Chapter Three
"At The Beginning"
by Donna Lewis and Richard Marx(off Anastasia soundtrack)
We were strangers
starting out on a journey
never dreaming
what we'd have to go through
now here we are
and I'm suddenly standing
at the beginning with you
no one told me
I was going to find you
unexpected
what you did to my heart
when I lost hope
you were there to remind me
this is the start
"Eve this can't be happening," Chris breathed a whirlwind of confusion wrapping up his senses as she pulled back from the kiss that had swept him away moments earlier, "we can't really be here together like this."
"Why is that?" she asked as if it were just a simple question to answer, yet as he met the weight of her darkened gaze, he knew that there were complications that lay beyond the both of them that even the waves and the salt water couldn't erase in this moment.
"H-how did you get here?" Chris reached out to embrace her damp skin finding the ocean had calmed down considerably from the time they'd started their deep, luscious kiss with one another.
"That's a long story in the making," Eve confessed a sigh falling from her lips as the moonlight shown down upon them.
"So enlighten me, Lambert," Chris still drew her body nearer to him fearing if he'd let go, she'd vanish into the night never to be seen again.
"I will in time, but first," she leaned down to press a tender kiss on his forehead, "first we should start at the beginning."
"And where is that exactly?" Chris questioned, "how did you find me here?"
"I've been watching you for a while," Eve confessed almost hesitantly as a chill rose up on the beach bringing forth emphasis of their drenched clothing, "perhaps you and I should relocate for a while. As much as I appreciate this tropical setting, I think it would be best if you and I took this elsewhere. Perhaps a place that's a bit warmer."
"Jack is waiting back in the pueblo. I have some dry things there," Chris suggested noting the way her soft white gown clung to her like a second skin as she lowered her lips over his once more surprising him with a soft, gentle kiss.
"No, not yet," she murmured allowing her breath to linger over his as her lips closed in over his in another feathery light kiss.
"Eve, this just can't be real," Chris confessed once more as his palms pressed over her spine crushing her to him as her warmth flowed through the surface reaching down deep into him.
"It's as real as we make it," Eve whispered with a hint of promise of things to come before she pulled back slightly, "but for now, why don't we start on a new beginning?"
"A new beginning?" he repeated finding himself so extraordinarily lost in her eyes as he held her.
"Just trust me, Ramsey," she urged pulling herself up onto the damp sand beneath her toes as she extended her arm out towards him, "I would never lead you astray."
life is a road
and I want to keep going
love is a river
I wanna keep flowing
life is the road
now and forever
wonderful journey
I'll be there
when the world stops turning
I'll be there
when the storm is through
in the end I wanna be standing
at the beginning with you
"Jack, we can't think this way let alone having you talk like that," Alison turned away from him finding it hard to think let alone breathe with Jack saying such things to her, "you can't mean that."
"Why? Because it doesn't fit into your plans?" Jack questioned harshly as he watched her pull away from him, "Alison, do you think I planned on falling in love with you? Do you think that I wanted to turn my world upside down like this?"
"Then don't," her eyes pleaded with him as she turned to face him once more, "Don't fall in love with me Jack Ramsey."
"It's a little too late for that Ali and you know it," he stepped towards her sensing her urge to run as he reached out to her, "please don't run away from me."
"Jack, what you're saying....what you're asking from me...." she found herself choked up on emotion as she forced herself to look at him, "it's unfair for you to do this."
"What's unfair is denying what it is that we feel for one another. Ali, I know you feel it too and we've been hiding it for a long time," Jack took in a breath as he contemplated his words, "when I think back to all we've been through together, all we shared with one another, you can't tell me that all those things meant nothing to you."
"Jack, we're friends, best friends so of course you know that it meant something to me," Alison reminded him after a moment's hesitation.
"And yet when you kissed me, the other day when things got a little heated between us, you felt something more, didn't you?"
