AN:
This chapter was inspired by a post on the B&B-section of Soap centrals message board section by SummerBay and it goes like this:
I was hoping so much that Aly's death was only temporary so it would be possible to have an after death experience to see the REAL Darla again. When Aly revealed she faked getting over her issues with Taylor for her father's sake, it seems the only person that could heal her would be her mother. Shae is already on the show as the floating head Darla, so it's not like it would be hard to bring her in for a scene like this. It could have been a real turning point for Aly, and she could then choose to return to her body healed after a beautiful encounter with the mother she misses so much. Instead we get Ivy choosing the sit in her car and record instead of jump out and help her "best friend", Liam's stupid face, Rick and Maya making excuses and Zende and Nicole mucking around on the runway. I'm still holding out hope during Aly's funeral we have a scene (which maybe even Thorne can witness) of Aly being reunited with Darla on the other side.
So I am going to try to make this posters vision come true, it may not become exactly what he/she saw in his/her head, but it'll probably be somewhat similar. I hope. I am really sorry for the big monologue that Darla has in the beginning of the story, but it came out and I didn't know how else to do it.
I have watched a ton of Darla-scenes to get a feel of who she was once again and I hope that I have captured her spirit and the funny girl/woman we all knew and I think most of us loved.
I do not own anything in this chapter since I didn't come up with the idea.
Chapter two
Aly didn't die?
It hurts, so much. She brings her hand up to touch the side of her face and when she brings it back down, there's blood on her hand. She looks around and sees Steffy and Ivy screaming at her to wake up, but she doesn't really want to, her head feels so much clearer now than it did a few minutes ago. She moves over to her cousin and touches her cheek, she sees Steffy´s reaction to the touch. The tears start pouring down her cheeks and she nods, because the feeling sipping from Aly´s hand into Steffy´s cheek was one of understanding, acceptance and love.
She could feel the presence of someone looking at her. She turns around and sees a woman who held such a deep meaning to her that she felt the tears pouring down her face. "Mom! I've missed you so much!" She starts running and ends up in her mothers arms. "Oh Aly, I've missed you too so much, I've been with you every day since I died. But honey, what were you trying to do here? Why would you want to kill Steffy like this?"
"You told me to do it. You wanted me to get rid of her and fix the problem in the company. The way she dresses, goes after other women´s men and just takes, takes, takes. Her mother is the reason you're dead mom! She needs to pay for it. She never did." Darla places a hand on Aly´s cheek.
"But Aly, Taylor isn't the sole reason I'm dead. Sure, she was driving the car, but her driving the car isn't the only reason. I shouldn't have tried to change Phoebe´s tire, I should have taken her by the hand and brought her home with me. Oh honey. I lost my balance when the lug nut got loosened and I fell into the road. The moment Taylor saw me, I was already in the middle of the road, there was no way she could have stopped and not hit me with the car." Darla looks Aly straight into her eyes as she's talking.
"But mom, she had been drinking, she had alcohol in her system and she was driving on a suspended license." Aly shakes her head as if she doesn't want to hear the truth.
"Yes, but she was scared to death for her daughter and when she came around the bend, she wasn't even going that fast. The problem is that Phoebe´s car and that bend were so close together. Both me and Taylor has fault in my death. I shouldn't have tried to change the tire and Taylor shouldn't have been driving, but any one single car would have hit me if they came around that bend when I fell into the road and honey, I could have fought harder in the hospital, I had a beautiful four year old at home and I should have fought harder to come back to you." Darla looks over to see Steffy break down completely. "And with regards to the fact that Taylor never paid for my accidental death, Phoebe died in a car crash, Taylor herself has been considered dead and missed a huge part of her children´s life. There are so many things that has happened to Taylor through out her life that makes this mistake of getting into the car on a suspended license, not completely, but forgivable and I really thought you had let it go after you got together with Oliver." Darla envelopes Aly in a hug.
"But she still killed you and she didn't go to jail or pay for it in any way. It took her months to even come forward and in the end it only hurt me and dad more."
