From the window, Doctor Craig Wesley watched his stepdaughter sit motionlessly on the front steps. When he first began asking about Chloe's birth father, he had never imagined it would lead to so many problems for not only his marriage, but also for Chloe. Nor, had he imagined that Nancy would flat-out refuse to tell him or Chloe anything about Chloe's father.

Chloe, sensing that someone was watching her, turned and stared back at Craig. Her face showed no signs of joy, fear, happiness, or any other emotion. The young beauty appeared quite similar to a cold statue brought to life but given no soul.

Rising from her place on the steps, Chloe returned indoors. As she neared the stairs, Craig reached out and gently grabbed her arm. Quietly, he stated, "You don't have to shut Nancy out of your life."

"Yes, I do, Craig. My own mother can't open up to me about my father, yet she expects me to tell her all about my life and my feelings. I'm not going to reveal my innermost feelings to Nancy. Not ever. I wish I didn't even have to live in the same house as that woman."

"Chloe . . ."

"No! I want to be alone," screamed Chloe as she tearfully ran up the stairs.

~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~

"So, son," began Bo with a mischievous look that neither Shawn nor Hope missed. "How are things going? You know, is your summer job going okay? Have you cleaned your room? Are you dating Belle Black yet?"

Hope took great care to keep herself from laughing as Bo added the last question. The look on her oldest son's face was priceless. His fork froze halfway to his mouth, with a spaghetti noodle left hanging in the air.

Nervously stumbling over his words, Shawn replied, "Am I . . . am . . . did you ask if I was dating Belle?"

When his father said nothing in return, Shawn continued to ramble. "What kind of crazy question is that? I mean, come on, Belle and I are friends. Only friends. Seriously, what kind of question was that? That's just insane. Why would I even be interested in Belle? Sure, she has a few good qualities like being sweet and pretty and really funny, but that doesn't mean I want to date her."

Exchanging a knowing glance with her husband, Hope remarked as she made her way into the kitchen, "I don't know about you Brady, but I think our son does protest too much."

Standing up and following his mother into the kitchen, Shawn continued his rant, "What? I'm not protesting too much. That's crazy - almost as crazy as the idea of me and Belle being a couple! Ha! Me and Belle Black? We'd drive each other crazy. I would . . ."

Shawn's jumbled rationalizations were interrupted by the phone ringing. He patiently waited to continue his speech as his mother answered the phone. With a smirk, Hope handed the phone to Shawn and smugly stated, "It's Belle."

Smiling in spite of himself, Shawn took the phone from his mother.

~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~

From his position on the couch, Brady watched his younger sister nervously twirl her hair as she talked on the phone to none other than Shawn Douglas Brady. If she wasn't his sister, Brady felt sure he would be ready to gag himself over Belle and Shawn's "non-relationship." Everyone in town knew about the chemistry between the two young lovebirds - except the two lovebirds. Love may be blind, but Brady thought this was ridiculous. And, being Brady Black, there was no way he was going to just sit by and watch the young couple ignorantly throw away something he suspected he would never have. In his heart, however well hidden it was, Brady loved his sister and wanted her to be happy - even if that meant her dating Shawn Brady.

Before she knew what was happening, Belle had the cordless phone snatched from her hands by her older brother. There was a defiant gleam in Brady's eyes that made Belle almost nervous. It was almost as if he had access to some fountain of knowledge that she didn't even know existed. Of course, Belle had learned long ago that when her brother's eyes were overcome with that devilish gleam, it meant trouble.

"Brady, give me back the phone!"

"Hmm, I don't think so."

"Brady, I'm not kidding! I need to finish my conversation with Shawn."

Giving a short chuckle, Brady loudly asked, "Did you just say that you need Shawn? Wow, Belle, I didn't know you felt that strongly for the guy."

Belle cringed and wondered if Shawn had heard her brother's remarks. As loud as Brady was, she felt there was no way Shawn couldn't have heard every single word.

"That's it! Brady Black, give me back that phone this minute."

"Geez, Belle, calm down. I just want to talk to Shawnny-poo for a minute."

Groaning, Belle questioned, "Shawnny-poo?"

Looking at his sister as if she'd grown another head, Brady remarked, "Yeah, you know, that guy your head over heels for."

Squealing her brother's name, Belle tried in vain to remove the phone from his grasp. After a brief struggle involving her mother's couch pillows making repeated contact with Brady's head, Belle was able to pull the phone away from his grasp.

As Brady openly laughed, Belle regained her composure and calmly began to continue the conversation her and Shawn had been having. "Shawn, I'm so sorry that my brother was acting like an idiot. Anyway, what were you saying about Mimi's birthday party? Um, Shawn are you still there? Shawn?"

By now, Brady was on the couch rolling with laughter as he watched Belle look at the phone in complete confusion.

"It's okay Belle, I hung up on the guy the second I took the phone from you."

"What? Brady, that was so rude."

"Please, Belle. You and I both know how relieved you are that I did hang up on Shawn, because that means he didn't hear what I said about you thinking he's all that and a bag of chips with a can of cheese dip on the side."

"You're not funny, Brady."

"Oh, yes, I am."