"Jack, just stop," She tried to shrug out of his hold on her as she let out an exaggerated sigh, "Jack please."
"Just tell me the truth Alison. Tell me that I'm insane, that you didn't come all the way out here to be with me because you feel it too. Tell me that you aren't here because you're falling in love with me too. Tell me that you're here because you wanted to let me know that there's nothing between us. Tell me that you don't care about me, don't want to be with me...."
"Jack, what you're asking of me is the impossible," Alison shook her head, "you and I both know that...."
"Forget what we know," he interrupted his voice impassioned with the raw need for her raging through his every synapse, "Alison tell me what it is you feel."
"I don't know what it is I feel anymore," Alison shook her head feeling her frustration mounting.
"Yes you do," Jack reached out to her, "you know what it is that you feel, what's in your heart."
"My heart isn't what is important anymore. It's what I must do that matters."
"And what is it you must do?" Jack tossed her words back at her as he met her confused eyes.
"I need to leave," she threw her hands up on the air dismissively, "I shouldn't be here Jack. I can't be here."
"Alison, wait," he reached out to her once more, "Please don't go. Not yet, not like this."
"Jack, what do you want from me?" She questioned tears filling in her sad eyes, "what do you want me to say?"
"Tell me the truth," Jack pleaded his tone softening as her tears tugged at his heart guiltily.
"Jack, the truth is I don't know what I feel," Alison answered honestly as the tears streamed down her face, unable to mask the confusion that flooded through her, "I don't know what it is anymore that my heart is supposed to be telling me."
"You know," He whispered stepping forward to brush a tear from her face gently, "you just don't want to admit it yet."
"Jack, I don't know anything," she pushed his hand away as a mixture of emotions grew within her, "this last year of my life was nothing short of miserable and every time I think I have it figured out, something changes everything and I don't know whether I'm coming or going anymore."
"You know what it is you feel," Jack began seeing the pain in her eyes as he withdrew from her, "or maybe I'm pushing too hard."
"You are pushing way too hard," Alison agreed as she wiped at her own tears, "this was unfair of you Jack."
"Maybe it was, but what do you call what's been happening with me? Alison, I can't help the way I feel about you. I love you. I didn't ask for this, but I can't just shut it off either."
"I wish you would because this complicates everything," Alison confessed painfully, "I needed you to be my friend Jack Ramsey. I wanted you to be there for me and to do what friends do. That's what I wanted from you, that's what I asked for and now....." She trailed off lost in the thoughts that had motivated her to come to this place to see him.
"Now?" he repeated watching her as she fought with the words building inside of her.
"Now I don't know what I want to do," Alison blurted out, "part of me says I should walk out that door and never look back, but another part of me says that if I leave here tonight without being honest with you, without letting you know how I feel, then I'll be losing the greatest gift that has ever been given to me."
"And what gift is that?" Jack questioned tentatively his eyes following her every movement as she stepped in towards him.
"The gift of finding happiness and someone willing to make my dreams come true," Alison began taking in a breath as her emotions wound her up inside, "Jack when I came here, it was to settle what we'd fought about back in Port Charles, but then when you started this, when you asked me to say that I didn't care about you, that I didn't feel it too...."
"Yes?" he questioned watching her eyes shift in the moment as she looked away from him. Jack stepped forward touching her cheek gently as he wiped at a fresh line of tears forming down them. He felt her tension running through her body as her tears transformed into tiny sobs and his heart ached, "Alison, I never intended for you to be hurt by this."
"That's just it," Alison looked up at him unable to fight the feeling inside of her as her eyes connected with his, "this doesn't hurt me. In fact the way that you make me feel is anything but painful."
"Alison, what are you saying?" Jack blinked back unsure he was reading her correctly as her hand pressed up over his cupping it to her soft skin.
"I'm saying that this isn't what I wanted or needed, but you're right Jack Ramsey. I do," she blurted out lost in emotion as she reached out to him, "I do love you."