"Oh honey, Taylor has to live with the fact that I'm dead partially because of her decision to get behind the wheel and go find her daughter for the rest of her life, but what you must remember is that she's not the only reason. I should have fought harder and not just given in to Thorne saying that it was okay for me to leave. There hadn't been any doctor to tell him that there was no chance for me to come back from the damage in my brain. I really wish that he had told me to fight instead. I mean, Sally told me to fight. Stephanie told me to fight, Taylor told me to fight and Phoebe told me to fight, but I chose to listen to Thorne even though I had so much to live for. Aly, I had so much to live for, but I chose to let go. There might have been months of physical therapy in front of me, but leaving you and your father never should have crossed my mind." Aly just shakes her head.
Darla grabs Aly´s shoulders. "Do you hear me? I chose not to fight to come back to you, I chose to give in to the darkness that my body craved for. Taylor told me to fight to come back to you even though she knew she'd more then likely end up in jail after I had told the police what happened, she told me to fight anyway. Aly, honey, it wasn't just Taylor´s fault. She's not the only one to blame. We both are, we both made mistakes and my mistake of starting to change the tire instead of taking Phoebe home with me cost us all so much. I am so sorry that those mistakes took me away from you, but I really don't think that it justifies you trying to get rid of Taylor´s daughter." Darla has tears in her eyes as she's looking at her daughter.
"But Steffy is damaging the company, she took Liam away from Ivy and she just takes takes and takes and she always ends up on top." Aly still won't let it go.
"Oh, honey. I know your father has sheltered you from the world while growing up, but Steffy hasn't always ended up on top. There has been times in her life where she's almost reached the bottom of life. I watched her grow up and she's become an amazing woman and I feel like it's such a shame that you only look at the mistakes that she's done.
Yes, she went after Bill Spencer, but she first did it to make her father and your grandfather happy and she got the company back for them. Then she was kicked out because of something that she hadn't even done because her father chose to listen to his stepdaughter and her mother instead of his own daughter.
She has been used by your uncle Rick in order to get back at her father for supposedly mistreating Brooke in their relationship, she fell for Liam before Hope and Liam even started dating and decided to let those feelings go so that Hope could be happy with Liam and she left for Paris, then she came back and let her dormant attraction for Bill get the better of her, when he dumped her in favor of his wife after saying he was leaving his wife, she slipped in the bathtub and hit her head leading to her almost drowning, luckily Liam was standing outside the door because Bill wanted him to drop of the key to the loft and when Steffy didn't answer, he used the key and found her in the tub almost dead, he performed CPR and she survived, the event sparked new life in Steffy´s feelings for Liam and when she saw how Hope treated her relationship with Liam, Steffy decided to show Liam what a relationship could be like when both in the relationship has a say so in it. Once Steffy realized that Liam was serious about being with Hope, even though he hadn't had a say so in their relationship since he had proposed, she gave him a kiss Good bye and walked away from him again. Unfortunately Hope saw that kiss and didn't fight for their relationship, a lot happened after that, but what sticks out the most is that Hope didn't have the same faith in Liam that Steffy had.
The event that best showcase this is when Hope and Liam were having their do over wedding after Italy. Hope blindly took the word that her fiance had been unfaithful with Steffy from a guy who she didn't even know over the guy whom supposedly is or was the love of her life.
Steffy and Liam rekindled their relationship after that and it led to Steffy being pregnant with Liam´s child. When Steffy found out about the baby, she went home to tell her boyfriend who she was living with and found Hope on their bed rolling around with Liam on top of her clothes, she left and went of to Paris to be with her father and told Liam to get Hope out of his system because there was something bigger than them on the line now. The reason Hope was there was the fact that Rick had come clean about making Othello lie about seeing Liam kissing Steffy and she felt they had been robbed. For Hope, when ever she and Liam broke up, it was always someone else fault.
When Steffy came back from Paris, Liam told her that he needed space to get his feelings in order and decide which one of the girls he wanted to be with and Steffy gave him that time. During that time, Liam constantly sought Steffy out, while Hope always went to find Liam. Steffy had faith in that Liam would decide on his own.
