"This is farther out of town than I thought," Ross said as he opened the passenger door of his car for Holly.

Holly stood up and smoothed her skirt. "Yes, we're almost halfway to Clayton."

Looking around, she had to admit that Ross had chosen well for their first date. The owners of La Ferme had taken what used to be an abandoned old barn and transformed it into a first-rate French restaurant. The place was very remote and surrounded by woods and fields. Holly even noticed a small garden in the back with a pond. She pictured herself taking a stroll around it with Phillip.

"Shall we go in?" Ross asked her, taking her out of her reveries.

A hostess greeting them at the barn door and, after checking that they had made a reservation, led them to their table. The place was packed and the ambiance very festive. A huge chandelier was hanging from the barn's ceiling, shedding its scintillating lights everywhere, while candles were casting a softer glow from the tables. There were rich velvet tapestries hanging from the walls, separating the huge space into smaller and cozier sections, and the chairs were all gilded with cushions upholstered with black silk. The whole décor gave out a very romantic yet eclectic vibe, especially since the owners had chosen to keep a few souvenirs from the previous occupants. A collection of chiselled leather saddles was spread across the restaurant, as well as a few striking horse paintings.

Ross and Holly took their seats and remained speechless for a second. "Wow," Holly finally said.

"The Belle Époque meets the Wild West," Ross replied and they both started laughing.

Holly took hold of the menu and decided to relax. She was far from convinced that she should be on a date with Ross, but here she was, so she might as well try and enjoy it.

On the other side of the restaurant, another couple was just getting seated as well. Catherine had been the one insisting that Phillip should go out, and he had half-heartedly agreed. All he really wanted that night was to crawl into a hole and fall into obliviousness, but Catherine would have none of it. At least there was no chance of him running into Holly here, he thought as he sighed for the tenth time that evening.

Catherine could tell that he was out of sorts. For the last few weeks, he had not been the same man that she had met. He could be depressed and moody one day, and euphoric the next. She had often wanted to ask him what was causing these mood swings, but she had not dared yet, because she was afraid of the answer he might give her. She knew that the situation with Rick was bringing him down, but what could be bringing him up? Could it be another woman? And if yes, who?

As they both studied their menu, Phillip could feel Catherine's eyes on him from time to time. He knew that she was worried about it, and it made him feel embarrassed. He was not a fool, he knew that she had feelings for him, and he also knew that, while he had not openly encouraged her, he had not discouraged her either. The simple fact that he was here with her tonight could certainly be interpreted as interest on his part. He briefly glanced in her direction before getting his eyes back on the menu again. She was beautiful; he had to admit that, with her golden hair and her delicate features. Maybe he should pursue her, he thought. Maybe that's what life had in store for him: a peaceful but uneventful relationship with a gentle, caring woman.

Oh, he had longed for the real thing, and he had gone after it! With Beth, he had been convinced that total bliss was within his grasp, until she was brutally snatched away from him. For years after that, he had been believed that he would never find that same intensity of feelings again. And then he had met Holly. That encounter had hit it like a ton of bricks and had forced him to rethink everything that he knew about his ability to love again.

But she had also slipped right thought his fingers.

So, yes, maybe it was time to give up on his notions of true love and soul mates. Maybe it was time to settle for the next best thing.

What I am DOING here, Blake thought while she lingered at the entrance of the restaurant. She had known from the start that this was a mistake, and yet she had not been able to help herself. As soon as she had seen Phillip getting inside Catherine's car back in Springfield, she had felt this torturing desire to find out where they were going.

Now that she was standing in this old farm, in the middle of nowhere, she felt like a fool. What had she been expecting; that they were headed to work at this hour? Of course it was a date! She waited for the tears to come at the realization that he was seeing someone else, but to her surprise, they did not come. It hurt her, yes, but the feeling was not as devastating as she had expected.

Still perplexed, she decided that she had better leave before they noticed her, and was about to when her eyes caught sight of Alan-Michael. He ought to cheer her up, she thought as she hurried to his side with a smile. She stopped dead in her tracks, however, when she noticed with astonishment a raven-haired beauty clinging to his arm. Now unsure of what to do, she took a few steps back and hid behind one of the tapestries to observe the couple.