"Alison," He spoke her name feeling the tears overtaking her as he enveloped her in his arms holding her as the truth came to light between them.
"Jack, I do love you," Alison confessed unable to hold it all inside as he lifted her chin forcing her to meet his gaze as he spoke to her in a soft whisper.
"I love you Alison," he whispered bridging the distance between them in a soft, tender kiss as the world around them seemed to fade out leaving the two of them with the newfound level of honesty they'd found between them.
we were strangers
on a crazy adventure
never dreaming
how our dreams would come true
now here we stand
unafraid of the future
at the beginning with you
"Eve, where are we going?" Chris questioned as he followed her into the night that lay just beyond the reaches of the beach.
"It's not far from here," Eve promised looking over her shoulder at him as her damp hair clung to her face gently, "have a little faith in me Ramsey."
"You're the only one I believe in," Chris admitted openly as he looked to her outstretched hand accepting it after a moment as they stepped further into the darkness.
"Do you remember the last night we spent drinking martinis together in Port Charles?" Eve questioned softly as the moonlight hung over them.
"It was a night I'd never forget as long as I lived," Chris confessed thinking back to that moment in time when they'd lost themselves in martinis and the moment with one another.
"Neither will I," Eve assured him squeezing his hand gently, "that night we discovered so many truths with one another, so many things that we'd been blind to before."
"Eve, when I told you that I wanted to be with you, when I wanted us to make love, it wasn't because...." He started stopping mid-step as he pulled her aside.
"Shh," she raised a finger over his lips to silence him, "I know Chris and despite how many martinis we had that night, I knew even then what the future had in store for us after that night."
"Eve, it's just after when you said nothing, pretended that...." Chris began as he pressed a tender kiss over the palm of her hand.
"I always knew from the moment you told me about the pregnancy that it was our magic that created our little one," Eve whispered as her fingers played over his cheek gently, "that night when we laughed and cried...Chris I knew."
"Eve, I wanted more than anything for you to be happy, so when you wanted it with Ian..." He started thinking back to that painful moment in time when she'd slipped away from him.
"I know you wanted the best for me, but what I failed to realize for so long was that I'd found the best in you," Eve wrapped her arms around him lovingly as she urged him in closer to him, "that night we'd made sweet love to one another, we took our friendship to another level, drawing out things between us that neither one of us had any courage to speak of before. My only regret was that I hadn't told you sooner how much that night meant to me."
"Eve, I thought you felt it was a mistake, something you'd wanted to erase, so I let you do it. I let you and Ian have that happiness together and when you told me you wouldn't marry me, that you didn't want that...." he thought back painfully as she silenced him again with another soft, tender kiss.
"No more secrets," she offered up reaching for his hand as she motioned towards the tiny house that lay before them, "Chris, you need to know the truth about that night, the truth about the day I broke your heart at that cabin. Things aren't always as they seem and when I let you walk out of my life in that moment, I had no idea what was waiting for me on the other side of things."
"Eve, I wanted to tell you, wanted to show you how much I felt for you, but you were so set on Ian. You wanted Ian and that life so badly...." his gaze dropped to the ground before him, "I just wanted you to have your every dream come true."
"I do have it," Eve insisted squeezing his hand, "more than you realize, but soon, soon you'll see just what it means to have a new beginning. You'll know what it is that's kept me out of Port Charles and why I had to be away for so long. I just hope that when you learn the truth, you'll see things as they are and you'll understand. More than anything I hope that we can survive the truth."
"Eve, I'd give anything to be with you," Chris reached out to her his arms slipping around her waist gently, "my life is nothing without you in it."
"I've waited so long to share this part of the journey with you, but now that I know how you feel, then it makes everything so much easier, so much simpler," Eve offered up in a soft, cryptic tone, "we can share this journey together now as it was always meant to be."