Some time after Steffy moved out, Brooke started planning a reenactment of the Italy wedding, bringing the priest over and everything, Steffy finds out just before the ceremony starts and gets there while Liam is thinking about if he really wants to put the ring on Hope´s finger or not. Let me just remind you that Liam is Steffy´s boyfriend and the father of her unborn child and Hope is trying to marry another woman´s boyfriend. As Steffy walks out on the balcony of the beach house, she yells for them to stop. When she reached the cliff where the ceremony took place, Hope looks at her and tells her that there's nothing she can say that would stop the wedding, Steffy whispers in Liam´s ear that she's pregnant and things happens after that. Hope believes that Liam only chose Steffy because of the baby and she and her mother and her aunts constantly says this to everyone that would listen and it just got worse after Steffy lost the baby.
What I mean to say is that almost nothing in Steffy's life has been handed to her, she has had to fight for everything, she started at the bottom of the corporate ladder, Hope got handed a line because her aunt was pissed at Steffy for kissing her husband. Steffy actually made the company a whole lot of money with the campaigns she thought out when Bill Spencer owned the company and the Logan´s ruled the company making your grandfather and uncle miserable.
The mistakes Steffy has made in regards to Liam and Hope she has owned up to and in regards to Hope and Oliver, she wasn't the reason Hope and Oliver broke up, in fact, Steffy wasn't the reason Hope and Oliver broke up at all, that was the fact that her mother had slept with Oliver during Hope´s graduation party and a tribute to Brooke that Ridge had forced Steffy to do had been tampered with told on them, which made Ridge fire Steffy all together from the company which he wouldn't even have if it weren't for Steffy. This is where Steffy was given Taylor´s shares in the company so that she would have a way back into the company. And about Steffy trying to take Liam from Ivy. Do you really think that Steffy would have had a chance to do so if there were no feelings left for Steffy on Liam´s part? He and Caroline had a conversation back when the first take over attempt was made in which he said that he had put these walls up to protect himself and he wasn't sure if he could trust Steffy again.
Hope and Liam tried to get married so many times and it didn't stick, Steffy and Liam tried to get married twice and both time it stuck, although it was ended after a while. Ivy and Liam got married because Ivy begged him to marry her after she heard him proclaim his love for Steffy to Steffy and after she had been told that she might not have the right to work in this country because she wasn't a US. citizen. When she found out she actually had dual citizenship, she told Liam and the annulment was almost instant. Liam wanted to be with Steffy, do you really want to force him to be with someone he doesn't want to be with?" Darla looks Aly deep in the eyes and sees the light flicker on.
"No, I don't, but before Steffy came back, he wanted to be with Ivy!" Aly points out.
"Honey, I know what it's like to put away strong feelings for someone that's hurt you or is with someone else. I did it for years with your father, but the feelings that hides in Steffy´s heart for Liam is much stronger than the feelings I had for your father, she has stepped back over and over again so that he could be happy with someone else and it would appear that the feelings that Liam has for Steffy are stronger than my feelings for your father too. Honey, you do not get to choose who you fall in love with and I think that Liam did love Ivy at one point, but he couldn't fall in love with her because there was someone else in his heart already. May it be Steffy or Hope.
I am so sorry that I haven't been here for you the way I should have. But that is not a reason to go after people who aren't living their lives the way you want them to or in a relationship that you want them in. It is good that you have things that you believe in, but everyone doesn't have to live the way you want them to." Darla opens her arms and envelopes her daughter in a hug.
"Now, I haven't always been a fan of Ridge and his way of handling things over at Forrester Creations or his relationships with his brothers, but since he's been back from Paris, it seems as if a lot has changed and his relationship with Caroline seems to have had a mellowing effect on him that I've only seen in him while he was with Taylor and their kids.