There was no mistaking the chemistry between the two, she realized as she witnessed Alan-Michael pulling the chair for his companion. How handsome he looked, with his suit and his hair done just the way she liked it. Blake suddenly felt a huge lump forming in her throat and before she knew it, she was running toward the exit, tears streaming down her face.

To her surprise, Holly was having a fine time. Ross was not only smart and well-read; he also had a deprecating sense of humour that she really enjoyed. Their conversation was smooth and flowing, and she realized that they had not talked about the station once.

No, she would be lying if she said that this date had turned out to be the failure she had anticipated. They had so much more in common than she had ever imagined, and most importantly, they were in the same place in their lives. They had been married and divorced, they had had children and they were now ready for the next phase of their lives. They even were the same age, Holly thought, firmly pushing Phillip away from her mind as the waiter took the empty plates off their table.

"The food was divine," she said with a smile.

"Yes, and I'm afraid I ate more than my share; what do you say we go for a walk in the gardens before leaving?" Ross replied.

She got up and she could feel his hand rest lightly on the small of her back as they made their way to the glass doors leading to the gardens. The feeling was pleasant enough, she decided. They had almost reached the exit when they heard a yell at the other end of the restaurant.

Holly's heart skipped a beat when she saw Phillip in the distance, trying to calm down a very drunk Rick.

"Well, you finally did it, Phillip," Rick shouted for the whole restaurant to hear. "You finally destroyed my life!" He stumbled and had to clutch at a nearby table not to fall flat on his face. Catherine was still seated at her table, crimson and on the verge of tears.

Holly strained her ears to listen to Phillip's reply, but he was speaking too low.

"What I mean," Rick replied loudly, "is that Meredith is gone. That's right, she bolted. We were supposed to start over together, away from here, but she left me here all alone!"

Rick waved away the waiter who had come to take his glass of wine out of his hands and continued to rant. "None of this would have happened if you hadn't slept with her. Yes, my friends," he said, turning to the stunned customers, "my best friend felt that he could screw my fiancée and get away with it! He even got her pregnant, doesn't that just take the cake!"

He let out a sinister laugh and took another swig, and then let the glass drop on the floor where it shattered. "I'm going to get you for this," he added with a cold look in his eyes, and he lunged toward Phillip. The latter easily avoided his fist and Rick came crashing on the floor.

The sound seemed to startle Ross, who had been standing next to Holly, mesmerized by the scene. "Will you excuse me for a minute, Holly? I have to stop them before it gets out of hand."

Holly nodded. Her whole being wanted to follow Ross and to take Phillip out of this place, but instead she forced herself to walk through the patio doors. The screams faded away as she slowly wandered into the gardens, trying to erase Phillip's pained expression from her mind. She was so deeply lost in her thoughts that she almost stumbled on Blake, who was sitting despondently on a stone bench. Her eyes were rimmed with red and she was sniffling.

"Honey! What are you doing here? I thought you were still busy moving back into your apartment," Holly said as she sat next to her daughter.

Blake had indeed taken a few days off work to move from Ed's to her old place, now that she was finally feeling good enough to live on her own. Holly had not seen her in almost a week, and had yet to let her know about WSPR's upcoming profile on Phillip.

Seeing that her daughter refused to answer her, Holly coaxed her into meeting her gaze. "Did you come to see Phillip?" she finally asked.

"You don't have to tell me how dumb it was, believe me, I know! I don't know what came over me," Blake replied, wiping a last tear from her face.

"And you saw him with Catherine," Holly stated.

"I did. I also saw Alan-Michael with some silly woman," Blake retorted with a new scorn in her voice. "He was on a date, can you believe it?"

Holly was slightly taken aback by her daughter's reaction. "Well, aren't you two friends? I thought you wanted nothing serious with him."

"I didn't, at least at first. I guess I'm just understanding now how close we've become, and how used to his presence I've gotten."

"So, let me get this straight, are you crying because of Alan-Michael, or because of Phillip?"

Blake shrugged. "I don't know anymore, both I guess. All I know is that I never expected to care if Alan-Michael saw someone else, and it turns out that I do care. A lot."

Holly ran a hand over Blake's shoulder in an attempt to console her. "Then it might be a good idea to be straight with him about your feelings. To deal with this in a mature way."

"You mean unlike I did with his brother?" Blake said while making a face.

