at the last person she expected to see.

"I can wait as long as you'd like, sweetheart," his familiar accent rang in her ears.

As she stood there shocked, speechless and naked underneath her robe, she couldn't help thinking he was far more handsome than she remembered.

"Cat got your tongue, Nicole?" Xander said as he cracked a sexy smile aimed right in her direction.