I knew there was somebody somewhere
like me alone in the dark
now I know my dream will live on
I've been waiting so long
nothing's gonna tear us apart
"At The Beginning"
by Donna Lewis and Richard Marx(off Anastasia soundtrack)
We were strangers
starting out on a journey
never dreaming
what we'd have to go through
now here we are
and I'm suddenly standing
at the beginning with you
no one told me
I was going to find you
unexpected
what you did to my heart
when I lost hope
you were there to remind me
this is the start
"Eve this can't be happening," Chris breathed a whirlwind of confusion wrapping up his senses as she pulled back from the kiss that had swept him away moments earlier, "we can't really be here together like this."
"Why is that?" she asked as if it were just a simple question to answer, yet as he met the weight of her darkened gaze, he knew that there were complications that lay beyond the both of them that even the waves and the salt water couldn't erase in this moment.
"H-how did you get here?" Chris reached out to embrace her damp skin finding the ocean had calmed down considerably from the time they'd started their deep, luscious kiss with one another.
"That's a long story in the making," Eve confessed a sigh falling from her lips as the moonlight shown down upon them.
"So enlighten me, Lambert," Chris still drew her body nearer to him fearing if he'd let go, she'd vanish into the night never to be seen again.
"I will in time, but first," she leaned down to press a tender kiss on his forehead, "first we should start at the beginning."
"And where is that exactly?" Chris questioned, "how did you find me here?"
"I've been watching you for a while," Eve confessed almost hesitantly as a chill rose up on the beach bringing forth emphasis of their drenched clothing, "perhaps you and I should relocate for a while. As much as I appreciate this tropical setting, I think it would be best if you and I took this elsewhere. Perhaps a place that's a bit warmer."
"Jack is waiting back in the pueblo. I have some dry things there," Chris suggested noting the way her soft white gown clung to her like a second skin as she lowered her lips over his once more surprising him with a soft, gentle kiss.
"No, not yet," she murmured allowing her breath to linger over his as her lips closed in over his in another feathery light kiss.
"Eve, this just can't be real," Chris confessed once more as his palms pressed over her spine crushing her to him as her warmth flowed through the surface reaching down deep into him.
"It's as real as we make it," Eve whispered with a hint of promise of things to come before she pulled back slightly, "but for now, why don't we start on a new beginning?"
"A new beginning?" he repeated finding himself so extraordinarily lost in her eyes as he held her.
"Just trust me, Ramsey," she urged pulling herself up onto the damp sand beneath her toes as she extended her arm out towards him, "I would never lead you astray."
life is a road
and I want to keep going
love is a river
I wanna keep flowing
life is the road
now and forever
wonderful journey
I'll be there
when the world stops turning
I'll be there
when the storm is through
in the end I wanna be standing
at the beginning with you
"Jack, we can't think this way let alone having you talk like that," Alison turned away from him finding it hard to think let alone breathe with Jack saying such things to her, "you can't mean that."
"Why? Because it doesn't fit into your plans?" Jack questioned harshly as he watched her pull away from him, "Alison, do you think I planned on falling in love with you? Do you think that I wanted to turn my world upside down like this?"
"Then don't," her eyes pleaded with him as she turned to face him once more, "Don't fall in love with me Jack Ramsey."
"It's a little too late for that Ali and you know it," he stepped towards her sensing her urge to run as he reached out to her, "please don't run away from me."
"Jack, what you're saying....what you're asking from me...." she found herself choked up on emotion as she forced herself to look at him, "it's unfair for you to do this."
"What's unfair is denying what it is that we feel for one another. Ali, I know you feel it too and we've been hiding it for a long time," Jack took in a breath as he contemplated his words, "when I think back to all we've been through together, all we shared with one another, you can't tell me that all those things meant nothing to you."
"Jack, we're friends, best friends so of course you know that it meant something to me," Alison reminded him after a moment's hesitation.
"And yet when you kissed me, the other day when things got a little heated between us, you felt something more, didn't you?"
"Jack, just stop," She tried to shrug out of his hold on her as she let out an exaggerated sigh, "Jack please."