I really hope that you understand, like I do now, that Ridge has been groomed to take over Forrester Creations from the moment he was born, the company was actually created for him and the rest of Stephanie´s children. But Ridge was always the one to take over when Eric and Stephanie decided to step back, because he is Stephanie´s first born. What he's doing right now is to take the company into the future and I believe that it's the right thing to do. Also, Steffy is your cousin, you two share the same grandmother, that means something. You two share the same blood and blood is always thicker than water, you need to remember that and not fight so much. Just remember that you two are Douglas-girls and that makes all the difference!"
Aly moves closer into her mothers arms just to feel safe again.
"Honey, have you understood what I've been saying?" Darla feels Aly slightly nod her head.
"Yeah, it wasn't just Taylor's fault that you died, there were a lot of things that created that event and I shouldn't only blame Taylor for it. You and Dad have fault in it too. I'll try harder to forgive Taylor , mom, but I'm not sure I will be able too, but I'll try." Darla places her hands on Aly´s cheeks and kisses her forehead. "I need to stop treating Steffy and Ridge as the enemy and start to see them as family."
"Yes honey, my darling Aly-cat, you do and I think that you'll be much happier if you do."
"But I don't want the fog in my head to come back, I hated the way it made me feel about everything." Darla reaches out and places her hands on Aly´s temples and gives her forehead yet another kiss.
"I think you'll be just fine, you just have to live your life the way you want it and accept that not everyone lives their life the way you live yours, once you do that, you'll be more then fine!" Darla gives her daughter another hug. "It's time now honey, if you don't go back now, you'll never be able to! I love you so much, but there is so much life you've got left to live and so much you have yet to do! Oh and honey, ask Ridge about the shoe line you showed Rick!" Aly lifts her hand and wipes away the tears that are falling down her cheeks.
"I love you mommy!" She nods and walks back to her body.
"Every time you feel a warm breeze blow by, that's me encouraging you to do your best and live your life the best way you can and honey, the next time someone asks you to do something that you haven't done before and don't think you'll like, try it out and find out if it is something that you do like. I'll love you and guide you forever honey and tell your father that I love him!" Darla gives her daughter a flying kiss and watches her reattach herself to her body, she sees her daughter cough and lean into Steffy´s arms as Steffy lets out a relieved cry that Aly is okay.
Aly looks towards where her mother had been just a minute ago and she sees a bright light and then a warm breeze touches her skin and when she gives herself permission to think about it, the fog that had been in her head when she stood over her cousin with the rock in her hand about to smash Steffy´s brains out was gone and when she realized that it was Steffy´s arms she had around her, she doesn't flinch back like she's done so many times before but instead she leans further in.
"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't really want to do it, but I thought that if I did, the fog inside my head would disappear and I would feel right again." Steffy listens to what her cousin says.
"Yeah, I know honey, what you were doing a few minutes ago wasn't really you and I can't blame you for that. Did you know your father is here?" Aly looks up at Steffy with surprise in her eyes, she straightens herself up and looks straight into her eyes.
"He is? You can't? I just tried to kill you and you'll just let it go?" Steffy has nothing but love in her eyes while she looks at her cousin.
"He is, Uncle Thorne called me from the air port before my phone signal disappeared and told me he'd celebrate with us because of the success of California Freedom. We'd better get going!" Steffy get's off the ground and then reaches down to help Aly up. When Aly groans because of pains in her neck and one of her arms, she reconsiders. "Oh, um, maybe we should get you to the hospital and check you out? Ivy, can you call 911 and get an ambulance out here? Are you okay Aly? That's a nasty cut you've got there as well."
Ivy goes to call to get the ambulance out there and then she sends a text to Wyatt that they'll be taking Aly to the hospital and they need to get the cars back to the mansion and Steffy´s tire need to be completely changed, so she asks him to bring Liam, Zende and Oliver to bring the cars back and to tell Thorne that he needs to come to the hospital.
What if...Chapter two
A month later.
