Moving the Stars

The characters used in this story are the property of Sunset Beach, NBC and Spelling Entertainment. I've just borrowed them for a little while.

This story starts six months after the start of the show. Del Douglas is dead and Olivia and Gregory have an uneasy truce between them. Cole St. John has not yet arrived in Sunset Beach.

Part One

Gregory Richards had run out of prey. By 10:30 that morning, his desk was empty of his paperwork. When lunch arrived his was finishing his work on the financial projections of Liberty Corporations for the next two years. When his exhausted secretary confessed that she couldn't find anything else that he could possibly begin work on, he relented. Giving her the rest of the day off, he set home himself.

He preferred to be at work. Work was orderly and he could control the operations there so everything functioned as a well oiled machine. Gregory didn't notice the beautiful midday sun beaming through the window of his car. If he had, he would have considered it to be a mockery of his mood.

When he was bored his mind wandered. Obsessively, he thought through the chaos of his home. Like the parasitic eel that attaches to the belly of a shark, Olivia was always foremost in his thoughts. Even when he had work, it was hard to chase her from his mind. When work was as scarce as it was today, she tore at the back of his mind. She would be home when the car pulled into the garage.

Since it was already after noon, there was no question in his mind that she would be drunk. Sometimes he wondered what inspired more hatred, the thought of Olivia, or the thought of her drunk.

He exited the car before it reached the garage. Now the sun had its chance to mock him with its cheerful warmth. He lifted his eyes, feeling the sun caress his face as he changed his scowl to a smile. Caitlin might be home. She would appreciate the effort on his part. She often complained he looked to serious.

Still smiling, he circled the house and came in through the back. No one was on the patio. Disappointed, he entered to find no one moving around the living room. The house had the cool feeling of a mausoleum. The bright sunlight from the patio doors crept across the floor only as far as the toes of his shoes. Closing his eyes for a moment, he felt the house of years ago, vibrant with Caitlin's laughter.

Those memories kept the smile faintly on his face as he crossed the living room to his study. He was trying to focus on the memory of Caitlin's baby curls against his cheek when something amiss stopped him in the doorway of his study. Someone was in his sanctuary already.

His chair was turned to the bookshelf, and the occupant apparently had no desire to acknowledge his presence. Intrigued, he prowled around the desk and found Olivia's sleeping form. Frustration boiled up in his stomach. She knew he didn't like her being in here. She had most likely done it on purpose, knowing her intrusion would rouse him into a rage. When all else was lost between them, she clung to any attention he would pay her. Even in an argument.

"I will not have you taunt me Olivia." He promised himself as he reached for her shoulder and stopped before rousing her awake. She held her journal in her lap. Olivia had stopped keeping a journal after the miscarriage. She had threatened to destroy all of her journals in grief, but he had put them away in his study. It was purely sentimental of him to even still have them and he chided himself for allowing that weakness.

Gregory glanced down at the date on his watch, and cursed himself for not remembering this morning. Olivia had been babbling about anniversaries at breakfast, he had paid her no mind, thinking that their anniversary was in November and she must have already been drinking. He watch read June 24th. June 24th was THE anniversary. His quick search of the room confirmed it. No telltale glasses were in sight. Nothing was out of place. She hadn't fallen asleep after a long morning of hard liquor.

Lowering his face to just above her forehead, he found the puffiness of her eyes he had ignored last night. As he searched his memory, he realized that the blue shirt she had on this afternoon, wrinkled as it was now, was the same one she had worn to the art gallery with Caitlin yesterday.

His heart turned traitor on him. The carefully constructed barrier of rage failed him when he realized she must have been awake the entire night. Reading her journals was a slow torturous ritual that she subjected herself to every year. As if the quiet hell that was her life wasn't enough punishment without relieving the past happiness to use in comparison.

The kiss surprised her awake. Gregory only kissed her for appearance's sake and they were entirely alone. Thrown off guard she shut the journal and started out of his chair, "I'm sorry I fell asleep in your office. I know I'm not allowed in without your permission. I won't come in here again." Normally she would have argued with him, but without speaking he kissed her again.

"Gregory-" She started to protest, but his hands closed in from the arms of the chair, resting firmly on her shoulders.