"Just tell me the truth Alison. Tell me that I'm insane, that you didn't come all the way out here to be with me because you feel it too. Tell me that you aren't here because you're falling in love with me too. Tell me that you're here because you wanted to let me know that there's nothing between us. Tell me that you don't care about me, don't want to be with me...."
"Jack, what you're asking of me is the impossible," Alison shook her head, "you and I both know that...."
"Forget what we know," he interrupted his voice impassioned with the raw need for her raging through his every synapse, "Alison tell me what it is you feel."
"I don't know what it is I feel anymore," Alison shook her head feeling her frustration mounting.
"Yes you do," Jack reached out to her, "you know what it is that you feel, what's in your heart."
"My heart isn't what is important anymore. It's what I must do that matters."
"And what is it you must do?" Jack tossed her words back at her as he met her confused eyes.
"I need to leave," she threw her hands up on the air dismissively, "I shouldn't be here Jack. I can't be here."
"Alison, wait," he reached out to her once more, "Please don't go. Not yet, not like this."
"Jack, what do you want from me?" She questioned tears filling in her sad eyes, "what do you want me to say?"
"Tell me the truth," Jack pleaded his tone softening as her tears tugged at his heart guiltily.
"Jack, the truth is I don't know what I feel," Alison answered honestly as the tears streamed down her face, unable to mask the confusion that flooded through her, "I don't know what it is anymore that my heart is supposed to be telling me."
"You know," He whispered stepping forward to brush a tear from her face gently, "you just don't want to admit it yet."
"Jack, I don't know anything," she pushed his hand away as a mixture of emotions grew within her, "this last year of my life was nothing short of miserable and every time I think I have it figured out, something changes everything and I don't know whether I'm coming or going anymore."
"You know what it is you feel," Jack began seeing the pain in her eyes as he withdrew from her, "or maybe I'm pushing too hard."
"You are pushing way too hard," Alison agreed as she wiped at her own tears, "this was unfair of you Jack."
"Maybe it was, but what do you call what's been happening with me? Alison, I can't help the way I feel about you. I love you. I didn't ask for this, but I can't just shut it off either."
"I wish you would because this complicates everything," Alison confessed painfully, "I needed you to be my friend Jack Ramsey. I wanted you to be there for me and to do what friends do. That's what I wanted from you, that's what I asked for and now....." She trailed off lost in the thoughts that had motivated her to come to this place to see him.
"Now?" he repeated watching her as she fought with the words building inside of her.
"Now I don't know what I want to do," Alison blurted out, "part of me says I should walk out that door and never look back, but another part of me says that if I leave here tonight without being honest with you, without letting you know how I feel, then I'll be losing the greatest gift that has ever been given to me."
"And what gift is that?" Jack questioned tentatively his eyes following her every movement as she stepped in towards him.
"The gift of finding happiness and someone willing to make my dreams come true," Alison began taking in a breath as her emotions wound her up inside, "Jack when I came here, it was to settle what we'd fought about back in Port Charles, but then when you started this, when you asked me to say that I didn't care about you, that I didn't feel it too...."
"Yes?" he questioned watching her eyes shift in the moment as she looked away from him. Jack stepped forward touching her cheek gently as he wiped at a fresh line of tears forming down them. He felt her tension running through her body as her tears transformed into tiny sobs and his heart ached, "Alison, I never intended for you to be hurt by this."
"That's just it," Alison looked up at him unable to fight the feeling inside of her as her eyes connected with his, "this doesn't hurt me. In fact the way that you make me feel is anything but painful."
"Alison, what are you saying?" Jack blinked back unsure he was reading her correctly as her hand pressed up over his cupping it to her soft skin.
"I'm saying that this isn't what I wanted or needed, but you're right Jack Ramsey. I do," she blurted out lost in emotion as she reached out to him, "I do love you."