"If the shoe fits…" Holly looked at her daughter knowingly and they both laughed.

"Thanks for not lecturing me, Mom, I appreciate it. You've really cut me some slack lately, and I feel that we get along so much better!"

"And I can see that you're really trying to stay out of trouble, which I also appreciate," Holly replied as she hugged her daughter.

"Speaking of you being great, there's something that I forgot to tell you. When I left your place a few nights ago, the night you first found out about Alan-Michael and me, I went back to the Spaulding mansion and ran into Phillip."

Holly swallowed hard. "You did?"

Blake did not notice the dismay that had come over her mother and continued. "Yes, and we got into a fight about the fact that I was involved with his brother. I never saw him this mad before. He said that I would never know what I had cost him, and that I was not half the woman that you were. Why would he say that? I thought you two barely knew each other."

Holly frantically searched her brains for a plausible answer. She hated to lie to her daughter, yet she had not sacrificed a chance at happiness with Phillip to confess everything now.

"We've met a few times but we won't know each other that well," she finally said in an attempt to elude the question.

"But he sounded so…earnest."

"I don't know, honey. We've had to deal with each other when Spaulding sold us WSPR, and maybe he respects me as a business woman. Most probably, he was just very mad and didn't know what he was saying anymore."

Blake seemed to deliberate for a second, then shrugged and let it go. "Anyway, he wants nothing to do with me, so why should I care what he thinks of me? He might not be the prince charming that I thought he was either. It's all just so confusing!"

"Take your time in figuring things out, alright? You've been through a lot lately, and it's going to take a while before you can see things clearly again."

Blake was about to reply when the glass doors burst open and Rick, Phillip and Catherine spilled out of the restaurant. Ross followed, trying to pacify a waiter who had obviously had it with the fighting. The waiter told Ross that the two were not allowed back inside and returned to his tables, looking annoyed.

Meanwhile, Phillip and Rick were still arguing and Holly could immediately see that Phillip was now as enraged as his friend.

"When will you stop blaming all of your problems on me, Rick? I guess it's easier than actually acknowledging your responsibilities, isn't it?" Phillip shouted.

"I wasn't the one who stole your fiancée away from you; it was you who did it to ME! And you did the same with Beth, I was with her first and you just couldn't stand it," Rick yelled, barely able to stand on his feet.

Phillip scoffed and poked him in the chest, forcing him to step back. "I didn't "steal" anyone from Rick. Beth came to me of her own free will, and so did Meredith."

"And that made it okay? Didn't it occur to you to just say no, knowing how I would feel about it?"

Phillip had the grace of looking embarrassed, but then quickly rallied with a retort. "Beth and I were in love, you know that. As for Meredith, yes, it was a mistake, but I honestly thought that you two were done by then. She told me as much."

"Shut up! I'm done with your stupid excuses!"

"Then why are you here?"

"Because I want to smash your pretty little face against a wall, that's why."

They both stood facing each other, panting with rage, while the others looked on silently.

"I don't want to fight you, Rick," Phillip said after a while, but Rick was past all reason. Losing Meredith and the baby had sent him over the edge, and he desperately needed an outlet for the pain.

"You made her lose that baby," he replied cruelly. They both knew that it was not true, yet it was all that it took for Phillip to finally lose it. His left hand balled into a fist and he punched Rick squarely in the jaw, and then threw himself on him. They both rolled in the snow, tearing each other's clothes and exchanging one vicious blow after the other. They were totally oblivious of Catherine's tearful entreaties for them to stop.

Holly ran to Ross. "We have to stop them before they really hurt each other."

"I know, but I can't do it alone. I'll go find someone inside." He turned for the door and almost bumped into Alan-Michael and his date. Seeing his brother and Rick on the ground, he rushed to their side and, with the help of Ross, succeeded in tearing them away from each other. Ross took Rick on a bench to assess the damages while Alan-Michael dragged Phillip to a gazebo nearby, where they were joined by Holly, Catherine, Blake and Alan-Michael's date. Phillip's bottom lip was cut and his right cheek was already swelling.

He waved away Catherine's attempts to quench the blood dripping from his mouth and stared at Holly. "What are you doing here?" he said, not even caring what Blake or Catherine would think.