"Let me apologize before you disappear." He requested softly. Olivia waited in the chair and he released her. "I'm sorry I ignored you."

"Just last night? Or is this a blanket apology for the last 20 years?" She didn't mean the words to hurt him. She wanted to start the trade in insults that would let her retreat from his presence as quickly as possible. For a moment, his eyes had taken the black cast that heralded a real fight between them, but then they faded.
part one, cont "Which would you like?" Came his surprisingly sincere reply.

Olivia wondered what his motive could be for faking the hurt in his eyes. "The former will do. May I leave now?"

Gregory moved aside, allowing her an unblocked path to the door. "You could always leave Olivia."

"You just asked me to stay." She argued back with an icy tongue.

"I appreciate that you did."

Olivia walked past him with her head held high. She had no desire for his games. She heard the chair squeak back into position at the desk. His voice almost made her trip.

"Please." Again, no fight was in his tone. Something told her to turn around. Gregory had his hands in his pockets. The gesture was disarming. His posture admitted defeat.

"What could you possibly want?" Olivia shot back, trying again to start up the volley of insults between them. She had developed a thick skin to his criticisms. This new tactic was entirely disorienting.

Gregory shrugged, resting his hand on the leather back of the chair. "Stay, just for a moment."

Without taking a step in either direction, Olivia stared at her husband. "Why?"

"I don't have any work to do. Maybe you'd stay and talk to me."

Olivia laughed, obviously he was making some sort of cruel joke. "When don't you have work?"

He pulled out the chair to his desk and smiled. "Today."

She took one step towards him and faltered. "We don't talk. We fight, we scream at each other. We have sex. We don't talk."

"I'd like to try today."

"What is your game Gregory?" Olivia took two steps this time before she stopped. "Do you think this is all it takes between us? Do you think that I'll melt because you have something sweet to say to me?" Another step. "Is there some party you need me to escort you too?" She closed the distance between them and paused furious just in front of his desk.

"I know. You've decided to run for mayor and you need me to say how much I love you to the whole town, so our charade can be a play for all of Sunset Beach." Olivia's hands shook as she gestured towards him disdainfully. "You think you can just name your price and I'll fall into your plan. All right, you've got my attention now. Lay out your terms and I'll tell you what it will cost you."

"Olivia, I took advantage of you earlier." He gestured to the chair and invited her to sit down. She shook her head. Gregory sighed and continued to speak. "I never should have kissed you without your consent."

She started laughing again. "You haven't asked to kiss me in years. I'm your wife, your live-in sleeper. You don't ask, you take whatever you want, whenever you want. Gregory Richards always has what he wants and you want something right now don't you?"

He nodded slightly. "I'd like to kiss you again."

Olivia was dumbstruck. She opened her mouth once, and then closed it again. "You want to kiss me?"

"Yes, I would like your permission to kiss you."

"No!" She slammed the journal she had forgotten into the desk.

"All right." He paused and moved aside the telephone to sit on his desk. "How was your day Olivia?"

She had hit her knuckle against the desk when she slammed down her hands. Some of the skin was torn and it stung. "What?" She asked with waning anger.

"How was your day?" Gregory repeated patiently as he took her hand and examined her injury.

"Bloody awful-" She fired back, trying to pull her hand free. He put the broken skin in his mouth, and the stinging ceased. "Then worse when you came home. Why do you care?"

"You're not drunk." He remarked softly before drawing her attention to her hand. "This is still bleeding a little." Without releasing her hand, he dug into his desk until he found a bandage. Gregory removed the wrapper and attached it gently to her hand.

"Thank you." She tugged at her hand and he released it. "I didn't want to forget today."

"I'm sorry I did."

"I'll bet you are…" She accused out of habit.

Gregory sighed heavily. "I am sorry Liv. I know you must be tired. I apologize for keeping you."

She turned to go, pausing for a moment in the doorway as Olivia searched for something she wanted to say.

He interrupted her thoughts, but she didn't turn around. "I appreciate you not drinking today."

"I didn't do it for you." She finished curtly. Then she fled his presence, exhausted. Not pausing her steps until she was safe behind the closed door of her room.

Downstairs in his study, Gregory smiled and headed for the warm sunshine of the patio, his mind already hard at work.