~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~

After dinner at the new Kiriakis mansion, Philip discreetly slipped away from his father and took some time to think in the garden. As usual his thoughts were of Chloe. Ever since things had become worse between her and that self-absorbed mother of hers, Philip had felt that they had drifted farther and farther apart. When he and Chloe actually did spend time together, it seemed all they did was fight. In the beginning, the arguments had been over trivial things like kids at school or plans for the weekend. But, now, things were becoming much worse. The most recent series of battles between the young couple had involved the one and only Brady Black. Sure, Chloe claimed to hate the guy, but Philip had a strong feeling that was anything but true. There was something about the way the two argued so passionately, as if the rest of their lives were tied to that single conversation. When Philip and Chloe fought, it was the complete opposite. Chloe seemed to take it in stride and just try to ignore whatever was going on.

Yet, things weren't all bad. With Philip and Chloe, they couldn't be. Philip knew that Chloe and Brady might be able to handle the rough times better together, but Philip told himself that he and Chloe had shared, and would in the future share, more good times than she could ever dream of sharing with Brady.

Never in his young life had Philip wanted anything as much as he wanted Chloe's love. With the determination of a Kiriakis and the faith of a young man in love, Philip silently vowed to fight for Chloe. And, Philip Kiriakis never lost - never. The fact that he was competing against his own nephew really didn't bother him. For Philip, an obstacle was just that, an obstacle.

From a few feet behind him, Philip heard someone clear their throat. When he turned, there was Nicole, looking as troublesome as ever. Philip acknowledged Nicole's presence with a nod before fading back into the thoughts that haunted him at all hours of the day and night.

Nicole rolled her eyes as Philip purposely ignored her. If he wasn't Victor's beloved son, Nicole probably wouldn't even bother trying to help the kid. But, he was Victor's son. For Nicole that meant she had no choice but to be nice to Philip.

"Philip, can I speak to you for a minute?"

Philip glared at Nicole suspiciously but didn't object to her sitting down beside him on the bench. However, he didn't exactly welcome her presence.

"You know that your dad's worried about you. Is everything okay?"

Philip took a moment to look into Nicole's eyes. He was trying to judge just how sincere she was. There were times in the past when Philip had thought that Nicole just might be a decent person underneath the cold and uncaring exterior. He decided there was no time like the present to test Nicole's sincerity.

Not even trying to cover his suspicions, Philip bluntly asked, "Do you really care, Nicole? Because, if you don't, you can go back in the house and we can both forget you even asked."

"Why don't you just tell me what's wrong, and let me help you find a way to fix it?" Even as she made the comment, Nicole wondered how true it was. She had a strong suspicion that Chloe Lane was the cause for Philip's saddened mood. If that was true, then there was very little Nicole could do to help the young man. Nicole's loyalty lay solely with Victor, and Victor had long ago decided that Chloe would never be the woman for his youngest son, no matter how much Philip may love her. The only way Nicole could help Philip would be to do the exact opposite of what Victor wished. Nicole wasn't quite sure she was ready to do something so drastic.

"Maybe some other time," Philip stated as he stood and walked back into the house, leaving Nicole to be the one outside with her thoughts.

~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~

The last rays of the sun were fading from the darkening sky as Mimi walked along the pier. Like Philip, Mimi was trapped with her thoughts. Earlier in the day, Jan had yet again tried to make Mimi miserable. It seemed to be one of Jan's favorite hobbies, second only to making Ghoul Girl suffer. Mimi never thought that she would be lumping herself into the same group as Vampira. She wished that she could at least confide in her mother or father, but both seemed completely absorbed with trying to keep a steady job and make the car payment. They really didn't need to be burdened with Mimi's problems with Jan Spears.

Almost as if on cue, Jan's taunting voice came from behind Mimi, "Oh, look, it's poor little Mimi. Gee, what's the matter? Did your dad lose his job again?"

"Leave me alone, Jan. I have better things to do than listen to you."

"Like what? Finding a new cardboard box for your family to live in? You didn't really think that anyone forgot about last summer, did you? Even if your bum of a father does have a job now, he'll always be remembered as the guy that couldn't even support his own family. I guess that would make him almost as worthless as you."

Before Mimi could even try to defend herself and her family, Jason appeared behind Jan and roughly turned her to face him. Loudly he ordered, "Shut your mouth, Jan. Because, I'm really getting sick of hearing you go on and on. And, everyone else is too. So, why don't you just can it?"

Mimi stared at Jason with almost blind admiration. Other than Shawn, he was the only guy who had ever defended her to anyone. It was an amazingly good feeling.

Rolling her narrow eyes, Jan rudely commented, "Please don't tell me that you're on her side, Jason. She's a complete loser."

"I didn't say I was on anyone's side, I just said for you to shut your mouth because I'm tired of hearing your annoying voice."

"Fine," huffed Jan. "I'm outta here. Besides, I have way better things to do than stand on some dark pier with a wimp like you and a piece of white trash like her."

After Jan walked away, Mimi turned to Jason and said, "I really appreciate you standing up for me and all. I mean, you totally didn't have to. It was really great."

Barely glancing at Mimi, Jason commented, "Yeah, sure, whatever. Listen, I've got to go."

Watching her newest hero disappear into the night, Mimi ran his words over and over in her mind. 'Yeah, sure, whatever.' Okay, so maybe they weren't the most romantic words she had ever heard, but it was definitely a start as far as Mimi was concerned.