Aly walks through the hallways of Forrester Creations with a stack of papers in her hands. She's still got some marks left from where she fell and hit her head on the rock, but it's healing quite nicely. The last couple of weeks she's been trying out a few different styles when it comes to clothing and finally settled on a mix between the 50's and modern clothes. At the present time she's wearing an A-line dress with a petticoat underneath to make the skirt fuller, a sash under her breasts, sweetheart neckline and a halterneck strap holding it up, the dress has big roses in bright colors in the pattern of the fabric and a big constructed rose on the empire cut. She's wearing a pair of emerald green peep toe pumps with a matching rose on the back of the shoe and a cardigan because at the moment, it's a little chilly, but as she stands in front of the door to Stephanie Forrester´s office, she can feel the warm breeze blowing by her and she feels the nerves she had just a few minutes ago vanish. She brings her hand up and knocks on the door, she hears her cousin call out to her that she can come in so she opens the door and peaks through the door.
"Hey Steffy! Do you have a minute or three? I've got something I'd like to show you!" Aly´s eyes sparkles with joy, you can see that she's different from what she was five weeks ago.
"Hey Aly!" Steffy has just ended a call with a store manager in New York that has had a little trouble with one member of the staff and had called to get some advice. "Ooh, I love that dress, did you make it your self?" Aly starts to blush.
"No, technically I didn't, it was inspired by a dress that Austin Scarlett did on Project Runway a few years ago. I did make the shoes though!" She steps out of her left shoe and brings it up to show her cousin. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about, or rather show you." She starts feeling really nervous again and she begins to feel a little shy.
"Well, anyhow, I really like the dress! Let me see then!" She reaches over the desk to take the stack of papers that Aly has in her hands, she looks them over and when she get´s to a pair of black strappy heels with rhinestones and rivets connecting the straps to each other, she's sold. "I want those! Make me a pair of those!"
Aly starts laughing. "Yeah, I had you in mind when I drew those. The model is named Stephanie. Had grandma been in her 20's right now I believe she'd be wearing those too!"
"So, do you want to bring these to my father or should I?" As she's asking, she continues to look through the stack of designs and when she sees a pair of ballerinas with a bright pink base and blurred out orange flowers, tears gathers in her eyes. "You know who these remind me of? There's two of them actually." She looks up at her cousin.
"No, who?" Aly seems a little confused.
"Your mom and my sister. Those shoes are totally something that both of them would wear." Steffy gives a small smile and sees Aly nod her head.
"Yeah, they would wouldn't they?" Aly finds herself tearing up. "I thought we could show them to uncle Ridge together? I mean, I don't really have the experience to pitch a line and this is a line that isn't even about the clothes."
Steffy nods her head. "Yeah, we could do that if that's what you want. When do you want to do it?"
"As soon as possible, I can do it when ever, I just wanted to ask you to come with me. We can do it any time you have the time too!"
"Okay, can I just finish up this paperwork that I need to have with me so that dad can check it out and approve it, I'll be done in about an hour or two and then I'll call you to say it's time, sounds good?" She moves some pieces of paper around as she's talking.
Aly nods her head. "Yeah, that will be fine! I had a burst of inspiration right before I stepped in here anyway, so I'll add a few more pairs to the portfolio and we'll have more to show him! I'll see you later!"
"We sure will!" Steffy waits until Aly has left the office before she starts doing the paperwork.
Exactly one hour and fifteen minutes later, both girls are standing in the office of Forrester Creations CEO and as they watch Ridge look through the design sheets, he looks up when he comes to a particular pairs of shoes.
"Well, I've got to say these shoes captures your mother like a tee. She was all colors and all over the place, I am so sorry that I didn't appreciate her spirit when she was alive, but it seems you've picked up a large part of it these last few weeks and for that I am really glad, we need someone like her with us here once again. I've been talking to your father and he has agreed to come and work with us here in LA. Liam came and talked to me a few days ago and he told me that he'd been neglecting his duties over at Spencer Publications and he needs to focus on that so he's asked to be removed as Vice President and Thorne was very willing to take over and now that his daughter has a line, I'm pretty sure he'll be even more happy to work here as well! We'll be sending Rick and Maya to Paris, both of them seem like a perfect fit over there, Maya will still be a model for the company and we'll be working all that out, but she won't be the only one and Rick has been expressing his wishes to move to Paris anyway so it all works out really well!" Ridge looks up and watches his daughter and niece´s faces light up at the news and smiles back at them. "Aly, can I talk to you a little bit alone before you go?"