"Alison," He spoke her name feeling the tears overtaking her as he enveloped her in his arms holding her as the truth came to light between them.
"Jack, I do love you," Alison confessed unable to hold it all inside as he lifted her chin forcing her to meet his gaze as he spoke to her in a soft whisper.
"I love you Alison," he whispered bridging the distance between them in a soft, tender kiss as the world around them seemed to fade out leaving the two of them with the newfound level of honesty they'd found between them.
we were strangers
on a crazy adventure
never dreaming
how our dreams would come true
now here we stand
unafraid of the future
at the beginning with you
"Eve, where are we going?" Chris questioned as he followed her into the night that lay just beyond the reaches of the beach.
"It's not far from here," Eve promised looking over her shoulder at him as her damp hair clung to her face gently, "have a little faith in me Ramsey."
"You're the only one I believe in," Chris admitted openly as he looked to her outstretched hand accepting it after a moment as they stepped further into the darkness.
"Do you remember the last night we spent drinking martinis together in Port Charles?" Eve questioned softly as the moonlight hung over them.
"It was a night I'd never forget as long as I lived," Chris confessed thinking back to that moment in time when they'd lost themselves in martinis and the moment with one another.
"Neither will I," Eve assured him squeezing his hand gently, "that night we discovered so many truths with one another, so many things that we'd been blind to before."
"Eve, when I told you that I wanted to be with you, when I wanted us to make love, it wasn't because...." He started stopping mid-step as he pulled her aside.
"Shh," she raised a finger over his lips to silence him, "I know Chris and despite how many martinis we had that night, I knew even then what the future had in store for us after that night."
"Eve, it's just after when you said nothing, pretended that...." Chris began as he pressed a tender kiss over the palm of her hand.
"I always knew from the moment you told me about the pregnancy that it was our magic that created our little one," Eve whispered as her fingers played over his cheek gently, "that night when we laughed and cried...Chris I knew."
"Eve, I wanted more than anything for you to be happy, so when you wanted it with Ian..." He started thinking back to that painful moment in time when she'd slipped away from him.
"I know you wanted the best for me, but what I failed to realize for so long was that I'd found the best in you," Eve wrapped her arms around him lovingly as she urged him in closer to him, "that night we'd made sweet love to one another, we took our friendship to another level, drawing out things between us that neither one of us had any courage to speak of before. My only regret was that I hadn't told you sooner how much that night meant to me."
"Eve, I thought you felt it was a mistake, something you'd wanted to erase, so I let you do it. I let you and Ian have that happiness together and when you told me you wouldn't marry me, that you didn't want that...." he thought back painfully as she silenced him again with another soft, tender kiss.
"No more secrets," she offered up reaching for his hand as she motioned towards the tiny house that lay before them, "Chris, you need to know the truth about that night, the truth about the day I broke your heart at that cabin. Things aren't always as they seem and when I let you walk out of my life in that moment, I had no idea what was waiting for me on the other side of things."
"Eve, I wanted to tell you, wanted to show you how much I felt for you, but you were so set on Ian. You wanted Ian and that life so badly...." his gaze dropped to the ground before him, "I just wanted you to have your every dream come true."
"I do have it," Eve insisted squeezing his hand, "more than you realize, but soon, soon you'll see just what it means to have a new beginning. You'll know what it is that's kept me out of Port Charles and why I had to be away for so long. I just hope that when you learn the truth, you'll see things as they are and you'll understand. More than anything I hope that we can survive the truth."
"Eve, I'd give anything to be with you," Chris reached out to her his arms slipping around her waist gently, "my life is nothing without you in it."
"I've waited so long to share this part of the journey with you, but now that I know how you feel, then it makes everything so much easier, so much simpler," Eve offered up in a soft, cryptic tone, "we can share this journey together now as it was always meant to be."
I knew there was somebody somewhere
like me alone in the dark
now I know my dream will live on
I've been waiting so long
nothing's gonna tear us apart