"I came with Ross," Holly replied, trying to sound matter-of-factly.

"On a date? Seriously?" He looked intently at her face and knew that he had guessed right. He let out a mirthless laugh and got up, rubbing a sore spot on his left arm. "This night just keeps getting better and better. Boy!"

Holly felt herself blushing to the roots of her hair and gave a sideway glance toward her daughter. Fortunately for her, she seemed engrossed in a conversation with Alan-Michael. She followed Phillip until they were a few steps away from the others.

"I'm sorry about what happened between you and Rick. I know that you care about him very much."

Phillip shrugged. "I'm done feeling guilty about this guy. I'm glad we got it out of our system; now we can each go our own way."

"Surely you don't mean that; he's your best friend!"

"Not anymore." He turned to her at last and gave her a long mournful look. "I can't believe you're on a date with my uncle Ross," he said sadly.

"Looks like you're on a date too," Holly said.

"I'm trying to move on, just like you said I should."

"It's the only way."

She was prevented by saying more when Ross arrived, announcing that Rick's nose was broken and that he had to take him to the hospital. He had barely finished his sentence when Alan-Michael's date, who had been standing behind the others, ran to him and threw her arms around his neck.

"Daddy!" she exclaimed in delight.

"Dinah! Is that you?" He took a good look at his daughter before hugging her and making her twirl in the air. "What are you doing here?"

"I arrived from Paris yesterday for a surprise visit. This is my spring break. I tried to call you today but there was never any answer."

"So where did you stay last night? At the hotel?"

Dinah laugh and rubbed her hands with a thrilled look. "That's the other surprise. I promised I wouldn't tell, but she'll understand."

Rook looked puzzled. "Who will understand what?"

"Mother! She's back in town too since yesterday, for good! I've spent last night with her at Granddaddy's."

Ross stood speechless for a while, and Holly wondered how affected he was by the news. She knew that Ross had had a daughter when he was still a young man, and that the mother had giving her up for adoption, but he had never discussed his relationship with Vanessa with her. Holly had heard that she was now leaving in South America with her ex-husband Billy Lewis, but now that she thought of it, it was true that her visits to Springfield had been very frequent since Holly herself had been back in town.

Meanwhile, Ross had regained his ability to speak. "Vanessa is back to stay?"

"Yes, she's been planning it for a while, and now she's here! She'll be working at Spaulding."

"I thought I told you, Ross. It must have slipped my mind," Phillip added.

"Did she come back alone?" Ross could not help but inquire.

"With Little Billy," Dinah said, glancing at Holly. She surmised that her father was on a date and decided that she could fill her father in later about Vanessa's split with Billy. "Anyway, since you were nowhere to be found tonight, I decided to call my old buddy Alan-Michael and to spend some quality time with him. Why don't we meet tomorrow for lunch and plan the rest of our week together?"

Holly could practically hear Blake's sigh of relief at Dinah's words; she was no competition after all. She could see her daughter's smile widen as she accepted Alan-Michael and Dinah's invitation to spend the rest of the evening at their table.

Ignoring Phillip, she asked Ross if he was ready to leave with Rick and they both headed to get the young doctor to the hospital.

As she walked away, she felt Phillip's eyes on her, but resisted the urge to look back.

A couple of hours later, Ross pulled into Holly's driveway and stopped the car.

"And I was afraid that you might find our evening dull," he said before they both burst out laughing.

"I'm worried about those two boys though. I wish they would reconcile already," Ross added, growing serious.

Holly winced inwardly at his choice of words. Was Phillip really a still a boy to him? She decided to change the subject.

"You must be ecstatic that your daughter is back in town."

"Yes, I see her so very little these days. I hope that she'll come back to Springfield for good after she's done with college."

He fell silent and Holly guessed that he must be thinking about Vanessa's return. "Well, I'd better go in now. Thanks for the pleasant evening; I had a good time, despite all that happened," she said sincerely.

Ross did not seem disappointed that she was not inviting him in, but before she could head out of the car, he took a hold of one of her hands and pulled her into a kiss. Holly was too surprised to resist and she gradually let herself melt into it. There was no fireworks, no pounding heart, but Ross was a good kisser, and it was nice.

"Goodnight, Holly," he said as he pulled away.

"See you tomorrow at work," she replied before getting out of the car.