Aly nods her head. "Yes!"
Steffy gives her father a hug, whispers thank you in his ears and then leaves the room.
"So, what did you want to talk about, uncle Ridge?" Ridge pulls out another design sheet and shows it to Aly, it has the most beautiful wedding dress on it.
"Well, Liam came to me and asked if he could marry my daughter for a third time and I said that he may and so I designed a dress for her, I asked Quinn to design a necklace, an engagement ring and a wedding band, a pair of earrings, a hair piece and a bracelet and what we're missing right now are a pair of shoes. I was wondering if you'd like to do me and my daughter the honor of designing those shoes?" Ridge looks her in the eyes as he's talking.
"Oh, I've already designed them though." She searches for the black sandals that Steffy demanded she'd make for her. "Those are the ones, I could do them in a blush color or white, or maybe we should just keep them black? When I showed Steffy my designs a couple of hours ago she practically ordered me to make them. I mean, can you see her in anything else?" Ridge looked totally stumped.
"No, I can't see her wearing anything else. Those are perfect! Did you know that the last time she married Liam, she wore all black? The first time she wore combat boots. I think we should keep them black though, but maybe expand the line so that we do have that blush color you spoke about as well as the black one? I think we should do all the shoes in more colors. You know the pair that reminded me of your mother? Maybe we should do those with a green base with blurred out blue flowers, or the other way? Blue base with green flowers?"
As Ridge was making suggestions, Aly was sitting and making sketches of her shoes with the changes in color and when she showed her uncle the sketches of the shoes with the changes, she solidified what he already knew. Alexandria Forrester was Forrester Creations next designer and he could almost hear Darla say "I told you so!" in his head.
What if...
During the last month a lot had happened in the lives of the Forrester clan. Ivy had discovered that Wyatt was actually a really good guy when he wasn't in competition with his brother and had started to slowly fall for the guy, she had also realized that what ever she had felt for Liam really wasn't much to hold on to, especially when she saw how he behaved any time he was in close proximity to Steffy, he was a total gentlemen, opened doors, pulled out chairs, looked at her constantly, always knew where she was and he'd light up when ever he saw her, the first two things he'd done for Ivy too, but the other stuff, no, not once. Best of all? Aly approved and she'd done so from the first time she'd seen Wyatt light up when he saw Ivy walk into a room.
Aly had started being loving towards her boyfriend so that other people could see and everyone could see that their relationship was blossoming. The first time Steffy had asked her to come surfing with her she had hesitated for a bit and then accepted the invitation and when she came down to the beach, everyone was there, well, at least her cousins and their significant others. Thomas ex-wife Gabby Moreno visited the group about a week after Aly had been released from the hospital and the feelings between them resurfaced and they are now full on dating.
Maya´s sister Nicole actually followed her sister and Rick to Paris, so Zende had been single since she left, he hadn't wanted to leave the country and therefore a relationship between them was impossible, he hadn't really been that invested in the relationship anyway so there really was nothing lost for him.
Life was on Aly´s side right now and everything was going really good. She had followed her mothers advice and she had never been happier. Her father had also been lucky the last months, he had visited LA secretly about three weeks before the California Freedom show and met up with a woman that he had met online and they had decided that if he came back to California they would meet up again and see where it went and two days after Aly had been released from the hospital, he had called her up and they were currently dating.
The end...
AN:
Now, this might not be what SummerBay had in mind when he/she posted that thread, but I think it could be, possibly!
I hope all of you have had a great summer and I hope you'll have a great rest of the year!
Okay, so, the next chapter of Fire meet Gasoline has stumped me, I've got 10 written pages for the first part and I'm entering the 12th page for the second part and I just don't know how to stop writing for Jasmine and her spouse, so their chapters will be spread out through the story and have the title and then part (WhatEverNumberItIs) after, they have some things coming their way that needs to be told. They will not be companion chapters, they will be the same chapter, just split into more parts. Therefore they will not be posted together a few days apart.
